SERMON FOR THE REDEDICATION OF ST MARY'S CHURCH
25th SEPTEMBER 2022
By Bishop DAVID WILBOURNE Hon Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of YORK
Haven’t we seen a lot of archbishops since the Queen died? Once in the Archbishop’s office in Cardiff the secretaries and I got talking about how many songs had Maria as their subject, as you do. We then started crooning each song back to back, and we had this surreal cocktail as West Side Story met the Sound of Music and Cliff Richard met Blondie.
I’ve just met a girl called Maria vied with How do you solve a problem like Maria
The day I met Marie vied with Maria, you’ve gotta see her. Latina, Ave Maria.
And, of course, there’s the real Ave Maria,’ my secretary added, She was Roman Catholic, often recalling us to our true vocation.
As with songs, so with the names of churches. In the diocese of York, Peter comes second with 31 churches. Nicolas, popular in these parts, scores a respectable 20. But Mary, Maria, tops the polls with a record-breaking 76. Icons like St Mary’s Beverley, with its starry, starry ceiling, St Mary’s Scarborough perched next to the Castle, with Anne Bronte sulking for two centuries in its churchyard. Box-pewed St Mary’s Whitby perched next to the Abbey...
Most iconic for me is St Mary Lowgate, spoken of in hushed tones ever since we moved to Hull in 1962 when my dad became curate of Marfleet. Another Mary, my sacristan in Helmsley, married John Stewart, who became vicar here the day war broke out in 1939, ministering through the terrible Blitz which flattened Hull. Mary, now aged 101, talks of the terrible Victorian vicarage with grey rats in the attic and brown rats in the kitchen, and of John daily preaching midday sermons for office workers, picking their way through the rubble. With all these connections, it’s wonderful to be here today. But given that Maria is obviously all-pervading, it’s odd that John in his Gospel doesn’t once mention her name, describing her as the Mother of Jesus, not always flatteringly.
‘What is there between you and me, woman?’ Jesus snaps when his mother suggests he do something about the wedding at Cana turning dry.
‘What is there between you and me?’ ‘Well, I was ostracised because I conceived you, I carried you in my womb for nine long months, I gave birth to you, I suckled you, I put up with shepherds and kings crowding the stable, I changed your dirty nappies for three years. How’s that for starters?’
Or at least, had I been Mary, that’s what I would have replied, basically a teenager in his sixties with attitude. The real Mary takes a more conciliatory tone, a Jewish momma who truly knows her son, ‘He’ll come round, do whatever he tells you.’
The mother of Jesus actually jump starts the miracle of miracles. Water into wine, each water jar contained 20 to 30 gallons with Jesus instructing the waiters to fill six of them to the brim. 180 gallons is one heaven of a lot of wine. You can imagine the Galilean Police Force having a field day as they pulled up chariot after chariot wending their way home. ‘Hallo, Hallo, Hallo,’ or rather ‘Shalom, Shalom, Shalom,’ been partying with Jesus have we, Sir?’
In the spirit of Mary, by twisting Jesus’ arm in prayer, what miracle of miracles have you jump-started here in Hull?
In the spirit of Mary, what party of parties have you arranged, folk wandering down Lowgate afterwards as if drunk with joy?
WHEN you say to your Lord, as every believer says at some time or other, ‘The wine’s run out, my spiritual wells are dry.’ do you brace yourself á la Cana for a stupendous response?
Dead water turned into 180 gallons of the best wine ever.
Cana illustrates how mind-blowing it is to have Jesus at a wedding, at any celebration. It blows your mind, Jesus coming to your world. And it should blow your mind because it's mind boggling that the creator of the skies and sea became a child on earth for me, hands which threw stars into space to cruel nails surrendered. In the beginning John tells us that the Word became Flesh but in chapter two sets out very coarsely how ridiculous it all is. The laughably impossible becomes possible as God not only deals with puny us but wants to take our deadness and thrill us with his laughter and his life.
But back to my point about the mother of Jesus being strangely unnamed in John’s Gospel, even when she stands at the foot of the cross, tenderly watching her son die, watching the spear being thrust into his side. What’s going on here? Well, there are all sorts of possibilities.
As well as an un-named mother John’s Gospel also has an un-named disciple, the disciple-whom-Jesus-loved, there beside Jesus at the Last Supper, at the cross, running to the tomb with Peter on Easter Day, on the boat when after fishing all night they caught nothing until some landlubber says ‘One more throw.’ You’d be a brave man saying that to any empty trawlers
docking down Hessle Road back in the day. But they suddenly have the equivalent of 180 gallons of fish - and the disciple-whom-Jesus-loved says ‘It is the Lord.’
When paper was as expensive as gas, you let your words be few, so why not go for Mary or John rather than verbosity of the-mother-of-Jesus and the disciple-whom-Jesus-loved? Maybe because John, in describing these two key iconic people, wants to play down their individual identity, and instead define them by their relationship to Christ. Flagging up that our own relationship with Christ is paramount, the only key to life in all its fullness now and for eternity.
To quote Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas broadcast 2011. ‘Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. The mother of Jesus, the disciple whom Jesus loved. How do we Mother Christ? How do we radiate that we are Loved by Christ? To mother is to bring something to bear, to fruition.
Mary in English, Maria in Greek, Miriam in Hebrew, whatever, we see the pattern of the mother of Jesus, patient, tender, painfully letting him go for God, a sword piercing her own soul as she stayed by him even to the grisliest of ends, That is the cost of being a Christ-bearer. That is the Christ we are called to faithfully, joyfully bring to birth in this ancient place. Celebrating communion here week by week, year by year we will bring to birth more gallons of consecrated wine, the blood of Christ, than all the wine consumed at Cana. That’s a marvellous picture of the overflowing generosity of God through his servants.
And that other role, being loved by Christ is far harder for us to accept, because it’s easier to buzz about, bringing Christ to birth, here, there and everywhere. Hyperactive you, sowing happiness wherever you go. Maybe actually sowing happiness whenever you go. “She’s a real do-gooder: you can tell the people she does good to by their hunted look!” It’s so hard just prayerfully sitting at his feet like another Mary, yet realising he is utterly devoted to you.
Listen to the prayer that your servants offer in this place, and when you hear, forgive...
There was a strange picture of Christ in our church in Helmsley, trick art where his eyes could either be open or shut, and often the eyes seemed to move between the two states. Some folk thought I sat behind the picture 24/7 moving the eyes: funny what people think clergy spend their time doing. To stop the picture scaring children to death I used to ask them to look at it as if its eyes were open. Christ loves you so much, he can’t take his eyes off you. You are the disciple whom Jesus loves.
Or maybe John doesn’t use Maria for the mother of Jesus because he reserves that name for where Jesus is going rather than where he has come from: Maria Magdalena, who on the first day of the week went to the tomb, found it empty, but then met the risen Christ.
Jesus said to her ‘Maria, Mar-i-a.’ All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word.
She turned and said to him, ‘Rabboni, my master.’ She became the proto-ambassador for resurrection, shouting out that resurrection was in town and here to stay.
My core belief is that every single thing in our world and in our universe is resurrectable.
It takes some faith believing that when faced by utter total destruction in the Ukraines of this world. And during my 41 year ministry the Church has certainly hurled a lot of dead stuff my way to practice resurrection on. Yet at heart my vote goes with St Paul that nothing, absolutely nothing in all creation is beyond the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The re-ordering we mark today is a real resurrection. Re-orderings can be intensely stressful and threatening. But see it as the Lord himself storming in, overturning everything so you can become the house of prayer you were meant to be. Bringing Christ to birth. Loved by Christ. Shouting his resurrection from the rooftops, perhaps to office workers every lunchtime.
Three songs, three of the very best. God bless you, as you bring perfect praise to this place,
singing with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven, including that great Father of the Church, Tony Christie:
I go to my Lord with no fear, for I did what I did for Maria.
SERMON FOR FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 24th APRIL 2022
First Sunday back in St Mary's
I have just finished reading a book* by an old Australian spin bowler whose heyday was the early 1920’s. It was written thirty years after he had stopped playing test cricket and contains opinions typical of an old player writing about the current generation. Reflecting on those who complained about the stress of playing cricket for Australia he said that they should remember where they came from and think of the privilege they enjoyed, being able to travel the world and play a game in good fresh air, even in England, something millions of young men would give ten years of their life for.
We know more about stress now and it is no longer good enough to tell sufferers how lucky they are and to pull themselves together. It is easy to be so wound up in our troubles or in what we feel we have to do that we forget what is really important. When something happens to disturb us whether it is a sudden shock or a gradual build-up of stress it can make us unable to think straight. The disciples were like this after Easter. So much had happened that they were all a bit stunned; they did not know which way to turn. Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was the gardener and Peter and the other ten thought Jesus was a ghost. They did not know what to do.
When two disciples encountered a stranger on the road to Emmaus the sudden realisation of who it was transformed them and they rushed the seven miles back to tell the disciples what happened and they didn’t seem too deflated when they found that Jesus has appeared to Peter and the others. Then they were rewarded with another appearance by Jesus.
What changed them? Jesus explained it all to them. Luke tells us that he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. All this had happened to him so that the Old Testament should be fulfilled. How did he do that? What wouldn’t we give to know? But the Messiah was to suffer and then rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins was to be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. Then he said, “You are witnesses to these things.”
They became his witnesses when they had received the power of the Holy Spirit and at Pentecost Peter stood up boldly before the people. They were no longer confused. They were sure of their saviour and their mission.
We can be much more confident as a Church and as people if we are sure of Jesus our saviour. We can be torn between maintenance, which we can see (a great deal of it at present), and mission, which we know is more important, but which we often lack the confidence to undertake. We see so much that ought to be done that we may not know where to start.
Coming back in here today marks a new start, somewhat delayed it is true. We must see it as such, it is an end but also a beginning. Ten years ago in my former parish of Epworth we finally got faculty permission to do the reordering work on the church about four years later than had been hoped due to DAC bureaucracy and some spirited opposition to taking the pews out. I was then conscious of Churchill’s words after El Alamein when he said it wasn’t the end or even the beginning of the end but it was perhaps the end of the beginning. I think that applies to us today even though the physical work is (almost) complete.
Whatever choices we face as a congregation in the future we should never lose sight of the central truth; that the Messiah was to suffer and on the third day rise again so that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed to all nations. That is as true today as it was then and today it is we who are the witnesses.
*Ten for 66 and all that. Arthur Mailey
25th SEPTEMBER 2022
By Bishop DAVID WILBOURNE Hon Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of YORK
Haven’t we seen a lot of archbishops since the Queen died? Once in the Archbishop’s office in Cardiff the secretaries and I got talking about how many songs had Maria as their subject, as you do. We then started crooning each song back to back, and we had this surreal cocktail as West Side Story met the Sound of Music and Cliff Richard met Blondie.
I’ve just met a girl called Maria vied with How do you solve a problem like Maria
The day I met Marie vied with Maria, you’ve gotta see her. Latina, Ave Maria.
And, of course, there’s the real Ave Maria,’ my secretary added, She was Roman Catholic, often recalling us to our true vocation.
As with songs, so with the names of churches. In the diocese of York, Peter comes second with 31 churches. Nicolas, popular in these parts, scores a respectable 20. But Mary, Maria, tops the polls with a record-breaking 76. Icons like St Mary’s Beverley, with its starry, starry ceiling, St Mary’s Scarborough perched next to the Castle, with Anne Bronte sulking for two centuries in its churchyard. Box-pewed St Mary’s Whitby perched next to the Abbey...
Most iconic for me is St Mary Lowgate, spoken of in hushed tones ever since we moved to Hull in 1962 when my dad became curate of Marfleet. Another Mary, my sacristan in Helmsley, married John Stewart, who became vicar here the day war broke out in 1939, ministering through the terrible Blitz which flattened Hull. Mary, now aged 101, talks of the terrible Victorian vicarage with grey rats in the attic and brown rats in the kitchen, and of John daily preaching midday sermons for office workers, picking their way through the rubble. With all these connections, it’s wonderful to be here today. But given that Maria is obviously all-pervading, it’s odd that John in his Gospel doesn’t once mention her name, describing her as the Mother of Jesus, not always flatteringly.
‘What is there between you and me, woman?’ Jesus snaps when his mother suggests he do something about the wedding at Cana turning dry.
‘What is there between you and me?’ ‘Well, I was ostracised because I conceived you, I carried you in my womb for nine long months, I gave birth to you, I suckled you, I put up with shepherds and kings crowding the stable, I changed your dirty nappies for three years. How’s that for starters?’
Or at least, had I been Mary, that’s what I would have replied, basically a teenager in his sixties with attitude. The real Mary takes a more conciliatory tone, a Jewish momma who truly knows her son, ‘He’ll come round, do whatever he tells you.’
The mother of Jesus actually jump starts the miracle of miracles. Water into wine, each water jar contained 20 to 30 gallons with Jesus instructing the waiters to fill six of them to the brim. 180 gallons is one heaven of a lot of wine. You can imagine the Galilean Police Force having a field day as they pulled up chariot after chariot wending their way home. ‘Hallo, Hallo, Hallo,’ or rather ‘Shalom, Shalom, Shalom,’ been partying with Jesus have we, Sir?’
In the spirit of Mary, by twisting Jesus’ arm in prayer, what miracle of miracles have you jump-started here in Hull?
In the spirit of Mary, what party of parties have you arranged, folk wandering down Lowgate afterwards as if drunk with joy?
WHEN you say to your Lord, as every believer says at some time or other, ‘The wine’s run out, my spiritual wells are dry.’ do you brace yourself á la Cana for a stupendous response?
Dead water turned into 180 gallons of the best wine ever.
Cana illustrates how mind-blowing it is to have Jesus at a wedding, at any celebration. It blows your mind, Jesus coming to your world. And it should blow your mind because it's mind boggling that the creator of the skies and sea became a child on earth for me, hands which threw stars into space to cruel nails surrendered. In the beginning John tells us that the Word became Flesh but in chapter two sets out very coarsely how ridiculous it all is. The laughably impossible becomes possible as God not only deals with puny us but wants to take our deadness and thrill us with his laughter and his life.
But back to my point about the mother of Jesus being strangely unnamed in John’s Gospel, even when she stands at the foot of the cross, tenderly watching her son die, watching the spear being thrust into his side. What’s going on here? Well, there are all sorts of possibilities.
As well as an un-named mother John’s Gospel also has an un-named disciple, the disciple-whom-Jesus-loved, there beside Jesus at the Last Supper, at the cross, running to the tomb with Peter on Easter Day, on the boat when after fishing all night they caught nothing until some landlubber says ‘One more throw.’ You’d be a brave man saying that to any empty trawlers
docking down Hessle Road back in the day. But they suddenly have the equivalent of 180 gallons of fish - and the disciple-whom-Jesus-loved says ‘It is the Lord.’
When paper was as expensive as gas, you let your words be few, so why not go for Mary or John rather than verbosity of the-mother-of-Jesus and the disciple-whom-Jesus-loved? Maybe because John, in describing these two key iconic people, wants to play down their individual identity, and instead define them by their relationship to Christ. Flagging up that our own relationship with Christ is paramount, the only key to life in all its fullness now and for eternity.
To quote Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas broadcast 2011. ‘Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. The mother of Jesus, the disciple whom Jesus loved. How do we Mother Christ? How do we radiate that we are Loved by Christ? To mother is to bring something to bear, to fruition.
Mary in English, Maria in Greek, Miriam in Hebrew, whatever, we see the pattern of the mother of Jesus, patient, tender, painfully letting him go for God, a sword piercing her own soul as she stayed by him even to the grisliest of ends, That is the cost of being a Christ-bearer. That is the Christ we are called to faithfully, joyfully bring to birth in this ancient place. Celebrating communion here week by week, year by year we will bring to birth more gallons of consecrated wine, the blood of Christ, than all the wine consumed at Cana. That’s a marvellous picture of the overflowing generosity of God through his servants.
And that other role, being loved by Christ is far harder for us to accept, because it’s easier to buzz about, bringing Christ to birth, here, there and everywhere. Hyperactive you, sowing happiness wherever you go. Maybe actually sowing happiness whenever you go. “She’s a real do-gooder: you can tell the people she does good to by their hunted look!” It’s so hard just prayerfully sitting at his feet like another Mary, yet realising he is utterly devoted to you.
Listen to the prayer that your servants offer in this place, and when you hear, forgive...
There was a strange picture of Christ in our church in Helmsley, trick art where his eyes could either be open or shut, and often the eyes seemed to move between the two states. Some folk thought I sat behind the picture 24/7 moving the eyes: funny what people think clergy spend their time doing. To stop the picture scaring children to death I used to ask them to look at it as if its eyes were open. Christ loves you so much, he can’t take his eyes off you. You are the disciple whom Jesus loves.
Or maybe John doesn’t use Maria for the mother of Jesus because he reserves that name for where Jesus is going rather than where he has come from: Maria Magdalena, who on the first day of the week went to the tomb, found it empty, but then met the risen Christ.
Jesus said to her ‘Maria, Mar-i-a.’ All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word.
She turned and said to him, ‘Rabboni, my master.’ She became the proto-ambassador for resurrection, shouting out that resurrection was in town and here to stay.
My core belief is that every single thing in our world and in our universe is resurrectable.
It takes some faith believing that when faced by utter total destruction in the Ukraines of this world. And during my 41 year ministry the Church has certainly hurled a lot of dead stuff my way to practice resurrection on. Yet at heart my vote goes with St Paul that nothing, absolutely nothing in all creation is beyond the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The re-ordering we mark today is a real resurrection. Re-orderings can be intensely stressful and threatening. But see it as the Lord himself storming in, overturning everything so you can become the house of prayer you were meant to be. Bringing Christ to birth. Loved by Christ. Shouting his resurrection from the rooftops, perhaps to office workers every lunchtime.
Three songs, three of the very best. God bless you, as you bring perfect praise to this place,
singing with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven, including that great Father of the Church, Tony Christie:
I go to my Lord with no fear, for I did what I did for Maria.
SERMON FOR FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 24th APRIL 2022
First Sunday back in St Mary's
I have just finished reading a book* by an old Australian spin bowler whose heyday was the early 1920’s. It was written thirty years after he had stopped playing test cricket and contains opinions typical of an old player writing about the current generation. Reflecting on those who complained about the stress of playing cricket for Australia he said that they should remember where they came from and think of the privilege they enjoyed, being able to travel the world and play a game in good fresh air, even in England, something millions of young men would give ten years of their life for.
We know more about stress now and it is no longer good enough to tell sufferers how lucky they are and to pull themselves together. It is easy to be so wound up in our troubles or in what we feel we have to do that we forget what is really important. When something happens to disturb us whether it is a sudden shock or a gradual build-up of stress it can make us unable to think straight. The disciples were like this after Easter. So much had happened that they were all a bit stunned; they did not know which way to turn. Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was the gardener and Peter and the other ten thought Jesus was a ghost. They did not know what to do.
When two disciples encountered a stranger on the road to Emmaus the sudden realisation of who it was transformed them and they rushed the seven miles back to tell the disciples what happened and they didn’t seem too deflated when they found that Jesus has appeared to Peter and the others. Then they were rewarded with another appearance by Jesus.
What changed them? Jesus explained it all to them. Luke tells us that he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. All this had happened to him so that the Old Testament should be fulfilled. How did he do that? What wouldn’t we give to know? But the Messiah was to suffer and then rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins was to be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. Then he said, “You are witnesses to these things.”
They became his witnesses when they had received the power of the Holy Spirit and at Pentecost Peter stood up boldly before the people. They were no longer confused. They were sure of their saviour and their mission.
We can be much more confident as a Church and as people if we are sure of Jesus our saviour. We can be torn between maintenance, which we can see (a great deal of it at present), and mission, which we know is more important, but which we often lack the confidence to undertake. We see so much that ought to be done that we may not know where to start.
Coming back in here today marks a new start, somewhat delayed it is true. We must see it as such, it is an end but also a beginning. Ten years ago in my former parish of Epworth we finally got faculty permission to do the reordering work on the church about four years later than had been hoped due to DAC bureaucracy and some spirited opposition to taking the pews out. I was then conscious of Churchill’s words after El Alamein when he said it wasn’t the end or even the beginning of the end but it was perhaps the end of the beginning. I think that applies to us today even though the physical work is (almost) complete.
Whatever choices we face as a congregation in the future we should never lose sight of the central truth; that the Messiah was to suffer and on the third day rise again so that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed to all nations. That is as true today as it was then and today it is we who are the witnesses.
*Ten for 66 and all that. Arthur Mailey
SERMON FOR THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 15th AUGUST 2021
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The story is told of Gregory Peck, the Hollywood film star who was with a friend standing in a queue for a table at a restaurant and it was taking a long time because the people who had eaten were taking their time leaving. In the end Gregory Peck’s friend got impatient and said, “Why don’t you tell them who you are?” His answer was “No. if you have to tell them who you are, then you aren’t.”
If you have to tell them who you are, then you aren’t. I wonder if today’s celebrities would ‘wait in line’ as the Americans have it, so patiently. Whether in the Co-op when you are just buying one or two things and the person in front is buying the whole shop and doesn’t start to search for their money until they have been told how much, or at a funeral tea when the woman serving coffee says she is busy talking; when we are queuing, whoever we are, we are just members of the public.
Paul was not averse to pulling rank, he was proud of being a Pharisee, a student of Gamaliel and a Roman citizen ‘by birth.’ Yet in today’s reading he says he is the least of all apostles because he had persecuted the Church. “But, by the Grace of God I am what I am, and his Grace…. was not in vain.”
The Pharisee in our gospel reading had never learned that he was just an ordinary sinner. His prayer, if it can be called that, is largely an advertisement for himself. He is selling himself to God, rather like an interview for heaven. No wonder Luke describes him in the way he does, "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself."
He prayed with himself. It would have been better if he had the humility to remember not so much who he was, but who he wasn't.
The tax collector, on the other hand, didn't have to tell God who he was. He knew who he was but more than that, he knew that God knew who he was. His prayer is not an exercise in self-promotion, but a confession and a plea for mercy. He is not selling himself but opening himself. And Jesus says, "It is this man who went home justified." To be justified means to be acquitted. It means to be declared right. Jesus says that the tax collector was in a right relationship to God while the Pharisee, who is so certain of his own righteousness, is shown to be in the wrong relationship with God.
The Pharisees were the ones who had control over the way religion was practised. It was they who interpreted the law. There was a familiar morning prayer at the time by which the worshipper offered thanks to God for not having been born a Gentile, a slave or a woman. People hearing this parable would have recognised the stereotype of the respectable religious man who did all that the law required. They would also recognise the tax collector who was despised by all right thinking folk for making a rich living out of the misery of others.
While the Pharisee stood up, in the front row to avoid contamination from anyone who might be ritually impure, the tax collector stood far off. Many would have regarded them as unfit to enter the temple. Yet in Jesus' estimation the sincerity of his prayer far exceeded that of the Pharisee. He responded in repentance to the grace he hoped to find by acknowledging his own unworthiness.
Of the two men, he was the only one who had really prayed. For doing that he had been declared righteous, but not because he was good and the Pharisee bad, nor because he felt better for it. Rather he had the humility to do the one thing God requires: he had faced the truth about himself and cast himself on God's mercy and compassion.
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The story is told of Gregory Peck, the Hollywood film star who was with a friend standing in a queue for a table at a restaurant and it was taking a long time because the people who had eaten were taking their time leaving. In the end Gregory Peck’s friend got impatient and said, “Why don’t you tell them who you are?” His answer was “No. if you have to tell them who you are, then you aren’t.”
If you have to tell them who you are, then you aren’t. I wonder if today’s celebrities would ‘wait in line’ as the Americans have it, so patiently. Whether in the Co-op when you are just buying one or two things and the person in front is buying the whole shop and doesn’t start to search for their money until they have been told how much, or at a funeral tea when the woman serving coffee says she is busy talking; when we are queuing, whoever we are, we are just members of the public.
Paul was not averse to pulling rank, he was proud of being a Pharisee, a student of Gamaliel and a Roman citizen ‘by birth.’ Yet in today’s reading he says he is the least of all apostles because he had persecuted the Church. “But, by the Grace of God I am what I am, and his Grace…. was not in vain.”
The Pharisee in our gospel reading had never learned that he was just an ordinary sinner. His prayer, if it can be called that, is largely an advertisement for himself. He is selling himself to God, rather like an interview for heaven. No wonder Luke describes him in the way he does, "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself."
He prayed with himself. It would have been better if he had the humility to remember not so much who he was, but who he wasn't.
The tax collector, on the other hand, didn't have to tell God who he was. He knew who he was but more than that, he knew that God knew who he was. His prayer is not an exercise in self-promotion, but a confession and a plea for mercy. He is not selling himself but opening himself. And Jesus says, "It is this man who went home justified." To be justified means to be acquitted. It means to be declared right. Jesus says that the tax collector was in a right relationship to God while the Pharisee, who is so certain of his own righteousness, is shown to be in the wrong relationship with God.
The Pharisees were the ones who had control over the way religion was practised. It was they who interpreted the law. There was a familiar morning prayer at the time by which the worshipper offered thanks to God for not having been born a Gentile, a slave or a woman. People hearing this parable would have recognised the stereotype of the respectable religious man who did all that the law required. They would also recognise the tax collector who was despised by all right thinking folk for making a rich living out of the misery of others.
While the Pharisee stood up, in the front row to avoid contamination from anyone who might be ritually impure, the tax collector stood far off. Many would have regarded them as unfit to enter the temple. Yet in Jesus' estimation the sincerity of his prayer far exceeded that of the Pharisee. He responded in repentance to the grace he hoped to find by acknowledging his own unworthiness.
Of the two men, he was the only one who had really prayed. For doing that he had been declared righteous, but not because he was good and the Pharisee bad, nor because he felt better for it. Rather he had the humility to do the one thing God requires: he had faced the truth about himself and cast himself on God's mercy and compassion.
SERMON FOR SIXTH AFTER TRINITY 11 JULY 2021
“But I say to you that if you are angry with your brother, you will be liable to judgement” (Matt 5:22)
Social media is something I try to avoid. I know that many colleagues and churches make creative use of Facebook, Twitter and many other things I have barely heard of, but I always feel that once something is said on one of these platforms it cannot be unsaid.
It is not uncommon for unacceptable remarks on social media made years ago by someone much less mature than they are now to emerge and cause damage. It is very easy to express anger about strangers on social media in a way that we would not do to their face. Sometimes people receive death threats for no apparent reason.
That leads us to the teaching of Jesus and today we hear the part of the Sermon on the Mount where he says that the mere thought of anger or lust is as bad as the act itself. He may be speaking of the ingrained attitudes that for the most part we keep under control, but which can sometimes come out. To us today, they are attitudes like racism, misogyny, homophobia or other prejudice. Being angry with our brother without a cause because we are sinners, we can’t help it.
The Great Commandment is to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourself. That means deep down and not just
what we show to others in polite society. Jesus defined neighbours as the people his hearers would have said were certainly not their sort; in their case the Samaritans. We need to be aware of our feelings and attitudes deep down for they are signs of what used to be called Original Sin; we might prefer to call it our human nature now.
The line between a casual remark and something much worse can sometimes be crossed without thinking. The 20th century saw many outbreaks of genocide where normal good people who were kind to their aunt and the cat suddenly began to treat their neighbours as vermin. Many of the most appalling crimes were committed by those who had lived quite amicably as neighbours for many years. This is true not just of Jews in Europe but more recently of people in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. Is this being angry with our brother without a cause?
Perhaps they had the excuse of living in extraordinary times, but we don’t give enough attention to this part of the Sermon on the Mount. It seems harsh yet it reminds us that the roots of evil lie within each one of us. Jesus’ words are not always comfortable. We might think that he is being too rigorous here; surely what we think does not really matter as long as we keep it under wraps, but Jesus warns us that unless we acknowledge it and repent it will eventually come out.
Social media is something I try to avoid. I know that many colleagues and churches make creative use of Facebook, Twitter and many other things I have barely heard of, but I always feel that once something is said on one of these platforms it cannot be unsaid.
It is not uncommon for unacceptable remarks on social media made years ago by someone much less mature than they are now to emerge and cause damage. It is very easy to express anger about strangers on social media in a way that we would not do to their face. Sometimes people receive death threats for no apparent reason.
That leads us to the teaching of Jesus and today we hear the part of the Sermon on the Mount where he says that the mere thought of anger or lust is as bad as the act itself. He may be speaking of the ingrained attitudes that for the most part we keep under control, but which can sometimes come out. To us today, they are attitudes like racism, misogyny, homophobia or other prejudice. Being angry with our brother without a cause because we are sinners, we can’t help it.
The Great Commandment is to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourself. That means deep down and not just
what we show to others in polite society. Jesus defined neighbours as the people his hearers would have said were certainly not their sort; in their case the Samaritans. We need to be aware of our feelings and attitudes deep down for they are signs of what used to be called Original Sin; we might prefer to call it our human nature now.
The line between a casual remark and something much worse can sometimes be crossed without thinking. The 20th century saw many outbreaks of genocide where normal good people who were kind to their aunt and the cat suddenly began to treat their neighbours as vermin. Many of the most appalling crimes were committed by those who had lived quite amicably as neighbours for many years. This is true not just of Jews in Europe but more recently of people in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. Is this being angry with our brother without a cause?
Perhaps they had the excuse of living in extraordinary times, but we don’t give enough attention to this part of the Sermon on the Mount. It seems harsh yet it reminds us that the roots of evil lie within each one of us. Jesus’ words are not always comfortable. We might think that he is being too rigorous here; surely what we think does not really matter as long as we keep it under wraps, but Jesus warns us that unless we acknowledge it and repent it will eventually come out.
SERMON FOR FOURTH AFTER TRINITY 27 JUNE 2021
“Be ye merciful” (Luke 6:36)
One thing that strikes us about the teaching of Jesus is the way it goes against the generally accepted view of ethics and morals as practised by the Great British Public and outlined in certain sections of the Press. Nowhere is this truer than when we are thinking of crime and punishment. A notorious murderer is convicted and receives a life sentence with a minimum of perhaps thirty years and justice is seen to be done. When thirty years has passed and this person is eligible for release, public interest is rekindled and there is great resistance to letting this person out and politicians don’t like to be seen going against public opinion.
Mercy does not come easy to us; we like the punishment to fit the crime and forget that that expression comes from a comic song, albeit from Gilbert & Sullivan. “Be ye merciful” shows how subversive Jesus’ teaching can be. It puts us in mind of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican who says, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner”. Like the Pharisee in the parable, we probably find it easier to talk about the sins that we don’t do rather than the ones we do, especially as we can explain away the ones we do so that we convince ourselves that they are not sins anyway. Today we have become very good at condemning the sins of previous generations without always understanding how different things were in their day.
If mercy seems a difficult thing for us in practice it should have been less so for Jesus’ listeners for the God of Israel was a God of mercy. Jesus said, “I desire mercy not sacrifice”, echoing the words of the prophet Hosea. God ordered Abraham to spare his son Isaac at the last minute. While that seems strange to us, sacrificing children was commonplace among Israel’s neighbours so this was an advance. In the NT, the Magnificat proclaims that God has mercy on those who fear him while people looking for healing begged Jesus for mercy Jesus own prayer teaches us that we may ask Our Father for forgiveness as we forgive those who trespass against us.
God’s mercy is the mercy of a God who is generous and lavish “Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over”, says Jesus. I have used that text in sermons about what used to be called Stewardship and is now seen as ‘Generous Giving’. It is strange but true that if we give, we shall receive. A giving Church is one that will be open to the needs of others and so it will grow. If we are only concerned with our own needs as a church, our growth will be stunted. We have been fortunate to receive many gifts and grants during our restoration programme so we must be generous in return. If we give, we shall be sharing in God’s Love and generosity.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us is an unbreakable link. Think of the man in the parable who was forgiven that huge debt and then threw a fellow servant into debtors’ prison for owing a few pounds.
Our prayers sometimes speak of God giving us more than we desire or deserve. There is that unbreakable link between the blessings we receive and what we should give in return. Not as payment but as a freewill offering.
There is much discussion about Britain giving aid to other, poorer countries and this issue has been raised in connection with sharing Covid vaccines throughout the world. We shall not be able to get on top of this until every country in the world is able to do so. Viruses do not stop at the White Cliffs of Dover. Generosity is a form of mercy.
Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke and many of the best-loved parables of Jesus are in Luke alone: the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Friend at Midnight and Dives and Lazarus which we had the other week. It could be argued that a theme running through these parables is the Generosity of God compared to the meanness of human nature. The Good Samaritan and the Father of the Prodigal Son go beyond what would normally be expected of them in human society. The Friend at Midnight responds to the request somewhat grudgingly and this is contrasted to the generosity of God who gives freely. The Rich man suffers for his meanness while Lazarus is rewarded in heaven in a way that was denied him on earth.
When the prophet Hosea speaks of God’s mercy, he speaks of God’s steadfast love. This is a real contrast to the meanness and fickleness of human nature. When Jesus calls us to be merciful, he is calling us to be generous because God’s generosity overflows. Are we able to accept that steadfast love and reflect it to our neighbours?
One thing that strikes us about the teaching of Jesus is the way it goes against the generally accepted view of ethics and morals as practised by the Great British Public and outlined in certain sections of the Press. Nowhere is this truer than when we are thinking of crime and punishment. A notorious murderer is convicted and receives a life sentence with a minimum of perhaps thirty years and justice is seen to be done. When thirty years has passed and this person is eligible for release, public interest is rekindled and there is great resistance to letting this person out and politicians don’t like to be seen going against public opinion.
Mercy does not come easy to us; we like the punishment to fit the crime and forget that that expression comes from a comic song, albeit from Gilbert & Sullivan. “Be ye merciful” shows how subversive Jesus’ teaching can be. It puts us in mind of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican who says, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner”. Like the Pharisee in the parable, we probably find it easier to talk about the sins that we don’t do rather than the ones we do, especially as we can explain away the ones we do so that we convince ourselves that they are not sins anyway. Today we have become very good at condemning the sins of previous generations without always understanding how different things were in their day.
If mercy seems a difficult thing for us in practice it should have been less so for Jesus’ listeners for the God of Israel was a God of mercy. Jesus said, “I desire mercy not sacrifice”, echoing the words of the prophet Hosea. God ordered Abraham to spare his son Isaac at the last minute. While that seems strange to us, sacrificing children was commonplace among Israel’s neighbours so this was an advance. In the NT, the Magnificat proclaims that God has mercy on those who fear him while people looking for healing begged Jesus for mercy Jesus own prayer teaches us that we may ask Our Father for forgiveness as we forgive those who trespass against us.
God’s mercy is the mercy of a God who is generous and lavish “Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over”, says Jesus. I have used that text in sermons about what used to be called Stewardship and is now seen as ‘Generous Giving’. It is strange but true that if we give, we shall receive. A giving Church is one that will be open to the needs of others and so it will grow. If we are only concerned with our own needs as a church, our growth will be stunted. We have been fortunate to receive many gifts and grants during our restoration programme so we must be generous in return. If we give, we shall be sharing in God’s Love and generosity.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us is an unbreakable link. Think of the man in the parable who was forgiven that huge debt and then threw a fellow servant into debtors’ prison for owing a few pounds.
Our prayers sometimes speak of God giving us more than we desire or deserve. There is that unbreakable link between the blessings we receive and what we should give in return. Not as payment but as a freewill offering.
There is much discussion about Britain giving aid to other, poorer countries and this issue has been raised in connection with sharing Covid vaccines throughout the world. We shall not be able to get on top of this until every country in the world is able to do so. Viruses do not stop at the White Cliffs of Dover. Generosity is a form of mercy.
Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke and many of the best-loved parables of Jesus are in Luke alone: the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Friend at Midnight and Dives and Lazarus which we had the other week. It could be argued that a theme running through these parables is the Generosity of God compared to the meanness of human nature. The Good Samaritan and the Father of the Prodigal Son go beyond what would normally be expected of them in human society. The Friend at Midnight responds to the request somewhat grudgingly and this is contrasted to the generosity of God who gives freely. The Rich man suffers for his meanness while Lazarus is rewarded in heaven in a way that was denied him on earth.
When the prophet Hosea speaks of God’s mercy, he speaks of God’s steadfast love. This is a real contrast to the meanness and fickleness of human nature. When Jesus calls us to be merciful, he is calling us to be generous because God’s generosity overflows. Are we able to accept that steadfast love and reflect it to our neighbours?
sermon for easter day 2021
“And he saw and believed”, (John 20: 8)
I was intrigued this week to read in a piece about the Gospel reading for Easter Day that this text “attracts less attention”. The ‘Other Disciple’ saw and believed but he did not yet understand the Scripture. He somehow trusts that all will be well and that is enough. This ‘overlooked’ text does reassure us.
While the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are told almost in ‘real time’ as they call it today, the accounts of the resurrection seem to be just fragments. Apart from the disciples they do not involve any of the characters in the drama up to now. That means that there are many unanswered questions; in Mark Jesus is not here at all yet he is there for he is going on into Galilee. Here is the key; there is no looking back and no turning back. When, later in John’s account Mary Magdalene finally recognises Jesus and falls at his feet, he says “Touch me not” (Authorised Version) or “Do not cling to me”.
There is a message for us here as we contemplate and rejoice in Our Lord’s resurrection. Especially as we get older, so much of what we are seems rooted in the past. While our past is important and makes us who we are today there are many things in our past that we ought to be letting go. We cannot help changing even if we do not notice it. Few of us are the same as we were twenty years ago. Clinging on to some things in our past can have the effect of preventing us from moving on into the future. Sometimes our resentments can be among our most treasured possessions and that is not good.
Jesus told Mary to tell his disciples, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” This is Resurrection, not resuscitation. He appears in a garden to a woman who had no status in the eyes of the world; that may have been why she was allowed by the guards to approach the tomb. She would have loved things to have gone back to how they had been before, but Jesus is going to Galilee where he will ascend to the Father.
Serving Jesus as Lord brings change. We may long for him to restore aspects of our lives to how they were. But the life of Jesus growing in us makes all things new. Our lives today are different from what they were twenty, ten, even five years ago. There are always new challenges to face but there are also things to let go. In all this the risen Jesus can meet us in the places where we least expect. Like Mary Magdalene, we can be tempted to hold on to the Lord as we have known him on our journey so far. But if we really want to be his disciples then we must keep following him, which could allow our lives to be transformed in ways we could never have imagined.
Our renewal project will make us see this church building in a new way and will open up new opportunities for service and witness while a closer relationship with Holy Trinity (Hull Minster) will be challenging for both congregations.
All this means trusting in Jesus to lead us on ultimately into the unknown, to the good things that God has prepared for those that love him. The disciples could not have known on Easter morning just how their lives would be changed but, in their bewilderment, they trusted Jesus. Our life is continuous searching; we are restless until we find our rest in God. We cannot be sure what the future will hold or where it will take us, but we can trust the one whose mighty power has raised Jesus from the dead and whose love for us is limitless.
Fr Ian Walker
I was intrigued this week to read in a piece about the Gospel reading for Easter Day that this text “attracts less attention”. The ‘Other Disciple’ saw and believed but he did not yet understand the Scripture. He somehow trusts that all will be well and that is enough. This ‘overlooked’ text does reassure us.
While the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are told almost in ‘real time’ as they call it today, the accounts of the resurrection seem to be just fragments. Apart from the disciples they do not involve any of the characters in the drama up to now. That means that there are many unanswered questions; in Mark Jesus is not here at all yet he is there for he is going on into Galilee. Here is the key; there is no looking back and no turning back. When, later in John’s account Mary Magdalene finally recognises Jesus and falls at his feet, he says “Touch me not” (Authorised Version) or “Do not cling to me”.
There is a message for us here as we contemplate and rejoice in Our Lord’s resurrection. Especially as we get older, so much of what we are seems rooted in the past. While our past is important and makes us who we are today there are many things in our past that we ought to be letting go. We cannot help changing even if we do not notice it. Few of us are the same as we were twenty years ago. Clinging on to some things in our past can have the effect of preventing us from moving on into the future. Sometimes our resentments can be among our most treasured possessions and that is not good.
Jesus told Mary to tell his disciples, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” This is Resurrection, not resuscitation. He appears in a garden to a woman who had no status in the eyes of the world; that may have been why she was allowed by the guards to approach the tomb. She would have loved things to have gone back to how they had been before, but Jesus is going to Galilee where he will ascend to the Father.
Serving Jesus as Lord brings change. We may long for him to restore aspects of our lives to how they were. But the life of Jesus growing in us makes all things new. Our lives today are different from what they were twenty, ten, even five years ago. There are always new challenges to face but there are also things to let go. In all this the risen Jesus can meet us in the places where we least expect. Like Mary Magdalene, we can be tempted to hold on to the Lord as we have known him on our journey so far. But if we really want to be his disciples then we must keep following him, which could allow our lives to be transformed in ways we could never have imagined.
Our renewal project will make us see this church building in a new way and will open up new opportunities for service and witness while a closer relationship with Holy Trinity (Hull Minster) will be challenging for both congregations.
All this means trusting in Jesus to lead us on ultimately into the unknown, to the good things that God has prepared for those that love him. The disciples could not have known on Easter morning just how their lives would be changed but, in their bewilderment, they trusted Jesus. Our life is continuous searching; we are restless until we find our rest in God. We cannot be sure what the future will hold or where it will take us, but we can trust the one whose mighty power has raised Jesus from the dead and whose love for us is limitless.
Fr Ian Walker
sermon for good friday 2021
St John 19: 1-37.
In the days of Three Hour Devotions preachers used to build their services around the “Seven Last Words from the Cross”, which come from the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion. Because different words are in different Gospels it has more recently been seen as a bit artificial, but they do weave together into a kind of tapestry. Each Gospel paints its own picture of Jesus’ life and death and I want to look at the words recorded in John.
“Woman, behold thy Son…… Behold thy mother.”
We know that the women remained faithful to Jesus and that apart from the beloved disciple they showed more courage than the men. They would have seen the soldiers stripping Jesus of his seamless robe one of them had lovingly made and casting lots for it.
After this Jesus entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple. Was he Mary’s only child? Church tradition gradually assumed this to be so although the Gospels do speak of his brothers. So, they say that these must have been Joseph’s sons by a former marriage, or they might have been cousins. If they were still living in Nazareth there would be no one for Jesus to entrust his mother to. It has been suggested that he entrusted his mother to John to spare her the pain of seeing him die and that John took her straight away with him. It shows the humanity and compassion of Jesus and thein response to the suffering of Jesus and his mother.
In entrusting his mother to the care of the beloved disciple there is a sense that Jesus was starting a new family, the family of the Church. We see Mary, our patron saint as the mother of the Church and we also see the Church as our mother. Our Church family is a family in which charity, not blood binds us together. If the Church is our mother, then we must be like mothers to those alongside us. In recent years there has been a new discovery of the idea of the Motherhood of God and of the Church, yet we have barely begun to examine the depths of this. Our Churches need to be caring, nurturing communities in which Christians can grow in the Faith. When we care for a fellow member of the congregation, we do so out of friendship but also because Jesus binds us together in his love, as a hen gathering her chickens.
“I thirst”
This is said to be Jesus only complaint; at least his only complaint to those around him. We are told that he refused a drink of drugged wine earlier which would have been provided by the wealthy ladies of Jerusalem to those being crucified to deaden the pain. Now we can see Jesus, coming out of the depths of despair of feeling abandoned by his Father. He might be gathering his strength for his final struggle and his final words. At this point a soldier acts with charity towards him by holding up a sponge on a stick.
It could also be seen as Jesus expressing a thirst for God. The Psalms are full of references to a thirst for God, and Jesus’ thirst for God might also recall his thirst for souls and the compassion he felt for people who were like sheep without a shepherd. We have seen his compassion for his mother and Luke tells us of his compassion for the penitent thief.
Jesus needed to be able to give love just as we do. We can think of Jesus on the cross as a passive, almost lifeless figure that we can take or leave. We should rather think of him as thirsting for us, willing and eager to give his love for us and pleading for a response.
We all thirst for the living waters and Jesus alone can satisfy us.
“It is finished”
In saying this Jesus is not making a cry of desolation but an expression of achievement. On the cross, he has been despised and humiliated, yet this has been done for a purpose. God has worked to restore in the Son of Man what was lost by the first Adam’s disobedience.
Sometimes we can barely think of the details of Jesus crucifixion. Film depictions can in many ways be quite graphic; Mel Gibson made a film in the early 2000’s which was extremely graphic and shocked many of those who saw it. John Henry Newman in the 19th Century described Jesus’ suffering in detail and then said, “I bid you to recall that he to whom these things were done was Almighty God”. And there was a hush in the Church when these words were spoken.
If we take for granted that Jesus is God, we should remember that the Jesus of our crucifixes and our stained glass is God’s image treated brutally and we still treat God’s image brutally in all the suffering we cause in the world. That should be more so in our minds when we see images of war and suffering which never go away.
Jesus said, “It is completed” rather than “It is finished”. Even if human greed does cause so much suffering, we must remember that on the cross love had the last word and something more significant lived on.
In order for new life to grow there often has to be pain. Coping with pain and sorrow can be seen as enduring a kind of death and resurrection. Every Christian who has come through pain will know that. But we should also remember that we are not made for pain we are made to enjoy God for ever. If we share in Jesus’ sufferings, we also share in that new life which is ours in the waters of baptism. As Jesus said, “I thirst” he also fulfils our thirst.
In the end with all completed Jesus can commit his spirit into his Father’s hands where it is safe. Jesus gave up his life freely and he was in control to the end,
“Having gone through it all, having finished the work that the Father gave him to do, John tells us, ‘He bowed his head’ as though to rest from labour. The word used can mean laying one’s head on a pillow. There is a particularly poignant echo here, because our Lord had said of himself… ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head’. The word used here is the same word. He finally found where to lay his head – on the cross. This was his last act, his last word. He laid down his head and died. ‘Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.’ This was the final free act of the only free man. By his act, we are set free to seek after that same freedom.”
(“Behold Your King”, Richard Holloway p 86-7)
Fr Ian Walker
In the days of Three Hour Devotions preachers used to build their services around the “Seven Last Words from the Cross”, which come from the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion. Because different words are in different Gospels it has more recently been seen as a bit artificial, but they do weave together into a kind of tapestry. Each Gospel paints its own picture of Jesus’ life and death and I want to look at the words recorded in John.
“Woman, behold thy Son…… Behold thy mother.”
We know that the women remained faithful to Jesus and that apart from the beloved disciple they showed more courage than the men. They would have seen the soldiers stripping Jesus of his seamless robe one of them had lovingly made and casting lots for it.
After this Jesus entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple. Was he Mary’s only child? Church tradition gradually assumed this to be so although the Gospels do speak of his brothers. So, they say that these must have been Joseph’s sons by a former marriage, or they might have been cousins. If they were still living in Nazareth there would be no one for Jesus to entrust his mother to. It has been suggested that he entrusted his mother to John to spare her the pain of seeing him die and that John took her straight away with him. It shows the humanity and compassion of Jesus and thein response to the suffering of Jesus and his mother.
In entrusting his mother to the care of the beloved disciple there is a sense that Jesus was starting a new family, the family of the Church. We see Mary, our patron saint as the mother of the Church and we also see the Church as our mother. Our Church family is a family in which charity, not blood binds us together. If the Church is our mother, then we must be like mothers to those alongside us. In recent years there has been a new discovery of the idea of the Motherhood of God and of the Church, yet we have barely begun to examine the depths of this. Our Churches need to be caring, nurturing communities in which Christians can grow in the Faith. When we care for a fellow member of the congregation, we do so out of friendship but also because Jesus binds us together in his love, as a hen gathering her chickens.
“I thirst”
This is said to be Jesus only complaint; at least his only complaint to those around him. We are told that he refused a drink of drugged wine earlier which would have been provided by the wealthy ladies of Jerusalem to those being crucified to deaden the pain. Now we can see Jesus, coming out of the depths of despair of feeling abandoned by his Father. He might be gathering his strength for his final struggle and his final words. At this point a soldier acts with charity towards him by holding up a sponge on a stick.
It could also be seen as Jesus expressing a thirst for God. The Psalms are full of references to a thirst for God, and Jesus’ thirst for God might also recall his thirst for souls and the compassion he felt for people who were like sheep without a shepherd. We have seen his compassion for his mother and Luke tells us of his compassion for the penitent thief.
Jesus needed to be able to give love just as we do. We can think of Jesus on the cross as a passive, almost lifeless figure that we can take or leave. We should rather think of him as thirsting for us, willing and eager to give his love for us and pleading for a response.
We all thirst for the living waters and Jesus alone can satisfy us.
“It is finished”
In saying this Jesus is not making a cry of desolation but an expression of achievement. On the cross, he has been despised and humiliated, yet this has been done for a purpose. God has worked to restore in the Son of Man what was lost by the first Adam’s disobedience.
Sometimes we can barely think of the details of Jesus crucifixion. Film depictions can in many ways be quite graphic; Mel Gibson made a film in the early 2000’s which was extremely graphic and shocked many of those who saw it. John Henry Newman in the 19th Century described Jesus’ suffering in detail and then said, “I bid you to recall that he to whom these things were done was Almighty God”. And there was a hush in the Church when these words were spoken.
If we take for granted that Jesus is God, we should remember that the Jesus of our crucifixes and our stained glass is God’s image treated brutally and we still treat God’s image brutally in all the suffering we cause in the world. That should be more so in our minds when we see images of war and suffering which never go away.
Jesus said, “It is completed” rather than “It is finished”. Even if human greed does cause so much suffering, we must remember that on the cross love had the last word and something more significant lived on.
In order for new life to grow there often has to be pain. Coping with pain and sorrow can be seen as enduring a kind of death and resurrection. Every Christian who has come through pain will know that. But we should also remember that we are not made for pain we are made to enjoy God for ever. If we share in Jesus’ sufferings, we also share in that new life which is ours in the waters of baptism. As Jesus said, “I thirst” he also fulfils our thirst.
In the end with all completed Jesus can commit his spirit into his Father’s hands where it is safe. Jesus gave up his life freely and he was in control to the end,
“Having gone through it all, having finished the work that the Father gave him to do, John tells us, ‘He bowed his head’ as though to rest from labour. The word used can mean laying one’s head on a pillow. There is a particularly poignant echo here, because our Lord had said of himself… ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head’. The word used here is the same word. He finally found where to lay his head – on the cross. This was his last act, his last word. He laid down his head and died. ‘Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.’ This was the final free act of the only free man. By his act, we are set free to seek after that same freedom.”
(“Behold Your King”, Richard Holloway p 86-7)
Fr Ian Walker
sunday, 14th march - take up your cross
On Sunday, 14th March, 2021, St Mary's was pleased to welcome Sammi Tooze, the Diocese's Generous Giving Giving Advisor, as our preacher. You can read Sammi's Sermon here.
Mark 8.31-38 Romans 12.1-8
(For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sammi Tooze and I am the Diocesan Generous Giving Adviser, and I’m really pleased to be with you all this morning as we explore what it means to be a generous church.)
As Anglicans, our calendars are shaped by our rich liturgical tradition, marked by seasons throughout the year for us to journey through and allow ourselves to be shaped by. In all these seasons, giving and generosity sit at the centre as we learn more about the nature of God, and Lent is no exception. We experience the themes of the gift of love, of hospitality, of sharing food around a table, of serving one another through the washing of feet, and of sacrifice through the act of Jesus giving up his life on the cross.
Today as well we mark Mothering Sunday, both in the church and the secular world. The church’s preference for ‘Mothering Sunday’ implies a far more inclusive approach than the secular term ‘Mother’s Day’, allowing for the possibility that mothering may be – and frequently is - more than simply a biological relationship. Mothering, in a loving, caring, nurturing sense is something all we Christians should be doing, as we encourage new disciples. In both cases though, we mark Mothering Sunday in the giving of gifts – shops are packed with flowers and gifts in preparation for us to pass things over the fence, and many churches often distribute posies or daffodils to women in the congregation. These acts of generosity are an expression of love, gifts which we joyfully and freely give as an outpouring of love.
Thinking back to Lent, many people decide to give things up for the liturgical season, but the spiritual aspects of Lent go much deeper than not eating chocolate for a few weeks. Lent is a time of internal examination, shining a light into all the dark places in our lives and growing to become more Christ-like in the way we live our lives. And so as we explore our Gospel reading this morning, perhaps this is a good opportunity to reflect on how we each might use this season of Lent to grow in Christ-like generosity.
The Gospel reading this morning has so much depth and opportunity for us to unpack, and I’d like to focus our thinking on three aspects.
Set mind on divine things.
The first spotlight for our thinking is on Jesus’ rebuke of Peter, who says,
“you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things”.
I wonder how many of us are guilty of that! Peter is such a relatable biblical character because he so often gets things wrong, steps out of turn or misinterprets what Jesus is saying to him. Here we see him as a friend, rebuking Jesus for proclaiming his upcoming suffering and death – no wonder, wouldn’t we each do the same? But of course, Peter misses the point – by speaking ‘human’ thoughts he misses the divine perspective. By giving up his life for us on the cross, that giving is transformed and God’s saving purpose is to be fulfilled.
In a similar light, if we view our own resources through this more human lens, it is easy to be distracted by consumerism, a wish to keep what we believe is ours, wanting to hold on in case we need it for something we want. But when we set our own minds on divine things, our giving is transformed – we reshape our thinking to focus on the missional outcomes as we seek to be Christ in the world. Moving our minds from human desires to placing our trust and our love in God.
Take up your cross and follow me. What does that look like? Living lives marked by service, holiness, gratitude, giving our whole selves because we know from where all good things come.
The second aspect to reflect on is Jesus’ command to the crowd,
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
It is not only Jesus who must face the cross, but his followers too – you and I, as we seek to grow as disciples. All believers in Christ are bound to him in his death and resurrection. But we are also given unique gifts that take shape in each of our lives and our communities. And so, the cross of Christ can have a universal aspect but it can still look very different in different lives.
In our reading this morning from the letter to the Romans, St Paul speaks of the cross in relation to discipleship – a subject which is woven throughout his writings. In his letter to the Romans, he writes,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
He also speaks of this is his letter to the Galatians, where he writes,
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
This gives us a sense of how following the call of Christ will require various forms of self-denial and sacrifice, depending on the person and the calling. The cross of Christ did not look the same for Peter as it did for Paul or other disciples. For some people, the call of the cross will look like giving up our time to dedicate to a particular ministry in church, but for others, it will look like pouring out their lives in hospitality or in giving financially for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints. It’s not important that we tell people when or how we are being called into the way of self-sacrifice – God already knows the purposes of our hearts, and the important thing is the pouring out our lives in love for those around us.
So when we take up our cross, it carries the cost of discipleship. Carrying the cross and self-denial means directing ourselves to Jesus as our model for living, and growing through his nature of self-giving. Our faithful service is always likely to involve sacrifice, which may be unpredictable inconvenient and intrusive – but when we give something that costs us, we look to the past acknowledging that everything comes from God, we declare our gratitude, and we also point to the future in giving to enable mission. Giving up something we need is also a move of trust, as we offer sacrifices willingly and joyfully, and we trust God will use and transform.
Those who lose their life for my sake and the gospel will save it.
The third and final aspect for us to focus on this morning is the second half of Jesus’ message, where he continues,
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it”.
This statement throws us deeper into the realm of sacrifice and the cost of discipleship – here differentiating our physical lives and desires with our spiritual lives in Christ. To cling onto our physical lives – focusing on our own thoughts and desires – we may forfeit our spiritual lives, while losing our physical lives for the sake of the gospel we’ll find that our spiritual lives are saved and made whole.
There are many stories of people who inspire us with their courage and example in sacrificing so much for the Kingdom of God, and it gives us cause to ponder what God might expect of us in our own lives. When confronted with drastic sacrifice, we want to find some way around it – we value our independence, and we like to hang on to what we think of as ours. But as baptised Christians, because of the cross, our identity lies not in ourselves and our possessions, but in God through Christ. All we have and all we are is offered in service to God, as we continue to grow in Christ-likeness.
So what does losing our life look like? Referring back to how we must ‘take up our cross’, for each of us the answer may be different, and for many of us we will experience it on a daily basis. We sacrifice our time and talent and follow our vocations to Jesus’ call. We sacrifice our enjoyment of money and possessions to use in any way we please. We are called to be a living sacrifice as an expression of our spiritual worship to God, and let him transform us into his image. By sacrificing the things we value, we show our faith and trust in God, and when we give something that costs us we recognise the value it brings beyond our human desires.
The other way in which we lay down our lives through participating in Christ’s death and work in the cross, is through love. Christ’s self-emptying death reveals the love of God for the world. As follow Christ, we reveal his love as we pour out our lives on behalf of one another and the world. We are living sacrifices who humble ourselves before God and pour out our life in service to one another, through that gift of love.
So as I draw to a close, let us reflect as we travel through Lent on how we can grow in these Christ-like qualities, living his story and sharing the gospel through our actions, our giving and our way of being. Let us be attentive to listening to our calling to what our own cross is, and how we can grow to become a generous church. As we continue to be surrounded by great challenge, let us be people of hope, people of generosity, and people of sacrificial love.
Let us pray.
Gracious God,
help us to see the joy
in all that we give,
that our giving may be an expression of love,
a blessing to you and to those around us,
and reveal your glory in the world.
Amen.
Mark 8.31-38 Romans 12.1-8
(For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sammi Tooze and I am the Diocesan Generous Giving Adviser, and I’m really pleased to be with you all this morning as we explore what it means to be a generous church.)
As Anglicans, our calendars are shaped by our rich liturgical tradition, marked by seasons throughout the year for us to journey through and allow ourselves to be shaped by. In all these seasons, giving and generosity sit at the centre as we learn more about the nature of God, and Lent is no exception. We experience the themes of the gift of love, of hospitality, of sharing food around a table, of serving one another through the washing of feet, and of sacrifice through the act of Jesus giving up his life on the cross.
Today as well we mark Mothering Sunday, both in the church and the secular world. The church’s preference for ‘Mothering Sunday’ implies a far more inclusive approach than the secular term ‘Mother’s Day’, allowing for the possibility that mothering may be – and frequently is - more than simply a biological relationship. Mothering, in a loving, caring, nurturing sense is something all we Christians should be doing, as we encourage new disciples. In both cases though, we mark Mothering Sunday in the giving of gifts – shops are packed with flowers and gifts in preparation for us to pass things over the fence, and many churches often distribute posies or daffodils to women in the congregation. These acts of generosity are an expression of love, gifts which we joyfully and freely give as an outpouring of love.
Thinking back to Lent, many people decide to give things up for the liturgical season, but the spiritual aspects of Lent go much deeper than not eating chocolate for a few weeks. Lent is a time of internal examination, shining a light into all the dark places in our lives and growing to become more Christ-like in the way we live our lives. And so as we explore our Gospel reading this morning, perhaps this is a good opportunity to reflect on how we each might use this season of Lent to grow in Christ-like generosity.
The Gospel reading this morning has so much depth and opportunity for us to unpack, and I’d like to focus our thinking on three aspects.
Set mind on divine things.
The first spotlight for our thinking is on Jesus’ rebuke of Peter, who says,
“you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things”.
I wonder how many of us are guilty of that! Peter is such a relatable biblical character because he so often gets things wrong, steps out of turn or misinterprets what Jesus is saying to him. Here we see him as a friend, rebuking Jesus for proclaiming his upcoming suffering and death – no wonder, wouldn’t we each do the same? But of course, Peter misses the point – by speaking ‘human’ thoughts he misses the divine perspective. By giving up his life for us on the cross, that giving is transformed and God’s saving purpose is to be fulfilled.
In a similar light, if we view our own resources through this more human lens, it is easy to be distracted by consumerism, a wish to keep what we believe is ours, wanting to hold on in case we need it for something we want. But when we set our own minds on divine things, our giving is transformed – we reshape our thinking to focus on the missional outcomes as we seek to be Christ in the world. Moving our minds from human desires to placing our trust and our love in God.
Take up your cross and follow me. What does that look like? Living lives marked by service, holiness, gratitude, giving our whole selves because we know from where all good things come.
The second aspect to reflect on is Jesus’ command to the crowd,
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
It is not only Jesus who must face the cross, but his followers too – you and I, as we seek to grow as disciples. All believers in Christ are bound to him in his death and resurrection. But we are also given unique gifts that take shape in each of our lives and our communities. And so, the cross of Christ can have a universal aspect but it can still look very different in different lives.
In our reading this morning from the letter to the Romans, St Paul speaks of the cross in relation to discipleship – a subject which is woven throughout his writings. In his letter to the Romans, he writes,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
He also speaks of this is his letter to the Galatians, where he writes,
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
This gives us a sense of how following the call of Christ will require various forms of self-denial and sacrifice, depending on the person and the calling. The cross of Christ did not look the same for Peter as it did for Paul or other disciples. For some people, the call of the cross will look like giving up our time to dedicate to a particular ministry in church, but for others, it will look like pouring out their lives in hospitality or in giving financially for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints. It’s not important that we tell people when or how we are being called into the way of self-sacrifice – God already knows the purposes of our hearts, and the important thing is the pouring out our lives in love for those around us.
So when we take up our cross, it carries the cost of discipleship. Carrying the cross and self-denial means directing ourselves to Jesus as our model for living, and growing through his nature of self-giving. Our faithful service is always likely to involve sacrifice, which may be unpredictable inconvenient and intrusive – but when we give something that costs us, we look to the past acknowledging that everything comes from God, we declare our gratitude, and we also point to the future in giving to enable mission. Giving up something we need is also a move of trust, as we offer sacrifices willingly and joyfully, and we trust God will use and transform.
Those who lose their life for my sake and the gospel will save it.
The third and final aspect for us to focus on this morning is the second half of Jesus’ message, where he continues,
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it”.
This statement throws us deeper into the realm of sacrifice and the cost of discipleship – here differentiating our physical lives and desires with our spiritual lives in Christ. To cling onto our physical lives – focusing on our own thoughts and desires – we may forfeit our spiritual lives, while losing our physical lives for the sake of the gospel we’ll find that our spiritual lives are saved and made whole.
There are many stories of people who inspire us with their courage and example in sacrificing so much for the Kingdom of God, and it gives us cause to ponder what God might expect of us in our own lives. When confronted with drastic sacrifice, we want to find some way around it – we value our independence, and we like to hang on to what we think of as ours. But as baptised Christians, because of the cross, our identity lies not in ourselves and our possessions, but in God through Christ. All we have and all we are is offered in service to God, as we continue to grow in Christ-likeness.
So what does losing our life look like? Referring back to how we must ‘take up our cross’, for each of us the answer may be different, and for many of us we will experience it on a daily basis. We sacrifice our time and talent and follow our vocations to Jesus’ call. We sacrifice our enjoyment of money and possessions to use in any way we please. We are called to be a living sacrifice as an expression of our spiritual worship to God, and let him transform us into his image. By sacrificing the things we value, we show our faith and trust in God, and when we give something that costs us we recognise the value it brings beyond our human desires.
The other way in which we lay down our lives through participating in Christ’s death and work in the cross, is through love. Christ’s self-emptying death reveals the love of God for the world. As follow Christ, we reveal his love as we pour out our lives on behalf of one another and the world. We are living sacrifices who humble ourselves before God and pour out our life in service to one another, through that gift of love.
So as I draw to a close, let us reflect as we travel through Lent on how we can grow in these Christ-like qualities, living his story and sharing the gospel through our actions, our giving and our way of being. Let us be attentive to listening to our calling to what our own cross is, and how we can grow to become a generous church. As we continue to be surrounded by great challenge, let us be people of hope, people of generosity, and people of sacrificial love.
Let us pray.
Gracious God,
help us to see the joy
in all that we give,
that our giving may be an expression of love,
a blessing to you and to those around us,
and reveal your glory in the world.
Amen.
third sunday in advent
Sunday, 13th December, 2020
Reputations come and go; they rise and fall. People who were important figures in their field are often forgotten after they have died, sometimes before that.
More than forty years ago I was ordained in York Minster by Archbishop Stuart Blanch. Almost twenty years later I went to his memorial service in the Minster and they were able to hold it in the choir stalls which seemed a little sad.
Reputations come and go. In the New Testament John the Baptist is a prime example of this but he was well aware of it. He denied that he was the special one; he was just the forerunner. But he is worth paying attention to, nonetheless. He is the final prophet, the last of very many. He was the voice crying in the wilderness and when Jesus appeared it was time for him to leave the stage. That is what John did. It is good to give the good news and we often like to be the first to do so. Once John had done this, his task was achieved. The story has moved on and John becomes one of yesterday’s men. He knew what and who he was; “I am just a voice crying in the wilderness,” he did not worry about what the world thought of him.
One of the themes of Advent is waiting with expectation, waiting for this reunion of God and his people. God is coming to us; the message of Christmas is that God makes his home with us. In the womb of Mary, in the stable of Bethlehem and in the hubbub of life in Galilee and Jerusalem.
All this requires a response, and this is the message of John the Baptist. The people had waited for a long time for the Messiah and John was here as his messenger, his forerunner. John’s message was not one of comfort, he challenged them. If they wanted the Messiah to change their situation then they would have to change their own ways to be ready to meet him. They needed to practise what they said they believed. The God of love is also the God whose holiness judges wrongdoing and impurity wherever he finds it, even in his own people. They could not rely on the fact that they were the chosen people; they needed to make their own authentic response of faith and obedience to the living God.
John’s call was urgent: as the Messenger sent before the Messiah’s face, he proclaimed that Christ was coming soon, and they needed to prepare for this by repenting and submitting to baptism. But baptism, John warned, was not to be just a ritual gesture; the fruits of this act of repentance had to be shown in future living.
In today’s Gospel, John was in prison living in the fear of imminent death, a fear that was soon to be justified. He sends messengers in despair to Jesus to ask if he was the one to come or should they look for someone else? These are the last words we hear from John in the NT. We think of Thomas as having the monopoly of doubt and it seems strange that John should have his doubts when his mission has been to prepare the way for Jesus who was his cousin after all.
John was living in fear and this caused anxiety for the future, not just his future but the future of all. Jesus’ answer is to point to himself just as John had pointed to him by the lakeside in Galilee. His message to John is that the poor are hearing the Good News. Jesus’ message is for the real world, and we should remember that Jesus came into the real world. Our stories of donkeys and shepherds and woolly lambs can lead us into a comfort zone that has little relation to real life. Advent is a call to prepare for Jesus, but it is also a call to wake up at the darkest time, a warning against complacency.
As ministers and stewards of God’s message of hope, we look forward to playing our part even in times like these and also when our church building has been equipped for a wider ministry in our parish and beyond.
Reputations come and go; they rise and fall. People who were important figures in their field are often forgotten after they have died, sometimes before that.
More than forty years ago I was ordained in York Minster by Archbishop Stuart Blanch. Almost twenty years later I went to his memorial service in the Minster and they were able to hold it in the choir stalls which seemed a little sad.
Reputations come and go. In the New Testament John the Baptist is a prime example of this but he was well aware of it. He denied that he was the special one; he was just the forerunner. But he is worth paying attention to, nonetheless. He is the final prophet, the last of very many. He was the voice crying in the wilderness and when Jesus appeared it was time for him to leave the stage. That is what John did. It is good to give the good news and we often like to be the first to do so. Once John had done this, his task was achieved. The story has moved on and John becomes one of yesterday’s men. He knew what and who he was; “I am just a voice crying in the wilderness,” he did not worry about what the world thought of him.
One of the themes of Advent is waiting with expectation, waiting for this reunion of God and his people. God is coming to us; the message of Christmas is that God makes his home with us. In the womb of Mary, in the stable of Bethlehem and in the hubbub of life in Galilee and Jerusalem.
All this requires a response, and this is the message of John the Baptist. The people had waited for a long time for the Messiah and John was here as his messenger, his forerunner. John’s message was not one of comfort, he challenged them. If they wanted the Messiah to change their situation then they would have to change their own ways to be ready to meet him. They needed to practise what they said they believed. The God of love is also the God whose holiness judges wrongdoing and impurity wherever he finds it, even in his own people. They could not rely on the fact that they were the chosen people; they needed to make their own authentic response of faith and obedience to the living God.
John’s call was urgent: as the Messenger sent before the Messiah’s face, he proclaimed that Christ was coming soon, and they needed to prepare for this by repenting and submitting to baptism. But baptism, John warned, was not to be just a ritual gesture; the fruits of this act of repentance had to be shown in future living.
In today’s Gospel, John was in prison living in the fear of imminent death, a fear that was soon to be justified. He sends messengers in despair to Jesus to ask if he was the one to come or should they look for someone else? These are the last words we hear from John in the NT. We think of Thomas as having the monopoly of doubt and it seems strange that John should have his doubts when his mission has been to prepare the way for Jesus who was his cousin after all.
John was living in fear and this caused anxiety for the future, not just his future but the future of all. Jesus’ answer is to point to himself just as John had pointed to him by the lakeside in Galilee. His message to John is that the poor are hearing the Good News. Jesus’ message is for the real world, and we should remember that Jesus came into the real world. Our stories of donkeys and shepherds and woolly lambs can lead us into a comfort zone that has little relation to real life. Advent is a call to prepare for Jesus, but it is also a call to wake up at the darkest time, a warning against complacency.
As ministers and stewards of God’s message of hope, we look forward to playing our part even in times like these and also when our church building has been equipped for a wider ministry in our parish and beyond.
second sunday in advent
Sunday, 6th December, 2020
Romans 15: 4-13 Luke 21: 25-33
“Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away”. (Luke 21: 33)
As we resume our worship in church, we find ourselves in the second week of Advent with its theme of light coming into a dark world. On some days at this time of the year it does not seem to get light at all.
In Advent we await the birth of the Christ child, a birth that happened over 2000 years ago, but we also celebrate what is beginning to happen right now. This past event has great significance in the present. In Advent we once again await the coming of the Christ Child into our church community and into our lives. We await this Christmas, when we rejoice that he came among us as a baby, a child, a man, a human being like us in order to show God’s love for us in the flesh.
Normally, we would enjoy the songs and carols, special meals and treats, candle lit worship, and the coming together of family and friends. When I was first ordained, the older clergy used to complain about people celebrating Christmas in Advent; they would not allow Christmas carols until Christmas Eve at the earliest. For many people, the sense of Advent as Anticipation is embodied in the Advent Calendar which used to reveal a picture each day but more often now gives you a chocolate.
In Advent we prepare to celebrate a past event. Our preparation enriches our lives and makes this a special time. In Advent we also look forward to the future, a special future.
We await a time that is described as a time of judgement: a time when accounts are settled, not always comfortably but always rightly; a time when two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. It is a time foretold by the prophets when swords will be beaten into ploughshares and the spears into pruning hooks, and peace, lasting peace will come at last.
Isaiah says, "Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord" Jesus urges us to stay awake and be alert, watching for the signs. Paul says, “Put on the armour of light," which finds its echo in the Advent collect.
That is the third tense of Advent. The present tense, the active tense. Advent is not just about preparing for Christ's coming as a child in the past or for Christ's coming as the righteous king in the future. It is about preparing for Christ's coming in our lives right now in all that we say and do and in all that we see and hear.
Advent as a season of the church’s year helps us to be prepared, it reminds us to keep our ears, eyes and hearts open for the saving presence and power of God. Are we ready? Are we prepared? It is more than just being ready for Christmas.
In Jesus’ first coming in humility he embraces our poverty so that we might share in his riches; that through his life, death and resurrection he might bring us to the place where he is. In his second coming we are promised the final revelation of his glory, as the victory he won over sin on the cross finally brings to light the things now hidden in darkness, as all things are subjected to his judgement.Both these comings assure us of God’s love, of his desire to draw us into the relationship with him for which he made us but which sin – the works of darkness – has damaged. Paul tells us today that this is Good News for all for the Root of Jesse shall rise and in him shall the Gentiles trust.
Jesus’ prophecy in today’s Gospel is of a time of destruction which may refer to the fall of Jerusalem only forty years later. It is natural to look forward in fear especially when we face a disease that is disrupting all that we hold dear. Jesus assures us that there is a greater power and a greater glory. Through all the world’s calamities He is the answer.
So, he says “Look up and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh.” We need to look beyond the troubles of this world so that we can keep our focus on Him. “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away”.
In the light of that we can look forward in hope. Advent is God coming to us in Jesus Christ; it is all about light shining into the darkness and swords being turned into ploughshares; it is about judgement and salvation coming upon the earth. This is for yesterday, for tomorrow and most of all it is for today.
Romans 15: 4-13 Luke 21: 25-33
“Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away”. (Luke 21: 33)
As we resume our worship in church, we find ourselves in the second week of Advent with its theme of light coming into a dark world. On some days at this time of the year it does not seem to get light at all.
In Advent we await the birth of the Christ child, a birth that happened over 2000 years ago, but we also celebrate what is beginning to happen right now. This past event has great significance in the present. In Advent we once again await the coming of the Christ Child into our church community and into our lives. We await this Christmas, when we rejoice that he came among us as a baby, a child, a man, a human being like us in order to show God’s love for us in the flesh.
Normally, we would enjoy the songs and carols, special meals and treats, candle lit worship, and the coming together of family and friends. When I was first ordained, the older clergy used to complain about people celebrating Christmas in Advent; they would not allow Christmas carols until Christmas Eve at the earliest. For many people, the sense of Advent as Anticipation is embodied in the Advent Calendar which used to reveal a picture each day but more often now gives you a chocolate.
In Advent we prepare to celebrate a past event. Our preparation enriches our lives and makes this a special time. In Advent we also look forward to the future, a special future.
We await a time that is described as a time of judgement: a time when accounts are settled, not always comfortably but always rightly; a time when two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. It is a time foretold by the prophets when swords will be beaten into ploughshares and the spears into pruning hooks, and peace, lasting peace will come at last.
Isaiah says, "Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord" Jesus urges us to stay awake and be alert, watching for the signs. Paul says, “Put on the armour of light," which finds its echo in the Advent collect.
That is the third tense of Advent. The present tense, the active tense. Advent is not just about preparing for Christ's coming as a child in the past or for Christ's coming as the righteous king in the future. It is about preparing for Christ's coming in our lives right now in all that we say and do and in all that we see and hear.
Advent as a season of the church’s year helps us to be prepared, it reminds us to keep our ears, eyes and hearts open for the saving presence and power of God. Are we ready? Are we prepared? It is more than just being ready for Christmas.
In Jesus’ first coming in humility he embraces our poverty so that we might share in his riches; that through his life, death and resurrection he might bring us to the place where he is. In his second coming we are promised the final revelation of his glory, as the victory he won over sin on the cross finally brings to light the things now hidden in darkness, as all things are subjected to his judgement.Both these comings assure us of God’s love, of his desire to draw us into the relationship with him for which he made us but which sin – the works of darkness – has damaged. Paul tells us today that this is Good News for all for the Root of Jesse shall rise and in him shall the Gentiles trust.
Jesus’ prophecy in today’s Gospel is of a time of destruction which may refer to the fall of Jerusalem only forty years later. It is natural to look forward in fear especially when we face a disease that is disrupting all that we hold dear. Jesus assures us that there is a greater power and a greater glory. Through all the world’s calamities He is the answer.
So, he says “Look up and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh.” We need to look beyond the troubles of this world so that we can keep our focus on Him. “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away”.
In the light of that we can look forward in hope. Advent is God coming to us in Jesus Christ; it is all about light shining into the darkness and swords being turned into ploughshares; it is about judgement and salvation coming upon the earth. This is for yesterday, for tomorrow and most of all it is for today.
service of remembrance
Sunday 8th November, 2020
With public worship not allowed under the present lockdown regulations, our service for Remembrance Sunday is available live starting at 10.55 by using 'WHYPAY'. This is a free conference call facility that you can access from your own phone. Please contact Rev. Ian Walker for access details: [email protected]
With public worship not allowed under the present lockdown regulations, our service for Remembrance Sunday is available live starting at 10.55 by using 'WHYPAY'. This is a free conference call facility that you can access from your own phone. Please contact Rev. Ian Walker for access details: [email protected]
readings for the fifteenth sunday after trinity
Collect
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Galatians 6.11-18
YE see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
Gospel: St. Matthew 6:24-end
NO man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, King of Kings,
You say that the righteous will live by faith.
Mould me in Your image and fill my heart with faith in You.
Guide my actions so that I can live by faith and have a life in You, abundantly and eternally. Cleanse my thoughts of impurities, dear God.
Keep my eyes fixed on You and You alone.
Help me be steadfast in my trust in You and Your Scriptures so that I can live right in Your holy sight.
Amen.
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Galatians 6.11-18
YE see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
Gospel: St. Matthew 6:24-end
NO man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, King of Kings,
You say that the righteous will live by faith.
Mould me in Your image and fill my heart with faith in You.
Guide my actions so that I can live by faith and have a life in You, abundantly and eternally. Cleanse my thoughts of impurities, dear God.
Keep my eyes fixed on You and You alone.
Help me be steadfast in my trust in You and Your Scriptures so that I can live right in Your holy sight.
Amen.
readings and reflection for the fourteenth sunday after trinity
Sunday, 13th September, 2020
Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Galatians 5.16-24
I SAY then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.
Gospel: St. Luke 17.11-19
AND it came to pass, as Jesus went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go, shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
Reflection
1 Corinthians 13:11-13
‘1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’
I make no apology for quoting in full Paul’s passage about love (as we translate the word ‘charity’ these days). This sublimely beautiful passage in the New Testament talks about our precious human capacity to love: to love each other and to love God. Jesus suffered on the cross because of his overwhelming love for us, his life graciously given to redeem us from all our wrongdoings, our stupidities. It is a passage often used at weddings to celebrate the love of the marrying couple as they embark on their life together and in the hope that they will continue to hold on to that love through thick and thin, through joy and sorrow.
The Collect begins by echoing the final words in 1 Corinthians 13:13.
The Collect: ‘Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity.’
1 Corinthians 13:13: ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’
Belief in Christ is not enough. Faith can carry us along for some way but without the love that underpins and intentionally overwhelms us, we might as well not bother. Love is the strength of faith, it is the creator of hope. This is not the love of dependence, putting up with cruelty, taking the blows from a vicious partner in order to shield children, to accept bullying behaviour, discrimination, racism, psychological and sexual abuse oppression. It is not what drives victims to tolerate those they are enslaved by. Not at all.
Jesus Christ continues to live in us and we in him. Whenever we do something that disgraces ourselves, that hurts others, the Jesus in us suffers. The God in us suffers. We, who are made in the image of God, every human being on the planet, when we disgrace ourselves, we taint the human creation of God.
The Samaritan leper who, realising that he had been cured by Jesus, turned back not just because he was grateful but because he had felt the divine and loving intimacy of the cure. The God of Love had cured him, and he turned back and:
‘with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.’
He ‘fell down on his face at his [God’s] feet’. We know that ‘his feet’ refers to Jesus. The NRSV actually says: ‘at Jesus’ feet’. But it also notes in the footnotes [note i] that the original translation in Greek was ‘his’.
The word ‘leper’ in the Bible is often used metaphorically to refer to people who characterise impurity. Although we can’t be certain, it is possible that this notion of impurity might suggest an alternative inference behind: ‘they were cleansed’. Leprosy was associated with filth in the ancient world and the pre-modern era (even to some extent to the modern day). Thus lepers were accused of being ‘unclean’ and were forced to avoid non-sufferers of the disease. It is also possible in the context of the Gospel reading that the ‘filth’ could be associated with a kind of moral or unspiritual pollution.
This possibility is addressed by Paul in the Epistle passage from Galations:
‘I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.’
To walk in the ‘Spirit’ means to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we receive the self-discipline and commitment to eschew the ill-discipline and murk of ‘unclean’ self-indulgence and immoral conduct. In a sense this goes with the territory of being a Christian. Filled with loving faith for our Saviour as followers and disciples, how would be possible to sully this relationship with ‘works of the flesh’?
But we are human and weak. We give in to ‘temptation’ as the Lord’s Prayer puts it. It’s a bit like giving in to chocolate cake after a few weeks on a strict diet, or having that one last glass of wine when we know we shouldn’t. But in matters of the spirit, our own lapses can be more serious as Paul describes in his list of misdemeanours. These actions compromise all that is expected of us as followers of Christ.
‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.’
And if I may return to the Lord’s Prayer for a moment, we need to ask ourselves why it is that we ask God to ‘forgive our trespasses’ but we are also expected to ‘forgive those who trespass against us’?
Forgiveness is probably one of the trickiest commandments that we, as Christians, have to face up to whether victim of perpetrator. There are some things that people do that are so dreadful that the state or international justice has to intervene. History tells us that humanity can try as much as it might to destroy itself and the sacred image of God. My personal feeling about forgiveness is that in certain circumstances I can quite understand why some individuals still feel too damaged, or too much in pain both physically and emotionally to be able to deal with it. Forgiveness needs time, as much time as any individual needs.
Without going into detail, there is a useful book available called Don’t Forgive Too Soon by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn. The title basically explains what it is about. The authors suggest that in order for a true and lasting sense of forgiveness to take effect, there are various stages in dealing with it that the victim, and sometimes the perpetrator, needs to follow through with. For the victim, in particular, forgiveness needs to feel right. Hurt, pain and the degradation that accompanies ‘trespass’ need to be addressed so that when forgiveness is achieved, there is a cleansing and a release from a memory troubled. When it is impossible to forgive, there might be way to escape any additional guilt of not being able to forgive. Sometimes it is nigh impossible to reach that far. Some ‘trespasses’ are occasionally too awful to deal with. We are only human after all.
One way is to offer the difficulty to God. In other words, allow yourself to let go by letting God take it on. Just let God.
All forgiveness, all faith, all discipleship and mission have to be grounded in Christ. Without that, we really don’t have a faith. Christ underpins and supports our faith and gives us support when our weaknesses take us over. Jesus does this through Love. The Love of Jesus is what makes our faith glorious. As our faith and love of God continues to grow and mature, ‘Walk[ing] in the Spirit’, with luck, becomes second nature to us. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13:
‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’
Amen
Prayer
The God of love my shepherd is,
And he that doth me feed:
While he is mine, and I am his,
What can I want or need?
He leads me to the tender grasse,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently passe:
In both I have the best.
Or if I stray, he doth convert
And bring my minde in frame:
And all this not for my desert,
But for his holy name.
Yea, in death's shadie black abode
Well may I walk, not fear:
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.
Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine,
Ev’n in my enemies sight:
My head with oyl, my cup with wine
Runnes over day and night.
Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my dayes;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.
Amen.
[Twenty Third Psalm, George Herbert]
Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Galatians 5.16-24
I SAY then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.
Gospel: St. Luke 17.11-19
AND it came to pass, as Jesus went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go, shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
Reflection
1 Corinthians 13:11-13
‘1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’
I make no apology for quoting in full Paul’s passage about love (as we translate the word ‘charity’ these days). This sublimely beautiful passage in the New Testament talks about our precious human capacity to love: to love each other and to love God. Jesus suffered on the cross because of his overwhelming love for us, his life graciously given to redeem us from all our wrongdoings, our stupidities. It is a passage often used at weddings to celebrate the love of the marrying couple as they embark on their life together and in the hope that they will continue to hold on to that love through thick and thin, through joy and sorrow.
The Collect begins by echoing the final words in 1 Corinthians 13:13.
The Collect: ‘Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity.’
1 Corinthians 13:13: ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’
Belief in Christ is not enough. Faith can carry us along for some way but without the love that underpins and intentionally overwhelms us, we might as well not bother. Love is the strength of faith, it is the creator of hope. This is not the love of dependence, putting up with cruelty, taking the blows from a vicious partner in order to shield children, to accept bullying behaviour, discrimination, racism, psychological and sexual abuse oppression. It is not what drives victims to tolerate those they are enslaved by. Not at all.
Jesus Christ continues to live in us and we in him. Whenever we do something that disgraces ourselves, that hurts others, the Jesus in us suffers. The God in us suffers. We, who are made in the image of God, every human being on the planet, when we disgrace ourselves, we taint the human creation of God.
The Samaritan leper who, realising that he had been cured by Jesus, turned back not just because he was grateful but because he had felt the divine and loving intimacy of the cure. The God of Love had cured him, and he turned back and:
‘with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.’
He ‘fell down on his face at his [God’s] feet’. We know that ‘his feet’ refers to Jesus. The NRSV actually says: ‘at Jesus’ feet’. But it also notes in the footnotes [note i] that the original translation in Greek was ‘his’.
The word ‘leper’ in the Bible is often used metaphorically to refer to people who characterise impurity. Although we can’t be certain, it is possible that this notion of impurity might suggest an alternative inference behind: ‘they were cleansed’. Leprosy was associated with filth in the ancient world and the pre-modern era (even to some extent to the modern day). Thus lepers were accused of being ‘unclean’ and were forced to avoid non-sufferers of the disease. It is also possible in the context of the Gospel reading that the ‘filth’ could be associated with a kind of moral or unspiritual pollution.
This possibility is addressed by Paul in the Epistle passage from Galations:
‘I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.’
To walk in the ‘Spirit’ means to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we receive the self-discipline and commitment to eschew the ill-discipline and murk of ‘unclean’ self-indulgence and immoral conduct. In a sense this goes with the territory of being a Christian. Filled with loving faith for our Saviour as followers and disciples, how would be possible to sully this relationship with ‘works of the flesh’?
But we are human and weak. We give in to ‘temptation’ as the Lord’s Prayer puts it. It’s a bit like giving in to chocolate cake after a few weeks on a strict diet, or having that one last glass of wine when we know we shouldn’t. But in matters of the spirit, our own lapses can be more serious as Paul describes in his list of misdemeanours. These actions compromise all that is expected of us as followers of Christ.
‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.’
And if I may return to the Lord’s Prayer for a moment, we need to ask ourselves why it is that we ask God to ‘forgive our trespasses’ but we are also expected to ‘forgive those who trespass against us’?
Forgiveness is probably one of the trickiest commandments that we, as Christians, have to face up to whether victim of perpetrator. There are some things that people do that are so dreadful that the state or international justice has to intervene. History tells us that humanity can try as much as it might to destroy itself and the sacred image of God. My personal feeling about forgiveness is that in certain circumstances I can quite understand why some individuals still feel too damaged, or too much in pain both physically and emotionally to be able to deal with it. Forgiveness needs time, as much time as any individual needs.
Without going into detail, there is a useful book available called Don’t Forgive Too Soon by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn. The title basically explains what it is about. The authors suggest that in order for a true and lasting sense of forgiveness to take effect, there are various stages in dealing with it that the victim, and sometimes the perpetrator, needs to follow through with. For the victim, in particular, forgiveness needs to feel right. Hurt, pain and the degradation that accompanies ‘trespass’ need to be addressed so that when forgiveness is achieved, there is a cleansing and a release from a memory troubled. When it is impossible to forgive, there might be way to escape any additional guilt of not being able to forgive. Sometimes it is nigh impossible to reach that far. Some ‘trespasses’ are occasionally too awful to deal with. We are only human after all.
One way is to offer the difficulty to God. In other words, allow yourself to let go by letting God take it on. Just let God.
All forgiveness, all faith, all discipleship and mission have to be grounded in Christ. Without that, we really don’t have a faith. Christ underpins and supports our faith and gives us support when our weaknesses take us over. Jesus does this through Love. The Love of Jesus is what makes our faith glorious. As our faith and love of God continues to grow and mature, ‘Walk[ing] in the Spirit’, with luck, becomes second nature to us. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13:
‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’
Amen
Prayer
The God of love my shepherd is,
And he that doth me feed:
While he is mine, and I am his,
What can I want or need?
He leads me to the tender grasse,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently passe:
In both I have the best.
Or if I stray, he doth convert
And bring my minde in frame:
And all this not for my desert,
But for his holy name.
Yea, in death's shadie black abode
Well may I walk, not fear:
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.
Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine,
Ev’n in my enemies sight:
My head with oyl, my cup with wine
Runnes over day and night.
Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my dayes;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.
Amen.
[Twenty Third Psalm, George Herbert]
readings and reflection for the thirteenth sunday after trinity and reader sunday
Sunday, 6th September, 2020
Collect
ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Galatians 3:16-22
TO Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gospel: St. Luke 10:23-37
BLESSED are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. And behold, a certain Lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain Priest that way, and, when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and, when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Reflection
This Sunday, 6 September 2020, is Reader Sunday. It gives Christians and the Church the opportunity to reflect on the ministry of Reader because a ministry it is. And because the season of Trinity is liturgically Ordinary Time, when it is permissible to go off-piste so to speak and to consider other theological and ecclesiastical matters, the Church calendar allows us today to give time to considering the important part played by Readers, their ministry and their vocation because a vocation it also is.
The roots of the work of Readers hail back as far as the synagogues in Christ’s day, where a Reader or Lector would read the scriptures. There is a somewhat ambiguous reference to this practice (and I might have read too much into it) in Luke 4:16-20, where Jesus, returned from the wilderness to begin his ministry, stands up to read the scripture on the Sabbath in the synagogue in Nazareth.
‘When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.’
In the centuries that followed, the office of Reader was absorbed into the clerical and monastic orders which developed during this period and, for a time, it was obligatory for a monk to serve as Reader as part of his monastic experience. By the time of the Reformation, the office had disappeared. One of the first actions taken by Elizabeth I was to reinstate the office of Reader as part of her attempts to restore stability after years of religious chaos, which had left the organised Church in tatters and largely distrusted by the population at large. Many of the monks under the old regime could barely recite the daily offices, let alone understand what they were saying. Many were poorly educated.
For Elizabeth, it was essential to reorganise the basic structure of the Church down to the grassroots as soon as possible and to encourage local engagement. She did this by recruiting locally respected tradesmen and artisans, known in their communities and who had a good knowledge of their Bible, had a basic education and who were prepared to accept her as Head of the Church in England, although she preferred the title of Governor, by swearing the Oath of Supremacy. She had her mind not just on the spiritual needs of her subjects but in this pre-industrial era where communications nationally were primitive by today’s standards, activating the pulpit as a source of information on Sunday was an opportunity for the sovereign and other notables of state to feed through the latest government news and instruction to most of her subjects. And it worked. The Readers knew their congregations and the congregations knew their Readers. The offices of Morning and Evening Prayer did not need a priest, people returned to church and stability began to be restored at local levels, allowing the government to concentrate more on national matters.
With stability restored, over the next three hundred years the office of Reader declined. The clergy were better educated, all obliged to access a university education, and their growing numbers meant that there was no longer a need for Readers. That is until the 19th century when once again with the growth of the non-conformist movement during this period of industrialisation and rapid population expansion, the Church of England became once more an object of criticism. Cronyism and nepotism were among the accusations levelled at the Church. Once again, it was thought that by reviving the office of Reader, it would improve relations with ordinary people. There were different levels of Reader. At one level, there was a return to using local, reasonably educated men. At a more senior level local squires and other better educated men were recruited. Some Readers received a stipend but the Church fell short of offering them a pension, which was also the case among certain clergy at that time.
From about 1866 onwards, the office of Reader was revived and, although there were fluctuations in numbers during the following decades, essentially the office has remained. During these years a Readers Council was installed for the engagement and oversight of Readers, and during the Second World War, women were recruited for the first time. Soon it was thought necessary that Readers needed to be thoroughly trained in theology and other related matters, just like the clergy, and the appropriate educational institutions, teaching to a nationally recognised level, were created in response to this need.
Today, there are about 10,000 licensed Readers, matched almost by the numbers of clergy. Over the courses of the last century and the beginning of this, the office of Reader has been officially recognised as a ministry. Readers are trained and licensed by each Diocese, according to the needs of each Diocese. In some dioceses, a Reader is called just that; in others, a Licensed Lay Minister. Readers and clergy often train together.
However, there are hiccups. Once, the Reader led the non-sacramental services such as Morning and Evening Prayer common in many churches, and at that time Morning Prayer or Mattins often formed the principal service. The Queen is said to prefer Morning Prayer. These days, the general preference is for the Eucharist which has largely side-lined the Reader apart from the preaching role. This has led to some debate about what Readers are for, and what do they actually do?
In practical terms, Readers who are licensed to benefices, rural benefices in particular, might very well find themselves officiating at their various churches because Morning and Evening Prayer are still treasured by many churchgoers. Morning Prayer is offered possibly once a month by many churches on a Sunday and some continue to offer these services in addition to the Eucharist. But it is also still the case that some clergy do not understand what Readers and LLMs do apart from preach. This is not necessarily the norm. The Readers who were licensed in my cohort did not and do not experience this problem. But it is a problem nevertheless, partly because it is not always understood that Reader Ministry is not the same as other leader lay ministries such as Churchwardens, Youth Leaders, Sunday School and so forth.
Reader Ministry is a vocation. That is Readers respond to the call from God to serve Him just as priests do but in a slightly different capacity. Priests are empowered with the cure of souls, a special ministry given to St Peter by Jesus Himself. But Readers respond to something that is slightly different. Readers have to have their vocation tested by a stringent interviewing process. Once accepted, they have to complete at least three to four years of basic academic training supported by the practical training offered in their parish church as well as a time spent at a placement church which is intended to stretch the trainee Reader by exposing him/her to a church experience different from their own church. Readers are empowered to take services but not the sacraments. That means that they cannot preside over Holy Communion, weddings and baptisms. Readers and any other lay person are permitted to baptise someone in extremis, such as a newborn with little expectation of survival. Readers are trained just as priests are in pastoral matters, to serve as chaplains in prisons, and are de facto members of PCCs. They are included in leadership teams. They are also these days able to deacon for the priest.
As part of a training weekend at Wydale, we were led by the Reverend Peter Moger, then Preceptor at York Minister. At Holy Communion on the Sunday, Peter organised the service to be led by a Reader in training apart from the Eucharistic Prayer, the blessing and the absolution (although these last two can be said by a Reader in the communal versions). The Gospel was read by the Reader. This is deaconing and is usually the office of an ordained Deacon. A couple of years ago, our former Archbishop John Sentamu invited Readers to consider Deacon Ministry, that is the distinctive Deacon Ministry, because the two offices have increasingly overlapped in recent years. Several Readers chose to follow this path. The office of Reader has come a long way since 1866.
But the most important aspect of being a Reader is that he/she has a foot in both the camps of ministry and of the laity. Most Readers have day jobs. Those, like myself who have retired, used to have day jobs. It is also true that many priests these days are self-supporting and also relate to the work place. However, the plain fact is that while Readers are ministers and make a Declaration of Assent as priests do, Readers are not priests and intentionally have a different path to follow. Readers have traditionally been teachers and preachers of the Word. This is still the case, but as has already been indicated, the Reader remit stretches further than it used to. Individual Readers can choose the path they wish to follow – whether to work in a parish, or to follow a more focussed path such as prison chaplaincy as has been mentioned. And Readers are volunteers. Readers, very much like their predecessors of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras, are recruited from their own church communities and tend to remain there; while priests tend to come and go.
Despite the ambiguities of Reader status, now is arguably a good time to be a Reader. The Church of England is having to face many realities including that of finance, which has been sharpened through the coronavirus pandemic. It is having to face problems of congregational attendance which varies over the country. It is also having to judge how best to make use of their clergy, many of whom are having to become managers, highlighted particularly in benefices but not exclusively so. It means that the traditional clergyman/woman cannot be asked to undertake the same demands as they used to do to the same extent. Readers can be used as church leaders and pastors and can be used to support the clergy in many other ways. Readers are permitted to officiate at funerals.
In a recent report about Readers, the findings suggest that all licensed ministers should be more of a presence not only in parishes but also in deaneries. One suggestion is that Readers might be licensed to a deanery rather than a specific parish and therefore made use of in a more extended way. This is still very much at the ideas stage, but whatever the Church comes up with, the Ministry of Reader is here to stay.
Prayer (from the service of Admission and Licensing of Readers, 7 September 2019)
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Collect
ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Galatians 3:16-22
TO Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gospel: St. Luke 10:23-37
BLESSED are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. And behold, a certain Lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain Priest that way, and, when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and, when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Reflection
This Sunday, 6 September 2020, is Reader Sunday. It gives Christians and the Church the opportunity to reflect on the ministry of Reader because a ministry it is. And because the season of Trinity is liturgically Ordinary Time, when it is permissible to go off-piste so to speak and to consider other theological and ecclesiastical matters, the Church calendar allows us today to give time to considering the important part played by Readers, their ministry and their vocation because a vocation it also is.
The roots of the work of Readers hail back as far as the synagogues in Christ’s day, where a Reader or Lector would read the scriptures. There is a somewhat ambiguous reference to this practice (and I might have read too much into it) in Luke 4:16-20, where Jesus, returned from the wilderness to begin his ministry, stands up to read the scripture on the Sabbath in the synagogue in Nazareth.
‘When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.’
In the centuries that followed, the office of Reader was absorbed into the clerical and monastic orders which developed during this period and, for a time, it was obligatory for a monk to serve as Reader as part of his monastic experience. By the time of the Reformation, the office had disappeared. One of the first actions taken by Elizabeth I was to reinstate the office of Reader as part of her attempts to restore stability after years of religious chaos, which had left the organised Church in tatters and largely distrusted by the population at large. Many of the monks under the old regime could barely recite the daily offices, let alone understand what they were saying. Many were poorly educated.
For Elizabeth, it was essential to reorganise the basic structure of the Church down to the grassroots as soon as possible and to encourage local engagement. She did this by recruiting locally respected tradesmen and artisans, known in their communities and who had a good knowledge of their Bible, had a basic education and who were prepared to accept her as Head of the Church in England, although she preferred the title of Governor, by swearing the Oath of Supremacy. She had her mind not just on the spiritual needs of her subjects but in this pre-industrial era where communications nationally were primitive by today’s standards, activating the pulpit as a source of information on Sunday was an opportunity for the sovereign and other notables of state to feed through the latest government news and instruction to most of her subjects. And it worked. The Readers knew their congregations and the congregations knew their Readers. The offices of Morning and Evening Prayer did not need a priest, people returned to church and stability began to be restored at local levels, allowing the government to concentrate more on national matters.
With stability restored, over the next three hundred years the office of Reader declined. The clergy were better educated, all obliged to access a university education, and their growing numbers meant that there was no longer a need for Readers. That is until the 19th century when once again with the growth of the non-conformist movement during this period of industrialisation and rapid population expansion, the Church of England became once more an object of criticism. Cronyism and nepotism were among the accusations levelled at the Church. Once again, it was thought that by reviving the office of Reader, it would improve relations with ordinary people. There were different levels of Reader. At one level, there was a return to using local, reasonably educated men. At a more senior level local squires and other better educated men were recruited. Some Readers received a stipend but the Church fell short of offering them a pension, which was also the case among certain clergy at that time.
From about 1866 onwards, the office of Reader was revived and, although there were fluctuations in numbers during the following decades, essentially the office has remained. During these years a Readers Council was installed for the engagement and oversight of Readers, and during the Second World War, women were recruited for the first time. Soon it was thought necessary that Readers needed to be thoroughly trained in theology and other related matters, just like the clergy, and the appropriate educational institutions, teaching to a nationally recognised level, were created in response to this need.
Today, there are about 10,000 licensed Readers, matched almost by the numbers of clergy. Over the courses of the last century and the beginning of this, the office of Reader has been officially recognised as a ministry. Readers are trained and licensed by each Diocese, according to the needs of each Diocese. In some dioceses, a Reader is called just that; in others, a Licensed Lay Minister. Readers and clergy often train together.
However, there are hiccups. Once, the Reader led the non-sacramental services such as Morning and Evening Prayer common in many churches, and at that time Morning Prayer or Mattins often formed the principal service. The Queen is said to prefer Morning Prayer. These days, the general preference is for the Eucharist which has largely side-lined the Reader apart from the preaching role. This has led to some debate about what Readers are for, and what do they actually do?
In practical terms, Readers who are licensed to benefices, rural benefices in particular, might very well find themselves officiating at their various churches because Morning and Evening Prayer are still treasured by many churchgoers. Morning Prayer is offered possibly once a month by many churches on a Sunday and some continue to offer these services in addition to the Eucharist. But it is also still the case that some clergy do not understand what Readers and LLMs do apart from preach. This is not necessarily the norm. The Readers who were licensed in my cohort did not and do not experience this problem. But it is a problem nevertheless, partly because it is not always understood that Reader Ministry is not the same as other leader lay ministries such as Churchwardens, Youth Leaders, Sunday School and so forth.
Reader Ministry is a vocation. That is Readers respond to the call from God to serve Him just as priests do but in a slightly different capacity. Priests are empowered with the cure of souls, a special ministry given to St Peter by Jesus Himself. But Readers respond to something that is slightly different. Readers have to have their vocation tested by a stringent interviewing process. Once accepted, they have to complete at least three to four years of basic academic training supported by the practical training offered in their parish church as well as a time spent at a placement church which is intended to stretch the trainee Reader by exposing him/her to a church experience different from their own church. Readers are empowered to take services but not the sacraments. That means that they cannot preside over Holy Communion, weddings and baptisms. Readers and any other lay person are permitted to baptise someone in extremis, such as a newborn with little expectation of survival. Readers are trained just as priests are in pastoral matters, to serve as chaplains in prisons, and are de facto members of PCCs. They are included in leadership teams. They are also these days able to deacon for the priest.
As part of a training weekend at Wydale, we were led by the Reverend Peter Moger, then Preceptor at York Minister. At Holy Communion on the Sunday, Peter organised the service to be led by a Reader in training apart from the Eucharistic Prayer, the blessing and the absolution (although these last two can be said by a Reader in the communal versions). The Gospel was read by the Reader. This is deaconing and is usually the office of an ordained Deacon. A couple of years ago, our former Archbishop John Sentamu invited Readers to consider Deacon Ministry, that is the distinctive Deacon Ministry, because the two offices have increasingly overlapped in recent years. Several Readers chose to follow this path. The office of Reader has come a long way since 1866.
But the most important aspect of being a Reader is that he/she has a foot in both the camps of ministry and of the laity. Most Readers have day jobs. Those, like myself who have retired, used to have day jobs. It is also true that many priests these days are self-supporting and also relate to the work place. However, the plain fact is that while Readers are ministers and make a Declaration of Assent as priests do, Readers are not priests and intentionally have a different path to follow. Readers have traditionally been teachers and preachers of the Word. This is still the case, but as has already been indicated, the Reader remit stretches further than it used to. Individual Readers can choose the path they wish to follow – whether to work in a parish, or to follow a more focussed path such as prison chaplaincy as has been mentioned. And Readers are volunteers. Readers, very much like their predecessors of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras, are recruited from their own church communities and tend to remain there; while priests tend to come and go.
Despite the ambiguities of Reader status, now is arguably a good time to be a Reader. The Church of England is having to face many realities including that of finance, which has been sharpened through the coronavirus pandemic. It is having to face problems of congregational attendance which varies over the country. It is also having to judge how best to make use of their clergy, many of whom are having to become managers, highlighted particularly in benefices but not exclusively so. It means that the traditional clergyman/woman cannot be asked to undertake the same demands as they used to do to the same extent. Readers can be used as church leaders and pastors and can be used to support the clergy in many other ways. Readers are permitted to officiate at funerals.
In a recent report about Readers, the findings suggest that all licensed ministers should be more of a presence not only in parishes but also in deaneries. One suggestion is that Readers might be licensed to a deanery rather than a specific parish and therefore made use of in a more extended way. This is still very much at the ideas stage, but whatever the Church comes up with, the Ministry of Reader is here to stay.
Prayer (from the service of Admission and Licensing of Readers, 7 September 2019)
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
READINGS AND REFLECTION FOR THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3.4-9
SUCH trust have we through Christ to Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God: who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
Gospel: St. Mark 7.31-end
JESUS, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Reflection
Much of today’s Collect and Epistle readings echo those for last Sunday: that no matter how good we are in our behaviour and with our tasks, it is to God alone that we offer thanks for them because He, through his grace, gifted them to us in the first place. The Collect makes a further point: that God in His mercy is ever more prepared to give to us than we are to receive. God:
‘Pour[s] down upon us the abundance of [His] mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord.’
Paul in his Epistle goes one step further. Yes, he acknowledges that all we are capable of comes from God:
‘[N]ot that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.’
We have also become ‘able ministers of the new testament’ the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul’s assertion to the Corinthians also applies to us these centuries later. Yet it is not the literalness of the new testament that is important to Paul but its spirit.
‘[N]ot of the letter, but of the spirit’ because ‘the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life’.
This is an interesting observation from Paul. It is not that he is seeking to degrade in any way the power of the Word which is the New Testament. It is because he knows that those of us who read and listen to the Word, who absorb the power of the new covenant given by God in Christ, we are also gifted with the power of the Holy Spirit. With the ministry of Jesus, the Holy Spirit became manifest in our lives in a way that perhaps was not so obvious before. Those of us living two millennia later can receive great comfort from the gift of the Holy Spirit. We live at a time when the Bible is open to the intense scrutiny of academics and theologians. We do not know precisely when the Gospels were written; scholars say by the end of the first century AD. Scholars also question who else could have had some input into both the Old and New Testaments over time. And we have a number of different translations on offer from the original Greek of the New Testament into English. (Hebrew being the language of the Old Testament). Jesus spoke in Aramaic, which still exists in the Middle East as one of the Semitic languages of the region: Aramaic into Greek, and then historically into Latin by the church in the west, and then into English from the Reformation onwards in a variety of approaches in translation. It does make for a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to hearing the Gospel readings in Church.
It is the task of the preacher to tease out a theme of meaning or context from a Bible passage, particularly when the text is a bit obscure or even confrontational. Sometimes preachers cannot be absolutely certain that they have got it right, but the important thing to focus on is whether the spirit of the piece communicates itself in asserting the Word of Christ, our Saviour who died to redeem us out of the enormous love He has for us.
The final section of Paul’s Epistle compares the power of the Holy Spirit of God with the giving of the first covenant, the Ten Commandments, enshrining Jewish law and written by God on two stone tablets. Paul uses the word ‘death’ to describe the old covenant. By that he means that with the coming of the new covenant, the old one has died. When Moses descended Mount Sinai, his face shone so brightly with the glory of God that the Israelites could not look on him at first. It is at this point scholars suggest that Moses covered his face because he knew that the time of the old covenant would be limited and replaced eventually by a new one.
‘But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?’
Paul finishes by emphasising how the ministry of righteousness, which underpins the Word of God and which communicates through the Spirit, is far more powerful than what he describes as the ministry of condemnation, which he feels represents the Law of Moses, a law associated with right practice and the condemning of those who fail. For a long time the old law provided the light of God’s guidance for people to follow. Paul is saying that the love of God given through grace by the death of his Son on the Cross provides immediate redemption to all who turn to Him, the path of righteousness. The love of Christ is all we need.
‘For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.’
Then we come to the Gospel reading. One commentary suggests that Mark describes Christ as though he was behaving like a healer or a quack of the day. The actions of putting his fingers in the man’s ears and then spitting on his tongue which is what is meant by ‘touch’ (as many assume this to mean) were more akin to how those people performed. The suggestion has been made that perhaps Luke did not get the story quite right. We are unlikely to ever know.
What is significant is that Jesus is described as touching the man in a fairly intimate way by placing his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting on his tongue. It is rare to read about Jesus actually touching people. [One comparison is Matthew 8:14-15, Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law.]
‘And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.’
Most of Christ’s miracles do not involve the physicality of touch, which could otherwise suggest a sense of remoteness. The Incarnate God has no need to touch. But here and in the passage from Matthew, Jesus touches people. That suggests here, and in Matthew, that we see the something of the human side of Jesus. Human beings are natural touchers. It is one of our familiar characteristics that has been so severely affected by the pandemic. Social isolation is unnatural for us, as is banging elbows or whatever when greeting each other. And during the height of lockdown, we could not hug each other, not even close family and friends. Even though some lockdown measures have been eased, touching each other is still something we have to be cautious about. It makes the story of Jesus touching this deaf and blind man more poignant because of the times we live in.
In one sense the Gospel story is a mismatch with the Collect and the Epistle. Their focus is on the all giving and merciful God, whose glory is beyond our understanding. In the Gospel reading Jesus cures a man by using an unusual ritual. He touches the man. But this is the Incarnate God, and this story for all its peculiarities reminds us that ultimately healing is God given. The pandemic has reminded us that for all the medical and scientific advances humankind have made in health, there is still a lot more to be done. The story of the healing of the deaf and blind man also reminds us that Jesus continues to live in us and we in him, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit
we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations,
Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3.4-9
SUCH trust have we through Christ to Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God: who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
Gospel: St. Mark 7.31-end
JESUS, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Reflection
Much of today’s Collect and Epistle readings echo those for last Sunday: that no matter how good we are in our behaviour and with our tasks, it is to God alone that we offer thanks for them because He, through his grace, gifted them to us in the first place. The Collect makes a further point: that God in His mercy is ever more prepared to give to us than we are to receive. God:
‘Pour[s] down upon us the abundance of [His] mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord.’
Paul in his Epistle goes one step further. Yes, he acknowledges that all we are capable of comes from God:
‘[N]ot that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.’
We have also become ‘able ministers of the new testament’ the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul’s assertion to the Corinthians also applies to us these centuries later. Yet it is not the literalness of the new testament that is important to Paul but its spirit.
‘[N]ot of the letter, but of the spirit’ because ‘the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life’.
This is an interesting observation from Paul. It is not that he is seeking to degrade in any way the power of the Word which is the New Testament. It is because he knows that those of us who read and listen to the Word, who absorb the power of the new covenant given by God in Christ, we are also gifted with the power of the Holy Spirit. With the ministry of Jesus, the Holy Spirit became manifest in our lives in a way that perhaps was not so obvious before. Those of us living two millennia later can receive great comfort from the gift of the Holy Spirit. We live at a time when the Bible is open to the intense scrutiny of academics and theologians. We do not know precisely when the Gospels were written; scholars say by the end of the first century AD. Scholars also question who else could have had some input into both the Old and New Testaments over time. And we have a number of different translations on offer from the original Greek of the New Testament into English. (Hebrew being the language of the Old Testament). Jesus spoke in Aramaic, which still exists in the Middle East as one of the Semitic languages of the region: Aramaic into Greek, and then historically into Latin by the church in the west, and then into English from the Reformation onwards in a variety of approaches in translation. It does make for a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to hearing the Gospel readings in Church.
It is the task of the preacher to tease out a theme of meaning or context from a Bible passage, particularly when the text is a bit obscure or even confrontational. Sometimes preachers cannot be absolutely certain that they have got it right, but the important thing to focus on is whether the spirit of the piece communicates itself in asserting the Word of Christ, our Saviour who died to redeem us out of the enormous love He has for us.
The final section of Paul’s Epistle compares the power of the Holy Spirit of God with the giving of the first covenant, the Ten Commandments, enshrining Jewish law and written by God on two stone tablets. Paul uses the word ‘death’ to describe the old covenant. By that he means that with the coming of the new covenant, the old one has died. When Moses descended Mount Sinai, his face shone so brightly with the glory of God that the Israelites could not look on him at first. It is at this point scholars suggest that Moses covered his face because he knew that the time of the old covenant would be limited and replaced eventually by a new one.
‘But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?’
Paul finishes by emphasising how the ministry of righteousness, which underpins the Word of God and which communicates through the Spirit, is far more powerful than what he describes as the ministry of condemnation, which he feels represents the Law of Moses, a law associated with right practice and the condemning of those who fail. For a long time the old law provided the light of God’s guidance for people to follow. Paul is saying that the love of God given through grace by the death of his Son on the Cross provides immediate redemption to all who turn to Him, the path of righteousness. The love of Christ is all we need.
‘For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.’
Then we come to the Gospel reading. One commentary suggests that Mark describes Christ as though he was behaving like a healer or a quack of the day. The actions of putting his fingers in the man’s ears and then spitting on his tongue which is what is meant by ‘touch’ (as many assume this to mean) were more akin to how those people performed. The suggestion has been made that perhaps Luke did not get the story quite right. We are unlikely to ever know.
What is significant is that Jesus is described as touching the man in a fairly intimate way by placing his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting on his tongue. It is rare to read about Jesus actually touching people. [One comparison is Matthew 8:14-15, Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law.]
‘And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.’
Most of Christ’s miracles do not involve the physicality of touch, which could otherwise suggest a sense of remoteness. The Incarnate God has no need to touch. But here and in the passage from Matthew, Jesus touches people. That suggests here, and in Matthew, that we see the something of the human side of Jesus. Human beings are natural touchers. It is one of our familiar characteristics that has been so severely affected by the pandemic. Social isolation is unnatural for us, as is banging elbows or whatever when greeting each other. And during the height of lockdown, we could not hug each other, not even close family and friends. Even though some lockdown measures have been eased, touching each other is still something we have to be cautious about. It makes the story of Jesus touching this deaf and blind man more poignant because of the times we live in.
In one sense the Gospel story is a mismatch with the Collect and the Epistle. Their focus is on the all giving and merciful God, whose glory is beyond our understanding. In the Gospel reading Jesus cures a man by using an unusual ritual. He touches the man. But this is the Incarnate God, and this story for all its peculiarities reminds us that ultimately healing is God given. The pandemic has reminded us that for all the medical and scientific advances humankind have made in health, there is still a lot more to be done. The story of the healing of the deaf and blind man also reminds us that Jesus continues to live in us and we in him, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit
we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations,
Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
readings and reflection for the eleventh sunday after trinity
Collect
O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
BRETHREN, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand: by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas; then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep: after that, he was seen of James; then of all the Apostles: and last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
Gospel: St. Luke 18:9-14
JESUS spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Reflection by April Heywood
A leader editorial recently in the quality press examined once again the controversy surrounding the government advisor, Dominic Cummings, and his visit to Durham during lockdown. Strictly speaking, the thrust of the article was not about whether Mr Cummings did or did not break the lockdown rules, the writer chose to consider instead what she described as the hypocrisy that abounded in reaction to this story, including the matter of the press hanging around his front gate and clearly not observing social distancing. The article continued by asking whether many of us could claim to be completely guiltless of flouting the pandemic rules and, given the fear of further spikes in the numbers of those infected by the virus, it begs the question of whether the possibility of a further spike, and the actuality of spikes elsewhere in the world, might be caused by failures in observing the restrictions.
This reflection is not about Mr Cummings, nor is it actually about hypocrisy. It is about what occurred to me when the journalist asked whether we could all make a claim on guiltlessness. Many of us have indeed obeyed the rules and my question is this: what do those of us in the guiltless group think or feel about those of our fellows who are in the group of transgressors? Are we resigned to that sense of weary inevitability that there are always some who ignore or choose to flout rules or guidance, like people who run across level crossings before the gates come down giving passage to the oncoming train, or those who continue to take recreational drugs despite the prohibition of the law and dangers to their health? And is that sense of weary inevitability accompanied by the thought that we in the guiltless group are good girls and boys even, dare I say it against our fellow transgressors, holier than thou?
This is the central message of our Gospel passage from Luke:
‘Jesus spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.’
As Christians, we are indeed taught to be righteous, to follow the teachings of Jesus, to be what God wants us to be. But what about self-righteousness? Certainly the Pharisee in the parable is self righteous to the point of despising the Publican, a man of public service in the employ of the Romans, a tax collector loathed by many. One of the disciples, Matthew (also referred to as Levi), had been a tax collector. In the public eye, tax collectors had become synonymous with greed and self-interest and often were believed to take more than their fair share in taxes. The pay of tax collectors was based on charging the payers of taxes and not a salary paid by the Roman state. Jesus had chosen a tax collector to follow him, who would go on like the other disciples to become an apostle in the early church and to spread the Word of God.
In selecting Matthew, Jesus was making a point, and here in the parable Jesus is making the same point, albeit in the context of enlightening the self-righteous: that the God of Salvation became incarnate in order to bring the humble and the genuinely contrite closer to Him in redemption, no matter who they are nor what their social status might be. The Collect emphasises this point:
‘O God, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity.’
God is love and He looks on our failings and weaknesses with ‘mercy and pity’. The Publican in the parable recognises his failings and offers himself to God for forgiveness of his sins. He cannot even cast his eyes upwards, so ashamed is he of himself. He shows himself to be humble and contrite and offers his sins to God because he knows that only God has the power to forgive him. In so doing, the Publican recognises that he has a personal relationship with God when he requests:
‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
It is a direct request, not one shrouded in ritual and religious observance and self-congratulation such as the Pharisee offers God:
‘The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’
There is no sense of humility in the Pharisee in his prayer to God, no recognition of God’s ‘almighty power’. It is almost as though the Pharisee sees himself on a par with God, not as a supplicant, so great are his virtues in his own eyes. Indeed the Pharisee does not regard himself as in need of redemption because he does his duty absolutely. He does not possess any sense of self-insight or remorse: his self-righteousness blinds him to the extent that he cannot recognise it as a transgression.
Paul in the Epistle, on the other hand, does recognise the power of God’s mercy and pity. He is a beneficiary of it after all:
‘For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.’
From being an energetic persecutor of the early church – he was in the crowd when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was put to death [Acts 8:1] [‘And Saul was consenting unto his death’]– Paul became the energetic traveller and proselytiser of the Word that he is known for.
‘[B]y the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’
‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ Paul knows himself very well, and he understands that God chose him as apostle despite (or even because of) his earlier prejudices and activities against the early followers of Christ and has since made him what he has become, an indefatigable and courageous teacher of the Gospel. But even this he credits God for:
‘[Y]et not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’
It is this acknowledgement of human frailty that is lacking in the Pharisee. Christ is not making an example of him because of his status as a Pharisee; he is making an example of him because of his self-blindness. Christ is not criticising the Pharisee for the meticulous performance of his religious practice. There is no harm in self congratulation when we do a good job, or get something right, or to exude positivity about lifestyle choices. It is when we forget who has given us life and creation and a presence in the world, like the Pharisee here, that there is a problem.
In the First Book of Chronicles [29:10-14] in the Old Testament, King David on his deathbed says these words:
‘Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine… Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all… for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.’
Some alternatives to the Prayers at the Preparation of the Gifts for the Eucharist in Common Worship use a version of the words from 1 Chronicles:
‘Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour, and the majesty;
For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you,
And of your own do we give you.’
Whatever we do, whatever gifts, talents and strengths we might be blessed with, as Jesus reminds us in this passage from Luke’s Gospel, they are God-given gifts. In a sense they are sacred because they are God-given. And because we owe them to God, we need to respect them for what they are because we have been given them through the grace of God to do our best with them through God’s ‘mercy and pity.’ Amen.
Prayer
Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name.
Amen.
O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
BRETHREN, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand: by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas; then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep: after that, he was seen of James; then of all the Apostles: and last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
Gospel: St. Luke 18:9-14
JESUS spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Reflection by April Heywood
A leader editorial recently in the quality press examined once again the controversy surrounding the government advisor, Dominic Cummings, and his visit to Durham during lockdown. Strictly speaking, the thrust of the article was not about whether Mr Cummings did or did not break the lockdown rules, the writer chose to consider instead what she described as the hypocrisy that abounded in reaction to this story, including the matter of the press hanging around his front gate and clearly not observing social distancing. The article continued by asking whether many of us could claim to be completely guiltless of flouting the pandemic rules and, given the fear of further spikes in the numbers of those infected by the virus, it begs the question of whether the possibility of a further spike, and the actuality of spikes elsewhere in the world, might be caused by failures in observing the restrictions.
This reflection is not about Mr Cummings, nor is it actually about hypocrisy. It is about what occurred to me when the journalist asked whether we could all make a claim on guiltlessness. Many of us have indeed obeyed the rules and my question is this: what do those of us in the guiltless group think or feel about those of our fellows who are in the group of transgressors? Are we resigned to that sense of weary inevitability that there are always some who ignore or choose to flout rules or guidance, like people who run across level crossings before the gates come down giving passage to the oncoming train, or those who continue to take recreational drugs despite the prohibition of the law and dangers to their health? And is that sense of weary inevitability accompanied by the thought that we in the guiltless group are good girls and boys even, dare I say it against our fellow transgressors, holier than thou?
This is the central message of our Gospel passage from Luke:
‘Jesus spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.’
As Christians, we are indeed taught to be righteous, to follow the teachings of Jesus, to be what God wants us to be. But what about self-righteousness? Certainly the Pharisee in the parable is self righteous to the point of despising the Publican, a man of public service in the employ of the Romans, a tax collector loathed by many. One of the disciples, Matthew (also referred to as Levi), had been a tax collector. In the public eye, tax collectors had become synonymous with greed and self-interest and often were believed to take more than their fair share in taxes. The pay of tax collectors was based on charging the payers of taxes and not a salary paid by the Roman state. Jesus had chosen a tax collector to follow him, who would go on like the other disciples to become an apostle in the early church and to spread the Word of God.
In selecting Matthew, Jesus was making a point, and here in the parable Jesus is making the same point, albeit in the context of enlightening the self-righteous: that the God of Salvation became incarnate in order to bring the humble and the genuinely contrite closer to Him in redemption, no matter who they are nor what their social status might be. The Collect emphasises this point:
‘O God, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity.’
God is love and He looks on our failings and weaknesses with ‘mercy and pity’. The Publican in the parable recognises his failings and offers himself to God for forgiveness of his sins. He cannot even cast his eyes upwards, so ashamed is he of himself. He shows himself to be humble and contrite and offers his sins to God because he knows that only God has the power to forgive him. In so doing, the Publican recognises that he has a personal relationship with God when he requests:
‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
It is a direct request, not one shrouded in ritual and religious observance and self-congratulation such as the Pharisee offers God:
‘The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’
There is no sense of humility in the Pharisee in his prayer to God, no recognition of God’s ‘almighty power’. It is almost as though the Pharisee sees himself on a par with God, not as a supplicant, so great are his virtues in his own eyes. Indeed the Pharisee does not regard himself as in need of redemption because he does his duty absolutely. He does not possess any sense of self-insight or remorse: his self-righteousness blinds him to the extent that he cannot recognise it as a transgression.
Paul in the Epistle, on the other hand, does recognise the power of God’s mercy and pity. He is a beneficiary of it after all:
‘For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.’
From being an energetic persecutor of the early church – he was in the crowd when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was put to death [Acts 8:1] [‘And Saul was consenting unto his death’]– Paul became the energetic traveller and proselytiser of the Word that he is known for.
‘[B]y the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’
‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ Paul knows himself very well, and he understands that God chose him as apostle despite (or even because of) his earlier prejudices and activities against the early followers of Christ and has since made him what he has become, an indefatigable and courageous teacher of the Gospel. But even this he credits God for:
‘[Y]et not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’
It is this acknowledgement of human frailty that is lacking in the Pharisee. Christ is not making an example of him because of his status as a Pharisee; he is making an example of him because of his self-blindness. Christ is not criticising the Pharisee for the meticulous performance of his religious practice. There is no harm in self congratulation when we do a good job, or get something right, or to exude positivity about lifestyle choices. It is when we forget who has given us life and creation and a presence in the world, like the Pharisee here, that there is a problem.
In the First Book of Chronicles [29:10-14] in the Old Testament, King David on his deathbed says these words:
‘Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine… Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all… for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.’
Some alternatives to the Prayers at the Preparation of the Gifts for the Eucharist in Common Worship use a version of the words from 1 Chronicles:
‘Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour, and the majesty;
For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you,
And of your own do we give you.’
Whatever we do, whatever gifts, talents and strengths we might be blessed with, as Jesus reminds us in this passage from Luke’s Gospel, they are God-given gifts. In a sense they are sacred because they are God-given. And because we owe them to God, we need to respect them for what they are because we have been given them through the grace of God to do our best with them through God’s ‘mercy and pity.’ Amen.
Prayer
Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name.
Amen.
readings and reflection for the tenth sunday after trinity
Collect
LET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12.1-11
CONCERNING spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
Gospel: St. Luke 19.41-47
AND when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple.
Reflection
We know that God, the LORD, is pure SPIRIT and does not have a body. However, in our thinking about him, and in our addressing of him, we use familiar language as though he has a body, but we do so realising that we use language in a special way. God the Father has no human ears but he can hear! And since God the Father is the God of mercy and grace he hears our prayers from within that mercy. Thus he has merciful ears!
In this prayer we petition our Father in heaven that his merciful ears will be open to the supplications we bring. We have been taught that God delights in hearing our prayers and, in terms of our requests, we know that he delights in those which are for the glorifying of his name, the extension of his kingdom, the doing of his will, the conversion of sinners, the edification of the people of God, the sanctification of individual believers and such-like themes.
We have also been taught that God’s ears are closed - or not readily opened - when the prayers are from the proud and the arrogant, the unrepentant and the hard-hearted. He listens to the prayers of the humble and meek, the repentant and the obedient. Yet he does not necessarily grant all the requests even of ‘thy humble servants’.
Even the humble and meek have to learn from the Word of God written, the Holy Scriptures, from the experience and teaching of saints, and from their own knowledge of God, what petitions and intercessions actually are pleasing to God. Not everything that seems good and right to the sincere pastor or believer is so according to the will and purposes of God. As the children of God grow in discernment and mature in faith, hope and charity, they come to see what delights God’s heart and thus what are the proper themes of intercessory and petitionary prayer. And, of course, such prayers are only a part of prayer for there are also the large themes of adoration, praise and thanksgiving to consider and engage in.
Finally, all prayer to the Father is addressed to him through his Son, the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ through the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, our Advocate.
From the Epistle, we learn that while spiritual gifts are important and are to be desired in order to serve the Lord more faithfully, it is also possible to be led astray in the search for and the manifestation of such gifts. In and of themselves these gifts do not produce holiness of heart or a fervent desire to prayer for they can become an end in themselves!
In the Gospel, we see the ‘heart’ of Jesus expressed in his compassion for his own people and also his commitment to prayer as the primary means of the expression of spiritual union between man and God. He is our model for prayer.
Taken from the Collect Commentary by Revd Dr Peter Toon for the Prayer Book Society
[https://www.pbs.org.uk/the-bcp/tenth-sunday-after-trinity]
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for sending the Lord Jesus to live and die for me,
And thank You for bringing me into Your family because I have trusted Jesus as my Saviour. Thank You that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
And that You have sent Him to indwell my heart and to lead and guide me into all truth.
I pray that You would take my life and use every part of me,
To Your praise and glory.
Amen.
LET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12.1-11
CONCERNING spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
Gospel: St. Luke 19.41-47
AND when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple.
Reflection
We know that God, the LORD, is pure SPIRIT and does not have a body. However, in our thinking about him, and in our addressing of him, we use familiar language as though he has a body, but we do so realising that we use language in a special way. God the Father has no human ears but he can hear! And since God the Father is the God of mercy and grace he hears our prayers from within that mercy. Thus he has merciful ears!
In this prayer we petition our Father in heaven that his merciful ears will be open to the supplications we bring. We have been taught that God delights in hearing our prayers and, in terms of our requests, we know that he delights in those which are for the glorifying of his name, the extension of his kingdom, the doing of his will, the conversion of sinners, the edification of the people of God, the sanctification of individual believers and such-like themes.
We have also been taught that God’s ears are closed - or not readily opened - when the prayers are from the proud and the arrogant, the unrepentant and the hard-hearted. He listens to the prayers of the humble and meek, the repentant and the obedient. Yet he does not necessarily grant all the requests even of ‘thy humble servants’.
Even the humble and meek have to learn from the Word of God written, the Holy Scriptures, from the experience and teaching of saints, and from their own knowledge of God, what petitions and intercessions actually are pleasing to God. Not everything that seems good and right to the sincere pastor or believer is so according to the will and purposes of God. As the children of God grow in discernment and mature in faith, hope and charity, they come to see what delights God’s heart and thus what are the proper themes of intercessory and petitionary prayer. And, of course, such prayers are only a part of prayer for there are also the large themes of adoration, praise and thanksgiving to consider and engage in.
Finally, all prayer to the Father is addressed to him through his Son, the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ through the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, our Advocate.
From the Epistle, we learn that while spiritual gifts are important and are to be desired in order to serve the Lord more faithfully, it is also possible to be led astray in the search for and the manifestation of such gifts. In and of themselves these gifts do not produce holiness of heart or a fervent desire to prayer for they can become an end in themselves!
In the Gospel, we see the ‘heart’ of Jesus expressed in his compassion for his own people and also his commitment to prayer as the primary means of the expression of spiritual union between man and God. He is our model for prayer.
Taken from the Collect Commentary by Revd Dr Peter Toon for the Prayer Book Society
[https://www.pbs.org.uk/the-bcp/tenth-sunday-after-trinity]
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for sending the Lord Jesus to live and die for me,
And thank You for bringing me into Your family because I have trusted Jesus as my Saviour. Thank You that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
And that You have sent Him to indwell my heart and to lead and guide me into all truth.
I pray that You would take my life and use every part of me,
To Your praise and glory.
Amen.
readings and reflection for the ninth sunday after trinity
Collect
GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
BRETHREN, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Gospel: St. Luke 16:1-9
JESUS said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write four-score. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Reflection
The Collect reminds us that all that we do that is good cannot be done without God’s help. All Christian righteousness and thinking depends on God. This contrasts with the modern way of thinking that we are individuals with rights and that we are not beholden to anyone. To be a Christian means that we live in a spiritual relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. All that we think and do as Christians reflects that relationship.
The same idea is behind Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were going through a difficult time, not because they had had strayed from the Christian path but because of the impact of factions devoted to different teachers and leaders and internal relational divisions. This was fragmenting the Christian community. That is why Paul draws comparisons with the Exodus and the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness. He says:
‘all [did] eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink.’
The idea of spiritual meat and drink is synonymous to us with the Last Supper and the symbolism of Holy Communion. During Holy Communion, we all share spiritually in the mystery of God in Christ. This was probably deliberate on Paul’s part because he juxtaposes the spiritual connection to God of the Israelites and the spiritual connection of the early Christians (and us) to the Incarnated God, Jesus Christ.
‘[F]or they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ’.
For us too, the symbolism of the ‘rock’ reminds us of the church, the responsibility for which was placed on Peter, ‘the rock’, by Jesus himself. Today, we live with the painful reality that the Church has fragmented into separate traditions but nevertheless we and all Christians regard ourselves united as members of the Body of Christ. In his Epistle, Paul was trying hard to encourage all members of the early Church in Corinth to remember that they were united in faith in the One God just like the Israelites whatever differences they felt they had with others. Righteousness was not to be found by being loyal to this person or that but by following the teachings of ‘the Rock’, Jesus Christ Himself.
But God ‘is faithful’ and knows how difficult it is for us to resist the temptations of everyday life. He also knows that we have to think about how we are to live in a material sense, about earning our living, bringing up children and so forth. And we are also social beings. We are a garrulous species. Most of us enjoy social interaction with others in the usual and perhaps the widest senses (coronavirus excepted): not only meeting each other for pleasure, but we travel to see different parts of the world; some of us may work abroad. We also interact with TV, computers, books and film, sport and other activities. This is what everyday life consists of. We also fall out with each other just like the Corinthian Christians appear to have done. But this is part of our humanity. This is how God created us. And God understands and will help us to ‘escape’, as Paul says:
‘God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it.’
The path to righteousness lies in our special relationship with God through Christ, in our spiritual unity with the Holy Spirit and through the redemptive grace of the Cross.
Then we come to the Gospel Reading and it is difficult to see how the theme of trusting in God’s righteousness squares with this rather awkward passage. It is a tale rather than a parable and it is difficult to understand quite what Jesus is getting at when he says:
‘And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.’
Theologians also have difficulty in contextualising and understanding its underlying meaning. One authority suggests this and some other passages might have been used in responding to problems in the early Church. In this regard, the Gospel Reading is akin to the purpose of Paul’s Epistle. Whereas the purpose in Paul is clear, that he is addressing what to him are pressing contemporary concerns, Luke is said to have been writing about concerns in the early Church contemporary to him. This is a problem of historiography. Paul is likely to have died by AD 60 in one of the Roman pogroms; the consensus is that Luke wrote his Gospel in and around AD 80-85 and the implication is that the precise meaning of Christ’s original teaching had by then been lost.
An alternative view is that the steward shows himself as being prudent in that, having lost his job, he acts in such a way so as to guarantee himself some support from those he helps. This argument suggests that Christians should also follow this example by preparing to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The problem here though is that despite being commended for his actions by his master, the steward has also taken the liberty of depriving his master of what is owed to him. There are other finely tuned arguments that could be mentioned to explain this obscure passage but I suggest that they and what has been described thus far is an example of theological clutching of straws.
What we can observe here is that in some way the steward has fallen short of his master’s expectations. It is not clear whether he was not up to the job or whether he was being dishonest.
‘[T]he same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.’
The passage is variously described as ‘The Dishonest Manager’, or ‘The Shrewd Steward’ in some Bibles, neither of which are satisfactory labels. The steward is sacked for doing a poor or dishonest job and then he tries to curry favour with his master’s customers in order to shore up support for the future by reducing their accounts. His master ‘commend[s]’ his steward for his actions and, in the King James version, the master describes the steward as ‘unjust’. It is possible therefore that the steward had been corruptly overpricing the accounts for his own benefit, and that is what the master applauds. But none of this is straightforward because redressing a corrupt practice could hardly be called ‘wise’.
What is known is that Jesus here at this point is addressing his disciples and not the general crowd. Possibly, he is suggesting that ‘the children of this world’ are what we would describe as ‘wordly- or streetwise’. By contrast, ‘the children of light’.
The phrase ‘children of light’ is also to be found in St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians [5:8-9]:
‘For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth).’
Clearly Paul is exhorting the Ephesian Christians to avoid the moral and spiritual snares of ‘darkness’, in other words, ‘the children of this world’ and the entrapment of everyday life and its overwhelming cares.
So what is Jesus driving at when he says:
‘[T]he children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations’?
The easy answer is to say that its meaning is uncertain and that might be, in actual fact, all that could be said. There has been a suggestion made that Jesus is displaying here a rare glimpse of sardonic humour about how the wordly-wise appear to cope better with the challenges of earthly life than ‘the children of light’: that because they might at times seem to cope better it is tempting to follow their example. It is a rare instance where Jesus acknowledges that the spiritual life can be seen as the difficult option. We all know what is meant by the idiom ‘the straight and narrow’. It is taken from Matthew 7:13-14:
‘Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.’
To be able to cope with the everyday could, arguably, be said to be the safer option. Join the crowd, give in to peer pressure. It is safer and easier that way. Whereas it is always difficult for someone to stand up on their own for what is right, going against the grain of what is popularly acceptable. Think about the difficulties of whistle blowers; think of that lonely image of Greta Thunberg sitting outside the Swedish Parliament; think of others who have put the needs of others before their own – the prophets, the NHS and other key workers during this pandemic, and many others. We have just lost the selfless John Hume, who put the needs of his country first for a peaceful outcome to the Troubles rather than furthering his own career. He was a righteous man who put himself in danger for the sake of peace in Northern Ireland even though he personally favoured a united Ireland. Peace was more important and was also the difficult and perilous option.
If this interpretation is behind what Jesus is saying, then the Gospel passage, for all its obscurities, follows the theme of the Collect and the Epistle: that only faith driven by righteousness and directed by God will lead us away from the soiled attractions of an easy life into unity with the Holy Spirit, and into a spiritual and redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ.
In other words, perhaps Paul and Jesus are saying in their own way: not all is what it seems; and mind how you go. Amen.
Prayer For God’s Guidance
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing.
Amen.
[Anonymous]
GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
BRETHREN, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Gospel: St. Luke 16:1-9
JESUS said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write four-score. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Reflection
The Collect reminds us that all that we do that is good cannot be done without God’s help. All Christian righteousness and thinking depends on God. This contrasts with the modern way of thinking that we are individuals with rights and that we are not beholden to anyone. To be a Christian means that we live in a spiritual relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. All that we think and do as Christians reflects that relationship.
The same idea is behind Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were going through a difficult time, not because they had had strayed from the Christian path but because of the impact of factions devoted to different teachers and leaders and internal relational divisions. This was fragmenting the Christian community. That is why Paul draws comparisons with the Exodus and the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness. He says:
‘all [did] eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink.’
The idea of spiritual meat and drink is synonymous to us with the Last Supper and the symbolism of Holy Communion. During Holy Communion, we all share spiritually in the mystery of God in Christ. This was probably deliberate on Paul’s part because he juxtaposes the spiritual connection to God of the Israelites and the spiritual connection of the early Christians (and us) to the Incarnated God, Jesus Christ.
‘[F]or they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ’.
For us too, the symbolism of the ‘rock’ reminds us of the church, the responsibility for which was placed on Peter, ‘the rock’, by Jesus himself. Today, we live with the painful reality that the Church has fragmented into separate traditions but nevertheless we and all Christians regard ourselves united as members of the Body of Christ. In his Epistle, Paul was trying hard to encourage all members of the early Church in Corinth to remember that they were united in faith in the One God just like the Israelites whatever differences they felt they had with others. Righteousness was not to be found by being loyal to this person or that but by following the teachings of ‘the Rock’, Jesus Christ Himself.
But God ‘is faithful’ and knows how difficult it is for us to resist the temptations of everyday life. He also knows that we have to think about how we are to live in a material sense, about earning our living, bringing up children and so forth. And we are also social beings. We are a garrulous species. Most of us enjoy social interaction with others in the usual and perhaps the widest senses (coronavirus excepted): not only meeting each other for pleasure, but we travel to see different parts of the world; some of us may work abroad. We also interact with TV, computers, books and film, sport and other activities. This is what everyday life consists of. We also fall out with each other just like the Corinthian Christians appear to have done. But this is part of our humanity. This is how God created us. And God understands and will help us to ‘escape’, as Paul says:
‘God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it.’
The path to righteousness lies in our special relationship with God through Christ, in our spiritual unity with the Holy Spirit and through the redemptive grace of the Cross.
Then we come to the Gospel Reading and it is difficult to see how the theme of trusting in God’s righteousness squares with this rather awkward passage. It is a tale rather than a parable and it is difficult to understand quite what Jesus is getting at when he says:
‘And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.’
Theologians also have difficulty in contextualising and understanding its underlying meaning. One authority suggests this and some other passages might have been used in responding to problems in the early Church. In this regard, the Gospel Reading is akin to the purpose of Paul’s Epistle. Whereas the purpose in Paul is clear, that he is addressing what to him are pressing contemporary concerns, Luke is said to have been writing about concerns in the early Church contemporary to him. This is a problem of historiography. Paul is likely to have died by AD 60 in one of the Roman pogroms; the consensus is that Luke wrote his Gospel in and around AD 80-85 and the implication is that the precise meaning of Christ’s original teaching had by then been lost.
An alternative view is that the steward shows himself as being prudent in that, having lost his job, he acts in such a way so as to guarantee himself some support from those he helps. This argument suggests that Christians should also follow this example by preparing to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The problem here though is that despite being commended for his actions by his master, the steward has also taken the liberty of depriving his master of what is owed to him. There are other finely tuned arguments that could be mentioned to explain this obscure passage but I suggest that they and what has been described thus far is an example of theological clutching of straws.
What we can observe here is that in some way the steward has fallen short of his master’s expectations. It is not clear whether he was not up to the job or whether he was being dishonest.
‘[T]he same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.’
The passage is variously described as ‘The Dishonest Manager’, or ‘The Shrewd Steward’ in some Bibles, neither of which are satisfactory labels. The steward is sacked for doing a poor or dishonest job and then he tries to curry favour with his master’s customers in order to shore up support for the future by reducing their accounts. His master ‘commend[s]’ his steward for his actions and, in the King James version, the master describes the steward as ‘unjust’. It is possible therefore that the steward had been corruptly overpricing the accounts for his own benefit, and that is what the master applauds. But none of this is straightforward because redressing a corrupt practice could hardly be called ‘wise’.
What is known is that Jesus here at this point is addressing his disciples and not the general crowd. Possibly, he is suggesting that ‘the children of this world’ are what we would describe as ‘wordly- or streetwise’. By contrast, ‘the children of light’.
The phrase ‘children of light’ is also to be found in St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians [5:8-9]:
‘For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth).’
Clearly Paul is exhorting the Ephesian Christians to avoid the moral and spiritual snares of ‘darkness’, in other words, ‘the children of this world’ and the entrapment of everyday life and its overwhelming cares.
So what is Jesus driving at when he says:
‘[T]he children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations’?
The easy answer is to say that its meaning is uncertain and that might be, in actual fact, all that could be said. There has been a suggestion made that Jesus is displaying here a rare glimpse of sardonic humour about how the wordly-wise appear to cope better with the challenges of earthly life than ‘the children of light’: that because they might at times seem to cope better it is tempting to follow their example. It is a rare instance where Jesus acknowledges that the spiritual life can be seen as the difficult option. We all know what is meant by the idiom ‘the straight and narrow’. It is taken from Matthew 7:13-14:
‘Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.’
To be able to cope with the everyday could, arguably, be said to be the safer option. Join the crowd, give in to peer pressure. It is safer and easier that way. Whereas it is always difficult for someone to stand up on their own for what is right, going against the grain of what is popularly acceptable. Think about the difficulties of whistle blowers; think of that lonely image of Greta Thunberg sitting outside the Swedish Parliament; think of others who have put the needs of others before their own – the prophets, the NHS and other key workers during this pandemic, and many others. We have just lost the selfless John Hume, who put the needs of his country first for a peaceful outcome to the Troubles rather than furthering his own career. He was a righteous man who put himself in danger for the sake of peace in Northern Ireland even though he personally favoured a united Ireland. Peace was more important and was also the difficult and perilous option.
If this interpretation is behind what Jesus is saying, then the Gospel passage, for all its obscurities, follows the theme of the Collect and the Epistle: that only faith driven by righteousness and directed by God will lead us away from the soiled attractions of an easy life into unity with the Holy Spirit, and into a spiritual and redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ.
In other words, perhaps Paul and Jesus are saying in their own way: not all is what it seems; and mind how you go. Amen.
Prayer For God’s Guidance
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing.
Amen.
[Anonymous]
READINGS AND REFLECTION FOR THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
O GOD, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 8:12-17
BRETHREN, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Gospel: St. Matthew 7:15-21
BEWARE of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel reading contains some memorable phrases which have now become embedded in English idiom:
‘Beware of false prophets…in sheep’s clothing, but …are ravening wolves;
Ye shall know them by their fruits;
[B]y their fruits ye shall know them.’
The Gospel passage comes towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the poetic Beatitudes in Chapter 5 v 3 and includes the Lord’s Prayer and much else of Jesus’ teaching. It is thought that our passage might have been a reaction to the presence of others claiming to be teachers of faith but who presented false doctrines. In the Book of Acts 5:36-37, two are named who had gained followers but they were killed and their followers left aimless. These were Theudas and Judas the Galilean, both ‘false prophets’.
In our own time, we have encountered charismatic cult leaders claiming to being God’s messengers but who have created self-serving paranoid communities that came to a violent end. These were, for instance, Jim Jones whose community, Jonestown, in Guyana, South America, destroyed itself through mass suicide in 1978 and David Koresh whose community in Waco, USA, was wiped out through self-immolation as a suicidal response to police fire power in 1993. Both communities were dominated by a pathological ethos that included criminal behaviour and an intense suspicion of outsiders.
By contrast, Jesus instructs his followers to love one another, to forgive each other’s sins, and to help the poor and needy. This is not a self-regarding religious leader, but someone who overwhelmingly gives and shares His love to the ultimate gift of Himself on the Cross. He is the provider as it says in the Collect, who never fails and provides the scaffolding of order for creation.
In a way, both the Epistle and the Gospel readings explore the need for discernment in judging how we are able to live our lives. St Paul calls for ‘mortify[ing] the deeds of the body’, and not ‘to live after the flesh’. That is, to be aware of what we are doing when we feel pulled towards a particular course of action, or thought or even belief. We need to question our motives.
‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God…[but] if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.’
As disciples of Jesus, we ‘are led by the Spirit of God’, we are not ‘[in] bondage …to fear.’ We have received ‘the spirit of adoption’.
‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.’
The Gospel too calls for thinking through carefully what or who we are attracted to. And in our hi-tech world there are uncountable ways in which we can ensnare ourselves. If I may be personal, during the early part of lockdown, I became addicted to the Spider app on my computer. Now that might seem fairly harmless but my endless hours of addictive behaviour meant that I was unable to put down my mobile phone. It began to control a large part of my day. In the end, I uninstalled the app and its sister Klondike app too. Then I suffered withdrawal symptoms, but now I can tell you that I am free of them.
I am sure we can all imagine other situations and circumstances that somehow draw us into such closeted behaviour. Taken to its ultimate obsessive limit, it means that we miss out on so much that God’s world has to offer. Obsessions can take many forms from computer games, to celebrity magazines, to substance addiction and misuse, just to mention a few.
Jesus teaches us to discern between those people and situations that ‘bringeth forth good fruit’, where outcomes are positive and, dare I say it, wholesome; contrasting with ‘the corrupt tree [that] bringeth forth evil fruit’, in which only negative and harmful consequences potentially result.
‘Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.’
Will it enrich your spiritual self or will it pollute it? It is only the ‘good fruits’, created as part of God’s ordering of ‘heaven and earth’ that will lead us to be ‘the children of God…heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ’ despite all that can go wrong in this earthly life.
As Jesus says: ‘Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.’
Only those who are genuine followers of Christ, the Word Himself, who have observed and understood what it means to be the children of God, who have listened and taken to themselves the committed undertaking of only trusting in ‘the good fruit’ of this life, who have done ‘the will of my Father which is in heaven’, only these ‘shall enter into the kingdom of heaven’. Amen.
Prayer
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life :
Such a Way, as gives us breath :
Such a Truth, as ends all strife :
And such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength :
Such a Light, as shows a feast :
Such a Feast, as mends in length :
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart :
Such a Joy, as none can move :
Such a Love, as none can part :
Such a Heart, as joyes in love. Amen.
George Herbert (1633)
O GOD, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 8:12-17
BRETHREN, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Gospel: St. Matthew 7:15-21
BEWARE of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel reading contains some memorable phrases which have now become embedded in English idiom:
‘Beware of false prophets…in sheep’s clothing, but …are ravening wolves;
Ye shall know them by their fruits;
[B]y their fruits ye shall know them.’
The Gospel passage comes towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the poetic Beatitudes in Chapter 5 v 3 and includes the Lord’s Prayer and much else of Jesus’ teaching. It is thought that our passage might have been a reaction to the presence of others claiming to be teachers of faith but who presented false doctrines. In the Book of Acts 5:36-37, two are named who had gained followers but they were killed and their followers left aimless. These were Theudas and Judas the Galilean, both ‘false prophets’.
In our own time, we have encountered charismatic cult leaders claiming to being God’s messengers but who have created self-serving paranoid communities that came to a violent end. These were, for instance, Jim Jones whose community, Jonestown, in Guyana, South America, destroyed itself through mass suicide in 1978 and David Koresh whose community in Waco, USA, was wiped out through self-immolation as a suicidal response to police fire power in 1993. Both communities were dominated by a pathological ethos that included criminal behaviour and an intense suspicion of outsiders.
By contrast, Jesus instructs his followers to love one another, to forgive each other’s sins, and to help the poor and needy. This is not a self-regarding religious leader, but someone who overwhelmingly gives and shares His love to the ultimate gift of Himself on the Cross. He is the provider as it says in the Collect, who never fails and provides the scaffolding of order for creation.
In a way, both the Epistle and the Gospel readings explore the need for discernment in judging how we are able to live our lives. St Paul calls for ‘mortify[ing] the deeds of the body’, and not ‘to live after the flesh’. That is, to be aware of what we are doing when we feel pulled towards a particular course of action, or thought or even belief. We need to question our motives.
‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God…[but] if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.’
As disciples of Jesus, we ‘are led by the Spirit of God’, we are not ‘[in] bondage …to fear.’ We have received ‘the spirit of adoption’.
‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.’
The Gospel too calls for thinking through carefully what or who we are attracted to. And in our hi-tech world there are uncountable ways in which we can ensnare ourselves. If I may be personal, during the early part of lockdown, I became addicted to the Spider app on my computer. Now that might seem fairly harmless but my endless hours of addictive behaviour meant that I was unable to put down my mobile phone. It began to control a large part of my day. In the end, I uninstalled the app and its sister Klondike app too. Then I suffered withdrawal symptoms, but now I can tell you that I am free of them.
I am sure we can all imagine other situations and circumstances that somehow draw us into such closeted behaviour. Taken to its ultimate obsessive limit, it means that we miss out on so much that God’s world has to offer. Obsessions can take many forms from computer games, to celebrity magazines, to substance addiction and misuse, just to mention a few.
Jesus teaches us to discern between those people and situations that ‘bringeth forth good fruit’, where outcomes are positive and, dare I say it, wholesome; contrasting with ‘the corrupt tree [that] bringeth forth evil fruit’, in which only negative and harmful consequences potentially result.
‘Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.’
Will it enrich your spiritual self or will it pollute it? It is only the ‘good fruits’, created as part of God’s ordering of ‘heaven and earth’ that will lead us to be ‘the children of God…heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ’ despite all that can go wrong in this earthly life.
As Jesus says: ‘Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.’
Only those who are genuine followers of Christ, the Word Himself, who have observed and understood what it means to be the children of God, who have listened and taken to themselves the committed undertaking of only trusting in ‘the good fruit’ of this life, who have done ‘the will of my Father which is in heaven’, only these ‘shall enter into the kingdom of heaven’. Amen.
Prayer
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life :
Such a Way, as gives us breath :
Such a Truth, as ends all strife :
And such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength :
Such a Light, as shows a feast :
Such a Feast, as mends in length :
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart :
Such a Joy, as none can move :
Such a Love, as none can part :
Such a Heart, as joyes in love. Amen.
George Herbert (1633)
readings and reflection for the seventh sunday after trinity
Collect
LORD of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 6:19-end
I SPEAK after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity, unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel: St. Mark 8.1-9
IN those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way; for divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small fishes; and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand. And he sent them away.
Reflection
When, as a child, I first heard the story of Jesus feeding thousands of people, it caught my childish imagination. I didn’t truly understand about miracles and certainly not about the theological complexities of the two accounts that are found in Mark’s Gospel: the one of Jesus feeding the five thousand [Mark 6:34-44]; and this one about Jesus feeding the four thousand. As a child I could imagine lots of people (not truly understanding what thousands might look like) gathered in one place and this mysterious character called Jesus feeding them with bread and fish that he’d conjured up as if by magic. As a child I was most definitely into the world of fairies and magic, and from my childish point of view, Jesus was a bit like them. As a child, I remembered Jesus as the baby Jesus at Christmas, which meant presents and rich food and sweets, and then there was this other mysterious event at Easter. I’m not sure I began to understand the Crucifixion until much later but, as a child, I certainly enjoyed hot cross buns and Easter eggs. So, for right or wrong reasons, as a child, I have held in my mind the image of Jesus as the giver of presents and sweets and food. Somebody special and good.
And in many ways, my childish recollection was not wrong. My adult mind holds the Incarnated God in Jesus as the giver of life, life that is intended to allow us to thrive and flourish freed from the enslaving snares of some aspects of ordinary life.
‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly’ Jesus says in John 10:10.
The idea of thousands of people sitting ‘in the wilderness’ or desert as it is sometimes translated is an extraordinary one. The pragmatic side of my adult mind cannot begin to comprehend how thousands of people have managed to stay in one location for three whole days. Being adult, my mind automatically thinks about the practicalities of managing such a number of people. Having attended pop concerts in Knebworth Park in my youth, with the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, I am only too aware of the complicated management needed to cater for basic human needs.
But dwelling on the practicalities does in actual fact miss the point of this episode in Mark’s Gospel. And by looking at the Readings as a whole, it is possible to understand why. The Collect sets the theme: that of God as the Giver of all good things. ‘God nourish[es] us with all goodness’. In the Nicene Creed, we recognise ‘the Holy Ghost [as] the Lord and giver of life’. Giving, nourishing, goodness, giver of life, these are all characteristics of God. In the Gospel reading, Jesus is doing just that. By making food available with much leftover, Jesus has fed the people to the point of fullness. He has nourished them.
It could be argued that the physicality of the bread and fish is actually a metaphor for the spiritual food the people had been receiving over the course of the three days. This is also missing the point somewhat. Yes, the people have been enriched spiritually by Jesus’ words. He is the Word. And how wonderful it must have been for them to receive the Word from Jesus himself.
Jesus is also the ‘bread of heaven’ as it says in John Conder’s hymn. In the receiving of the bread and wine in Holy Communion, we receive the most precious gift of all, the celebration of the giving of Jesus himself to us in the Crucifixion. There is no greater gift than for God to take on himself through the pain and anguish of the Crucifixion our sins, our weaknesses, our misguidedness, which liberates us from the slavery of sin.
St Paul says in the Epistle reading that by hanging on to the life of misery and guilt of our selfish ways, we become the servants of sin. In other translations, they say slaves of sin. There is no life or growth that comes out of a life of selfishness and self-serving.
‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.’
The only result that can be gained from a life of sin is death: ‘For the wages of sin is death’.
It is only by following the teachings of the Living Word, Our Lord Jesus Christ, are we then able to live the life that is intended for us, a life of love, kindness, giving and sharing, which in its on way mirrors the example set by Jesus as he fed and nourished the four thousand. Elsewhere [Romans 13:14], Paul describes what happens when we decide to become disciples of Christ in Baptism.
‘But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.’
By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ we are freed from death through his atoning death on the Cross [Romans 6:3-4]:
‘Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’
In Baptism, we die to sin and are raised to the new life promised by Jesus Christ who has cleansed us of our sins. The gift freely given through the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the gift of a life free from sin, a life that nourishes and allows us to thrive and flourish. ‘We walk in newness of life.’
In this account, Jesus:
‘…took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.’
This simple act of thanking God the Father for making the bread available is poignant because it prefigures the Last Supper when the nourishing food that is offered is Jesus Himself. It is a powerful association, that of Jesus the provider of bread and nourishment just as God gave manna to the Hebrews wandering in the desert. Possibly, Mark bore this in mind when he wrote about this event. For us as Christians it means we are filled with the nourishing and loving goodness that we receive from Jesus through faith. It is indeed a precious gift, and one that is intended to help us thrive throughout our Christian life.
I would like to make one final point. I have written about the connection between Jesus and the giving of bread that we celebrate in the sacrament of Holy Communion. One day soon, I hope, we will all be able to celebrate Holy Communion together once more at St Mary’s, Lowgate, in Hull. Amen.
Prayer
Bread of heaven, on thee we feed,
For thy Flesh is meat indeed;
Ever may our souls be fed
With this true and living Bread,
Day by day with strength supplied
Through the life of him who died.
Vine of heaven, thy Blood supplies
This blest cup of sacrifice;
‘Tis thy wounds our healing give;
To thy Cross we look and live:
Thou our life! O let us be
Rooted, grafted, built on thee.
Amen.
LORD of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 6:19-end
I SPEAK after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity, unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel: St. Mark 8.1-9
IN those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way; for divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small fishes; and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand. And he sent them away.
Reflection
When, as a child, I first heard the story of Jesus feeding thousands of people, it caught my childish imagination. I didn’t truly understand about miracles and certainly not about the theological complexities of the two accounts that are found in Mark’s Gospel: the one of Jesus feeding the five thousand [Mark 6:34-44]; and this one about Jesus feeding the four thousand. As a child I could imagine lots of people (not truly understanding what thousands might look like) gathered in one place and this mysterious character called Jesus feeding them with bread and fish that he’d conjured up as if by magic. As a child I was most definitely into the world of fairies and magic, and from my childish point of view, Jesus was a bit like them. As a child, I remembered Jesus as the baby Jesus at Christmas, which meant presents and rich food and sweets, and then there was this other mysterious event at Easter. I’m not sure I began to understand the Crucifixion until much later but, as a child, I certainly enjoyed hot cross buns and Easter eggs. So, for right or wrong reasons, as a child, I have held in my mind the image of Jesus as the giver of presents and sweets and food. Somebody special and good.
And in many ways, my childish recollection was not wrong. My adult mind holds the Incarnated God in Jesus as the giver of life, life that is intended to allow us to thrive and flourish freed from the enslaving snares of some aspects of ordinary life.
‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly’ Jesus says in John 10:10.
The idea of thousands of people sitting ‘in the wilderness’ or desert as it is sometimes translated is an extraordinary one. The pragmatic side of my adult mind cannot begin to comprehend how thousands of people have managed to stay in one location for three whole days. Being adult, my mind automatically thinks about the practicalities of managing such a number of people. Having attended pop concerts in Knebworth Park in my youth, with the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, I am only too aware of the complicated management needed to cater for basic human needs.
But dwelling on the practicalities does in actual fact miss the point of this episode in Mark’s Gospel. And by looking at the Readings as a whole, it is possible to understand why. The Collect sets the theme: that of God as the Giver of all good things. ‘God nourish[es] us with all goodness’. In the Nicene Creed, we recognise ‘the Holy Ghost [as] the Lord and giver of life’. Giving, nourishing, goodness, giver of life, these are all characteristics of God. In the Gospel reading, Jesus is doing just that. By making food available with much leftover, Jesus has fed the people to the point of fullness. He has nourished them.
It could be argued that the physicality of the bread and fish is actually a metaphor for the spiritual food the people had been receiving over the course of the three days. This is also missing the point somewhat. Yes, the people have been enriched spiritually by Jesus’ words. He is the Word. And how wonderful it must have been for them to receive the Word from Jesus himself.
Jesus is also the ‘bread of heaven’ as it says in John Conder’s hymn. In the receiving of the bread and wine in Holy Communion, we receive the most precious gift of all, the celebration of the giving of Jesus himself to us in the Crucifixion. There is no greater gift than for God to take on himself through the pain and anguish of the Crucifixion our sins, our weaknesses, our misguidedness, which liberates us from the slavery of sin.
St Paul says in the Epistle reading that by hanging on to the life of misery and guilt of our selfish ways, we become the servants of sin. In other translations, they say slaves of sin. There is no life or growth that comes out of a life of selfishness and self-serving.
‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.’
The only result that can be gained from a life of sin is death: ‘For the wages of sin is death’.
It is only by following the teachings of the Living Word, Our Lord Jesus Christ, are we then able to live the life that is intended for us, a life of love, kindness, giving and sharing, which in its on way mirrors the example set by Jesus as he fed and nourished the four thousand. Elsewhere [Romans 13:14], Paul describes what happens when we decide to become disciples of Christ in Baptism.
‘But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.’
By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ we are freed from death through his atoning death on the Cross [Romans 6:3-4]:
‘Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’
In Baptism, we die to sin and are raised to the new life promised by Jesus Christ who has cleansed us of our sins. The gift freely given through the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the gift of a life free from sin, a life that nourishes and allows us to thrive and flourish. ‘We walk in newness of life.’
In this account, Jesus:
‘…took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.’
This simple act of thanking God the Father for making the bread available is poignant because it prefigures the Last Supper when the nourishing food that is offered is Jesus Himself. It is a powerful association, that of Jesus the provider of bread and nourishment just as God gave manna to the Hebrews wandering in the desert. Possibly, Mark bore this in mind when he wrote about this event. For us as Christians it means we are filled with the nourishing and loving goodness that we receive from Jesus through faith. It is indeed a precious gift, and one that is intended to help us thrive throughout our Christian life.
I would like to make one final point. I have written about the connection between Jesus and the giving of bread that we celebrate in the sacrament of Holy Communion. One day soon, I hope, we will all be able to celebrate Holy Communion together once more at St Mary’s, Lowgate, in Hull. Amen.
Prayer
Bread of heaven, on thee we feed,
For thy Flesh is meat indeed;
Ever may our souls be fed
With this true and living Bread,
Day by day with strength supplied
Through the life of him who died.
Vine of heaven, thy Blood supplies
This blest cup of sacrifice;
‘Tis thy wounds our healing give;
To thy Cross we look and live:
Thou our life! O let us be
Rooted, grafted, built on thee.
Amen.
readings and reflecton for the sixth sunday after trinity
Collect
O God, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 6:19-end
KNOW ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel: Matthew 5:20-26
JESUS said unto his disciples, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill: and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Reflection (by Revd Dr Peter Toon of the Prayer Book Society)
It seems reasonably sure that this Prayer is based on the words of St Paul as he quotes from Isaiah the prophet in 1 Corinthians 2:9, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’. Of course, this Collect had a history in Latin before it was made into an English Collect by Archbishop Cranmer in 1549 and then slightly revised in 1661 for the Prayer Book of 1662.
The doctrine contained in the relative clause – ‘who has prepared’ - is the mystery and yet the confidence of the Christian Hope. To be with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven in the company of the saints and with all the angels and archangels and there to enjoy the beatific vision of the Father Almighty are ‘the good things’ that pass our understanding. To live in perfect communion with the Holy Trinity [with the Father through the Son by the Holy Ghost] and in heavenly blessedness is the goal of the true Christian soul and the fulfilment of the promises of the Gospel.
But the enjoyment of God and the glorifying him for ever are only desirable and possible in and to those who truly love God - that is those who not merely love him as one amongst many, but who love him supremely and love others in the light of that love for him. The true quality of a saint is that he loves the Holy Trinity, the Father through the Son and with the Holy Ghost, chiefly and supremely and evaluates all else in the strength and light of this love.
And, since we are both sinful and morally weak, we can only love God in a way that is appropriate for loving our Creator, Redeemer and Judge, when he, as the Father, grants to us the gift and presence of his Holy Spirit, who brings the very love of God into our hearts, minds and wills. Thus it is this love, this divine and heavenly love, for which we ask here so that we can fulfil the law of God which requires us to love Him and our neighbour. In so doing we can experience by grace the fruit of such loving, including especially the enjoyment of the beatific vision of heaven.
The Lord Jesus in the Gospel for this week (Matthew 5) tells us that only in the possessing of a perfect righteousness can we enter into the kingdom of heaven. Happily, this is provided for us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as the Epistle for the week teaches. However, what we are reckoned by God the Father to be in Christ we are to strive to be in daily living.
St. Paul in the Epistle (Romans 6) tells us that it is only in union with Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, in his death, burial and resurrection that there can be genuine righteousness and therefore union with his Father and thus union with the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity.
Prayer
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.
Christ shield me today
Against wounding
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through the mighty strength
Of the Lord of creation.
Amen
O God, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 6:19-end
KNOW ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel: Matthew 5:20-26
JESUS said unto his disciples, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill: and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Reflection (by Revd Dr Peter Toon of the Prayer Book Society)
It seems reasonably sure that this Prayer is based on the words of St Paul as he quotes from Isaiah the prophet in 1 Corinthians 2:9, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’. Of course, this Collect had a history in Latin before it was made into an English Collect by Archbishop Cranmer in 1549 and then slightly revised in 1661 for the Prayer Book of 1662.
The doctrine contained in the relative clause – ‘who has prepared’ - is the mystery and yet the confidence of the Christian Hope. To be with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven in the company of the saints and with all the angels and archangels and there to enjoy the beatific vision of the Father Almighty are ‘the good things’ that pass our understanding. To live in perfect communion with the Holy Trinity [with the Father through the Son by the Holy Ghost] and in heavenly blessedness is the goal of the true Christian soul and the fulfilment of the promises of the Gospel.
But the enjoyment of God and the glorifying him for ever are only desirable and possible in and to those who truly love God - that is those who not merely love him as one amongst many, but who love him supremely and love others in the light of that love for him. The true quality of a saint is that he loves the Holy Trinity, the Father through the Son and with the Holy Ghost, chiefly and supremely and evaluates all else in the strength and light of this love.
And, since we are both sinful and morally weak, we can only love God in a way that is appropriate for loving our Creator, Redeemer and Judge, when he, as the Father, grants to us the gift and presence of his Holy Spirit, who brings the very love of God into our hearts, minds and wills. Thus it is this love, this divine and heavenly love, for which we ask here so that we can fulfil the law of God which requires us to love Him and our neighbour. In so doing we can experience by grace the fruit of such loving, including especially the enjoyment of the beatific vision of heaven.
The Lord Jesus in the Gospel for this week (Matthew 5) tells us that only in the possessing of a perfect righteousness can we enter into the kingdom of heaven. Happily, this is provided for us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as the Epistle for the week teaches. However, what we are reckoned by God the Father to be in Christ we are to strive to be in daily living.
St. Paul in the Epistle (Romans 6) tells us that it is only in union with Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, in his death, burial and resurrection that there can be genuine righteousness and therefore union with his Father and thus union with the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity.
Prayer
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.
Christ shield me today
Against wounding
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through the mighty strength
Of the Lord of creation.
Amen
READINGS AND REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle:1 St. Peter 3:8-15
BE ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
Gospel: St. Luke 5:1-11
IT came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land: and he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken; and so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.
Reflection
There is definitely a ‘Wow!’ factor in this collection of readings. It is not just that both the Epistle and the Gospel centre on Peter, the first Apostle, and that the Collect can be linked to Peter as the founder of the ‘Church [that] may joyfully serve thee [O Lord]’. It is because this extraordinary man who, from the outset, tells Jesus that he is a sinner but Jesus nevertheless calls him to follow him. This is the man whose moral courage failed him three times on the morning of the Crucifixion when he denied knowing Christ. But on this man’s shoulders, nevertheless, Jesus placed the responsibility for founding the Church. THE Church that still exists despite its splintered formulations and collectively expresses the faith outlined in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. In a drastically foreshortened version given here, the Nicene Creed affirms that:
‘We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father…
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified…’
All churches avow this faith.
When the Portuguese Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut in South India in AD 1498, imagine his surprise when he discovered churches already in existence. There is a tradition in South India that the Apostle Thomas arrived in Calicut in AD 52 and established the first Church community. If indeed this is the case, it was a consequence of the energetic efforts of the first Apostles led by Peter to spread the teachings of Christ, thus creating the Church. This energy is evidenced in the Epistles of the New Testament, written probably in the first twenty years after the Crucifixion, and these in the New Testament are the ones that survived. Scholars reckon that many more letters were written by the Apostles to the emerging Christian communities. These communities had to face Roman persecution until AD 333 when the Roman emperor Constantine established Christianity as the state religion and formalised its structure and dogma. All this came about as a result of Jesus appointing Peter [which means ‘Rock’ in Greek, and is ‘Cephas’in Aramaic], the founder of the Church, who in his own words said: ‘I am a sinful man’.
When Peter addressed Jesus as Lord, he recognised that he was in the presence of someone who was not only special and charismatic but who also radiated glimmers of his divinity. What Jesus had just done was beyond the possibilities of human capabilities.
‘[T]hey inclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners …And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’
It is also a likelihood, with some degree of ambiguity, that Peter had already witnessed the curing by Jesus of his own mother-in-law. Luke recounts this episode in ch 4 v 38-39, shortly before our reading. It is the first mention of Simon by name but, intriguingly, Luke does not actually say that Simon was present.
‘And [Jesus] arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.’
However Peter came to recognise the divine in Jesus, he also knew himself very well: ‘I am a sinful man’. And so did Jesus. Jesus would have known about Simon’s weaknesses. He would have known that Peter would deny his association with Jesus at the time of the Crucifixion.
By now, if I may be personal, you will have realised that I am fan of Peter. His livelihood was as a fisherman. He was not a scholar but he was familiar with scripture. He was an ordinary bloke (if I may use the vernacular). He was instinctive and insightful. In Luke 9:18-21, Jesus asks his disciples who the people think he is. They suggest John the Baptist, Elijah, possibly a prophet. When pressed again about who the disciples think he is, it is Peter immediately who says: ‘The Christ of God’. Peter could also be impulsive, engaging mouth before brain (an embarrassing trait that I can relate to somewhat ruefully]. The following is taken from Mark 8:31-33:
‘And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.’
Jesus is clearly very cross with Peter. But Peter could be brave. Not only did he accept his Apostleship and the dangers it brought, but when he faced death by Crucifixion himself in Rome, he chose to be crucified upside down as penance for denying Christ. And this is what I feel is most poignant about his Epistle. Peter is writing to Christians in Asia Minor, which includes present day Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean world. He applauds their compassion and humility:
‘Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous’.
But then he quotes from Psalm 34: 12-16:
‘What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.’
In Peter’s version, he says:
‘For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’
‘[L]et him refrain his tongue from evil…[l]et him eschew evil…the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’
This from a man who betrayed his Lord on the morning of the Crucifixion. What a heavy load for Peter to carry to the end of his life! Yet Jesus forgave him and appointed him as successor. At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples as they were fishing in their boats. He summons them and prepares a meal of fish and bread. Then he turns to Peter [John 21:15-19]:
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.’
Jesus said, ‘Follow me,’ signifying unto death. Wow!
But this is not all of the ‘Wow’ factor. To this day priests being ordained and bishops being commissioned have the hand of Peter placed on them symbolically to consecrate their holy role empowered through the Holy Spirit. The very fabric of the Church is imbued by the symbolic presence of Peter, the sinful man, who abandoned everything to follow Christ. Wow! Amen.
Prayer
O God,
who has given unto Thy blessed Apostle Peter
the keys to the kingdom of heaven,
and the power to bind and loose:
grant that we may be delivered,
through the help of this intercession,
from the slavery of all our sins:
Who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.
[https://www.daily-prayers.org/angels-and-saints/prayers-to-saint-peter/]
GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle:1 St. Peter 3:8-15
BE ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
Gospel: St. Luke 5:1-11
IT came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land: and he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken; and so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.
Reflection
There is definitely a ‘Wow!’ factor in this collection of readings. It is not just that both the Epistle and the Gospel centre on Peter, the first Apostle, and that the Collect can be linked to Peter as the founder of the ‘Church [that] may joyfully serve thee [O Lord]’. It is because this extraordinary man who, from the outset, tells Jesus that he is a sinner but Jesus nevertheless calls him to follow him. This is the man whose moral courage failed him three times on the morning of the Crucifixion when he denied knowing Christ. But on this man’s shoulders, nevertheless, Jesus placed the responsibility for founding the Church. THE Church that still exists despite its splintered formulations and collectively expresses the faith outlined in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. In a drastically foreshortened version given here, the Nicene Creed affirms that:
‘We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father…
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified…’
All churches avow this faith.
When the Portuguese Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut in South India in AD 1498, imagine his surprise when he discovered churches already in existence. There is a tradition in South India that the Apostle Thomas arrived in Calicut in AD 52 and established the first Church community. If indeed this is the case, it was a consequence of the energetic efforts of the first Apostles led by Peter to spread the teachings of Christ, thus creating the Church. This energy is evidenced in the Epistles of the New Testament, written probably in the first twenty years after the Crucifixion, and these in the New Testament are the ones that survived. Scholars reckon that many more letters were written by the Apostles to the emerging Christian communities. These communities had to face Roman persecution until AD 333 when the Roman emperor Constantine established Christianity as the state religion and formalised its structure and dogma. All this came about as a result of Jesus appointing Peter [which means ‘Rock’ in Greek, and is ‘Cephas’in Aramaic], the founder of the Church, who in his own words said: ‘I am a sinful man’.
When Peter addressed Jesus as Lord, he recognised that he was in the presence of someone who was not only special and charismatic but who also radiated glimmers of his divinity. What Jesus had just done was beyond the possibilities of human capabilities.
‘[T]hey inclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners …And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’
It is also a likelihood, with some degree of ambiguity, that Peter had already witnessed the curing by Jesus of his own mother-in-law. Luke recounts this episode in ch 4 v 38-39, shortly before our reading. It is the first mention of Simon by name but, intriguingly, Luke does not actually say that Simon was present.
‘And [Jesus] arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.’
However Peter came to recognise the divine in Jesus, he also knew himself very well: ‘I am a sinful man’. And so did Jesus. Jesus would have known about Simon’s weaknesses. He would have known that Peter would deny his association with Jesus at the time of the Crucifixion.
By now, if I may be personal, you will have realised that I am fan of Peter. His livelihood was as a fisherman. He was not a scholar but he was familiar with scripture. He was an ordinary bloke (if I may use the vernacular). He was instinctive and insightful. In Luke 9:18-21, Jesus asks his disciples who the people think he is. They suggest John the Baptist, Elijah, possibly a prophet. When pressed again about who the disciples think he is, it is Peter immediately who says: ‘The Christ of God’. Peter could also be impulsive, engaging mouth before brain (an embarrassing trait that I can relate to somewhat ruefully]. The following is taken from Mark 8:31-33:
‘And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.’
Jesus is clearly very cross with Peter. But Peter could be brave. Not only did he accept his Apostleship and the dangers it brought, but when he faced death by Crucifixion himself in Rome, he chose to be crucified upside down as penance for denying Christ. And this is what I feel is most poignant about his Epistle. Peter is writing to Christians in Asia Minor, which includes present day Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean world. He applauds their compassion and humility:
‘Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous’.
But then he quotes from Psalm 34: 12-16:
‘What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.’
In Peter’s version, he says:
‘For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’
‘[L]et him refrain his tongue from evil…[l]et him eschew evil…the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’
This from a man who betrayed his Lord on the morning of the Crucifixion. What a heavy load for Peter to carry to the end of his life! Yet Jesus forgave him and appointed him as successor. At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples as they were fishing in their boats. He summons them and prepares a meal of fish and bread. Then he turns to Peter [John 21:15-19]:
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.’
Jesus said, ‘Follow me,’ signifying unto death. Wow!
But this is not all of the ‘Wow’ factor. To this day priests being ordained and bishops being commissioned have the hand of Peter placed on them symbolically to consecrate their holy role empowered through the Holy Spirit. The very fabric of the Church is imbued by the symbolic presence of Peter, the sinful man, who abandoned everything to follow Christ. Wow! Amen.
Prayer
O God,
who has given unto Thy blessed Apostle Peter
the keys to the kingdom of heaven,
and the power to bind and loose:
grant that we may be delivered,
through the help of this intercession,
from the slavery of all our sins:
Who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.
[https://www.daily-prayers.org/angels-and-saints/prayers-to-saint-peter/]
readings and reflection for the fourth sunday after trinity
Collect
O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 8:18-23
I RECKON that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope: because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Gospel: Luke 6:36-42
BE ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.
Reflection
Today’s readings, as with the readings for the past few weeks, are on the theme of how we, as Christians, should live our lives in the knowledge and love of God until such time as we [shall] see face to face [1 Corinthians 13:12]. The Epistle and the Gospel readings are arguably a mismatch: the Epistle promises the glory awaiting the children of God after they have endured the sufferings of this life; and the Gospel is about how we comport ourselves in our dealings with each other and in how we cope with our own shortcomings.
‘I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,’ says Paul in the Epistle.
Paul was writing about the difficulties that the early Christians in Rome were experiencing during his time. But he could also be talking about our time. As a reminder that it has been 72 years since the founding of the NHS, one newspaper published on its front page the photographs of the 182 NHS and care home workers who have lost their lives to the coronavirus pandemic. On other front pages are images of the confrontation in Hong Kong between demonstrators and the authorities over the new law passed by the government in Beijing to control dissent in the former British territory. We are still living with the outpouring of grief, justifiably so, from the death of the American George Floyd as he was taken into custody by the police. The list of moments in the history of human misery is countless and endless. These are ‘the sufferings of this present time’.
Paul was writing his letter to bolster the morale of the Christians in Rome. He was concerned not only to offer encouragement but also to ensure that the tiny Christian community there would survive. If they could just hang in there, not renege on their faith, God would reveal the glory awaiting all Christians:
‘For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now… even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’
The body meant very little to Paul. He lived the life of an ascetic. He chose a life of celibacy while also recognising that it did not suit everybody. But he was passionate about the integrity of the human soul. Yes, this life is ‘in bondage to decay’ [an alternative rendering of Rom 8:21 NRSV], but its hope lies in ‘redemption’. For Paul, saving the soul in order for people to be reunited with God as the children of God was everything. He was the self-appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, and he saw his vocation as supporting those who had converted to Christianity. His letter is about not giving up the faith, about not compromising the soul despite the difficulties of the time. In this sense, Paul’s Epistle chimes with the Gospel reading from Luke.
In the Gospel, Jesus is also teaching about the Christian life. He is guiding his followers not to assume that they are in any way better than their fellow Christians, or even their fellow non-Christians. Luke was a Gentile, not a Jew. He wrote for Gentile converts. Scholars think his Gospel was written in about AD 80-85. This was also a difficult time for Christians. There was the threat of persecution from the Romans and the Jews refused to have anything to do with them. Despite all this, Jesus was urging people to maintain a Christian life style. They were not to be judgemental, and they were to be insightful about their own lifestyles and behaviour. A truly momentous task, but only by living in this way could they reflect the love that had been given them by God. Each one of us is made in the image of God, we were created by him in love and called by name. Jesus’ Second Commandment is that we love one another as He has loved us. We are created in love and it is a natural thing for us to offer love to one another in all that we think and do.
The Gospel passage contains memorable phrases:
‘Judge not, and ye shall not be judged;’
‘Can the blind lead the blind;’
‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceives not the beam that is in thine own eye?’
They are all about self-insight. Jesus is saying that before we can help others, we have to help ourselves. We cannot judge others without the honesty of self-reflection. Yes, our impulse is to help others but if we can’t see where we are going because we have similar problems how can we help others?
Self-knowledge and self-insight can be among the most painful of human experiences. The early Desert Fathers who lived lives of great ascetism in the desert chose to do so because firstly they lived far away from the intrusive world of civilisation, and also because they were free to examine their own consciences. They lived their whole lives contemplating their own shortcomings. These two examples explain this more.
The Desert Fathers separated themselves deliberately from the temptations of the everyday world but even they knew how self-delusion could follow them even into the isolation of their desert cells. The second quotation in particular resonates with Christ’s words about ‘the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceives not the beam that is in thine own eye?’
We live in a judgemental world. We see it everyday in the media. Journalists are trained to ask penetrating sometimes judgemental questions to expose hypocrisy and self-delusion. We make up our own minds about what’s in the news even though we might not have the whole story. For instance, at the beginning of lockdown, a story appeared in the press about a nurse who was self-isolating in a holiday home. She chose to do this to safeguard her family from Covid-19. Neighbours though that she was on holiday and slashed her car’s tyres. They had not even thought to talk to her. Without the whole story, we make misjudgements. I’m sure most of us can own up to that. This is what Jesus is saying about how we conduct ourselves. We are weak and we fail. Only God does not fail. As it says in the Collect, we need God to protect us and support us in his holiness and mercy.
‘Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal.’
Heavenly Father, we need all the help you can give us so that we survive the difficulties of this world, help us to maintain our faith and integrity so that we can achieve life eternal as children of God. Amen.
Prayer
Jesus, Saviour of the world,
come to us in your mercy:
we look to you to save and help us.
By your cross and your life laid down,
you set your people free:
we look to you to save and help us.
When they were ready to perish,
you saved your disciples:
we look to you to come to our help.
In the greatness of your mercy,
loose us from our chains,
forgive the sins of all your people.
Make yourself known as our Saviour
and mighty deliverer;
save and help us that we may praise you.
Come now and dwell with us, Lord
Christ Jesus:
hear our prayer and be with us always.
And when you come in your glory:
make us to be one with you
and to share the life of your kingdom. Amen
O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: Romans 8:18-23
I RECKON that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope: because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Gospel: Luke 6:36-42
BE ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.
Reflection
Today’s readings, as with the readings for the past few weeks, are on the theme of how we, as Christians, should live our lives in the knowledge and love of God until such time as we [shall] see face to face [1 Corinthians 13:12]. The Epistle and the Gospel readings are arguably a mismatch: the Epistle promises the glory awaiting the children of God after they have endured the sufferings of this life; and the Gospel is about how we comport ourselves in our dealings with each other and in how we cope with our own shortcomings.
‘I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,’ says Paul in the Epistle.
Paul was writing about the difficulties that the early Christians in Rome were experiencing during his time. But he could also be talking about our time. As a reminder that it has been 72 years since the founding of the NHS, one newspaper published on its front page the photographs of the 182 NHS and care home workers who have lost their lives to the coronavirus pandemic. On other front pages are images of the confrontation in Hong Kong between demonstrators and the authorities over the new law passed by the government in Beijing to control dissent in the former British territory. We are still living with the outpouring of grief, justifiably so, from the death of the American George Floyd as he was taken into custody by the police. The list of moments in the history of human misery is countless and endless. These are ‘the sufferings of this present time’.
Paul was writing his letter to bolster the morale of the Christians in Rome. He was concerned not only to offer encouragement but also to ensure that the tiny Christian community there would survive. If they could just hang in there, not renege on their faith, God would reveal the glory awaiting all Christians:
‘For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now… even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’
The body meant very little to Paul. He lived the life of an ascetic. He chose a life of celibacy while also recognising that it did not suit everybody. But he was passionate about the integrity of the human soul. Yes, this life is ‘in bondage to decay’ [an alternative rendering of Rom 8:21 NRSV], but its hope lies in ‘redemption’. For Paul, saving the soul in order for people to be reunited with God as the children of God was everything. He was the self-appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, and he saw his vocation as supporting those who had converted to Christianity. His letter is about not giving up the faith, about not compromising the soul despite the difficulties of the time. In this sense, Paul’s Epistle chimes with the Gospel reading from Luke.
In the Gospel, Jesus is also teaching about the Christian life. He is guiding his followers not to assume that they are in any way better than their fellow Christians, or even their fellow non-Christians. Luke was a Gentile, not a Jew. He wrote for Gentile converts. Scholars think his Gospel was written in about AD 80-85. This was also a difficult time for Christians. There was the threat of persecution from the Romans and the Jews refused to have anything to do with them. Despite all this, Jesus was urging people to maintain a Christian life style. They were not to be judgemental, and they were to be insightful about their own lifestyles and behaviour. A truly momentous task, but only by living in this way could they reflect the love that had been given them by God. Each one of us is made in the image of God, we were created by him in love and called by name. Jesus’ Second Commandment is that we love one another as He has loved us. We are created in love and it is a natural thing for us to offer love to one another in all that we think and do.
The Gospel passage contains memorable phrases:
‘Judge not, and ye shall not be judged;’
‘Can the blind lead the blind;’
‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceives not the beam that is in thine own eye?’
They are all about self-insight. Jesus is saying that before we can help others, we have to help ourselves. We cannot judge others without the honesty of self-reflection. Yes, our impulse is to help others but if we can’t see where we are going because we have similar problems how can we help others?
Self-knowledge and self-insight can be among the most painful of human experiences. The early Desert Fathers who lived lives of great ascetism in the desert chose to do so because firstly they lived far away from the intrusive world of civilisation, and also because they were free to examine their own consciences. They lived their whole lives contemplating their own shortcomings. These two examples explain this more.
- ‘Abba [Father] Antony said to Abba Poemen: “This is the work of a man; always take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.”’
- ‘Abba Moses said, “When someone is occupied with his own faults, he does not see those of his neighbour.”’
The Desert Fathers separated themselves deliberately from the temptations of the everyday world but even they knew how self-delusion could follow them even into the isolation of their desert cells. The second quotation in particular resonates with Christ’s words about ‘the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceives not the beam that is in thine own eye?’
We live in a judgemental world. We see it everyday in the media. Journalists are trained to ask penetrating sometimes judgemental questions to expose hypocrisy and self-delusion. We make up our own minds about what’s in the news even though we might not have the whole story. For instance, at the beginning of lockdown, a story appeared in the press about a nurse who was self-isolating in a holiday home. She chose to do this to safeguard her family from Covid-19. Neighbours though that she was on holiday and slashed her car’s tyres. They had not even thought to talk to her. Without the whole story, we make misjudgements. I’m sure most of us can own up to that. This is what Jesus is saying about how we conduct ourselves. We are weak and we fail. Only God does not fail. As it says in the Collect, we need God to protect us and support us in his holiness and mercy.
‘Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal.’
Heavenly Father, we need all the help you can give us so that we survive the difficulties of this world, help us to maintain our faith and integrity so that we can achieve life eternal as children of God. Amen.
Prayer
Jesus, Saviour of the world,
come to us in your mercy:
we look to you to save and help us.
By your cross and your life laid down,
you set your people free:
we look to you to save and help us.
When they were ready to perish,
you saved your disciples:
we look to you to come to our help.
In the greatness of your mercy,
loose us from our chains,
forgive the sins of all your people.
Make yourself known as our Saviour
and mighty deliverer;
save and help us that we may praise you.
Come now and dwell with us, Lord
Christ Jesus:
hear our prayer and be with us always.
And when you come in your glory:
make us to be one with you
and to share the life of your kingdom. Amen
readings and reflection for the third sunday after trinity
Collect
O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle:1 Peter 5:5-11
ALL of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 15:1-10
THEN drew near unto him all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Reflection
The Collect and Readings for this Third Sunday After Trinity have as a central theme: authenticity; the real thing; genuineness. The Epistle calls us to be clothed in humility…[God] giveth grace to the humble…[h]umble yourselves therefore. One of my reactions when I first read this, was to recall the character Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. The sinister Heep clothed himself in the fantasy of being a humble man but in reality was evil and manipulative, the embodiment of sycophancy. Even now, just recalling him sends shivers down my spine because he aptly fits the image of the adversary, the devil…[who] walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
In terms of authenticity, the ‘humble’ Uriah Heep is certainly not the real thing, and is certainly not the embodiment of the kind of humility that Peter is talking about. So what do we understand to be authentic humility?
Beginning with the Collect, God ‘hast given [us, His creation] an hearty desire to pray’. I was struck by the use of the word ‘hearty’. ‘Hearty’ is not being used in the worldly sense of a deeply ‘hearty’ [happy] laugh, or in the sense of having a ‘hearty [healthy] appetite, nor in the sense of enjoying a ‘hearty’ [very filling] meal. The word ‘hearty’ is used here in the sense of being in and coming from the heart, from the very centre of our being, a metaphorical use of the word ‘heart’ rather than a medical one. God has given us the desire to pray as the central part of our being, and where prayer is centred, there also is God. It is through prayer that we are able to appeal to God for help in our darkest times:
‘[M]ay [we] by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities’.
Coping in the current coronavirus pandemic is the kind of situation that the Collect is addressing. A genuine need for help supported by a genuine cry for help.
It is in the context of seeking help in desperate need that Peter has written the epistle.
‘[B]e clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.’
But essentially, it is about how those in receipt of the letter are to behave as a community.
‘All of you be subject one to another.’
Scholars think that Peter was writing at a time when Christians were under threat, possibly during the latter half of the first century AD. The name ‘Christian’ had become a form of abuse, levelled at Christians by Jews and Gentiles. Christians were no longer permitted to enter synagogues, and it took great spiritual courage for the early Christians to maintain their faith. They are encouraged by Peter to be:
‘stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.’
And that God will support them (and us) and ‘make you (and us) perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you’.
A genuine faith in God held during adversity will reap its genuine reward. Sometimes, this might not be precisely what we pray for but God will give to us what we truly need.
‘But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’
[St Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:19].
The Gospel reading is more akin to the Collect in that God responds to the cry for help. It comes as a genuine plea from the heart, from the centre of our being. God seeks out the lost, whether it is because of loss of faith, or loss self-belief, or possibly the loss we suffer when we are estranged from all we know and love.
There is also a sense of irony in that the Pharisees and Scribes accuse Jesus of seeking out those who attract censure because of their immorality or their chosen profession as tax collectors [Publicans]. These last are seen as corrupt because of their willingness to collaborate with the Romans and for their self-serving opportunism when collecting Roman taxes. The irony lies in the fact that at the beginning of Chapter 14 (the previous chapter), Luke describes Christ sharing a meal with a Pharisee on the Sabbath. Pharisees regarded themselves as upright followers of God. They looked down on the company Jesus has chosen to eat with:
‘This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them’.
Arguably, this includes themselves if the two meals are taken together as examples of who Jesus has chosen to eat with.
It could be the case that in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, that the sheep and coins that were not lost represent those that don’t need God’s help, at least not at that same moment, such like the Pharisees and Scribes who are observing Jesus.
‘I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance’.
The shepherd looking for the lost sheep, and the woman seeking her lost coin are metaphors for God seeking out those who have gone astray. When those who have gone astray are found, it is because they have accepted that they must return to the community of God, which is their natural home. Repentance is about changing your lifestyle for the better, to turn away genuinely from a lifestyle that is ruinous and harmful because it is a lifestyle that invites a willingness to countenance evil.
‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour’. [the Epistle].
Jesus was and is prepared to sit down to eat with all and sundry. All are invited to his table, the good and those who have strayed. His is a genuine invitation to dine with God; and those who accept are those who are genuinely willing to approach God.
An authentic faith in God expresses itself from the heart, which has been given the gift of prayer, a way of talking to God. God is there when things are going well, and when things are difficult. God can hear the genuine cry for help from the heart from the humble penitent. Amen.
Prayer
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour:
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own Interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
[William Cowper]
Tribulation worketh patience;
and patience, experience;
and experience, hope;
and hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the holy Ghost which is given unto us. Amen.
(Romans 5:3ff)
O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle:1 Peter 5:5-11
ALL of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 15:1-10
THEN drew near unto him all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Reflection
The Collect and Readings for this Third Sunday After Trinity have as a central theme: authenticity; the real thing; genuineness. The Epistle calls us to be clothed in humility…[God] giveth grace to the humble…[h]umble yourselves therefore. One of my reactions when I first read this, was to recall the character Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. The sinister Heep clothed himself in the fantasy of being a humble man but in reality was evil and manipulative, the embodiment of sycophancy. Even now, just recalling him sends shivers down my spine because he aptly fits the image of the adversary, the devil…[who] walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
In terms of authenticity, the ‘humble’ Uriah Heep is certainly not the real thing, and is certainly not the embodiment of the kind of humility that Peter is talking about. So what do we understand to be authentic humility?
Beginning with the Collect, God ‘hast given [us, His creation] an hearty desire to pray’. I was struck by the use of the word ‘hearty’. ‘Hearty’ is not being used in the worldly sense of a deeply ‘hearty’ [happy] laugh, or in the sense of having a ‘hearty [healthy] appetite, nor in the sense of enjoying a ‘hearty’ [very filling] meal. The word ‘hearty’ is used here in the sense of being in and coming from the heart, from the very centre of our being, a metaphorical use of the word ‘heart’ rather than a medical one. God has given us the desire to pray as the central part of our being, and where prayer is centred, there also is God. It is through prayer that we are able to appeal to God for help in our darkest times:
‘[M]ay [we] by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities’.
Coping in the current coronavirus pandemic is the kind of situation that the Collect is addressing. A genuine need for help supported by a genuine cry for help.
It is in the context of seeking help in desperate need that Peter has written the epistle.
‘[B]e clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.’
But essentially, it is about how those in receipt of the letter are to behave as a community.
‘All of you be subject one to another.’
Scholars think that Peter was writing at a time when Christians were under threat, possibly during the latter half of the first century AD. The name ‘Christian’ had become a form of abuse, levelled at Christians by Jews and Gentiles. Christians were no longer permitted to enter synagogues, and it took great spiritual courage for the early Christians to maintain their faith. They are encouraged by Peter to be:
‘stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.’
And that God will support them (and us) and ‘make you (and us) perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you’.
A genuine faith in God held during adversity will reap its genuine reward. Sometimes, this might not be precisely what we pray for but God will give to us what we truly need.
‘But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’
[St Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:19].
The Gospel reading is more akin to the Collect in that God responds to the cry for help. It comes as a genuine plea from the heart, from the centre of our being. God seeks out the lost, whether it is because of loss of faith, or loss self-belief, or possibly the loss we suffer when we are estranged from all we know and love.
There is also a sense of irony in that the Pharisees and Scribes accuse Jesus of seeking out those who attract censure because of their immorality or their chosen profession as tax collectors [Publicans]. These last are seen as corrupt because of their willingness to collaborate with the Romans and for their self-serving opportunism when collecting Roman taxes. The irony lies in the fact that at the beginning of Chapter 14 (the previous chapter), Luke describes Christ sharing a meal with a Pharisee on the Sabbath. Pharisees regarded themselves as upright followers of God. They looked down on the company Jesus has chosen to eat with:
‘This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them’.
Arguably, this includes themselves if the two meals are taken together as examples of who Jesus has chosen to eat with.
It could be the case that in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, that the sheep and coins that were not lost represent those that don’t need God’s help, at least not at that same moment, such like the Pharisees and Scribes who are observing Jesus.
‘I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance’.
The shepherd looking for the lost sheep, and the woman seeking her lost coin are metaphors for God seeking out those who have gone astray. When those who have gone astray are found, it is because they have accepted that they must return to the community of God, which is their natural home. Repentance is about changing your lifestyle for the better, to turn away genuinely from a lifestyle that is ruinous and harmful because it is a lifestyle that invites a willingness to countenance evil.
‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour’. [the Epistle].
Jesus was and is prepared to sit down to eat with all and sundry. All are invited to his table, the good and those who have strayed. His is a genuine invitation to dine with God; and those who accept are those who are genuinely willing to approach God.
An authentic faith in God expresses itself from the heart, which has been given the gift of prayer, a way of talking to God. God is there when things are going well, and when things are difficult. God can hear the genuine cry for help from the heart from the humble penitent. Amen.
Prayer
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour:
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own Interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
[William Cowper]
Tribulation worketh patience;
and patience, experience;
and experience, hope;
and hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the holy Ghost which is given unto us. Amen.
(Romans 5:3ff)
readings and reflection for the second sunday after trinity
Collect
O LORD, who never failest to help and govern them who thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love: Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 St. John 3:13-end
MARVEL not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him; how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed, and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him: and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
Gospel: St. Luke 14:16-24
A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many; and sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the high-ways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
Reflection
All three readings are about status and relationships within a pecking order. The Collect petitions God to:
‘Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name’.
The relationship here is obvious: that the created are obligated to the Creator for ‘the
protection of thy good providence’. We are subjects of and beholden to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ‘to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name’.
The fear of God can be understood in one of two ways. We fear God as Judge, but we also know that God the Son came into the world to redeem us from our transgressions, to save us from our weaknesses, through His grace and His love freely given on the Cross. There is also another understanding of the fear of God: that of awe at God’s power and majesty and glory. This relates to ‘love of thy holy Name’. To love God’s Holy Name is to love the revealed Character of God, God Himself as Father [or Mother], the Creator, or God in Three Persons, in the Father, or in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, or in His Holy Spirit. Christ’s First Commandment is to:
‘Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength and with all our soul’; as Jesus loves us.
God is love and we are created and live in the overwhelming strength and power of God’s love. The fear and love of God are two sides of the same coin.
John’s epistle reminds us of Christ’s Second Commandment:
‘That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.’
To love our brothers and sisters in Christ provides for a different relationship, one where status is shared. Those who follow Christ are equals in faith, no matter what social status we have as individuals as a result of privilege or job or income. We are ‘brethren’. As Christians we all have a stake in Christ Jesus through the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection. The poor Christian is valued by God and by each of the brethren just as much as the rich Christian is valued by God and by each of the brethren through the love we have for one another and which is of course the natural product of God’s love. Rich and poor Christians love and respect each other, or at least the implication is that we should. To make use of that awful cliché, Christian fellowship is a level playing field.
This is not either about whether Christian A is a better Christian than Christian B: it’s not about comparing Josephine Bloggs with Mother Theresa. It is about the attitude of Christians towards each other as part of the Body of Christ.
I used to work in the local men’s prison as a teacher. The work of their chaplaincy was remarkable and many of the inmates were quite receptive to the Christian message. The chaplaincy had to obey the rules of the justice system just like everybody else who worked there because, ultimately, they, as all prison workers are, are responsible ultimately to the public in order to keep them safe. But that doesn’t mean that as members of the Body of Christ we treat them as Christians as anything less than brethren. Some Christians achieve wonderful things, which the world applauds; others do terrible things, which the world abhors. But if we recognise our wrongs and repent [that is turn away from wrongdoing], then we and others who do wrong are worthy of Christian forgiveness as equal members of the Body of Christ. Those who have transgressed appallingly do, of course, still have to pay their debts to society.
Finally, we come to the Gospel reading. In this parable, Jesus is intentionally focusing on the social mores of his day, involving the ranks of social status, but with the purpose of introducing the idea that John writes in his epistle, that the followers of God are equal in His eyes. It is also a little more subtle in that those who refuse to come to the man’s supper could be said to represent the Jews who ignore Christ’s message. The mention of supper reminds all Christians of the Last Supper, which we commemorate and share with God in the Eucharist, and which was the last meal Christ shared with the apostles.
Social status acknowledged by where people sit for meals has long been a social and cultural practice. Royalty and high ranking families would routinely sit apart from low ranking and no ranking people. Those of you who remember your Shakespeare, will perhaps recognise the banqueting scene from Macbeth in which Macbeth, the regicide, welcomes his guests by acknowledging their status as nobles:
‘You know your own degrees; sit down [according to your social status]. At first [rank] and last [rank] the hearty welcome.’
Some minutes later, Macbeth has seemingly lost his mind at seeing Banquo’s ghost which the others cannot see. Lady Macbeth ushers the guests out:
‘Stand not upon the [social ranking] order of your going but go at once.’ In other words she asks them not to observe the usual protocols of status and to leave as hastily as possible.
We can still see this seating protocol as a ritual practised at high table in some universities, and the observed protocol of state dinners [when seen TV news footage, for instance]. The important guest sits next to the Queen. The protocol is also observed, say, at weddings where the bridal couple and their parents or close friends sit at the substitute of a high table.
The man giving the supper is a man of some importance. His guests are also of some level of high rank. To refuse such an invitation would have been regarded as a serious insult. And this is how the host took the refusals. In his anger, he orders his servant to:
‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.’
When all these people had been gathered up and there was still room for more, the host ordered again:
‘Go out into the high-ways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’
It might be thought that the angered host in his pique had over-reacted to the refusals of his guests by ordering his servant to gather up the hoi polloi of society but this would be a misunderstanding. Some theologians would use this parable and instances elsewhere in the Gospels to indicate the possibility that at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus intended first to bring his message to the chosen people of God, the Jews, and then gradually widened it to be all inclusive. It’s an interesting thought. Here, there might be some substance to that theory. The host is God calling the Jews to his table, but they refuse. Therefore, God extends his invitation to the lowly ranked Jews and the non-Jews. They respond in great numbers. It is worth mentioning at this point that Luke was a Gentile, possibly from Syria. He is also usually identified as the author of the Book of Acts, which focuses on the activities of the apostles. His Gospel is dated around AD 80-85. By this time, many orthodox Jews had rejected the early Christians, who in turn were beginning to be subjected to persecution. This context of Orthodox Jewry rejecting the word of God by refusing to come to the Lord’s table perhaps makes some sense in the parable. It also suggests that the old hierarchy of the chosen people of God being confined to the people of Israel has been abandoned: that the Lord’s table and the Word of God are offered to everyone, regardless of whether they are Jews or not, regardless of whether they have social status or not. In other words, the Lord offers himself to everyone and they who accept the invitation become members of the Body of Christ, people who love one another just as Christ loves them equally. Amen.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
you taught us to love our neighbour,
and to care for those in need
as if we were caring for you.
In this time of anxiety, give us strength
to comfort the fearful, to tend the sick,
and to assure the isolated
of our love, and your love,
for your name’s sake.
Amen.
readings and reflection for the first sunday after trinity
Collect
O GOD, the strength of all them that put their trust in thee, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping of thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 St. John 4:7-end
BELOVED, let us love one another: for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us; because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment: he that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
Gospel: St. Luke 16:19-end
THERE was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried: and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Reflection
The Readings for today need to be taken together. The Collect reminds us that those of us who follow God cannot exist separately from God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Without prayer and with only our human weakness to prop us up, we cannot do anything without God’s help.
The Christian name for God is Trinity [Trinitas in Latin]. We celebrated Trinity Sunday last week, and from now until Advent and the beginning of the next ecclesiastical year, we are mindful of that Triune unity. The Epistle reminds us of what it means to be Christian: that we love one another just as Jesus loves us.
‘…for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God.’
‘He that loveth not knoweth not God.’ In the parable, Jesus describes the rich man in his purple robes, who loves his way of life: dressing in fine clothes, eating and drinking rich food and choice wines. But he leaves Lazarus [not the Lazarus of John 11:1-44] to languish at his gate, living off the crumbs from his table, severely undernourished and covered in sores, and unloved. Lazarus has absolutely nothing.
The rich man is exceedingly rich. The purple dye that coloured his clothes was sourced in pre-modern days from sea snails [bolinus bandaris]. The trade centred on the city of Tyre, now in present day Lebanon. Called ‘Tyrian purple’, the dye was expensive to produce. It took an estimated 250,000 snails to produce one ounce of dye. Only the very rich could afford it. The Roman emperors at one point made it illegal for anyone other than the imperial class to be able to wear it, and it was only in the nineteenth century that the monopoly was challenged by the introduction of synthetic dyes.
When the rich man finds himself in hell, he cannot understand what he must have done wrong to find himself there. When he asks Abraham to let Lazarus help him, Abraham tells him that there is no congress between heaven and hell. After death, you stay where judgement has placed you. So, the rich man asks for help for his family who are still alive. Abraham replies that his family have all they need to help them to heaven. They have the scriptures.
‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.’
At this point, Jesus includes himself although the disciples and others who are listening to him might not have understood his reference to the Resurrection, which is yet to come. This will symbolise all that God has done for his creation and in particular for us. The Crucifixion is the ultimate loving gesture that the God of love gives to us. It is through love that we are saved from our sins, and through that love we can change our lives for the better. And the Resurrection is proof of life after death. But we have to be receptive to God’s love.
Jesus knows the scriptures very well, and so should the rich man and his family. In Matthew [22:37-40], Jesus gives his Two Great Commandments, and it is the ramifications of these Commandments that John reflects upon in his letter:
‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ [Matthew 22:37-40].
When Jesus says these words, it is in response to a question from a Pharisee, conversant in the law. It was one of the many occasions when the Pharisees and others tried to challenge him. Jesus knew the scriptures just as he knew that the Pharisee did also. What Jesus is saying in the parable through Abraham is that the rich man should have learned and known from the holy scriptures that he should not have ignored the beggar Lazarus. He should have helped him. He should have heard the word of God.
In the Book of Leviticus, which is the book that codifies the Ten Commandments, and systematises sacred practice and behaviour, it says in Lev 19:18b:
‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.’
Jesus repeats the words in Matthew 22.
The Book of Deuteronomy, [Deuteronomy means ‘second law’], reasserts the Covenant between God and the people of Israel. And although at this point in the history of the relationship between God and humankind, the Israelites are named as God’s chosen people, in Deut 10:17-18, this is what God says about those less well off than oneself, the orphan, the widow and the stranger, who could be a beggar:
‘For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.’
When the passage mentions that God ‘regardeth not persons’, it is talking about people of means or rank, possibly celebrities in today’s parlance. God has no especial regard for important people.
The passage from John’s epistle ends:
‘We love him [God], because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.’
Taken collectively, it becomes clear that the Readings are about the God of love, and through God’s love and because of God’s love, we love one another. The rich man probably loved his family but he forgot about the poor and the unfortunate, the stranger. As John says, it is impossible to say you love God when you pay no regard to the stranger, the beggar, and those less fortunate than yourself. God is love. The whole of Creation was born out of love. Nothing and no one is not entitled to God’s love.
This might be very difficult for some of us, particularly if we are victims of pain, abuse of any sort, and other misfortunes. It is appropriate not to forgive too soon and justice also needs to done and to be seen to be done. Many people are entitled to redress. But it is remarkable that many people who have been demonstrating recently as a result of the death of George Floyd have been peaceful. They have not been shouting slogans of hate. Just the opposite. Watching the news, many people have voiced their tiredness at the fact that brutal behaviour against people of colour is still going on, still now in the modern era. Tiredness was voiced by many people. Not hate. People of all colours and ethnicities have joined in the plea to stop this unequal treatment. People of all faiths and none have participated in the demonstrations. Hate is not going to improve matters; only love. Only by working together in fellowship and love will it be possible to make our world less fearful to live in.
The rich man failed to learn this lesson. He was deaf to the scriptures. Being only concerned about one’s own needs is not enough. We are working towards the reality of the Kingdom of God in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It could happen tomorrow if we were sufficiently receptive to its existence.
I will finish with words from John’s epistle:
‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us; because he hath given us of his Spirit.’
Amen.
Prayer
Lord God of love,
Holy Trinity,
We ask that you remain with us during the current crisis.
As some of the lockdown is lifted,
And people return to work,
And children to school,
We ask that you keep us safe in your love.
Help us to remember the stranger and our neighbour,
The poor and dispossessed.
Help us to remember that equality is shared among all your people,
Through your love,
Through your sacrifice.
Through your Holy Spirit.
Help us to recognise our similarities.
Help us to value our differences,
We are all children of the One God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O GOD, the strength of all them that put their trust in thee, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping of thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: 1 St. John 4:7-end
BELOVED, let us love one another: for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us; because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment: he that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
Gospel: St. Luke 16:19-end
THERE was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried: and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Reflection
The Readings for today need to be taken together. The Collect reminds us that those of us who follow God cannot exist separately from God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Without prayer and with only our human weakness to prop us up, we cannot do anything without God’s help.
The Christian name for God is Trinity [Trinitas in Latin]. We celebrated Trinity Sunday last week, and from now until Advent and the beginning of the next ecclesiastical year, we are mindful of that Triune unity. The Epistle reminds us of what it means to be Christian: that we love one another just as Jesus loves us.
‘…for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God.’
‘He that loveth not knoweth not God.’ In the parable, Jesus describes the rich man in his purple robes, who loves his way of life: dressing in fine clothes, eating and drinking rich food and choice wines. But he leaves Lazarus [not the Lazarus of John 11:1-44] to languish at his gate, living off the crumbs from his table, severely undernourished and covered in sores, and unloved. Lazarus has absolutely nothing.
The rich man is exceedingly rich. The purple dye that coloured his clothes was sourced in pre-modern days from sea snails [bolinus bandaris]. The trade centred on the city of Tyre, now in present day Lebanon. Called ‘Tyrian purple’, the dye was expensive to produce. It took an estimated 250,000 snails to produce one ounce of dye. Only the very rich could afford it. The Roman emperors at one point made it illegal for anyone other than the imperial class to be able to wear it, and it was only in the nineteenth century that the monopoly was challenged by the introduction of synthetic dyes.
When the rich man finds himself in hell, he cannot understand what he must have done wrong to find himself there. When he asks Abraham to let Lazarus help him, Abraham tells him that there is no congress between heaven and hell. After death, you stay where judgement has placed you. So, the rich man asks for help for his family who are still alive. Abraham replies that his family have all they need to help them to heaven. They have the scriptures.
‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.’
At this point, Jesus includes himself although the disciples and others who are listening to him might not have understood his reference to the Resurrection, which is yet to come. This will symbolise all that God has done for his creation and in particular for us. The Crucifixion is the ultimate loving gesture that the God of love gives to us. It is through love that we are saved from our sins, and through that love we can change our lives for the better. And the Resurrection is proof of life after death. But we have to be receptive to God’s love.
Jesus knows the scriptures very well, and so should the rich man and his family. In Matthew [22:37-40], Jesus gives his Two Great Commandments, and it is the ramifications of these Commandments that John reflects upon in his letter:
‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ [Matthew 22:37-40].
When Jesus says these words, it is in response to a question from a Pharisee, conversant in the law. It was one of the many occasions when the Pharisees and others tried to challenge him. Jesus knew the scriptures just as he knew that the Pharisee did also. What Jesus is saying in the parable through Abraham is that the rich man should have learned and known from the holy scriptures that he should not have ignored the beggar Lazarus. He should have helped him. He should have heard the word of God.
In the Book of Leviticus, which is the book that codifies the Ten Commandments, and systematises sacred practice and behaviour, it says in Lev 19:18b:
‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.’
Jesus repeats the words in Matthew 22.
The Book of Deuteronomy, [Deuteronomy means ‘second law’], reasserts the Covenant between God and the people of Israel. And although at this point in the history of the relationship between God and humankind, the Israelites are named as God’s chosen people, in Deut 10:17-18, this is what God says about those less well off than oneself, the orphan, the widow and the stranger, who could be a beggar:
‘For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.’
When the passage mentions that God ‘regardeth not persons’, it is talking about people of means or rank, possibly celebrities in today’s parlance. God has no especial regard for important people.
The passage from John’s epistle ends:
‘We love him [God], because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.’
Taken collectively, it becomes clear that the Readings are about the God of love, and through God’s love and because of God’s love, we love one another. The rich man probably loved his family but he forgot about the poor and the unfortunate, the stranger. As John says, it is impossible to say you love God when you pay no regard to the stranger, the beggar, and those less fortunate than yourself. God is love. The whole of Creation was born out of love. Nothing and no one is not entitled to God’s love.
This might be very difficult for some of us, particularly if we are victims of pain, abuse of any sort, and other misfortunes. It is appropriate not to forgive too soon and justice also needs to done and to be seen to be done. Many people are entitled to redress. But it is remarkable that many people who have been demonstrating recently as a result of the death of George Floyd have been peaceful. They have not been shouting slogans of hate. Just the opposite. Watching the news, many people have voiced their tiredness at the fact that brutal behaviour against people of colour is still going on, still now in the modern era. Tiredness was voiced by many people. Not hate. People of all colours and ethnicities have joined in the plea to stop this unequal treatment. People of all faiths and none have participated in the demonstrations. Hate is not going to improve matters; only love. Only by working together in fellowship and love will it be possible to make our world less fearful to live in.
The rich man failed to learn this lesson. He was deaf to the scriptures. Being only concerned about one’s own needs is not enough. We are working towards the reality of the Kingdom of God in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It could happen tomorrow if we were sufficiently receptive to its existence.
I will finish with words from John’s epistle:
‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us; because he hath given us of his Spirit.’
Amen.
Prayer
Lord God of love,
Holy Trinity,
We ask that you remain with us during the current crisis.
As some of the lockdown is lifted,
And people return to work,
And children to school,
We ask that you keep us safe in your love.
Help us to remember the stranger and our neighbour,
The poor and dispossessed.
Help us to remember that equality is shared among all your people,
Through your love,
Through your sacrifice.
Through your Holy Spirit.
Help us to recognise our similarities.
Help us to value our differences,
We are all children of the One God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
readings and reflection for trinity sunday
Sunday, 7th June, 2020
Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Revelation 4:1-end
AFTER this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne: and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold: and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.
Gospel: St. John 3:1-15
THERE was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not; how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Reflection
In many ways, Trinity Sunday heralds a sense of the everyday. The Lectionary year begins with Advent, then takes us on the journey of revelation that is paced through the sense of hope as the light of God enters the world, commemorated at Christmas with the birth of Christ. Then it moves on through Epiphany to the drama of Easter and the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Easter is a time of deep reflection and joy at the outcome and the knowledge that the love of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, committed himself to the pain and indignity of a Roman execution in order to redeem us from our sins; and his Resurrection was proof of his victory over death and of his incarnation. Christ was and is both fully human and fully God. Then come the final acts of the Ascension and Whitsun, when the humanity of Jesus returns to the divinity of God, and we are given the additional support of the Holy Spirit. We now come to understand the Son as the Word in relation to the Creator, and to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Triune God. The Word was with God in beginning [John 1:1-2] and the Word has returned to God, leaving the Apostles to continue God’s work with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of the Trinity reminds us of the complexity and the normality of our relationship with God. For the Apostles, once the person of Jesus on earth had gone, the revelation of the Trinity became the new normal, as it is for us.
There is a huge reservoir of scholarship that discusses what is meant more precisely when we talk about the Trinity, but many people do not need to study the highly intellectualised complexity behind this. Many people, instinctively, have an individual relationship with God without worrying too much about the whys and wherefores. When I once was preaching on a Trinity Sunday [not at St Mary’s], I asked the congregation to put their hands up if they found it easier to pray to 1) the Father, 2) the Son, and 3) the Holy Spirit, or all three. The response was interesting. In varying numbers, people put their hands up as I went through this. Some people feel more comfortable praying to God the Father, and/or God the Son, and/or God the Holy Spirit. This is the norm. The drama of the story of Jesus inevitably leads us to this reality. God is with us and around us and within us and accompanies on our journey through life and can be called upon in pain, sorrow and joy, because God in Jesus has already shared in these experiences. The Cross is a symbol of pain and death but also of the ultimate victory of faith that overrides human weakness.
The Collect and Readings are not an easy fit. That is because the Festival of the Trinity was decided upon in the fourteenth century and the readings had been decided upon much earlier. So, the Collect reflects the Triune God, which is also repeated in the Proper Preface for Trinity Sunday:
‘It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places, give thanks unto thee O Lord, Almighty Everlasting God. Who art one God, one Lord; not one only Person, but Three Persons in one Substance. For that which we believe of the Father, the same we believe of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, without any difference or inequality. Therefore, with angels and archangels…’
The reading from the Book of Revelation is an extraordinary vision of God enthroned. In his vision, John of Patmos saw ‘he that sat on [on the throne] was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone.’ In the vision, John saw God as a red figure. Sardine stones are red and jasper has red pigment within it. Red is a dramatic colour and is redolent of all sorts of images, particularly that of fire, and the experience Moses had speaking to God in the burning bush. John was taken to heaven ‘in the Spirit’; but these images only begin to make sense in our Readings when coupled with the Gospel reading and the following:
‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted.’
Much could be said about the important Jew, Nicodemus, coming to visit Jesus at night but that will have to wait for another time. The significant thing here is that Jesus is speaking about a time when he will return to God to be united again with God bringing his human-ness with him. Much could also be said about what Jesus means when describing himself as the Son of Man, but for the present it is enough to understand that as part of Trinity Sunday, we are thinking about the Triune God, and that part of the Triune God includes our humanity. Through faith and baptism, we are invited to join Jesus in the Spirit, which will allow us to be participators in the Kingdom of God and ‘to have eternal life.’
The new normal, so to speak, is that when we experience those quiet moments, conscious of God’s presence, in prayer, in worship, in meditation, and in thinking about how our faith relates to our lives and our lifestyles, the Triune God is accessible through the love, strength and understanding of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit because through personhood of Jesus God is within us and we are within God. We are never utterly alone. Amen.
Prayer
Father,
You sent your Word to bring us truth
and your Spirit to make us holy.
Through them we come to know the mystery of your life.
Help us to worship you, one God in three persons,
You reveal yourself in the depths of our being,
by proclaiming and living our faith in you.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen
[The Liturgy of the Hours]
Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Revelation 4:1-end
AFTER this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne: and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold: and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.
Gospel: St. John 3:1-15
THERE was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not; how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Reflection
In many ways, Trinity Sunday heralds a sense of the everyday. The Lectionary year begins with Advent, then takes us on the journey of revelation that is paced through the sense of hope as the light of God enters the world, commemorated at Christmas with the birth of Christ. Then it moves on through Epiphany to the drama of Easter and the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Easter is a time of deep reflection and joy at the outcome and the knowledge that the love of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, committed himself to the pain and indignity of a Roman execution in order to redeem us from our sins; and his Resurrection was proof of his victory over death and of his incarnation. Christ was and is both fully human and fully God. Then come the final acts of the Ascension and Whitsun, when the humanity of Jesus returns to the divinity of God, and we are given the additional support of the Holy Spirit. We now come to understand the Son as the Word in relation to the Creator, and to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Triune God. The Word was with God in beginning [John 1:1-2] and the Word has returned to God, leaving the Apostles to continue God’s work with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of the Trinity reminds us of the complexity and the normality of our relationship with God. For the Apostles, once the person of Jesus on earth had gone, the revelation of the Trinity became the new normal, as it is for us.
There is a huge reservoir of scholarship that discusses what is meant more precisely when we talk about the Trinity, but many people do not need to study the highly intellectualised complexity behind this. Many people, instinctively, have an individual relationship with God without worrying too much about the whys and wherefores. When I once was preaching on a Trinity Sunday [not at St Mary’s], I asked the congregation to put their hands up if they found it easier to pray to 1) the Father, 2) the Son, and 3) the Holy Spirit, or all three. The response was interesting. In varying numbers, people put their hands up as I went through this. Some people feel more comfortable praying to God the Father, and/or God the Son, and/or God the Holy Spirit. This is the norm. The drama of the story of Jesus inevitably leads us to this reality. God is with us and around us and within us and accompanies on our journey through life and can be called upon in pain, sorrow and joy, because God in Jesus has already shared in these experiences. The Cross is a symbol of pain and death but also of the ultimate victory of faith that overrides human weakness.
The Collect and Readings are not an easy fit. That is because the Festival of the Trinity was decided upon in the fourteenth century and the readings had been decided upon much earlier. So, the Collect reflects the Triune God, which is also repeated in the Proper Preface for Trinity Sunday:
‘It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places, give thanks unto thee O Lord, Almighty Everlasting God. Who art one God, one Lord; not one only Person, but Three Persons in one Substance. For that which we believe of the Father, the same we believe of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, without any difference or inequality. Therefore, with angels and archangels…’
The reading from the Book of Revelation is an extraordinary vision of God enthroned. In his vision, John of Patmos saw ‘he that sat on [on the throne] was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone.’ In the vision, John saw God as a red figure. Sardine stones are red and jasper has red pigment within it. Red is a dramatic colour and is redolent of all sorts of images, particularly that of fire, and the experience Moses had speaking to God in the burning bush. John was taken to heaven ‘in the Spirit’; but these images only begin to make sense in our Readings when coupled with the Gospel reading and the following:
‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted.’
Much could be said about the important Jew, Nicodemus, coming to visit Jesus at night but that will have to wait for another time. The significant thing here is that Jesus is speaking about a time when he will return to God to be united again with God bringing his human-ness with him. Much could also be said about what Jesus means when describing himself as the Son of Man, but for the present it is enough to understand that as part of Trinity Sunday, we are thinking about the Triune God, and that part of the Triune God includes our humanity. Through faith and baptism, we are invited to join Jesus in the Spirit, which will allow us to be participators in the Kingdom of God and ‘to have eternal life.’
The new normal, so to speak, is that when we experience those quiet moments, conscious of God’s presence, in prayer, in worship, in meditation, and in thinking about how our faith relates to our lives and our lifestyles, the Triune God is accessible through the love, strength and understanding of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit because through personhood of Jesus God is within us and we are within God. We are never utterly alone. Amen.
Prayer
Father,
You sent your Word to bring us truth
and your Spirit to make us holy.
Through them we come to know the mystery of your life.
Help us to worship you, one God in three persons,
You reveal yourself in the depths of our being,
by proclaiming and living our faith in you.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen
[The Liturgy of the Hours]
readings and reflection for Tuesday in whitsun week
Tuesday, 2nd June, 2020
Collect
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 8:14-17
WHEN the Apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John; who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them; only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
Gospel: John 10:1-10
VERILY, verily I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep: to him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And, when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow; but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again; Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Collect
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 8:14-17
WHEN the Apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John; who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them; only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
Gospel: John 10:1-10
VERILY, verily I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep: to him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And, when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow; but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again; Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
readings and reflection for Monday in whitsun week
Monday, 1st June, 2020
Collect
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 10:34-end
THEN Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; (he is Lord of all;) that word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew, and hanged on a tree: him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he who was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
Gospel: John 3:16-21
GOD so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Collect
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 10:34-end
THEN Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; (he is Lord of all;) that word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew, and hanged on a tree: him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he who was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
Gospel: John 3:16-21
GOD so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
readings and reflection for whitsunday
Collect
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 2:1-11
WHEN the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Gospel: John 14:15-end
JESUS said unto his disciples, If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, (not Iscariot,) Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
Reflection
The opening words of the Gospel reading form the lyrics of If Ye Love Me written by Thomas Tallis. The motet was published in 1565 but it was written during the reign of Edward VI, perhaps just before another Thomas, Thomas Cranmer, wrote the Book of Common Prayer in 1549. Thomas Tallis was a survivor of the Tudor period. He was born a Catholic like everyone else during the last years of Henry VII’s reign but remained a Roman Catholic through all the turbulence of the Tudor period. He died in 1585.
He wrote If Ye Love Me according to the guidance of the Reformation Protestantism of the time. The Catholic Mass had been done away with and all services were to be celebrated in English. The guidance for Reformation music meant that Latin polyphony was out and the simple clarity of music without frills in English was in. ‘To each syllable a plain and distinct note,’ was the instruction; and although Latin polyphony returned during the reign of the Catholic Mary I, English simplicity returned with her sister, Elizabeth I. It is this simple clarity that gives this anthem its potency. The four part harmonies begin on the same notes but as the music develops, it introduces a complex but clear harmony of voices that intermingle, rise and fall as the words are repeated and finally fall together in the closely harmonised ending. The anthem’s simplicity has meant that church choirs everywhere are able to sing it. And its quiet progress emulates the words of Christ who is the Prince of Peace:
‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you,’ followed by ‘Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,’ because ‘the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’
The words of Christ will strengthen and support the apostles as they move on to the new phase of carrying on God’s work through the Holy Spirit.
What is interesting is that when the Holy Spirit did arrive and sat on each of them ‘appear[ing] unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire’, it arrived ‘as of a rushing mighty wind’ and the apostles ‘began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ The arrival of the Holy Spirit was a noisy event, and in some way was conveyed to others that something remarkable was happening.
‘And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven’ and ‘and every man heard them speak in his own language.’ The Book of Acts lists a whole slew of nationalities: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, people from Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete and Arabia. And from 1549, churchgoers could hear these words spoken in English, which meant that ordinary people could understand for the first time what the Bible said. The turbulence of the birth of the Church on Whitsunday could easily have matched that later turbulence in people when they could understand the Word in English. It must have been a tremendous event in churches throughout England at the time. For some it might even have been as enlightening as those first listeners to the Word who could hear the teachings of Jesus from the apostles in their own language. Some mocked saying that they were drunk. It is at this point that Peter, the Rock on which the Church was to be built, stood up for the first time and preached and the people listened, They heard about the teachings of Jesus, about his death and resurrection and the forgiveness of sins. When they asked:
‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ [v 37B], Peter responded with:
‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ [v38]… Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.’ [v41].
From the teachings and promises of the Prince of Peace as reflected in Tallis’ anthem, there came an extraordinary explosion of faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is what Whitsun is about. It is about the reality of faith, which is invisible but becomes visible in the actions of those who believe in God. It has a reality that through the power of the Holy Spirit brings the enlightenment of belief and the strength of faith to sustain us through the good times and the bad times. Amen.
Prayer
Defend, O Lord, these your servants with your heavenly grace,
That they may continue your for ever,
And daily increase your Holy Spirit more and more
Until they come to your everlasting kingdom.
Amen.
GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 2:1-11
WHEN the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Gospel: John 14:15-end
JESUS said unto his disciples, If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, (not Iscariot,) Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
Reflection
The opening words of the Gospel reading form the lyrics of If Ye Love Me written by Thomas Tallis. The motet was published in 1565 but it was written during the reign of Edward VI, perhaps just before another Thomas, Thomas Cranmer, wrote the Book of Common Prayer in 1549. Thomas Tallis was a survivor of the Tudor period. He was born a Catholic like everyone else during the last years of Henry VII’s reign but remained a Roman Catholic through all the turbulence of the Tudor period. He died in 1585.
He wrote If Ye Love Me according to the guidance of the Reformation Protestantism of the time. The Catholic Mass had been done away with and all services were to be celebrated in English. The guidance for Reformation music meant that Latin polyphony was out and the simple clarity of music without frills in English was in. ‘To each syllable a plain and distinct note,’ was the instruction; and although Latin polyphony returned during the reign of the Catholic Mary I, English simplicity returned with her sister, Elizabeth I. It is this simple clarity that gives this anthem its potency. The four part harmonies begin on the same notes but as the music develops, it introduces a complex but clear harmony of voices that intermingle, rise and fall as the words are repeated and finally fall together in the closely harmonised ending. The anthem’s simplicity has meant that church choirs everywhere are able to sing it. And its quiet progress emulates the words of Christ who is the Prince of Peace:
‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you,’ followed by ‘Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,’ because ‘the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’
The words of Christ will strengthen and support the apostles as they move on to the new phase of carrying on God’s work through the Holy Spirit.
What is interesting is that when the Holy Spirit did arrive and sat on each of them ‘appear[ing] unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire’, it arrived ‘as of a rushing mighty wind’ and the apostles ‘began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ The arrival of the Holy Spirit was a noisy event, and in some way was conveyed to others that something remarkable was happening.
‘And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven’ and ‘and every man heard them speak in his own language.’ The Book of Acts lists a whole slew of nationalities: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, people from Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete and Arabia. And from 1549, churchgoers could hear these words spoken in English, which meant that ordinary people could understand for the first time what the Bible said. The turbulence of the birth of the Church on Whitsunday could easily have matched that later turbulence in people when they could understand the Word in English. It must have been a tremendous event in churches throughout England at the time. For some it might even have been as enlightening as those first listeners to the Word who could hear the teachings of Jesus from the apostles in their own language. Some mocked saying that they were drunk. It is at this point that Peter, the Rock on which the Church was to be built, stood up for the first time and preached and the people listened, They heard about the teachings of Jesus, about his death and resurrection and the forgiveness of sins. When they asked:
‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ [v 37B], Peter responded with:
‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ [v38]… Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.’ [v41].
From the teachings and promises of the Prince of Peace as reflected in Tallis’ anthem, there came an extraordinary explosion of faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is what Whitsun is about. It is about the reality of faith, which is invisible but becomes visible in the actions of those who believe in God. It has a reality that through the power of the Holy Spirit brings the enlightenment of belief and the strength of faith to sustain us through the good times and the bad times. Amen.
Prayer
Defend, O Lord, these your servants with your heavenly grace,
That they may continue your for ever,
And daily increase your Holy Spirit more and more
Until they come to your everlasting kingdom.
Amen.
Readings and Reflection for Sunday After Ascension
Collect
O GOD the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle:1 St. Peter 4.7-11
THE end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God: if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: St. John 15.26-16.4
WHEN the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.
Reflection
The time has come for Jesus to return to the Father in all his perfected humanity and glory. Yet he doesn’t leave the disciples without support. He mentions that the Comforter will come and ‘he shall testify of me’. And the disciples ‘also shall bear witness, because [they] have been with [him] from the beginning.’ It will now be the disciples’ responsibility as apostles to continue the work Jesus has begun. That is to spread the word of God to bring redemption and salvation to all and comfort to the poor, the dispossessed, the oppressed, give sight to the blind and to set captives free. But Jesus warns that their path will fraught with danger. People will turn on them like they did on Jesus, they will be rejected by the synagogues because they will not be recognised as bringing the word of God. They might even lose their lives.
‘And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.’
The Comforter’s job will be to support the apostles in their resolve and to strengthen them in the face of extreme difficulty. The Greek for the Holy Spirit is parakletos and was used to describe someone who comes along side like a lawyer or advocate in a court case. The Paraclete in Christianity has come to be described variously as Comforter [as translated here] and also as Advocate, Counsellor, Champion, Helper, Teacher, Intercessor. In John 14:16, Jesus says that another Comforter will be sent. Jesus is the primary Comforter and the Holy Spirit will be sent once Jesus has returned to the Father in order to support the apostles in his stead. By extension, we are also supported and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. Adversity might not be magicked away but through the work of the Holy Spirit we will be given new heart and strength. In Peter’s letter, he urges:
‘And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.’
We tend to translate the word charity today as love and in this context Peter is urging us to love each other above all else. It is through the love that Jesus has shown his disciples that they will continue his work, and even though they will face all kinds of dangers, it will be love above all through the Holy Spirit that will protect their faith and integrity. It will also be through love that they will be able to face those who oppose them and who have not known the love of Christ. The opposers will reject them through ignorance but it will be through love that the teachings of Jesus will spread to those who will listen, as the Book of Acts and the Letters of Peter, Paul, Timothy and others in the New Testament testify to. Amen.
Prayer
Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy. Amen.
Saint Augustine
O GOD the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle:1 St. Peter 4.7-11
THE end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God: if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: St. John 15.26-16.4
WHEN the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.
Reflection
The time has come for Jesus to return to the Father in all his perfected humanity and glory. Yet he doesn’t leave the disciples without support. He mentions that the Comforter will come and ‘he shall testify of me’. And the disciples ‘also shall bear witness, because [they] have been with [him] from the beginning.’ It will now be the disciples’ responsibility as apostles to continue the work Jesus has begun. That is to spread the word of God to bring redemption and salvation to all and comfort to the poor, the dispossessed, the oppressed, give sight to the blind and to set captives free. But Jesus warns that their path will fraught with danger. People will turn on them like they did on Jesus, they will be rejected by the synagogues because they will not be recognised as bringing the word of God. They might even lose their lives.
‘And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.’
The Comforter’s job will be to support the apostles in their resolve and to strengthen them in the face of extreme difficulty. The Greek for the Holy Spirit is parakletos and was used to describe someone who comes along side like a lawyer or advocate in a court case. The Paraclete in Christianity has come to be described variously as Comforter [as translated here] and also as Advocate, Counsellor, Champion, Helper, Teacher, Intercessor. In John 14:16, Jesus says that another Comforter will be sent. Jesus is the primary Comforter and the Holy Spirit will be sent once Jesus has returned to the Father in order to support the apostles in his stead. By extension, we are also supported and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. Adversity might not be magicked away but through the work of the Holy Spirit we will be given new heart and strength. In Peter’s letter, he urges:
‘And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.’
We tend to translate the word charity today as love and in this context Peter is urging us to love each other above all else. It is through the love that Jesus has shown his disciples that they will continue his work, and even though they will face all kinds of dangers, it will be love above all through the Holy Spirit that will protect their faith and integrity. It will also be through love that they will be able to face those who oppose them and who have not known the love of Christ. The opposers will reject them through ignorance but it will be through love that the teachings of Jesus will spread to those who will listen, as the Book of Acts and the Letters of Peter, Paul, Timothy and others in the New Testament testify to. Amen.
Prayer
Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy. Amen.
Saint Augustine
THE ASCENSION - READINGS AND REFLECTION
Thursday, 21st May, 2020
Collect
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 1:1-11
THE former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs; being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Gospel: St. Mark 16:14-end
JESUS appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.
Reflection: taken from the current edition of ‘Pray With The World Church: Prayers and Reflections From The Anglican Communion, 17 May – 8 August 2020.’
ASCENSION DAY: MYSTERY AND INFINITY
Ascension Day is a feast of mystery and infinity. ‘Ascension’ is our word for what is beyond our understanding: Christ our Risen Lord cannot be contained within the frame of our human perspective. The ascension of Christ tilts the universe for us; giving us a fresh perspective and meaning for the world. Jesus has taken our humanity to God; just as by his birth he brought divinity into our humanity. Now he has handed over his mission to human beings, a mission which will be empowered by the Holy Spirit. The divisions between divine and human, between heaven and earth, have been blurred and will never be the same again. During the last 2,000 years, Christ’s mission has taken many forms and has spread, in the power of the Holy Spirit, from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and ‘the ends of the world’. What a privilege we have in USPG to witness and participate in God’s mission today.
The Rev’d Canon Richard Bartlett, Director of Mission Engagement, USPG.
The United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG), founded 1701, is an Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential and champion justice. You can find more information about what they do by following the link: https://www.uspg.org.uk/pray/
Prayers (from the same publication)
Lord Jesus, may the mystery and wonder of your ascension give us a fresh perspective in this time of uncertainty and worry. Amen
God the Sender, send us. God the sent, come with us.
God the Strengthener of those who go, empower us.
That we may go with you and find those who will call you
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
(From Wales)
Collect
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 1:1-11
THE former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs; being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Gospel: St. Mark 16:14-end
JESUS appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.
Reflection: taken from the current edition of ‘Pray With The World Church: Prayers and Reflections From The Anglican Communion, 17 May – 8 August 2020.’
ASCENSION DAY: MYSTERY AND INFINITY
Ascension Day is a feast of mystery and infinity. ‘Ascension’ is our word for what is beyond our understanding: Christ our Risen Lord cannot be contained within the frame of our human perspective. The ascension of Christ tilts the universe for us; giving us a fresh perspective and meaning for the world. Jesus has taken our humanity to God; just as by his birth he brought divinity into our humanity. Now he has handed over his mission to human beings, a mission which will be empowered by the Holy Spirit. The divisions between divine and human, between heaven and earth, have been blurred and will never be the same again. During the last 2,000 years, Christ’s mission has taken many forms and has spread, in the power of the Holy Spirit, from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and ‘the ends of the world’. What a privilege we have in USPG to witness and participate in God’s mission today.
The Rev’d Canon Richard Bartlett, Director of Mission Engagement, USPG.
The United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG), founded 1701, is an Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential and champion justice. You can find more information about what they do by following the link: https://www.uspg.org.uk/pray/
Prayers (from the same publication)
Lord Jesus, may the mystery and wonder of your ascension give us a fresh perspective in this time of uncertainty and worry. Amen
God the Sender, send us. God the sent, come with us.
God the Strengthener of those who go, empower us.
That we may go with you and find those who will call you
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
(From Wales)
Reflection and Readings for the Fifth Sunday After Easter
Collect
O LORD, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Epistle: St James 1:22-end
BE ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Gospel: John 16:23-end
VERILY, verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Reflection
The John Gospel readings for the past two Sundays and for this Sunday come from the final discourse in chapter 16 that Jesus presents to his disciples prior to his arrest and Crucifixion. From the beginning of John’s Gospel, the reader is in no doubt that John’s account is about Jesus the Son of God. John’s Gospel begins with what many regard as the most powerful statement describing Christ’s divinity and that is why it figures prominently at Christmas which is all about the light of God coming into the world in Jesus Christ.
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.’
Jesus is God and we are told that at the outset of the Gospel and the entire Gospel is built around that. From the figure of John the Baptist, through to the Marriage at Canaa, and through the accounts of the miracles and the parables, John illustrates that Jesus in his person represents a new relationship between humanity and God. God comes into the world taking on human flesh and it is in his incarnation that he faces the pains of death for our salvation, and his resurrection is God’s victory over death which offers us the opportunity for new spiritual life. Unlike the witness accounts of the other Gospels, John’s Gospel explores the person of Jesus in relation to humanity, the underpinning that has for Christian belief, and also the spiritual life that is the result.
The collect and epistle readings are about how we as Christians live the spiritual life that has been given by God freely through the sacrifice of himself in human form. And the Gospel reinforces that new relationship characterised primarily by the closer relationship forged by Jesus during his ministry, and by the promise of himself now that his ministry has come to an end. For the first time, Jesus tells his disciples that:
‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.’
That is what we say when offering prayer to God. That is why prayer is so powerful.
We offer our prayers to God ‘in Jesus’name,’ or ‘in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,’ because in so doing we acknowledge our personal relationship with Jesus.
In this passage, Jesus tells his disciples that he will return to the Father.
‘I came forth from the Father, and am come in the world’, an echo of John 1, and ‘again, I leave the world, and go to the Father’ which prefigures the Ascension which we commemorate on Thursday.
The disciples respond by recognising Jesus’ divinity, which he acknowledges: ‘Do ye now believe?’
However, despite their faith in Jesus, Jesus knows that they will abandon him when the final act of his mission on earth is played out. Yet Jesus will not be alone because the Father will be with him as he had been since the beginning of all things. And humanity will face ‘tribulations’ but with faith in Jesus, we ‘might have peace…but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’
Despite whatever befalls us, in pain, in tragedy, and in any misfortune, Jesus will always be with us, whether we can recognise him or not. Sometimes, it is difficult to think that there is any comfort to be had, particularly during situations like the present crisis, but also when we lose someone because of death, or through relationship break down, or after the loss of a job and income, ‘or in any other adversity’ as it says in the BCP intercessionary prayer. And when we pray for God’s help for others and for ourselves we ask God to:
‘Grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.’
April Heywood
Prayer (from ‘Prayers For Use During The Coronovirus Outbreak, Church of England)
O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
Without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
Increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
That with you as our ruler and guide,
We may so pass through things eternal;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
O LORD, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Epistle: St James 1:22-end
BE ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Gospel: John 16:23-end
VERILY, verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Reflection
The John Gospel readings for the past two Sundays and for this Sunday come from the final discourse in chapter 16 that Jesus presents to his disciples prior to his arrest and Crucifixion. From the beginning of John’s Gospel, the reader is in no doubt that John’s account is about Jesus the Son of God. John’s Gospel begins with what many regard as the most powerful statement describing Christ’s divinity and that is why it figures prominently at Christmas which is all about the light of God coming into the world in Jesus Christ.
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.’
Jesus is God and we are told that at the outset of the Gospel and the entire Gospel is built around that. From the figure of John the Baptist, through to the Marriage at Canaa, and through the accounts of the miracles and the parables, John illustrates that Jesus in his person represents a new relationship between humanity and God. God comes into the world taking on human flesh and it is in his incarnation that he faces the pains of death for our salvation, and his resurrection is God’s victory over death which offers us the opportunity for new spiritual life. Unlike the witness accounts of the other Gospels, John’s Gospel explores the person of Jesus in relation to humanity, the underpinning that has for Christian belief, and also the spiritual life that is the result.
The collect and epistle readings are about how we as Christians live the spiritual life that has been given by God freely through the sacrifice of himself in human form. And the Gospel reinforces that new relationship characterised primarily by the closer relationship forged by Jesus during his ministry, and by the promise of himself now that his ministry has come to an end. For the first time, Jesus tells his disciples that:
‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.’
That is what we say when offering prayer to God. That is why prayer is so powerful.
We offer our prayers to God ‘in Jesus’name,’ or ‘in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,’ because in so doing we acknowledge our personal relationship with Jesus.
In this passage, Jesus tells his disciples that he will return to the Father.
‘I came forth from the Father, and am come in the world’, an echo of John 1, and ‘again, I leave the world, and go to the Father’ which prefigures the Ascension which we commemorate on Thursday.
The disciples respond by recognising Jesus’ divinity, which he acknowledges: ‘Do ye now believe?’
However, despite their faith in Jesus, Jesus knows that they will abandon him when the final act of his mission on earth is played out. Yet Jesus will not be alone because the Father will be with him as he had been since the beginning of all things. And humanity will face ‘tribulations’ but with faith in Jesus, we ‘might have peace…but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’
Despite whatever befalls us, in pain, in tragedy, and in any misfortune, Jesus will always be with us, whether we can recognise him or not. Sometimes, it is difficult to think that there is any comfort to be had, particularly during situations like the present crisis, but also when we lose someone because of death, or through relationship break down, or after the loss of a job and income, ‘or in any other adversity’ as it says in the BCP intercessionary prayer. And when we pray for God’s help for others and for ourselves we ask God to:
‘Grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.’
April Heywood
Prayer (from ‘Prayers For Use During The Coronovirus Outbreak, Church of England)
O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
Without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
Increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
That with you as our ruler and guide,
We may so pass through things eternal;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
readings and reflection for the fourth sunday after easter
Collect
O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle – Letter of. James 1.17-21
EVERY good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Gospel - John 16.5-15
JESUS said unto his disciples, Now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But, because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Reflection
I am writing this on the seventy fifth anniversary of VE Day. What has struck me as it always does when this country commemorates such events is the national spirit that pulled everyone together during the Second World War. Yes, it was a period of great sacrifice. Many were killed or wounded. But what stands out is the sense of unity that people shared. Those who lived through those times can perhaps colour the nostalgic memory with the bleakness of reality; yet those few who are alive today remember the necessity of ‘doing their bit’. And today, because of coronavirus, we are all doing our bit, even though for many of us, the reality is that we stay at home to support those on the medical frontline fighting this dreadful disease. Although we can’t see or touch or smell it, that spirit of doing our bit is just as real today as it was seventy five years or more ago. The world that used to exist until only two to three months ago, is no longer, and many people hope that when we emerge from lockdown, that we emerge as better, more caring people, more aware of what is important and what is not.
The Gospel reading, supported by the collect and the epistle reading, is about the lifestyle changes that are about to change the disciples forever. Jesus has finished his human ministry on earth, and now it is time for the disciples to become the leaders he has trained them to be. They will remember his words but it will be the Holy Spirit that will empower them and drive them to spread the Word of God. The reading is a nod to Pentecost, and the beginning of the Church.
Jesus talks about the Comforter who will come once he himself has gone, that it will be the Holy Spirit of God that will direct them.
‘…when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak….He shall glorify me…All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it to you.’
The disciples will have to face much hostility but united in the Holy Spirit, they will carry out the tasks that Jesus has set them to do. They will do their bit. And they are remarkably successful. From the time of Christ to, say, the death of St Paul, which some scholars think probably happened in the fifties AD is only about twenty years. Letters written by Paul and James and others to the Christian communities that sprung up in these intervening years throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and beyond, are evidence of the rapid growth of Christianity, our faith. From Ephesus, to Colossae, to Corinth, to Thessaloniki, to Galatia, to Rome, and between themselves, these letters or epistles stand as evidence of a fast growing Christian community united in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. James talks of the Father of Lights from whom all things come, and who sees humanity as the first fruits of his creation, borrowing the metaphor from the Jewish tradition that offered the first fruits of the any produce to God. In other words, we are the first fruits of creation and it is our responsibility united as we are in the Holy Spirit of God to live as God intended us to live ‘and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.’
So, as we commemorate this seminal anniversary of VE Day, and we remember the united effort of all people at the time, which produced that remarkable spirit of solidarity, today, the Fourth Sunday After Easter, we commemorate the transition from the physical presence of Jesus to the power of the Holy Spirit of God, within whose love and strength we are all united in Christ.
Amen.
O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle – Letter of. James 1.17-21
EVERY good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Gospel - John 16.5-15
JESUS said unto his disciples, Now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But, because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Reflection
I am writing this on the seventy fifth anniversary of VE Day. What has struck me as it always does when this country commemorates such events is the national spirit that pulled everyone together during the Second World War. Yes, it was a period of great sacrifice. Many were killed or wounded. But what stands out is the sense of unity that people shared. Those who lived through those times can perhaps colour the nostalgic memory with the bleakness of reality; yet those few who are alive today remember the necessity of ‘doing their bit’. And today, because of coronavirus, we are all doing our bit, even though for many of us, the reality is that we stay at home to support those on the medical frontline fighting this dreadful disease. Although we can’t see or touch or smell it, that spirit of doing our bit is just as real today as it was seventy five years or more ago. The world that used to exist until only two to three months ago, is no longer, and many people hope that when we emerge from lockdown, that we emerge as better, more caring people, more aware of what is important and what is not.
The Gospel reading, supported by the collect and the epistle reading, is about the lifestyle changes that are about to change the disciples forever. Jesus has finished his human ministry on earth, and now it is time for the disciples to become the leaders he has trained them to be. They will remember his words but it will be the Holy Spirit that will empower them and drive them to spread the Word of God. The reading is a nod to Pentecost, and the beginning of the Church.
Jesus talks about the Comforter who will come once he himself has gone, that it will be the Holy Spirit of God that will direct them.
‘…when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak….He shall glorify me…All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it to you.’
The disciples will have to face much hostility but united in the Holy Spirit, they will carry out the tasks that Jesus has set them to do. They will do their bit. And they are remarkably successful. From the time of Christ to, say, the death of St Paul, which some scholars think probably happened in the fifties AD is only about twenty years. Letters written by Paul and James and others to the Christian communities that sprung up in these intervening years throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and beyond, are evidence of the rapid growth of Christianity, our faith. From Ephesus, to Colossae, to Corinth, to Thessaloniki, to Galatia, to Rome, and between themselves, these letters or epistles stand as evidence of a fast growing Christian community united in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. James talks of the Father of Lights from whom all things come, and who sees humanity as the first fruits of his creation, borrowing the metaphor from the Jewish tradition that offered the first fruits of the any produce to God. In other words, we are the first fruits of creation and it is our responsibility united as we are in the Holy Spirit of God to live as God intended us to live ‘and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.’
So, as we commemorate this seminal anniversary of VE Day, and we remember the united effort of all people at the time, which produced that remarkable spirit of solidarity, today, the Fourth Sunday After Easter, we commemorate the transition from the physical presence of Jesus to the power of the Holy Spirit of God, within whose love and strength we are all united in Christ.
Amen.
readings and reflection for the third sunday after easter
Sunday, 3rd May, 2020
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who shewest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness: Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Epistle: First letter of Peter 2:11-17
DEARLY beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness; but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Gospel John 16:16-22
JESUS said to his disciples, A little while and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me; because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me; and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me? Verily, verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Reflection
The reading from John is particularly interesting. On the one hand, Jesus is telling his disciples about what will shortly be happening to him and he couches it in such language that they are at first mystified.
‘What is this that he saith, A little while? We cannot tell what he saith.’
There are a number of occasions throughout all four Gospels when the disciples do not understand that Jesus is forecasting his death and resurrection. This passage starts out like that but what follows in the rest of the chapter is somewhat different. Jesus explains:
‘These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs [figures of speech]: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.’ [John 16:25] ‘His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God [John 16:29-30]’
Whereas often the disciples do not understand the implications of what Jesus tells them, this time they do. They believe that Jesus comes from God and that he is shortly to leave them.
This leads to a second point. Jesus uses this wonderful analogy of describing the pain and distress that the disciples will experience once he is put to death to the travails of a woman in labour. And just like a woman who gives birth, they will forget their pain and will be uplifted by the joy brought by the resurrection. For the resurrection is the purpose that brought Jesus into the world. Not only will his death bring redemption for sin but his resurrection will be proof that death itself can be overcome.
I find it fascinating that Jesus chooses a maternal image to describe the climax of his ministry on earth. Yes, childbirth can be messy, painful and arduous. If you have never experienced this, the TV programme ‘Call the Midwife’ can give you a pretty clear idea. Those of us who have gone through the experience also know that once a baby is born, life completely kicks into a new gear. The love that comes for a child after birth is indescribable, overwhelming sometimes. A parent’s instincts are to care and nurture this tiny little human being, newly born into the world. And above all, to love with all one’s being.
Sometimes, we think chiefly at Eastertide of Christ’s sacrifice and redemption of humanity, and perhaps do not always think of what he represented then and now in his person. Love. Nurturing love. Jesus radiates love. That is the point of all the sacrifice. To free people from the anchor weight of their transgressions, and to be uplifted and nurtured into the new life given to us freely through grace so that we can fulfil our potential as the people of God and who have been created by God in his image. Above all to let us to be born into new life and to grow as Christians in the secure love of the nurturing Christ. And through this loving relationship, just like the disciples, we learn to understand Jesus better. Amen.
April Heywood
Prayer [from Anselm of Canterbury]
Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you;
you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.
Often you weep over our sins and our pride,
tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgement.
You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds,
in sickness you nurse us, and with pure milk you feed us.
Jesus, by your dying we are born to new life;
by your anguish and labour we come forth in joy.
Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness;
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.
Your warmth gives life to the dead,
your touch makes sinners righteous.
Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us;
in your love and tenderness remake us.
In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness,
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us.
Amen.
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who shewest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness: Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Epistle: First letter of Peter 2:11-17
DEARLY beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness; but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Gospel John 16:16-22
JESUS said to his disciples, A little while and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me; because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me; and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me? Verily, verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Reflection
The reading from John is particularly interesting. On the one hand, Jesus is telling his disciples about what will shortly be happening to him and he couches it in such language that they are at first mystified.
‘What is this that he saith, A little while? We cannot tell what he saith.’
There are a number of occasions throughout all four Gospels when the disciples do not understand that Jesus is forecasting his death and resurrection. This passage starts out like that but what follows in the rest of the chapter is somewhat different. Jesus explains:
‘These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs [figures of speech]: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.’ [John 16:25] ‘His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God [John 16:29-30]’
Whereas often the disciples do not understand the implications of what Jesus tells them, this time they do. They believe that Jesus comes from God and that he is shortly to leave them.
This leads to a second point. Jesus uses this wonderful analogy of describing the pain and distress that the disciples will experience once he is put to death to the travails of a woman in labour. And just like a woman who gives birth, they will forget their pain and will be uplifted by the joy brought by the resurrection. For the resurrection is the purpose that brought Jesus into the world. Not only will his death bring redemption for sin but his resurrection will be proof that death itself can be overcome.
I find it fascinating that Jesus chooses a maternal image to describe the climax of his ministry on earth. Yes, childbirth can be messy, painful and arduous. If you have never experienced this, the TV programme ‘Call the Midwife’ can give you a pretty clear idea. Those of us who have gone through the experience also know that once a baby is born, life completely kicks into a new gear. The love that comes for a child after birth is indescribable, overwhelming sometimes. A parent’s instincts are to care and nurture this tiny little human being, newly born into the world. And above all, to love with all one’s being.
Sometimes, we think chiefly at Eastertide of Christ’s sacrifice and redemption of humanity, and perhaps do not always think of what he represented then and now in his person. Love. Nurturing love. Jesus radiates love. That is the point of all the sacrifice. To free people from the anchor weight of their transgressions, and to be uplifted and nurtured into the new life given to us freely through grace so that we can fulfil our potential as the people of God and who have been created by God in his image. Above all to let us to be born into new life and to grow as Christians in the secure love of the nurturing Christ. And through this loving relationship, just like the disciples, we learn to understand Jesus better. Amen.
April Heywood
Prayer [from Anselm of Canterbury]
Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you;
you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.
Often you weep over our sins and our pride,
tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgement.
You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds,
in sickness you nurse us, and with pure milk you feed us.
Jesus, by your dying we are born to new life;
by your anguish and labour we come forth in joy.
Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness;
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.
Your warmth gives life to the dead,
your touch makes sinners righteous.
Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us;
in your love and tenderness remake us.
In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness,
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us.
Amen.
EASTER 2020
Sunday 26th April, 2020
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle
First letter of Peter 2:19-end
19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Gospel
John 10:11-16
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Reflection
The Gospel reading about Jesus as the Good Shepherd who is prepared to lay down his life for his sheep holds a powerful message about the kind of love that is prepared to sacrifice life for the safety of the sheep. Today, we are very much aware during this Covid-19 pandemic of the tremendous sacrifices that medical staff and care home staff are having to face every day. Many have died doing their duty to the patients in their care. Many are isolating themselves from their families to protect them from the virus. And although we have virtual technology to keep us in contact with our families, it isn’t the same as getting a hug from a mum or a dad, a daughter or a son. Then there are the other key workers who ensure that there is enough food and necessary supplies for us, the delivery drivers, the bin men, those working in the social services looking after the vulnerable, the headteacher delivering meals to vulnerable children, and many others, all potentially susceptible to the virus no matter how carefully they observe social distancing. If there was an example of how people are prepared to follow the example of Jesus and to lay their lives down for love of others, then this must be it.
Not all will be members of our faith, some will be atheists, but as Christians we can see that the power of the Holy Spirit in the world has made us more mindful and caring of the needs of others.
The size of flocks in Jesus’ day were tiny in comparison to the flocks of many modern day farmers, providing milk, meat and wool for today’s markets. The flocks in the ancient world pretty well provided the same. It would be difficult for modern farmers with large modern flocks to give names to their sheep but it is thought that the shepherds of the ancient world did just that. When a shepherd called a sheep by its name, it would come running towards him. The relationship was more personal. Someone just hired for the day would not have the same relationship. That is probably why Jesus makes the comparison. But even more importantly than this, Jesus knows his sheep. We are his sheep, and he knows each and every one of us by name, and it is us he came to save and suffered for on the cross. Jesus continues to watch over us, including those he says mysteriously are ‘not of this fold’. Scholars are uncertain who he is referring to, but it is possible that Jesus is thinking about those who come later, later Christians like us. Whatever happens, Jesus will be with us, in life and in death.
I should like to end with a quotation from the Book of Isaiah (Isa 43:1), which encapsulates the close and loving relationship we have with God.
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Amen.
A Prayer for Hospital Staff and Medical Researchers (from ‘Prayers for use during the coronavirus outbreak’, Church of England)
Gracious God,
Give skill, sympathy and resilience
To all who are caring for the sick.
And wisdom to those searching for a cure.
Strengthen them with your Spirit,
That through their work
Many will be restored to health;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
April Heywood
Readings and Reflection for the First Sunday After Easter (19 April 2020)
Collect
ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: First Letter of St John 5:4-12
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Gospel: John 20:19-23
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
23 Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Reflection by St Mary's Reader April Heywood
At this time of lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak, I think we can all understand a little of what it must have been like for the disciples in the immediate aftermath of the Crucifixion. Terrified for their lives, they have locked themselves in their room. They are still coming to terms with what has happened. It is only three days since the Crucifixion, and already there are all sorts of rumours flying about. It is a dangerous time. And then Jesus appears before them. He shows them his hands, pierced by nails and his side, pierced by a sword. It is truly him.
‘Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.’
Of course, the reason for their lockdown was different to ours. We have the fear of catching the virus, especially those of us who have been recognised as being particularly vulnerable and have to self isolate. Our whole country is coordinated in its effort to combat the disease. We’re in this together. The disciples, on the other hand, were on their own and worried about a possible threat from the authorities. No wonder they were glad when they saw Jesus. The relief must have been tremendous, just as we will feel once we’re out of this crisis. Just like the disciples, we will feel safe once more. At least that is what everyone hopes for. That is also not to underestimate the tremendous financial and other difficulties many people will have to face as we emerge from the threat to our health.
In the case of the disciples, their relief must have been shortlived for Jesus tells them that he is sending them out. They have to go out and spread the Good News even to those whom they fear. When Jesus appears, they probably feel that all would be fine.
He would look after them like he always has.
But no. That isn’t going to happen. The old relationship has changed. No matter how confused and muddled the disciples were about who Jesus was when he was their teacher, now, because of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, it is clear that Jesus is God. From its beginning, John’s Gospel is about Jesus, the living Word of God, sent to bring the Word of God to the peoples of the earth. The Word was not to be defeated and destroyed by death on the cross. The Word, being divine, could never be destroyed. It is eternal, having been created in love. Now, Jesus tells the disciples that they will continue his work. He breathes on them, empowering them with the divine strength of the Holy Spirit for the job they now have to do. As apostles, they will spread the Good News of the forgiveness of sins, for which Jesus in his overwhelming love for us, suffered on the cross.
‘Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’
We know from the Book of Acts that the task Jesus has given them to do will not be easy. But that little group of frightened men have become fearless in the power of the Holy Spirit. That sense of divine power is also conveyed in the epistle. It is not certain whether the John who wrote the epistles was the same John who wrote the Gospel. Both were writing towards the end of the first century AD. The doctrine of the Trinity was not decided until the Council of Nicea in AD 325 but clearly the John of the epistles recognises that Christ as the Son and Word of God is united with the divine together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is this faith in the love of Jesus Christ, our divine Saviour, which overpowers anything the world throws at us, John tells us. We are human and we falter, but with the eternal love of Jesus Christ to support us in our difficulties, including pandemics, we are strengthened just like the apostles were by the Holy Spirit, who girds us with faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. Amen.
Sunday 5th April, 2020
As we cannot be together at St Mary's this Easter we hope you may join us safely at home each day to read the Collects and Readings:
The Sunday Next Before Easter
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love
towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the
cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his
great humility: Mercifully grant that we may both follow the
example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his
resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings for the day:
The Epistle – Phillip. 2. 5
The Gospel. S Matth. 27.1
The BCP Collect prayer for the Sunday Next Before Easter can be used from Monday to Thursday before Easter. There are no other set Collects for these days.
Readings for Monday before Easter to Thursday before Easter
Monday before Easter:
Epistle: Isaiah 63:1-end
Gospel: Mark 14:1-end
Tuesday before Easter:
Epistle: Isaiah 50:5-end
Gospel: Mark 15:1-39
Wednesday before Easter:
Epistle: Hebrews 9:16-end
Gospel: Luke 22:1-end
Thursday before Easter:
Epistle: St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 11:17-end
Gospel: Luke 23:1-49
Good Friday
Collects
Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
O Merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks [Muslims], Infidels and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word: and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Hebrews 10:1-25
Gospel: John 19:1-37
Easter Even
Collect
GRANT, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying* our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, [the same]† thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Epistle: First letter of St Peter 3:17-end
Gospel: Matthew 17:57-end
Easter Day
Collect provided by the Revd Dr Peter Toon for the Prayer Book Society
ALMIGHTY God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 3:1-7
Gospel: John 20:1-10
Monday in Easter Week
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who through thy only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 10:34-43
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
Tuesday in Easter Week
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who through thy only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 13:26-41
Gospel: Luke 24:36-48
The First Sunday after Easter
Collect
ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may alway serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: First Letter of St John 5:4-12
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle
First letter of Peter 2:19-end
19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Gospel
John 10:11-16
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Reflection
The Gospel reading about Jesus as the Good Shepherd who is prepared to lay down his life for his sheep holds a powerful message about the kind of love that is prepared to sacrifice life for the safety of the sheep. Today, we are very much aware during this Covid-19 pandemic of the tremendous sacrifices that medical staff and care home staff are having to face every day. Many have died doing their duty to the patients in their care. Many are isolating themselves from their families to protect them from the virus. And although we have virtual technology to keep us in contact with our families, it isn’t the same as getting a hug from a mum or a dad, a daughter or a son. Then there are the other key workers who ensure that there is enough food and necessary supplies for us, the delivery drivers, the bin men, those working in the social services looking after the vulnerable, the headteacher delivering meals to vulnerable children, and many others, all potentially susceptible to the virus no matter how carefully they observe social distancing. If there was an example of how people are prepared to follow the example of Jesus and to lay their lives down for love of others, then this must be it.
Not all will be members of our faith, some will be atheists, but as Christians we can see that the power of the Holy Spirit in the world has made us more mindful and caring of the needs of others.
The size of flocks in Jesus’ day were tiny in comparison to the flocks of many modern day farmers, providing milk, meat and wool for today’s markets. The flocks in the ancient world pretty well provided the same. It would be difficult for modern farmers with large modern flocks to give names to their sheep but it is thought that the shepherds of the ancient world did just that. When a shepherd called a sheep by its name, it would come running towards him. The relationship was more personal. Someone just hired for the day would not have the same relationship. That is probably why Jesus makes the comparison. But even more importantly than this, Jesus knows his sheep. We are his sheep, and he knows each and every one of us by name, and it is us he came to save and suffered for on the cross. Jesus continues to watch over us, including those he says mysteriously are ‘not of this fold’. Scholars are uncertain who he is referring to, but it is possible that Jesus is thinking about those who come later, later Christians like us. Whatever happens, Jesus will be with us, in life and in death.
I should like to end with a quotation from the Book of Isaiah (Isa 43:1), which encapsulates the close and loving relationship we have with God.
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Amen.
A Prayer for Hospital Staff and Medical Researchers (from ‘Prayers for use during the coronavirus outbreak’, Church of England)
Gracious God,
Give skill, sympathy and resilience
To all who are caring for the sick.
And wisdom to those searching for a cure.
Strengthen them with your Spirit,
That through their work
Many will be restored to health;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
April Heywood
Readings and Reflection for the First Sunday After Easter (19 April 2020)
Collect
ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: First Letter of St John 5:4-12
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Gospel: John 20:19-23
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
23 Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Reflection by St Mary's Reader April Heywood
At this time of lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak, I think we can all understand a little of what it must have been like for the disciples in the immediate aftermath of the Crucifixion. Terrified for their lives, they have locked themselves in their room. They are still coming to terms with what has happened. It is only three days since the Crucifixion, and already there are all sorts of rumours flying about. It is a dangerous time. And then Jesus appears before them. He shows them his hands, pierced by nails and his side, pierced by a sword. It is truly him.
‘Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.’
Of course, the reason for their lockdown was different to ours. We have the fear of catching the virus, especially those of us who have been recognised as being particularly vulnerable and have to self isolate. Our whole country is coordinated in its effort to combat the disease. We’re in this together. The disciples, on the other hand, were on their own and worried about a possible threat from the authorities. No wonder they were glad when they saw Jesus. The relief must have been tremendous, just as we will feel once we’re out of this crisis. Just like the disciples, we will feel safe once more. At least that is what everyone hopes for. That is also not to underestimate the tremendous financial and other difficulties many people will have to face as we emerge from the threat to our health.
In the case of the disciples, their relief must have been shortlived for Jesus tells them that he is sending them out. They have to go out and spread the Good News even to those whom they fear. When Jesus appears, they probably feel that all would be fine.
He would look after them like he always has.
But no. That isn’t going to happen. The old relationship has changed. No matter how confused and muddled the disciples were about who Jesus was when he was their teacher, now, because of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, it is clear that Jesus is God. From its beginning, John’s Gospel is about Jesus, the living Word of God, sent to bring the Word of God to the peoples of the earth. The Word was not to be defeated and destroyed by death on the cross. The Word, being divine, could never be destroyed. It is eternal, having been created in love. Now, Jesus tells the disciples that they will continue his work. He breathes on them, empowering them with the divine strength of the Holy Spirit for the job they now have to do. As apostles, they will spread the Good News of the forgiveness of sins, for which Jesus in his overwhelming love for us, suffered on the cross.
‘Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’
We know from the Book of Acts that the task Jesus has given them to do will not be easy. But that little group of frightened men have become fearless in the power of the Holy Spirit. That sense of divine power is also conveyed in the epistle. It is not certain whether the John who wrote the epistles was the same John who wrote the Gospel. Both were writing towards the end of the first century AD. The doctrine of the Trinity was not decided until the Council of Nicea in AD 325 but clearly the John of the epistles recognises that Christ as the Son and Word of God is united with the divine together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is this faith in the love of Jesus Christ, our divine Saviour, which overpowers anything the world throws at us, John tells us. We are human and we falter, but with the eternal love of Jesus Christ to support us in our difficulties, including pandemics, we are strengthened just like the apostles were by the Holy Spirit, who girds us with faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. Amen.
Sunday 5th April, 2020
As we cannot be together at St Mary's this Easter we hope you may join us safely at home each day to read the Collects and Readings:
The Sunday Next Before Easter
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love
towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the
cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his
great humility: Mercifully grant that we may both follow the
example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his
resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings for the day:
The Epistle – Phillip. 2. 5
The Gospel. S Matth. 27.1
The BCP Collect prayer for the Sunday Next Before Easter can be used from Monday to Thursday before Easter. There are no other set Collects for these days.
Readings for Monday before Easter to Thursday before Easter
Monday before Easter:
Epistle: Isaiah 63:1-end
Gospel: Mark 14:1-end
Tuesday before Easter:
Epistle: Isaiah 50:5-end
Gospel: Mark 15:1-39
Wednesday before Easter:
Epistle: Hebrews 9:16-end
Gospel: Luke 22:1-end
Thursday before Easter:
Epistle: St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 11:17-end
Gospel: Luke 23:1-49
Good Friday
Collects
Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
O Merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks [Muslims], Infidels and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word: and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Hebrews 10:1-25
Gospel: John 19:1-37
Easter Even
Collect
GRANT, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying* our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, [the same]† thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Epistle: First letter of St Peter 3:17-end
Gospel: Matthew 17:57-end
Easter Day
Collect provided by the Revd Dr Peter Toon for the Prayer Book Society
ALMIGHTY God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 3:1-7
Gospel: John 20:1-10
Monday in Easter Week
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who through thy only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 10:34-43
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
Tuesday in Easter Week
Collect
ALMIGHTY God, who through thy only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Epistle: Acts 13:26-41
Gospel: Luke 24:36-48
The First Sunday after Easter
Collect
ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may alway serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle: First Letter of St John 5:4-12
Gospel: John 20:19-23
18th September 2016
Harvest 2016
Battle of Britain
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Today we have much to be thankful for.
We recall those words of Winston Churchill from 20th August 1940,
‘The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’.
We are many and they were few; the harvest of our lives is due to the labour of the few; gratitude for that harvest has to be the primary response.
The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely in the skies. When it was over, 544 RAF pilots and aircrew were dead.
Strangely, from where stand today, this battle was a truly multi-national response to the evil threat- alongside the British were Canadians, Irish, Poles, French, Belgians, Palestinians, Australians, Czechs, New Zealanders, Jamaicans, South Africans, Rhodesians.
Amazing yet predictable it is that, when under threat and being in danger, the species revert to survival and protective behaviour which, so sadly requires a reversion to violence and that only begets more destructive responses.
The invasion of the free and democratic notion, which this island represented, was averted at our cost, and at the cost of 1,733 German Luftwaffe aircraft; the enemy of the day.
So that unique historical event seems to carry, I feel, the whole set of essential principles of the harvest process.
Harvest principles carry the spirit of creation and away from destruction.
The process and principles of harvest seem to be that-
We have need; the facing of an emptiness and threat even unto death
We have means; faith, skill, knowledge and common sense and some financial resource to meet the need
We have a few; the few who believe and apply themselves
to a shared vision of safety and even plenty
We have result; the fruits of any labour are gathered in and responsibly stored or distributed to those who are in the greatest of need
We have gratitude; this is a thankfulness not only of the workers, who have been able to effect the vision through the effort, but also the thankfulness of those who have received these fruits
We have a future; each harvest looks to the next. The ground is prepared yet again so that others shall live. The cycle of life turns.
Now, that might be the salvation of a nation and democratic common sense, even though there may have to be a reversion to warfare;
It might be the salvation of a village from drought by the digging of a well and the sweat of the few volunteering brows;
It could mean the salvation of the hungry by the provision of basic nourishment, be that either in Ethiopia or on these jungle streets of Hull;
Then we have the salvation of the hospitalised given healing.
Harvest is very much aligned with healing; the harvest for the needy and the healing of the nations.
In all of this, as both givers and receivers, we stand in a state of great thankfulness for this privileged opportunity to live.
The principles and process of harvest is that there many, many who are in need and few who do the work; from the farmer to the fisherperson; from the missionary to the poet.
Harvest thanksgiving speaks more of harvesting which is a highly creative process, where God and his stewarding humanity are in partnership. Today is not just about an end result, for there is no end to the harvesting in the cosmos.
Ultimately, when we speak of the few, we go to the Son of God, who refined the harvest principle and process to the essence. He had a few disciples, but He was actually left alone as the human Christ, but never alone in the heavenly zone.
So we carry gratitude today, be that for the few courageous of 1940 who gave us life or for all those few who come to your mind who carry the vision of provision and provide.
The hope we carry and offer is that we are never ultimately alone and we can believe and say that, ‘all in the end is harvest’. Amen
Harvest 2016
Battle of Britain
+
Today we have much to be thankful for.
We recall those words of Winston Churchill from 20th August 1940,
‘The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’.
We are many and they were few; the harvest of our lives is due to the labour of the few; gratitude for that harvest has to be the primary response.
The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely in the skies. When it was over, 544 RAF pilots and aircrew were dead.
Strangely, from where stand today, this battle was a truly multi-national response to the evil threat- alongside the British were Canadians, Irish, Poles, French, Belgians, Palestinians, Australians, Czechs, New Zealanders, Jamaicans, South Africans, Rhodesians.
Amazing yet predictable it is that, when under threat and being in danger, the species revert to survival and protective behaviour which, so sadly requires a reversion to violence and that only begets more destructive responses.
The invasion of the free and democratic notion, which this island represented, was averted at our cost, and at the cost of 1,733 German Luftwaffe aircraft; the enemy of the day.
So that unique historical event seems to carry, I feel, the whole set of essential principles of the harvest process.
Harvest principles carry the spirit of creation and away from destruction.
The process and principles of harvest seem to be that-
We have need; the facing of an emptiness and threat even unto death
We have means; faith, skill, knowledge and common sense and some financial resource to meet the need
We have a few; the few who believe and apply themselves
to a shared vision of safety and even plenty
We have result; the fruits of any labour are gathered in and responsibly stored or distributed to those who are in the greatest of need
We have gratitude; this is a thankfulness not only of the workers, who have been able to effect the vision through the effort, but also the thankfulness of those who have received these fruits
We have a future; each harvest looks to the next. The ground is prepared yet again so that others shall live. The cycle of life turns.
Now, that might be the salvation of a nation and democratic common sense, even though there may have to be a reversion to warfare;
It might be the salvation of a village from drought by the digging of a well and the sweat of the few volunteering brows;
It could mean the salvation of the hungry by the provision of basic nourishment, be that either in Ethiopia or on these jungle streets of Hull;
Then we have the salvation of the hospitalised given healing.
Harvest is very much aligned with healing; the harvest for the needy and the healing of the nations.
In all of this, as both givers and receivers, we stand in a state of great thankfulness for this privileged opportunity to live.
The principles and process of harvest is that there many, many who are in need and few who do the work; from the farmer to the fisherperson; from the missionary to the poet.
Harvest thanksgiving speaks more of harvesting which is a highly creative process, where God and his stewarding humanity are in partnership. Today is not just about an end result, for there is no end to the harvesting in the cosmos.
Ultimately, when we speak of the few, we go to the Son of God, who refined the harvest principle and process to the essence. He had a few disciples, but He was actually left alone as the human Christ, but never alone in the heavenly zone.
So we carry gratitude today, be that for the few courageous of 1940 who gave us life or for all those few who come to your mind who carry the vision of provision and provide.
The hope we carry and offer is that we are never ultimately alone and we can believe and say that, ‘all in the end is harvest’. Amen
11th September 2016
Patronal Festival
St Mary
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‘Magnificat anima mea Dominum’, so the Latin goes and is translated as ‘My soul praises the Lord’; hence the canticle that we call ‘The Magnificat’, meaning ‘praise’. It is Mary’s prayer, Mary’s song. As Luke records it, her joy spills out after her expectant cousin Elizabeth, acknowledges Mary’s blessedness as being the God bearer; the theotokos.
Mary’s song focuses on God’s great works, especially his tendency to turn everything upside down.
He chose the lowly servant girl; he scatters the proud; brings down the princes and feeds the hungry.
It is clear that God’s kingdom inverts human structures and values, and this is made fully clear in Mary’s experience.
Mary’s Song is given us to unnerve us! For we can be ‘haughty’, we can wield power wrongly, we are neither hungry nor poor.
It is a challenging canticle and requires we examine our values and priorities and ultimately requires us, like Mary, to be God’s servants, extensions of his Kingdom, turning everything upside down.
The song is included by Luke as it shows what he Luke was as a caring physician, a healer, a champion of the poor and societal underdogs, the ‘anawim in the Greek. These ‘poor’ represent the neglected mass of humanity.
This ‘anawin is also the remnant of the Hebrew faithful, awaiting salvation. So we are rightly ‘matroned’ by Our Lady.
Luke was a faithful servant who praised God for the miracle of life and the ability of God to intervene in the ordinary of daily living.
The Magnificat, then, contains Luke’s lyric with Mary’s voice. It is so much more than a song of praise and gratitude, for the lyric and tune speak and sing of, what is known widely as, God’s ‘preferential option for the poor’, the remnant, the outcast. This arises from the faith which is being expressed.
The faith proclaimed in the Magnificat is that;
God is Saviour, the Almighty, the merciful, is the just one, the provident, the holy one, is our destiny, the one who intervenes in human history to help and free us.
Hope is also in the message, for the outcome of salvation is guaranteed.
For all of that Mary could say that ‘all generations will call me blessed’. Amen
4th September 2016
Trinity 15
Be not anxious
(Matt 6. Vs.24-34)
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There has been great excitement in certain quarters this past week as the record billion pounds has been spent as the premier league football transfer window was closed. Yet there is anxiety around with the top managers about how wisely the money has been spent.
There is also anxiety around with the local clubs who struggle to survive financially at all.
Many lottery winners have expressed that they have felt anxious about having so much money!
The Syrian refugees as they finally land on the Italian coast stand bewildered and wracked with anxiety and indeed fear as all they have is what they stand up in. Today’s gospel addresses anxiety in its various degrees.
At core Our lord is teaching his disciples that are not to be anxious for anything. One definition of anxiety is that it is, ‘fear spread thin’. That is because that the same hormones race around the body in both anxiety and fear and indeed panic; it is all about the concentration of those hormones!
Jesus often used the phrase ‘fear not’ or ‘do not be anxious’ simply because fearfulness, however thinly spread, is a form of separation from the fullness of God and dependence on Providence. ‘Perfect Love casts out fear’ John tells us, and ‘God is Love’.
The characteristic of any Gospel passage is that it carries‘Truth’.
The truth is often unpalatable, uncomfortable and very slippery. ‘What is it?’ Pilate famously asked. There is always the juxtaposition of often irreconcilable subjective positions which struggle for the overall objectivity of the truth of anything.
Today, Our Lord is continuing his teaching for his followers; of course the times were so different from ours but I am not so sure that the troubles of the human heart, mind and soul are much different.
There are two strains this morning; we are confronted with our attitude to worldly wealth and our apparent default position of being like Martha, ‘anxious over many things’.
Wisdom tells us, of course, that material wealth is not evil per se, but it depends on how it is used. Now I stagger at this one billion pounds figure. There has to be a question as to how on earth that sum can be justified for footballers! The only social value of football it seems to me, is a proper channelling of the unhelpful effects of testosterone in both the male and the female of the specie! It is a form of social control.
How much of that money is destined for the destitute world-wide? There are more ‘widows’ mites’ winging their way to places of need, mites born of a love of God and an anxiety free dependence on His Love and provision.
Our early Desert Fathers and Mothers give us some insights in all the complexities.
For them, all Christians should have the same goals: to avoid greed, give generously, care for the poor, and cultivate contentedness amongst other things. The early sages, often naively perhaps, saw that the way to do this was to, ‘completely shed all possessions’. St Symeon was the one who wrote that he who deals with money, ‘is like someone who holds in his hands a flaming fire’.
Evagrios has an interesting thought; because greed is such a powerful thing, should you have to be involved in buying and selling then so to maintain humility, he suggests, ‘make sure that you lose a little in every transaction’. That sounds a little counterintuitive!
Above all, the desert dwellers saw that the battles over money and possessions is a spiritual battle, and Evagrios gives warning of the demon avarice who, he wrote, among other things, ‘suggests that we should attach ourselves to wealthy women and to be obsequious to others who have a full purse’.
Clearly, Jesus is not asking us to abandon our lives and move to the desert or join a monastery or empty our savings account. Rather he is addressing any basis for excessive worry and that fear spread thin, anxiety, which can be both the cause and result of a life separated from God and one’s own God given nature. Also, as he was teaching them to be a disciple required a single-mindedness, there is no time to be overly distracted by things you have no control over, what you will eat or what you will wear or who you will play in the next FA Cup draw-‘seek first the kingdom of God’, he told them, and so lovingly continues to tell us.
Trinity 15
Be not anxious
(Matt 6. Vs.24-34)
+
There has been great excitement in certain quarters this past week as the record billion pounds has been spent as the premier league football transfer window was closed. Yet there is anxiety around with the top managers about how wisely the money has been spent.
There is also anxiety around with the local clubs who struggle to survive financially at all.
Many lottery winners have expressed that they have felt anxious about having so much money!
The Syrian refugees as they finally land on the Italian coast stand bewildered and wracked with anxiety and indeed fear as all they have is what they stand up in. Today’s gospel addresses anxiety in its various degrees.
At core Our lord is teaching his disciples that are not to be anxious for anything. One definition of anxiety is that it is, ‘fear spread thin’. That is because that the same hormones race around the body in both anxiety and fear and indeed panic; it is all about the concentration of those hormones!
Jesus often used the phrase ‘fear not’ or ‘do not be anxious’ simply because fearfulness, however thinly spread, is a form of separation from the fullness of God and dependence on Providence. ‘Perfect Love casts out fear’ John tells us, and ‘God is Love’.
The characteristic of any Gospel passage is that it carries‘Truth’.
The truth is often unpalatable, uncomfortable and very slippery. ‘What is it?’ Pilate famously asked. There is always the juxtaposition of often irreconcilable subjective positions which struggle for the overall objectivity of the truth of anything.
Today, Our Lord is continuing his teaching for his followers; of course the times were so different from ours but I am not so sure that the troubles of the human heart, mind and soul are much different.
There are two strains this morning; we are confronted with our attitude to worldly wealth and our apparent default position of being like Martha, ‘anxious over many things’.
Wisdom tells us, of course, that material wealth is not evil per se, but it depends on how it is used. Now I stagger at this one billion pounds figure. There has to be a question as to how on earth that sum can be justified for footballers! The only social value of football it seems to me, is a proper channelling of the unhelpful effects of testosterone in both the male and the female of the specie! It is a form of social control.
How much of that money is destined for the destitute world-wide? There are more ‘widows’ mites’ winging their way to places of need, mites born of a love of God and an anxiety free dependence on His Love and provision.
Our early Desert Fathers and Mothers give us some insights in all the complexities.
For them, all Christians should have the same goals: to avoid greed, give generously, care for the poor, and cultivate contentedness amongst other things. The early sages, often naively perhaps, saw that the way to do this was to, ‘completely shed all possessions’. St Symeon was the one who wrote that he who deals with money, ‘is like someone who holds in his hands a flaming fire’.
Evagrios has an interesting thought; because greed is such a powerful thing, should you have to be involved in buying and selling then so to maintain humility, he suggests, ‘make sure that you lose a little in every transaction’. That sounds a little counterintuitive!
Above all, the desert dwellers saw that the battles over money and possessions is a spiritual battle, and Evagrios gives warning of the demon avarice who, he wrote, among other things, ‘suggests that we should attach ourselves to wealthy women and to be obsequious to others who have a full purse’.
Clearly, Jesus is not asking us to abandon our lives and move to the desert or join a monastery or empty our savings account. Rather he is addressing any basis for excessive worry and that fear spread thin, anxiety, which can be both the cause and result of a life separated from God and one’s own God given nature. Also, as he was teaching them to be a disciple required a single-mindedness, there is no time to be overly distracted by things you have no control over, what you will eat or what you will wear or who you will play in the next FA Cup draw-‘seek first the kingdom of God’, he told them, and so lovingly continues to tell us.
28th August 2016
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
St Bartholomew
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From Scripture we know little about Bartholomew except for his name. It is a family name ‘Bartholomais’, ‘son of ‘Talmai’ or ‘Ptolomy’ or ‘son of furrows’. Bartholomew, maybe was the son of a ploughman, a son of the earth.
The saint is listed by each of the gospel writers except by St John. Nathaniel is mentioned by John instead of Bartholomew as the one who always accompanied Philip.
After the Ascension, as the 3rd C historian Eusebuis has it, Bartholomew took a missionary tour in India, taking a copy of St Matthew’s gospel with him. Given the date of the writing of the Gospel, that makes Bartholomew either an old missionary or was a very young disciple!
Other traditions have this saint travel on to Ethiopia and in Asia, and along with Jude, was the founder of the church in Armenia, where later he was martyred by, allegedly, being flayed alive. Certainly the present Armenian Church have him as their patron.
He appeared then to be a well- travelled and versatile saint becoming associated with the healing industry, hence our great St Barts of London. He was well travelled in life and death, for a relic of one of his arms is still venerated today in Canterbury Cathedral.
We have none of his bones here, but how do we venerate him as an important and dedicated apostle of the church of which we are members?
With so much historical and cultural distance we seek some spiritual significance in our saintly figure.
For that spiritual take on the more historical of the Gospels, we go to St John. In the light of our recent Olympic Champions, we can ponder about ‘what makes a person memorable?’ and of lasting significance.
It is well attested that in John, because of his partnering the saint with Philip, that the synoptic Bartholomew becomes the Johannine Nathaniel! John’s naming of the figure carries the meaning, ‘gift of God’: it is John’s way of spiritualising the historical person. This was a way of saying what a gift this person was and was to be for a multitude of later generations.
John tells of Jesus being impressed by Nathaniel as that Israelite without guile and, Jesus first sees him sitting under a fig tree, the symbol of a new Israel. The celebrated encounter comes when Philip tells Nathaniel of Jesus and Nathaniel then asks,
‘can anything good come out of Nazareth?’
Philip said ‘Come and see’. He did and his life was never the same again.
Little is known of his actual time spent with our Lord, but there is nothing to gainsay that Bartholomew cum Nathaniel demonstrated the devotion of a disciple.
His devotion would have brought him to study the scriptures; there are rumours that he even wrote his own gospel. His devotion got him ‘out and about’. His devotion would have had him learning how to pray and to teach others. His devotion would have given him the wisdom to engage with others in the troubled world which eventually martyred him.
All these saintly qualities somehow render Bartholomew memorable. Our gold medal winners have come and gone, the memory of them will fade, just as the earliest of Olympiads.
It seems that part of the divine action with humanity is to maintain a sort of ‘collective’ memory which, through the word, both spoken and written, endures through generations. What is remarkable is that we are celebrating and giving thanks for an unremarkable saintly figure.
It is then we also give thanks today for all devoted Christian people who unremarkably live out the daily routine of discipleship where there are no medals, no fanfares only fidelity.
So we pray the fourth verse of our final hymn,
For this thy name we bless,
And humbly beg that we
May follow them in holiness
And live and die in thee. Amen
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
St Bartholomew
+
From Scripture we know little about Bartholomew except for his name. It is a family name ‘Bartholomais’, ‘son of ‘Talmai’ or ‘Ptolomy’ or ‘son of furrows’. Bartholomew, maybe was the son of a ploughman, a son of the earth.
The saint is listed by each of the gospel writers except by St John. Nathaniel is mentioned by John instead of Bartholomew as the one who always accompanied Philip.
After the Ascension, as the 3rd C historian Eusebuis has it, Bartholomew took a missionary tour in India, taking a copy of St Matthew’s gospel with him. Given the date of the writing of the Gospel, that makes Bartholomew either an old missionary or was a very young disciple!
Other traditions have this saint travel on to Ethiopia and in Asia, and along with Jude, was the founder of the church in Armenia, where later he was martyred by, allegedly, being flayed alive. Certainly the present Armenian Church have him as their patron.
He appeared then to be a well- travelled and versatile saint becoming associated with the healing industry, hence our great St Barts of London. He was well travelled in life and death, for a relic of one of his arms is still venerated today in Canterbury Cathedral.
We have none of his bones here, but how do we venerate him as an important and dedicated apostle of the church of which we are members?
With so much historical and cultural distance we seek some spiritual significance in our saintly figure.
For that spiritual take on the more historical of the Gospels, we go to St John. In the light of our recent Olympic Champions, we can ponder about ‘what makes a person memorable?’ and of lasting significance.
It is well attested that in John, because of his partnering the saint with Philip, that the synoptic Bartholomew becomes the Johannine Nathaniel! John’s naming of the figure carries the meaning, ‘gift of God’: it is John’s way of spiritualising the historical person. This was a way of saying what a gift this person was and was to be for a multitude of later generations.
John tells of Jesus being impressed by Nathaniel as that Israelite without guile and, Jesus first sees him sitting under a fig tree, the symbol of a new Israel. The celebrated encounter comes when Philip tells Nathaniel of Jesus and Nathaniel then asks,
‘can anything good come out of Nazareth?’
Philip said ‘Come and see’. He did and his life was never the same again.
Little is known of his actual time spent with our Lord, but there is nothing to gainsay that Bartholomew cum Nathaniel demonstrated the devotion of a disciple.
His devotion would have brought him to study the scriptures; there are rumours that he even wrote his own gospel. His devotion got him ‘out and about’. His devotion would have had him learning how to pray and to teach others. His devotion would have given him the wisdom to engage with others in the troubled world which eventually martyred him.
All these saintly qualities somehow render Bartholomew memorable. Our gold medal winners have come and gone, the memory of them will fade, just as the earliest of Olympiads.
It seems that part of the divine action with humanity is to maintain a sort of ‘collective’ memory which, through the word, both spoken and written, endures through generations. What is remarkable is that we are celebrating and giving thanks for an unremarkable saintly figure.
It is then we also give thanks today for all devoted Christian people who unremarkably live out the daily routine of discipleship where there are no medals, no fanfares only fidelity.
So we pray the fourth verse of our final hymn,
For this thy name we bless,
And humbly beg that we
May follow them in holiness
And live and die in thee. Amen
7th August 2016
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
The Prayer of the Penitent
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St. John Cassian, one of the early desert fathers of the church, in his work The Ladder of Divine Ascent, tells the story of one Hesychius the Horebite. It is a story which has some elements of our gospel reading this morning.
Cassian was much sought after as a teacher of prayer, especially ways of praying as being ‘The Way of the Heart’ with an especial prayer emerging namely the ‘Jesus Prayer’.
So the story of Hesychius the Horebite which Cassian said he could not be silent about. I quote from John Cassian,
‘Hesychius passed his life in complete negligence, without paying the least attention to his soul. Then he became extremely ill and for an hour he expired. And when he came to himself he begged us all to leave him immediately. And he built up the door of his cell and stayed in it for twelve years without ever uttering a word to anyone, and without eating anything but bread and water.’
Needless to say he became somewhat ecstatic, ‘rapt in the spirit’, we are told, and often ‘silently shed hot tears’.
Cassian goes on, ‘when he was about to die we broke down the door and went in and after many questions, this alone is what we heard from him: “Forgive me! No one who has acquired the remembrance of death will ever be able to sin” ‘
Apparently this ‘negligent’ man had now passed into a beatific state. He was reverently buried. Cassian concludes,
‘So by Hesychius’s true and praiseworthy repentance, the Lord showed us that He accepts those who desire to amend, even after long negligence’.
The publican or tax collector in our gospel realised he had been negligent of his soul and of paying attention to God. Jesus revealed God to him and he fell into a state of repentance, ‘Lord have mercy on me’, kyrie eleison.
Eleison come from the elaion meaning oil, so in asking for mercy we ask for the oil of gladness, the oil of healing
Penitence and the awareness of our need is the Christian’s default position, born of the awareness of soul and of the Christ within and without.
There is a word of caution with this gospel, namely we might start to contrast ourselves with the Pharisee just as the Pharisee contrasted himself with the tax collector. In so doing, we become pharisaic!
So, we will stay with our default position, and return to the prayer that originated with Cassian and especially used in the Orthodox and monastic traditions;
The Jesus Prayer:
‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’, or
‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me for I am someone who needs healing’
For this prayer we thank Hesychius and the penitent publican and subsequent practitioners; in the shadow of yesterday’s Feast of Transfiguration we can see this prayer as transfiguring.
It is a prayer that can be used as a mantra; it is a prayer used in distress; it is a prayer used as an intercession; it is a prayer used all day long in whatever activity we are engaged; it is a prayer made more accessible by the book, ‘The Way of the Pilgrim’, the author wanting to be in a state of continual prayer as St Paul urges us; it is a prayer that is directed to God with acknowledging our position in the whole economy of the divine economy.
It is a prayer that requires humility.
It is a prayer that requires that we stand, with no other around, before our Maker and Saviour; it is a prayer that requires we, like Hesychius, face our mortality in good time. It is a God and me prayer.
It is a prayer of response also, and it is also a question which awaits an answer form God about what I am and what am I doing in this life.
St Symeon, the New Theologian, describes the optimum gospel effect of using this prayer:
‘Do not worry about what will come next, you will discover it when it comes’.
Amen
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
The Prayer of the Penitent
+
St. John Cassian, one of the early desert fathers of the church, in his work The Ladder of Divine Ascent, tells the story of one Hesychius the Horebite. It is a story which has some elements of our gospel reading this morning.
Cassian was much sought after as a teacher of prayer, especially ways of praying as being ‘The Way of the Heart’ with an especial prayer emerging namely the ‘Jesus Prayer’.
So the story of Hesychius the Horebite which Cassian said he could not be silent about. I quote from John Cassian,
‘Hesychius passed his life in complete negligence, without paying the least attention to his soul. Then he became extremely ill and for an hour he expired. And when he came to himself he begged us all to leave him immediately. And he built up the door of his cell and stayed in it for twelve years without ever uttering a word to anyone, and without eating anything but bread and water.’
Needless to say he became somewhat ecstatic, ‘rapt in the spirit’, we are told, and often ‘silently shed hot tears’.
Cassian goes on, ‘when he was about to die we broke down the door and went in and after many questions, this alone is what we heard from him: “Forgive me! No one who has acquired the remembrance of death will ever be able to sin” ‘
Apparently this ‘negligent’ man had now passed into a beatific state. He was reverently buried. Cassian concludes,
‘So by Hesychius’s true and praiseworthy repentance, the Lord showed us that He accepts those who desire to amend, even after long negligence’.
The publican or tax collector in our gospel realised he had been negligent of his soul and of paying attention to God. Jesus revealed God to him and he fell into a state of repentance, ‘Lord have mercy on me’, kyrie eleison.
Eleison come from the elaion meaning oil, so in asking for mercy we ask for the oil of gladness, the oil of healing
Penitence and the awareness of our need is the Christian’s default position, born of the awareness of soul and of the Christ within and without.
There is a word of caution with this gospel, namely we might start to contrast ourselves with the Pharisee just as the Pharisee contrasted himself with the tax collector. In so doing, we become pharisaic!
So, we will stay with our default position, and return to the prayer that originated with Cassian and especially used in the Orthodox and monastic traditions;
The Jesus Prayer:
‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’, or
‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me for I am someone who needs healing’
For this prayer we thank Hesychius and the penitent publican and subsequent practitioners; in the shadow of yesterday’s Feast of Transfiguration we can see this prayer as transfiguring.
It is a prayer that can be used as a mantra; it is a prayer used in distress; it is a prayer used as an intercession; it is a prayer used all day long in whatever activity we are engaged; it is a prayer made more accessible by the book, ‘The Way of the Pilgrim’, the author wanting to be in a state of continual prayer as St Paul urges us; it is a prayer that is directed to God with acknowledging our position in the whole economy of the divine economy.
It is a prayer that requires humility.
It is a prayer that requires that we stand, with no other around, before our Maker and Saviour; it is a prayer that requires we, like Hesychius, face our mortality in good time. It is a God and me prayer.
It is a prayer of response also, and it is also a question which awaits an answer form God about what I am and what am I doing in this life.
St Symeon, the New Theologian, describes the optimum gospel effect of using this prayer:
‘Do not worry about what will come next, you will discover it when it comes’.
Amen
24th July
Ninth Sunday after Trinity
Mary Magdalene
+
On Friday the world-wide Church celebrated the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, or, as is sometimes known, the woman of the garden.
Now I have a ‘did you know?’ story.
There is a tradition that Mary went to Italy from Roman occupied Palestine, and tried to preach the Resurrection to the Emperor Tiberius. She took him an egg as a sign of new life. He was rather sceptical and said that no one could rise from the dead any more than the egg she was holding could turn red. Miraculously it turned red in her hands! So we have the coloured Paschal or Easter Eggs! Tiberius, in dismay, having heard from Mary about the role of his governor in the crucifixion event, sent Pilate to France (Gaul) where very quickly he became sick and died.
So it is with all our primary saints we have access to both the scriptures and the legends and in the case of this Mary a raft of fictions.
From scripture, which is our safest and most reliable source of information, we can be reminded that The Magdalene was that person that Jesus released from seven evils, the ‘seven deadlies’, those ones that are common to us all.
We see how she came to love and follow Jesus along with the other disciples. In some early documents it was suggested that the Magdalene, and not John the Beloved, was the favourite disciple, the one Jesus loved most.
Certainly there is no evidence of Jesus ever chastising Mary as he frequently did other of his disciples. There is, of course the controversy brought about by the great Leonardo Da Vinci painting ‘The Last Supper’, in which we are asked the question as who is the favoured saint, which disciple is reclining on Jesus’ breast?
Legends and Fiction
These tend to bring out the extremes of our responses and interpretations of the Magdalene are less about her and more about those who dare to make largely fanciful interpretations.
Dan Brown in his book then come film, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ has his take with the quest for the ‘holy grail’; he sees the ‘sang réal’, the holy blood line; in the story he finds the surviving descendant of the fictitious union between Mary and Jesus.
Andrew Lloyd Webber in ‘JC Superstar’ had another take with her famous line, ‘I don’t know how to love him’ and taking on the fiction of her having been a prostitute, he adds the alluring Mary saying ‘I’ve had so many men before’.
Nikos Kazantzakis’ book also, which gave way to Martin Scorsese’s film, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ continues that confection of some relationship between Jesus and Mary.
The patriarchal misogynist church fathers had their own problems with women and sex generally and so projected onto Mary the image of the archetypal fallen woman and most threatening to men, libidinous, teasing, seductive and dangerous.
Equally extreme can be the feminist position which sees Mary as the liberated woman who found her voice to challenge the male dominated world. She has that apostolic status and so is the template for ordination of women people as priests and bishops. I believe she may become the matron saint for Prime Ministers!
Historical and Scriptural information
In truth, a sane and orthodox approach can only be derived from what that we feel is safe and reliable, namely the accepted scriptures.
The gospels present Mary as the repentant or healed person who followed and became committed to Our Lord.
She was at the crucifixion and importantly Mary, being devoted and in accordance with Jewish tradition, went with the other women to the grave to anoint His body. Mary though arrived much earlier than the others, indeed it was still dark.
He was not there; angels greeted her as did the gardener. Her devastation was tangible, then the gardener spoke her name and there was the instant, intimate recognition moment, ‘Rabbouni’, ‘Master and Teacher’. That meeting arguably was the most important of all time, even more memorable than Omar Sherriff meeting Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia
She wanted to hold him but is clearly told, with that highly charged admonition from Our Lord, ‘noli me tangere’, do not touch me, or ‘do not hold on to me’.
He had changed; we have no idea of the substance of the resurrected body, maybe such a body is not tangible? As yet, He tells her, that he is not fulfilled as he had not ascended to the Father; perhaps that was. None of us, when feeling unfulfilled or ‘not right’ with ourselves, want to be intimately touched.
‘Do not touch me’ is a very emotive request: I have been told directly on two occasions ‘noli me tangere’. Each person before me was of an ethereal and spiritual nature; the first was a dear friend a gay priest wrongly accused of abuse-couldn’t be touched. The second, a young nun in hospital who had had a tumour removed from her breast. She couldn’t be touched.
Maybe it was that Jesus did not let Mary touch him because he still carried the deep wounds of his humanity, maybe this was his last gesture or expression of his incarnation, his embodiment.
More importantly Jesus did not want Mary to cling on to him; He had moved on, so must she, so He sends her to the brethren, to the apostles then and even now to the apostolic church. Mary could not hold on to the past, she was to become her own woman.
She earned the accolade of being ‘the apostle to the apostles’ through her enthusiastic telling the others of the Lord, once dead was now strangely alive.
Whatever happened to Mary next is not altogether clear; some sources have her staying Jerusalem, some have her going to Ephesus, others have her beginning a reclusive monastic life. Whatever else Mary was, the Magdalene, the woman of the garden, she was the one who started the rumour of the Resurrection.
Amen
Ninth Sunday after Trinity
Mary Magdalene
+
On Friday the world-wide Church celebrated the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, or, as is sometimes known, the woman of the garden.
Now I have a ‘did you know?’ story.
There is a tradition that Mary went to Italy from Roman occupied Palestine, and tried to preach the Resurrection to the Emperor Tiberius. She took him an egg as a sign of new life. He was rather sceptical and said that no one could rise from the dead any more than the egg she was holding could turn red. Miraculously it turned red in her hands! So we have the coloured Paschal or Easter Eggs! Tiberius, in dismay, having heard from Mary about the role of his governor in the crucifixion event, sent Pilate to France (Gaul) where very quickly he became sick and died.
So it is with all our primary saints we have access to both the scriptures and the legends and in the case of this Mary a raft of fictions.
From scripture, which is our safest and most reliable source of information, we can be reminded that The Magdalene was that person that Jesus released from seven evils, the ‘seven deadlies’, those ones that are common to us all.
We see how she came to love and follow Jesus along with the other disciples. In some early documents it was suggested that the Magdalene, and not John the Beloved, was the favourite disciple, the one Jesus loved most.
Certainly there is no evidence of Jesus ever chastising Mary as he frequently did other of his disciples. There is, of course the controversy brought about by the great Leonardo Da Vinci painting ‘The Last Supper’, in which we are asked the question as who is the favoured saint, which disciple is reclining on Jesus’ breast?
Legends and Fiction
These tend to bring out the extremes of our responses and interpretations of the Magdalene are less about her and more about those who dare to make largely fanciful interpretations.
Dan Brown in his book then come film, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ has his take with the quest for the ‘holy grail’; he sees the ‘sang réal’, the holy blood line; in the story he finds the surviving descendant of the fictitious union between Mary and Jesus.
Andrew Lloyd Webber in ‘JC Superstar’ had another take with her famous line, ‘I don’t know how to love him’ and taking on the fiction of her having been a prostitute, he adds the alluring Mary saying ‘I’ve had so many men before’.
Nikos Kazantzakis’ book also, which gave way to Martin Scorsese’s film, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ continues that confection of some relationship between Jesus and Mary.
The patriarchal misogynist church fathers had their own problems with women and sex generally and so projected onto Mary the image of the archetypal fallen woman and most threatening to men, libidinous, teasing, seductive and dangerous.
Equally extreme can be the feminist position which sees Mary as the liberated woman who found her voice to challenge the male dominated world. She has that apostolic status and so is the template for ordination of women people as priests and bishops. I believe she may become the matron saint for Prime Ministers!
Historical and Scriptural information
In truth, a sane and orthodox approach can only be derived from what that we feel is safe and reliable, namely the accepted scriptures.
The gospels present Mary as the repentant or healed person who followed and became committed to Our Lord.
She was at the crucifixion and importantly Mary, being devoted and in accordance with Jewish tradition, went with the other women to the grave to anoint His body. Mary though arrived much earlier than the others, indeed it was still dark.
He was not there; angels greeted her as did the gardener. Her devastation was tangible, then the gardener spoke her name and there was the instant, intimate recognition moment, ‘Rabbouni’, ‘Master and Teacher’. That meeting arguably was the most important of all time, even more memorable than Omar Sherriff meeting Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia
She wanted to hold him but is clearly told, with that highly charged admonition from Our Lord, ‘noli me tangere’, do not touch me, or ‘do not hold on to me’.
He had changed; we have no idea of the substance of the resurrected body, maybe such a body is not tangible? As yet, He tells her, that he is not fulfilled as he had not ascended to the Father; perhaps that was. None of us, when feeling unfulfilled or ‘not right’ with ourselves, want to be intimately touched.
‘Do not touch me’ is a very emotive request: I have been told directly on two occasions ‘noli me tangere’. Each person before me was of an ethereal and spiritual nature; the first was a dear friend a gay priest wrongly accused of abuse-couldn’t be touched. The second, a young nun in hospital who had had a tumour removed from her breast. She couldn’t be touched.
Maybe it was that Jesus did not let Mary touch him because he still carried the deep wounds of his humanity, maybe this was his last gesture or expression of his incarnation, his embodiment.
More importantly Jesus did not want Mary to cling on to him; He had moved on, so must she, so He sends her to the brethren, to the apostles then and even now to the apostolic church. Mary could not hold on to the past, she was to become her own woman.
She earned the accolade of being ‘the apostle to the apostles’ through her enthusiastic telling the others of the Lord, once dead was now strangely alive.
Whatever happened to Mary next is not altogether clear; some sources have her staying Jerusalem, some have her going to Ephesus, others have her beginning a reclusive monastic life. Whatever else Mary was, the Magdalene, the woman of the garden, she was the one who started the rumour of the Resurrection.
Amen
17th July 2016
Eighth Sunday after Trinity
St Matt. Ch 7. 15ff
The Great Sermon
+
So often we talk about the ‘elephant in the room’! It could be a board room, a cabinet room, an episcopal office even a choir vestry, we tend to find an elephant in attendance!
Sometimes we can either get hold of the trunk or the tail but we can somehow miss the enormity of the animal!
We can get hold of one end of an argument, a point of view, some issue or other, issue but be unable to grasp the whole of whatever it is ‘on the table’.
What is ‘on the table’ for us today is our Lord’s magna carta, the Great Sermon.
Our Lord’s celebrated Sermon on the Mount is like that. It is by far his longest recorded sermon. We so often concentrate on the trunk, the front part of the sermon, the Beatitudes whereas today, in our gospel passage, we are touching the rough end, the tail!
The whole body of the sermon has a real shape, and that shape is a summary of the whole body of Jesus’ teachings and ministry; the picture for Christian discipleship is painted in the mountain-side room.
It does not speak about evangelism, neither are there signs and wonders, rather in these three chapters of St Matthew Jesus concentrates on character, lifestyle, purity of motives and humility.
It is a biblical sermon and not to be ‘cherry-picked’.
During his delivery, Jesus frequently refers to ‘the law and the prophets’.
Somehow Jesus is trying to reassure, not condemn, the Jewish community that there is continuity in his teaching; ‘you have heard it said, but I say unto you’, there is a deeper way now. He stressed that he had not come to destroy but to fulfil the essence of the great commandments; it gets hard though, when we are asked to ‘love our enemies’ rather than punch their lights out!
It is a challenging sermon; as they say the sermon is the best known, least understood and the least obeyed! We cannot just read or even study it, we have to do it! As it is written in the Letter to the Hebrews,
‘Therefore we ought to give more heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip’ (2.1).
Chapter 5 of St Matthew, as we know speaks of those Beatitudes; something about ‘blessedness’, that state of extreme happiness; macarios in Gk. means both blessing and happy. This ‘happiness’ was to be the ‘mind-set’ of those who chose to be with him as his disciples.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit; those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted”
These are the challenges; but to follow in his footsteps is to be ‘happy’ and fortunate, for living the beatitudes is to imitate the Master. The ‘beatitudes livers’ belong to God, and God is on their side; ‘theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.
As we pass through the sermon, we are given thorough instructions on how to pray; there is no mention of the long ‘shopping list’ type incantations and the heaping up of empty phrases! The divine preference is the avoidance of the play acting, or hypo-crisy; we are to pray silently in our own ‘inner chamber’, be that actual or spiritual, and pray like this; ‘Our Father…’. This is the prayer we recite more than once daily; but rather than it being like an ‘incantation’, originally it was meant to strung together as we do.
Rather each line has a direction and an intention; each line we can extract and make it a complete meditation. The essence though is, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God..’
As we pass through the sermon, there is much more teaching, more we refer to throughout our lives. By the time we come to the tail of this great body of a sermon, there are more loving instructions for disciples, involving choices and warnings, all in the search for the all elusive wisdom.
There is again the lovingly given warning against the ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing, the false prophets! These, we assume, are those who were teaching other doctrines other than those Jesus was teaching; those who would deceive the vulnerable pilgrim. The advice is clear that these wolfish prophets will be known by their fruits and influence of their work.
The great sermon comes to conclusion with the parable of the two houses; one survives and one collapses. The sustainability of the house depends on the quality of the foundations. Then, summarily, there is the confirmation of the need for action not listening only.
At all this we are told, ‘the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority..’
The whole charter then, this great sermon is about how the whole people of God would now be formed; it is our encyclopaedia our base-line reference work.
Over the centuries however, many ‘goods and the greats’ of scholarship have found the whole sermon unpalatable and have attempted to discredit authenticity and to explain it away!
Whatever we make of the tail or the trunk of this elephantine magna carta of Jesus, we can see how difficult it is to get on and ride the whole body.
Amen
Eighth Sunday after Trinity
St Matt. Ch 7. 15ff
The Great Sermon
+
So often we talk about the ‘elephant in the room’! It could be a board room, a cabinet room, an episcopal office even a choir vestry, we tend to find an elephant in attendance!
Sometimes we can either get hold of the trunk or the tail but we can somehow miss the enormity of the animal!
We can get hold of one end of an argument, a point of view, some issue or other, issue but be unable to grasp the whole of whatever it is ‘on the table’.
What is ‘on the table’ for us today is our Lord’s magna carta, the Great Sermon.
Our Lord’s celebrated Sermon on the Mount is like that. It is by far his longest recorded sermon. We so often concentrate on the trunk, the front part of the sermon, the Beatitudes whereas today, in our gospel passage, we are touching the rough end, the tail!
The whole body of the sermon has a real shape, and that shape is a summary of the whole body of Jesus’ teachings and ministry; the picture for Christian discipleship is painted in the mountain-side room.
It does not speak about evangelism, neither are there signs and wonders, rather in these three chapters of St Matthew Jesus concentrates on character, lifestyle, purity of motives and humility.
It is a biblical sermon and not to be ‘cherry-picked’.
During his delivery, Jesus frequently refers to ‘the law and the prophets’.
Somehow Jesus is trying to reassure, not condemn, the Jewish community that there is continuity in his teaching; ‘you have heard it said, but I say unto you’, there is a deeper way now. He stressed that he had not come to destroy but to fulfil the essence of the great commandments; it gets hard though, when we are asked to ‘love our enemies’ rather than punch their lights out!
It is a challenging sermon; as they say the sermon is the best known, least understood and the least obeyed! We cannot just read or even study it, we have to do it! As it is written in the Letter to the Hebrews,
‘Therefore we ought to give more heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip’ (2.1).
Chapter 5 of St Matthew, as we know speaks of those Beatitudes; something about ‘blessedness’, that state of extreme happiness; macarios in Gk. means both blessing and happy. This ‘happiness’ was to be the ‘mind-set’ of those who chose to be with him as his disciples.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit; those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted”
These are the challenges; but to follow in his footsteps is to be ‘happy’ and fortunate, for living the beatitudes is to imitate the Master. The ‘beatitudes livers’ belong to God, and God is on their side; ‘theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.
As we pass through the sermon, we are given thorough instructions on how to pray; there is no mention of the long ‘shopping list’ type incantations and the heaping up of empty phrases! The divine preference is the avoidance of the play acting, or hypo-crisy; we are to pray silently in our own ‘inner chamber’, be that actual or spiritual, and pray like this; ‘Our Father…’. This is the prayer we recite more than once daily; but rather than it being like an ‘incantation’, originally it was meant to strung together as we do.
Rather each line has a direction and an intention; each line we can extract and make it a complete meditation. The essence though is, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God..’
As we pass through the sermon, there is much more teaching, more we refer to throughout our lives. By the time we come to the tail of this great body of a sermon, there are more loving instructions for disciples, involving choices and warnings, all in the search for the all elusive wisdom.
There is again the lovingly given warning against the ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing, the false prophets! These, we assume, are those who were teaching other doctrines other than those Jesus was teaching; those who would deceive the vulnerable pilgrim. The advice is clear that these wolfish prophets will be known by their fruits and influence of their work.
The great sermon comes to conclusion with the parable of the two houses; one survives and one collapses. The sustainability of the house depends on the quality of the foundations. Then, summarily, there is the confirmation of the need for action not listening only.
At all this we are told, ‘the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority..’
The whole charter then, this great sermon is about how the whole people of God would now be formed; it is our encyclopaedia our base-line reference work.
Over the centuries however, many ‘goods and the greats’ of scholarship have found the whole sermon unpalatable and have attempted to discredit authenticity and to explain it away!
Whatever we make of the tail or the trunk of this elephantine magna carta of Jesus, we can see how difficult it is to get on and ride the whole body.
Amen
10th July 2016
The Four Thousand
+
The focus today will be on this earliest of the canonical synoptic gospels narratives. St Mark in this eighth chapter records the feeding of the multitude of four thousand.
Mark wrote some thirty or so years after the resurrection event of his Lord and Master. It is likely that Mark followed Jesus around and was the lad who took to his heels after he saw the betrayal and agony moment in that olive grove. We can imagine him also staying a little way off during the ‘way of the cross’, that last walk of ridicule through the streets of Jerusalem; Mark was somewhere in the crowds at the crucifixion event.
Mark had a sense of what Our Lord went through in the ultimate trials of what it meant to be human.
This was the divine identification with all of our sufferings; it also a pattern for all our caring. This story is the essence of the whole Christian gospel.
So, we begin with the context of the narrative. Jesus is in the area to the SE of Galilee; the wilderness corridor between the Ten Cities, the Decapolis. This is a Gentile region and his reputation was growing there after he had healed the demoniac. So a great multitude had been following him for three days and they were hungry. Jesus knew very well what it was like to be hungry in the wilderness; empathy was born in the Judean desert.
This whole miracle narrative was prompted by Jesus’ compassion. The disciples were quite unprepared; seven loaves and a few fishes; all get fed and the fragments gathered. He then sent them all away. Jesus only ever sent anyone away after he had satisfied their needs; forgiveness, healing, feeding, blessing.
So we have the need of the people; we see the compassion, and the grace of Jesus. We see the disciples scratching their heads and their sense of helplessness.
We see Jesus’ command for the people to sit down, a command which inspired trust. Whatever happened was seen as a demonstration of divine authority and power which resulted in a super abundance of supply.
In likewise we as church, millions are now fed in the Eucharistic feasts.
The pattern of care is set; there is the need and then there is the compassion and then there is effective and appropriate action. The disciples were in training; the disciples were being mentored.
Some many years ago now, when I was being interview for the counselling diploma, there was the classic question, ‘How is it you want to counsel people?’
I mumbled something about wanting to help people, then what got me accepted was when I acknowledged, ‘I suspect it is because I need to be counselled and I need to learn how not to damage others’.
In a way there was the empathy that Our Lord showed which led to the compassion that led to the hungry being fed ever since. Like those disciples I was in training as a counsellor and as Christians we are all in training all the time. Amen
The Four Thousand
+
The focus today will be on this earliest of the canonical synoptic gospels narratives. St Mark in this eighth chapter records the feeding of the multitude of four thousand.
Mark wrote some thirty or so years after the resurrection event of his Lord and Master. It is likely that Mark followed Jesus around and was the lad who took to his heels after he saw the betrayal and agony moment in that olive grove. We can imagine him also staying a little way off during the ‘way of the cross’, that last walk of ridicule through the streets of Jerusalem; Mark was somewhere in the crowds at the crucifixion event.
Mark had a sense of what Our Lord went through in the ultimate trials of what it meant to be human.
This was the divine identification with all of our sufferings; it also a pattern for all our caring. This story is the essence of the whole Christian gospel.
So, we begin with the context of the narrative. Jesus is in the area to the SE of Galilee; the wilderness corridor between the Ten Cities, the Decapolis. This is a Gentile region and his reputation was growing there after he had healed the demoniac. So a great multitude had been following him for three days and they were hungry. Jesus knew very well what it was like to be hungry in the wilderness; empathy was born in the Judean desert.
This whole miracle narrative was prompted by Jesus’ compassion. The disciples were quite unprepared; seven loaves and a few fishes; all get fed and the fragments gathered. He then sent them all away. Jesus only ever sent anyone away after he had satisfied their needs; forgiveness, healing, feeding, blessing.
So we have the need of the people; we see the compassion, and the grace of Jesus. We see the disciples scratching their heads and their sense of helplessness.
We see Jesus’ command for the people to sit down, a command which inspired trust. Whatever happened was seen as a demonstration of divine authority and power which resulted in a super abundance of supply.
In likewise we as church, millions are now fed in the Eucharistic feasts.
The pattern of care is set; there is the need and then there is the compassion and then there is effective and appropriate action. The disciples were in training; the disciples were being mentored.
Some many years ago now, when I was being interview for the counselling diploma, there was the classic question, ‘How is it you want to counsel people?’
I mumbled something about wanting to help people, then what got me accepted was when I acknowledged, ‘I suspect it is because I need to be counselled and I need to learn how not to damage others’.
In a way there was the empathy that Our Lord showed which led to the compassion that led to the hungry being fed ever since. Like those disciples I was in training as a counsellor and as Christians we are all in training all the time. Amen
3rd July 2016
St Matthew 5.20ff
And ‘The Missing Thomas’
+
If we were following the lectionary for Common Worship today, we would be celebrating that fascinating and enigmatic apostle, St Thomas. However, following the Book of Common Prayer we are faced rather with a tricky gospel!
Those other congregations, unless of course they are faithful 8 o’clockers, will miss out on the tricky Gospel. Then again, (unless you have been to a 9.30 family service and twinned with Thomas), we BCP people can often miss St Thomas; we celebrate him two days before Christmas Eve, and the our minds are often elsewhere! It seems that our differing services today in our differing churches are mutually exclusive.
We really have a parallel set of issues before us today and it revolves around the idea of a ‘missing Thomas’
So, neither Church nor State is fully united this day. Without looking at a viable agreeable alternative or inclusive consensus the twins will remain stubbornly different and apart: in the church at least we are only twins, unlike the triplet socialists and quintet tories!
There is then a ‘Thomas’ that we can all miss, a ‘Corbyn- like’ and controversial figure who has spoken the truth in a different way, in a way we have not heard before.
This is of course the about the Thomas, not the Apostle, but the Thomas who wrote a Gospel, a Gospel which later was deemed as apocryphal. (Outside of the writings).
The gospel we read today, from St Matthew, is tricky, and matches some of the enigmatic thomasine qualities, whether they be apostolic or apocryphal. However, without understanding some of the subtleties of the passage it is hard to live it let alone preach it!
So, I am hands up, struggling with an idea which I hope you can try and help me expand, maybe over tea and cake!
In context, the passage before us, because it follows the famous Beatitudes, it can be overlooked; we can miss it; we might even chose to miss it! Clearly Our Lord, as he was teaching his disciples, was demanding a special ‘excessive’ and profound holiness and righteousness of life.
The Pharisees as we know followed the Law of Moses to the letter; there in lay their righteousness, and it was a righteousness up to a point. Indeed there is an arcane proverb which goes,
‘When there are two men ready to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one would be a Pharisee and the other would be a Scribe’.
For Jesus however, ‘righteousness’ has to be internalised, heart felt and motivated by spiritual not legal issues. You have heard it said before, but I say to you, Jesus emphasises. Jesus excludes the pharisaic system from his Way; the Pharisees later, of course, excluded the blasphemous Jesus unto his death outside of their City.
When we do read of St Thomas the Apostle, we usually conveniently package him up simply into the image of the doubting Apostle who demanded the tactile proof of Jesus’ resurrection body. Yet there is another Gospel, attributed to another Thomas Didymus, excluded from the accepted canon of scripture, which gives the kind of deeper insight into the Disciples’ relationship with his master; it is that spiritual insight which Jesus was asking from his disciples in the gospel passage from Matthew.
If we miss either of those called Thomas and we miss this gospel passage we can miss the teaching of Our Lord who longed that his followers look at the things of the heart.
The apocryphal Gospel of the otherwise unknown Thomas, is very much an account of the heart. The script as we know was discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. It could have been written as early as 40AD, in the Coptic language, and is a ‘Gospel of Sayings’ giving no narrative.
Now, there are similarities reflected in John’s Gospel; it was seen as heretical by some and so lay outside of the writings. It was excluded by the 4th C doctrine makers. The heresy was deemed to be that the humanity of Christ was denied somehow; John redeemed the situation in his portrayal of Apostle Thomas in that he had to touch the wounds of the resurrected Christ.
My muddled thought processes somehow want to show that this little known and excluded set of early sayings can somehow symbolise a principle for progress.
For we are looking a parallel lines, both in Church and in State
Parallel lines only meet on the horizon there is a need somehow to find some point on the horizon which carries a sense of shared newness; a place which is hitherto undiscovered by either of the ‘lines’.
there to be a willingness of ‘both lines’ to meet on that far horizon in dare I say, some fresh expression, we might see a dynamic shared unity. The unknown apocryphal Thomas figure/unknown yet discoverable is such a symbolic icon. What could be so bad about uniting over the ‘Gospel of Sayings’; uniting over what Our Lord said, rather than over what others wanted him to say?
Each parallel line could put aside the vested interests. The missing Thomas is the meeting point on the horizon where parallels may meet; I have been advised that that point is infinity!
It is less about missing the historical Thomas of the past but the iconic Thomas of the future. Amen
St Matthew 5.20ff
And ‘The Missing Thomas’
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If we were following the lectionary for Common Worship today, we would be celebrating that fascinating and enigmatic apostle, St Thomas. However, following the Book of Common Prayer we are faced rather with a tricky gospel!
Those other congregations, unless of course they are faithful 8 o’clockers, will miss out on the tricky Gospel. Then again, (unless you have been to a 9.30 family service and twinned with Thomas), we BCP people can often miss St Thomas; we celebrate him two days before Christmas Eve, and the our minds are often elsewhere! It seems that our differing services today in our differing churches are mutually exclusive.
We really have a parallel set of issues before us today and it revolves around the idea of a ‘missing Thomas’
So, neither Church nor State is fully united this day. Without looking at a viable agreeable alternative or inclusive consensus the twins will remain stubbornly different and apart: in the church at least we are only twins, unlike the triplet socialists and quintet tories!
There is then a ‘Thomas’ that we can all miss, a ‘Corbyn- like’ and controversial figure who has spoken the truth in a different way, in a way we have not heard before.
This is of course the about the Thomas, not the Apostle, but the Thomas who wrote a Gospel, a Gospel which later was deemed as apocryphal. (Outside of the writings).
The gospel we read today, from St Matthew, is tricky, and matches some of the enigmatic thomasine qualities, whether they be apostolic or apocryphal. However, without understanding some of the subtleties of the passage it is hard to live it let alone preach it!
So, I am hands up, struggling with an idea which I hope you can try and help me expand, maybe over tea and cake!
In context, the passage before us, because it follows the famous Beatitudes, it can be overlooked; we can miss it; we might even chose to miss it! Clearly Our Lord, as he was teaching his disciples, was demanding a special ‘excessive’ and profound holiness and righteousness of life.
The Pharisees as we know followed the Law of Moses to the letter; there in lay their righteousness, and it was a righteousness up to a point. Indeed there is an arcane proverb which goes,
‘When there are two men ready to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one would be a Pharisee and the other would be a Scribe’.
For Jesus however, ‘righteousness’ has to be internalised, heart felt and motivated by spiritual not legal issues. You have heard it said before, but I say to you, Jesus emphasises. Jesus excludes the pharisaic system from his Way; the Pharisees later, of course, excluded the blasphemous Jesus unto his death outside of their City.
When we do read of St Thomas the Apostle, we usually conveniently package him up simply into the image of the doubting Apostle who demanded the tactile proof of Jesus’ resurrection body. Yet there is another Gospel, attributed to another Thomas Didymus, excluded from the accepted canon of scripture, which gives the kind of deeper insight into the Disciples’ relationship with his master; it is that spiritual insight which Jesus was asking from his disciples in the gospel passage from Matthew.
If we miss either of those called Thomas and we miss this gospel passage we can miss the teaching of Our Lord who longed that his followers look at the things of the heart.
The apocryphal Gospel of the otherwise unknown Thomas, is very much an account of the heart. The script as we know was discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. It could have been written as early as 40AD, in the Coptic language, and is a ‘Gospel of Sayings’ giving no narrative.
Now, there are similarities reflected in John’s Gospel; it was seen as heretical by some and so lay outside of the writings. It was excluded by the 4th C doctrine makers. The heresy was deemed to be that the humanity of Christ was denied somehow; John redeemed the situation in his portrayal of Apostle Thomas in that he had to touch the wounds of the resurrected Christ.
My muddled thought processes somehow want to show that this little known and excluded set of early sayings can somehow symbolise a principle for progress.
For we are looking a parallel lines, both in Church and in State
Parallel lines only meet on the horizon there is a need somehow to find some point on the horizon which carries a sense of shared newness; a place which is hitherto undiscovered by either of the ‘lines’.
there to be a willingness of ‘both lines’ to meet on that far horizon in dare I say, some fresh expression, we might see a dynamic shared unity. The unknown apocryphal Thomas figure/unknown yet discoverable is such a symbolic icon. What could be so bad about uniting over the ‘Gospel of Sayings’; uniting over what Our Lord said, rather than over what others wanted him to say?
Each parallel line could put aside the vested interests. The missing Thomas is the meeting point on the horizon where parallels may meet; I have been advised that that point is infinity!
It is less about missing the historical Thomas of the past but the iconic Thomas of the future. Amen
26th June 2016
Trinity Five
The Early Ones
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Today, in our calendar, we are in the vicinity of two saints. We are asked to consider some of the influence that John the Baptist and Peter have bequeathed. This is possibly why we have before us this special and highly memorable piece of writing from St Luke in our Gospel reading.
Our Lord got started through the ministry of John; Our Lord was new at his work. The Church got started though the ministry of Peter and the Church was also very new, embryonic. Both Saints remain core figures in the foundation of and the evolution of the Christian expression; just one form of expression we exhibit here today.
Existentially we might also, perchance, look at, consider, our own beginnings. It is useful every now and then to see how it was we became Christian; again how we have continued to be Christian over the years; again how it is that we are still here now.
Peter-tide is about ‘beginnings’; about being called and, so it is about that idea of a much used, sometimes tired word, ‘vocation’. Beginning is one thing but persisting is quite another.
Technically we speak of two processes- the ‘call’ and then the ability to live out the demands of, and learn through the lessons of. that call, which we name as the process of ‘formation’.
Interestingly St Peter can help us in our pondering, for he had three kinds of ‘call’. It is here that we can see ‘cross-gospel’ wisdom; the different accounts of the early ones getting started give us literally a ‘synoptic’ account.
Peter’s calls were developmental; progressive calls.
John, in his first chapter, tells us that Peter was first called to Christ through the preaching of John the Baptist who pointed out the coming Messiah.
Matthew, however, in his fourth chapter, has Peter and his brother going about their fishing business, washing their nets, and the Christ, as he walked along the shore of the Galilean lake, called out their names and told them to ‘follow’ him. This was like a second call.
Then again, at a later time, Matthew records another, third kind of call, when Simon Peter and Andrew were not singled out but were with the other followers; they became part of that group known as ‘The Apostles’. Peter, of course was singled out again when declared to be the very ‘rock’ upon which the Church was to be founded.
So, there is the progression. Maybe it is a progression we recognise in our own sense of vocation.
1. There is the initial ‘seeing the light’ moment; the call out of darkness into a marvellous light. We are all different here; as a turbulent 19 year old I guess I had that famous life changing experience; others of us may be started in the proverbial Sunday School and have grown into some revelation and understanding as life uncurled.
2. There is then the call to follow. The deepening of commitment and service; this can show itself in so many ways; to become a church goer, to choose a secular vocation with an air of altruistic service somehow, may be a mother or father. Here is where the learning takes place, the formation process progresses.
3. Then there is the call to take on some exemplar leadership role. We tend to see this in terms of what we take ‘vocation’ to be within the church, whether that is ordination, readership, pastoral workers, Church wardens. Whatever our sense of vocation, we are all called to represent Christ to the community.
Whatever we make of this, Peter is an excellent model of a passionate convert; throughout his life, oscillating from complete affirmation of the Christ and then abject denial of his Lord.
He gives us permission to have those human patches of doubt, especially those of the formation years. For Peter those calls of his were fairly close together in time; ours are spread out in time and will not stop until our mortal lives’ end.
So the fisherman himself was hooked, lined and sinkered. He gave everything.
Around this time thirty years ago I was sitting in retreat with a fellow Ordinand, just a few days away from our putting on the ‘collar’ for the first time. The gospel reading at the final Eucharist was the one we heard today. When the reading was over, my friend burst into uncontrollable sobs.
This was, I suppose, a sudden realisation of the enormity of the call he had answered; ‘we have to leave everything, don’t we Paul, even our nets?’, he finally was able to say; ‘I believe so Peter.’ I said.
Amen
June 19th 2016
Trinity 4
St Alban.
‘Mote and Beam’ and Judgement
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It seems like memory time again as I wonder if you recall ever studying that thorny subject of applied mathematics. Quite different it is from the pure mathematics where pure principles can satisfyingly work out on paper; those formulae of πr squared and 2 πr would define our circle. That is all very well until we get to the mess of applying with great puzzlement, those pure formulae and being asked to make a papier maché globe!
So it is with this season of Trinity; we are asked to apply the purity of the Gospel teachings into the puzzlement of real life.
Today we have the familiar thorny or splintery proverb of the ‘beam and the mote’; we also have this week we have paid attention to a saint, one of those who applied the Gospel, one Saint Alban. The issue before us today is whether there is such a thing as pure ‘judgement’ and whether or not we can apply it in this life as we now know it.
The ‘mote and beam’ proverb we know all too well; I believe we are all quite skilled in seeing motes! ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’ we are told but, when we think about it, we do go about judging and being judged all the time.
At worst, and from time to time, we can be prone to making the harshest judgements on others who show us aspects of ourselves, those aspects which we do not like and do not acknowledge or even are blind to.
We are serially and seriously unable to apply the gospel purity in this case. We call it human nature! We can go to Confession with it when we recognise it and then we can try very hard not to do it again. We will of course. Just as with our New Year’s resolutions. It is part of our frailty, we say.
The gospel purity here is not as clear cut as might be thought on first consideration; it is tricky making that globe from those circles.
There is no doubt that Alban was judged, condemned and executed; the first British Christian martyr, (protomartyr). Quite when Alban met his fate is disputed; either 3rd or 4th Century. Either way he was under the judgement system of a pagan Roman administration at a time when, as Bede tells us, Christians began to suffer ‘cruel persecution’.
So the story goes, Alban sheltered a priest from the persecutors; when the soldiers came Alban literally took on his visitor’s whole mantle; he dressed himself in the priest’s cloak and his faith.
He was arrested, and despite being tortured, he refused to give up his new ‘spiritual cloak’ which he ‘caught’ from the priest. When on trial Alban famously said, ‘I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things’. The judge was enraged.
His rage was pure rage and non-negotiable; applying that great rage meant that the judgement had to be as severe as it could be. There was nothing as subtle as the ‘mote and beam’ in this primitive behaviour. Pure subjective pre-judice, a pre-judgement, came into force here.
So, not all judgements are primitive; we are asked to consider the subtle purity of the gospel. Is, ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’, all we have to go on?
[‘Judgement’ is a nuanced word, with a thesaural range of meanings; it is a ‘wriggle-room’ word. Judge what you think it means; to make an opinion, arrive at a verdict; to determine something; a yardstick; measure up a person; evaluate; discern; to sense; to sift; to weigh in the balance; to have insight; to have ‘perspicacity’ is my favourite shadowed word.
The disciples were new; so Our Lord was teaching them early on how to make ‘judgements’ in complex moral situations; how to ‘apply the pure’.
We hear so often from our critics that churchgoers are hypocrites! These critics are the first to quote the Bible to us and how it tells us not to judge! This as always, is a poor and unreasoned understanding of the Biblical wisdom. It also smacks, perhaps, of not a little projected guilt.]
We are required to judge righteously. The Hebrew people were, as we know, went through one period in their history in which they were ruled by wise and righteous leaders known as the ‘Judges’. These men were also judged by the God and the people.
Equally St Paul far precedes the relatively recent psychological confection of ‘projection’ when he wrote to the Roman church,
‘..for you who judge practice the same things..’
So we are required to have a right judgement in all things; we are to judge rightly.
When it concerns other people I believe we judge according to who a person is rather than what he or she might say. Certainly when people are in public office they are constantly being judged by the public and not always rightly. Teachers, social workers, GP’s, priests are all victims of the multitude of subjective and uninformed projections hurled at them; it is one of the causes of ‘burn-out’.
Right judgement though, does not mean condemnation but requires a care and maybe a loving correction. It is a gospel purity process; unless we have been rightly judged as being ‘out of line’ in whatever way, we would not have enough self-knowledge to change.
The great beam is the one that is unexamined, introverted, ‘selfie’, subjective, and blinding. That beam is heavy and can cause damage when out of place; our beam can also be a cross-beam for others who are nailed to it.
Maybe we could begin to apply some of the pure gospel that we have received; apply our hands to the saw and to the chisel and to the plane, a little sandpaper, and reduce our beam to a splinter.
Then again, you may judge that I have got it all wrong!
Amen.
12th June 2016
St Barnabas
In the light of our Churchwarden’s declaration and because of the impending meeting of the PCC, may I not detain you too long as I speak in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Yesterday was the feast day of St Barnabas. He was one of the earliest disciples, probably one of the famous seventy two. He made a major dedicated contribution to the formation of the early church, ‘a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith’ according to St Luke, but we often pass him by in our worshipping year.
In likewise and in many ways, let us be aware, we can so easily do the same with our wardens and all those who work in so many ways but with little or no acknowledgement; those who like Barnabas contribute with dedication. There are many amongst us. As written in the editorial of the leaflet, the servants who roll up their sleeves and take off their shoes!
Barnabas came into a world with the cultural cosmology that when anyone spoke about of divine things they should carry some of the attributes of the divinities of which they spoke or represented.
We read in The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, [ch.14: 11-12]’
‘And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, because he was the chief speaker, they called Hermes’
Paul did all the talking, so he was identified with the winged messenger Hermes or Mercury. Barnabas was taken for Zeus or Jupiter or Jove, in human form. This may have had something to do with his physical appearance in that it seems, as is depicted in artistic portrayals, he was rather large, bearded, and cuddly.
He was born a Cypriot Jew and was martyred in 61 AD; he may not have talked as much as Paul, but he may have written epistles; some scholars believe that he wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews.
These were the qualities of the ancient gods that these disciples apparently were expected to exhibit. By logical extension, were we to speak of Christ it is reasonable that we might be expected to display some of His divine and holy attributes in our humble human existence.
As different as they were, they worked well together. Barnabas worked in the Jerusalem church and then went to Antioch; that was in Antioch which then was the third most in the Roman Empire; he so busy he went to Tarsus and got Paul to join him.
After that Paul took Barnabas around with him on his several journeys. Their differing ways of working complemented each other. Such complementarity ensured that no-one who came to them was excluded; Jews and Gentiles were being able to unite in this new way of believing in God.
So it was through their joined-ministries that Christians became defined for the very first time as those who ‘loved one another’; people looked on and were amazed.
The joining and interdependence of different ministries and ways of working and being, is the key note of the Christian way. None of us as individuals can exhibit the attributes of God. That is why the Church as the Body of Christ needs all of us in all our brokenness and frailty. Christ’s body need all the broken pieces.
There are as many different styles of mission and ministry as there are missionaries and ministers. Paul talked a lot, probably past the point sometimes; Barnabas however appears to have had a quiet, gentle and reassuring presence; either way can work in part, but when both ways are working together there can be no partiality, indeed there is an entirety.
However, I confess to a personal preference; apparently Mahatma Ghandi once said to some Christian missionaries;
‘You talk too much. Look at the rose. It too has a gospel to spread. It does it silently, but effectively, and people come to it with joy. Imitate the rose.’
Amen
29thMay
TRINITY ONE: 2016
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This First Sunday in the Season of Trinity, marks the beginning of the season of the Church. Throughout this season we take time to re-examine the great swathes of Our Lord’s teachings; we take time to examine again all that those teachings require of us. Neither one of those examinations, ‘exams’, is easy!
Many of the trickiest exams that we may have taken during our years in the world of education have asked us to, ‘compare and contrast’. The readings are of today are tricky as they are asking us to do just that!
In no particular order, because the issues are as always intermingled, we can unravel what we are to compare and contrast; we have the polarities between;
rich v poor ; high & mighty v lowly and powerless; heaven v hell;
then v now; fact v fiction; Epistle v Gospel
Today is about situational ethics!
The ethics are to be found in the Epistle and the situation found in the Gospel parable..
It is a parable we have, which needed no interpretation at the time of telling; there is no need to publically make interpretations today; suffice to say is that there are contemporary parallels, comparisons and contrasts which we can ponder for ourselves. I shall not insult your intellects by drawing out the obvious.
‘Divine Love’ is the ethic and its distortion the situation. St John gives us that glimpse of the essence of that Love.
‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us…and…if God loved us, we ought also to love one another’. (1 John 4).
In this we are all learning to know God as Love; learning to know God as that dynamic which is as loving.
We are also told that perfect love casts out all fear and so as we might learn to know God as Love, the hell of any human hopelessness can be gradually be dispelled.
We live under the simultaneity of the Trinity of Love, and so we may practice that trinity of love of God, neighbour and self, and that recipe, if you like, is the ultimate healer of woes.
The Rich man in the parable is in hell because he denies ‘God as love’, in blatant, practical, and denial of his neighbour in his presenting condition.
We are given an excellently crafted and graphic parable from the physician and observer of human behaviour, St Luke!
We have the massive contrast between obscene wealth and abject Poverty. He was rich as his clothing displayed to his would be admirers and sycophants. We read of the colour purple, the colour of his outer robe gave a majestic message; dye came from a very rare shell-fish; so rare was this creature that each one yielded only one drop of the dye. The inner garment was of fine Egyptian linen (that which we can discover in Tony’ Textiles); it maintained a dazzling whiteness and was worth twice its weight in gold.
In contrast we have the ‘one who crouches’, the beggar. No fine clothes, indeed naked, and the friend of dogs because they lick his sores. He is named as Lazarus, (the only person named in the parables), a name derived from the Hebrew ‘Eleazar’ meaning, ‘God a help’. So detached was he from the pomp and ceremony of worldly lusts, that crumbs were enough for him.
Whether he got any crumbs, we do not know, but if he did they were not a gift from the rich man, they were merely refuse. In that case, and here’s the rub, THE RICH MAN GAVE NOTHING.
[Now, I can have a rant here- the supermarkets provide their ‘non-sales’ for the homeless-not a gift-it is their refuse; small collections of two-penny pieces? Is that giving or just getting rid of the refuse in your purse that weighs you down?]
Anyway, both men in our story die. In the cosmology of the time, hades or sheol was the place between death and resurrection. In this place the two men's former positions are reversed. The rich man knows the hell of his sins of ‘omission’ and of ‘commission’; omitting to give to the beggar and committing himself to a life of hedonistic self-indulgence. That was all he was condemned for.
Simply, the rich man was not aware of the poor; he was unconscious of the need and blinded by his actual and need for wealth; whereas the poor man was hyper-aware of the whole passion of the act of living. It is little wonder that many monastic rules embrace ‘holy poverty’.This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The gospel and the epistle challenge us on a daily basis; in every situation it is how to engage in the divine ethic. It is looking at what ‘wealth’ might blind us to the poor around us, and worse to the poverty of our own spiritual perspicacity.
We have a simply stated ethic, but situations can be very complicated. We are gently commanded that s/he who loves God loves his sister and brother also. Jesus’ parables are brilliant; in the telling his continued and consistent message is, ‘I give you the best way to do it, but it’s up to you to work it out wherever you are’.
Amen.
TRINITY ONE: 2016
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This First Sunday in the Season of Trinity, marks the beginning of the season of the Church. Throughout this season we take time to re-examine the great swathes of Our Lord’s teachings; we take time to examine again all that those teachings require of us. Neither one of those examinations, ‘exams’, is easy!
Many of the trickiest exams that we may have taken during our years in the world of education have asked us to, ‘compare and contrast’. The readings are of today are tricky as they are asking us to do just that!
In no particular order, because the issues are as always intermingled, we can unravel what we are to compare and contrast; we have the polarities between;
rich v poor ; high & mighty v lowly and powerless; heaven v hell;
then v now; fact v fiction; Epistle v Gospel
Today is about situational ethics!
The ethics are to be found in the Epistle and the situation found in the Gospel parable..
It is a parable we have, which needed no interpretation at the time of telling; there is no need to publically make interpretations today; suffice to say is that there are contemporary parallels, comparisons and contrasts which we can ponder for ourselves. I shall not insult your intellects by drawing out the obvious.
‘Divine Love’ is the ethic and its distortion the situation. St John gives us that glimpse of the essence of that Love.
‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us…and…if God loved us, we ought also to love one another’. (1 John 4).
In this we are all learning to know God as Love; learning to know God as that dynamic which is as loving.
We are also told that perfect love casts out all fear and so as we might learn to know God as Love, the hell of any human hopelessness can be gradually be dispelled.
We live under the simultaneity of the Trinity of Love, and so we may practice that trinity of love of God, neighbour and self, and that recipe, if you like, is the ultimate healer of woes.
The Rich man in the parable is in hell because he denies ‘God as love’, in blatant, practical, and denial of his neighbour in his presenting condition.
We are given an excellently crafted and graphic parable from the physician and observer of human behaviour, St Luke!
We have the massive contrast between obscene wealth and abject Poverty. He was rich as his clothing displayed to his would be admirers and sycophants. We read of the colour purple, the colour of his outer robe gave a majestic message; dye came from a very rare shell-fish; so rare was this creature that each one yielded only one drop of the dye. The inner garment was of fine Egyptian linen (that which we can discover in Tony’ Textiles); it maintained a dazzling whiteness and was worth twice its weight in gold.
In contrast we have the ‘one who crouches’, the beggar. No fine clothes, indeed naked, and the friend of dogs because they lick his sores. He is named as Lazarus, (the only person named in the parables), a name derived from the Hebrew ‘Eleazar’ meaning, ‘God a help’. So detached was he from the pomp and ceremony of worldly lusts, that crumbs were enough for him.
Whether he got any crumbs, we do not know, but if he did they were not a gift from the rich man, they were merely refuse. In that case, and here’s the rub, THE RICH MAN GAVE NOTHING.
[Now, I can have a rant here- the supermarkets provide their ‘non-sales’ for the homeless-not a gift-it is their refuse; small collections of two-penny pieces? Is that giving or just getting rid of the refuse in your purse that weighs you down?]
Anyway, both men in our story die. In the cosmology of the time, hades or sheol was the place between death and resurrection. In this place the two men's former positions are reversed. The rich man knows the hell of his sins of ‘omission’ and of ‘commission’; omitting to give to the beggar and committing himself to a life of hedonistic self-indulgence. That was all he was condemned for.
Simply, the rich man was not aware of the poor; he was unconscious of the need and blinded by his actual and need for wealth; whereas the poor man was hyper-aware of the whole passion of the act of living. It is little wonder that many monastic rules embrace ‘holy poverty’.This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The gospel and the epistle challenge us on a daily basis; in every situation it is how to engage in the divine ethic. It is looking at what ‘wealth’ might blind us to the poor around us, and worse to the poverty of our own spiritual perspicacity.
We have a simply stated ethic, but situations can be very complicated. We are gently commanded that s/he who loves God loves his sister and brother also. Jesus’ parables are brilliant; in the telling his continued and consistent message is, ‘I give you the best way to do it, but it’s up to you to work it out wherever you are’.
Amen.
23rd May 2016
TRINITY SUNDAY 2016
(As we begin today to think about the Holy Trinity, I revert to my mother’s cockney,’ well, would you Adam and Eve it?)
In awe and with humility may I stutter some words on the subject of and in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
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Classically the subject of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, finely tuned in the 4th C. at the councils of Nicea and Constantinople, has been the province of the metaphysics of philosophical theologians. Today I would rather speak firstly about what our black goldfish teaches me.
He is very noisy at the waking up time of the apartment; the sucking, gulping surfaces sounds break the silence of the night. He believes he is hungry; he believes that I have now woken up. He also believes-in me sufficiently to trust me to actually give him his breakfast. I believe- in him sufficiently to trust that he believes he is hungry, and trusts me to feed him enough for his health and wellbeing. There is this wordless communication and reciprocal understanding!
We have a difference here between to believe and to believe -in. Very briefly, believing is to have confidence in the truth, existence, and reliability of something without absolute proof. Do we have a sense of the believability of God? Believing-in, on the other hand seems to imply some real faith -in and trust- in, a sense of commitment perhaps; it also implies some sort of action.
Now just a few moments ago we said, no we sang out our hearts about what we believe and believe- in. No absolute proof, as is the nature of belief, but we have sung that we believe, (as the baptismal promises go), in God the Father who made the world, in God the Son who redeemed mankind, and in God the Holy Spirit who brings life to the people of God; or in other terms, God as The Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier; creating one, redeeming one and the sanctifying one
There we believe-in each person of the God-head as they ‘do something’. God the Father engages us in His ongoing works of creativity, the Son engages us in redeeming mankind from error, and the Holy Spirit engages us in enlivening, inspiring others with the spiritual essence of creation. Believing in, is to trust, like my fish, that some kind of action or work is being done.
Just a thought, and for your own, in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer version of the Nicene Creed, a Creed which was revised many, many times prior to 1662, and there have been revisions post 1662.
‘I believe’ is how we start, but I alone sing that! Does that mean that you do believe with me or am I the only one who believes? Or is it a corporate ‘I’ a bit like the royal ‘We’? The revisions have put ‘we’ at the beginning. Another worry is that we sing we believe-in the several persons of the One Substance, knowing that with ‘in’ there will some action and activity of those persons, but when we come to the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we omit the ‘in’! Perhaps we return to the mutuality with our fish; God believes in His church, even when we might not be able to!
Having said all that, it has been said that,
‘Great Music is music that which is better than it can ever be played’ (Artur Schnabel);
that is also a truth around the words we might use of our Trinitarian God, for He is beyond any of the words we might find, and so it is, ‘ if we cannot speak, then we must not speak’.
Trinity Sunday means more than what we can say. The ‘more’ is about what we can do and indeed must do as a church so that we may be believed-in.
The Divine Persons are substantially in community; that is St John saying to us that ‘God is Love’; and each breaks out, love breaks out, from that internal loving dynamic, onto all of Creation. It is our model, and as a microscopic image of this Godhead, we may break out, both as individuals and as a loving community, towards our neighbour and the world. Love, like the air we breathe and the spirit that emanates, by definition is a flow and cannot and, must never be, ‘bottled’.
For now we pray to the Father, in the power of the Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ; we pray twice in our hymns, and we make Eucharist. There is our loving dynamic, from there we break out. As always, ‘what matters for prayer is what we do next’.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to whom, as is most justly due, be all might, majesty, dominion and power now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Grace.
TRINITY SUNDAY 2016
(As we begin today to think about the Holy Trinity, I revert to my mother’s cockney,’ well, would you Adam and Eve it?)
In awe and with humility may I stutter some words on the subject of and in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
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Classically the subject of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, finely tuned in the 4th C. at the councils of Nicea and Constantinople, has been the province of the metaphysics of philosophical theologians. Today I would rather speak firstly about what our black goldfish teaches me.
He is very noisy at the waking up time of the apartment; the sucking, gulping surfaces sounds break the silence of the night. He believes he is hungry; he believes that I have now woken up. He also believes-in me sufficiently to trust me to actually give him his breakfast. I believe- in him sufficiently to trust that he believes he is hungry, and trusts me to feed him enough for his health and wellbeing. There is this wordless communication and reciprocal understanding!
We have a difference here between to believe and to believe -in. Very briefly, believing is to have confidence in the truth, existence, and reliability of something without absolute proof. Do we have a sense of the believability of God? Believing-in, on the other hand seems to imply some real faith -in and trust- in, a sense of commitment perhaps; it also implies some sort of action.
Now just a few moments ago we said, no we sang out our hearts about what we believe and believe- in. No absolute proof, as is the nature of belief, but we have sung that we believe, (as the baptismal promises go), in God the Father who made the world, in God the Son who redeemed mankind, and in God the Holy Spirit who brings life to the people of God; or in other terms, God as The Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier; creating one, redeeming one and the sanctifying one
There we believe-in each person of the God-head as they ‘do something’. God the Father engages us in His ongoing works of creativity, the Son engages us in redeeming mankind from error, and the Holy Spirit engages us in enlivening, inspiring others with the spiritual essence of creation. Believing in, is to trust, like my fish, that some kind of action or work is being done.
Just a thought, and for your own, in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer version of the Nicene Creed, a Creed which was revised many, many times prior to 1662, and there have been revisions post 1662.
‘I believe’ is how we start, but I alone sing that! Does that mean that you do believe with me or am I the only one who believes? Or is it a corporate ‘I’ a bit like the royal ‘We’? The revisions have put ‘we’ at the beginning. Another worry is that we sing we believe-in the several persons of the One Substance, knowing that with ‘in’ there will some action and activity of those persons, but when we come to the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we omit the ‘in’! Perhaps we return to the mutuality with our fish; God believes in His church, even when we might not be able to!
Having said all that, it has been said that,
‘Great Music is music that which is better than it can ever be played’ (Artur Schnabel);
that is also a truth around the words we might use of our Trinitarian God, for He is beyond any of the words we might find, and so it is, ‘ if we cannot speak, then we must not speak’.
Trinity Sunday means more than what we can say. The ‘more’ is about what we can do and indeed must do as a church so that we may be believed-in.
The Divine Persons are substantially in community; that is St John saying to us that ‘God is Love’; and each breaks out, love breaks out, from that internal loving dynamic, onto all of Creation. It is our model, and as a microscopic image of this Godhead, we may break out, both as individuals and as a loving community, towards our neighbour and the world. Love, like the air we breathe and the spirit that emanates, by definition is a flow and cannot and, must never be, ‘bottled’.
For now we pray to the Father, in the power of the Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ; we pray twice in our hymns, and we make Eucharist. There is our loving dynamic, from there we break out. As always, ‘what matters for prayer is what we do next’.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to whom, as is most justly due, be all might, majesty, dominion and power now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Grace.
Pentecost 2016
+
Some words of the prophet Ezekiel inspired a song we all know and could sing if you wish?
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone
The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone
Hear the word of the Lord.
We do have the contemporary perception of one Anthony Gormley who managed to roll around in paint and present his body, connecting his little toe to his ear lobe!
In seriousness, either perception can lead us towards the overall message of this day which recalls the event of the coming and, the ongoing presence, of the Holy Spirit being about that bundle of connectedness that is the Body of Christ, the Church.
Ezekiel was writing at a time when the Hebrew peoples were scattered through disaster and defeat, yet the prophet had a vision that, although the people had been driven far apart, they can all be very much connected. He saw that being vertically connected to God as individuals the chosen people were automatically horizontally connected with each other wherever they might find themselves.
Hence we can see what the Orthodox Rabbis regard as the greatest strength of Judaism, namely the Diaspora, the ‘scattering’; the ‘spora’ being the seeds for any further growing.
Those first ‘Jerusalemic’ disciples had known defeat yet were now expectant; others joined in some confused state, yet in that Pentecostal moment they were awesomely stunned into being as one; there was an immediate understanding between them, as they were each united with God they were united with each other.
Famously, they were able to breach the boundary of language and so we can see our Christian diaspora. This scattered yet united system it is what we call the holy Catholic Church; we are connected throughout the planet, across political and cultural boundaries by the grace of the Holy Spirit given in Holy Baptism.
It is St John in his Gospel who gives a deeper clue to this ‘coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told his disciples what the Holy Spirit would do:
‘He (The Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you’
We can hardly imagine Jesus possessing anything, but He did and does;
There are two things possessed by Jesus, from which our whole belief system flows; his Divinity and his Humanity.
The work of the Holy Spirit, as St John gently suggests, is to declare what was His.
His divinity is about the inseparable relationship, from the inception of all created things, with His heavenly Father, the love that spills over, waterfall like, onto all of that Creation.
His humanity is about his inseparable relationship with that creation being the deep plunge pool at the bottom of that heavenly waterfall.
Above all the Holy Spirit is about making loving connections, for without those how is love seen or expressed or passed on?
In our time especially there can be fear around this kind of New Testament type of communism. For if we speak of connections the opposite idea is constellated, that of borders and boundaries!
That idea of course is prominent as we run up to our referendum on Europe. I have to quote from the poet Robert Frost who gives us two sides of the border question; he wrote,
‘good fences make good neighbours’
and then again in the same poem,
‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’.
The Acts of the Apostles speaks of a new community created across the boundaries of language, nationality tribe and gender; namely across cultural and political borders.
Here we have also to take heed of Jesus when he spoke about those not of this fold. Those are yet to be gathered in.
Does this have Pentecostal interfaith momentum? Well, the folk in Bradford think so; there Jews have met in a Christian church, Muslims have helped to rebuild a sabotaged synagogue, as all the time they talk, dialogue. They are able to reinvent community, to have a common aim to express in a very small way the idea of a planetary humanism. Communion, commitment, commission, community
Jews stay Jews, Muslims stay Muslims and Christians stay Christians, but all stay Human with a glimpse of God, for they speak about and listen to each other’s ways of life; they prefer that to killing each other. As on that first day of Pentecost these peoples of Bradford are able to understand each other. This day is about moving through painful borders with a gentle listening and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will tell you what is mine, said Jesus, all about my Divinity and my Humanity. Amen.
Pentecost 2016
+
Some words of the prophet Ezekiel inspired a song we all know and could sing if you wish?
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone
The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone
Hear the word of the Lord.
We do have the contemporary perception of one Anthony Gormley who managed to roll around in paint and present his body, connecting his little toe to his ear lobe!
In seriousness, either perception can lead us towards the overall message of this day which recalls the event of the coming and, the ongoing presence, of the Holy Spirit being about that bundle of connectedness that is the Body of Christ, the Church.
Ezekiel was writing at a time when the Hebrew peoples were scattered through disaster and defeat, yet the prophet had a vision that, although the people had been driven far apart, they can all be very much connected. He saw that being vertically connected to God as individuals the chosen people were automatically horizontally connected with each other wherever they might find themselves.
Hence we can see what the Orthodox Rabbis regard as the greatest strength of Judaism, namely the Diaspora, the ‘scattering’; the ‘spora’ being the seeds for any further growing.
Those first ‘Jerusalemic’ disciples had known defeat yet were now expectant; others joined in some confused state, yet in that Pentecostal moment they were awesomely stunned into being as one; there was an immediate understanding between them, as they were each united with God they were united with each other.
Famously, they were able to breach the boundary of language and so we can see our Christian diaspora. This scattered yet united system it is what we call the holy Catholic Church; we are connected throughout the planet, across political and cultural boundaries by the grace of the Holy Spirit given in Holy Baptism.
It is St John in his Gospel who gives a deeper clue to this ‘coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told his disciples what the Holy Spirit would do:
‘He (The Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you’
We can hardly imagine Jesus possessing anything, but He did and does;
There are two things possessed by Jesus, from which our whole belief system flows; his Divinity and his Humanity.
The work of the Holy Spirit, as St John gently suggests, is to declare what was His.
His divinity is about the inseparable relationship, from the inception of all created things, with His heavenly Father, the love that spills over, waterfall like, onto all of that Creation.
His humanity is about his inseparable relationship with that creation being the deep plunge pool at the bottom of that heavenly waterfall.
Above all the Holy Spirit is about making loving connections, for without those how is love seen or expressed or passed on?
In our time especially there can be fear around this kind of New Testament type of communism. For if we speak of connections the opposite idea is constellated, that of borders and boundaries!
That idea of course is prominent as we run up to our referendum on Europe. I have to quote from the poet Robert Frost who gives us two sides of the border question; he wrote,
‘good fences make good neighbours’
and then again in the same poem,
‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’.
The Acts of the Apostles speaks of a new community created across the boundaries of language, nationality tribe and gender; namely across cultural and political borders.
Here we have also to take heed of Jesus when he spoke about those not of this fold. Those are yet to be gathered in.
Does this have Pentecostal interfaith momentum? Well, the folk in Bradford think so; there Jews have met in a Christian church, Muslims have helped to rebuild a sabotaged synagogue, as all the time they talk, dialogue. They are able to reinvent community, to have a common aim to express in a very small way the idea of a planetary humanism. Communion, commitment, commission, community
Jews stay Jews, Muslims stay Muslims and Christians stay Christians, but all stay Human with a glimpse of God, for they speak about and listen to each other’s ways of life; they prefer that to killing each other. As on that first day of Pentecost these peoples of Bradford are able to understand each other. This day is about moving through painful borders with a gentle listening and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will tell you what is mine, said Jesus, all about my Divinity and my Humanity. Amen.
Simplicity in Multiplicity
A review of the recent history of a Parish Community guided by Franciscan ideals.
This is an unashamedly experiential portrayal of a recent history of a struggling inner city parish. It speaks of the utter impossibility of simplicity in the modern complexities of life and any forms of Christian ministry.
It speaks of despairing observations; about prayer and divine inspiration; about human and divine co-operation and co-creativity; about the practical out workings and not counting the out-going costings.
It speaks of the sharp clarity of vision that simplicity brings into an opaque and often obscure entropic complexity, which we call ‘parish’.
It speaks of the principle that multiplication is simpler than division.
It speaks of a parallel passage through the Noviciate and the inception of the real work of restoration of a church.
The guiding Franciscan ideals are penance and poverty; the San Damiano experience and ways of restoring church; the embrace of the contemporary leper; openness to all God’s creatures; obedience to Mother Church; reverence to the Bishop and the utter sanctity of the altar and the Eucharist.
This multiplicity in the life of a parish can be addressed by the simplicity that was at the heart of St Francis; the living out that simplicity and derivatives can also lead to stigmatisation, as so many parish priests and former Franciscan martyrs know.
There is a real life story here and it begins with the despairing observations, the prayerful longings, the divine insight and the visiting blackbird. Unbeknown to me the bird already resided in our stained glass in the chapel where the sacrament is reserved.
The Messenger
*
2012 and it was a sunny May Day Bank Holiday. The cloistered church yard was empty. The normally bustling street was empty, the footfall was falling elsewhere. All the doors of the church, north, south and west were flung open in welcome. No-one came by or wandered in.
I had just begun the period as a postulant in the Third Order; I had begun a period of priestly ministry at the church; I had begun to study some of the primary sources of the saint’s life and pondered. It was a beginning.
I began pray in the silence as there was no human interruption. I wandered in my mind as to how any process of restoring this church, its fabric and its life, might begin. Then there came my first and only visitor of the day. It was a blackbird. At first I thought should try and usher it out, but gradually he began to sing, light on the pew tops, fly high into the roof space, swoop down to the floor, explore every little corner and chapel. I sat, watched and listened.
He was good at singing, probably enjoying the acoustics and the sound of his own voice. He was very good at flying, enjoying the different spaces. Then for me came a Franciscan moment; this blackbird was indeed giving me a strong message about how to restore the whole life and building of this of this parish.
‘Paul, be like me sing and fly and use every part of this church; like me, do what you are good at and enjoy it’.
I closed the church, fearful that I had locked him in; no, he was in the church yard sunning himself and waiting to see me safely off the premises!
So began the process of restoration according to St Francis.
*
I
n previous parishes I had experience of running arts festivals, using local artist, musicians, dramatists and poets. With the few contacts I had, and with no funding, I and my invisible companion organised a week-end full of events. It began with my lecture, ‘The Spirituality of Restoration: according to Saint Francis.’ (unpublished, but available on request).
The journey so far has taken three full years. From a very poor resource base, as it is referred to, both in the parish and in myself, my profession happened and the plans for the restoration of the church are approved.
The plans echo Francis’ total sense of renewal and relevance; brick by brick, yet the sisters need somewhere to live and the people to worship. So we have the Nave, and we have the Cloister, we have the gathering places and the integral ‘leprous’ places.
There is a committed community, ordained and lay and learning all.
To have an icon of the San Damiano Crucifix is somehow a real blessing as are the continued visitations from the blackbird’s grandchildren. Our Eastern European Orthodox homeless kiss the feet of the icon as they are blessed in the Holy Eucharist.
ven the planning process for the restoring the fabric of the building has proved to be inspirational and visionary for developing the life and work of a restoring Church. To date worship and chamber fill the nave and chancel and sanctuary; art works adorn the walls and west gallery; the underside of the great disused pipe organ is used to store provisions for the homeless community; some pews are taken over as a tea bar and book stall; a side chapel holds the votive candle stand and icons for prayer; the small vestry is worked for on to one conversations; the main vestry double up for the choir and the soup-kitchen; the churchyard is where the folk are fed and helped; through the south porch the clothing is handed out; all the door fly open for pilgrims and tourists; the bells are rung.
Such is the multiplicity of this bio/psycho/socio/spiritual expression of our faith; all activities are guided by humility in serving and respecting all aspects of creativity and being fully inclusive through penitential simplicity. We still need to beg for money! The blackbird still visits, but I found out that the blackbird in the stained glass is a raven, visiting Elijah! Even so the first message hold true; to use every part of the church and do what we do best, ‘sing and fly’.
The Reverend Paul Burkitt TSSF
(May Day 2016).
A review of the recent history of a Parish Community guided by Franciscan ideals.
This is an unashamedly experiential portrayal of a recent history of a struggling inner city parish. It speaks of the utter impossibility of simplicity in the modern complexities of life and any forms of Christian ministry.
It speaks of despairing observations; about prayer and divine inspiration; about human and divine co-operation and co-creativity; about the practical out workings and not counting the out-going costings.
It speaks of the sharp clarity of vision that simplicity brings into an opaque and often obscure entropic complexity, which we call ‘parish’.
It speaks of the principle that multiplication is simpler than division.
It speaks of a parallel passage through the Noviciate and the inception of the real work of restoration of a church.
The guiding Franciscan ideals are penance and poverty; the San Damiano experience and ways of restoring church; the embrace of the contemporary leper; openness to all God’s creatures; obedience to Mother Church; reverence to the Bishop and the utter sanctity of the altar and the Eucharist.
This multiplicity in the life of a parish can be addressed by the simplicity that was at the heart of St Francis; the living out that simplicity and derivatives can also lead to stigmatisation, as so many parish priests and former Franciscan martyrs know.
There is a real life story here and it begins with the despairing observations, the prayerful longings, the divine insight and the visiting blackbird. Unbeknown to me the bird already resided in our stained glass in the chapel where the sacrament is reserved.
The Messenger
*
2012 and it was a sunny May Day Bank Holiday. The cloistered church yard was empty. The normally bustling street was empty, the footfall was falling elsewhere. All the doors of the church, north, south and west were flung open in welcome. No-one came by or wandered in.
I had just begun the period as a postulant in the Third Order; I had begun a period of priestly ministry at the church; I had begun to study some of the primary sources of the saint’s life and pondered. It was a beginning.
I began pray in the silence as there was no human interruption. I wandered in my mind as to how any process of restoring this church, its fabric and its life, might begin. Then there came my first and only visitor of the day. It was a blackbird. At first I thought should try and usher it out, but gradually he began to sing, light on the pew tops, fly high into the roof space, swoop down to the floor, explore every little corner and chapel. I sat, watched and listened.
He was good at singing, probably enjoying the acoustics and the sound of his own voice. He was very good at flying, enjoying the different spaces. Then for me came a Franciscan moment; this blackbird was indeed giving me a strong message about how to restore the whole life and building of this of this parish.
‘Paul, be like me sing and fly and use every part of this church; like me, do what you are good at and enjoy it’.
I closed the church, fearful that I had locked him in; no, he was in the church yard sunning himself and waiting to see me safely off the premises!
So began the process of restoration according to St Francis.
*
I
n previous parishes I had experience of running arts festivals, using local artist, musicians, dramatists and poets. With the few contacts I had, and with no funding, I and my invisible companion organised a week-end full of events. It began with my lecture, ‘The Spirituality of Restoration: according to Saint Francis.’ (unpublished, but available on request).
The journey so far has taken three full years. From a very poor resource base, as it is referred to, both in the parish and in myself, my profession happened and the plans for the restoration of the church are approved.
The plans echo Francis’ total sense of renewal and relevance; brick by brick, yet the sisters need somewhere to live and the people to worship. So we have the Nave, and we have the Cloister, we have the gathering places and the integral ‘leprous’ places.
There is a committed community, ordained and lay and learning all.
To have an icon of the San Damiano Crucifix is somehow a real blessing as are the continued visitations from the blackbird’s grandchildren. Our Eastern European Orthodox homeless kiss the feet of the icon as they are blessed in the Holy Eucharist.
ven the planning process for the restoring the fabric of the building has proved to be inspirational and visionary for developing the life and work of a restoring Church. To date worship and chamber fill the nave and chancel and sanctuary; art works adorn the walls and west gallery; the underside of the great disused pipe organ is used to store provisions for the homeless community; some pews are taken over as a tea bar and book stall; a side chapel holds the votive candle stand and icons for prayer; the small vestry is worked for on to one conversations; the main vestry double up for the choir and the soup-kitchen; the churchyard is where the folk are fed and helped; through the south porch the clothing is handed out; all the door fly open for pilgrims and tourists; the bells are rung.
Such is the multiplicity of this bio/psycho/socio/spiritual expression of our faith; all activities are guided by humility in serving and respecting all aspects of creativity and being fully inclusive through penitential simplicity. We still need to beg for money! The blackbird still visits, but I found out that the blackbird in the stained glass is a raven, visiting Elijah! Even so the first message hold true; to use every part of the church and do what we do best, ‘sing and fly’.
The Reverend Paul Burkitt TSSF
(May Day 2016).
2016 8th May.
Ascension
+
I would suspect that we have all sat on a beach and wonder which way the wind is coming from or whether the tide is going down the beach or coming up.
The sun may be creeping up on the cliff top, and yet the wind blows cold upwards from the sea. Then later in the day the sun moves behind the clouds the chill gradually comes down from the hills.
Air moving up and down the cliff face, water up and down the beach, and we wait in the middle, not quite knowing what to do: wrap up warm, go for a swim, stay or go home?
Well, going back to my ‘A’ level Geography days, I can tell you that we are at the mercy of the microclimate of an anabatic and katabatic wind system. When the earth warms, the air rises and cold air from the sea, with the fret, moves up, (Greek: άνω), the beach ; when the land cools, the sea remains warmer, the sea air rises and the colder air land rushes down (Greek: κάτω), onto the beach. The amount of water, at any one time that covers the beach also affects this whole microclimate.
On a bigger scale, on a hot Mediterranean day, you may be sitting in a café in Marseilles or in the Provencal wetlands and then become engulfed in the cold Mistral wind, this time the wind coming down the Rhone valley from the icy Alps. The cold wind fills the gap left by the Mediterranean sun! Even our heat wave now brings colder Saharan dust!!
So today we have the ‘up and down’ of the Ascension. We could the use the word ‘tide’ here, not so much in terms of a ‘time’, but as a moving, flowing system which affects all our humours. The Ascension-tide.
Strangely, on the beach we are liminal; that is we are in between; neither fully inland nor fully at sea! The wind blows both ways and the tide is always going one way or another.
So it is with the ‘microclimate’ of this period now in our church calendar; we can look back to Easter and the wonder, joy and power of the Resurrection event, or we can look forward to the promised empowerment of the very Spirit of God at the Pentecost event. Right, now, just as the as the early disciples found themselves, we sit on the beach waiting to see how the wind and tide will settle.
We never waste our time when we are on the beach. We can tell stories about what has happened, we can make plans with hopes and visions for what is yet to come! We may tan ourselves, perhaps, and depending on the company, may be building sand castles, having a paddle or parading the toy dog along the strand!
This short time when we wait for the winds and tides to change, liminal, this ‘in between time’ is the time for reflection and planning.
The disciples were doing this: He is not here now as he was; then he came differently to us; what did He say to us on the beach in Galilee? What did He say about ‘going away’; it is as if he is not with us, he has gone away; but someone else will come to us, he said, and strengthen us? What did He say about..about ….everything?
‘So, there’s no one else but we ourselves now. Let us just wait and see.’ That was their most probable conclusion.
We may conclude that it is the time to discern the whole movement of the present God amongst us; it is the remembering of the Easter triumph and a foreshadowing of the flow of the mighty wind of Pentecost; the ebb and flow of the tide and the recycling up and down of the Spirit.
St John in his thinking and preaching and writing knew very well about ano and kato, the up and down of ‘God in Christ’. Christ and his angels ascend into heaven, just as both have descended into our earthly realm; the coming down with a heavenly consciousness is to gather up the earthly prisoners into that realm of freedom.
When Jesus descended he came to fill the void left by the rising Icarus of humanity.
All that is heinous and criminal and despicable in the ways we are capable of being, can be taken up into a realm of forgiveness and transformation. The wind and fiery furnace of Pentecost awaits, for there is the crucible of purification, there these fragile imperfect pots may be fired and glazed. Redeemed hot air with the incense ascends.
The ‘up’ and ‘down’ are two orders, or two processes, two movements as it were in a great concerto.
Ascension is the limbo, liminal land just before the full completion of the ‘up and down’ syndrome we call the Incarnation which the Church experiences in Pentecost.
For the first Disciples these were palpable historical events, for us, latter day disciples, they are timeless spiritual principles. Like them though we are asked again to remember what he said about everything!
When next we sit on our beach we can contemplate the whole ‘up and down’ processes of the timeless flow, the timeless recycling of our relationship, of the Divine with Humanity; the endless patience of God stays and guides the irritable impatience of His Creation.
Our human charitable ever flawed endeavours, our stumbling prayers, are no longer imprisoned but can flow katabolically along the surface of the earth only to be lifted up on high, as the thermals arise from the sea and the wonders of the deep come onto the beach.
This is the Ascension tide; it tests us and our level of optimism or pessimism in our commitment to the work of Christ here and in His world. Is this the tide of ascent or descent? In Duke of York style, are we half-way up or half-way down? This much neglected feast is summed up by St. Augustine,
‘For unless the Saviour had ascended into heaven, his Nativity would have come to nothing and his Passion would have borne no fruit for us; his most Holy Resurrection would have been useless’.
AMEN
24th April 2016.
Fourth Sunday after Easter
England and St George
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We seem to have had a very ‘English’ week. Yesterday we celebrated our Patron Saint, and William Shakespeare had the 400th anniversary of his birth; and three days before that it was the 90th birthday of our Sovereign.
There several themes around which are very intertwined, so entangled at times that it is difficult to separate the stems from the main plant.
We have a St. George and we have an Elizabeth; these are figures to focus any thoughts we might have about sovereignty about nationalism, may be even what we think about the ‘in or out’ of Europe.
As we look on, or are involved in some way, as Christian people; with all the intertwined stems, the main plant for us surely is the imperative of Christ’s Gospel. We are asked to live as responsible citizens with and within all the contemporary briars of political, militaristic and economic bellicosity,
but the main plant for us is know that we are asked to, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God’. The seeking, then the finding and then the promoting the Kingdom principles, all those things that lead to justice and peace, is ours to do.
We might be Christian Democrat or Christian Socialist sounding as if our belief had infiltrated our politics; but these are almost pointless gestures when we are all dominated by global atheistic monetarists!
As peace-makers, though, it can be difficult for us to work with ideas of the monarchy of Christ the King and the imagery of warfare that riddle the tradition and the scriptures. Not least with George and his Dragon and St Michael and his warfare in heaven! The entanglements, monarchy, God and war have been with us throughout history.
Caution works upon us here as Patron Saint and Sovereign may become ultimate symbols of a defensive and potentially offensive nationalism.
Historically, St George and the representative of sovereignty, have been intertwined with war; it is troublesome to think of the number three in waiting, boy Prince George!!!
Shakespeare had it in his play, Henry V,
‘Cry God for Harry, England and St George!’
So George is ours, he has been a symbolic warrior for and defender of England for some thousand or so years; but strangely, if we look, he is better suited for a more benign sort of patronage, away from nationalism to the multi-culturalism of our England today.
So, we seem to have found out that George was born in modern day Turkey to a Greek family. He served in an army of an Italian-city state and died in Palestine. His Greek speaking parents came one from Cappadocia and Palestine. A multiple cultural legacy had George.
He was actually a migrant, looking for work going from Turkey to Palestine, finally being a palace guard for the Roman Emperor Diocletian. So St. George is a very good symbol, even Patron, for the migrant community this very day.
In his wandering he brought this strange new Middle Eastern religion, more fully to western civilized world; Empress Alexandra of Rome was perhaps his most significant convert.
St George is not exclusively ours; he is taken up by several other countries. He is the Patron of Bulgaria, Palestine, Ethiopia, Greece, Lithuania and Georgia, where he has two Day’s a year of celebration! Had I stayed in Newfoundland I would have a day off today!
Note the poverty of these places where he is Patron; George, a poor ‘worker of the land’, ‘Geo-gios’, can be their holy defender, and was later given the papal designation of a ‘holy helper’.
He could also be the patron of those who are dispossessed in so many parts of the world, whose faith is discriminated against, and who are persecuted, tortured and murdered.
Because he was not ‘English’ some today would prefer another saint to be our Patron; the saints Alban, Edmund the Martyr or Cuthbert of Lindisfarne are popular candidates for this role.
The National Anthem too is being questioned; I fear that is more about getting football crowds to sing with greater gusto; here we wheel in religion yet again; ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Abide with Me’, the use thereof is surely a travesty of our faith. Are these ‘Kingdom of God’ values
Two other tangled stems of today which we call ‘England’ and one we call ‘Church’. It was the ‘Church’ that first really used that word ‘English’.
Around 730 AD, the Venerable Bede, put forth his Ecclesiastical History of the English people (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum); it was the first verbal appearance of an English nation. Just to go back to our entanglements, it was Bede also who mentions St George for the first time.
At the Norman Conquest, the chroniclers of the time spoke of the foreign invaders, but that Englishness persisted mostly notable through the language, a uniquely derived language of course. Already there was a sense of ownership and nationalism that has never faded.
Under any threat of course it becomes stronger; history of our wars bears all that out, as does our ‘in or out’ of Europe debate. Were we in or out when Henry VIII had the very Church of England established? Indeed, at one point in our history being ‘English’ was defined by the level complete animosity towards the Pope and all things Roman. Mercifully, no more.
A week of Englishness we have had; a saint, a sovereign and a church. We need them all for our social harmony and stability, justice and peace on earth;
surely though we are asked to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
Fourth Sunday after Easter
England and St George
+
We seem to have had a very ‘English’ week. Yesterday we celebrated our Patron Saint, and William Shakespeare had the 400th anniversary of his birth; and three days before that it was the 90th birthday of our Sovereign.
There several themes around which are very intertwined, so entangled at times that it is difficult to separate the stems from the main plant.
We have a St. George and we have an Elizabeth; these are figures to focus any thoughts we might have about sovereignty about nationalism, may be even what we think about the ‘in or out’ of Europe.
As we look on, or are involved in some way, as Christian people; with all the intertwined stems, the main plant for us surely is the imperative of Christ’s Gospel. We are asked to live as responsible citizens with and within all the contemporary briars of political, militaristic and economic bellicosity,
but the main plant for us is know that we are asked to, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God’. The seeking, then the finding and then the promoting the Kingdom principles, all those things that lead to justice and peace, is ours to do.
We might be Christian Democrat or Christian Socialist sounding as if our belief had infiltrated our politics; but these are almost pointless gestures when we are all dominated by global atheistic monetarists!
As peace-makers, though, it can be difficult for us to work with ideas of the monarchy of Christ the King and the imagery of warfare that riddle the tradition and the scriptures. Not least with George and his Dragon and St Michael and his warfare in heaven! The entanglements, monarchy, God and war have been with us throughout history.
Caution works upon us here as Patron Saint and Sovereign may become ultimate symbols of a defensive and potentially offensive nationalism.
Historically, St George and the representative of sovereignty, have been intertwined with war; it is troublesome to think of the number three in waiting, boy Prince George!!!
Shakespeare had it in his play, Henry V,
‘Cry God for Harry, England and St George!’
So George is ours, he has been a symbolic warrior for and defender of England for some thousand or so years; but strangely, if we look, he is better suited for a more benign sort of patronage, away from nationalism to the multi-culturalism of our England today.
So, we seem to have found out that George was born in modern day Turkey to a Greek family. He served in an army of an Italian-city state and died in Palestine. His Greek speaking parents came one from Cappadocia and Palestine. A multiple cultural legacy had George.
He was actually a migrant, looking for work going from Turkey to Palestine, finally being a palace guard for the Roman Emperor Diocletian. So St. George is a very good symbol, even Patron, for the migrant community this very day.
In his wandering he brought this strange new Middle Eastern religion, more fully to western civilized world; Empress Alexandra of Rome was perhaps his most significant convert.
St George is not exclusively ours; he is taken up by several other countries. He is the Patron of Bulgaria, Palestine, Ethiopia, Greece, Lithuania and Georgia, where he has two Day’s a year of celebration! Had I stayed in Newfoundland I would have a day off today!
Note the poverty of these places where he is Patron; George, a poor ‘worker of the land’, ‘Geo-gios’, can be their holy defender, and was later given the papal designation of a ‘holy helper’.
He could also be the patron of those who are dispossessed in so many parts of the world, whose faith is discriminated against, and who are persecuted, tortured and murdered.
Because he was not ‘English’ some today would prefer another saint to be our Patron; the saints Alban, Edmund the Martyr or Cuthbert of Lindisfarne are popular candidates for this role.
The National Anthem too is being questioned; I fear that is more about getting football crowds to sing with greater gusto; here we wheel in religion yet again; ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Abide with Me’, the use thereof is surely a travesty of our faith. Are these ‘Kingdom of God’ values
Two other tangled stems of today which we call ‘England’ and one we call ‘Church’. It was the ‘Church’ that first really used that word ‘English’.
Around 730 AD, the Venerable Bede, put forth his Ecclesiastical History of the English people (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum); it was the first verbal appearance of an English nation. Just to go back to our entanglements, it was Bede also who mentions St George for the first time.
At the Norman Conquest, the chroniclers of the time spoke of the foreign invaders, but that Englishness persisted mostly notable through the language, a uniquely derived language of course. Already there was a sense of ownership and nationalism that has never faded.
Under any threat of course it becomes stronger; history of our wars bears all that out, as does our ‘in or out’ of Europe debate. Were we in or out when Henry VIII had the very Church of England established? Indeed, at one point in our history being ‘English’ was defined by the level complete animosity towards the Pope and all things Roman. Mercifully, no more.
A week of Englishness we have had; a saint, a sovereign and a church. We need them all for our social harmony and stability, justice and peace on earth;
surely though we are asked to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
17th April 2016
St James’ Sutton
Fourth Sunday of Easter
St John, Ch. 10. 22-30
+
There are several one liners from our Gospel passage this morning to pay some attention to;
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (v27)
And no one will snatch them out of my hand: (v.28b)
No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand: (v.29b)
I and the Father are one: (v.30).
These are good, simple sounding, one-liners but really the gospel before us is complex.
St John in his writing and thinking is complex; it is all about relationships and relationships, as we all know are complex and the hardest of ships to steer, as they say!
St John, like His Lord and Master, does not shy away from the complexity of being human.
We read of the relationship of Jesus with His Father, that they are one;
we hear how Jesus knows those who his sheep are;
we hear how neither He nor His Father, because they are One will let go of them;
we hear how the sheep know his very voice;
we hear about how He and His Father ‘sheep-herd’ us, by protection, guidance, healing, nourishing, recovering from the ditches we fall into.
The complex thinking of John also comes through with
the divine use of human hands and voices, or is it the human use of divine hands and voices?
Basically St John is reaffirming his start and base point, that Jesus is ‘Emmanuel’, ‘God with us’ the divine become flesh and blood; Jesus, the very face, voice, hands of the Almighty God.
His gospel begins with the Word becoming flesh; God in the Christ Jesus uses mortal flesh to express that which is most divine.
The Gospel passage today begins though, with a very different set of relationships.
It follows on from the ‘Good Shepherd’ passage and with Jesus using the divine name, ‘I AM’; the religious leaders said he had a devil, and took up stones in their hands to stone him. These are some of the instances of course that build up to that Friday we have just celebrated, when Jesus held up his hands for the nails.
In the passage it is The Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and Jesus is teaching in the Temple precincts; the religious leadership is getting weary with his presence and want to know who on earth he is and by what authority he dare speak on this holy ground of theirs. It was winter, John tells us; for John that is both a physical and spiritual chill.
They very much claimed this temple as their own especially after the conflict with the Syrian Antiochus Epiphanes; during the warfare he had wrecked the temple, he had even sacrificed the forbidden pig on their altar. For the Jews this was known in the tradition as the abomination of desolation.
This event was in living memory just 165 years BC. The Syrian’s army was defeated by that of Judas Maccabeus and it is at this feast of the Dedication, or re-dedication of the Temple of that military victory. It is not surprising that the Jewish hierarchy were fearful for this Jesus might be desecrating their temple yet another possible abomination for them. So the trouble goes on.
So the relationships with those not of his fold was not good! Because they are not of the fold they cannot recognise nor hear God’s voice, spoken by Jesus; they do not know him. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice; and we believe he call us by name.
[This is true though; when Vicar up on the moors there was a dispute over the ownership of some of the wandering moorland sheep. I came to the magistrate, who with biblical wisdom, asked to go to the sheep in question. There they all were, sheep bleating away as they do, farmers scowling at each other as only farmers can; she asked each to call in turn to the sheep, and the disputed over few went to the one whose voice they recognised. He gathered the few lambs up in his hands.]
There we move on to this spiritual relationship of the Good Shepherd and us his herd! We see how voice and hands are so important in this relationship
Now I’m old enough to remember the old gramophone and that wonderful picture of the dog listening to the old fashioned trumpet listening to ‘His Master’s Voice’. Later it became HMV, I think! Something fascinating about listening to the voices and when the favourite 78 record went on and the hesitant needle arm went across; something comforting too when the voice was the same and you could recognise it. He knows his sheep and is known by him and his sheep know his voice.
Our Good shepherd will not let go of our hand; comforting, protecting, guiding.
Interesting how voices can caress and hands can speak?
Equally voices can do damage and hands destroy. We can know a person by their voice and hands.
Interestingly also when we have something precious we hold it in the palm of our hand; there is the blessing, ‘May God hold you in the palm of his hand’.
We shake hands, we speak with them we nurture and comfort with them.
This passage is about the relationship of the shepherd and his sheep, and it is very clear that the sheep are very precious indeed for neither Jesus nor his Father, as they are One, will let them go! Here is the sacrifice of course, because this was the perceived blasphemy that took Jesus to the Cross. Hands here held stones of anger, hands here of Jesus held out for the pain of the world.
Hands and voices of the Good Shepherd are passed down, we acknowledge, through the pastoral ministry of the Church. Just now we have those real images of Pope Francis on the island of Lesbos and the Syrians; his voice and his hands.
The flock here doesn’t really know my voice; you wouldn’t come if I called! You don’t want me to hold your hand, and I do not know you as my flock. But, there is one shepherd, waiting in the wings, who is to come to you here who will.
Over the years, you have heard many voices of those who have shepherded you here as Vicar; even now I guess you would still know their voices? Soon you will have a new shepherd, and when the relationship begins she will get to know her sheep and you will soon recognise her voice.
Right now we know we have God’s work of shepherding to get on with; so may we end with this prayer of St Teresa of Avila (1582)
‘Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless his people’.
AMEN
St James’ Sutton
Fourth Sunday of Easter
St John, Ch. 10. 22-30
+
There are several one liners from our Gospel passage this morning to pay some attention to;
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (v27)
And no one will snatch them out of my hand: (v.28b)
No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand: (v.29b)
I and the Father are one: (v.30).
These are good, simple sounding, one-liners but really the gospel before us is complex.
St John in his writing and thinking is complex; it is all about relationships and relationships, as we all know are complex and the hardest of ships to steer, as they say!
St John, like His Lord and Master, does not shy away from the complexity of being human.
We read of the relationship of Jesus with His Father, that they are one;
we hear how Jesus knows those who his sheep are;
we hear how neither He nor His Father, because they are One will let go of them;
we hear how the sheep know his very voice;
we hear about how He and His Father ‘sheep-herd’ us, by protection, guidance, healing, nourishing, recovering from the ditches we fall into.
The complex thinking of John also comes through with
the divine use of human hands and voices, or is it the human use of divine hands and voices?
Basically St John is reaffirming his start and base point, that Jesus is ‘Emmanuel’, ‘God with us’ the divine become flesh and blood; Jesus, the very face, voice, hands of the Almighty God.
His gospel begins with the Word becoming flesh; God in the Christ Jesus uses mortal flesh to express that which is most divine.
The Gospel passage today begins though, with a very different set of relationships.
It follows on from the ‘Good Shepherd’ passage and with Jesus using the divine name, ‘I AM’; the religious leaders said he had a devil, and took up stones in their hands to stone him. These are some of the instances of course that build up to that Friday we have just celebrated, when Jesus held up his hands for the nails.
In the passage it is The Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and Jesus is teaching in the Temple precincts; the religious leadership is getting weary with his presence and want to know who on earth he is and by what authority he dare speak on this holy ground of theirs. It was winter, John tells us; for John that is both a physical and spiritual chill.
They very much claimed this temple as their own especially after the conflict with the Syrian Antiochus Epiphanes; during the warfare he had wrecked the temple, he had even sacrificed the forbidden pig on their altar. For the Jews this was known in the tradition as the abomination of desolation.
This event was in living memory just 165 years BC. The Syrian’s army was defeated by that of Judas Maccabeus and it is at this feast of the Dedication, or re-dedication of the Temple of that military victory. It is not surprising that the Jewish hierarchy were fearful for this Jesus might be desecrating their temple yet another possible abomination for them. So the trouble goes on.
So the relationships with those not of his fold was not good! Because they are not of the fold they cannot recognise nor hear God’s voice, spoken by Jesus; they do not know him. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice; and we believe he call us by name.
[This is true though; when Vicar up on the moors there was a dispute over the ownership of some of the wandering moorland sheep. I came to the magistrate, who with biblical wisdom, asked to go to the sheep in question. There they all were, sheep bleating away as they do, farmers scowling at each other as only farmers can; she asked each to call in turn to the sheep, and the disputed over few went to the one whose voice they recognised. He gathered the few lambs up in his hands.]
There we move on to this spiritual relationship of the Good Shepherd and us his herd! We see how voice and hands are so important in this relationship
Now I’m old enough to remember the old gramophone and that wonderful picture of the dog listening to the old fashioned trumpet listening to ‘His Master’s Voice’. Later it became HMV, I think! Something fascinating about listening to the voices and when the favourite 78 record went on and the hesitant needle arm went across; something comforting too when the voice was the same and you could recognise it. He knows his sheep and is known by him and his sheep know his voice.
Our Good shepherd will not let go of our hand; comforting, protecting, guiding.
Interesting how voices can caress and hands can speak?
Equally voices can do damage and hands destroy. We can know a person by their voice and hands.
Interestingly also when we have something precious we hold it in the palm of our hand; there is the blessing, ‘May God hold you in the palm of his hand’.
We shake hands, we speak with them we nurture and comfort with them.
This passage is about the relationship of the shepherd and his sheep, and it is very clear that the sheep are very precious indeed for neither Jesus nor his Father, as they are One, will let them go! Here is the sacrifice of course, because this was the perceived blasphemy that took Jesus to the Cross. Hands here held stones of anger, hands here of Jesus held out for the pain of the world.
Hands and voices of the Good Shepherd are passed down, we acknowledge, through the pastoral ministry of the Church. Just now we have those real images of Pope Francis on the island of Lesbos and the Syrians; his voice and his hands.
The flock here doesn’t really know my voice; you wouldn’t come if I called! You don’t want me to hold your hand, and I do not know you as my flock. But, there is one shepherd, waiting in the wings, who is to come to you here who will.
Over the years, you have heard many voices of those who have shepherded you here as Vicar; even now I guess you would still know their voices? Soon you will have a new shepherd, and when the relationship begins she will get to know her sheep and you will soon recognise her voice.
Right now we know we have God’s work of shepherding to get on with; so may we end with this prayer of St Teresa of Avila (1582)
‘Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless his people’.
AMEN
Easter 2. 2016
The Good Shepherd
+
The passage from the pen of St John is very familiar to us, perhaps a little too familiar, such that we can say, ‘oh yes that one again!’ as the gospel reader begin with Jesus saying, ‘I am the Good Shepherd’.
We can approach this passage in a number of ways. We can go along with the psalmist and, when in times of real trouble or transitus, we can know that He will lead me safely through pastures green and through the anxiety free valley of death. There it becomes a comfort, strength in the true sense.
It might cause dis-comfort when we see book marks left in our Bibles from Sunday school with a picture of a blond haired, hippy style Jesus strolling around an English looking hillside with a lamb under his arm. There we wince at the naivety.
The passage is the same, as it has ever been, but we have changed since last we read it, and so may have our understanding.
Essentially it is a relational passage; God in relation with His people as a group and with His person as an individual. It also speaks of the way that relationship works in respect of God’s ‘job-title’ here;
He is a sheep herder, the archetypal shepherd, we are in relation to Him as the sheep being herded.
Yet, herding is just one of the many ways the shepherd engages in with his or her sheep. We need briefly to imagine the life of a first century Palestinian shepherd and see how he gives us a prime example of what we now call the dreaded ‘multi-tasking’.
We have to take some care as to quite what we mean when we use that phrase. We tend to take it to mean that we can do many things at the same time. Some research actually says that the brain actually does not have enough neuronal connections to allow us to do that. What we call multi-tasking is actually, according to neurologists, to do different things in rapid succession, sometimes, very rapid, (that depends on what you’re getting paid), but we are actually only wired up to do one thing at a time; a cinematic fleeting series of still selective attentions. If we can make the changes quickly enough, then it looks like we’re doing it all at the same time. Women are better than men apparently, at these rapid changes, so perhaps that is why we are having more and more shepherdesses in the idylls of Orkney and Shetland and deepest Wales.
Archetypically the shepherd does have many tasks to perform and often in rapid succession but only one at a time. If he’s mending fence, hammer would connect with thumb if his attention is taken by a sheep jumping through a hole further along. Herding the sheep might mean he fails to see the wolf under the trees. Chasing the wolf, he loses the herd or misses the buyer for his sheep.
In the first century the shepherd would sleep, on guard duty across the main door of the pen, but if asleep he could miss the hireling, a thieving shepherd jumping in somewhere else and letting some sheep out. Then there’s the trouble of proving whose sheep is whose?
There was a dispute on the moors, I heard about, with ownership of some of the wandering sheep, and here some biblical wisdom was employed by the magistrate; she asked the shepherd to call to his sheep; those that were his came to him because they knew his voice!!!
Interesting how these bucolic images carry some truths here; I am the Good Shepherd, Jesus say, and my sheep know my voice. This passage is all about relationships, God with his people.
The shepherd also needs to lead the sheep into places to feed.
Palestine is rich with grass around Galilee and in the Jezreel valley especially in winter; the desert southwards towards and past Jerusalem is barren especially in summertime. Finding food is difficult and herding hard and there is always the one that runs off and gets into trouble.
Each sheep is an economical asset and every lost one needs to be brought back to the herd; the panicky sheep, stuck in a thicket or a ditch would need calming and carrying. Wounds to bind and comfort to give to this lost vulnerable one. Strong and calm then is the archetype of the shepherd.
Interestingly, Jesus chooses the smelly irreligious shepherd for an image of ‘God-ness’; they were too busy to get to any Temple; so this was just another statement that God is known by the universal spirit of the divine Law and not by the time and place limited letter of the Law. All the more offensive was the gospel when shepherds were invited to the birth of this Christ!
So we have the herder, the protector, the nourisher, the seeker and finder of the lost, the tending of the sick and vulnerable, praying when they can and all in alternating rapid succession.
This passage tells of one of the great ‘I AM’ statements of John’s gospel. Jesus is speaking of his divine shepherding; the relationship of God with his people. He continues the great tradition of the Old Testament imagery in the Psalms and the Prophets, with Yahweh as the shepherd of the Hebrews. Jesus carries on that Divine relationship, provides that intertestamental continuity. Jesus is the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God in John’s community, he must be a God who can multi-task!
It is all very familiar this idea of God as shepherd, but worth pondering it once again, for it is about our relationship with God; how we see Him and how He sees you and I, both as individuals or as a herd! Are we lost; are we hungry; are we in danger from predators? If we are, do we go to the Shepherd or does the Shepherd come to us? Of course, by extension, we are to become shepherds to hungry, lost, vulnerable, threatened and fearful ones. What we do unto them, we do unto him; all about relationships; one task at a time, albeit in rapid succession sometimes.
A simple story to end with; it concerns two candidates at their selection conference for ministerial training. One gruelling exercise in the process is to speak publically and make a recitation of sorts if possible. Two candidates chose to recite the Twenty Third Psalm, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’. The one was a good and confident orator and gave a faultless rendering. The second stumbled somewhat, needed the occasional prompt and was visibly nervously shaking. At the selectors’ discussion afterwards the chairman simply stated, the first candidate knew the psalm but the second knows the Shepherd.
Amen.
The Good Shepherd
+
The passage from the pen of St John is very familiar to us, perhaps a little too familiar, such that we can say, ‘oh yes that one again!’ as the gospel reader begin with Jesus saying, ‘I am the Good Shepherd’.
We can approach this passage in a number of ways. We can go along with the psalmist and, when in times of real trouble or transitus, we can know that He will lead me safely through pastures green and through the anxiety free valley of death. There it becomes a comfort, strength in the true sense.
It might cause dis-comfort when we see book marks left in our Bibles from Sunday school with a picture of a blond haired, hippy style Jesus strolling around an English looking hillside with a lamb under his arm. There we wince at the naivety.
The passage is the same, as it has ever been, but we have changed since last we read it, and so may have our understanding.
Essentially it is a relational passage; God in relation with His people as a group and with His person as an individual. It also speaks of the way that relationship works in respect of God’s ‘job-title’ here;
He is a sheep herder, the archetypal shepherd, we are in relation to Him as the sheep being herded.
Yet, herding is just one of the many ways the shepherd engages in with his or her sheep. We need briefly to imagine the life of a first century Palestinian shepherd and see how he gives us a prime example of what we now call the dreaded ‘multi-tasking’.
We have to take some care as to quite what we mean when we use that phrase. We tend to take it to mean that we can do many things at the same time. Some research actually says that the brain actually does not have enough neuronal connections to allow us to do that. What we call multi-tasking is actually, according to neurologists, to do different things in rapid succession, sometimes, very rapid, (that depends on what you’re getting paid), but we are actually only wired up to do one thing at a time; a cinematic fleeting series of still selective attentions. If we can make the changes quickly enough, then it looks like we’re doing it all at the same time. Women are better than men apparently, at these rapid changes, so perhaps that is why we are having more and more shepherdesses in the idylls of Orkney and Shetland and deepest Wales.
Archetypically the shepherd does have many tasks to perform and often in rapid succession but only one at a time. If he’s mending fence, hammer would connect with thumb if his attention is taken by a sheep jumping through a hole further along. Herding the sheep might mean he fails to see the wolf under the trees. Chasing the wolf, he loses the herd or misses the buyer for his sheep.
In the first century the shepherd would sleep, on guard duty across the main door of the pen, but if asleep he could miss the hireling, a thieving shepherd jumping in somewhere else and letting some sheep out. Then there’s the trouble of proving whose sheep is whose?
There was a dispute on the moors, I heard about, with ownership of some of the wandering sheep, and here some biblical wisdom was employed by the magistrate; she asked the shepherd to call to his sheep; those that were his came to him because they knew his voice!!!
Interesting how these bucolic images carry some truths here; I am the Good Shepherd, Jesus say, and my sheep know my voice. This passage is all about relationships, God with his people.
The shepherd also needs to lead the sheep into places to feed.
Palestine is rich with grass around Galilee and in the Jezreel valley especially in winter; the desert southwards towards and past Jerusalem is barren especially in summertime. Finding food is difficult and herding hard and there is always the one that runs off and gets into trouble.
Each sheep is an economical asset and every lost one needs to be brought back to the herd; the panicky sheep, stuck in a thicket or a ditch would need calming and carrying. Wounds to bind and comfort to give to this lost vulnerable one. Strong and calm then is the archetype of the shepherd.
Interestingly, Jesus chooses the smelly irreligious shepherd for an image of ‘God-ness’; they were too busy to get to any Temple; so this was just another statement that God is known by the universal spirit of the divine Law and not by the time and place limited letter of the Law. All the more offensive was the gospel when shepherds were invited to the birth of this Christ!
So we have the herder, the protector, the nourisher, the seeker and finder of the lost, the tending of the sick and vulnerable, praying when they can and all in alternating rapid succession.
This passage tells of one of the great ‘I AM’ statements of John’s gospel. Jesus is speaking of his divine shepherding; the relationship of God with his people. He continues the great tradition of the Old Testament imagery in the Psalms and the Prophets, with Yahweh as the shepherd of the Hebrews. Jesus carries on that Divine relationship, provides that intertestamental continuity. Jesus is the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God in John’s community, he must be a God who can multi-task!
It is all very familiar this idea of God as shepherd, but worth pondering it once again, for it is about our relationship with God; how we see Him and how He sees you and I, both as individuals or as a herd! Are we lost; are we hungry; are we in danger from predators? If we are, do we go to the Shepherd or does the Shepherd come to us? Of course, by extension, we are to become shepherds to hungry, lost, vulnerable, threatened and fearful ones. What we do unto them, we do unto him; all about relationships; one task at a time, albeit in rapid succession sometimes.
A simple story to end with; it concerns two candidates at their selection conference for ministerial training. One gruelling exercise in the process is to speak publically and make a recitation of sorts if possible. Two candidates chose to recite the Twenty Third Psalm, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’. The one was a good and confident orator and gave a faultless rendering. The second stumbled somewhat, needed the occasional prompt and was visibly nervously shaking. At the selectors’ discussion afterwards the chairman simply stated, the first candidate knew the psalm but the second knows the Shepherd.
Amen.
April 2016
Easter 2
The ‘post- traumatic stress syndrome’ is now commonly understood. Simply, we know it as a condition of stress and panic and incapacity as a result of an injury, physical and or psychological. It is a state with constant reminders of a trauma, a reliving of a trauma
The ongoing state may seem as bad or worse than the original injury, and maybe that is, in part, because it goes on and on and so means that the pain of a one off injury now never seems to go off. Also the armed forces person will tell you that any trauma is initially bearable or even pain free, as the adrenaline kicks in; later the adrenaline is depleted, and the pain becomes real. The stress after the trauma goes on and now becomes a way of life.
Equally there can be a post- event joy syndrome! Child birth, I am told is like that; getting married can be like that; a degree ceremony; an anniversary of some kind, a holiday; a meeting an old friend; the list of memorable events we might forget unless we compound the memory somehow; we can be so caught up in the event, that only as time passes and with reflection and hindsight, do we fully live the experience, integrate that experience into an ongoing life. The joy of the event goes on and becomes a way of life.
Today is like that; rather than being a deflation after the Resurrection Sunday, today can be an intensification of the Easter event- a reflection, a hind-sight with that integration of the full seriously joyful consequences of that event; it can be a joy which goes on and now becomes a way of life.
How prosaic of we as Anglicans to name this Sunday ‘LOW’! Something about those in attendance! (not much difference here though). In other traditions it is known as ‘Divine Mercy Sunday’, ‘Thomas Sunday’ and in the Orthodox Church, no Sunday is ever ‘low’, each is a day of resurrection (the word for Sunday in Russian means ‘Resurrection’), and this day is particularly known as ‘Antipascha’. Namely the Sunday which is ‘facing Easter’; like a mirror it is to reflect the light of Easter.
In this way the post resurrection event becomes a way of life.
For some spiritually minded folk, especially our monastic brothers and sisters, resurrection is a way of life. It is the necessary perspective by which we integrate all of life experiences, including death. On a retreat some years back, in a monastery and having a daily talk/walk with one of the monks, we found ourselves on one occasion in the cemetery where all the brothers are buried. ‘Paul, I eat, sleep, work over there and when I die I shall lie here-this is my place of resurrection’. That brother reflected the light of Easter in every aspect of his earthly life.
The early disciples had to very quickly integrate the trauma of the death of their Lord, and then, all of a sudden a way of traumatised life was transformed and the rest of life to integrate now the knowledge and reality of his risen-ness. They took on the risen mantle of Christ. That is the distinctiveness of being Christian.
To return to my orthodox monk; we may share his uncompromising assertion as to how ‘Resurrection’ is the core principle for Orthodox Christians. Or we might feel uneasy, for their non-compromise could in other arenas, be seen as extremist. I quote his assertion,
‘No-one else in all history (that does not include myths and legends), has risen from the dead, defeating death through death. The Hindu gods failed, the gods of Greece and Rome failed, Buddha failed, Mohammed failed, the Popes of Rome failed, Luther failed, atheists and humanists failed, even Moses and the whole Old Testament failed. Christ alone did not fail. He rose from the dead, raising the righteous with Himself. That is why we follow him, calling ourselves Christians’.
Then we can be assertive from time to time; strangely in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries London there was an activity known as ‘sermon going’! Thousands of people would throng to the outdoor pulpits to listen to the great orators. There was often an ‘extremist hunger’ to learn about the ways of God.
The round of Easter sermons was especially popular; they would begin on Good Friday and then pass into Easter week, and the full story of The Passion was told; at least two hours for each sermon, anything less would be jeered. It was on this Sunday of the death/resurrection cycle, this one we call ‘Low’, that the most skilled preacher was sought after and recruited for the highest pulpit for it was his task to review, recapitulate, and re-hear-se that whole Easter cycle. To ‘rehear’- to hear again-rehearse
So that is yet another name for this day; ‘Rehearsal Sunday’. May we know our lines well and take on the character of Christ. Amen
Easter 2
The ‘post- traumatic stress syndrome’ is now commonly understood. Simply, we know it as a condition of stress and panic and incapacity as a result of an injury, physical and or psychological. It is a state with constant reminders of a trauma, a reliving of a trauma
The ongoing state may seem as bad or worse than the original injury, and maybe that is, in part, because it goes on and on and so means that the pain of a one off injury now never seems to go off. Also the armed forces person will tell you that any trauma is initially bearable or even pain free, as the adrenaline kicks in; later the adrenaline is depleted, and the pain becomes real. The stress after the trauma goes on and now becomes a way of life.
Equally there can be a post- event joy syndrome! Child birth, I am told is like that; getting married can be like that; a degree ceremony; an anniversary of some kind, a holiday; a meeting an old friend; the list of memorable events we might forget unless we compound the memory somehow; we can be so caught up in the event, that only as time passes and with reflection and hindsight, do we fully live the experience, integrate that experience into an ongoing life. The joy of the event goes on and becomes a way of life.
Today is like that; rather than being a deflation after the Resurrection Sunday, today can be an intensification of the Easter event- a reflection, a hind-sight with that integration of the full seriously joyful consequences of that event; it can be a joy which goes on and now becomes a way of life.
How prosaic of we as Anglicans to name this Sunday ‘LOW’! Something about those in attendance! (not much difference here though). In other traditions it is known as ‘Divine Mercy Sunday’, ‘Thomas Sunday’ and in the Orthodox Church, no Sunday is ever ‘low’, each is a day of resurrection (the word for Sunday in Russian means ‘Resurrection’), and this day is particularly known as ‘Antipascha’. Namely the Sunday which is ‘facing Easter’; like a mirror it is to reflect the light of Easter.
In this way the post resurrection event becomes a way of life.
For some spiritually minded folk, especially our monastic brothers and sisters, resurrection is a way of life. It is the necessary perspective by which we integrate all of life experiences, including death. On a retreat some years back, in a monastery and having a daily talk/walk with one of the monks, we found ourselves on one occasion in the cemetery where all the brothers are buried. ‘Paul, I eat, sleep, work over there and when I die I shall lie here-this is my place of resurrection’. That brother reflected the light of Easter in every aspect of his earthly life.
The early disciples had to very quickly integrate the trauma of the death of their Lord, and then, all of a sudden a way of traumatised life was transformed and the rest of life to integrate now the knowledge and reality of his risen-ness. They took on the risen mantle of Christ. That is the distinctiveness of being Christian.
To return to my orthodox monk; we may share his uncompromising assertion as to how ‘Resurrection’ is the core principle for Orthodox Christians. Or we might feel uneasy, for their non-compromise could in other arenas, be seen as extremist. I quote his assertion,
‘No-one else in all history (that does not include myths and legends), has risen from the dead, defeating death through death. The Hindu gods failed, the gods of Greece and Rome failed, Buddha failed, Mohammed failed, the Popes of Rome failed, Luther failed, atheists and humanists failed, even Moses and the whole Old Testament failed. Christ alone did not fail. He rose from the dead, raising the righteous with Himself. That is why we follow him, calling ourselves Christians’.
Then we can be assertive from time to time; strangely in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries London there was an activity known as ‘sermon going’! Thousands of people would throng to the outdoor pulpits to listen to the great orators. There was often an ‘extremist hunger’ to learn about the ways of God.
The round of Easter sermons was especially popular; they would begin on Good Friday and then pass into Easter week, and the full story of The Passion was told; at least two hours for each sermon, anything less would be jeered. It was on this Sunday of the death/resurrection cycle, this one we call ‘Low’, that the most skilled preacher was sought after and recruited for the highest pulpit for it was his task to review, recapitulate, and re-hear-se that whole Easter cycle. To ‘rehear’- to hear again-rehearse
So that is yet another name for this day; ‘Rehearsal Sunday’. May we know our lines well and take on the character of Christ. Amen
7th March 2016
Easter Day 2016
‘On the first day of the week when it was still dark Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed’
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It was still dark, so it was early. If there is a word around for today, in more ways than one, it is ‘early’.
With the Fourth Gospel of St John, we know that every word counts, no, every syllable. It was dark when she arrived, too early even for the birds to have begun singing.
It was early in the day; it was early in the week; in every way it was a beginning time.
The ‘early’ here though goes beyond the common usage. It carries a sense of renewal, hope and that all important sense of a commencement of something other.
On the reverse side, have we really understood why we refer to someone who has died as the ‘late’, whoever it was! Then there is that part of the credo about the ‘quick and the dead’; it follows that if you are dead you are late, but if you are quick, namely alive, then you must be early!
Being alive means being early, ahead of time, eager, fresh, raring to go and ready for something new. There is that famous line of our beloved Archbishop of York who contrasts those on rising say, ‘Good God, its morning’ and those who say, ‘Good morning, God’; the late and the early!
There are some other thoughts to share about this worm catching word, ‘early’! They come from another Archbishop, not known for his one-liners; Rowan Williams. He wrote about how we tend to talk of the ‘Early Church’.
We associate it with the first churches in Jerusalem and Antioch and Rome; we may extend the period to the era of the Church Fathers, thrashing out doctrines at Councils like Nicea and Chalcedon where the nature of the Trinity was defined and the personhood of the Christ explained!
Dr Williams thinks that is the misuse of the words early and church; rather he says that, ‘WE are the Early Church’! We are just as early as the disciples or St Gregory or Augustine, for in God’s eternity we are still in the early stages of Christian history!
Equally, we are in essence people of the dawn! To be early is to be quick, alive, too early for the blackbird, and eager for the Christ who is not late but risen. We are the early church!
It is a way of life, this being early. It is a way of engagement, of being involved. On this day of resurrection the walls of the tomb were turned to windows. We can see out; but we gain, learn or give very little by just looking. We have to be the early ones, first to step through those windows, leap over the barricades and become the examples of our faith that those who folk, who are yet ‘entombed’, could follow.
We cannot sleep when Christ is still in agony; Pascal said that.
There is gloom and doom about the state of the Church; statistics abound that we are no longer a Christian country. Some doom and gloom can surround we ourselves here. Surely we are not a ‘late’ church, a fading church, a dying church? There is a tendency for the church to keep looking anxiously at its watch, as if the windows are to shut and the curtains closed!
He was the late Jesus of Nazareth, sealed behind stone but the first day brought him and the church to be quick.
Are we not then the early church? We have to answer, ‘Yes’; for we are a church which rests its faith on that woman who turned up in the earliest hours on the first day of the week. Today we are invited to wake from sleep, turn to the east at the dawn which always comes and join the Risen Son of God. AMEN
Easter Day 2016
‘On the first day of the week when it was still dark Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed’
+
It was still dark, so it was early. If there is a word around for today, in more ways than one, it is ‘early’.
With the Fourth Gospel of St John, we know that every word counts, no, every syllable. It was dark when she arrived, too early even for the birds to have begun singing.
It was early in the day; it was early in the week; in every way it was a beginning time.
The ‘early’ here though goes beyond the common usage. It carries a sense of renewal, hope and that all important sense of a commencement of something other.
On the reverse side, have we really understood why we refer to someone who has died as the ‘late’, whoever it was! Then there is that part of the credo about the ‘quick and the dead’; it follows that if you are dead you are late, but if you are quick, namely alive, then you must be early!
Being alive means being early, ahead of time, eager, fresh, raring to go and ready for something new. There is that famous line of our beloved Archbishop of York who contrasts those on rising say, ‘Good God, its morning’ and those who say, ‘Good morning, God’; the late and the early!
There are some other thoughts to share about this worm catching word, ‘early’! They come from another Archbishop, not known for his one-liners; Rowan Williams. He wrote about how we tend to talk of the ‘Early Church’.
We associate it with the first churches in Jerusalem and Antioch and Rome; we may extend the period to the era of the Church Fathers, thrashing out doctrines at Councils like Nicea and Chalcedon where the nature of the Trinity was defined and the personhood of the Christ explained!
Dr Williams thinks that is the misuse of the words early and church; rather he says that, ‘WE are the Early Church’! We are just as early as the disciples or St Gregory or Augustine, for in God’s eternity we are still in the early stages of Christian history!
Equally, we are in essence people of the dawn! To be early is to be quick, alive, too early for the blackbird, and eager for the Christ who is not late but risen. We are the early church!
It is a way of life, this being early. It is a way of engagement, of being involved. On this day of resurrection the walls of the tomb were turned to windows. We can see out; but we gain, learn or give very little by just looking. We have to be the early ones, first to step through those windows, leap over the barricades and become the examples of our faith that those who folk, who are yet ‘entombed’, could follow.
We cannot sleep when Christ is still in agony; Pascal said that.
There is gloom and doom about the state of the Church; statistics abound that we are no longer a Christian country. Some doom and gloom can surround we ourselves here. Surely we are not a ‘late’ church, a fading church, a dying church? There is a tendency for the church to keep looking anxiously at its watch, as if the windows are to shut and the curtains closed!
He was the late Jesus of Nazareth, sealed behind stone but the first day brought him and the church to be quick.
Are we not then the early church? We have to answer, ‘Yes’; for we are a church which rests its faith on that woman who turned up in the earliest hours on the first day of the week. Today we are invited to wake from sleep, turn to the east at the dawn which always comes and join the Risen Son of God. AMEN
13th March 2016
Lent 5
Passion Sunday
έγω έίμί
‘I AM’
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Two words; two words used in the gospel this morning might well determine what we believe about the very person of Jesus Christ.
Today though, any inner conflict we might have, is super ceded by the conflict Our Lord has with the Jewish Temple authorities; a conflict which puts another nail in the wood of the fast approaching trials and crucifixion.
The conflict is around the Hebrew blasphemy laws.
Once again St. John is linking this Christ in Jesus with ancient holy history, to the times when no-one was to utter the name of the Almighty One; the unspeakable and famous YHWH Tetragrammaton. (Yet it has been turned into a spoken form only by Christians with vowels making Yahweh).
John, for his flock, has to provide a holy continuity for Jesus and to explain the why and how of the build-up to the crucifixion event.
(There is a link with another time when Jesus asks his disciples, ‘well, who do you say that I am?’ There we hear Peter declaring Jesus as the Christ.)
[With those two words, ‘I am’, our current English language lets us down a bit. French is better with the two words, ‘Je suis’. Je suis prêtre. No indefinite article, rather definitely and literally, ‘I am priest’; not ‘a priest’ among many, doing priestly things, but in my very being I am uniquely priest. This especially true of vocations; be it doctor, teacher, accountant, musician, poet. I just do not go about doing my profession; I am my profession, my calling.]
This is where Jesus now got himself into trouble. He declares his vocation, his calling. It is an enigmatic and a mystical declaration; ‘I AM’. There is such a confusion of tenses here, ‘Before Abraham was, I am’.
The blasphemy comes because of the Hebrews’ naming of God. The incident is well known to us coming from the earliest times and written in the Book of Exodus, when the Name is revealed.
Moses, coming away, not a little stunned, from the great theophany at the Burning Bush on Sinai, addressed God to ask him how he should tell his tribes people about Him when they are returned from slavery. It is worth reading this episode; (Ex 3.vv.13 & 14)
‘Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. That is what you are to say to the Israelites; I AM has sent you”’.
The Jewish authorities in Jesus’ time, knew Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic, but it is the Greek wording that outrages them; ‘ego eimi’ [έγω έίμί]. ‘I AM’, the very name of the God of their ancestors.
Here we have another of the great ‘I am’ statements of Jesus as John writes- the good shepherd; the way the truth and the life; the door to the sheepfold; the bread of life; the true vine. All ‘I AMs’ are used by John to affirm Jesus as the God incarnate.
Today, we heard in the Gospel account of John, that the authorities hold Abraham as the great bed-rock, founder, of their faith, second only to God. Now this peripatetic Jesus character comes along and says out loud, ‘Before Abraham was, I Am.’
So, at one level we have an ontological divine/spiritual reality; we have then the timeless, hence eternal, the uncreated time space of ‘now’; the sense of ‘amness’! What on earth or in heaven that might mean?
So human limitations, such as they are, found that it was an idea too far, too bizarre to grasp.
So some folk have reinterpreted the concept of ‘before’. Their ‘before’ is not in terms of time but of priority. Jesus therefore was saying that you used to put Abraham top of your list of religious figures, now I am saying you have to put me before him on your list. That was still blasphemous.
Language, is a powerful tool, and is all too often supports a bias, a prejudice. Scripture we know has been continually manipulated to prove a way of thinking. So some other folk, folk who promote a Unitarian Jehovah, have a special translation; ‘I AM’ has become ‘I have been’; such is the power of a controlling ‘Incarnation denying system’.
We might well have a conflict of language here, for language has tenses as we all know! With these two words we seem to have spanned those tenses.
There is the ‘have been’ (past), I Am (present) and to add to the Tardis of discovery, we come across the unutterable YHWH tetragrammaton again which, according to the linguists, really means ‘I will be what I will be’. (future)
Those two words, I AM determine what we might believe.
Mercifully the church it her devolved wisdom has given us the Trinitarian Doxology of authentic catholic proportions. For this perhaps, we go to the universal language of ancient Rome,
‘Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat pricipio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen
‘Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, and now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen’
As we pass into this Passiontide, we shall be reminded that Pilate, after he had washed his hands, knew his mind and wanted as many as could read any language of the time, to know his mind; so he had ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’ labelling the cross; this was written, according to St John, in Latin, Greek and Aramaic. Now we as we pass into this Passiontide; do we know our mind? For there is still that the question that our Lord asks of us,
‘Who do you say that I am?
Amen.
6th March 2016
LENT 4
The 5000
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If there were a gospel reading which always reminds me of this community of St Mary, it is the one we have today.
It reminds me of the countless times I have read it and preached on it; it also reminds me, for some reason, certain of our congregation no longer with us. I guess it is about having been called ‘lad’ by certain passed members! So it is this lad’s lunch-box that has some appeal! There is something all about the ‘left-overs’ and the overall message; the message of God’s providence, a word again used often by former members of this community.
It is something about St Mary’s always only having a metaphorical little lunch-box, with a lot of people to feed, having only a trust as always in the providential ways of God.
I do have a rather irreverent passing thought in that I hope the Archbishop brings his lunch box when he comes on Wednesday evening to the soup-kitchen- but then 50 Hull Homeless is no comparison to the 5000 hungry souls in Galilee.
The story begs many questions; did it really happen; why were there only 5000 men; how did they have so many baskets with them; why was Philip so concerned with man-hours?
Did it happen?
St Cyril of Alexandria, when preaching on this event said,
‘what is beyond our comprehension is received by faith and not investigation’.
It is not our style to not make some attempt at investigation, for we are an inquisitive lot; but we may need to accept that it is faith we need around this miracle.
Well, ‘something happened’ because, apart from the Resurrection story, it is the only event recorded in every Gospel.
Why just 5000 men? Well, in Jewish custom the men ate separately from the women and children, so biblical scholars believe there could have been upwards of 15,000 in all.
Why so many baskets around? The baskets were used for carrying straw for bricks and it is likely that most of the men would have had a work basket as well as a lunch-box with them. There were also two kinds of baskets, the ruck-sack size and the bigger ‘man-sized’ one. Apparently the big ones were used for the 4000 feeding but the smaller ones here.
As for the fragments; well it is only right never to waste any goodness, ignore the grace of God; but the gathering-up was a way the writers were showing that even Gentiles have to be included with this new covenant God.
The big question is whether this was a miracle, and if so what kind of miracle? Was it a purely supernatural event whereby Jesus kept putting his hand in lunchbox and more and more loaves and fishes appeared? Some fundamentalist thinkers would say that. Certainly the Gospel writers wanted to set Jesus apart from other wandering miracle workers of the time; this Messiah, this Incarnate God, had the power of the Almighty Providence and the miracle had to be a big one.
The reference to Elisha, as seen in the Second Book of Kings, relates this Jesus to the whole Judaeo-Christian Salvation history. There is also the manna given to Moses; to relate to the predominant Jewish audience the writers make that connection too, giving Jesus credibility, as it were, to be the second Moses.
A rather more liberal interpretation, acknowledging that ‘something happened’, was that it was an outbreak of generosity! The example of the one small boy sacrificing his lunch the ‘Mexican wave’ effect was set up, the ripple effect or the domino effect, whatever.
The idea of Jesus continually pulling more and more loaves and fishes from the one lunch box, like rabbits out of a hat, had to be born for then there was a different cosmology, a different world view, in the 1st C. Palestine, and God, to date had shown himself through miracles; something completely out of the ordinary had to happen in the desert austerity. Something had to happen!
The proof of the very existence of God in this era was through the extraordinary.
The gospel writers had to prove the existence of God in the Christ in the person of Jesus. So he does swomething which was out of the ordinary.
Yet, through the ages, as the wisdom has been distilled, we have people like St Therese of Lisieux saying, that the real miracle is to, ‘do the ordinary with extraordinary love’.
Today, we really find the idea if the ‘miracle’ hard; we know what causes disease, or earthquakes or floods. God does not have to prove his existence that way; the real miracle surely has been wrought, in the birth of God as Emmanuel. The ongoing little miracles that follow are those outbreaks of his love through those who believe. The miracle is that of the believing human heart.
The sacrifice of one little one brought out the spirit of love and generosity and communality. All were fed.
We can see this principle at work every Wednesday and Thursday evenings when ‘something happens’ here. One person turns up with one pot of something, another with the rolls, another with the drinks; another with the fruit and so out of 5 or six offerings 50 are fed! Generosity breaks out.
The workers here are not preaching, they just get on, but certainly in John’s gospel we glimpse his evangelistic zeal. Yes, he connects Jesus with the religious past, he also connects this very present Jesus, Immanuel, to the future ongoing life of the church, the future which we still live.
He is teaching about the Eucharist and the divine bread of life, the New Testament manna. His body is broken, his lunch-box sacrificed so that all might be fed. We note too that the bread in this story is given out by the disciples. Jesus could do all that on his own, and so it is today.
Maybe we need to see that perhaps the questions like, ‘what doesn’t God do something about it?’ or ‘why does God let this happen?
The answer is because we do not do something, and we let evil happen. We have very little but with God’s help, guidance, providence we might do great things for Him and His Creation.
Again, in the words St Cyril of Alexandra,
‘according to the word of the Lord we too have been empowered to by God to help others, not with great acts that demonstrate our competence, but with little acts that demonstrate our humility. Let us rejoice together in our limited, but significant, capacity to meet the needs of others’.
The story is about faith and trust; it is about a mature Christianity knowing that the church is a seriously divine/human institution.
Here, now, we take, we bless, we break and we give and we cannot leave out any part of that divine/human Eucharistic work.
And so we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit always now and ever unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
LENT 4
The 5000
+
If there were a gospel reading which always reminds me of this community of St Mary, it is the one we have today.
It reminds me of the countless times I have read it and preached on it; it also reminds me, for some reason, certain of our congregation no longer with us. I guess it is about having been called ‘lad’ by certain passed members! So it is this lad’s lunch-box that has some appeal! There is something all about the ‘left-overs’ and the overall message; the message of God’s providence, a word again used often by former members of this community.
It is something about St Mary’s always only having a metaphorical little lunch-box, with a lot of people to feed, having only a trust as always in the providential ways of God.
I do have a rather irreverent passing thought in that I hope the Archbishop brings his lunch box when he comes on Wednesday evening to the soup-kitchen- but then 50 Hull Homeless is no comparison to the 5000 hungry souls in Galilee.
The story begs many questions; did it really happen; why were there only 5000 men; how did they have so many baskets with them; why was Philip so concerned with man-hours?
Did it happen?
St Cyril of Alexandria, when preaching on this event said,
‘what is beyond our comprehension is received by faith and not investigation’.
It is not our style to not make some attempt at investigation, for we are an inquisitive lot; but we may need to accept that it is faith we need around this miracle.
Well, ‘something happened’ because, apart from the Resurrection story, it is the only event recorded in every Gospel.
Why just 5000 men? Well, in Jewish custom the men ate separately from the women and children, so biblical scholars believe there could have been upwards of 15,000 in all.
Why so many baskets around? The baskets were used for carrying straw for bricks and it is likely that most of the men would have had a work basket as well as a lunch-box with them. There were also two kinds of baskets, the ruck-sack size and the bigger ‘man-sized’ one. Apparently the big ones were used for the 4000 feeding but the smaller ones here.
As for the fragments; well it is only right never to waste any goodness, ignore the grace of God; but the gathering-up was a way the writers were showing that even Gentiles have to be included with this new covenant God.
The big question is whether this was a miracle, and if so what kind of miracle? Was it a purely supernatural event whereby Jesus kept putting his hand in lunchbox and more and more loaves and fishes appeared? Some fundamentalist thinkers would say that. Certainly the Gospel writers wanted to set Jesus apart from other wandering miracle workers of the time; this Messiah, this Incarnate God, had the power of the Almighty Providence and the miracle had to be a big one.
The reference to Elisha, as seen in the Second Book of Kings, relates this Jesus to the whole Judaeo-Christian Salvation history. There is also the manna given to Moses; to relate to the predominant Jewish audience the writers make that connection too, giving Jesus credibility, as it were, to be the second Moses.
A rather more liberal interpretation, acknowledging that ‘something happened’, was that it was an outbreak of generosity! The example of the one small boy sacrificing his lunch the ‘Mexican wave’ effect was set up, the ripple effect or the domino effect, whatever.
The idea of Jesus continually pulling more and more loaves and fishes from the one lunch box, like rabbits out of a hat, had to be born for then there was a different cosmology, a different world view, in the 1st C. Palestine, and God, to date had shown himself through miracles; something completely out of the ordinary had to happen in the desert austerity. Something had to happen!
The proof of the very existence of God in this era was through the extraordinary.
The gospel writers had to prove the existence of God in the Christ in the person of Jesus. So he does swomething which was out of the ordinary.
Yet, through the ages, as the wisdom has been distilled, we have people like St Therese of Lisieux saying, that the real miracle is to, ‘do the ordinary with extraordinary love’.
Today, we really find the idea if the ‘miracle’ hard; we know what causes disease, or earthquakes or floods. God does not have to prove his existence that way; the real miracle surely has been wrought, in the birth of God as Emmanuel. The ongoing little miracles that follow are those outbreaks of his love through those who believe. The miracle is that of the believing human heart.
The sacrifice of one little one brought out the spirit of love and generosity and communality. All were fed.
We can see this principle at work every Wednesday and Thursday evenings when ‘something happens’ here. One person turns up with one pot of something, another with the rolls, another with the drinks; another with the fruit and so out of 5 or six offerings 50 are fed! Generosity breaks out.
The workers here are not preaching, they just get on, but certainly in John’s gospel we glimpse his evangelistic zeal. Yes, he connects Jesus with the religious past, he also connects this very present Jesus, Immanuel, to the future ongoing life of the church, the future which we still live.
He is teaching about the Eucharist and the divine bread of life, the New Testament manna. His body is broken, his lunch-box sacrificed so that all might be fed. We note too that the bread in this story is given out by the disciples. Jesus could do all that on his own, and so it is today.
Maybe we need to see that perhaps the questions like, ‘what doesn’t God do something about it?’ or ‘why does God let this happen?
The answer is because we do not do something, and we let evil happen. We have very little but with God’s help, guidance, providence we might do great things for Him and His Creation.
Again, in the words St Cyril of Alexandra,
‘according to the word of the Lord we too have been empowered to by God to help others, not with great acts that demonstrate our competence, but with little acts that demonstrate our humility. Let us rejoice together in our limited, but significant, capacity to meet the needs of others’.
The story is about faith and trust; it is about a mature Christianity knowing that the church is a seriously divine/human institution.
Here, now, we take, we bless, we break and we give and we cannot leave out any part of that divine/human Eucharistic work.
And so we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit always now and ever unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
During these months our minds tend to look at the changing landscape and ponder the wonders of nature. If a favourite Saint comes to mind it is Saint Francis. He is not all we might think him to be. Here is a sermon Paul preached soon after he was made a Lay Friar of the Society of Saint Francis.
The Way of St Francis
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From the gospel, ‘Blessed is he who hears the word of God and keeps it’.
As we look at the reformed life of Francesco from Assisi, that is exactly what he did. When in his darkest night he took a Bible, looking for some direction, and let it fall open, and read the words, ‘go sell all your possessions’, and he did.
He let it fall open again, and he read the words, ‘go out on the highways and byways, take nothing for your journey, no purse, no cloak, and do not fear, are you not more valuable than those lilies of the field…’
Francesco Bernardone was one of the most significant figures of that cusp time, when rational civilisation was in total cultural revolution; at the end of the 12th and beginning of 13th centuries in Western Europe.
He shared his own form of ‘enlightenment’ with the many who were emerging in Europe and, through a shared repenting spirit, moved humanity out of the dark ages of paganism and its attendant horrors and indulgences.
He was a flamboyant youth, being trained up by his merchant father to take over the business. Let us say he enjoyed life.
He learned poetry from his French mother, and in the times of warring states and clashes of classes in society, he took on the romance of the poetic warrior, the recusing of damsels in distress behaviour of the Troubadour.
Into a local battle, he drove his horse into the fray with great enthusiasm. Then he became wounded, the wounds became infected, he became feverish and delirious. Either by true divine vision or by scientific hallucination he felt God was beginning to find him.
He knew he had to repent of his foolish and damaging life-style. He looked to God as his father; in a passion he renounced his earthly father; stole his rolls of cloth and gave them to the poor, even took off his garments in public to say how he believed and did what the words of God had told him. His earthly father promptly confined him in the cellar, believing him insane. His heavenly father had now confined him to a life of divine servitude.
Believing God had told him to rebuild his church that was falling down, he set off bare footed into the snow to the derelict shrine of St Damiano. Stone by stone, hand over hand, he began the restoration process.
Others joined him for he brought with his a new spirit for a tired age and a corrupted church. He was the friar Francis, and they became his ‘Little Friars’, the Friars Minor that still exist as an order in the Catholic Church.
His life was tortuous and tormented and his conversion never ended until his last hymn was written, when he embraced ‘Sister Death’. There are many legends and tales but there are alos several authentic ‘Vitae’, Lives, written by those who were with him.
He was part of the whole western monastic movement, setting up his Friars in community. This was not a static community, this was a flowing, life blood community that was to inspire the whole church of God and build up the whole ruination of the establishment.
St Benedict set up the static communities; so it is said what Benedict took in, Francis gave out; what Benedict stored, Francis scattered; also Benedict always knew where he would eat his supper! Francis didn’t, and maybe never got one. Yet still he would be joyful and give thanks.
In all his almost careless ‘wanderings about’ preaching the endless practical sermons in the serving of the poor, he never lost his respect for the church and its order. In fact without the permission of the sagacious Pope Innocent III whom he sought out the whole Franciscan movement would never have been formed and his vision of rebuilding the church destroyed.
He formed three Orders of Friars- the men, the women who wore the rough cross-shaped habit and had the tonsure haircut, and the Third Order which were the ordinary, invisible ones who lived by the same vows and rules of the other Orders, but in the world.
(By the by, in last century, members of the Anglican Church established a Society of St Francis, which has those three Orders: Angela and I are members of that; the rules and vows are the same-I am now ‘fully fried’ if you like, just professed after four years of preparation; Angel has just now become a Novice. We have Rules of Life to keep/ aspire to. The way of life is to be marked by humility, love and joy; our aims to make our Lord know wherever we can, promote harmony where we can and to live simply; all this we do through our prayer, our study and our active work. This is a spiritual path and complements our more political and religious church life).
Some of his teachings seep through here, but they are excessively Christian teachings.
For instance, what about Francis embracing the leper? At one stage of his life he would avoid them, (as did everyone else), he was physically sick were he to come near someone with leprosy.
Part of his progressive ‘conversion’ was of course to do everything differently, to turn the world on its head; to walk away then from what he abhorred turned to an embrace of the same.. He knew he wouldn’t catch the disease because it takes prolonged contact and exposure, and even if he did catch it, his faith was such that he had no fear and he would embrace his Sister Death with joy.
So we have here an immediate cultural translation of this spiritual principle: our lepers-those with mental health issues and the homeless. Walk away or embrace? You cannot catch either of these except perhaps by prolonged exposure and contact; then if we did, perhaps we too could still walk with God and embrace the ‘Brother or Sister’’ consequence.
Everything Francis did was with a passion and at a driven pace. At one point in his life he convinced he should go to Syria and convert the Muslims. He jumped into the first boat, hid himself o board, got half way across the Mediterranean and was ship wrecked!
You see he did everything in reverse; today people want to get out of Syria! Even so he is known as the ‘patron Saint of Stowaways’; now there’s a thought for the day and our age.
Everything in reverse! In a turbulent age of war-fare, famine and corruption, Francis found his peace in solitude and service in the way of Our Lord. He took the Eucharist to the centre of his life, that great place of ultimate thanksgiving, and taught all his followers to do the same; it is embedded in Our Rule.
It was said that Francis’ only temptation was the Sacrament.
For him he took that casket of Our Lord in Galilee to Assisi, and that casket with his reverence is global.
There is, no doubt, a sentimental view of this turbulent soul. ‘He was a lover of nature’, many say; no he was not. Francis could never see the wood for the tress, nor the mob from the men; he only saw and loved whatever of God’s creation was in front of him; whether that was the Sultan in Syria, the bleeding leper at the road-side, or the black bird on his palm
For that reason although several of his brothers were martyred, no-one ever sought his life; they might have had rejected his message but never him.
Bodily exhaustion and wear and tear, with the pain of it all, in the imitation of Our Lord gave him a blessed death. He had done what he had had to do; those were his last words and he went on to say, ‘May God give you the strength to do what you are to do’.
Even his famous blessing is faithful to the gospel this morning; a blessing based on the word of God; the Book of Numbers 6. V 24-27,
‘The Lord
-bless you and keep you;
+
-make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
-turn his face towards you and give you his peace.’
Amen.
During these months our minds tend to look at the changing landscape and ponder the wonders of nature. If a favourite Saint comes to mind it is Saint Francis. He is not all we might think him to be. Here is a sermon Paul preached soon after he was made a Lay Friar of the Society of Saint Francis.
The Way of St Francis
+
From the gospel, ‘Blessed is he who hears the word of God and keeps it’.
As we look at the reformed life of Francesco from Assisi, that is exactly what he did. When in his darkest night he took a Bible, looking for some direction, and let it fall open, and read the words, ‘go sell all your possessions’, and he did.
He let it fall open again, and he read the words, ‘go out on the highways and byways, take nothing for your journey, no purse, no cloak, and do not fear, are you not more valuable than those lilies of the field…’
Francesco Bernardone was one of the most significant figures of that cusp time, when rational civilisation was in total cultural revolution; at the end of the 12th and beginning of 13th centuries in Western Europe.
He shared his own form of ‘enlightenment’ with the many who were emerging in Europe and, through a shared repenting spirit, moved humanity out of the dark ages of paganism and its attendant horrors and indulgences.
He was a flamboyant youth, being trained up by his merchant father to take over the business. Let us say he enjoyed life.
He learned poetry from his French mother, and in the times of warring states and clashes of classes in society, he took on the romance of the poetic warrior, the recusing of damsels in distress behaviour of the Troubadour.
Into a local battle, he drove his horse into the fray with great enthusiasm. Then he became wounded, the wounds became infected, he became feverish and delirious. Either by true divine vision or by scientific hallucination he felt God was beginning to find him.
He knew he had to repent of his foolish and damaging life-style. He looked to God as his father; in a passion he renounced his earthly father; stole his rolls of cloth and gave them to the poor, even took off his garments in public to say how he believed and did what the words of God had told him. His earthly father promptly confined him in the cellar, believing him insane. His heavenly father had now confined him to a life of divine servitude.
Believing God had told him to rebuild his church that was falling down, he set off bare footed into the snow to the derelict shrine of St Damiano. Stone by stone, hand over hand, he began the restoration process.
Others joined him for he brought with his a new spirit for a tired age and a corrupted church. He was the friar Francis, and they became his ‘Little Friars’, the Friars Minor that still exist as an order in the Catholic Church.
His life was tortuous and tormented and his conversion never ended until his last hymn was written, when he embraced ‘Sister Death’. There are many legends and tales but there are alos several authentic ‘Vitae’, Lives, written by those who were with him.
He was part of the whole western monastic movement, setting up his Friars in community. This was not a static community, this was a flowing, life blood community that was to inspire the whole church of God and build up the whole ruination of the establishment.
St Benedict set up the static communities; so it is said what Benedict took in, Francis gave out; what Benedict stored, Francis scattered; also Benedict always knew where he would eat his supper! Francis didn’t, and maybe never got one. Yet still he would be joyful and give thanks.
In all his almost careless ‘wanderings about’ preaching the endless practical sermons in the serving of the poor, he never lost his respect for the church and its order. In fact without the permission of the sagacious Pope Innocent III whom he sought out the whole Franciscan movement would never have been formed and his vision of rebuilding the church destroyed.
He formed three Orders of Friars- the men, the women who wore the rough cross-shaped habit and had the tonsure haircut, and the Third Order which were the ordinary, invisible ones who lived by the same vows and rules of the other Orders, but in the world.
(By the by, in last century, members of the Anglican Church established a Society of St Francis, which has those three Orders: Angela and I are members of that; the rules and vows are the same-I am now ‘fully fried’ if you like, just professed after four years of preparation; Angel has just now become a Novice. We have Rules of Life to keep/ aspire to. The way of life is to be marked by humility, love and joy; our aims to make our Lord know wherever we can, promote harmony where we can and to live simply; all this we do through our prayer, our study and our active work. This is a spiritual path and complements our more political and religious church life).
Some of his teachings seep through here, but they are excessively Christian teachings.
For instance, what about Francis embracing the leper? At one stage of his life he would avoid them, (as did everyone else), he was physically sick were he to come near someone with leprosy.
Part of his progressive ‘conversion’ was of course to do everything differently, to turn the world on its head; to walk away then from what he abhorred turned to an embrace of the same.. He knew he wouldn’t catch the disease because it takes prolonged contact and exposure, and even if he did catch it, his faith was such that he had no fear and he would embrace his Sister Death with joy.
So we have here an immediate cultural translation of this spiritual principle: our lepers-those with mental health issues and the homeless. Walk away or embrace? You cannot catch either of these except perhaps by prolonged exposure and contact; then if we did, perhaps we too could still walk with God and embrace the ‘Brother or Sister’’ consequence.
Everything Francis did was with a passion and at a driven pace. At one point in his life he convinced he should go to Syria and convert the Muslims. He jumped into the first boat, hid himself o board, got half way across the Mediterranean and was ship wrecked!
You see he did everything in reverse; today people want to get out of Syria! Even so he is known as the ‘patron Saint of Stowaways’; now there’s a thought for the day and our age.
Everything in reverse! In a turbulent age of war-fare, famine and corruption, Francis found his peace in solitude and service in the way of Our Lord. He took the Eucharist to the centre of his life, that great place of ultimate thanksgiving, and taught all his followers to do the same; it is embedded in Our Rule.
It was said that Francis’ only temptation was the Sacrament.
For him he took that casket of Our Lord in Galilee to Assisi, and that casket with his reverence is global.
There is, no doubt, a sentimental view of this turbulent soul. ‘He was a lover of nature’, many say; no he was not. Francis could never see the wood for the tress, nor the mob from the men; he only saw and loved whatever of God’s creation was in front of him; whether that was the Sultan in Syria, the bleeding leper at the road-side, or the black bird on his palm
For that reason although several of his brothers were martyred, no-one ever sought his life; they might have had rejected his message but never him.
Bodily exhaustion and wear and tear, with the pain of it all, in the imitation of Our Lord gave him a blessed death. He had done what he had had to do; those were his last words and he went on to say, ‘May God give you the strength to do what you are to do’.
Even his famous blessing is faithful to the gospel this morning; a blessing based on the word of God; the Book of Numbers 6. V 24-27,
‘The Lord
-bless you and keep you;
+
-make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
-turn his face towards you and give you his peace.’
Amen.
14th February 2016
Lent One
+
The idea of being in the wilderness is that God is still present; it might not feel like it. Actually, at significant periods of our lives, God wants us to be in the wilderness. In fact, as soon as Jesus was baptised, he was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit of God.
If I have an image, which I may in the distant past have shared with you, is part of the Jewish wisdom tradition. It is about the loving father with his two year old son.
There is this gradual process where the young lad is coaxed up the stairs and then encouraged to jump into his father’s arms. ‘It’s all right, I’ll catch you’. First step, second step and all is well, smiles all round. Third step, the young lad is now feeling very brave, leaps into the air; his father steps back, and the youngster falls flat on his face.
He is full of tears, of course, less about any physical injury (as we know children of that age pretty well bounce), no these were tears of being, literally, ‘let down’, betrayed.
In the wisdom tradition this is about the relationship of a loving father to his son. So, in many ways within our Judaeo-Christian tradition we can see something of this in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
Jesus, after his Baptism by John in the Jordan River, was still young in the ways of the world, the devil and the human psyche. The wilderness was the time to look as if He had been let down, but in fact was the time of being lovingly taught. God the Father was not absent in this wilderness, He just kept Himself hidden, just in case!
If we take our spiritual life seriously then we will be led into wilderness areas. For St John of the Cross, the 16th Century Spanish mystic the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, is the wilderness of the spiritual life. Importantly he wrote,
‘Souls begin to enter into this dark night when God draws them out from being beginners’.
Our Lord’s Forty Days were His being drawn out from his beginnings and to learn some lessons.
Our Forty Days of Lent is a process of us yet again being drawn out from our beginnings. The tests are there, we can read them for ourselves; the tests are there and we can know them for ourselves. The tests are those of how we regard our, Inordinate passions, our Inebriating possessions and our Invalid positions.
For now we have to forgo the waters and well springs of salvation and enter into a dry and barren land wherein no help is found, unless of course we give God a helping hand and dig the well deeper for ourselves where fresh streams flow.
AMEN
Lent One
+
The idea of being in the wilderness is that God is still present; it might not feel like it. Actually, at significant periods of our lives, God wants us to be in the wilderness. In fact, as soon as Jesus was baptised, he was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit of God.
If I have an image, which I may in the distant past have shared with you, is part of the Jewish wisdom tradition. It is about the loving father with his two year old son.
There is this gradual process where the young lad is coaxed up the stairs and then encouraged to jump into his father’s arms. ‘It’s all right, I’ll catch you’. First step, second step and all is well, smiles all round. Third step, the young lad is now feeling very brave, leaps into the air; his father steps back, and the youngster falls flat on his face.
He is full of tears, of course, less about any physical injury (as we know children of that age pretty well bounce), no these were tears of being, literally, ‘let down’, betrayed.
In the wisdom tradition this is about the relationship of a loving father to his son. So, in many ways within our Judaeo-Christian tradition we can see something of this in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
Jesus, after his Baptism by John in the Jordan River, was still young in the ways of the world, the devil and the human psyche. The wilderness was the time to look as if He had been let down, but in fact was the time of being lovingly taught. God the Father was not absent in this wilderness, He just kept Himself hidden, just in case!
If we take our spiritual life seriously then we will be led into wilderness areas. For St John of the Cross, the 16th Century Spanish mystic the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, is the wilderness of the spiritual life. Importantly he wrote,
‘Souls begin to enter into this dark night when God draws them out from being beginners’.
Our Lord’s Forty Days were His being drawn out from his beginnings and to learn some lessons.
Our Forty Days of Lent is a process of us yet again being drawn out from our beginnings. The tests are there, we can read them for ourselves; the tests are there and we can know them for ourselves. The tests are those of how we regard our, Inordinate passions, our Inebriating possessions and our Invalid positions.
For now we have to forgo the waters and well springs of salvation and enter into a dry and barren land wherein no help is found, unless of course we give God a helping hand and dig the well deeper for ourselves where fresh streams flow.
AMEN
7th February 2016
Candlemas
+
Today we see the flowers of the newly born year, the neonate flowers; notably ‘Mary’s Tapers’, the snowdrops. We see them as ‘pure white’; these flowers of sheer beauty, poke their heads through the dank and dark leaf mould. They symbolise, for some, the purity of the Virgin which again, for some, is celebrated on this day of Candlemas. Mary had to gain this purity after child birth, according to the Law of the Lord in the Temple of the Lord. This is the catholic Western understanding.
Just a thought is that ‘The Purification’ is almost an ‘add-on’ at this time, for it follows the rightful presentation of her male heir, her son and Our Lord’ Mary always points to her Son.
More widely accepted is that Spring is on its way, and the lighting of candles becomes a symbol of the movement away from the darkness of winter; this is the pagan imbolc. The atheistic equivalent is the putting the clocks forward!
Whatever we feel about this feast is does seem to mark a point of transition; one season into another one Dispensation into another; one Covenant or Testament into another.
The gospel is about the light of Christ, in the form of the baby, now being formally presented to the Hebrew world. The aged prophetess Anna was there as was the aged wise man Simeon. He was the one led by the Holy Spirit, knew who this child was and was to become. He knew the fate of this child in his arms. He also knew the pain that Mary would feel; that universal pain of motherhood. This is the encounter, the meeting, the hypapante of the Eastern tradition of the church.
This is the encounter of humanity with the salvation offered by God in his Christ; Simeon as a type-of humanity, represents us all; both weary yet overjoyed, he was able to leave this world in peace.
‘Now you let your servant go in peace’
We know this verse as one of the essential canticles of the church the Nunc Dimittis; a canticle to end a monastic day, a canticle to end our mortal life.
However we see it, we have a transition on our hands.
Candlemas, for some, is the mark of the end of the Christmas season; for others it begins the Easter cycle as we now seriously count down our Sundays in respect to Easter. In our end is our beginning.
So we begin Shrovetide; empty our larders, have a flat cake in a pan on Shriving Tuesday. We are being asked to stand before our Maker to be shriven; confess we may begin to do; a sense of full absolution and fullness of life comes at the end of this Easter Season.
Jesus was born to die; in his end was our beginning. His gruelling life was foreseen on this day. In a sense then, we need to light the candles now to help us see our way through our journey towards Easter. We need to light our candles now before they are snuffed out on Maundy Thursday. We need to light our candles now, as a symbol of light and life in a world which, for so many, is dark and dangerous. As we light these waxen creatures we pray for those on our hearts, no matter what estate of life they may be in.
As we do this for whoever is before us, we do it for Him, the Light of the World, the Candle that melted so that the world may live.
Amen
Sexagesima 2016
+
This day we have a wonderful, well known and beloved parable. This is an expansive story, but a story nonetheless; it is the one about the sower at his work of broadcasting. It begins in the classic style of the story-teller,
‘The sower went out to sow his seed’
We are pregnant with expectation to know what was to happen next!
At the time of the telling the disciples were still not sure what Jesus is really saying. He shows an understandable incarnated frustration and we suppose that to help them understand, he actually has to explain a story. Thereafter, He does not explain, for he expects that there will be those who have the ears to hear what the deeper meaning of what his stories are really about.
At that time, he said it was about the Word of God being broadcasted as a seed.
Since that time we have, in our various ages and conditions given another meaning to this story as most fits our situation. That is the beauty of a good story, for it can be applied in all ages and in all conditions of humankind.
For our own part here, we could be saying that we have been broadcasting the word about St Mary’s far and wide. We have strewn at the wayside maybe, met barren ground, thorny edges and I guess we wait still to see if any seeds have really landed on good ground.
What we always have to remember is that a seed is, in that beautiful Latin phrase, ‘in potentia’; in a state of potency or potentiality. It has to become ‘in actu’, in act. Potential means to have an aptitude for and, be capable of, change.
The seed is a plant in potential but is not yet one; it may or may not become one. Conditions for this coming to growth have to be right, but perhaps above all, the sower has to hope that all things might come together for some of his seeds at least. If he had no hope he would not bother to sow at all.
This parable tells that the Word of God is the seed of life.
In another age, a world away from the first telling of the story sower and equally separate from ours, there are the insights of the 16th Century Saint Teresa of Avila.
This canonised person helps us towards another, perhaps more mystical, way of looking at this story. In herself, she has been described as a ‘late bloomer’ and rather a ‘way-ward nun’. She settles by the time she reaches her forties and gradually becomes a profound contemplative writer and spiritual guide. It is worth spending a just a snippet of our time with her way of thought.
In her thinking she compares the human soul to an unproductive soil which God wants to turn into a beautiful garden.
Firstly the gardener, the guardian of the soul, (which is who we are), has to clear away all the brambles and weeds; this is the first conversion of confession. Getting rid! Renouncing sin is the first step of making a beautiful garden, but even here the grace of God is still a little seed and might or might not grow. The gardener now needs to look after this seed. For St Teresa we garden of our own soul.
The seed needs water and, the saint tells us that water comes in four
ways; drawn from a well; via an aqueduct (or hose); letting water flow from
a stream; relying on the rain to fall. For St Teresa these are the four
degrees of mental prayer
and part of which she saw as our interior life; we have her written work
‘The Interior Castle’.
The first degree is when the soul is still active. This is when we speak to and
with God. This is good for beginners, she tells us; but like all beginners we
might be far too keen and ‘enjoy it too much’, she says, and wear ourselves
out composing long speeches or diatribes to God! Rather, she advises us to
chat away in His Presence.
The second degree is a quietening of the soul and the third moves into a
profound mystical prayer and, as she says ‘the sleep of the faculties’ and a
complete union with God in the deepest recesses of our being.
The fourth and last degree appears to be that which is beyond any human
effort, becoming the prayer of complete union as only God may give, by
ultimate grace.
In the process the seed grows and fruits and is ‘the life of God’ within us.
Our scientific, artistic, social selves are then infused with the will and
character of God.
We are asked by St Teresa to work on the garden of our own soul, to
encourage our neighbours to work on theirs and so our street, city and
world will become a garden of beauty.
However we interpret this parable, however we conceive the seed, we are
encouraged to just throw them out, as St Paul saw also, in faith and hope
and most of all in love; also as T.S. Eliot wrote in ‘Choruses from the Rock’,
‘Yet nothing is impossible, nothing
To men of faith and conviction
Let us therefore make perfect our will
O God help us’.
Amen
+
This day we have a wonderful, well known and beloved parable. This is an expansive story, but a story nonetheless; it is the one about the sower at his work of broadcasting. It begins in the classic style of the story-teller,
‘The sower went out to sow his seed’
We are pregnant with expectation to know what was to happen next!
At the time of the telling the disciples were still not sure what Jesus is really saying. He shows an understandable incarnated frustration and we suppose that to help them understand, he actually has to explain a story. Thereafter, He does not explain, for he expects that there will be those who have the ears to hear what the deeper meaning of what his stories are really about.
At that time, he said it was about the Word of God being broadcasted as a seed.
Since that time we have, in our various ages and conditions given another meaning to this story as most fits our situation. That is the beauty of a good story, for it can be applied in all ages and in all conditions of humankind.
For our own part here, we could be saying that we have been broadcasting the word about St Mary’s far and wide. We have strewn at the wayside maybe, met barren ground, thorny edges and I guess we wait still to see if any seeds have really landed on good ground.
What we always have to remember is that a seed is, in that beautiful Latin phrase, ‘in potentia’; in a state of potency or potentiality. It has to become ‘in actu’, in act. Potential means to have an aptitude for and, be capable of, change.
The seed is a plant in potential but is not yet one; it may or may not become one. Conditions for this coming to growth have to be right, but perhaps above all, the sower has to hope that all things might come together for some of his seeds at least. If he had no hope he would not bother to sow at all.
This parable tells that the Word of God is the seed of life.
In another age, a world away from the first telling of the story sower and equally separate from ours, there are the insights of the 16th Century Saint Teresa of Avila.
This canonised person helps us towards another, perhaps more mystical, way of looking at this story. In herself, she has been described as a ‘late bloomer’ and rather a ‘way-ward nun’. She settles by the time she reaches her forties and gradually becomes a profound contemplative writer and spiritual guide. It is worth spending a just a snippet of our time with her way of thought.
In her thinking she compares the human soul to an unproductive soil which God wants to turn into a beautiful garden.
Firstly the gardener, the guardian of the soul, (which is who we are), has to clear away all the brambles and weeds; this is the first conversion of confession. Getting rid! Renouncing sin is the first step of making a beautiful garden, but even here the grace of God is still a little seed and might or might not grow. The gardener now needs to look after this seed. For St Teresa we garden of our own soul.
The seed needs water and, the saint tells us that water comes in four
ways; drawn from a well; via an aqueduct (or hose); letting water flow from
a stream; relying on the rain to fall. For St Teresa these are the four
degrees of mental prayer
and part of which she saw as our interior life; we have her written work
‘The Interior Castle’.
The first degree is when the soul is still active. This is when we speak to and
with God. This is good for beginners, she tells us; but like all beginners we
might be far too keen and ‘enjoy it too much’, she says, and wear ourselves
out composing long speeches or diatribes to God! Rather, she advises us to
chat away in His Presence.
The second degree is a quietening of the soul and the third moves into a
profound mystical prayer and, as she says ‘the sleep of the faculties’ and a
complete union with God in the deepest recesses of our being.
The fourth and last degree appears to be that which is beyond any human
effort, becoming the prayer of complete union as only God may give, by
ultimate grace.
In the process the seed grows and fruits and is ‘the life of God’ within us.
Our scientific, artistic, social selves are then infused with the will and
character of God.
We are asked by St Teresa to work on the garden of our own soul, to
encourage our neighbours to work on theirs and so our street, city and
world will become a garden of beauty.
However we interpret this parable, however we conceive the seed, we are
encouraged to just throw them out, as St Paul saw also, in faith and hope
and most of all in love; also as T.S. Eliot wrote in ‘Choruses from the Rock’,
‘Yet nothing is impossible, nothing
To men of faith and conviction
Let us therefore make perfect our will
O God help us’.
Amen
Septuagesima 2016.
+
From the deep incarnational mysteries of St John, knocking at the secret door of our unconscious mind, we move towards the equally mysterious workings of the Church in this season of Septuagesima. I am not sure whether St John or the machinery of Church Tradition is the more mysterious!
The Gospel reading from Matthew holds some mystery of sorts, although he is more explicit and has a particular Matth-ian message. The ‘labourers in the vineyard’ story has been quoted to me ad nauseam, (at least quite a lot), by hardened church wardens.
The lengthy parable breaches all our contemporary employment legislation. Minimum wages for the number of hours worked, or paid by the job? The famous and life threatening Curriculum Vitae, to end up as a cleaner is not very impressive when you started out a as a CEO.
If we were into the world of modern day slavery and human trafficking, it would be about right; the first one are worn out by the end of the day and the new ones come in, on the same pay, but no one told them they were to be on the night shift!
At the time of this 1st C writing we see a story of God’s grace; about how we are all equal in his sight, and how God is merciful to all his workers. It is about how we cannot ‘work our way into heaven’.
It is about how the Kingdom of God is in some way a reversal of the power arrangements of the kingdoms of the world. For the converted Matthew Levi it was very much about his saying that in the newly arrived Christ, the peculiar and exclusive Judaism of the Temple Party piety is replaced by the inclusive, universal, Galilean piety of the Gentiles. There is some evil and jealous eye of those who feel they were called first.
This parable of Matthew is a commonplace passage for those of right wing evangelical political piety, for it can help in the process of ‘conversion’ and ‘call’; sadly any mystery that there may have been has indeed suffered the indignity of being demystified; sadly that feels that we remain capable of making God in our own image.
The Collect of today, rightly takes us into today and helps us back into mystery, this mysterious season of a ‘mini-lent’. The Collect presents us with two processes;
confession on our part and deliverance on God’s. Already we have the whisperings of the ‘good Lord, deliver us’ of our Lenten Litany.
Septuagesima is a season which has been confected by the Church and rather than scanning the deepest recesses of the Divine mind with St John, it scans the strange manipulations of our human mind.
Of Latin origin, the word means ‘seventy days’- (septus and dies). After the last great liturgical changes in the 1960’s, Septuagesima is only to be celebrated by those who follow the tradition of the Book of Common Prayer.
One school of thought is that, these weeks prior to Lent should be a way of saving us from the shock of moving from the light of Epiphany straight into the deep recesses of penitence in the Great Lent. Whereas strict fasting and breast beating is the obligation of Lent, a more moderate and voluntary performance of the same is the required behaviour this period of Septuagesima, taking is up to Quadragesima, the fourth before Easter and the first Sunday in Lent.
So the Church eases our journey towards the three great days of Easter. One of the Doctors of the Church summarises for us; St Augustine,
“There are two times,’ says the holy Doctor, ‘one which is now and is spent in the temptations and tribulations of this life; the other which shall be then, and shall be spent in eternal security and joy. In figure of these we celebrate two periods: the time before Easter and the time after Easter. That which is before Easter signifies the sorrow of this present life; that which is after Easter, the blessedness of our future state… Hence it is that we spend the first in fasting and prayer; in the second we give up our fasting and give ourselves to praise’.
One of the powerful functions of the Church is to interpret the sacred Scriptures.
The two times of St Augustine have been biblically linked to two geographical places; Babylon and Jerusalem.
Babylon we understand as representing the world of sin in which we serve our probationary period; Jerusalem the image of the heavenly country.
The 70 years of the exile become enshrined in these 70 days of Septuagesima.
‘Seven’ and its multiples pepper our Christian tradition. The duration of the world is divided into seven ages.
The first is taken from Adam to Noah;
the second begins with Noah and the renovating deluge until the call of Abraham;
third is the formation of the chosen people until the giving of the Mosaic Law;
fourth from Moses to David and the establishing of the Kingdom;
fifth David’s reign and the Babylonian exile;
sixth the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and unto the birth of Jesus;
the last the Christian era until the judgement of the living and the dead; thereafter comes eternity!
Septuagesima, the 70 days of mourning in exile are then to be super ceded by the wondrous 70 days from Easter to Pentecost.
For now we are sojourners in a foreign land; 70 days, 40 of which will be spent in the process of purifying penitence; we have only the whispers of hope and the longing for day 71. Visually, before the golden dawn of that day, we have the deep purple and then the rough sackcloth and the holy ashes
Notably the great ‘Alleluia’ is suspended in this season; for the rubrics state, ‘praise is unseemly in the mouth of the sinner.’ The Great Gloria is also taken from us until the Day of Resurrection.
So from the deep mysteries of John who wrote that in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God and the word was God, we have entered the mysterious machinations of this season of the church; the mystery of now, when we declare that now is the Word, and the Word is with God and the Word is God.
Amen
+
From the deep incarnational mysteries of St John, knocking at the secret door of our unconscious mind, we move towards the equally mysterious workings of the Church in this season of Septuagesima. I am not sure whether St John or the machinery of Church Tradition is the more mysterious!
The Gospel reading from Matthew holds some mystery of sorts, although he is more explicit and has a particular Matth-ian message. The ‘labourers in the vineyard’ story has been quoted to me ad nauseam, (at least quite a lot), by hardened church wardens.
The lengthy parable breaches all our contemporary employment legislation. Minimum wages for the number of hours worked, or paid by the job? The famous and life threatening Curriculum Vitae, to end up as a cleaner is not very impressive when you started out a as a CEO.
If we were into the world of modern day slavery and human trafficking, it would be about right; the first one are worn out by the end of the day and the new ones come in, on the same pay, but no one told them they were to be on the night shift!
At the time of this 1st C writing we see a story of God’s grace; about how we are all equal in his sight, and how God is merciful to all his workers. It is about how we cannot ‘work our way into heaven’.
It is about how the Kingdom of God is in some way a reversal of the power arrangements of the kingdoms of the world. For the converted Matthew Levi it was very much about his saying that in the newly arrived Christ, the peculiar and exclusive Judaism of the Temple Party piety is replaced by the inclusive, universal, Galilean piety of the Gentiles. There is some evil and jealous eye of those who feel they were called first.
This parable of Matthew is a commonplace passage for those of right wing evangelical political piety, for it can help in the process of ‘conversion’ and ‘call’; sadly any mystery that there may have been has indeed suffered the indignity of being demystified; sadly that feels that we remain capable of making God in our own image.
The Collect of today, rightly takes us into today and helps us back into mystery, this mysterious season of a ‘mini-lent’. The Collect presents us with two processes;
confession on our part and deliverance on God’s. Already we have the whisperings of the ‘good Lord, deliver us’ of our Lenten Litany.
Septuagesima is a season which has been confected by the Church and rather than scanning the deepest recesses of the Divine mind with St John, it scans the strange manipulations of our human mind.
Of Latin origin, the word means ‘seventy days’- (septus and dies). After the last great liturgical changes in the 1960’s, Septuagesima is only to be celebrated by those who follow the tradition of the Book of Common Prayer.
One school of thought is that, these weeks prior to Lent should be a way of saving us from the shock of moving from the light of Epiphany straight into the deep recesses of penitence in the Great Lent. Whereas strict fasting and breast beating is the obligation of Lent, a more moderate and voluntary performance of the same is the required behaviour this period of Septuagesima, taking is up to Quadragesima, the fourth before Easter and the first Sunday in Lent.
So the Church eases our journey towards the three great days of Easter. One of the Doctors of the Church summarises for us; St Augustine,
“There are two times,’ says the holy Doctor, ‘one which is now and is spent in the temptations and tribulations of this life; the other which shall be then, and shall be spent in eternal security and joy. In figure of these we celebrate two periods: the time before Easter and the time after Easter. That which is before Easter signifies the sorrow of this present life; that which is after Easter, the blessedness of our future state… Hence it is that we spend the first in fasting and prayer; in the second we give up our fasting and give ourselves to praise’.
One of the powerful functions of the Church is to interpret the sacred Scriptures.
The two times of St Augustine have been biblically linked to two geographical places; Babylon and Jerusalem.
Babylon we understand as representing the world of sin in which we serve our probationary period; Jerusalem the image of the heavenly country.
The 70 years of the exile become enshrined in these 70 days of Septuagesima.
‘Seven’ and its multiples pepper our Christian tradition. The duration of the world is divided into seven ages.
The first is taken from Adam to Noah;
the second begins with Noah and the renovating deluge until the call of Abraham;
third is the formation of the chosen people until the giving of the Mosaic Law;
fourth from Moses to David and the establishing of the Kingdom;
fifth David’s reign and the Babylonian exile;
sixth the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and unto the birth of Jesus;
the last the Christian era until the judgement of the living and the dead; thereafter comes eternity!
Septuagesima, the 70 days of mourning in exile are then to be super ceded by the wondrous 70 days from Easter to Pentecost.
For now we are sojourners in a foreign land; 70 days, 40 of which will be spent in the process of purifying penitence; we have only the whispers of hope and the longing for day 71. Visually, before the golden dawn of that day, we have the deep purple and then the rough sackcloth and the holy ashes
Notably the great ‘Alleluia’ is suspended in this season; for the rubrics state, ‘praise is unseemly in the mouth of the sinner.’ The Great Gloria is also taken from us until the Day of Resurrection.
So from the deep mysteries of John who wrote that in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God and the word was God, we have entered the mysterious machinations of this season of the church; the mystery of now, when we declare that now is the Word, and the Word is with God and the Word is God.
Amen
17th January 2016
Epiphany 2
‘In Cana of Galilee’
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Our gospel reading is from St John. With John we deal in symbols yet again and in the realm of symbols we know what is on the surface is not what John is really about. As a mystery writer, this apostle and evangelist always wanted his readers and listeners to see with the eye of the eye and hear with the ear of the ear.
In this event at Cana in Galilee John narrates a mystery of transformation.
This transformation is not about bad becoming good, a beast turning into a beauty or a Jekyll into a Hyde, even a caterpillar into a butterfly but about water into wine; strangely it about something good becoming ‘more good’! Better!
As we know, John’s gospel is different from the other three. Mostly that is because they give us the narrative of our Lord’s life; John assumes that people know the story by the time he started to write. He looks at the meaning of our Lord’s life and sayings. Some even say that John was therefore actually interpreting the other three Gospels. John gives us the why behind the who, where, what and how.
We have to go beneath the surface. For John this is not about a wedding per se, not about the frivolity of wine induced love, or about empathy, about mistreating your mother, nor about who scurried about doing what and for whom.
The first thing to notice is that John doesn’t call this event a ‘miracle’; for him it is a ‘sign’. There are seven ‘signs’ in his gospel, this one at Cana is the first. This was a sign for the people of what they might expect from this Nazarene now that he was at work, the sign of the deeper meaning carried by this newly arrived wandering prophet.
This meaning he wanted to convey was that of Our Lord was an agent of transformation. By association and extension the Church, as the Body of Christ, is also such an agent.
Water, the basic necessity of life, is turned into wine which symbolises, as John calls it ‘an abundant life’. Wine in Scripture is a symbol of joy and warmth and celebration and abundance. The extra wine at the wedding allowed the celebrations to continue; as if the watery necessity of our registry office wedding is turned into the full abundant and spiritual celebration of marriage in church.
Life which is good, but might be lived at a very basic level, indeed it is a real struggle for millions of us. The meaning here is that basic struggling goodness can be transformed by the Christ, and not least by the Body of Christ at work in the world. Something changed from being good to being better.
In this story as well we have another meaning for that 1st Century world. The water in the jugs was water to be used in the Temple or synagogue, according to Jewish Law, for the acts of ritual purification and cleansing. Our Lord came to reform, transform that Law of the Old Dispensation, the Old Coveneant. It was very good water, but Our Lord came to make what we might drink even better; a new commandment, a New Covenant was what he brought and John taught.
So this is not about the transformation of the sinner, which comes in the next chapter with the Nicodemus encounter and the ‘being born again’ idea.
Right now, that which is good, may be made better, enriched.
Then again, some people in this world only have dirty water. So this too requires the transformation of dirty water to clean water and then onto a full spiritual experience of life. This too is the work of the Church, the Body of Christ, and thus the agent of trans-for-mation for every age.
The parable also points to the reversal too of the natural order of events. In this story it is the servants who know what was going on. It is the first ‘sign’ of this Jesus who waits for his mother’s prompting, who had waited to be baptised by John.
Importantly, John shows that it is this Jesus who gives wine at this wedding and later his blood on the Cross. His giving of the bread to the 5000 is a later sign in John’s Gospel, so then is the giving of his Body on the cross. So we have John pointing to the Christ of the Eucharist, the Christ of the Crucifixion and Christ the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Melchizedek being the first priest in our scriptures who gave bread and wine to Abraham in Genesis 14).
The Cana story for John speaks then of the marriage of Christ with his Church, in the Eucharist; so close is that union that we become ‘one’; we become the Body of Christ, we are the result and the agent of transformation. AMEN
Epiphany 2
‘In Cana of Galilee’
+
Our gospel reading is from St John. With John we deal in symbols yet again and in the realm of symbols we know what is on the surface is not what John is really about. As a mystery writer, this apostle and evangelist always wanted his readers and listeners to see with the eye of the eye and hear with the ear of the ear.
In this event at Cana in Galilee John narrates a mystery of transformation.
This transformation is not about bad becoming good, a beast turning into a beauty or a Jekyll into a Hyde, even a caterpillar into a butterfly but about water into wine; strangely it about something good becoming ‘more good’! Better!
As we know, John’s gospel is different from the other three. Mostly that is because they give us the narrative of our Lord’s life; John assumes that people know the story by the time he started to write. He looks at the meaning of our Lord’s life and sayings. Some even say that John was therefore actually interpreting the other three Gospels. John gives us the why behind the who, where, what and how.
We have to go beneath the surface. For John this is not about a wedding per se, not about the frivolity of wine induced love, or about empathy, about mistreating your mother, nor about who scurried about doing what and for whom.
The first thing to notice is that John doesn’t call this event a ‘miracle’; for him it is a ‘sign’. There are seven ‘signs’ in his gospel, this one at Cana is the first. This was a sign for the people of what they might expect from this Nazarene now that he was at work, the sign of the deeper meaning carried by this newly arrived wandering prophet.
This meaning he wanted to convey was that of Our Lord was an agent of transformation. By association and extension the Church, as the Body of Christ, is also such an agent.
Water, the basic necessity of life, is turned into wine which symbolises, as John calls it ‘an abundant life’. Wine in Scripture is a symbol of joy and warmth and celebration and abundance. The extra wine at the wedding allowed the celebrations to continue; as if the watery necessity of our registry office wedding is turned into the full abundant and spiritual celebration of marriage in church.
Life which is good, but might be lived at a very basic level, indeed it is a real struggle for millions of us. The meaning here is that basic struggling goodness can be transformed by the Christ, and not least by the Body of Christ at work in the world. Something changed from being good to being better.
In this story as well we have another meaning for that 1st Century world. The water in the jugs was water to be used in the Temple or synagogue, according to Jewish Law, for the acts of ritual purification and cleansing. Our Lord came to reform, transform that Law of the Old Dispensation, the Old Coveneant. It was very good water, but Our Lord came to make what we might drink even better; a new commandment, a New Covenant was what he brought and John taught.
So this is not about the transformation of the sinner, which comes in the next chapter with the Nicodemus encounter and the ‘being born again’ idea.
Right now, that which is good, may be made better, enriched.
Then again, some people in this world only have dirty water. So this too requires the transformation of dirty water to clean water and then onto a full spiritual experience of life. This too is the work of the Church, the Body of Christ, and thus the agent of trans-for-mation for every age.
The parable also points to the reversal too of the natural order of events. In this story it is the servants who know what was going on. It is the first ‘sign’ of this Jesus who waits for his mother’s prompting, who had waited to be baptised by John.
Importantly, John shows that it is this Jesus who gives wine at this wedding and later his blood on the Cross. His giving of the bread to the 5000 is a later sign in John’s Gospel, so then is the giving of his Body on the cross. So we have John pointing to the Christ of the Eucharist, the Christ of the Crucifixion and Christ the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Melchizedek being the first priest in our scriptures who gave bread and wine to Abraham in Genesis 14).
The Cana story for John speaks then of the marriage of Christ with his Church, in the Eucharist; so close is that union that we become ‘one’; we become the Body of Christ, we are the result and the agent of transformation. AMEN
Epiphany 2016
+
‘A symbol is a symbol. We have to let it play upon us; we have to interact with it, see what response it evokes, how it resonates with our life and experience’. (on front of leaflet)
(Chris Pullin Hereford Cathedral).
The gift the Biblical scholar, might bring today would try explaining the story of the Three Visitors from the perspective of St Matthew.
The scholar would remind us that St. Matthew was the only gospel writer to tell of this visit of the Magi. The scholar would go on to explain that high on the writer’s agenda was the idea of the Holy Trinity, especially the Son-ship as a corrective to the One Person God of Jewry. This scholar would also explain that Matthew had a literary style that he would top and tail, begin and end, his sections of narrative with the essential idea or phrase, so unifying all that lay in between. The whole Gospel is no exception.
It is in the story of the Magi that Jesus makes his first appearance; people who represent the whole-wide world bring their three gifts. At Our Lord’s last appearance Jesus sends out his disciples to go out and baptise people everywhere in the Name of the Three, Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Unwrapping this scholar’s gift, we can see the gold as a sign of the Father, the Creator, the pure source from which all things proceed; the myrrh can be the sign of the Son, the human to know our pain and to be wrapped in the myrrh at His death, the ultimate event of the Incarnation; the frankincense can be a sign of the Holy Spirit, pervading all things blowing like the wind where He wills. The whole gospel can then be understood between these two trinitarian poles.
The gift a monk might bring today could be quite different. Specifically the gift the 11th C. Benedictine, St Bruno, spoke symbolically; he saw gold as our purest wisdom; frankincense as the discipline of prayer; myrrh as the mortification of the flesh. The Magi for Bruno are the symbol of the spiritual life.
The gift that a poet might bring might be that of T.S. Eliot. Famously within his vast volume of work lies ‘The Journey of the Magi’. We know it; we know lines about the ‘cold time’ they had of it; the ‘worst month for a journey’; ‘was it a birth of a death?’ For Eliot that poem was his allegorical tale of his gruelling pilgrimage to his own conversion at the age of 39 with heady academia.
For Eliot this was not a ‘sudden, luminous appearance of a divine being’, the ancients’ definition of an epiphany. It was the beginning of his ongoing journey of faith, where he found himself now ‘among alien people, clutching their gods’. Like the Magi Eliot continued his life’s journey by another way. He said though, he would do it again, for the birth of the divine spark in him outweighed the dying of his worldly acceptance.
The gift that a converted ‘new age’ healer might bring today might be that of the idea that the Magi’s alchemical gifts were brought for sanctification. They gave up the tools of their trade to the divine supremacy so no longer had to rely on divination or astrology.
The humanist might bring the idea that epiphany has nothing to do with our three obscure visitors. Rather it has more to do with the human experience of sudden ‘insight’-the ‘ah-ha’ phenomenon; the ‘hunch’ of Charles Darwin, the ‘eureka’ of Archimedes’ bath tub and Newton’ falling apple and the moon are both pulled by gravity!
So far all of today’s givers agree that an epiphany cannot be predicted or controlled.
We indeed have to take care when the wonder goes out of this feast day. Typically this can happen in our churches. The gift the parish minister might bring might be a weariness of the old explanations! Almost the weariness of Eliot’s old dispensation.
It is all too glib to say that the Magi’s gold is about the kingship of Christ, the frankincense his priesthood and the myrrh his human death. We have heard that!
Why explain away the miraculous? That defeats the miracle. The Epiphanous event for the Church is the miraculous,
‘realisation that Christ is the Son of God’.
With this in mind, the gift of an Orthodox believer would be that the Epiphany is really marked by the Baptism of our Lord. For it was here that the world first really saw him; it was at this life changing event that the voice from heaven declared that ‘this is my beloved son’.
So we do have some responsibility here to examine what gift we have brought, like chips, is it wrapped or open. What idea, insight and understanding do we bring?
There is an epiphany idea that keeps unwrapping itself for me, and it comes today open; it is based on some early Christian thought, that the epiphany of Christ reveals afresh the true splendour and full dignity of what humanity was created to be; simply,
Epiphany, or the manifestation of the divine is seen in another’s face, face to face.
AMEN
+
‘A symbol is a symbol. We have to let it play upon us; we have to interact with it, see what response it evokes, how it resonates with our life and experience’. (on front of leaflet)
(Chris Pullin Hereford Cathedral).
The gift the Biblical scholar, might bring today would try explaining the story of the Three Visitors from the perspective of St Matthew.
The scholar would remind us that St. Matthew was the only gospel writer to tell of this visit of the Magi. The scholar would go on to explain that high on the writer’s agenda was the idea of the Holy Trinity, especially the Son-ship as a corrective to the One Person God of Jewry. This scholar would also explain that Matthew had a literary style that he would top and tail, begin and end, his sections of narrative with the essential idea or phrase, so unifying all that lay in between. The whole Gospel is no exception.
It is in the story of the Magi that Jesus makes his first appearance; people who represent the whole-wide world bring their three gifts. At Our Lord’s last appearance Jesus sends out his disciples to go out and baptise people everywhere in the Name of the Three, Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Unwrapping this scholar’s gift, we can see the gold as a sign of the Father, the Creator, the pure source from which all things proceed; the myrrh can be the sign of the Son, the human to know our pain and to be wrapped in the myrrh at His death, the ultimate event of the Incarnation; the frankincense can be a sign of the Holy Spirit, pervading all things blowing like the wind where He wills. The whole gospel can then be understood between these two trinitarian poles.
The gift a monk might bring today could be quite different. Specifically the gift the 11th C. Benedictine, St Bruno, spoke symbolically; he saw gold as our purest wisdom; frankincense as the discipline of prayer; myrrh as the mortification of the flesh. The Magi for Bruno are the symbol of the spiritual life.
The gift that a poet might bring might be that of T.S. Eliot. Famously within his vast volume of work lies ‘The Journey of the Magi’. We know it; we know lines about the ‘cold time’ they had of it; the ‘worst month for a journey’; ‘was it a birth of a death?’ For Eliot that poem was his allegorical tale of his gruelling pilgrimage to his own conversion at the age of 39 with heady academia.
For Eliot this was not a ‘sudden, luminous appearance of a divine being’, the ancients’ definition of an epiphany. It was the beginning of his ongoing journey of faith, where he found himself now ‘among alien people, clutching their gods’. Like the Magi Eliot continued his life’s journey by another way. He said though, he would do it again, for the birth of the divine spark in him outweighed the dying of his worldly acceptance.
The gift that a converted ‘new age’ healer might bring today might be that of the idea that the Magi’s alchemical gifts were brought for sanctification. They gave up the tools of their trade to the divine supremacy so no longer had to rely on divination or astrology.
The humanist might bring the idea that epiphany has nothing to do with our three obscure visitors. Rather it has more to do with the human experience of sudden ‘insight’-the ‘ah-ha’ phenomenon; the ‘hunch’ of Charles Darwin, the ‘eureka’ of Archimedes’ bath tub and Newton’ falling apple and the moon are both pulled by gravity!
So far all of today’s givers agree that an epiphany cannot be predicted or controlled.
We indeed have to take care when the wonder goes out of this feast day. Typically this can happen in our churches. The gift the parish minister might bring might be a weariness of the old explanations! Almost the weariness of Eliot’s old dispensation.
It is all too glib to say that the Magi’s gold is about the kingship of Christ, the frankincense his priesthood and the myrrh his human death. We have heard that!
Why explain away the miraculous? That defeats the miracle. The Epiphanous event for the Church is the miraculous,
‘realisation that Christ is the Son of God’.
With this in mind, the gift of an Orthodox believer would be that the Epiphany is really marked by the Baptism of our Lord. For it was here that the world first really saw him; it was at this life changing event that the voice from heaven declared that ‘this is my beloved son’.
So we do have some responsibility here to examine what gift we have brought, like chips, is it wrapped or open. What idea, insight and understanding do we bring?
There is an epiphany idea that keeps unwrapping itself for me, and it comes today open; it is based on some early Christian thought, that the epiphany of Christ reveals afresh the true splendour and full dignity of what humanity was created to be; simply,
Epiphany, or the manifestation of the divine is seen in another’s face, face to face.
AMEN
Christmas II-2016
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The readings today may be short on length but they are long on meaning. Saints Paul and John, filter down through the generations some of the essentials of the idea of Incarnation.
Paul speaks of how God took on our material poverty that we be spiritually rich; and we are reminded that we may see God only in the human face of the Christ humanly presented in the person of Jesus, so through Christ, we might know the Father.
We are still in the Season of Christmas, still taking in the wonder of that which the Saints present us with.
We are also in a space conflictual, a space which rivals for our attention; celebrating, in our own time frame.
We have this Second Sunday of Christmas, and we have this passing of an Old year into a New.
Christmas and New Year celebrations since the fourth century have, in the West, rivalled each other in terms of the level of festivity and emphasis; when to express jollity, feigned or real.
There are many historical precedents some oscillating commitment. For instance, when Christmas became banned in these reformed Isles, New Year became the festive priority! In the North, we have the Hogmanay! Then the South became polluted by an anti-incarnational belief system, so much so that according to a Nineteenth Century essayist,
‘The tendency now is to herd together for vague amusement in public places’.
How did the Church Fathers try and make sense of this conflict of intentions?
In the Fifth Century they made, in my mind, a bizarre attempt to somehow ‘baptise’ these non-religious revelries of the New Year.
Bizarre for me, because in today’s world, our gender equality rules, our human rights laws and our laws against severe radicalisation and abusive religious practice, are all breached!
Nevertheless, the Church of the time made reference to Scripture and referred to the Christmas Narrative according to St Luke. In chapter 2, v.21 we see that on the 8th day after his birth the baby Jesus, according to tradition, became a Jew by their faith system. This as we know involved being presented in the Temple to undergo genital mutilation. It remains in our Prayer Book as the Feast of the Circumcision. Rather like our tradition at ‘christening’, the tough religious realities are softened by the idea of the Naming of the child; this instance his name was Jesus.
Somehow I prefer, a less offensive tradition, the making and the eating of the Trinitarian ‘God-Cakes’. Lovingly baked, they there for us after the service. An Incarnational expression.
Still Christmas rivals the New Year celebrations in the popular mind and behaviour.
This is surely something about a more arcane rivalry in our human nature that of the sensual with the spiritual. This is a rivalry that has never gone away in the human narrative and indeed is the essence of our Biblical Narrative; that narrative coughs up a way of thinking about all this; in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.
The Hebrew people were always trying to balance the sensual and the spiritual, to stabilise that pendulum swing between the sacred and the secular. In consequence they were constantly falling in and out of favour with Yahweh, their God.
Jeremiah tells us of the phase of Jewish history when some of the Jerusalem dwellers were kidnapped by one Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. We can learn something of God’s purposes from the exiles’ Babylonian Experience.
Firstly we see God’s punishment for the Hebrews’ idolatry, where the sensual overbalanced the sacred. God however, used those exiles to witness to His own divine kindness and the usefulness of His chosen people.
The exiles had a very positive time of work and study; but they were exiles none the lesss, and it was seventy years before they were allowed to come home to Jerusalem. They made their review then after a dynasty, the ending of a ruling family or after a generation had passed; seventy years being the symbol of that life-changing span of time. Here we speak of ‘dynastic change’.
The exiles took back with them what was good about those 70 years, but left behind that was no longer acceptable for the next dynasty.
So here we are at this cusp of change.
We make our reviews. Some of us may have been by the waters of Babylon for a while; a year, a decade, a lifetime, a dynasty; maybe we prefer to make our personal review after a life transforming event, like an illness, bereavement, or an anniversary?
What of us here in communion?
This coming year of 2016 promises or threatens essential changes on all levels.
The process means reviewing. What ‘way-marker’ do we choose? Do we review after a particular event? There have been many in our shared experience. Or do we risk taking on a review after a year, a decade, a dynasty?
For any of those reviews we need some courage, for we shall have to face up to some stark realities.
In our tussle with the sacred and the secular at this time of year, the facing up to reality is the first step towards spiritual renewal and wisdom teaches us that only,
‘Spiritual renewal will be the foundation of all our changes’.
So we return to our understanding our foundational short readings; the few words which speak to us of the greatest idea that has ever entered into this human narrative of ours, that Idea of the God made Man.
In these heady economically driven world and the entrepreneur rules, one such person at the head of the game recently advised that,
‘The best way to sell an idea is to wrap it up in a person’.
Like our readings, short in length but long in meaning.
We here are surely asked to make all our reviews and manage our changes, in the knowledge of the Original Idea, that of the Original Risk-Taker, the Entrepreneur of Emmanuel, God being with us.
God wrapped up in The Person of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
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The readings today may be short on length but they are long on meaning. Saints Paul and John, filter down through the generations some of the essentials of the idea of Incarnation.
Paul speaks of how God took on our material poverty that we be spiritually rich; and we are reminded that we may see God only in the human face of the Christ humanly presented in the person of Jesus, so through Christ, we might know the Father.
We are still in the Season of Christmas, still taking in the wonder of that which the Saints present us with.
We are also in a space conflictual, a space which rivals for our attention; celebrating, in our own time frame.
We have this Second Sunday of Christmas, and we have this passing of an Old year into a New.
Christmas and New Year celebrations since the fourth century have, in the West, rivalled each other in terms of the level of festivity and emphasis; when to express jollity, feigned or real.
There are many historical precedents some oscillating commitment. For instance, when Christmas became banned in these reformed Isles, New Year became the festive priority! In the North, we have the Hogmanay! Then the South became polluted by an anti-incarnational belief system, so much so that according to a Nineteenth Century essayist,
‘The tendency now is to herd together for vague amusement in public places’.
How did the Church Fathers try and make sense of this conflict of intentions?
In the Fifth Century they made, in my mind, a bizarre attempt to somehow ‘baptise’ these non-religious revelries of the New Year.
Bizarre for me, because in today’s world, our gender equality rules, our human rights laws and our laws against severe radicalisation and abusive religious practice, are all breached!
Nevertheless, the Church of the time made reference to Scripture and referred to the Christmas Narrative according to St Luke. In chapter 2, v.21 we see that on the 8th day after his birth the baby Jesus, according to tradition, became a Jew by their faith system. This as we know involved being presented in the Temple to undergo genital mutilation. It remains in our Prayer Book as the Feast of the Circumcision. Rather like our tradition at ‘christening’, the tough religious realities are softened by the idea of the Naming of the child; this instance his name was Jesus.
Somehow I prefer, a less offensive tradition, the making and the eating of the Trinitarian ‘God-Cakes’. Lovingly baked, they there for us after the service. An Incarnational expression.
Still Christmas rivals the New Year celebrations in the popular mind and behaviour.
This is surely something about a more arcane rivalry in our human nature that of the sensual with the spiritual. This is a rivalry that has never gone away in the human narrative and indeed is the essence of our Biblical Narrative; that narrative coughs up a way of thinking about all this; in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.
The Hebrew people were always trying to balance the sensual and the spiritual, to stabilise that pendulum swing between the sacred and the secular. In consequence they were constantly falling in and out of favour with Yahweh, their God.
Jeremiah tells us of the phase of Jewish history when some of the Jerusalem dwellers were kidnapped by one Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. We can learn something of God’s purposes from the exiles’ Babylonian Experience.
Firstly we see God’s punishment for the Hebrews’ idolatry, where the sensual overbalanced the sacred. God however, used those exiles to witness to His own divine kindness and the usefulness of His chosen people.
The exiles had a very positive time of work and study; but they were exiles none the lesss, and it was seventy years before they were allowed to come home to Jerusalem. They made their review then after a dynasty, the ending of a ruling family or after a generation had passed; seventy years being the symbol of that life-changing span of time. Here we speak of ‘dynastic change’.
The exiles took back with them what was good about those 70 years, but left behind that was no longer acceptable for the next dynasty.
So here we are at this cusp of change.
We make our reviews. Some of us may have been by the waters of Babylon for a while; a year, a decade, a lifetime, a dynasty; maybe we prefer to make our personal review after a life transforming event, like an illness, bereavement, or an anniversary?
What of us here in communion?
This coming year of 2016 promises or threatens essential changes on all levels.
The process means reviewing. What ‘way-marker’ do we choose? Do we review after a particular event? There have been many in our shared experience. Or do we risk taking on a review after a year, a decade, a dynasty?
For any of those reviews we need some courage, for we shall have to face up to some stark realities.
In our tussle with the sacred and the secular at this time of year, the facing up to reality is the first step towards spiritual renewal and wisdom teaches us that only,
‘Spiritual renewal will be the foundation of all our changes’.
So we return to our understanding our foundational short readings; the few words which speak to us of the greatest idea that has ever entered into this human narrative of ours, that Idea of the God made Man.
In these heady economically driven world and the entrepreneur rules, one such person at the head of the game recently advised that,
‘The best way to sell an idea is to wrap it up in a person’.
Like our readings, short in length but long in meaning.
We here are surely asked to make all our reviews and manage our changes, in the knowledge of the Original Idea, that of the Original Risk-Taker, the Entrepreneur of Emmanuel, God being with us.
God wrapped up in The Person of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
December 27th 2015
John
‘The Beloved Disciple’
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Saint John is one of the pillars of our Christian faith. He was the author of the mystical asynoptic Fourth Gospel and the quasi-psychedelic book of Revelation; he or a close friend also wrote three letters. Throughout his life as we know it, and in his writings, we importantly see a sense of intimacy with God through His Christ.
St John, A & E-Apostle and Evangelist although we might see that, at times, he helps us in our arts and education and in our accidents and emergencies.
John was a fisherman with his brother James, when they took off with Jesus. Their father was one Zebedee; a man of substance in the Jewish community having access to the High Priest in the Temple. Salome, their mother counted as one of a group of pious women who ‘served God with their possessions’.
The brothers were passionate young men, known as ‘the sons of thunder’; John certainly was passionate in his defence of Jesus from time to time, not least in his later ministry in Ephesus in his conflicts with those who would deny, either or both, the humanity and the divinity of the Christ he knew.
Something happened to John; we tend not to see his legacy as being particularly ‘thunderous’. In fact there is a tradition of gentleness with John, of an ‘intimacy with God’.
The notion is that of John being that,
‘beloved disciple’, or the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’.
Those phrases appear six times in the Gospel; such a phrase appears nowhere else in accounts of Jesus’ life, thus signifying to us that the Fourth Gospel was indeed written by John (John 21.24) and that John indeed was an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry.
The six specific references are ;
His writings leave us a major legacy of ‘intimacy’. In the epistles especially he exhorts new Christians to understand what the nature of the love of God is; how the world is saved through that love; how John’s own disciples were to be to one another;
‘God is Love, and those who live in love, live in God and God lives in them’, so reads the introit to the modern marriage service. There is intimacy, both earthly and heavenly.
Perhaps nothing can express that inextricable intimacy more than the very opening of his Gospel, that the ‘Word was God’- here is the Incarnate Word, the marriage of Heaven and Earth.
Also John is the great teacher of the Eucharist where again heaven and earth meet, where the ‘Word is God’.
Indeed, he asks how can we love God if we cannot love each other?
For now a final idea; John refers to himself only in terms of being the ‘beloved disciple’; he keeps a sense of the anonymity of a lover’s intimacy.
Maybe he keeps himself anonymous to help us who find intimacy somehow embarrassing.
I leave you with a thought about John from a modern day monk,
‘Perhaps the disciple is never named, never individualised, so that we can the more easily accept that he bears witness to an intimacy that is meant for each of us. The closeness that he enjoyed is a sign of the closeness that is mine and yours because we are in Christ and Christ is in us’
Amen.
John
‘The Beloved Disciple’
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Saint John is one of the pillars of our Christian faith. He was the author of the mystical asynoptic Fourth Gospel and the quasi-psychedelic book of Revelation; he or a close friend also wrote three letters. Throughout his life as we know it, and in his writings, we importantly see a sense of intimacy with God through His Christ.
St John, A & E-Apostle and Evangelist although we might see that, at times, he helps us in our arts and education and in our accidents and emergencies.
John was a fisherman with his brother James, when they took off with Jesus. Their father was one Zebedee; a man of substance in the Jewish community having access to the High Priest in the Temple. Salome, their mother counted as one of a group of pious women who ‘served God with their possessions’.
The brothers were passionate young men, known as ‘the sons of thunder’; John certainly was passionate in his defence of Jesus from time to time, not least in his later ministry in Ephesus in his conflicts with those who would deny, either or both, the humanity and the divinity of the Christ he knew.
Something happened to John; we tend not to see his legacy as being particularly ‘thunderous’. In fact there is a tradition of gentleness with John, of an ‘intimacy with God’.
The notion is that of John being that,
‘beloved disciple’, or the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’.
Those phrases appear six times in the Gospel; such a phrase appears nowhere else in accounts of Jesus’ life, thus signifying to us that the Fourth Gospel was indeed written by John (John 21.24) and that John indeed was an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry.
The six specific references are ;
- It is this disciple who reclines beside Jesus at the Last Supper who asks him who is he who will betray him. Works of art depict him at the ‘bosom’ of Jesus; so close that we have since coined that phrase, ‘bosom buddy’.
- At the crucifixion Jesus asks John to take Mary as his own mother; he took her to his own home
- Mary Magdalene on that Resurrection morning went to tell the beloved disciple first
- At the post- resurrection catch of fish, the beloved disciple was there
- At the end of the gospel the beloved disciple is encouraged to follow Jesus into eternity
- Also in that last chapter is the statement that the very book was based on the written testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved.
His writings leave us a major legacy of ‘intimacy’. In the epistles especially he exhorts new Christians to understand what the nature of the love of God is; how the world is saved through that love; how John’s own disciples were to be to one another;
‘God is Love, and those who live in love, live in God and God lives in them’, so reads the introit to the modern marriage service. There is intimacy, both earthly and heavenly.
Perhaps nothing can express that inextricable intimacy more than the very opening of his Gospel, that the ‘Word was God’- here is the Incarnate Word, the marriage of Heaven and Earth.
Also John is the great teacher of the Eucharist where again heaven and earth meet, where the ‘Word is God’.
Indeed, he asks how can we love God if we cannot love each other?
For now a final idea; John refers to himself only in terms of being the ‘beloved disciple’; he keeps a sense of the anonymity of a lover’s intimacy.
Maybe he keeps himself anonymous to help us who find intimacy somehow embarrassing.
I leave you with a thought about John from a modern day monk,
‘Perhaps the disciple is never named, never individualised, so that we can the more easily accept that he bears witness to an intimacy that is meant for each of us. The closeness that he enjoyed is a sign of the closeness that is mine and yours because we are in Christ and Christ is in us’
Amen.
Christmas Morning 2015
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Last year, I seem to remember, I reminded us of how fossilised we can become! I passed around some of my treasured fossils, looking at what is long dead; we wondered, I believe, about what life was like for them. Before they became fossils!
Fossils long dead; this year I have some other objects, still another passion of mine, and still the fruits of beachcombing, some objects not so long dead, the residents not long vacated, but dead none the less. These are beautiful finds within the flotsam and jetsam, the leftovers of the ocean.
Shells; here they are in this basket! Marvellous! Periwinkles, bivalve cockles and mussels, the razor shell too, even a rare curved one; the whelk-both left and a right handed ones; the vast variety of coloured and shaped and barnacled limpets; then there is the scallop; all quite amazingly unique. Have a look for a few minutes and chose a favourite.
The scallop shell, as you probably know, is the great symbol of being a pilgrim.
.
.
of being on pilgrimage.
The scallop is common on the beaches of Northern Spain at the end of the great pilgrim route to Compostella. The journey is to the celebrated shrine to St James the Great. For most pilgrims it is the process of the journey which matters perhaps more than the arriving; some us of never arrive!
Why scallops? Well, one legend of the saint is that he was lost at sea during one of his missionary journeys, and when his body was washed up, it was covered in scallops. Scallops marked his journeying in this life and in the next.
A shell is also a symbol of shelter for the journey, umbrella like; it was also a life saver in that they were used for gathering water along the way.
Also the grooves are seen as the routes taken by pilgrims, converging on a single point. This one here is quite beautiful.
Also each pilgrim would have a shell attached to his/her walking stick, as a sign of pilgrimage giving access to holy places and to rather more unholy ones along the way.
Coracles; these are fascinating tiny boats, are like shells, likened more to walnuts, but shells none the less, and used by the early Irish Christian pilgrims. They had a great ‘wander-lust’, these early medieval Irish Christians; they ‘wandered about’ for the Christ; often they put out to sea with no oars nor sails for they trusted in God to lead and guide and protect. They would have penitential and missionary ‘wanderings about’, (peregrination). They were seeking a new life and looking for a home. They were also seeking to tell others of the great pilgrimage we can all make for Christ
Perhaps the most famous was St. Brendan; he had a skin shell to float in. He it was who possible found America first, in the 7th Century.
What about today? Christmas is about wandering about and finding home wherever that is and for how long it may last.
For many this year St Mary’s has become home! Last evening at the soup kitchen we had a replica of the temporarily housed family in Bethlehem; a brief, temporary rest from the gruelling life of being on the road.
Many, many, people this day have no homes; some have temporary homes which are like ‘shells’; tents or boats as homes. This year, now, the number of dispossessed people has reached a record figure world-wide; not sure five billion?
Yes, we seem to have become a world of refugees, whose homes are shells.
A friend of mine in the West End of my home town, in her church has such a shell, such a boat. It is one that was actually used by some refugees from Syria to get to Greece; it is one that did not sink!
It is strung across the nave of the church as a prayerful reminder. This is very, very important for us to grasp.
The very world, ‘nave’ (navis), means, ship.
Hence we have our word navy. Look into our nave. Were we to turn it upside down and we have the keel of any boat and so, upside down, we might float! Then again, when on land and it is raining, or under some worse kind of attack, we turn the ship upside down; good things shells! There is something about ‘home’ meaning, ‘being safe’.
In this very place we may feel spiritually at home; importantly it becomes a temporary actual physical home for the homeless ones who come here. Just for a short time they can feel safe.
I think we are all hermit crabs; we change our shells as we grow; very vulnerable between shells; always wandering, always temporarily housed; seeking of course to come home at the last.
Today we give thanks for the temporary but safe home in Bethlehem; we must remember to thank the inn keeper! Just think, without that family having a short stay maternity break, we might never have heard how to know any home.
O come, let us adore Him.
Amen
Midnight Mass 2015
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‘St Martin’, as a person and as a place and as an idea, comes to mind very much this year and at this very special time. It is our Christian year page turn. Time, past and future converges in this present. St Martin opens us up to those parcels of creation we call time.
As a person; let us remind ourselves of the famous story of this fourth century saint. He ended his life in Tours, in present day France, in the year 397 AD. He had become renowned as a miracle worker; he was a respected Bishop, but he was also a monk and hermit. Celtic Christianity came to us from Palestine through his ministry, Tours being on the major medieval trade routes.
He began his Christian life as a definite ‘convert’. He was receiving some mild Christian education as he was living the life of an active soldier; a trained killer. Then our familiar story begins. One very cold snowy day in Amiens, Martin was on patrol on the streets of Amiens. He saw a beggar, a shivering beggar. Without another thought Martin took off his luxurious cloak, cut it into two equal pieces and gave half to the beggar.
That night Martin had a dream. Jesus came to him wearing his full cloak with these words, ‘Just learning the faith, yet Martin has clothed me’. The next day the young soldier presented himself for baptism, and a life time of miracles began.
The idea is here. Martin was converted by giving to the least one of all people, that one who is the Christ.
As a place, we go to Trafalgar Square, an iconic place of revolution and protest, political, social and spiritual. The church of St Martin, once in the fields, lies there quietly. The BBC appeal this Christmas has been from there and is for those who need help because they have had to become the actual ‘beggars’ today.
Their main theme was the paying attention to another, especially the one we could so easily pass by, for whatever reason. Martin, the person, the anxious soldier, paid attention to the beggar. Both lives were changed. Stories from the church, the place, of St. Martin’s are so similar. These take us to the idea of St Martin.
It goes like this; someone pays attention to a beggar, both are helped; each leads the other to Christ; the beggar goes on to pay attention to more beggars; the helper is encouraged and carries on. Maybe he or she becomes, like Martin, both a bishop and more importantly a monk! It all begins with the paying attention to those we see as the most offensive outcasts, the detritus of our sanitised society.
Person, place, idea: we here at St Mary’s have the people, the beggars and the helpers, we have the place, we have the idea.
In very real fact we are well advanced in our understanding of this, putting this idea into practice. We can offer people the opportunity to learn compassionate generosity. Like Martin, we can have a school, the pupils, the discipuloi , disciples. Here, in this place, we offer a scholarship in practical Christianity.
The presence of the poorest here has brought forth a chaotic outpouring of creative generosity. The outpouring of generosity is so great this that building cannot hold the chaotic goodness. All can be converted.
All of us, especially this night can review our outlook; our way of seeing and doing things; the way we treat others, especially those we walk past because they appal us! How do we, like St Francis embrace the leper, or like St Martin give away half of what keeps us warm? We can even be converted within our Christianity, we can see more, attend to more, and do more.
Tonight we celebrate the reality of God being made flesh: that is why He is the bundle of flesh in the shop doorway.
So the world would be a so much better a place if we all engaged with the beggar at the door and, the with perhaps the poorest of all, when before God, the beggar that is our self.
We speak of mission; our entire mission, comes down to, ‘one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread’.
Bet-le-hem, Bethlehem literally means, ‘the house of bread’, the place where all beggars can be fed by the bread of Christ and be wrapped in the whole cloak of Christ
O come, let us adore Him.
Amen.
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‘St Martin’, as a person and as a place and as an idea, comes to mind very much this year and at this very special time. It is our Christian year page turn. Time, past and future converges in this present. St Martin opens us up to those parcels of creation we call time.
As a person; let us remind ourselves of the famous story of this fourth century saint. He ended his life in Tours, in present day France, in the year 397 AD. He had become renowned as a miracle worker; he was a respected Bishop, but he was also a monk and hermit. Celtic Christianity came to us from Palestine through his ministry, Tours being on the major medieval trade routes.
He began his Christian life as a definite ‘convert’. He was receiving some mild Christian education as he was living the life of an active soldier; a trained killer. Then our familiar story begins. One very cold snowy day in Amiens, Martin was on patrol on the streets of Amiens. He saw a beggar, a shivering beggar. Without another thought Martin took off his luxurious cloak, cut it into two equal pieces and gave half to the beggar.
That night Martin had a dream. Jesus came to him wearing his full cloak with these words, ‘Just learning the faith, yet Martin has clothed me’. The next day the young soldier presented himself for baptism, and a life time of miracles began.
The idea is here. Martin was converted by giving to the least one of all people, that one who is the Christ.
As a place, we go to Trafalgar Square, an iconic place of revolution and protest, political, social and spiritual. The church of St Martin, once in the fields, lies there quietly. The BBC appeal this Christmas has been from there and is for those who need help because they have had to become the actual ‘beggars’ today.
Their main theme was the paying attention to another, especially the one we could so easily pass by, for whatever reason. Martin, the person, the anxious soldier, paid attention to the beggar. Both lives were changed. Stories from the church, the place, of St. Martin’s are so similar. These take us to the idea of St Martin.
It goes like this; someone pays attention to a beggar, both are helped; each leads the other to Christ; the beggar goes on to pay attention to more beggars; the helper is encouraged and carries on. Maybe he or she becomes, like Martin, both a bishop and more importantly a monk! It all begins with the paying attention to those we see as the most offensive outcasts, the detritus of our sanitised society.
Person, place, idea: we here at St Mary’s have the people, the beggars and the helpers, we have the place, we have the idea.
In very real fact we are well advanced in our understanding of this, putting this idea into practice. We can offer people the opportunity to learn compassionate generosity. Like Martin, we can have a school, the pupils, the discipuloi , disciples. Here, in this place, we offer a scholarship in practical Christianity.
The presence of the poorest here has brought forth a chaotic outpouring of creative generosity. The outpouring of generosity is so great this that building cannot hold the chaotic goodness. All can be converted.
All of us, especially this night can review our outlook; our way of seeing and doing things; the way we treat others, especially those we walk past because they appal us! How do we, like St Francis embrace the leper, or like St Martin give away half of what keeps us warm? We can even be converted within our Christianity, we can see more, attend to more, and do more.
Tonight we celebrate the reality of God being made flesh: that is why He is the bundle of flesh in the shop doorway.
So the world would be a so much better a place if we all engaged with the beggar at the door and, the with perhaps the poorest of all, when before God, the beggar that is our self.
We speak of mission; our entire mission, comes down to, ‘one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread’.
Bet-le-hem, Bethlehem literally means, ‘the house of bread’, the place where all beggars can be fed by the bread of Christ and be wrapped in the whole cloak of Christ
O come, let us adore Him.
Amen.
28th November 2015
Advent Sunday: 2015.
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Advent is the beginning of the Christian year, and after the gospel reading of this peaceful triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we begin to spread our garments under his feet. Expectation is to be our preferred and key state of mind.
All of our beginnings in life are full of expectation; on this Advent Sunday we stand figuratively in a ‘terminus’. We look back at the journey that brought us here, and at the same time, à la fois, we look forward, with expectation, to the journey that will take us from here. Quite how we review what has gone before and where we might expect to go, are for each of us to ponder. The Church though, does offer us some kind of framework for those ponderings.
As Church we review both with thanksgiving and regret; thanks to God tinged with that miserableness from our Litany. We look forward to the ‘immanence’ of Christ as seen in our Nativity narrative and we also look forward with timidity to the ‘transcendence’ of Christ as seen in the Second Coming narrative, with the judging of the ‘quick and the dead’.
All this is happening in the present moment, the ‘now’ of this terminal Advent Sunday. In fact the whole of the adventual season is an existential terminal ‘now’; a momentary beginning and ending.
At St Mary’s we saw the year 2105 as, ‘Our Year to Prepare’. We have seen some good progress and some regress according to our shared miserablenesses! The year, 2016 has to be different; continuing to prepare is to procrastinate. We are very skilled at that as we all know. So, as a proposal, 2016 could be ‘Our Year for Changing’. This would be change that is not for ourselves but that we may be ‘better’ church for those around us.
Advent can begin a year where we learn how to be that which are called to be; that surely is to be the ‘sacramental salt’ for this City within which we are Church.
Also we surely need to explore what we mean by being the ‘Body of Christ’? There are a myriad of understandings when we say, ‘We break this bread to share in the body of Christ’.
One thing is for sure, and that is that as Christian we are always changing, always in a state of flux. Life itself is defined as, ‘constant change’. That means that we have to be constantly broken! Not to be bent only, for that is yet again to procrastinate.
Encrusted ways of being, entrenched patterns now have to be broken. Without the ‘fraction’, without the fragmentation, the love of God cannot flow, cannot spill out on to all Creation as is the will of God. Equally, as they say, we need cracks because that is how the Light gets in.
We here need to crack open, so that the love and light of Christ may be known by our neighbours; the Church universal needs to crack open so that the love of God may spill out onto all Creation and all human adventure and misadventure. Peace needs to break out where there is war.
Our church leaders have been asked where God is in acts of terrorism. Doubt that God exists in those situations was expressed. I have no doubts. God is there, right in that crack of deep despair. He is in the cracks of our postlapsarian miserableness; it we who cover up the cracks; the cracks of warfare, starvation, poverty and terror.
Today is Advent Sunday, a terminus where our ending is in our beginning.
Amen
Advent Sunday: 2015.
+
Advent is the beginning of the Christian year, and after the gospel reading of this peaceful triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we begin to spread our garments under his feet. Expectation is to be our preferred and key state of mind.
All of our beginnings in life are full of expectation; on this Advent Sunday we stand figuratively in a ‘terminus’. We look back at the journey that brought us here, and at the same time, à la fois, we look forward, with expectation, to the journey that will take us from here. Quite how we review what has gone before and where we might expect to go, are for each of us to ponder. The Church though, does offer us some kind of framework for those ponderings.
As Church we review both with thanksgiving and regret; thanks to God tinged with that miserableness from our Litany. We look forward to the ‘immanence’ of Christ as seen in our Nativity narrative and we also look forward with timidity to the ‘transcendence’ of Christ as seen in the Second Coming narrative, with the judging of the ‘quick and the dead’.
All this is happening in the present moment, the ‘now’ of this terminal Advent Sunday. In fact the whole of the adventual season is an existential terminal ‘now’; a momentary beginning and ending.
At St Mary’s we saw the year 2105 as, ‘Our Year to Prepare’. We have seen some good progress and some regress according to our shared miserablenesses! The year, 2016 has to be different; continuing to prepare is to procrastinate. We are very skilled at that as we all know. So, as a proposal, 2016 could be ‘Our Year for Changing’. This would be change that is not for ourselves but that we may be ‘better’ church for those around us.
Advent can begin a year where we learn how to be that which are called to be; that surely is to be the ‘sacramental salt’ for this City within which we are Church.
Also we surely need to explore what we mean by being the ‘Body of Christ’? There are a myriad of understandings when we say, ‘We break this bread to share in the body of Christ’.
One thing is for sure, and that is that as Christian we are always changing, always in a state of flux. Life itself is defined as, ‘constant change’. That means that we have to be constantly broken! Not to be bent only, for that is yet again to procrastinate.
Encrusted ways of being, entrenched patterns now have to be broken. Without the ‘fraction’, without the fragmentation, the love of God cannot flow, cannot spill out on to all Creation as is the will of God. Equally, as they say, we need cracks because that is how the Light gets in.
We here need to crack open, so that the love and light of Christ may be known by our neighbours; the Church universal needs to crack open so that the love of God may spill out onto all Creation and all human adventure and misadventure. Peace needs to break out where there is war.
Our church leaders have been asked where God is in acts of terrorism. Doubt that God exists in those situations was expressed. I have no doubts. God is there, right in that crack of deep despair. He is in the cracks of our postlapsarian miserableness; it we who cover up the cracks; the cracks of warfare, starvation, poverty and terror.
Today is Advent Sunday, a terminus where our ending is in our beginning.
Amen
8th November 2015
Remembrance Sunday
(Matthew 22 vv.15-22)
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Having just heard those wise words from Our Lord, maybe today we render the causes of war to ‘caesar’, and render that which can bring that peace, which is beyond all understanding, to God.
In many ways we too are veterans today; we are veteran observers, for in each of our lifetimes there has never not been a war to remember nor, be aware of, as it is happening. We should really have learned, by now, how best to ‘observe’, veterans that we are. I guess though, inadequate as we are, we are doing our best here.
As always, in our observing, we walk a kind of tightrope.
As always, year by year, our own personal observing changes in tone, in shade of meaning. One year we wear white poppy, then red the next year, then none, then both! We might feel differently about war this year. Not least, because the face of warfare itself has indeed changed. Not least also, because acts of terror can be random today; and it is as if that we are all under a threat, as if we are all at war all the time
Being a rogue volunteer suicide bomber, looking for rewards in the next life, was unheard of in 1914. With hindsight though, we know that just signing up became an act of involuntary suicide.
Here though, now, on this our tightrope, our souls are in jeopardy should our observing be not be true. Spiritual suicide remains an option for us.
To the one side of this rope we have our 100 percent longing for peace, a cessation of war.
On the other side we find ourselves expressing our thanks and honouring those who, we see, as giving their lives that we might live.
If we go to extremes, we can either over glorify war, or underplay the heroism of those who died.
On considering ‘peace’;
God’s peace passes all understanding; that is when the cynic cries, ‘what about all those wars in The Bible?’
Well, it might be ‘God’s Word’, but the Bible is a collection of books about human behaviour; perhaps the peace of God can only lie on the other side of human warfare. God’s peace, we believe, can only break out when it comes to each and every human heart. That surely passes our understanding.
On considering remembering; here is where our individual response kicks in. We might look at archive pictures, for instance; most of us have archive photos of a relative who had or has been or is being at war. When my children first saw the rare pictures of my dad in his uniform, out came my unoriginal yet classic line, which I said for the first time, (it was as much for them and for him?), ‘If he hadn’t got through the war then you wouldn’t be here!’
Individual respect spreads into, and gets caught up in, the national and international expressions of respect. Our remembering surely also spreads, not just to the honourable, but also to the countless millions of innocent ones, the collateral damage of un-contained warfare. Just one statistic; in today’s figures only one in ten of the so called ‘war dead’ is a combatant.
Each individual name which we may read out can stand for millions.
In this there is no answer for the cynic; in this there are probably only unpalatable platitudes especially for the critical believer.
The desire for peace as Christians means we cannot be perpetrators of war. We show the love of God when we huddle together in communal defence when it happens; we show the love of God to those who need care during and after the turmoil of the pains of death and injury.
In this day and age, this age of ‘modern warfare’, our evolved thinking has led to our armed forces becoming ‘peace-makers’; these forces helping the rebuilding after the destruction. Yet, there still remain those other, unevolved ways of thinking, in areas now where Christianity is almost extinct, that yet wants to make war.
There is still a frightening philosophy about; one Curtis Lemay, an American veteran, once said,
‘I’ll tell you what war is about. You’ve got to kill people and when you kill enough of them, they stop fighting’. That was Japan.
Jesus came to tell us what peace is about. It is about trust, patience, tolerance and faith; it cannot be one sided, but based on mutual agreement, respect and understanding. It is also about a ‘bonding’, super-glue style. This, I guess is when the peace-process can begin to break-out, when we say, ‘let’s sit down’ or get around the figurative table, and talk about it.
Peace will not come if we forget about war; peace will not come if we wait for someone else to start the peace-making process.
It will be through our vigilance, our voice and our prayers that the light of peace will show through the cracks of destruction.
We engage in all those life giving activities here, as we come round the table of our God; as we render war to ‘ceasar’ and render peace to God.
Amen
Remembrance Sunday
(Matthew 22 vv.15-22)
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Having just heard those wise words from Our Lord, maybe today we render the causes of war to ‘caesar’, and render that which can bring that peace, which is beyond all understanding, to God.
In many ways we too are veterans today; we are veteran observers, for in each of our lifetimes there has never not been a war to remember nor, be aware of, as it is happening. We should really have learned, by now, how best to ‘observe’, veterans that we are. I guess though, inadequate as we are, we are doing our best here.
As always, in our observing, we walk a kind of tightrope.
As always, year by year, our own personal observing changes in tone, in shade of meaning. One year we wear white poppy, then red the next year, then none, then both! We might feel differently about war this year. Not least, because the face of warfare itself has indeed changed. Not least also, because acts of terror can be random today; and it is as if that we are all under a threat, as if we are all at war all the time
Being a rogue volunteer suicide bomber, looking for rewards in the next life, was unheard of in 1914. With hindsight though, we know that just signing up became an act of involuntary suicide.
Here though, now, on this our tightrope, our souls are in jeopardy should our observing be not be true. Spiritual suicide remains an option for us.
To the one side of this rope we have our 100 percent longing for peace, a cessation of war.
On the other side we find ourselves expressing our thanks and honouring those who, we see, as giving their lives that we might live.
If we go to extremes, we can either over glorify war, or underplay the heroism of those who died.
On considering ‘peace’;
God’s peace passes all understanding; that is when the cynic cries, ‘what about all those wars in The Bible?’
Well, it might be ‘God’s Word’, but the Bible is a collection of books about human behaviour; perhaps the peace of God can only lie on the other side of human warfare. God’s peace, we believe, can only break out when it comes to each and every human heart. That surely passes our understanding.
On considering remembering; here is where our individual response kicks in. We might look at archive pictures, for instance; most of us have archive photos of a relative who had or has been or is being at war. When my children first saw the rare pictures of my dad in his uniform, out came my unoriginal yet classic line, which I said for the first time, (it was as much for them and for him?), ‘If he hadn’t got through the war then you wouldn’t be here!’
Individual respect spreads into, and gets caught up in, the national and international expressions of respect. Our remembering surely also spreads, not just to the honourable, but also to the countless millions of innocent ones, the collateral damage of un-contained warfare. Just one statistic; in today’s figures only one in ten of the so called ‘war dead’ is a combatant.
Each individual name which we may read out can stand for millions.
In this there is no answer for the cynic; in this there are probably only unpalatable platitudes especially for the critical believer.
The desire for peace as Christians means we cannot be perpetrators of war. We show the love of God when we huddle together in communal defence when it happens; we show the love of God to those who need care during and after the turmoil of the pains of death and injury.
In this day and age, this age of ‘modern warfare’, our evolved thinking has led to our armed forces becoming ‘peace-makers’; these forces helping the rebuilding after the destruction. Yet, there still remain those other, unevolved ways of thinking, in areas now where Christianity is almost extinct, that yet wants to make war.
There is still a frightening philosophy about; one Curtis Lemay, an American veteran, once said,
‘I’ll tell you what war is about. You’ve got to kill people and when you kill enough of them, they stop fighting’. That was Japan.
Jesus came to tell us what peace is about. It is about trust, patience, tolerance and faith; it cannot be one sided, but based on mutual agreement, respect and understanding. It is also about a ‘bonding’, super-glue style. This, I guess is when the peace-process can begin to break-out, when we say, ‘let’s sit down’ or get around the figurative table, and talk about it.
Peace will not come if we forget about war; peace will not come if we wait for someone else to start the peace-making process.
It will be through our vigilance, our voice and our prayers that the light of peace will show through the cracks of destruction.
We engage in all those life giving activities here, as we come round the table of our God; as we render war to ‘ceasar’ and render peace to God.
Amen
25th October 2015.
Twenty-First in Trinity.
(Also, ‘Freetown Sunday’)
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The Gospel story today comes from the pen of St John.
John’s Gospel does have historical framework and, it is through this, that John weaves his mystical theology. It is known also as, ‘The Spiritual Gospel’.
It is also the gospel of the Incarnation: it tells of the divine emanation; it tells us seriously of the God of heaven being earthbound, embodied, involved with all humanity, for love of that humanity. We take that timeless thought into our prayers today, for the people of Freetown, for God is embodied in the pain.
In his first epistle, John wrote to his community with this incarnation idea in practice,
‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God………..for God is love, because as he is, so are we in this world…and there is no fear in love…’
We take those thoughts into the gospel story of today; a story which has come to be known as St John’s ‘Second Sign’.
It is a tale of the miraculous healing of the nobleman’s son, this being the second miracle in Cana, and is the second sign among the Seven Signs.
Signs signify something and John is signifying that this Jesus is divine, indeed part of the Trinity, and has taken on the role of the ‘second Adam’, The Man to make humanity ‘right’ with God.
The Seven Signs may or may not have been historically true but in terms of John’s cosmology there is this deep truth of the eternal divinity of this Jesus.
The Seven Signs are familiar to us;
The historical gospels, the synoptic gospels as they are known, tell us about this Jesus from the perspective of each writer; John, from his way of seeing things, tells us how to know this Jesus. Early on, in chapter three, we see that perhaps being ‘born again’ is the way, as we hear in the well-known Nicodemus story.
The aim of John in all of this, we are told in his chapter twenty,
‘These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name’. (Jn.20.31).
This second sign is about this; it is less about an historical event, but more about St John saying what, he believes, we need to know in order to know this eternal Jesus.
Let us take a peep at what John has woven for us.
One very obvious point is that John is making it clear that the works of God, expressed in this person Jesus, are not limited by geography. Jesus and the travelling nobleman were in Cana; the boy was in Capernaum, ten or so miles away. Jesus is not limited by our geography. The other points that John was making are less obvious.
The whole of his Gospel is introduced, as we know, in the timeless Prologue, by revisiting the Genesis story. ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the Word was God….’.
Here John elevates the minds of believers to the heights of, ‘the divine emanation of the Son of God from the Father’; the Trinitarian origins.
So in this weave, this story, we have echoes of the Genesis bliss that was offended; the offence which needed to be rectified. The Second Sign signifies this restitution; the restitution of the primal relationship between a father and a son.
To find the essential meaning of this gospel story begins with the Creation story!
Having created all the beasts, we are then told, ‘So God created man in his own image; male and female created He them. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day’. It was good, for there was harmony in the garden, and between heaven and earth.
It was the adolescent ‘Adam’, (human being), who offended the Creating God and exposed our human limitations; we need not have a ‘fall’, just a great offence.
The death of that relationship between Father and Son came with the great offence of the first Adam.
The relationship was restored with the sacrifice of God, the death of the second Adam, so that the offences of us all may be forgiven.
Yet Jesus, on the third day rose from the dead; the boy was made alive again. Fatherhood is restored with son-hood.
John in his gospel also covertly is exploring the sacrament of Baptism- the old Adam dies, and the new ‘man’ arises from the waters of the baptism. This again echoes the Nicodemus story about how to be spiritually en-wombed and birthed again.
So this is the weave of John: The Creation; The Offence and the Death of the divine/human harmony; the Resurrection of that relationship through the Sacrifice of the Son; and the early church teaching on the Sacrament of Baptism!
This is the tapestry of John, as we read of this Second Sign that Jesus did.
Or was it? Maybe, after all our own machinations, it is a merely a simple story, about what happened, when a desperate nobleman bumped into a wandering holy man in some small middle-eastern village
Amen
Twenty-First in Trinity.
(Also, ‘Freetown Sunday’)
+
The Gospel story today comes from the pen of St John.
John’s Gospel does have historical framework and, it is through this, that John weaves his mystical theology. It is known also as, ‘The Spiritual Gospel’.
It is also the gospel of the Incarnation: it tells of the divine emanation; it tells us seriously of the God of heaven being earthbound, embodied, involved with all humanity, for love of that humanity. We take that timeless thought into our prayers today, for the people of Freetown, for God is embodied in the pain.
In his first epistle, John wrote to his community with this incarnation idea in practice,
‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God………..for God is love, because as he is, so are we in this world…and there is no fear in love…’
We take those thoughts into the gospel story of today; a story which has come to be known as St John’s ‘Second Sign’.
It is a tale of the miraculous healing of the nobleman’s son, this being the second miracle in Cana, and is the second sign among the Seven Signs.
Signs signify something and John is signifying that this Jesus is divine, indeed part of the Trinity, and has taken on the role of the ‘second Adam’, The Man to make humanity ‘right’ with God.
The Seven Signs may or may not have been historically true but in terms of John’s cosmology there is this deep truth of the eternal divinity of this Jesus.
The Seven Signs are familiar to us;
- Changing the water into wine ; ch.2
- Healing the nobleman’s son; ch. 4
- Healing the paralytic at Bethsaida; ch.5
- Feeding the 5000; ch. 6
- Jesus’ walk on water; ch.6
- Healing the man born blind;ch.9
- Raising of Lazarus; ch.11
The historical gospels, the synoptic gospels as they are known, tell us about this Jesus from the perspective of each writer; John, from his way of seeing things, tells us how to know this Jesus. Early on, in chapter three, we see that perhaps being ‘born again’ is the way, as we hear in the well-known Nicodemus story.
The aim of John in all of this, we are told in his chapter twenty,
‘These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name’. (Jn.20.31).
This second sign is about this; it is less about an historical event, but more about St John saying what, he believes, we need to know in order to know this eternal Jesus.
Let us take a peep at what John has woven for us.
One very obvious point is that John is making it clear that the works of God, expressed in this person Jesus, are not limited by geography. Jesus and the travelling nobleman were in Cana; the boy was in Capernaum, ten or so miles away. Jesus is not limited by our geography. The other points that John was making are less obvious.
The whole of his Gospel is introduced, as we know, in the timeless Prologue, by revisiting the Genesis story. ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the Word was God….’.
Here John elevates the minds of believers to the heights of, ‘the divine emanation of the Son of God from the Father’; the Trinitarian origins.
So in this weave, this story, we have echoes of the Genesis bliss that was offended; the offence which needed to be rectified. The Second Sign signifies this restitution; the restitution of the primal relationship between a father and a son.
To find the essential meaning of this gospel story begins with the Creation story!
Having created all the beasts, we are then told, ‘So God created man in his own image; male and female created He them. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day’. It was good, for there was harmony in the garden, and between heaven and earth.
It was the adolescent ‘Adam’, (human being), who offended the Creating God and exposed our human limitations; we need not have a ‘fall’, just a great offence.
The death of that relationship between Father and Son came with the great offence of the first Adam.
The relationship was restored with the sacrifice of God, the death of the second Adam, so that the offences of us all may be forgiven.
Yet Jesus, on the third day rose from the dead; the boy was made alive again. Fatherhood is restored with son-hood.
John in his gospel also covertly is exploring the sacrament of Baptism- the old Adam dies, and the new ‘man’ arises from the waters of the baptism. This again echoes the Nicodemus story about how to be spiritually en-wombed and birthed again.
So this is the weave of John: The Creation; The Offence and the Death of the divine/human harmony; the Resurrection of that relationship through the Sacrifice of the Son; and the early church teaching on the Sacrament of Baptism!
This is the tapestry of John, as we read of this Second Sign that Jesus did.
Or was it? Maybe, after all our own machinations, it is a merely a simple story, about what happened, when a desperate nobleman bumped into a wandering holy man in some small middle-eastern village
Amen
18th October 2015
Saint Luke
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I have it on good authority that the Bishop when she visits always asks questions about what the congregation learned from the morning sermon!
That being so, I shall give you a memorisable account of this blessed Saint! What do we know about this man, Luke called apostle and evangelist?
Just a thought here; we need to remember that an apostle’s ministry is to establish churches, and that of the evangelist is to ‘recruit’ others to join that church; to give the ‘euangelion’,(good news), to those who have none. These were two of the roles Luke inhabited.
‘Loukas’ was born in the Hellenistic City of Antioch, in ancient Syria. This was an area where Gentile, non-Jewish, people lived. It was an area influenced by all things Greek.
Luke was aged eighty four when he died, was martyred, (quite where is not really known), in the year 84AD. He survived Jesus by 51 years! We can only say that Luke was right in there: walking in the footsteps of Our Lord and another corner stone during the very birth and early struggles of what we now call ‘church’!
He does not write of himself but, St Paul mentions him
We know he was a physician by profession, known as, ‘Luke the beloved physician’. He was also a scholar. He was probably one of the seventy apostles appointed by Our Lord, and became companion to both Peter and Paul at various times. Probably, he was Paul’s personal physician, seeing Paul had this resistant ‘thorn in the flesh’. ‘Only Luke is with me’, Paul wrote soon before he was martyred.
We know he was the writer of what we now have as our 3rd canonical gospel account. Described as, ‘The most beautiful book ever written’, not only because of the content but also for the elegant literary style.
The Acts of the Apostles was also his work. This is the only historical account we have of the early church developments. Both works, dedicated to his patron Theophilus, were originally one seamless account. They are meant to be read together.
He has been revered as a historian; his works as accurate. It is only occasionally that and with some subtlety, did he promote his own agenda. There were just little touches; being a Gentile or at least a Hellenised Jew, he made changes to the dominant Jewish vocabulary, like changing the words rabbi to teacher and scribe to lawyer.
In the Orthodox Church, Luke is revered as the first icon writer. The later, Our Lady of Vladimir, is apparently based on Luke’s own original version. He is the patron of physicians, surgeons, healers and artists
Luke’s aim primarily was to promote the divinity of the Christ in Jesus; the door onto God was no longer only open to the hitherto, ‘Chosen People’.
Luke’s gospel is marked by his inclusiveness; Gentiles, women, outcasts and those on the fringes of society, the tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes, are all brought into the fold. The poor, smelly shepherds, were not left out in the fields but were brought in, and were among those first blessed few to know of the birth of the Saviour of the World.
The beautiful idea of ‘reversal’ is prominent. In what we know as the ‘Magnificat’, Mary’s prayer speaks of the proud being scattered, the mighty being brought down and the lowly exalted, the hungry filled but the rich are ‘sent empty away’.
In the Beatitudes, the poor inherit the kingdom, the sorrowful laugh, the hungry are satisfied. The Prodigal Son returns and is welcomed with overwhelming joy and love, despite his waywardness. Reversal is a great gospel theme.
Women figure prominently in Luke’s work. The whole Nativity narrative is told from Mary’s perspective. We hear of Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman at the well; there is a Joanna and a Susanna. There is a physician’s tenderness here with Luke
Prayer is definitely there for Luke. He portrays Jesus at prayer before the important events in his life; most powerfully when he withdrew from his disciples in the garden on the night that he was betrayed. There is a sense of intimacy in this prayer between Father and Son. Luke, in all his teachings, is also always encouraging his own community, and here it is to pray and not lose heart.
One other theme emerges is his sense of journeying in his Gospel. There are all those comings and goings at the beginning of the Gospel, around the Nativity; from the hill country, to Bethlehem, then Jerusalem and back and forth as they leave him behind in the Temple.
Nearly a third of the Gospel pertains to Jesus’ journey to the city of his Passion; in chapter nine we are told, ‘..he set his face to go up to Jerusalem’.
Famously there is that Road to Emmaus, where the Risen Lord is only known in the breaking of the bread.
St Luke, the people’s apostle and evangelist, is indeed a great figure in our Christian ancestry, and we rightly revere him and wonder about him, and hopefully we may journey with him.
Amen
Saint Luke
+
I have it on good authority that the Bishop when she visits always asks questions about what the congregation learned from the morning sermon!
That being so, I shall give you a memorisable account of this blessed Saint! What do we know about this man, Luke called apostle and evangelist?
Just a thought here; we need to remember that an apostle’s ministry is to establish churches, and that of the evangelist is to ‘recruit’ others to join that church; to give the ‘euangelion’,(good news), to those who have none. These were two of the roles Luke inhabited.
‘Loukas’ was born in the Hellenistic City of Antioch, in ancient Syria. This was an area where Gentile, non-Jewish, people lived. It was an area influenced by all things Greek.
Luke was aged eighty four when he died, was martyred, (quite where is not really known), in the year 84AD. He survived Jesus by 51 years! We can only say that Luke was right in there: walking in the footsteps of Our Lord and another corner stone during the very birth and early struggles of what we now call ‘church’!
He does not write of himself but, St Paul mentions him
We know he was a physician by profession, known as, ‘Luke the beloved physician’. He was also a scholar. He was probably one of the seventy apostles appointed by Our Lord, and became companion to both Peter and Paul at various times. Probably, he was Paul’s personal physician, seeing Paul had this resistant ‘thorn in the flesh’. ‘Only Luke is with me’, Paul wrote soon before he was martyred.
We know he was the writer of what we now have as our 3rd canonical gospel account. Described as, ‘The most beautiful book ever written’, not only because of the content but also for the elegant literary style.
The Acts of the Apostles was also his work. This is the only historical account we have of the early church developments. Both works, dedicated to his patron Theophilus, were originally one seamless account. They are meant to be read together.
He has been revered as a historian; his works as accurate. It is only occasionally that and with some subtlety, did he promote his own agenda. There were just little touches; being a Gentile or at least a Hellenised Jew, he made changes to the dominant Jewish vocabulary, like changing the words rabbi to teacher and scribe to lawyer.
In the Orthodox Church, Luke is revered as the first icon writer. The later, Our Lady of Vladimir, is apparently based on Luke’s own original version. He is the patron of physicians, surgeons, healers and artists
Luke’s aim primarily was to promote the divinity of the Christ in Jesus; the door onto God was no longer only open to the hitherto, ‘Chosen People’.
Luke’s gospel is marked by his inclusiveness; Gentiles, women, outcasts and those on the fringes of society, the tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes, are all brought into the fold. The poor, smelly shepherds, were not left out in the fields but were brought in, and were among those first blessed few to know of the birth of the Saviour of the World.
The beautiful idea of ‘reversal’ is prominent. In what we know as the ‘Magnificat’, Mary’s prayer speaks of the proud being scattered, the mighty being brought down and the lowly exalted, the hungry filled but the rich are ‘sent empty away’.
In the Beatitudes, the poor inherit the kingdom, the sorrowful laugh, the hungry are satisfied. The Prodigal Son returns and is welcomed with overwhelming joy and love, despite his waywardness. Reversal is a great gospel theme.
Women figure prominently in Luke’s work. The whole Nativity narrative is told from Mary’s perspective. We hear of Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman at the well; there is a Joanna and a Susanna. There is a physician’s tenderness here with Luke
Prayer is definitely there for Luke. He portrays Jesus at prayer before the important events in his life; most powerfully when he withdrew from his disciples in the garden on the night that he was betrayed. There is a sense of intimacy in this prayer between Father and Son. Luke, in all his teachings, is also always encouraging his own community, and here it is to pray and not lose heart.
One other theme emerges is his sense of journeying in his Gospel. There are all those comings and goings at the beginning of the Gospel, around the Nativity; from the hill country, to Bethlehem, then Jerusalem and back and forth as they leave him behind in the Temple.
Nearly a third of the Gospel pertains to Jesus’ journey to the city of his Passion; in chapter nine we are told, ‘..he set his face to go up to Jerusalem’.
Famously there is that Road to Emmaus, where the Risen Lord is only known in the breaking of the bread.
St Luke, the people’s apostle and evangelist, is indeed a great figure in our Christian ancestry, and we rightly revere him and wonder about him, and hopefully we may journey with him.
Amen
11th October
Trinity 19.
‘Joy’
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‘They marvelled’.
It seems to me ‘marvelling’ is not a regular kind of experience for us, especially when we grind on to the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity!
Marvelling is an experience of wonder and surprise, and we assume that after witnessing this miracle, (performed against the rules, on the Sabbath),they went away nattering all about it, all ‘lit up’ by it, experiencing something akin to joy. A joy about what life could be like when lived around this person of Jesus. There was ‘Joy’ in response to the work of God. Joy is a response to God; it is a state of mind and a condition of the heart.
This idea of ‘joy’ is fascinating, and elusive. Yet, it was a real experience of the disciples and from Pentecost onwards, a common experience of the early believers in the infant churches. Joy is just one mark of being ‘Christian’. It is under God’s provenance as a gift, yet is also regarded as a fruit of the Spirit.
‘Joy’ is a profound experience; it is a deep sense of the Divine. Yet where there is ‘light’, there is always a shadow; joy naturally carries its shadow, which is the balancing principle, of ‘Sorrow’. Both are in our orbits of experience, both are the timeless responses to God.
Joy then figures large throughout our Judeo/Christian tradition; it is seen as,
‘an almost unspeakable happiness over an unanticipated or present good’.
The Hebrews knew about the unexpected benefits from God, and these are spoken of in the sacred narrative. There was joy at the Exodus from their slavery in Egypt; joy on return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile; joy in the being together in community under God. These are the joys of their salvation history.
We often speak of spiritual joys; these are metaphorically expressed in feastings, marriage, military endeavours, and financial dealings and of course, harvest. The psalmists tell us of the rejoicing of the peoples. Their joy was a response to God.
The imagery continues into the New Testament, beginning with the joy of John the Baptist being in the presence of his friend now, the Bridegroom, the Lamb of God. We know too of, what we call, the five joyful mysteries of Mary:
the Annunciation; the Visitation; the Nativity; the Presentation; the Finding.
All are in response to God, and all the natural joys around good mothering. We know these as the first chaplet of the Rosary. ‘Good tidings of great joy’; these are the joys of our salvation history.
We also know the kind of joy on the return of the prodigal, the finding of the lost sheep or the lost coin; we hear also of God’s rejoicing over the one sinner who repents. Angels also rejoice, we are told.
I mentioned the ‘shadow side’ of all this; sorrow. For we are told to, ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. (Rom 12.15). Again, Peter and Paul spoke often of rejoicing in all their afflictions.
Yet we are encouraged even then, in that sorrow, to know the joy there. Neither is really known without knowledge of the other.
Joy comes as the gift of God to manage all this living business. Joy also grows as a fruit in our lives; it comes second on St Paul’s list of the Fruits of the Spirit. Joy, it is said is a product of ‘Christlikeness’, and we see it always going along with peace.
Joy comes as the quiet inner smile which embraces all the mysterious paradoxes of pain. C.S. Lewis spoke of this when he was ‘Surprised by Joy’.
There is a sense though, that we need to practice joy too. We can learn to find perfect joy or pure joy, against all adversities and life’s nastiness. St Francis encouraged his brothers to find pure joy in the most humble of community jobs, for all is done with humility in love of the other! So we embrace a leper; we sweep the corridors and put out the slops, all is pure joy!’
The Saint would say, ‘We were made for joy’.
Again there is a shadow here, for a sad thing, verging on the unforgiveable, after not being able to experience joy for oneself, is to take away someone else’s. We are to let others really have their joy.
In fact, joy is very contagious; we can easily catch someone else’s overflowing joy, and we might also catch a glimpse of their ‘inner smile’. We can know joy through that of another, and we know it when we see it. Were we to catch it, we have little choice than to pass it on. Remember, no matter how irksome the task, all is pure joy.
Our prime example of course is Jesus who, we are told, looked forward with joy, as he was about to take on the cross for all humanity. We have been marvelling at that ever since.
AMEN
The editorial for this week’s parish leaflet for added thoughts!
O be joyful! What do we mean by being joyful? It is not easy to define, thank goodness, for when we define something, we control and contain it. Pure joy cannot be contained; it spills over. We know it when we see it. The young mother gazing at her new child; the paraplegic speeding along the sand on an adapted scooter; the welcome of an old friend; the pile of crisply ironed laundry; the news of no chemotherapy; a friend’s recovery; a ‘good’ funeral; being diagnosed with cancer. The latter do not seem to be ‘joyful’; in truth though, they can be. Pure joy as we understand it is to be so in love with life that all of life’s experiences may be ‘joyful’. This is not the same as happiness. Joy is about harmony, where we embrace what may be most difficult for us; bizarrely, the sorrow that is always around in pure joy, is also a sign of God’s love for us. The Buddhist tradition is helpful here; we seek a comfortable and painless life, but are not discomfort and pain a sign of being fully alive too? There has always been pain in life, and the Christian faith has no fear in addressing that; the Christian is encouraged to embrace it, and like St Paul, ‘rejoice in all my infirmities’. Paul
Trinity 19.
‘Joy’
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‘They marvelled’.
It seems to me ‘marvelling’ is not a regular kind of experience for us, especially when we grind on to the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity!
Marvelling is an experience of wonder and surprise, and we assume that after witnessing this miracle, (performed against the rules, on the Sabbath),they went away nattering all about it, all ‘lit up’ by it, experiencing something akin to joy. A joy about what life could be like when lived around this person of Jesus. There was ‘Joy’ in response to the work of God. Joy is a response to God; it is a state of mind and a condition of the heart.
This idea of ‘joy’ is fascinating, and elusive. Yet, it was a real experience of the disciples and from Pentecost onwards, a common experience of the early believers in the infant churches. Joy is just one mark of being ‘Christian’. It is under God’s provenance as a gift, yet is also regarded as a fruit of the Spirit.
‘Joy’ is a profound experience; it is a deep sense of the Divine. Yet where there is ‘light’, there is always a shadow; joy naturally carries its shadow, which is the balancing principle, of ‘Sorrow’. Both are in our orbits of experience, both are the timeless responses to God.
Joy then figures large throughout our Judeo/Christian tradition; it is seen as,
‘an almost unspeakable happiness over an unanticipated or present good’.
The Hebrews knew about the unexpected benefits from God, and these are spoken of in the sacred narrative. There was joy at the Exodus from their slavery in Egypt; joy on return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile; joy in the being together in community under God. These are the joys of their salvation history.
We often speak of spiritual joys; these are metaphorically expressed in feastings, marriage, military endeavours, and financial dealings and of course, harvest. The psalmists tell us of the rejoicing of the peoples. Their joy was a response to God.
The imagery continues into the New Testament, beginning with the joy of John the Baptist being in the presence of his friend now, the Bridegroom, the Lamb of God. We know too of, what we call, the five joyful mysteries of Mary:
the Annunciation; the Visitation; the Nativity; the Presentation; the Finding.
All are in response to God, and all the natural joys around good mothering. We know these as the first chaplet of the Rosary. ‘Good tidings of great joy’; these are the joys of our salvation history.
We also know the kind of joy on the return of the prodigal, the finding of the lost sheep or the lost coin; we hear also of God’s rejoicing over the one sinner who repents. Angels also rejoice, we are told.
I mentioned the ‘shadow side’ of all this; sorrow. For we are told to, ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. (Rom 12.15). Again, Peter and Paul spoke often of rejoicing in all their afflictions.
Yet we are encouraged even then, in that sorrow, to know the joy there. Neither is really known without knowledge of the other.
Joy comes as the gift of God to manage all this living business. Joy also grows as a fruit in our lives; it comes second on St Paul’s list of the Fruits of the Spirit. Joy, it is said is a product of ‘Christlikeness’, and we see it always going along with peace.
Joy comes as the quiet inner smile which embraces all the mysterious paradoxes of pain. C.S. Lewis spoke of this when he was ‘Surprised by Joy’.
There is a sense though, that we need to practice joy too. We can learn to find perfect joy or pure joy, against all adversities and life’s nastiness. St Francis encouraged his brothers to find pure joy in the most humble of community jobs, for all is done with humility in love of the other! So we embrace a leper; we sweep the corridors and put out the slops, all is pure joy!’
The Saint would say, ‘We were made for joy’.
Again there is a shadow here, for a sad thing, verging on the unforgiveable, after not being able to experience joy for oneself, is to take away someone else’s. We are to let others really have their joy.
In fact, joy is very contagious; we can easily catch someone else’s overflowing joy, and we might also catch a glimpse of their ‘inner smile’. We can know joy through that of another, and we know it when we see it. Were we to catch it, we have little choice than to pass it on. Remember, no matter how irksome the task, all is pure joy.
Our prime example of course is Jesus who, we are told, looked forward with joy, as he was about to take on the cross for all humanity. We have been marvelling at that ever since.
AMEN
The editorial for this week’s parish leaflet for added thoughts!
O be joyful! What do we mean by being joyful? It is not easy to define, thank goodness, for when we define something, we control and contain it. Pure joy cannot be contained; it spills over. We know it when we see it. The young mother gazing at her new child; the paraplegic speeding along the sand on an adapted scooter; the welcome of an old friend; the pile of crisply ironed laundry; the news of no chemotherapy; a friend’s recovery; a ‘good’ funeral; being diagnosed with cancer. The latter do not seem to be ‘joyful’; in truth though, they can be. Pure joy as we understand it is to be so in love with life that all of life’s experiences may be ‘joyful’. This is not the same as happiness. Joy is about harmony, where we embrace what may be most difficult for us; bizarrely, the sorrow that is always around in pure joy, is also a sign of God’s love for us. The Buddhist tradition is helpful here; we seek a comfortable and painless life, but are not discomfort and pain a sign of being fully alive too? There has always been pain in life, and the Christian faith has no fear in addressing that; the Christian is encouraged to embrace it, and like St Paul, ‘rejoice in all my infirmities’. Paul
4th October 2015
The Feast of Dedication
The celebration of a Christian presence in every community
The Easter Candle lit
+
There is in the Christian tradition the wonderful prayer of St Simeon. We find it recorded in the second chapter of St. Luke’s gospel. We hear the prayer in our calendar on the occasion that we call, ‘The Purification of St Mary’, or ‘The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple’. Simeon could now leave his work as ‘holy man’ in the Jerusalem Temple, it was possible for him to say that his real work had been done; now he had held ‘salvation’ in his arms; in the darkness of the times, the very Light of the Christ was to shine for the Gentiles.
We know that prayer as the ‘Nunc Dimittis’, ‘Now you are dismissing…’ or, ‘Lettest thou thy servant depart in peace’. It came to be used as a liturgical canticle for monasteries as early as the Fourth Century, and was to be sung at compline and in funeral rites; in the darkness, there came the Light.
I suspect then, that these words, spoken or chanted, must have been recited right here, on this site in the mists of medieval time. As a chapel of ease we can suppose it was recited often, but it was only as this rib of a parish arose out of the greater parish of Ferriby, that the people around would have truly felt that the Light of Christ had fully come to them.
This is no longer a light associated only with death, but now with new life.
Now, like the Ethiopian and St Philip, there was water here now, what was to stop them being baptised? Nothing at all anymore! Baptism begins the Christian life from which everything else flows, and since those misty beginnings, the whole of Christian life, the complete complexities of parish life have ebbed and flowed here, truly being a ‘mini Mesopotamian’ cultural treasure, between our two rivers, to this very day.
The gradual formation of a parish, with an evolving building being ‘dedicated’, said something to the people, to the community around and about. This growing new presence was a sign.
It was a sign that God loved them. It was a sign that God is here, and will not go away; that has not gone away from need and suffering. It is a sign that the Holy Spirit is active and the gospel is preached. It is a sign that God is faithful, and through the work of His dedicated peoples, He will be known.
The Parish and building are still here today. I guess, then, here is the rub of today. If there is to be a lively continuing sign of the life and work of God here, then it is we, and only we, as the ‘saints’, the ‘hagioi’, as St Paul understands it, who must be as dedicated as our forebears.
So in times past, the neighbourhood, the community needed a ‘God-centre’. Even today, the community, even if not put in these terms and God not necessarily being recognised, still needs such a focal point of gathering and to explore the possibility of God; at the very least there is a need for a dedicated place, which is dedicated, where it is known that divine things may be spoken of. The beginning, the continuing and the ending of the stumbling pilgrimage road, may be found here; the hesitant understanding of a way of discovering God, may be found here.
A surge of ‘spirituality’ in out there, especially through our artists and our seekers after ‘culture’, and our students of life, and they require a mature, intelligent, aesthetic arena in which to explore and discover. A way of discovering the mysterious ways of God is also high on the agenda of those suddenly finding themselves as a rough sleeper.
But, but, but, but…….the times past, turn into times present. ‘See-saws’ come into action and we know that we find ourselves here now seems to be more in need of the wider community than that community is in need of us.
The ‘world’ is richer in material terms and we need ‘materiality’ to survive. Our own light can be hidden if we are only seen to be begging, when it is we still who are called to fill the beggars’ bowls.
In times past people would come, they knew what they would get. Today it is not clear what God offers! So much so, when I have approached the local Business Community, the ‘material world’, I have to give out our Unique Selling Points. (USP’s).
It is hard to sell God, market Jesus? Many do, we will not. What we can say though, is that St Mary’s as a ‘place’, as a shrine, a sanctuary, as a focus of cultural heritage, along with its congregation, is quite unique. What is unique today, and what I believe we can firmly say, is that, ‘we are dedicated to God and to the service all his peoples’.
We offer what I believe is the ‘City Cloister’. In that we might come full circle, being almost a monastic place of prayer and work and hospitality.
Whatever we do here depends on our sensitivity in reading the mind of God and discerning His will for here.
In whatever we do, may we be; worthy of the name of our prayerful Patron, St Mary; worthy of our diligent ancestors, worthy of our present fellowship, and worthy of our expectant descendants.
As in those medieval days, there is a misty darkness for many today; what can hinder them now from being baptised, literally or allegorically, and so begin some whole new way of being and living?
Amen.
The Feast of Dedication
The celebration of a Christian presence in every community
The Easter Candle lit
+
There is in the Christian tradition the wonderful prayer of St Simeon. We find it recorded in the second chapter of St. Luke’s gospel. We hear the prayer in our calendar on the occasion that we call, ‘The Purification of St Mary’, or ‘The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple’. Simeon could now leave his work as ‘holy man’ in the Jerusalem Temple, it was possible for him to say that his real work had been done; now he had held ‘salvation’ in his arms; in the darkness of the times, the very Light of the Christ was to shine for the Gentiles.
We know that prayer as the ‘Nunc Dimittis’, ‘Now you are dismissing…’ or, ‘Lettest thou thy servant depart in peace’. It came to be used as a liturgical canticle for monasteries as early as the Fourth Century, and was to be sung at compline and in funeral rites; in the darkness, there came the Light.
I suspect then, that these words, spoken or chanted, must have been recited right here, on this site in the mists of medieval time. As a chapel of ease we can suppose it was recited often, but it was only as this rib of a parish arose out of the greater parish of Ferriby, that the people around would have truly felt that the Light of Christ had fully come to them.
This is no longer a light associated only with death, but now with new life.
Now, like the Ethiopian and St Philip, there was water here now, what was to stop them being baptised? Nothing at all anymore! Baptism begins the Christian life from which everything else flows, and since those misty beginnings, the whole of Christian life, the complete complexities of parish life have ebbed and flowed here, truly being a ‘mini Mesopotamian’ cultural treasure, between our two rivers, to this very day.
The gradual formation of a parish, with an evolving building being ‘dedicated’, said something to the people, to the community around and about. This growing new presence was a sign.
It was a sign that God loved them. It was a sign that God is here, and will not go away; that has not gone away from need and suffering. It is a sign that the Holy Spirit is active and the gospel is preached. It is a sign that God is faithful, and through the work of His dedicated peoples, He will be known.
The Parish and building are still here today. I guess, then, here is the rub of today. If there is to be a lively continuing sign of the life and work of God here, then it is we, and only we, as the ‘saints’, the ‘hagioi’, as St Paul understands it, who must be as dedicated as our forebears.
So in times past, the neighbourhood, the community needed a ‘God-centre’. Even today, the community, even if not put in these terms and God not necessarily being recognised, still needs such a focal point of gathering and to explore the possibility of God; at the very least there is a need for a dedicated place, which is dedicated, where it is known that divine things may be spoken of. The beginning, the continuing and the ending of the stumbling pilgrimage road, may be found here; the hesitant understanding of a way of discovering God, may be found here.
A surge of ‘spirituality’ in out there, especially through our artists and our seekers after ‘culture’, and our students of life, and they require a mature, intelligent, aesthetic arena in which to explore and discover. A way of discovering the mysterious ways of God is also high on the agenda of those suddenly finding themselves as a rough sleeper.
But, but, but, but…….the times past, turn into times present. ‘See-saws’ come into action and we know that we find ourselves here now seems to be more in need of the wider community than that community is in need of us.
The ‘world’ is richer in material terms and we need ‘materiality’ to survive. Our own light can be hidden if we are only seen to be begging, when it is we still who are called to fill the beggars’ bowls.
In times past people would come, they knew what they would get. Today it is not clear what God offers! So much so, when I have approached the local Business Community, the ‘material world’, I have to give out our Unique Selling Points. (USP’s).
It is hard to sell God, market Jesus? Many do, we will not. What we can say though, is that St Mary’s as a ‘place’, as a shrine, a sanctuary, as a focus of cultural heritage, along with its congregation, is quite unique. What is unique today, and what I believe we can firmly say, is that, ‘we are dedicated to God and to the service all his peoples’.
We offer what I believe is the ‘City Cloister’. In that we might come full circle, being almost a monastic place of prayer and work and hospitality.
Whatever we do here depends on our sensitivity in reading the mind of God and discerning His will for here.
In whatever we do, may we be; worthy of the name of our prayerful Patron, St Mary; worthy of our diligent ancestors, worthy of our present fellowship, and worthy of our expectant descendants.
As in those medieval days, there is a misty darkness for many today; what can hinder them now from being baptised, literally or allegorically, and so begin some whole new way of being and living?
Amen.
Trinity Seventeen
‘One Body, One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Father’
(Eph.4.5)
For the writer of the epistle, whether that was St Paul himself or one of his disciples, the new believers at Ephesus were seen to be in need of some straight and defining explanations of this new faith. Traditionally, then and in a way still today, the people of Ephesus, if they had a god at all, it was a goddess, the cults of Diana and Artemis were strong. At that time these new Christians were also ‘free-floating’ individuals; they had not yet been formalised, organised, into ‘church’.
The teaching they were exposed to, emphasised the Church as being the Body of Christ.
The Body consists of all believers. This meant for them, a different gendered god as the head! They were taught that for all believers there can only be one Spirit, one Lord and faith and baptism It follows that there can only be this one Body, the Universal Church.
None of us can dispute those fundamentals. It is a passage that is used in ‘churchy’ services like confirmations, ordinations where it is used in a confident sort of way; again it is used, with less confidence, in unity and ecumenical services, reminding us that we are a body broken, and we could do better.
Disputations a plenty, within this ‘body’, there have been and are now, and probably ever will be, as long as we have this ‘militant’ church. Through history, the spats, international national, local, have arisen as to how to interpret and express the sheer beauty and enormity of that divine cosmic idea here on the ground. We tend not to look like ‘one body’ or a united ‘corporation’ at all.
This may be, in part, from time to time, because the human part of this human/divine institution, we call ‘church’, loses direction and has not taken heed of these pieces of wisdom; one piece from St Athanasius,
“Know that we must serve, not the times, but God”
Another piece comes from Archbishop William Temple,
“The Church is the only institution that does not exist for itself”
Not serving the times:
We see that from one generation to another that churches ‘reinvent’ themselves and the splitting happens. We know about the blessing and curse of ‘denominations’ [Denominationalism ]. We ourselves may have ‘denomination hopped’ during our life time, certainly we would hopped from parish to parish. This can indeed possibly be healthier than being stayed in one rut.
New ways of looking at and redefining ‘church’ keep appearing. Working groups and sub- groups tend to blossom. These tend to form around a particular charismatic figure or inspired idea. The changes, however, tend to be concerned with the ‘ephemerata’, the transient, the fleeting; trendy things are invented, but they will pass away. ‘The easy come, easy go church’.
So we do have to be careful. The encouragement to us, to find ‘fresh expressions’, can be a little worrying. I actually have a ‘spread-sheet’ to fill in, as to how many times here that we have been ‘fresh’ in our expression!
I have a worry here, which may or may not be correct, that ‘fresh expressions’ is somehow linked with ‘generous giving’!
Remembering we do not exist for ourselves, to whom are we encouraged to generously give?
There is though, another wrongness here, which has been challenged in other dioceses but not in ours, as far as I can see.
‘Fresh Expressions’ is a movement and follows a model which assumes that we are all ‘autogenic’!-that is that we are ‘self-produced’ and ‘autonomous’, that we can stand alone; we pay our own mortgage or rents; we buy our own foods; arrange our own holidays; pay our council tax and own credit card and other debts. It assumes we have disposable funds and make our own choices as to the disposal. The model emphasises our differences, rather than our similarities; it is rather a bureaucratically devised movement, and we have to ask where the Holy Spirit of God is.
For the neonatal Ephesian church, everything was held in common. Today, as always, ‘church’ is strongest among the poorest. Surely this is what Pope Francis demonstrates most humbly through his renunciation of ‘wealth’, wherever he can. It is the poor, who truly need each other, depend on each other; recognise their need for, and willingness to serve God.
This interdependence brings us the notion of Christians being, ‘porous people’. Here is a flow between, mutuality and a re-freshing radical way of being generous that we do not understand. It is a generosity that then overflows. This is a glimpse of a rediscovery where what had become stale, can be a ‘fresh expression’ for us. It is a radical shift to a truly orthodox way of being Christian.
Blessed are the poor, both in body and of spirit; when we can know that kind of blessedness, becoming aware of our own ‘poverty’ then,
God, not the times, will be served and we will not exist for ourselves
Being innocent porous people could be highly refreshing
In that climate of a primitive, radical freshness, our giving flows naturally, and then without counting the costs, giving becomes a joy and is a blessedness, and so by its nature becomes generous
We can then cease just to give but become in our very nature ‘givers’
In this we may be unified; we move towards that ‘Oneness’, which does not exist, but for which Jesus prayed. We can be daily re-fresh-ed in our baptised life as Eucharistic people, because,
We do not exist for ourselves and God, not the times, will be served.
Amen
‘One Body, One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Father’
(Eph.4.5)
For the writer of the epistle, whether that was St Paul himself or one of his disciples, the new believers at Ephesus were seen to be in need of some straight and defining explanations of this new faith. Traditionally, then and in a way still today, the people of Ephesus, if they had a god at all, it was a goddess, the cults of Diana and Artemis were strong. At that time these new Christians were also ‘free-floating’ individuals; they had not yet been formalised, organised, into ‘church’.
The teaching they were exposed to, emphasised the Church as being the Body of Christ.
The Body consists of all believers. This meant for them, a different gendered god as the head! They were taught that for all believers there can only be one Spirit, one Lord and faith and baptism It follows that there can only be this one Body, the Universal Church.
None of us can dispute those fundamentals. It is a passage that is used in ‘churchy’ services like confirmations, ordinations where it is used in a confident sort of way; again it is used, with less confidence, in unity and ecumenical services, reminding us that we are a body broken, and we could do better.
Disputations a plenty, within this ‘body’, there have been and are now, and probably ever will be, as long as we have this ‘militant’ church. Through history, the spats, international national, local, have arisen as to how to interpret and express the sheer beauty and enormity of that divine cosmic idea here on the ground. We tend not to look like ‘one body’ or a united ‘corporation’ at all.
This may be, in part, from time to time, because the human part of this human/divine institution, we call ‘church’, loses direction and has not taken heed of these pieces of wisdom; one piece from St Athanasius,
“Know that we must serve, not the times, but God”
Another piece comes from Archbishop William Temple,
“The Church is the only institution that does not exist for itself”
Not serving the times:
We see that from one generation to another that churches ‘reinvent’ themselves and the splitting happens. We know about the blessing and curse of ‘denominations’ [Denominationalism ]. We ourselves may have ‘denomination hopped’ during our life time, certainly we would hopped from parish to parish. This can indeed possibly be healthier than being stayed in one rut.
New ways of looking at and redefining ‘church’ keep appearing. Working groups and sub- groups tend to blossom. These tend to form around a particular charismatic figure or inspired idea. The changes, however, tend to be concerned with the ‘ephemerata’, the transient, the fleeting; trendy things are invented, but they will pass away. ‘The easy come, easy go church’.
So we do have to be careful. The encouragement to us, to find ‘fresh expressions’, can be a little worrying. I actually have a ‘spread-sheet’ to fill in, as to how many times here that we have been ‘fresh’ in our expression!
I have a worry here, which may or may not be correct, that ‘fresh expressions’ is somehow linked with ‘generous giving’!
Remembering we do not exist for ourselves, to whom are we encouraged to generously give?
There is though, another wrongness here, which has been challenged in other dioceses but not in ours, as far as I can see.
‘Fresh Expressions’ is a movement and follows a model which assumes that we are all ‘autogenic’!-that is that we are ‘self-produced’ and ‘autonomous’, that we can stand alone; we pay our own mortgage or rents; we buy our own foods; arrange our own holidays; pay our council tax and own credit card and other debts. It assumes we have disposable funds and make our own choices as to the disposal. The model emphasises our differences, rather than our similarities; it is rather a bureaucratically devised movement, and we have to ask where the Holy Spirit of God is.
For the neonatal Ephesian church, everything was held in common. Today, as always, ‘church’ is strongest among the poorest. Surely this is what Pope Francis demonstrates most humbly through his renunciation of ‘wealth’, wherever he can. It is the poor, who truly need each other, depend on each other; recognise their need for, and willingness to serve God.
This interdependence brings us the notion of Christians being, ‘porous people’. Here is a flow between, mutuality and a re-freshing radical way of being generous that we do not understand. It is a generosity that then overflows. This is a glimpse of a rediscovery where what had become stale, can be a ‘fresh expression’ for us. It is a radical shift to a truly orthodox way of being Christian.
Blessed are the poor, both in body and of spirit; when we can know that kind of blessedness, becoming aware of our own ‘poverty’ then,
God, not the times, will be served and we will not exist for ourselves
Being innocent porous people could be highly refreshing
In that climate of a primitive, radical freshness, our giving flows naturally, and then without counting the costs, giving becomes a joy and is a blessedness, and so by its nature becomes generous
We can then cease just to give but become in our very nature ‘givers’
In this we may be unified; we move towards that ‘Oneness’, which does not exist, but for which Jesus prayed. We can be daily re-fresh-ed in our baptised life as Eucharistic people, because,
We do not exist for ourselves and God, not the times, will be served.
Amen
Harvest 2015
The psalmist and St Paul would look on this day and rejoice and lament. There would be rejoicing with those who can harvest and lamentations with those who cannot.
We can lament too the passing of the idyll of a pastoral economy. Those who have such an economy today have no sense of idyll, only survival. No ‘sower and gatherer rejoicing together’. We cannot honestly celebrate some confection of a harmonious harvest-tide.
I have a little book here;
it tells us what the state of the planet is in;
it tells us what we might do about it;
it tells what we might hope for and so tells us what kind of harvest we might yet honestly celebrate, next year? It is a powerful little book from a powerful man, Pope Francis.
Published in June, it consists of 80 pages and 450,000 words. It is a letter to the world, an encyclical. It is entitled ‘Laudato si, (mi Signore)’. ‘Praise to you my Lord’, with the sub-title,
‘On Care for our Common Home’.
It is an inspiring work, so much so that I am studying it, stage by stage, as Pope Francis sets out his message, a timely contribution to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris is December.
It is a papal and moral imperative, it carries gravitas. It has already been widely read and even in the United States it has been seen as strong enough to bring about a new bill on climate change in the Senate.
This is excessively Christian, Pope Francis has artistically wrapped severe science in profound prayer. The first line coming from the famous Canticle of Creatures, by St. Francis,
‘Praise be to you through our sister, Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us, and who produces various fruits and coloured flowers and herbs’.
It is very well researched, referenced, and yet written in accessible language. It is for us, as the Pope intended, for discussion, dialogue and action.
He looks at the whole sense of decay and deterioration of our planetary existence.
This is social, economic, political, and natural. All are interrelated and, for him, derive from the spiritual crisis of humankind. War and refugees, poverty and homelessness, breakdown of social relationships, human abuse and trafficking, and the warming planet are all related.
For him, the external deserts of the world are becoming greater, because the void within the human soul is becoming vaster.
Pope Francis pulls no punches as he look at the state we are in and why. We have an ecological crisis, a geosystem in a critical state; he also says we have a western conspicuous consumeristic, egotistical, ‘throwaway’ culture and are turning the planet into a ‘pile of filth’ .
He goes on the state at length, with creditable scientific help, the problems we have and the gradual of actual erosion of our Mother earth. He reminds us that God saw, in our Genesis story, that ‘all was very good’, after His creation. After that, it has all been downhill.
He is very sensible in suggesting what we can do. Governments and policy makers, of course, need to be more aware. He speaks of the greater need for education at all levels; universities, schools, homes, media. He would love to see an ‘integrated ecology’, beyond politics and possessiveness through, recognised or not, to a humble prayerfulness. That is where the Christian church can come in.
So much of the planet’s problem is the problem of our human perversities.
In St Francis’ style, the Pope says attitude and behaviour change is what is needed as a base line; so that,
‘Consumption turns to Sacrifice,
Greed to Generosity
Wastefulness to the Spirit of Sharing’.
Through small gestures, disfigurement may be transfigured. In this he refers to St Therese of Lisieux and her practice of, ‘the little way of love’. Thatis,
‘Not to miss out on a kind word, a smile, any small gesture which sows peace and friendship’.
Importantly then, widen that out,
‘An integral global ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness’.
We might feel helpless here, but the Pope is strong on this ‘localness’ of change. What we do here takes on cosmic proportions when we read his views on this small thing we do here in Eucharist.
Pope Francis writes,
‘The Sacraments are a privileged way in which nature is taken up by God.’ #235. He continues, ‘It is in the Eucharist that has been created finds its greatest exaltation…Indeed the Eucharist itself is an act of cosmic love…even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation’. #236
‘In the meantime’ Pope Francis writes, ‘we come together to take charge of this home which has been entrusted to us’.
He also says, after the style of the Saint, ‘May we sing as we go! May our struggles and concerns for the planet never take away the joy of our hope.’
So our thoughts for this year’s Festival, may help and encourage us to do something, and maybe allow a ‘harvest’, of whatever kind, for someone next year who, this year, has none.
AMEN
Ref. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home, Encyclical Letter, Catholic Truth Society, June 2015. £4.95
We might be missing the whole point of ‘harvest’, in this day and age and culture, if we believed that the notion of the, ‘sower and gatherer’ rejoicing together was any kind of reality. The days of pastoral agrarian economy exists only in the developing nations; the hope there is that they will develop, into an economy like our own.
The problem is that the life of the planet is finite, and we making more finite through the economies like our own. We know that the planet’s greatest predator is the human being. We know the planet is in crisis, and we cry, ‘why doesn’t someone do something about it?’ We also know the answer to that. If nothing is done, then there will be no harvest of any kind, anywhere for anyone.
Now, thanks to John, I have been able to make a detailed study of the church’s latest thinking on our ‘global crisis’. In fact it is an impressive letter, an encyclical from Pope Francis I to the world.
It is worth just spending a few minutes with this letter, and for further study? Might be an Advent theme for us?
The letter is an excessively Christian look at an imminent, though not urgent, crisis.
Good start, middle and end. It has massive body of scholarship, and far reaching research. It is a conscience ‘tweaker,’ as well as giving practical advice re. what we can do and what should be done.
(précis Tertiary group). According to his name sake St Francis, the Pope begins with the great, ‘Canticle of the Creatures’.
The psalmist and St Paul would look on this day and rejoice and lament. There would be rejoicing with those who can harvest and lamentations with those who cannot.
We can lament too the passing of the idyll of a pastoral economy. Those who have such an economy today have no sense of idyll, only survival. No ‘sower and gatherer rejoicing together’. We cannot honestly celebrate some confection of a harmonious harvest-tide.
I have a little book here;
it tells us what the state of the planet is in;
it tells us what we might do about it;
it tells what we might hope for and so tells us what kind of harvest we might yet honestly celebrate, next year? It is a powerful little book from a powerful man, Pope Francis.
Published in June, it consists of 80 pages and 450,000 words. It is a letter to the world, an encyclical. It is entitled ‘Laudato si, (mi Signore)’. ‘Praise to you my Lord’, with the sub-title,
‘On Care for our Common Home’.
It is an inspiring work, so much so that I am studying it, stage by stage, as Pope Francis sets out his message, a timely contribution to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris is December.
It is a papal and moral imperative, it carries gravitas. It has already been widely read and even in the United States it has been seen as strong enough to bring about a new bill on climate change in the Senate.
This is excessively Christian, Pope Francis has artistically wrapped severe science in profound prayer. The first line coming from the famous Canticle of Creatures, by St. Francis,
‘Praise be to you through our sister, Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us, and who produces various fruits and coloured flowers and herbs’.
It is very well researched, referenced, and yet written in accessible language. It is for us, as the Pope intended, for discussion, dialogue and action.
He looks at the whole sense of decay and deterioration of our planetary existence.
This is social, economic, political, and natural. All are interrelated and, for him, derive from the spiritual crisis of humankind. War and refugees, poverty and homelessness, breakdown of social relationships, human abuse and trafficking, and the warming planet are all related.
For him, the external deserts of the world are becoming greater, because the void within the human soul is becoming vaster.
Pope Francis pulls no punches as he look at the state we are in and why. We have an ecological crisis, a geosystem in a critical state; he also says we have a western conspicuous consumeristic, egotistical, ‘throwaway’ culture and are turning the planet into a ‘pile of filth’ .
He goes on the state at length, with creditable scientific help, the problems we have and the gradual of actual erosion of our Mother earth. He reminds us that God saw, in our Genesis story, that ‘all was very good’, after His creation. After that, it has all been downhill.
He is very sensible in suggesting what we can do. Governments and policy makers, of course, need to be more aware. He speaks of the greater need for education at all levels; universities, schools, homes, media. He would love to see an ‘integrated ecology’, beyond politics and possessiveness through, recognised or not, to a humble prayerfulness. That is where the Christian church can come in.
So much of the planet’s problem is the problem of our human perversities.
In St Francis’ style, the Pope says attitude and behaviour change is what is needed as a base line; so that,
‘Consumption turns to Sacrifice,
Greed to Generosity
Wastefulness to the Spirit of Sharing’.
Through small gestures, disfigurement may be transfigured. In this he refers to St Therese of Lisieux and her practice of, ‘the little way of love’. Thatis,
‘Not to miss out on a kind word, a smile, any small gesture which sows peace and friendship’.
Importantly then, widen that out,
‘An integral global ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness’.
We might feel helpless here, but the Pope is strong on this ‘localness’ of change. What we do here takes on cosmic proportions when we read his views on this small thing we do here in Eucharist.
Pope Francis writes,
‘The Sacraments are a privileged way in which nature is taken up by God.’ #235. He continues, ‘It is in the Eucharist that has been created finds its greatest exaltation…Indeed the Eucharist itself is an act of cosmic love…even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation’. #236
‘In the meantime’ Pope Francis writes, ‘we come together to take charge of this home which has been entrusted to us’.
He also says, after the style of the Saint, ‘May we sing as we go! May our struggles and concerns for the planet never take away the joy of our hope.’
So our thoughts for this year’s Festival, may help and encourage us to do something, and maybe allow a ‘harvest’, of whatever kind, for someone next year who, this year, has none.
AMEN
Ref. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home, Encyclical Letter, Catholic Truth Society, June 2015. £4.95
We might be missing the whole point of ‘harvest’, in this day and age and culture, if we believed that the notion of the, ‘sower and gatherer’ rejoicing together was any kind of reality. The days of pastoral agrarian economy exists only in the developing nations; the hope there is that they will develop, into an economy like our own.
The problem is that the life of the planet is finite, and we making more finite through the economies like our own. We know that the planet’s greatest predator is the human being. We know the planet is in crisis, and we cry, ‘why doesn’t someone do something about it?’ We also know the answer to that. If nothing is done, then there will be no harvest of any kind, anywhere for anyone.
Now, thanks to John, I have been able to make a detailed study of the church’s latest thinking on our ‘global crisis’. In fact it is an impressive letter, an encyclical from Pope Francis I to the world.
It is worth just spending a few minutes with this letter, and for further study? Might be an Advent theme for us?
The letter is an excessively Christian look at an imminent, though not urgent, crisis.
Good start, middle and end. It has massive body of scholarship, and far reaching research. It is a conscience ‘tweaker,’ as well as giving practical advice re. what we can do and what should be done.
(précis Tertiary group). According to his name sake St Francis, the Pope begins with the great, ‘Canticle of the Creatures’.
13th September 2015
Patronal Festival
There is a whole spectrum of views about our Patron, Saint Mary.
These views are as a rainbow, ordered by their distinct differences yet forming a whole thing of beauty. The sun comes through the rain; Mary lets the light of her Son shine through the rain of humanity.
There as many responses to Mary as there are people who would stop to consider her.
Immediately she evokes a response as ‘Mother’, as we consider the uniqueness of our own! We will have our own ‘take’ on Mary then, and so to speak of her can quite easily offend someone’s sensibilities.
In that rainbow, views range from Mary being excessively human to being severely divine.
In the human rainbow zone, Mary may be nothing more than ‘every-woman’ who gives birth to a baby. For some, she may be just the one who, sometime in history, somewhere in Palestine, gave birth to a baby at around Christmas-time.
Controversies over this feminine figure have always festered and still do; these controversies are of course within the patriarchal religions. Islam, Judaism and Christianity, where the one God is male, and it is He who rules the household of faith. That being so, what part the feminine? That’s where all the debates start!
In Christianity, St Mary, as the feminine principle, has to be part of, what is known as the, ‘divine economy’; it is Mary who provides the genetic material for, ‘The Word to become Flesh’. Thus Mary is the ‘supreme’ mother. She moves then from an historical figure to a cosmic one.
She is imbued with many titles and, for some; Mary does indeed take on ‘Divinity’, as she is considered in the highest realms of thought in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Traditions.
Co-Redemptrix; here she takes on the function, alongside her Son, as the feminine equal co-redeemer
Co-Creatrix; here she takes on the function, with the Father, as feminine co-creator. In some quarters then, the Holy Trinity becomes the Holy Quaternity, as the feminine provides the gender balance.
Lesser functions are Reparatrix; repairer of relationships and Mediatrix; the vicar’s wife syndrome!
Easier to accept is the function of Theotokus, the ‘God-bearer’.
There are the main doctrines: Perpetual Virginity; the Assumption; the Virgin birth and the Immaculate Conception. Then again Mary provides the feminine corrective as the umbrella ‘sophia’, the holy wisdom.
Already we are overloaded with what the church has overloaded St Mary with.
(Rightly or wrongly we use Mary to our suit own causes, to oil our over squeaky wheels! To ease the breech position we’ve got ourselves into! We might be a socialist and so we need a poor struggling Mary; a genderist and need a powerful woman; a psychologist who needs a balanced personality; an ecologist, needing a carer for the earth.)
Also, rightly or wrongly, Mary becomes the one we may tend to turn to in time of trouble. Mary comes as the mother and the feminine when we are in need.
This seems especially so, as we know in cultures where both poverty and the Roman Catholic Church are dominant. We know, just for an example, the cultures say in South America. Here we get the fascinating localised, names from folk-lore and legend and even wider mythology. There is a countless number. She is called upon as the child would call upon the mother.
The vast majority give her a name related to, sometimes heart rending, human need. Here are just a few examples: - Deliverer of all Christian Nations; Helper of All in Danger; Lady of Good Help; Queen of Africa; Lily among Thorns; Star of the Sea; My Body’s Healing; Only Bridge of God to Men; Our Lady of Perpetual Help; … of Sorrows, of Tears; Our Lady of Milk and Happy Delivery; Protectress from All Hurt; ‘Mary, our baiter of hooks’; Un learned in the Ways of Eve.
Such is Mary, as we have made her. In scripture, all we know is that she was the young maid, chosen by God to be the bearer of His Son. Mary co-operated with the Divine plan. She lived her life according to that beginning.
Thereafter, the simple functions render her as ‘Mother’: Mother of God; the church; the earth and nature. In this role, rightly or wrongly, Mary represents what we might call, real or imagined, the ‘ideal of the feminine’.
Maybe today, the tables might be turned. What response does St Mary, our Patron, demand from us?
Mary invokes her own need and points to the need of many- she was the one who saw there was no wine left at the wedding. Yet, in that need she points to and goes to her Son. The Icon shows this devotion. In all this there is a brokenness that she knows about- the icon is ‘broken’. Through her observations, Mary then evokes compassion from us.
I suspect she would want us to be humble people of quiet prayer and to co-operate with her Son, in the hidden care of the poor and the lost.
Today, we offer our devotion in thankfulness, for all that St Mary teaches us personally, and as His Body, the Church. With her nurture, may we continue to grow, as did her Son, in stature and in wisdom. At very best here, let us pray that we not discredit her.
Amen
Patronal Festival
There is a whole spectrum of views about our Patron, Saint Mary.
These views are as a rainbow, ordered by their distinct differences yet forming a whole thing of beauty. The sun comes through the rain; Mary lets the light of her Son shine through the rain of humanity.
There as many responses to Mary as there are people who would stop to consider her.
Immediately she evokes a response as ‘Mother’, as we consider the uniqueness of our own! We will have our own ‘take’ on Mary then, and so to speak of her can quite easily offend someone’s sensibilities.
In that rainbow, views range from Mary being excessively human to being severely divine.
In the human rainbow zone, Mary may be nothing more than ‘every-woman’ who gives birth to a baby. For some, she may be just the one who, sometime in history, somewhere in Palestine, gave birth to a baby at around Christmas-time.
Controversies over this feminine figure have always festered and still do; these controversies are of course within the patriarchal religions. Islam, Judaism and Christianity, where the one God is male, and it is He who rules the household of faith. That being so, what part the feminine? That’s where all the debates start!
In Christianity, St Mary, as the feminine principle, has to be part of, what is known as the, ‘divine economy’; it is Mary who provides the genetic material for, ‘The Word to become Flesh’. Thus Mary is the ‘supreme’ mother. She moves then from an historical figure to a cosmic one.
She is imbued with many titles and, for some; Mary does indeed take on ‘Divinity’, as she is considered in the highest realms of thought in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Traditions.
Co-Redemptrix; here she takes on the function, alongside her Son, as the feminine equal co-redeemer
Co-Creatrix; here she takes on the function, with the Father, as feminine co-creator. In some quarters then, the Holy Trinity becomes the Holy Quaternity, as the feminine provides the gender balance.
Lesser functions are Reparatrix; repairer of relationships and Mediatrix; the vicar’s wife syndrome!
Easier to accept is the function of Theotokus, the ‘God-bearer’.
There are the main doctrines: Perpetual Virginity; the Assumption; the Virgin birth and the Immaculate Conception. Then again Mary provides the feminine corrective as the umbrella ‘sophia’, the holy wisdom.
Already we are overloaded with what the church has overloaded St Mary with.
(Rightly or wrongly we use Mary to our suit own causes, to oil our over squeaky wheels! To ease the breech position we’ve got ourselves into! We might be a socialist and so we need a poor struggling Mary; a genderist and need a powerful woman; a psychologist who needs a balanced personality; an ecologist, needing a carer for the earth.)
Also, rightly or wrongly, Mary becomes the one we may tend to turn to in time of trouble. Mary comes as the mother and the feminine when we are in need.
This seems especially so, as we know in cultures where both poverty and the Roman Catholic Church are dominant. We know, just for an example, the cultures say in South America. Here we get the fascinating localised, names from folk-lore and legend and even wider mythology. There is a countless number. She is called upon as the child would call upon the mother.
The vast majority give her a name related to, sometimes heart rending, human need. Here are just a few examples: - Deliverer of all Christian Nations; Helper of All in Danger; Lady of Good Help; Queen of Africa; Lily among Thorns; Star of the Sea; My Body’s Healing; Only Bridge of God to Men; Our Lady of Perpetual Help; … of Sorrows, of Tears; Our Lady of Milk and Happy Delivery; Protectress from All Hurt; ‘Mary, our baiter of hooks’; Un learned in the Ways of Eve.
Such is Mary, as we have made her. In scripture, all we know is that she was the young maid, chosen by God to be the bearer of His Son. Mary co-operated with the Divine plan. She lived her life according to that beginning.
Thereafter, the simple functions render her as ‘Mother’: Mother of God; the church; the earth and nature. In this role, rightly or wrongly, Mary represents what we might call, real or imagined, the ‘ideal of the feminine’.
Maybe today, the tables might be turned. What response does St Mary, our Patron, demand from us?
Mary invokes her own need and points to the need of many- she was the one who saw there was no wine left at the wedding. Yet, in that need she points to and goes to her Son. The Icon shows this devotion. In all this there is a brokenness that she knows about- the icon is ‘broken’. Through her observations, Mary then evokes compassion from us.
I suspect she would want us to be humble people of quiet prayer and to co-operate with her Son, in the hidden care of the poor and the lost.
Today, we offer our devotion in thankfulness, for all that St Mary teaches us personally, and as His Body, the Church. With her nurture, may we continue to grow, as did her Son, in stature and in wisdom. At very best here, let us pray that we not discredit her.
Amen
6th September 2015
Lepers, Lepers and Samaria
Trinity 14.
The overwhelming message of this parable is, the expression of gratitude, simply saying, ‘thank you’, but there is more. Interwoven with ideas of gratitude are various issues around Luke, Lepers and Samaria.
As we address Luke, the writer of the gospel and the book of The Acts, from scriptures we see Luke as the ‘beloved physician’. ‘Dr Luke’, we could call him. We know Dr Luke had some specific agendas and several of them are in the weave of today’s gospel. We believe that Dr Luke was a companion to Paul, and probably his personal physician. He never spoke about himself; that was his professionalism and his natural humility.
In his narratives, more than any of the other gospel writers, we find blatant compassion, a sense of care for the excluded, the outcasts like the poor, and the women of the time, and even ‘those’ people from Samaria. That being the case, we notice that, in his gospel, we have the Good Samaritan, we have the Samaritan woman at the well and today we have the double whammy of these lepers in Samaria. Luke really portrays Our Lord as the Messiah, whose power lies not in a call to arms, but in the call to compassion.
Above all, (as we shall see with the leper who gave thanks), Dr Luke is the physician of the soul, and he sees the human being as the reflection of the Trinitarian God; as humans we are, body, soul and spirit. We are, as you know, tricotomous beings!
So the leper is a human being, and his ‘treatment’ demonstrates Our Lord’s ministry, according to Dr. Luke. The majority view, in the then society, was that, leprosy was seen to be a sign of the general sinfulness of humanity; in a way it was a ‘communal disease’, and the ones chosen to suffer for the sins of the people became the scapegoated ones. In the Levitical Law, the leper, ‘..remains unclean; he must live alone; he must live outside the camp’. (Lev. 13.46). At best they might live together in a leprosarium. It was still exclusion, like in our old asylums, was a way of minimal contagion, and a way of not being reminded of our sins! There is the replica here of course, as Jesus was himself crucified outside the city walls, scapegoated for the sins of us all.
In the biblical society, the leper had to be ‘unclean’, and any contact would risk contagion, and in a religious sense for the Jews, it meant a spiritual defilement. So, forced into isolation, left to the process of the fatal disease, with no access to the holiness of the Temple, the leper was forced into disease beyond the body only. It became a disease of spirit, soul and body. Dr Luke has Jesus to be the ‘table-turner’.
In our story today, when the men came to meet Him as he came to a village, Our Lord does not run away; he does not see them as unclean, but as the whole person they may yet be. It demanded a faith by them, for when they went away from Him they were not healed. It was only as they were going away to show themselves to the priests, (so to verify this healing), did they realise they were healed.
There is no indication that the nine were ungrateful; they must have been so over-joyed that it slipped their minds to turn back and say, ‘thank you’. Only one had that presence of mind.
Luke really makes his point here, for this all happened as Jesus was walking in the border-lands between Samaria and Galilee. He trod the perimeter of both areas, being available on either side, hence the ‘leprous Samaritan’.
I am mindful that, last week when talking about the ‘Good Samaritan’, I said very little about the significance of this Samaritan presence, a presence which was anathema to the Jewish world.
The rift between Samaritans and Jews, although both originally of the same bloodline, stretches far back into biblical history, to the death of Solomon, in 975BC. The mutual anathema had tribal roots, territorial roots, social, political and religious roots. The worst event was the building of the Samaritan Temple, on Mount Gerazim, in competition with Jerusalem for Yahweh’s residence. There was a history of open, tit for tat, hostilities.
Just an example, 108 BC, during the Maccabean wars, the Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple and ravaged the land.
The Samaritans, around the time of Christ’s birth, desecrated the Jerusalem temple, by raiding the graves and scattering the bones of the dead in the sanctuary.
There was real mutual hatred, of longstanding, and deserves a whole study of itself. However, here some healing of that relationship was a sub-surface desire shown in these stories and parables of Dr Luke.
In so many ways the dispute is still live, when we see that most of the so called ‘West Bank’ of the Palestinians is ethnically and geographically ‘Samaritan’.
We have then this leprous ‘foreigner’, who returned to say ‘thank you’, He had been ‘made well’. The Greek word for this, ‘sozo’, carries the meaning of being healed from spiritual disease and death; the other nine were just ‘cleansed’, ‘tharizo’. ‘Sozo’ is also the used for salvation. So the foreign leper, for Jesus and Luke, was the challenge to Jewry. That whole cycle of healing was made complete, when he returned to give thanks.
All this is early first century, yet it is timeless Christian teaching. We still read St Paul, probably under the influence of Dr Luke, ending his first letter to the Thessalonians,
‘Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’.
Amen
Lepers, Lepers and Samaria
Trinity 14.
The overwhelming message of this parable is, the expression of gratitude, simply saying, ‘thank you’, but there is more. Interwoven with ideas of gratitude are various issues around Luke, Lepers and Samaria.
As we address Luke, the writer of the gospel and the book of The Acts, from scriptures we see Luke as the ‘beloved physician’. ‘Dr Luke’, we could call him. We know Dr Luke had some specific agendas and several of them are in the weave of today’s gospel. We believe that Dr Luke was a companion to Paul, and probably his personal physician. He never spoke about himself; that was his professionalism and his natural humility.
In his narratives, more than any of the other gospel writers, we find blatant compassion, a sense of care for the excluded, the outcasts like the poor, and the women of the time, and even ‘those’ people from Samaria. That being the case, we notice that, in his gospel, we have the Good Samaritan, we have the Samaritan woman at the well and today we have the double whammy of these lepers in Samaria. Luke really portrays Our Lord as the Messiah, whose power lies not in a call to arms, but in the call to compassion.
Above all, (as we shall see with the leper who gave thanks), Dr Luke is the physician of the soul, and he sees the human being as the reflection of the Trinitarian God; as humans we are, body, soul and spirit. We are, as you know, tricotomous beings!
So the leper is a human being, and his ‘treatment’ demonstrates Our Lord’s ministry, according to Dr. Luke. The majority view, in the then society, was that, leprosy was seen to be a sign of the general sinfulness of humanity; in a way it was a ‘communal disease’, and the ones chosen to suffer for the sins of the people became the scapegoated ones. In the Levitical Law, the leper, ‘..remains unclean; he must live alone; he must live outside the camp’. (Lev. 13.46). At best they might live together in a leprosarium. It was still exclusion, like in our old asylums, was a way of minimal contagion, and a way of not being reminded of our sins! There is the replica here of course, as Jesus was himself crucified outside the city walls, scapegoated for the sins of us all.
In the biblical society, the leper had to be ‘unclean’, and any contact would risk contagion, and in a religious sense for the Jews, it meant a spiritual defilement. So, forced into isolation, left to the process of the fatal disease, with no access to the holiness of the Temple, the leper was forced into disease beyond the body only. It became a disease of spirit, soul and body. Dr Luke has Jesus to be the ‘table-turner’.
In our story today, when the men came to meet Him as he came to a village, Our Lord does not run away; he does not see them as unclean, but as the whole person they may yet be. It demanded a faith by them, for when they went away from Him they were not healed. It was only as they were going away to show themselves to the priests, (so to verify this healing), did they realise they were healed.
There is no indication that the nine were ungrateful; they must have been so over-joyed that it slipped their minds to turn back and say, ‘thank you’. Only one had that presence of mind.
Luke really makes his point here, for this all happened as Jesus was walking in the border-lands between Samaria and Galilee. He trod the perimeter of both areas, being available on either side, hence the ‘leprous Samaritan’.
I am mindful that, last week when talking about the ‘Good Samaritan’, I said very little about the significance of this Samaritan presence, a presence which was anathema to the Jewish world.
The rift between Samaritans and Jews, although both originally of the same bloodline, stretches far back into biblical history, to the death of Solomon, in 975BC. The mutual anathema had tribal roots, territorial roots, social, political and religious roots. The worst event was the building of the Samaritan Temple, on Mount Gerazim, in competition with Jerusalem for Yahweh’s residence. There was a history of open, tit for tat, hostilities.
Just an example, 108 BC, during the Maccabean wars, the Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple and ravaged the land.
The Samaritans, around the time of Christ’s birth, desecrated the Jerusalem temple, by raiding the graves and scattering the bones of the dead in the sanctuary.
There was real mutual hatred, of longstanding, and deserves a whole study of itself. However, here some healing of that relationship was a sub-surface desire shown in these stories and parables of Dr Luke.
In so many ways the dispute is still live, when we see that most of the so called ‘West Bank’ of the Palestinians is ethnically and geographically ‘Samaritan’.
We have then this leprous ‘foreigner’, who returned to say ‘thank you’, He had been ‘made well’. The Greek word for this, ‘sozo’, carries the meaning of being healed from spiritual disease and death; the other nine were just ‘cleansed’, ‘tharizo’. ‘Sozo’ is also the used for salvation. So the foreign leper, for Jesus and Luke, was the challenge to Jewry. That whole cycle of healing was made complete, when he returned to give thanks.
All this is early first century, yet it is timeless Christian teaching. We still read St Paul, probably under the influence of Dr Luke, ending his first letter to the Thessalonians,
‘Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’.
Amen
30th August 2015
Good Samaritan
This parable is one to die for!
It is foundational about what we believe.
It could be one to die for, in that, say we were in the company of ISIS in northern Iraq; could we deny that we live our lives according to that piece of Jesus’ teachings?
We might put ourselves at risk and die, should we jump into that ditch.
At the same time, it is a parable to live for!
It gives each of us the motivation, and the method to save lives.
Each of us now knows how to save someone’s life should we hap upon another mugged by life’s events.
The principles in this parabolic story show us how to be a life-saver.
This life saving commitment of Christianity has shown itself, in countless ways, since the telling of this parable. One of those ways is known universally, and that is the movement named after this parable, ‘The Samaritans’.
It was founded, as you may or may not already know, by The Revd. Chad Varah. (Just by the way he was born on Barton, 1911); one time a parish priest east London and hospital chaplain in Battersea; also script writer. Busy, he wrote, ‘There was no time to discover whether I was happy or not’.
He had the ‘light-bulb’ moment; he had to bury a 14 year old girl who had killed herself when her periods started. She had thought, it was found in her diary, that she had had a sexually transmitted disease. He quietly wrote, ‘This had a profound affect on me’. It plunged Chad Varah into a mission: Too many suicides. Nobody except the emergency services there. He began being available, people sought him out, ‘it is so easy to save lives’, he wrote. He came out with the campaign to have another emergency service, another emergency number for suicidal people. He prayed though, ‘O God, be reasonable! Don’t look at me, I’m probably the busiest person in the Church of England’.
He began alone but gradually helpers came. These phone-line befrienders grew in number; on Nov. 2nd 1953, Chad Varah said, ‘Over to you, Samaritans’. He promised not to interfere with them,
‘My job now’ , he said, ‘is to organise this all over the world, until suicide becomes unimportant as a cause of death’.
Chad Varah, applied the parable; he put his own life on the line, in order that others could be saved.
We have the parable;
So, ‘once upon a time’, Jesus tells the story of the Samaritan for the benefit of this legal, somewhat slippery, expert in the Mosaic Law.
There is the clever banter, and Jesus shows how his ideas are firmly based in the Law, yet they are new and progressive. His disciples are to learn content and method. Luke tells the story of Jesus telling the story and we read this story within the story. There has to be a good base line story here, to survive-worth living for, and even dying for!
Somewhere at some time, on this bumpy, robber strewn, 17 mile long treacherously winding desert road, uphill from Jericho to Jerusalem, a man lays mugged.
Three people pass near, only one stops. The first two were on their way to the temple. As priest and Levite, they were about their religious duty. We do not know why they kept going. We assume that they did not want to put themselves at risk.
Physical risk, yes, but there was risk of being defiled, and the breaking of the temple purity laws. (4 yards to a dead person; human blood).
The man from Samaria was outside of those rules. He only had the risk for his safety. He came ‘near-by’ ; that is the definition of neighbour, outside of the rigorous Jewry, (only family or associate). We know he had compassion; he gave ongoing practical help; he expected nothing in return. This principle is for now
Here Jesus is speaking of practical loving and of neighbour as the one near year you and may well be in need.
This is simple and foundational; to live or die for. It is still highly relevant today, as we help, or not, our neighbours in need. Sometimes our inter-cession has to be come inter-vention.
We can pray for the man who jumped from the 10th floor flat in Bilton; intercede for the American TV Presenter and for a reform of gun-laws. Who was there at that lonely snap-point? Loneliness is the killer, the life-taker; the Samaritan, by being there is the life-saver.
On the world scene, just one example of who is my neighbour; who is jumping in the ditch with the countless migrants on their Jericho Roads? I have to tell you that someone has; one of our homeless outreach volunteers, bringing food and love from us, has been in Calais all week.
On a global scale, our greatest enemy, of course, is widespread indifference, apathy.. Added is the un-helpful, institutional, viral controlling obstructionism in giving no help to those who need it.
Later Chad Varah, disentangled himself from the Samaritans. What Jesus teaches here was foundational, but he saw the Samaritans had deviated from their foundation. There was another death which shook him. So the story goes the helper, at the desperate cry of the client, asked, ‘Do you want me to call an ambulance?’ ; the person said , ‘no’, then promptly committed suicide.
For Chad Varah, this was political correctness gone too far, and could not embrace this ‘empowering the client’, approach in this instance.
He felt that there are times when we must be like the good Samaritan,; stop; go to; be with; do emergency care as is needed; get to some help; follow up. The mugged person on the Jericho Road needed quick immediate, life-saving help. When someone does not have the ‘capacity’ to know that need help, then help must be given, until they realise that they needed it. Sometimes, we have to take control when helplessness creeps in. That’s the modern Samaritan; that is the parable for today. .Jesus told his disciples, Luke told the church, and the church still tells the story. If that Samaritan had not bothered then we would not be able to tell our grandchildren the story. This is such a life giving parable that the churches martyrs gave their lives because they could never deny it and because they looked to that life eternal. Amen.
Good Samaritan
This parable is one to die for!
It is foundational about what we believe.
It could be one to die for, in that, say we were in the company of ISIS in northern Iraq; could we deny that we live our lives according to that piece of Jesus’ teachings?
We might put ourselves at risk and die, should we jump into that ditch.
At the same time, it is a parable to live for!
It gives each of us the motivation, and the method to save lives.
Each of us now knows how to save someone’s life should we hap upon another mugged by life’s events.
The principles in this parabolic story show us how to be a life-saver.
This life saving commitment of Christianity has shown itself, in countless ways, since the telling of this parable. One of those ways is known universally, and that is the movement named after this parable, ‘The Samaritans’.
It was founded, as you may or may not already know, by The Revd. Chad Varah. (Just by the way he was born on Barton, 1911); one time a parish priest east London and hospital chaplain in Battersea; also script writer. Busy, he wrote, ‘There was no time to discover whether I was happy or not’.
He had the ‘light-bulb’ moment; he had to bury a 14 year old girl who had killed herself when her periods started. She had thought, it was found in her diary, that she had had a sexually transmitted disease. He quietly wrote, ‘This had a profound affect on me’. It plunged Chad Varah into a mission: Too many suicides. Nobody except the emergency services there. He began being available, people sought him out, ‘it is so easy to save lives’, he wrote. He came out with the campaign to have another emergency service, another emergency number for suicidal people. He prayed though, ‘O God, be reasonable! Don’t look at me, I’m probably the busiest person in the Church of England’.
He began alone but gradually helpers came. These phone-line befrienders grew in number; on Nov. 2nd 1953, Chad Varah said, ‘Over to you, Samaritans’. He promised not to interfere with them,
‘My job now’ , he said, ‘is to organise this all over the world, until suicide becomes unimportant as a cause of death’.
Chad Varah, applied the parable; he put his own life on the line, in order that others could be saved.
We have the parable;
So, ‘once upon a time’, Jesus tells the story of the Samaritan for the benefit of this legal, somewhat slippery, expert in the Mosaic Law.
There is the clever banter, and Jesus shows how his ideas are firmly based in the Law, yet they are new and progressive. His disciples are to learn content and method. Luke tells the story of Jesus telling the story and we read this story within the story. There has to be a good base line story here, to survive-worth living for, and even dying for!
Somewhere at some time, on this bumpy, robber strewn, 17 mile long treacherously winding desert road, uphill from Jericho to Jerusalem, a man lays mugged.
Three people pass near, only one stops. The first two were on their way to the temple. As priest and Levite, they were about their religious duty. We do not know why they kept going. We assume that they did not want to put themselves at risk.
Physical risk, yes, but there was risk of being defiled, and the breaking of the temple purity laws. (4 yards to a dead person; human blood).
The man from Samaria was outside of those rules. He only had the risk for his safety. He came ‘near-by’ ; that is the definition of neighbour, outside of the rigorous Jewry, (only family or associate). We know he had compassion; he gave ongoing practical help; he expected nothing in return. This principle is for now
Here Jesus is speaking of practical loving and of neighbour as the one near year you and may well be in need.
This is simple and foundational; to live or die for. It is still highly relevant today, as we help, or not, our neighbours in need. Sometimes our inter-cession has to be come inter-vention.
We can pray for the man who jumped from the 10th floor flat in Bilton; intercede for the American TV Presenter and for a reform of gun-laws. Who was there at that lonely snap-point? Loneliness is the killer, the life-taker; the Samaritan, by being there is the life-saver.
On the world scene, just one example of who is my neighbour; who is jumping in the ditch with the countless migrants on their Jericho Roads? I have to tell you that someone has; one of our homeless outreach volunteers, bringing food and love from us, has been in Calais all week.
On a global scale, our greatest enemy, of course, is widespread indifference, apathy.. Added is the un-helpful, institutional, viral controlling obstructionism in giving no help to those who need it.
Later Chad Varah, disentangled himself from the Samaritans. What Jesus teaches here was foundational, but he saw the Samaritans had deviated from their foundation. There was another death which shook him. So the story goes the helper, at the desperate cry of the client, asked, ‘Do you want me to call an ambulance?’ ; the person said , ‘no’, then promptly committed suicide.
For Chad Varah, this was political correctness gone too far, and could not embrace this ‘empowering the client’, approach in this instance.
He felt that there are times when we must be like the good Samaritan,; stop; go to; be with; do emergency care as is needed; get to some help; follow up. The mugged person on the Jericho Road needed quick immediate, life-saving help. When someone does not have the ‘capacity’ to know that need help, then help must be given, until they realise that they needed it. Sometimes, we have to take control when helplessness creeps in. That’s the modern Samaritan; that is the parable for today. .Jesus told his disciples, Luke told the church, and the church still tells the story. If that Samaritan had not bothered then we would not be able to tell our grandchildren the story. This is such a life giving parable that the churches martyrs gave their lives because they could never deny it and because they looked to that life eternal. Amen.
16th August 2015.
Trinity Eleven.
(Luke 18. V.9)
The Pharisee and the Publican
I think we can be assured here at St Mary’s that we could not being accused of being like Pharisees.
You see, to be a Pharisee it was necessary to adhere to all the Temple rules. There was a particular rule about the manner of going to and from their place of worship. Going there, they were to go ‘nimbly, in haste’, and even run; coming away, was to go very slowly and gently; it was written, ‘let him not take large steps; but let him walk, little by little, or take short steps’.
We seem to have reversed that order!
The parable, we know it well. Like all parables, seemingly simple on the surface, it has several shades of meaning, so it is always as much as the story as about how we hear it. Jesus, generally handed his audience the story, stepped aside and then let them get on with their own response to it.
Here we have the boastful Pharisee and the desolate publican. Their positions will be reversed. All parties are Jewish. The Pharisee was part of that very elect section of religious Judaism. They are the great observers of the Law, those who pray and fast a lot in public.
The Publican, the public officer, the tax-collector, was Jewish by nation, but was in the employ of the Romans. Taxes were extortionate, so having to collect them from the poorest was ‘traumatic’ to say the least, to all. He was out-casted by all his Jewish families. Jesus, the Jew, sought to teach them both.
The parable, delivered uniquely while they were all on holy ground, is directed to the Pharisees, and it is, in a way, a loving gesture by Our Lord.
He speaks to them of one of their own kind. He explains that to attain righteousness and indeed to attain the Kingdom of Heaven; they were going about it in the wrong way. You cannot put yourself above everyone else, you cannot put others down. Rather, the way to the Kingdom of Heaven is to begin as this publican here, by confession and repentance.
In a way Jesus here is saying that God seems to have quite selective hearing; preferring not to hear the shouts of the ‘Pharisee’, rather He hears the whisper of the penitent publican.
Having heard this parable so many times, it is very easy to hear what we have always heard; we can tend only to hear the same shout and can easily miss the whisper of another meaning.
Shouts and whispers; so often they tend to be spontaneous, and simultaneous; out of the blue and at the same time.
Working in the medical world helped me to learn something about these shouts and whispers.
Working in A & E; it was so easy to wait for the shout of the siren and miss the quiet cough in a far booth. It was the same on the Oil Rig, the shout of the helicopter, and whisper of the severed finger somewhere, or man o’board. On noisy hospital wards, trolleys for everything, easy to miss the change in someone’s breathe. The GP might be shouted at by someone’s gout pain, and miss the quite abnormal murmur in the heart.
Then what about the whisper in the rubble of war; the whisper of the dying person? We can so often miss the all-important, often lifesaving whispers.
Whenever and, wherever, there is a ‘shout’, there will be a ‘whisper’. The shout of triumph at the Victory in Japan, drowned the whisper of the ‘forgotten army’ and the tens of thousands of victims.
To perceive that which lies beneath the surface is what the mystics meant as the, ‘ear of the ear’; it the ear that hears the whisper of God. In a way, the stethoscope of the physician…the ear of the ear which finds the whisper that could save life.
The shaded, whispered meaning in the parable, is that the Pharisee, too busy shouting about being a good Pharisee, too preoccupied with his own agenda; so full of himself, could not possibly hear the life-saving whisper of the humbled and repentant publican; repentance being the first step on the spiritual path.
We may not rush to church, but we still have to watch-out for our Pharisee selves. Should we be so full of our own agenda, we shall hear neither the whisper of our neighbour nor of God.
Amen. (whispered).
Trinity Eleven.
(Luke 18. V.9)
The Pharisee and the Publican
I think we can be assured here at St Mary’s that we could not being accused of being like Pharisees.
You see, to be a Pharisee it was necessary to adhere to all the Temple rules. There was a particular rule about the manner of going to and from their place of worship. Going there, they were to go ‘nimbly, in haste’, and even run; coming away, was to go very slowly and gently; it was written, ‘let him not take large steps; but let him walk, little by little, or take short steps’.
We seem to have reversed that order!
The parable, we know it well. Like all parables, seemingly simple on the surface, it has several shades of meaning, so it is always as much as the story as about how we hear it. Jesus, generally handed his audience the story, stepped aside and then let them get on with their own response to it.
Here we have the boastful Pharisee and the desolate publican. Their positions will be reversed. All parties are Jewish. The Pharisee was part of that very elect section of religious Judaism. They are the great observers of the Law, those who pray and fast a lot in public.
The Publican, the public officer, the tax-collector, was Jewish by nation, but was in the employ of the Romans. Taxes were extortionate, so having to collect them from the poorest was ‘traumatic’ to say the least, to all. He was out-casted by all his Jewish families. Jesus, the Jew, sought to teach them both.
The parable, delivered uniquely while they were all on holy ground, is directed to the Pharisees, and it is, in a way, a loving gesture by Our Lord.
He speaks to them of one of their own kind. He explains that to attain righteousness and indeed to attain the Kingdom of Heaven; they were going about it in the wrong way. You cannot put yourself above everyone else, you cannot put others down. Rather, the way to the Kingdom of Heaven is to begin as this publican here, by confession and repentance.
In a way Jesus here is saying that God seems to have quite selective hearing; preferring not to hear the shouts of the ‘Pharisee’, rather He hears the whisper of the penitent publican.
Having heard this parable so many times, it is very easy to hear what we have always heard; we can tend only to hear the same shout and can easily miss the whisper of another meaning.
Shouts and whispers; so often they tend to be spontaneous, and simultaneous; out of the blue and at the same time.
Working in the medical world helped me to learn something about these shouts and whispers.
Working in A & E; it was so easy to wait for the shout of the siren and miss the quiet cough in a far booth. It was the same on the Oil Rig, the shout of the helicopter, and whisper of the severed finger somewhere, or man o’board. On noisy hospital wards, trolleys for everything, easy to miss the change in someone’s breathe. The GP might be shouted at by someone’s gout pain, and miss the quite abnormal murmur in the heart.
Then what about the whisper in the rubble of war; the whisper of the dying person? We can so often miss the all-important, often lifesaving whispers.
Whenever and, wherever, there is a ‘shout’, there will be a ‘whisper’. The shout of triumph at the Victory in Japan, drowned the whisper of the ‘forgotten army’ and the tens of thousands of victims.
To perceive that which lies beneath the surface is what the mystics meant as the, ‘ear of the ear’; it the ear that hears the whisper of God. In a way, the stethoscope of the physician…the ear of the ear which finds the whisper that could save life.
The shaded, whispered meaning in the parable, is that the Pharisee, too busy shouting about being a good Pharisee, too preoccupied with his own agenda; so full of himself, could not possibly hear the life-saving whisper of the humbled and repentant publican; repentance being the first step on the spiritual path.
We may not rush to church, but we still have to watch-out for our Pharisee selves. Should we be so full of our own agenda, we shall hear neither the whisper of our neighbour nor of God.
Amen. (whispered).
9th August 2015
Trinity Ten
The Weeping
Luke 19. v. 41
Several themes intertwine in the gospel of today:
We see the importance of the holy city of Jerusalem; we take a look at the Temple; there is the visitation we see the weeping and the angry Jesus, and so we see the very human side of God. In the words of Stephen Fry, ‘Emotions are the sign of our humanity’, and so we glimpse expressions of the God made Man.
Jerusalem, as the City of David, has experienced continued human habitation for over 3000 years. The original name means, ‘possession of peace’ or, ‘foundation of peace’, first appearing in Genesis as ‘Salem’.
The City is the hub of the Judeo-Christian history. The great biblical characters, David, Solomon, Joshua, Samuel, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar passed through. Jesus passed through. Egyptians, Assyrians, Jebusites, Persians, Mohammedans, Romans, Turks, British, Israelis have variously occupied the City. Religiously it has variously experience Jewish, Muslim and Christian domination; today all three share that domination in, as we know, an uneasy peace.
Jesus visits the City. Rather like a political leader these days, where there is a crisis, natural or political, we see that a head of state ‘pays a visit’. Equally, in the Church of England, we have Archdeacons’ visitations.
In that first century AD, there was a crisis in Jerusalem; there was the critical Roman occupation; there was a crisis with the ‘chosen people’ and the ‘chosen land’, as to which god was to be worshipped; Mammon was supreme. God made this visitation when Jerusalem was in crisis.
In God’s eyes, the Temple too, the symbol core of the spiritual life of the ‘chosen people’, the place of prayer, was also in crises. For the Jew, Jerusalem is the Temple;
(it still is, as mosques face Mecca, all synagogues face the remaining wall of the original temple)
for the Temple is the very dwelling of God, the house of the Ark of The Covenant, the repository of the Divine, God spoken Commandments; the Law of Sinai given to Moses and to the ‘chosen people’ for all time. The ‘crisis’ that Jesus high-lighted was that He was not recognised; that God was not seen to be visiting.
The original Temple was constructed under Solomon with very specific instructions for design and construction. We can read this in the first Book of Kings ch.6. The Temple is an architectural wonder and a pattern for the spiritual progress of the human soul to God. It is prayer in stone.
There is the porch, then the outer courts, the holy place, the inner sanctuary and the ‘holy of holies’, where the ark of the covenant resided.
Our churches follow a similar pattern; the church yard, the nave, the choir, the sanctuary; the three ascending steps of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to bring us to the very altar of God, where the Blessed Sacrament is. Here, also is prayer in stone.
Each part of the physical temple was holy ground, from porch to altar, because in each place the praying pilgrim is on the journey towards God. Later medieval mystics and the Carol Divines advanced our thinking that,
each human soul is seen to be a temple of the presence of God.
Importantly, as Jesus arrived in the Holy City and He saw the ‘crisis’ that God Incarnate was not being recognised; that the very Messiah, whom the people longed for, was being ignored; He wept. ‘Emotions are a sign of our humanity’, and Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, shows his humanity.
Given that the Temple in the Holy City and each temple soul, in Jesus’ eyes, had now lost the Divine plot, the only possible Divine/human immediate and remaining response was for Him to weep.
We weep for so many reasons. Often our tears, at any loss, are selfish. Sometimes we can weep at the despair of another. Sometimes we weep out of frustration.
Jesus seemed to have wept out of sheer despair that God’s very people had lost all direction, lost their map for the symbolic journey through the temple to God.
Then, as our Lord’s footfall reached the outer threshold of the temple, he could see those who were actually physically preventing this pilgrim progress. He saw the scandalous pay-day lenders of the time. He saw the unworthy intruders on holy ground.
The wrong use of the outer courts sent out all the wrong messages to the passers-by or pilgrim enquirers after God. His despairing tears then became the tears of anger. The anger led to the turning over of that corrupting influence, the turning over of the worldly minded, turning over their business dealing, turning over their ideas and ideals, effectively and, actually, ‘turning over their tables’.
The revolving of the tables marked the beginning of the revolution; this was the divine revolution. This was ‘the table turning’ for the then religious world. It was a human revolution also, for here man began the plot to crucify the divine. This happened as we know, and as we sing, near the Temple of Jerusalem, on a green hill outside the city walls.
Amen
Trinity Ten
The Weeping
Luke 19. v. 41
Several themes intertwine in the gospel of today:
We see the importance of the holy city of Jerusalem; we take a look at the Temple; there is the visitation we see the weeping and the angry Jesus, and so we see the very human side of God. In the words of Stephen Fry, ‘Emotions are the sign of our humanity’, and so we glimpse expressions of the God made Man.
Jerusalem, as the City of David, has experienced continued human habitation for over 3000 years. The original name means, ‘possession of peace’ or, ‘foundation of peace’, first appearing in Genesis as ‘Salem’.
The City is the hub of the Judeo-Christian history. The great biblical characters, David, Solomon, Joshua, Samuel, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar passed through. Jesus passed through. Egyptians, Assyrians, Jebusites, Persians, Mohammedans, Romans, Turks, British, Israelis have variously occupied the City. Religiously it has variously experience Jewish, Muslim and Christian domination; today all three share that domination in, as we know, an uneasy peace.
Jesus visits the City. Rather like a political leader these days, where there is a crisis, natural or political, we see that a head of state ‘pays a visit’. Equally, in the Church of England, we have Archdeacons’ visitations.
In that first century AD, there was a crisis in Jerusalem; there was the critical Roman occupation; there was a crisis with the ‘chosen people’ and the ‘chosen land’, as to which god was to be worshipped; Mammon was supreme. God made this visitation when Jerusalem was in crisis.
In God’s eyes, the Temple too, the symbol core of the spiritual life of the ‘chosen people’, the place of prayer, was also in crises. For the Jew, Jerusalem is the Temple;
(it still is, as mosques face Mecca, all synagogues face the remaining wall of the original temple)
for the Temple is the very dwelling of God, the house of the Ark of The Covenant, the repository of the Divine, God spoken Commandments; the Law of Sinai given to Moses and to the ‘chosen people’ for all time. The ‘crisis’ that Jesus high-lighted was that He was not recognised; that God was not seen to be visiting.
The original Temple was constructed under Solomon with very specific instructions for design and construction. We can read this in the first Book of Kings ch.6. The Temple is an architectural wonder and a pattern for the spiritual progress of the human soul to God. It is prayer in stone.
There is the porch, then the outer courts, the holy place, the inner sanctuary and the ‘holy of holies’, where the ark of the covenant resided.
Our churches follow a similar pattern; the church yard, the nave, the choir, the sanctuary; the three ascending steps of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to bring us to the very altar of God, where the Blessed Sacrament is. Here, also is prayer in stone.
Each part of the physical temple was holy ground, from porch to altar, because in each place the praying pilgrim is on the journey towards God. Later medieval mystics and the Carol Divines advanced our thinking that,
each human soul is seen to be a temple of the presence of God.
Importantly, as Jesus arrived in the Holy City and He saw the ‘crisis’ that God Incarnate was not being recognised; that the very Messiah, whom the people longed for, was being ignored; He wept. ‘Emotions are a sign of our humanity’, and Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, shows his humanity.
Given that the Temple in the Holy City and each temple soul, in Jesus’ eyes, had now lost the Divine plot, the only possible Divine/human immediate and remaining response was for Him to weep.
We weep for so many reasons. Often our tears, at any loss, are selfish. Sometimes we can weep at the despair of another. Sometimes we weep out of frustration.
Jesus seemed to have wept out of sheer despair that God’s very people had lost all direction, lost their map for the symbolic journey through the temple to God.
Then, as our Lord’s footfall reached the outer threshold of the temple, he could see those who were actually physically preventing this pilgrim progress. He saw the scandalous pay-day lenders of the time. He saw the unworthy intruders on holy ground.
The wrong use of the outer courts sent out all the wrong messages to the passers-by or pilgrim enquirers after God. His despairing tears then became the tears of anger. The anger led to the turning over of that corrupting influence, the turning over of the worldly minded, turning over their business dealing, turning over their ideas and ideals, effectively and, actually, ‘turning over their tables’.
The revolving of the tables marked the beginning of the revolution; this was the divine revolution. This was ‘the table turning’ for the then religious world. It was a human revolution also, for here man began the plot to crucify the divine. This happened as we know, and as we sing, near the Temple of Jerusalem, on a green hill outside the city walls.
Amen
2nd August 2015
Trinity Nine.
Unjust Steward.
(Luke 16. V.1-13)
Last year, this reading came up, we side-stepped it. It came up the year before, we side-stepped it. Correction; I side-stepped it! In fact, for the thirty years plus I have looked at that gospel passage, I have side-stepped it!
This is the first-time of preaching! I assure you I shall not do it again for another thirty!
The main question, the crux of the parable, is ‘how is it that an unfaithful steward, about to be relieved of his position for mismanagement, gains praise from his employer when he goes on to steal more from him?’
We are not alone in confusion. The great scholars have embarrassed themselves with not being able to agree about the meaning, calling it, ‘the prince among the difficult parables’ and ‘a notorious puzzle’. There are several issues, cleverly intertwined, with several ways to interpret as ever. There are also issues to challenge us in terms of life-style choices.
It seems that there are two ways of seeing the parable as a whole;
o Where the steward’s actions are fraudulent and dishonest:
o Where the steward’s actions are just and honest. Somehow the steward seems to make restitution to employer yet showing charity to those in debt
In context, the Parable of the Unjust Steward is the fourth in line of the ‘lost-ness’ parables; the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son were the first three. They were addressed to the Pharisees round about him, who had criticised his associating with ‘sinners’. The parables speak of Jesus’ seeking out and accepting the worst of us!
This fourth parable was told to a mixed audience, directed toward the Pharisees but for the learning of the disciples.
We do know though, that this was another nail in his coffin, for later we are told, ‘The Pharisees, who were lovers of money heard all these things.’ (v.14.), and they sought to justify themselves before men.
The parable is unusual here; normally in parables like this, there is a good person, the shepherd, the loving father; here both parties are potentially dodgy.
Even so, one aspect of the parable we know about, is that you and I, and all humanity, according to the Creation story in Genesis, are stewards of all that the Lord our God created. One reminder about how far we are active in caring for the planet; about global warming, droughts and human suffering? Are we ‘green’? Do we use the blue bin?
Equally, in many ways we are stewards in everything that we do, for a steward does not own anything. Effectively, we are stewards at home, at work, when alone.
Again, the parable asks us to think about the idea of ownership! As my aborigine friends would tell me, ‘we do not own the land,if anything, the land owns us’.
Back to the parable, interestingly, despite what seems to be dodgy practice, the unjust steward is commended by his master.
This is not for the actual ‘robbery’, but for his brilliant planning, for his being so shrewd!!! It was his astuteness that was praised. This was something the disciples needed to learn. Also he showed the qualities of, ‘wisdom, activity, prudence, perseverance, foresight and consistency’, again somethings the disciples needed to learn. The ways of the unholy to guide the holy ones.
Worldly methods could be applied spiritually. So as we have in the leaflet, ‘the steward is a rascal, but a wonderfully clever rascal’. The implication is perhaps, in our stewardship methods, that we might be harmless rascals!
In terms of being charitable; some think he may have been giving away his own money; others say he had been overcharging in the first place!
For the Christian, the overall implication in the parable is that, those good attributes of the rascal may be applied in the process of almsgiving. Somehow, the implication is that the ends justify the means.
Strangely, we are to make ‘friends with unrighteous mammon’. This takes us into the other layer of meaning, where the end of this world and the world to come looms large, with the eternal habitations.
Here, though, we find a strange idea. Some suggest that this is Jesus ‘cocking a snoop’, challenging the Pharisees and hence his disciples with, ‘so you think you can have eternal life if you make friends with this lot’!!!
It is hard to imaging Jesus using irony, but that was part of the market place rhetoric, and would have been one of his teaching methods.
The purpose of the parable, as a whole, boils down. It is simply to encourage us to take a fundamental evaluation of possessions in the light of the Kingdom. Such evaluation is to lead the wise disciple to use his possessions in the service of the needy. Basically, ‘charity to the poor is proper stewardship of God’s wealth’.
A final question would be that, were the structures of our ‘stewardships’ taken away, what would we do? ‘I cannot dig, I am ashamed to beg.’
Amen.
Trinity Nine.
Unjust Steward.
(Luke 16. V.1-13)
Last year, this reading came up, we side-stepped it. It came up the year before, we side-stepped it. Correction; I side-stepped it! In fact, for the thirty years plus I have looked at that gospel passage, I have side-stepped it!
This is the first-time of preaching! I assure you I shall not do it again for another thirty!
The main question, the crux of the parable, is ‘how is it that an unfaithful steward, about to be relieved of his position for mismanagement, gains praise from his employer when he goes on to steal more from him?’
We are not alone in confusion. The great scholars have embarrassed themselves with not being able to agree about the meaning, calling it, ‘the prince among the difficult parables’ and ‘a notorious puzzle’. There are several issues, cleverly intertwined, with several ways to interpret as ever. There are also issues to challenge us in terms of life-style choices.
It seems that there are two ways of seeing the parable as a whole;
o Where the steward’s actions are fraudulent and dishonest:
o Where the steward’s actions are just and honest. Somehow the steward seems to make restitution to employer yet showing charity to those in debt
In context, the Parable of the Unjust Steward is the fourth in line of the ‘lost-ness’ parables; the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son were the first three. They were addressed to the Pharisees round about him, who had criticised his associating with ‘sinners’. The parables speak of Jesus’ seeking out and accepting the worst of us!
This fourth parable was told to a mixed audience, directed toward the Pharisees but for the learning of the disciples.
We do know though, that this was another nail in his coffin, for later we are told, ‘The Pharisees, who were lovers of money heard all these things.’ (v.14.), and they sought to justify themselves before men.
The parable is unusual here; normally in parables like this, there is a good person, the shepherd, the loving father; here both parties are potentially dodgy.
Even so, one aspect of the parable we know about, is that you and I, and all humanity, according to the Creation story in Genesis, are stewards of all that the Lord our God created. One reminder about how far we are active in caring for the planet; about global warming, droughts and human suffering? Are we ‘green’? Do we use the blue bin?
Equally, in many ways we are stewards in everything that we do, for a steward does not own anything. Effectively, we are stewards at home, at work, when alone.
Again, the parable asks us to think about the idea of ownership! As my aborigine friends would tell me, ‘we do not own the land,if anything, the land owns us’.
Back to the parable, interestingly, despite what seems to be dodgy practice, the unjust steward is commended by his master.
This is not for the actual ‘robbery’, but for his brilliant planning, for his being so shrewd!!! It was his astuteness that was praised. This was something the disciples needed to learn. Also he showed the qualities of, ‘wisdom, activity, prudence, perseverance, foresight and consistency’, again somethings the disciples needed to learn. The ways of the unholy to guide the holy ones.
Worldly methods could be applied spiritually. So as we have in the leaflet, ‘the steward is a rascal, but a wonderfully clever rascal’. The implication is perhaps, in our stewardship methods, that we might be harmless rascals!
In terms of being charitable; some think he may have been giving away his own money; others say he had been overcharging in the first place!
For the Christian, the overall implication in the parable is that, those good attributes of the rascal may be applied in the process of almsgiving. Somehow, the implication is that the ends justify the means.
Strangely, we are to make ‘friends with unrighteous mammon’. This takes us into the other layer of meaning, where the end of this world and the world to come looms large, with the eternal habitations.
Here, though, we find a strange idea. Some suggest that this is Jesus ‘cocking a snoop’, challenging the Pharisees and hence his disciples with, ‘so you think you can have eternal life if you make friends with this lot’!!!
It is hard to imaging Jesus using irony, but that was part of the market place rhetoric, and would have been one of his teaching methods.
The purpose of the parable, as a whole, boils down. It is simply to encourage us to take a fundamental evaluation of possessions in the light of the Kingdom. Such evaluation is to lead the wise disciple to use his possessions in the service of the needy. Basically, ‘charity to the poor is proper stewardship of God’s wealth’.
A final question would be that, were the structures of our ‘stewardships’ taken away, what would we do? ‘I cannot dig, I am ashamed to beg.’
Amen.
26th July 2015
False Prophets.
(Matt.ch.7 v15-21)
The short passage from St Matthew is the last section of what we know as, ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. We know it well, beginning with, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’.
The Sermon itself is resplendent with our Lord’s teaching of care and discipleship.
It is the icon of the Kingdom of Heaven; it was Jesus setting out his stall; God’s ‘magna carta’. For the serious seeker, St Augustine wrote, the Sermon is, ‘the perfect standard of the Christian life’.
Importantly, it marks the great shift from the Old to the New Covenant; the beginnings of understanding, again as Augustine had it, “That the ‘New’ is hidden in the ‘Old’ and the ‘Old’ revealed in the ‘New”.
It remains eternally precious. Being so precious meant that it had to come with the safeguarding clause of this morning;
‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves’
or, the ‘wolvish ravening lamb’ of Shakespeare.
It is a phrase we know well; like many phrases from this Sermon, it has crept into common parlance and into our books of sayings and maxims.
We know them, we quote them as they fit any circumstance;
the salt of the earth; the light of the world; turning the other cheek; going the extra mile; love your enemies; do your alms giving and praying in secret; your treasure is where your heart is; we cannot have God and Mammon; we are not to worry about the morrow; and then there is the ‘Lord’s Prayer’.
This is a wonderful package, full of arcane and homespun wisdom. It is new package to burst upon the shores of the Mediterranean pond, shores always in religious ferment. ‘Behold’, he said, ‘I make all things new’.
All this is a precious revelation and so the pearl had to be safeguarded and not to be cast before the swine! The thing about wolves who wear sheep’s clothing, we need to remember even today, is that they outwardly appear to be Christian.
In the Galilee of Jesus, sheep were highly valued; the believers too became valuable flocks. The wolves were a severe threat. The metaphor was a real one.
Here we have ‘ravening’ ones; the meaning is ‘voracious’ and ‘predatory’. Here we also have ‘inward’, this devouring nature cloaked in the skin of innocence. Jesus and indeed Matthew urged caution, for the wolves will come as one of you and infiltrate, and destroy the Body of Christ. When Jesus taught, it was not the Pharisees He was worrying about; it is quite likely he foresaw his betrayer his enemy within the Judas. Judas the infiltrator of the sacred select, responsible for the actual, literal brokenness of Christ’s body.
False prophets there will always be; St Paul warned the church in Galatia, of the wickedness of heart and opposition to all that is true, but they will injure you and for their own gain.
These wolves know what they are doing. They are the knowing ‘enemy within’.
Do you remember our famous ‘enemy within’? 1984-85? Margaret Thatcher? A good Methodist was she; the one who called Arthur Scargill and other miners unions’ leaders as the ‘enemy within’. She accused them of threatening personal liberty and the processes of democracy. This worm had turned and the truth later came out, that the true ‘enemy within’ was the MI5, and her intelligence officers. These, ‘wolf-like’, had infiltrated the unions and through a massive smear campaign, tried to discredit the whole movement. Things were not as they seemed! The wolf within was ravenous and as we know, the effects were disastrous.
This is the stuff of espionage and counter espionage, the stuff of the ‘mole’, the deadly virus in our own bodies. We know it happens all the time in the world of political intrigue. The ‘ravenous wolf’ is the extremist, the grooming abuser, the one who ‘creeps’ into our houses through the media and internet.
‘The wolf’ appears always and everywhere people gather in ‘group’. There is always the ‘deceiving usurper’.
The shadow side of any creative group is the destructive loner.
‘Beware!’, says Our Lord; the warning remains powerful. It is still relevant.
Having said all that, we must not forget the sheer preciousness of this treasured Charter that he wanted protected. We cannot lock the gems away, though, through fear or paranoia; they are not our gems!
When He finished the whole Sermon on the Mount, we are told that, ‘the people there were amazed’. We cannot deprive folk from being amazed. As we dare to share our faith, we as his precious ones, are ourselves protected. When we go out, as if lambs to the slaughter or, as sheep among wolves, we ourselves are safeguarded; the warning is to remain, ‘wise as serpents yet harmless as doves’.
Amen
False Prophets.
(Matt.ch.7 v15-21)
The short passage from St Matthew is the last section of what we know as, ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. We know it well, beginning with, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’.
The Sermon itself is resplendent with our Lord’s teaching of care and discipleship.
It is the icon of the Kingdom of Heaven; it was Jesus setting out his stall; God’s ‘magna carta’. For the serious seeker, St Augustine wrote, the Sermon is, ‘the perfect standard of the Christian life’.
Importantly, it marks the great shift from the Old to the New Covenant; the beginnings of understanding, again as Augustine had it, “That the ‘New’ is hidden in the ‘Old’ and the ‘Old’ revealed in the ‘New”.
It remains eternally precious. Being so precious meant that it had to come with the safeguarding clause of this morning;
‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves’
or, the ‘wolvish ravening lamb’ of Shakespeare.
It is a phrase we know well; like many phrases from this Sermon, it has crept into common parlance and into our books of sayings and maxims.
We know them, we quote them as they fit any circumstance;
the salt of the earth; the light of the world; turning the other cheek; going the extra mile; love your enemies; do your alms giving and praying in secret; your treasure is where your heart is; we cannot have God and Mammon; we are not to worry about the morrow; and then there is the ‘Lord’s Prayer’.
This is a wonderful package, full of arcane and homespun wisdom. It is new package to burst upon the shores of the Mediterranean pond, shores always in religious ferment. ‘Behold’, he said, ‘I make all things new’.
All this is a precious revelation and so the pearl had to be safeguarded and not to be cast before the swine! The thing about wolves who wear sheep’s clothing, we need to remember even today, is that they outwardly appear to be Christian.
In the Galilee of Jesus, sheep were highly valued; the believers too became valuable flocks. The wolves were a severe threat. The metaphor was a real one.
Here we have ‘ravening’ ones; the meaning is ‘voracious’ and ‘predatory’. Here we also have ‘inward’, this devouring nature cloaked in the skin of innocence. Jesus and indeed Matthew urged caution, for the wolves will come as one of you and infiltrate, and destroy the Body of Christ. When Jesus taught, it was not the Pharisees He was worrying about; it is quite likely he foresaw his betrayer his enemy within the Judas. Judas the infiltrator of the sacred select, responsible for the actual, literal brokenness of Christ’s body.
False prophets there will always be; St Paul warned the church in Galatia, of the wickedness of heart and opposition to all that is true, but they will injure you and for their own gain.
These wolves know what they are doing. They are the knowing ‘enemy within’.
Do you remember our famous ‘enemy within’? 1984-85? Margaret Thatcher? A good Methodist was she; the one who called Arthur Scargill and other miners unions’ leaders as the ‘enemy within’. She accused them of threatening personal liberty and the processes of democracy. This worm had turned and the truth later came out, that the true ‘enemy within’ was the MI5, and her intelligence officers. These, ‘wolf-like’, had infiltrated the unions and through a massive smear campaign, tried to discredit the whole movement. Things were not as they seemed! The wolf within was ravenous and as we know, the effects were disastrous.
This is the stuff of espionage and counter espionage, the stuff of the ‘mole’, the deadly virus in our own bodies. We know it happens all the time in the world of political intrigue. The ‘ravenous wolf’ is the extremist, the grooming abuser, the one who ‘creeps’ into our houses through the media and internet.
‘The wolf’ appears always and everywhere people gather in ‘group’. There is always the ‘deceiving usurper’.
The shadow side of any creative group is the destructive loner.
‘Beware!’, says Our Lord; the warning remains powerful. It is still relevant.
Having said all that, we must not forget the sheer preciousness of this treasured Charter that he wanted protected. We cannot lock the gems away, though, through fear or paranoia; they are not our gems!
When He finished the whole Sermon on the Mount, we are told that, ‘the people there were amazed’. We cannot deprive folk from being amazed. As we dare to share our faith, we as his precious ones, are ourselves protected. When we go out, as if lambs to the slaughter or, as sheep among wolves, we ourselves are safeguarded; the warning is to remain, ‘wise as serpents yet harmless as doves’.
Amen
19th July 2015
Four or Five Thousand?
Of our Gospel writer, it has been said, ‘St.Mark has given us a simple, objective report of things as they had come to him in the tradition’.
His work is not as simple as it might seem. Mark, like his Lord, was a good teacher and good teachers, (as they were), tend to pose questions. The pupils are set to look for the answers. Whereas Jesus was the ‘Rabbi’, starting with the world of Jewry, Mark went to the Gentile world. Their models were the great Rabbinic schools of Jerusalem, where all is question and dialogue, an anything but simple process of bantering with ‘knowledge’.
The question before us today, ‘How is it, in Mark, that there are two ‘feedings? It seems strange that in chapter six of the Gospel, we have the feeding of the five thousand and, now in chapter eight, only four!
(We know the Gospel to have been written in Rome in the sixties, soon after Peter’s death, by one John Mark. He sought to show the Messiah, not as the great military saviour, as hoped for by many but, as Our Lord believed himself to be, the Messiah as, ‘The Suffering Servant’, and thus ‘The Son of Man’.)
In this suffering servanthood model, Jesus performed the miracles not for his own benefit or aggrandisement, but out of compassion for others and, as we know, to his own detriment in the end.
Jesus never took food to himself in his forty day wilderness, but God miraculously fed the wandering Hebrews in their forty years wilderness with the heavenly manna! We begin to see the helpless all powerful God.
The account of today takes us to the heart of both Mark’s and Jesus’ agendas and, it is a heart that we, at St. Mary’s, can take heart from.
Jesus, in this sign of the Kingdom, show himself as the suffering God yet, also is the God who can yet provide from an abundance.
Was the ‘four thousand event’ just the same event, but told differently for Mark’s own purposes? Or did Jesus actually have two mass ‘feedings’?
The jury is still out on that, but there are useful similarities and differences.
Mark begins though with, ‘another large crowd gathered’, so that seems to mean that it was a different occasion.
The pattern is essentially the same.
Jesus is teaching his disciples and a large hungry crowd gathers; they are far from home. Jesus has compassion; he consults with his disciples; they have small amount of food; everyone is to sit down; he gives thanks, (eucharistica), for the little amongst so many; the morsels are broken and given out by the disciples; all are fed and satisfied and then there are the leftovers, the all-important leftovers, which are gathered up.
The main differences are, briefly;
1. The first miracle was in Galilee, then as now, a Jewish region. The second was in the Decapolis, in the Gentile wilderness to the south-east.
2. In the first, the crowd had been with Jesus one day, in the second three days.
3. In the first, there were five loaves and two fishes, and in the second, seven loaves and few fishes.
4. In the first we see twelve ‘hand baskets’ for the left-overs and in the second, we have seven ‘hampers’, apparently the kind of large basket that you could hide in!
What we do see in Mark’s accounts is that; The need is there, ‘there is nothing to eat’; Love breaks out as Jesus ‘had compassion; Helplessness breaks out with the disciples, ‘how can we find enough food for so many?’ ; Trust breaks out, as they sat down.
God’s abundance breaks out as His supply even out-weighs our demand!
The pattern is not difficult to see here with the soup kitchen. We have the need, we have the compassion, we have very little, the miracle of God being that folk give.
Why would Jesus do the same miracle twice or Mark tell the same story twice?
They both taught, both wanted to build up their disciples’ faith in the God with whom all things are possible.
Importantly also, the Disciples had to learn ‘active servanthood’; this meant getting involved in the process of Eucharist, to celebrate with thanksgiving, but also to expand that celebration, to do some ‘hands on’ pastoral care as the ‘passing on’ of joy, the ‘distribution’ of Grace.
Another way of reading this passage altogether, is to use some imagination. As we read it, we can put ourselves in the story, as disciple, in the crowd, a far off bystander? Maybe we could put ourselves in the hamper, as a ‘leftover’, but somehow still being precious enough to be gathered up by the generous love of God?
In many ways we are invited onto the mountain of informed innocence; to exercise a simplicity of belief which eludes us in our sophistication, called to trust in God and in His Provision. We could, of course, continue to grub about, ‘Micawber like’, just stumbling along waiting for ‘something to turn up’?
Amen.
Four or Five Thousand?
Of our Gospel writer, it has been said, ‘St.Mark has given us a simple, objective report of things as they had come to him in the tradition’.
His work is not as simple as it might seem. Mark, like his Lord, was a good teacher and good teachers, (as they were), tend to pose questions. The pupils are set to look for the answers. Whereas Jesus was the ‘Rabbi’, starting with the world of Jewry, Mark went to the Gentile world. Their models were the great Rabbinic schools of Jerusalem, where all is question and dialogue, an anything but simple process of bantering with ‘knowledge’.
The question before us today, ‘How is it, in Mark, that there are two ‘feedings? It seems strange that in chapter six of the Gospel, we have the feeding of the five thousand and, now in chapter eight, only four!
(We know the Gospel to have been written in Rome in the sixties, soon after Peter’s death, by one John Mark. He sought to show the Messiah, not as the great military saviour, as hoped for by many but, as Our Lord believed himself to be, the Messiah as, ‘The Suffering Servant’, and thus ‘The Son of Man’.)
In this suffering servanthood model, Jesus performed the miracles not for his own benefit or aggrandisement, but out of compassion for others and, as we know, to his own detriment in the end.
Jesus never took food to himself in his forty day wilderness, but God miraculously fed the wandering Hebrews in their forty years wilderness with the heavenly manna! We begin to see the helpless all powerful God.
The account of today takes us to the heart of both Mark’s and Jesus’ agendas and, it is a heart that we, at St. Mary’s, can take heart from.
Jesus, in this sign of the Kingdom, show himself as the suffering God yet, also is the God who can yet provide from an abundance.
Was the ‘four thousand event’ just the same event, but told differently for Mark’s own purposes? Or did Jesus actually have two mass ‘feedings’?
The jury is still out on that, but there are useful similarities and differences.
Mark begins though with, ‘another large crowd gathered’, so that seems to mean that it was a different occasion.
The pattern is essentially the same.
Jesus is teaching his disciples and a large hungry crowd gathers; they are far from home. Jesus has compassion; he consults with his disciples; they have small amount of food; everyone is to sit down; he gives thanks, (eucharistica), for the little amongst so many; the morsels are broken and given out by the disciples; all are fed and satisfied and then there are the leftovers, the all-important leftovers, which are gathered up.
The main differences are, briefly;
1. The first miracle was in Galilee, then as now, a Jewish region. The second was in the Decapolis, in the Gentile wilderness to the south-east.
2. In the first, the crowd had been with Jesus one day, in the second three days.
3. In the first, there were five loaves and two fishes, and in the second, seven loaves and few fishes.
4. In the first we see twelve ‘hand baskets’ for the left-overs and in the second, we have seven ‘hampers’, apparently the kind of large basket that you could hide in!
What we do see in Mark’s accounts is that; The need is there, ‘there is nothing to eat’; Love breaks out as Jesus ‘had compassion; Helplessness breaks out with the disciples, ‘how can we find enough food for so many?’ ; Trust breaks out, as they sat down.
God’s abundance breaks out as His supply even out-weighs our demand!
The pattern is not difficult to see here with the soup kitchen. We have the need, we have the compassion, we have very little, the miracle of God being that folk give.
Why would Jesus do the same miracle twice or Mark tell the same story twice?
They both taught, both wanted to build up their disciples’ faith in the God with whom all things are possible.
Importantly also, the Disciples had to learn ‘active servanthood’; this meant getting involved in the process of Eucharist, to celebrate with thanksgiving, but also to expand that celebration, to do some ‘hands on’ pastoral care as the ‘passing on’ of joy, the ‘distribution’ of Grace.
Another way of reading this passage altogether, is to use some imagination. As we read it, we can put ourselves in the story, as disciple, in the crowd, a far off bystander? Maybe we could put ourselves in the hamper, as a ‘leftover’, but somehow still being precious enough to be gathered up by the generous love of God?
In many ways we are invited onto the mountain of informed innocence; to exercise a simplicity of belief which eludes us in our sophistication, called to trust in God and in His Provision. We could, of course, continue to grub about, ‘Micawber like’, just stumbling along waiting for ‘something to turn up’?
Amen.
5 July
St Peter.
The ‘fisherman’, by nature is a man of depth and a man of distance.
The unknown of the depths are a lure in themselves, an unknown source of wonder and expectation, to see, what lies beneath and, what might be revealed. The distant horizon equally draws the gaze of longing, and the mystery again of what lies just over it.
Simon was a man of depth and distance and a fisherman of Galilee. What Simon was as a person, even when he was renamed as Peter, never altered. He maintained that courageous simplicity, always a man of depth and distance. What the Church has made of him subsequently, sadly, bears little resemblance to this historical figure.
Simon would have known nothing of life’s grandeurs, rather he would have only known the daily rhythms of laying and dragging his nets. He would have been a man who lived a simple life, with an extended family, financially on the ‘fish’ line. As a man of the hallowed Galilee, he was naturally a man of depth and distance. Maybe that was just what Jesus saw and valued, when he called him.
The call was absolute. Simon did not have much materially to leave behind, but all that he did have of that way of life, he had to cast aside, even his nets.
There is little that resembles Simon, come Peter, of Galilee, in our revered apostolic figure of today. What we have today, truly, is all an ecclesiastical confection. Only occasionally, does the essence of his way of being a disciple to Our Lord, break through into our contemporary consciousness.
In complete contrast to the scholarly Saul, come Paul, of Tarsus, all we know of Simon Peter has been written by someone else. Even our ‘Epistles General’, were written by someone else. I Peter was written early on, AD64, by Silvanus on his behalf. II Peter was written much later, around 150 and was probably an extension of Jude.
Our so called Petrine Doctrine and Theology, and most certainly any notion of papal infallibility, in no way would have been in the deeps of this fisherman, neither on his horizon. There lies great discrepancy between the essence of his first century ministry and our twenty-first century fripperies. Therein is the frailty of this divine-human institution we call, ‘church’.
This week around St Peter’s day, (29th), there has been much pomp and popery, at St Peter’s in Rome and St Peter’s in York. It is classically a time for ordinations and consecrations of
those who have been called, within the church structures, to be appointed to serve, and to serve the servants.
Of course it is a time to celebrate, but it is also a time for each of us, to challenge and check-out, what we mean by ministry. There are aspects of Peter that can assist.
There is a great simplicity about Peter.
Unlike Paul, with all his complexities, conversion and discipleship for Peter was simply, that of a total life change.
He learned that at the Lakeside, when he left everything and followed Him. That decision was his ‘life-changer’. It took him from a simple and stable lifestyle, to one of complete unknowing, to be an itinerant beggar, to move from ‘control to chaos’, to be dependent on the lead of someone else.
As a disciple he is seen as unpredictable. He asks questions and often gets things all wrong. Not the brightest, but arguably the most committed.
A competent boat man, he would give quick orders, make life-saving decisions, so he seems to become a ‘leader’ of sorts among the disciples, part of an inner circle as at the Transfiguration.
He affirms Jesus as the Christ, and he is given the title of, ‘the rock’, the foundation stone of the church which was to follow. From there we derive the ‘Primacy’ of Peter.
Then we have the Peter paradox, as we know, after the Gethsemane event, he states to the woman,
‘I do not know the man’.
This greatest of betrayals came rapidly after the greatest of affirmations.
He carried a humble penance for the rest of his life.
We see this penitential humility in Galilee at the resurrection appearance. He dived into the lake because he knew himself to be unworthy.
This was the great dive into the deep unknown work of his mission ahead.
After the Lord asked him three times if he loved Him, and he answered, ‘Yes’, he was then given the great commission, then ‘Feed my lambs and my sheep’.
His work took him far afield, even to Antioch, unlike Paul he went to the Gentiles, via Cornelius. He was a great miracle worker, (the passing of his shadow seemed to be enough), and he led the early church in Jerusalem, and is said to have been the founder of the church in Rome. It was in Rome that he met his death. He was martyred around 60AD under auspices of the Emperor Nero.
Poverty, simplicity, humility, and a powerful conviction drove Peter to preach, heal, and challenge. His life was of course gruelling and so far from our, oft times elevated, sense of ‘ministry’ today.
The present Pope realises this absolute dichotomy, and is trying hard to revive the spirt of Peter into a long standing pollution of his name through the machinations of the Vatican and the Church as a whole.
Pope Francis looks to the poor, he looks to our pollution of the natural world; he also looks to lead, and encourage us to lead a simpler life. Like Peter he has made many enemies in the world-wide corridors of power, both sacred and secular.
Even Anthony Quinn, in the film, ‘Shoes of the Fisherman’, gives us a clue to St Peter’s way. As reluctant Pope he is faced with global financial meltdown and a nuclear war stand-off. He is the only one left to avert total destruction, He proclaims,
‘I am the custodian of the wealth Church. I pledge it now-all our money, all our holdings in land, buildings, and great works of art-for the relief of our hungry brothers. And if, to honour this pledge, the Church must strip itself down to poverty, so be it. I will not alter this pledge; I will not reduce it. And now, I beg the great of the world and the small of the world, to share out of their abundance with those who have nothing’.
There was no pomp, or popery and, his power, the greatest paradox of Peter, was not power over, but under, in the power of poverty and, a humble obedience to the Gospel of Christ.
Peter is a good model for us who are ordained to follow the same Lord. He held on to who he was as a person, he remained a fisherman, ‘a fisher of men’, he was to be. With a rugged uncomplicated sincerity, he always dived into the deep of discipleship and ministry; dived into deep trouble, dived into a deep pastoral ministry, and dived into places other dare not in challenging life’s deep injustices, yet always keeping an eye on the distant, yet ever hopeful, horizon of resurrection.
At his martyrdom, there were no cross-keys of victory, only a cross of wood, upon which, through his humility, at his own request, was crucified upside down.
It was as if he took a final dive into the deep waters of the unknown.
Amen.
28th June 2015
Mote and Beam
In this season of ‘Trinity’, we can begin to see, even in a simple story, recorded both in Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospels, how the Holy Trinity operates.
We can come to see, as we live and breathe and have our being in the Christian way life, how all that we believe is infused by the ice of Creation, the water of Redemption and the vapour of Sanctification.
Today is no different, as we think around the great nugget of a saying, that of the, ‘Mote & Beam’. It is a saying, perhaps more than any other, that we have to ‘apply’ most often.
We have the redemptive words of the Son, expressing the uncompromising will of the Father, with the offer of Sanctification by the Holy Spirit. That is full ‘Gospel’.
This piece an early piece of Our Lord’s teaching, addressed to ‘new disciples’. New disciples are notoriously prone to the kind of damaging censorious spirit, quick to be damagingly critical; this is what Jesus is teaching against. It is now a move on in his teachings, from ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. Life for the disciples is now getting real and this saying, with the other warnings about ‘judgements’, forms part of what is known as the ‘The Sermon on the Plain’.
It is a piece of teaching still well known in the Arab and Jewish world of today, but has its roots in antiquity, from the Old Testament moral code, from the days when judges themselves were judged. It surely is something, all of us, as we operate remotely professionally, must bear in mind constantly.
So this is more about the brother to brother relationship. Especially, for one young in the faith, it is tempting to want to be justified in some way. One clumsy way of doing this is to pick up on a minor fault, a small imperfection, in someone else, being blind to the greater fault of one’s own.
It is a major issue for those living the monastic or religious life in the confines of a community.
We can also widen the whole issue about making judgements of others altogether. There are grades of approach to another person, we make ‘observations’ and then move into ‘assessment’, but then, how far those are ‘assessments’ judgemental to the extent that are highly critical, and damaging, to both parties.
The ‘mote and the beam’ is a story we surely must employ on a daily basis as we encounter people. I wonder how the bus driver sleeps, making observations through to judgements minute by minute!
The words are interesting. The Greek for ‘mote’ is ‘karphos’, carries the meaning, any ‘small dry body’ , ‘small particle’ or ‘small vegetable body’ ; we would imagine a ‘splinter’. Mote is from the Anglo Saxon, mot, and is our King James language. The word for ‘beam’ is that used in referring to the main cross-beam of a house.
This is a typical Middle-Eastern contrast story, the difference of mote from beam was laughable, as is therefore, the behaviour of the one who just cannot see his or her own faults; the one who cannot make that essential moral inventory of themselves. Jesus uses that desert humour.
So, The Trinity is at work, Jesus speaks the redemptive words which express the divine will of the Father. The Holy Spirit shows us the way to sanctify the situation.
We are to learn to pray for those with whom we find fault, and pray for ourselves, the ones with the greater fault. Prayer breaks up that spiral of negativity. Prayer turns the water of our humanity into the wine of divinity. If we do not heed the ‘mote and beam’ notion, then we heed not the Will of the Father, the Words of the Son or the Working of the Holy Spirit.
The application of this saying is, of course, time limited to our mortality.
In the time-limited Church of England our frail mortality has been well revealed in the things we have controversy over. Two are still around today: what do we do with the issues of ‘same sex marriage’, and women Bishops?
Today is not the time to debate the issues per se, for the contraries are well known, and the sides drawn up. It is the time though, to address the censorious spirit; it is a time for ‘motes and beams’.
This coming week we have new bishop being consecrated. Getting a new bishop is not a new as such, (I’ve been through 3 already!-others here a lot more), but what is unprecedented is that the person is feminine in gender. If ever there was one, this is a ‘mote and beam’ situation.
In obedience to the authority of the Church of England, of whom we are members, we pay our allegiance. A bishop, in the Church of England is a bishop according to the ‘Apostolic Tradition’. We each have opinions, and we each take a stance.
Sadly, we have a splitting of the ‘One Church’, that Our Lord prayed for.
This splitting is especially tragic in this case because, the Bishop, the ‘epi-scopus’, the one called to look over and look after us all, is also the appointed ‘focus of unity’.
We here only celebrate Eucharist, the ‘hoping for unifying ritual’ of the Church, only as an extension of the action of the Bishop.
(‘I get on with you. You get on with me; we just don’t get on together’. )
The time for long, profound and extensive debating is over. The time for the various excessive noises of triumphalism or defeatism is finished. Let us remember that, most noise in the swimming pool comes from the shallow end.
For all our beams, perhaps yet still hidden to us, but visible to everyone else, may we pray for the unity of the church, for all bishops in their ministry. We can still pray for right living and right relationships, as we take note of the,
Will of the Father, the Words of the Son, and the Working of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Mote and Beam
In this season of ‘Trinity’, we can begin to see, even in a simple story, recorded both in Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospels, how the Holy Trinity operates.
We can come to see, as we live and breathe and have our being in the Christian way life, how all that we believe is infused by the ice of Creation, the water of Redemption and the vapour of Sanctification.
Today is no different, as we think around the great nugget of a saying, that of the, ‘Mote & Beam’. It is a saying, perhaps more than any other, that we have to ‘apply’ most often.
We have the redemptive words of the Son, expressing the uncompromising will of the Father, with the offer of Sanctification by the Holy Spirit. That is full ‘Gospel’.
This piece an early piece of Our Lord’s teaching, addressed to ‘new disciples’. New disciples are notoriously prone to the kind of damaging censorious spirit, quick to be damagingly critical; this is what Jesus is teaching against. It is now a move on in his teachings, from ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. Life for the disciples is now getting real and this saying, with the other warnings about ‘judgements’, forms part of what is known as the ‘The Sermon on the Plain’.
It is a piece of teaching still well known in the Arab and Jewish world of today, but has its roots in antiquity, from the Old Testament moral code, from the days when judges themselves were judged. It surely is something, all of us, as we operate remotely professionally, must bear in mind constantly.
So this is more about the brother to brother relationship. Especially, for one young in the faith, it is tempting to want to be justified in some way. One clumsy way of doing this is to pick up on a minor fault, a small imperfection, in someone else, being blind to the greater fault of one’s own.
It is a major issue for those living the monastic or religious life in the confines of a community.
We can also widen the whole issue about making judgements of others altogether. There are grades of approach to another person, we make ‘observations’ and then move into ‘assessment’, but then, how far those are ‘assessments’ judgemental to the extent that are highly critical, and damaging, to both parties.
The ‘mote and the beam’ is a story we surely must employ on a daily basis as we encounter people. I wonder how the bus driver sleeps, making observations through to judgements minute by minute!
The words are interesting. The Greek for ‘mote’ is ‘karphos’, carries the meaning, any ‘small dry body’ , ‘small particle’ or ‘small vegetable body’ ; we would imagine a ‘splinter’. Mote is from the Anglo Saxon, mot, and is our King James language. The word for ‘beam’ is that used in referring to the main cross-beam of a house.
This is a typical Middle-Eastern contrast story, the difference of mote from beam was laughable, as is therefore, the behaviour of the one who just cannot see his or her own faults; the one who cannot make that essential moral inventory of themselves. Jesus uses that desert humour.
So, The Trinity is at work, Jesus speaks the redemptive words which express the divine will of the Father. The Holy Spirit shows us the way to sanctify the situation.
We are to learn to pray for those with whom we find fault, and pray for ourselves, the ones with the greater fault. Prayer breaks up that spiral of negativity. Prayer turns the water of our humanity into the wine of divinity. If we do not heed the ‘mote and beam’ notion, then we heed not the Will of the Father, the Words of the Son or the Working of the Holy Spirit.
The application of this saying is, of course, time limited to our mortality.
In the time-limited Church of England our frail mortality has been well revealed in the things we have controversy over. Two are still around today: what do we do with the issues of ‘same sex marriage’, and women Bishops?
Today is not the time to debate the issues per se, for the contraries are well known, and the sides drawn up. It is the time though, to address the censorious spirit; it is a time for ‘motes and beams’.
This coming week we have new bishop being consecrated. Getting a new bishop is not a new as such, (I’ve been through 3 already!-others here a lot more), but what is unprecedented is that the person is feminine in gender. If ever there was one, this is a ‘mote and beam’ situation.
In obedience to the authority of the Church of England, of whom we are members, we pay our allegiance. A bishop, in the Church of England is a bishop according to the ‘Apostolic Tradition’. We each have opinions, and we each take a stance.
Sadly, we have a splitting of the ‘One Church’, that Our Lord prayed for.
This splitting is especially tragic in this case because, the Bishop, the ‘epi-scopus’, the one called to look over and look after us all, is also the appointed ‘focus of unity’.
We here only celebrate Eucharist, the ‘hoping for unifying ritual’ of the Church, only as an extension of the action of the Bishop.
(‘I get on with you. You get on with me; we just don’t get on together’. )
The time for long, profound and extensive debating is over. The time for the various excessive noises of triumphalism or defeatism is finished. Let us remember that, most noise in the swimming pool comes from the shallow end.
For all our beams, perhaps yet still hidden to us, but visible to everyone else, may we pray for the unity of the church, for all bishops in their ministry. We can still pray for right living and right relationships, as we take note of the,
Will of the Father, the Words of the Son, and the Working of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
7th June 2015
Trinity 1
Creation.
Someone once said that the key to the Bible hangs by the front door, Genesis ch.1, v.1, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’.
On Trinity Sunday we spoke of the ‘Three-Fold’ work of God. The Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier.
[In the next weeks, as befits the season of Trinity, we can take a look at those aspects of God as Trinity and, as we are created in His image, how that impacts on the way we live our lives. This week then we can make a start and look at ‘Creating’.]
In our Communion service the priest, on receiving the bread and wine from the people, prays, either silently or aloud, ‘Blessed are you Lord God of all Creation…’. Once received, we all acknowledge that all things come from Him, and of His own do we give Him.
We believe that Father and Son and Holy Spirit, are One and were present at that mysterious developmental ‘point’ of all creation. There was an immediate division of labour. The Father, assisted by the brooding Spirit, is the one aspect of the Trinity who takes on the work of creating.
The Genesis myth is where we begin and it is a story of God creating ‘ex nihilo’, ‘out of nothing’. It speaks of a timeless process and remains for us, whether we believe or not, as a template process for all our creating processes and projects.
Just to remind ourselves, there are two accounts of Creation in Genesis, each differs from the other, one more a dogma the other more a narrative, they do, however, complement each other.
The writers of the chapters of Genesis, we also to remind ourselves, use the symbolism of the natural world to address the origins of a people Israel.
We speak of the similarities between spirituality and art, and what has to be a fundamental similarity, is the art and spirit of the act of creating- creating anything. There seem to be some agreed stages to this process, six working phases;
‘inspiration, clarification, distillation, perspiration, evaluation and incubation’.
All those stages seem to be present in Genesis, they also seem to be lie as yet unfurled before us on the empty canvas, the empty page, the void cooking bowl.
God’s inspiration was that brooding move of the Spirit over the chaos, void of any life, to bring about some order. His clarification comes with the separation of light from dark and land from sea. Distillation is the ongoing refinement, the making of the seeds and the coming of grass and the animals to feed upon the grass, and man to feed upon the animals. This is hard work and so there is perspiration!
God evaluated, and once mankind was in place, He saw it all and to Him, ‘it was very good’.
The seventh day, He rested and let it be, the work done, that is His stage of incubation.
So, we are in that creative process all the time and in so many different areas of our lives. We bob in and bob out those stages, they are not linear.
We might ask, given the way the world is, why did God bother? I guess the answer has to be that God’s motivation for the whole it all, came from His being Love. There is His sheer love of creating and love for His creation. Love unites the noun and the verb.
We edge towards His likeness when our humble acts of creating follow His divine template.
Amen
Trinity 1
Creation.
Someone once said that the key to the Bible hangs by the front door, Genesis ch.1, v.1, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’.
On Trinity Sunday we spoke of the ‘Three-Fold’ work of God. The Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier.
[In the next weeks, as befits the season of Trinity, we can take a look at those aspects of God as Trinity and, as we are created in His image, how that impacts on the way we live our lives. This week then we can make a start and look at ‘Creating’.]
In our Communion service the priest, on receiving the bread and wine from the people, prays, either silently or aloud, ‘Blessed are you Lord God of all Creation…’. Once received, we all acknowledge that all things come from Him, and of His own do we give Him.
We believe that Father and Son and Holy Spirit, are One and were present at that mysterious developmental ‘point’ of all creation. There was an immediate division of labour. The Father, assisted by the brooding Spirit, is the one aspect of the Trinity who takes on the work of creating.
The Genesis myth is where we begin and it is a story of God creating ‘ex nihilo’, ‘out of nothing’. It speaks of a timeless process and remains for us, whether we believe or not, as a template process for all our creating processes and projects.
Just to remind ourselves, there are two accounts of Creation in Genesis, each differs from the other, one more a dogma the other more a narrative, they do, however, complement each other.
The writers of the chapters of Genesis, we also to remind ourselves, use the symbolism of the natural world to address the origins of a people Israel.
We speak of the similarities between spirituality and art, and what has to be a fundamental similarity, is the art and spirit of the act of creating- creating anything. There seem to be some agreed stages to this process, six working phases;
‘inspiration, clarification, distillation, perspiration, evaluation and incubation’.
All those stages seem to be present in Genesis, they also seem to be lie as yet unfurled before us on the empty canvas, the empty page, the void cooking bowl.
God’s inspiration was that brooding move of the Spirit over the chaos, void of any life, to bring about some order. His clarification comes with the separation of light from dark and land from sea. Distillation is the ongoing refinement, the making of the seeds and the coming of grass and the animals to feed upon the grass, and man to feed upon the animals. This is hard work and so there is perspiration!
God evaluated, and once mankind was in place, He saw it all and to Him, ‘it was very good’.
The seventh day, He rested and let it be, the work done, that is His stage of incubation.
So, we are in that creative process all the time and in so many different areas of our lives. We bob in and bob out those stages, they are not linear.
We might ask, given the way the world is, why did God bother? I guess the answer has to be that God’s motivation for the whole it all, came from His being Love. There is His sheer love of creating and love for His creation. Love unites the noun and the verb.
We edge towards His likeness when our humble acts of creating follow His divine template.
Amen
31 May 2015
TRINITY 2015
Just to begin, outside of the sermon as such, it has been observed that the parish priest is like the Trinity, ‘we never see him during the week and we can’t understand him on Sundays’.
Now may I speak in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
+
There are some words that are spoken countless times every hour:
‘Go forth on your journey from this world, in the name of God the Father who created you, in the name of God the Son who redeemed you, and in the name of God the Holy Spirit who sanctified you; may the angels of God greet you, the saints of God welcome you, may your rest be this day in peace and your dwelling the paradise of God’.
At the graveside, these would be the last earthly words that I would say to the heavenward soul.
We invoke the Holy Trinity at the beginning and ending of our services, we baptise, we bless, absolve and consecrate in the Holy Name. We cross ourselves invoking the protection, help and guidance of the same.
They are, without doubt, words of faith, words of our Christian belief. This belief in the Holy Trinity is what sets us apart doctrinally from the other Abrahamic faith systems, Islam and Judaism.
We believe, as seen in those words, that we have a God who is at work. ‘Work is love made visible’, so wrote Kahil Gibran, and when ‘God is Love’, we celebrate the loving God who is at work, who gets on with His jobs of ‘creating, redeeming and sanctifying’.
We become acquainted, then, with our loving Triune God, through what we perceive as His threefold expressions; Creation, Redemption, Sanctification. Once ‘crossed’, the rest of our lives will be involved with, and learning of, God in all of those divine expressions.
The cerebral complexities we can only nod at as we pass through today. We have to remain alive to the idea of mystery, be caught up in the awesomeness of the ‘almightiness’. As the great Jewish Theologian , Martin Buber, wrote, ‘Abide in the wonder and question the interpretation’.
Today is a time to step back from our rationality, to move ourselves, as I would like to put it, ‘from hubris to humility’. Here are just two such people, mystics to a point and graphic grapplers with God
St. Cyril was one. He was in his 40’s when he died in 869 and known as the apostle to the Slavs. No fool, this Cyril. He was the creator of the Cyrillic alphabet and the founder of the Slavonic language. He was a monk. His graphics in his grappling for the Holy Trinity is the sun, which are complex in their simplicity.
‘God the Father is the blazing sun. God the Son is its light and God the Holy Spirit its heat.’
Another active thinker was St John-Baptist Maria Vianney who died in 1859. He is better known as the Curé d’Ars. He was a parish priest of a small French village. For whatever reasons, his fame as being a ‘wise-one’ became almost world-wide. By the time he died, it is said, 20.000 people would come in a year, and he spent 16-18 hours a day in the confessional. The Pope made him a saint. He is the Patron of Parish Priests.
In his graphics the Curé uses candles and roses and the cruet water of the sanctuary, which are simple in their complexity,
‘The flame has colour, warmth and shape. But these are expressions of one flame. Similarly the rose has colour, fragrance and shape. But these are expressions of the one reality, the rose. Water, steam and ice are three distinct expressions of one reality. In the same way God revealed Himself to us as Father Son and Holy Spirit’.
There is the less colourful, more cerebral words of a hymn which you know; God’s threefold action on us is that we are being, ‘sought, bought and taught’, sought by the Father, bought by the Son and taught by the Holy Spirit.
We are asked to free ourselves up. There is this adage of the teacher. She is in her class of five year olds and puts a single chalk dot on the blackboard. ‘Now, what do you see children?’ ‘Miss, Miss….’, hands going up everywhere.
The answers came, the moon, a star, the sun, a cave, the world, ‘it’s the spot on your face Miss’! She asked the same question of her nine year olds, later that morning. ‘Miss, it’s a dot’
We need to be free to imagine. Imagination is not some inferior, taboo, human function, is part of creation, imagination assists in redemption and imagination can guide our sanctification- it is one way to pray, to know God. Like Nicodemus, we can always be rejuvenated and born again and see more than the dingle dot.
It is our move from hubris to humility, our happy advancing regression to innocence.
Of a consequence, we are called to be pragmatic .
We share in the Trinitarian Nature and three-fold work of God.
In microcosm, in our community, we share in that Trinitarian network of relationships.
That is, ‘I-God-Neighbour’ network, (∆), which is vertical and horizontal, simultaneous and continual. This is our Lord’s Summary of the Law.
That way of working sets us apart as a belief system, and we work that system every time we sign ourselves in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
24th May 2015
Whit Sunday
Pentecost.
‘The blessed revolution, bouleversement’.
This Pentecost- is all about divine disturbance, the wind of change and the consuming fire, the re-presenting of God as the Holy Spirit.
God, does not change. His variable gentle gestures towards us, however, require that we do.
God’s unchangeable desire for his people, for his creation, in Christ, is that there be life, life abundant. The breath of God, the ruach in the Hebrew, is very life itself and, by the process of ‘spiration’ we learn of His ways.
When one dictionary definition of ‘life’ is, ‘constant change’, it follows that to be fearful of change, as so many of us can be, is to be fearful of life itself.
The event and message of Pentecost is all about change.
The biblical event of remembrance for this feast, is the giving of the Law to Moses, on Mt Sinai, Shavuot, celebrated this day in Synagogues, a ‘fire of an event’ bringing massive changes for the Hebrews. God in the ‘pillar of fire’, the shekinah and the ‘burning bush’, God reveals Himself as the consuming fire.
This is the Old Testament God. The very ‘wind’, the ‘ruach’, (Hebrew) can only evoke a massive sense of awe.
In the New Testament, we have this rapid change, this massive rush of inspiration, as the ‘pneuma’, (Greek), the spirit as wind blew and, as we say, the church was born.
Life is ‘constant change’, constant renewal, a re-inspiration., a re-enlivening.
As a lively church, a church alert and alive, we are always changing, shape shifting, indeed seeking ways to ‘change’.
For today some changes, can be very basic , and they may begin with shifts of, perception. How we perceive will determine how we behave; so what shifts might we make of this Pentecostal event? Here are some ponters;
· At one point, in our understanding, we may have thought that Pentecost was all about ‘instant change’, based on this fist Pentecostal event. We may have felt deprived, a second rate sort of Christian when our changes appeared glacial.
As people of experience here, I ask you, how long does an instant change last, instant anything?
Any change which is of any value is grindingly slow. That is why the Church of England has survived, because it works on 50 year cycles.
Of interest, the ongoing spiritual changes, that we might experience, given to us by The Orthodox Church is the life time process of passing through stages of the ‘purification, illumination to deification’, it is not about having arrived.
· A balance, away from the idea of the Holy Spirit as instant spirituality, is to look at the lasting, the enduring seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded of these in the Con-firm-ation service. (Firmitas , Latin, for strengthen). At the laying on of hands, the Bishop asks God, on behalf of the candidates, for wisdom, understanding, counsel, inward strength, knowledge, godliness, and awe.
· This is the evolved and distilled thinking of the Church. It is Johannine. According to St John, Our Lord, again in an upper room, ‘breathed’ on his disciples. The disciples of St. John, at that the stage of their understanding, and receptivity, it was just the gentle breath that they needed. In Luke’s account in Acts, however, something more drastic was needed to make them sit up, get out of themselves, out of that miserable upper room where they were skulking, and get out there, get on with the task that He had set out for them. God will use us in all our beautiful variety, so that as many of the sick, the lame, the homeless, the widowed, as is possible may be reached.
· A misconception we can carry is the notion of ‘power’. (dunamis). “The Holy Spirit ‘empowers’ us”, we are often dangerously misguided. The mitre of the Bishop, depicting the flames of Pentecost, often an abuse of power, is really about having the power to be humble, the power to live the servant life that Our Lord showed to us. That sort of ‘power’ needs some strength, and so this leads to the next change.
· It is a change we maybe need to embrace today, or at least be reminded of, is a semantic one. It is a slight corrective, but one which can change a whole perception of what Pentecost is all about. That is the use of and the meaning of the word ‘comfort’ and, the Holy Spirit as the ‘Comforter’. It is not about being ‘cosy’. To help direct a turbulent wind and channel an unpredictable fire requires a great deal of strength, (Latin fortis), fortitude, com-fort.
The Holy Spirt of God, that very Nature of God, made accessible to us now, is represented as wind and fire, dramatic agents of chaotic constructive and rapid change.
There is also the Spirit in Genesis, that spirit which brought order in the chaos, so that there might be life. This Initiating Spirit come more as the dove of harmony; here we might know the Holy Spirit in the still and small voice.
God, by His Spirit, wants to meet ‘the you and the me’, as we are. He does not change in His essence, but He will find any number of ways and means to get through to ‘the you and the me’, to the end that, by degrees, we may become more like the Christ.
Maybe, echoing the psalmist, we could make it easier for Him, and harden not our hearts.
AMEN
Whit Sunday
Pentecost.
‘The blessed revolution, bouleversement’.
This Pentecost- is all about divine disturbance, the wind of change and the consuming fire, the re-presenting of God as the Holy Spirit.
God, does not change. His variable gentle gestures towards us, however, require that we do.
God’s unchangeable desire for his people, for his creation, in Christ, is that there be life, life abundant. The breath of God, the ruach in the Hebrew, is very life itself and, by the process of ‘spiration’ we learn of His ways.
When one dictionary definition of ‘life’ is, ‘constant change’, it follows that to be fearful of change, as so many of us can be, is to be fearful of life itself.
The event and message of Pentecost is all about change.
The biblical event of remembrance for this feast, is the giving of the Law to Moses, on Mt Sinai, Shavuot, celebrated this day in Synagogues, a ‘fire of an event’ bringing massive changes for the Hebrews. God in the ‘pillar of fire’, the shekinah and the ‘burning bush’, God reveals Himself as the consuming fire.
This is the Old Testament God. The very ‘wind’, the ‘ruach’, (Hebrew) can only evoke a massive sense of awe.
In the New Testament, we have this rapid change, this massive rush of inspiration, as the ‘pneuma’, (Greek), the spirit as wind blew and, as we say, the church was born.
Life is ‘constant change’, constant renewal, a re-inspiration., a re-enlivening.
As a lively church, a church alert and alive, we are always changing, shape shifting, indeed seeking ways to ‘change’.
For today some changes, can be very basic , and they may begin with shifts of, perception. How we perceive will determine how we behave; so what shifts might we make of this Pentecostal event? Here are some ponters;
· At one point, in our understanding, we may have thought that Pentecost was all about ‘instant change’, based on this fist Pentecostal event. We may have felt deprived, a second rate sort of Christian when our changes appeared glacial.
As people of experience here, I ask you, how long does an instant change last, instant anything?
Any change which is of any value is grindingly slow. That is why the Church of England has survived, because it works on 50 year cycles.
Of interest, the ongoing spiritual changes, that we might experience, given to us by The Orthodox Church is the life time process of passing through stages of the ‘purification, illumination to deification’, it is not about having arrived.
· A balance, away from the idea of the Holy Spirit as instant spirituality, is to look at the lasting, the enduring seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded of these in the Con-firm-ation service. (Firmitas , Latin, for strengthen). At the laying on of hands, the Bishop asks God, on behalf of the candidates, for wisdom, understanding, counsel, inward strength, knowledge, godliness, and awe.
· This is the evolved and distilled thinking of the Church. It is Johannine. According to St John, Our Lord, again in an upper room, ‘breathed’ on his disciples. The disciples of St. John, at that the stage of their understanding, and receptivity, it was just the gentle breath that they needed. In Luke’s account in Acts, however, something more drastic was needed to make them sit up, get out of themselves, out of that miserable upper room where they were skulking, and get out there, get on with the task that He had set out for them. God will use us in all our beautiful variety, so that as many of the sick, the lame, the homeless, the widowed, as is possible may be reached.
· A misconception we can carry is the notion of ‘power’. (dunamis). “The Holy Spirit ‘empowers’ us”, we are often dangerously misguided. The mitre of the Bishop, depicting the flames of Pentecost, often an abuse of power, is really about having the power to be humble, the power to live the servant life that Our Lord showed to us. That sort of ‘power’ needs some strength, and so this leads to the next change.
· It is a change we maybe need to embrace today, or at least be reminded of, is a semantic one. It is a slight corrective, but one which can change a whole perception of what Pentecost is all about. That is the use of and the meaning of the word ‘comfort’ and, the Holy Spirit as the ‘Comforter’. It is not about being ‘cosy’. To help direct a turbulent wind and channel an unpredictable fire requires a great deal of strength, (Latin fortis), fortitude, com-fort.
The Holy Spirt of God, that very Nature of God, made accessible to us now, is represented as wind and fire, dramatic agents of chaotic constructive and rapid change.
There is also the Spirit in Genesis, that spirit which brought order in the chaos, so that there might be life. This Initiating Spirit come more as the dove of harmony; here we might know the Holy Spirit in the still and small voice.
God, by His Spirit, wants to meet ‘the you and the me’, as we are. He does not change in His essence, but He will find any number of ways and means to get through to ‘the you and the me’, to the end that, by degrees, we may become more like the Christ.
Maybe, echoing the psalmist, we could make it easier for Him, and harden not our hearts.
AMEN
17th May 2015
Ascension 2015
The notion of the Ascension is not easily intellectually easy to understand. Then maybe it is something we are not supposed to, maybe we are just to pray, to become caught up, to ‘thither ascend ourselves’ as the collect has it.
The notion of the ‘The Ascension of Christ’ seems to receive very little attention. Only sixty three words in the Book of Acts describing the ‘what happened’.
It is no wonder, I quote,
‘The account of the Ascension is quite useless to the historian’ ,
so wrote Adolf von Harnack, (1851-1930), a German theologian and historian.
Modern cosmology, of course, makes the ascending skywards to a god these days, an absolute nonsense.
Also for the hardened sceptic, the type of person who has looked around for something to believe in, there have been ‘too many’ ascensions. Human beings always seem to want to ‘ascend’ to their gods.
Christ ascending we know about, but there were others. Hercules was one, Adapa, in Sumerian mythology, was another. In the Old Testament we have the story of Enoch. We also have, as recorded in the second book of Kings, the whirlwind to take Elijah into heaven. These are ‘special people’, charismatic people, the kind of people to inspire and have a following, who in life were seen to be close to their god. In legend then, as can only befit the gods, their earthly departures are dramatic yet mysterious. To ascend to their god, maintains their otherworldliness, it also thereby giving hope to those yet remaining, those feeling abandoned.
This has echoes of Jesus’ prediction speeches to his disciples.
It seems that we could have just another ascension legend on our hands. We also have to beware a superstitious piety; just for instance in Jerusalem, in the Dome of the Rock mosque, there we can see the last footprints of Mohammed, as he ascended, and then again a similar set of prints are found, in the remnants of a mosque on the Mount of Olives, are sold to us as being those of Our Lord’s!
Yet, when we come to the ascension of Christ, we meet a greater sophistication, an evolution of ideas, the theology and the human reasoning is now far more refined than the primitivism of legends. The history is scant but the biblical and doctrinal scholarship is vast. Perhaps it is this very refinement that makes it so much harder to understand.
Nevertheless, the distilled wisdom of the Christian era brings us to this point. The notion may be inaccessible but, somehow, strangely and paradoxically, the whole doctrine, idea and reality of the ascension is amazingly comforting. It is also very pastorally useful. This is because in His Ascension, we can say with confidence that,
‘God is everywhere present and filling all things’.
Each successive stage of Our Lord’s Life, only makes sense backwards, in the prismatic light of the resurrection.
Then the resurrection only makes sense in the blinding light of the Ascension.
When we accept the Ascension of Christ, we can then accept all that went before. He has not gone away; rather He has entered into what Rowan Williams calls that Divine, dazzling and deeper level of reality, that reality which envelops all.
In our Christianity, it is this notion of ‘The Ascension’ that verifies, validates, all that has been and all that yet will be.
So when someone comes to say to us that ‘God is absent’, or, ‘Where was God when I needed Him most?’ We can say that he is here.
In His resurrection body, He was there still, but different somehow.
In His ascended body, He is there.
In fact ‘there’ is ‘here’.
We are the ‘Body of Christ’, for we, as Church, are the flesh and bone of His ascended body.
We are to be his eyes and his ears and his hands for blessing, and so it is for us to make Him to be everywhere present and to fill all things, unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
As a Post Script:
Ascension Day.
This is what St Augustine had to say,
‘The Ascension is that festival which confirms the grace of all festivals together, without which the profitableness of every festival would have perished. For unless the Saviour had ascended into heaven, his Nativity would have come to nothing… and his Passion would have borne no fruit for us. His most holy resurrection would have been useless’
All is meaningless without his ascension. In the ascension his Incarnation continues, for as he bodily ascended to heaven, he remains united to our human nature.
Ascension 2015
The notion of the Ascension is not easily intellectually easy to understand. Then maybe it is something we are not supposed to, maybe we are just to pray, to become caught up, to ‘thither ascend ourselves’ as the collect has it.
The notion of the ‘The Ascension of Christ’ seems to receive very little attention. Only sixty three words in the Book of Acts describing the ‘what happened’.
It is no wonder, I quote,
‘The account of the Ascension is quite useless to the historian’ ,
so wrote Adolf von Harnack, (1851-1930), a German theologian and historian.
Modern cosmology, of course, makes the ascending skywards to a god these days, an absolute nonsense.
Also for the hardened sceptic, the type of person who has looked around for something to believe in, there have been ‘too many’ ascensions. Human beings always seem to want to ‘ascend’ to their gods.
Christ ascending we know about, but there were others. Hercules was one, Adapa, in Sumerian mythology, was another. In the Old Testament we have the story of Enoch. We also have, as recorded in the second book of Kings, the whirlwind to take Elijah into heaven. These are ‘special people’, charismatic people, the kind of people to inspire and have a following, who in life were seen to be close to their god. In legend then, as can only befit the gods, their earthly departures are dramatic yet mysterious. To ascend to their god, maintains their otherworldliness, it also thereby giving hope to those yet remaining, those feeling abandoned.
This has echoes of Jesus’ prediction speeches to his disciples.
It seems that we could have just another ascension legend on our hands. We also have to beware a superstitious piety; just for instance in Jerusalem, in the Dome of the Rock mosque, there we can see the last footprints of Mohammed, as he ascended, and then again a similar set of prints are found, in the remnants of a mosque on the Mount of Olives, are sold to us as being those of Our Lord’s!
Yet, when we come to the ascension of Christ, we meet a greater sophistication, an evolution of ideas, the theology and the human reasoning is now far more refined than the primitivism of legends. The history is scant but the biblical and doctrinal scholarship is vast. Perhaps it is this very refinement that makes it so much harder to understand.
Nevertheless, the distilled wisdom of the Christian era brings us to this point. The notion may be inaccessible but, somehow, strangely and paradoxically, the whole doctrine, idea and reality of the ascension is amazingly comforting. It is also very pastorally useful. This is because in His Ascension, we can say with confidence that,
‘God is everywhere present and filling all things’.
Each successive stage of Our Lord’s Life, only makes sense backwards, in the prismatic light of the resurrection.
Then the resurrection only makes sense in the blinding light of the Ascension.
When we accept the Ascension of Christ, we can then accept all that went before. He has not gone away; rather He has entered into what Rowan Williams calls that Divine, dazzling and deeper level of reality, that reality which envelops all.
In our Christianity, it is this notion of ‘The Ascension’ that verifies, validates, all that has been and all that yet will be.
So when someone comes to say to us that ‘God is absent’, or, ‘Where was God when I needed Him most?’ We can say that he is here.
In His resurrection body, He was there still, but different somehow.
In His ascended body, He is there.
In fact ‘there’ is ‘here’.
We are the ‘Body of Christ’, for we, as Church, are the flesh and bone of His ascended body.
We are to be his eyes and his ears and his hands for blessing, and so it is for us to make Him to be everywhere present and to fill all things, unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
As a Post Script:
Ascension Day.
This is what St Augustine had to say,
‘The Ascension is that festival which confirms the grace of all festivals together, without which the profitableness of every festival would have perished. For unless the Saviour had ascended into heaven, his Nativity would have come to nothing… and his Passion would have borne no fruit for us. His most holy resurrection would have been useless’
All is meaningless without his ascension. In the ascension his Incarnation continues, for as he bodily ascended to heaven, he remains united to our human nature.
May 3rd 2015
Ss. Philip and James
We are still in Easter, the gospel still from that chapter of 16 of St. John.
John has Jesus addressing his disciples and among that company would have been Philip and James. They were part of that apostolic band. Their ‘day’ was Friday, May 1st. They would have already done some things which had earned them a place in that select few, but we know very little about them.
In the New Testament, there are eight persons who are named James . We have James the, Greater, the Less, the Just, the writer, the son of Cleopas, the Nazarene, the kinsman of Jude, the brother of Jude the writer.
That is not so strange in 1st C Jewry, because James is a variant of the patriarch Jacob. So those names interchanged, even Shakespeare did that when giving a child’s age, as, ‘a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob’, meaning May 1st, Pip & Jay.
Of the eight named, the one chosen, is the apostle James the Less, son of Alphaeus. Unlike James the Greater, who was one of the inner circle with Peter and John, he usually appears 9th on the lists of apostles. He is also known as James, the Minor or the Younger. That is all we know, that he was there and was ‘among the twelve’. Who can know what little he did, what lesser things he did? Certainly he did enough to be there, but it was kept beautifully hidden.
Philip too was an Apostle, and was called early on. He told Nathanael who asked, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ To which Philip replies, nudging him, ‘Come and see’. That is an amazing invitation!
Then of course, famously, at the feeding of the 5000. Jesus is looking for help. Philip asks him where on earth can they find enough food to feed all these people. Philip nudges Andrew who pipes up, ‘There is a lad here with five small barley loaves and two small fishes’.
Then Philip, unbeknown to him, was instrumental in getting the Church to sort out the theology if Incarnation. How shall we see the Father- Jesus , shaking his head, ‘have I been with you so long Philip, and still you know not, that ‘To see me is to see the Father?’.
Two apostles, hardly the giants of the church. Both saints, out of the limelight, yet both saints were instrumental in furthering the work of their Lord, both saints taking in his teaching and soaking in his presence. Both Saints can help us here at St. Mary’s., and I am mindful that we could take heart from them as we approach this event on Thursday.
What ideas do these saints give us?
Importantly, both Saints were with Him, being in His presence and following his teachings. This was their starting place, their continuing place and their ending place; that has to be you and I in the ways we can.
James has ‘less’ written about him We might be better to stay out of the lime-light like him? Maybe though we could be a bit like Philip, who was there, almost like in the front row of a picket-line, a bit of a dedicated agitator perhaps?
· He nudged Nathanael to ‘come and see’- ‘can anything good come out of St Mary’s?’, we say, ‘come and see’
· He asked questions of Jesus. At the 5000 feeding he nudged Him , and he nudged Andrew, and the miracle happened. Here, our ‘mission’ is to nudge- we might only have 5 small loaves and two fishes, a small ‘lunch-box’, but we might spiritually and physically ‘feed’ a multitude., the many who are materially and spiritually poor. Like Philip, though, we step back, and let God be God.
· The famous ‘nudge’ was that Jesus told the disciples, in answering Philip, that He was the very face of God. He, the Man Jesus, was how God thinks, feels and works; in Him was the very Nature of God. (Blasphemy again?), One ‘mission’ is that we are also able to nudge people in the direction of the gospel teachings of Our Lord, the very God, of very God.
The message:
· To know that something very good comes out of St. Mary’s, ‘come and see’.
· Living in the knowledge and presence of God
· Being unafraid to nudge, agitate even
· Being instrumental in the spread of the good news of Christ
· Letting others be fed by that knowledge of God, now and for the generations to come.
Neither James nor Philip would have conceived that we would be talking about them so many generations on.
Amen.
Ss. Philip and James
We are still in Easter, the gospel still from that chapter of 16 of St. John.
John has Jesus addressing his disciples and among that company would have been Philip and James. They were part of that apostolic band. Their ‘day’ was Friday, May 1st. They would have already done some things which had earned them a place in that select few, but we know very little about them.
In the New Testament, there are eight persons who are named James . We have James the, Greater, the Less, the Just, the writer, the son of Cleopas, the Nazarene, the kinsman of Jude, the brother of Jude the writer.
That is not so strange in 1st C Jewry, because James is a variant of the patriarch Jacob. So those names interchanged, even Shakespeare did that when giving a child’s age, as, ‘a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob’, meaning May 1st, Pip & Jay.
Of the eight named, the one chosen, is the apostle James the Less, son of Alphaeus. Unlike James the Greater, who was one of the inner circle with Peter and John, he usually appears 9th on the lists of apostles. He is also known as James, the Minor or the Younger. That is all we know, that he was there and was ‘among the twelve’. Who can know what little he did, what lesser things he did? Certainly he did enough to be there, but it was kept beautifully hidden.
Philip too was an Apostle, and was called early on. He told Nathanael who asked, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ To which Philip replies, nudging him, ‘Come and see’. That is an amazing invitation!
Then of course, famously, at the feeding of the 5000. Jesus is looking for help. Philip asks him where on earth can they find enough food to feed all these people. Philip nudges Andrew who pipes up, ‘There is a lad here with five small barley loaves and two small fishes’.
Then Philip, unbeknown to him, was instrumental in getting the Church to sort out the theology if Incarnation. How shall we see the Father- Jesus , shaking his head, ‘have I been with you so long Philip, and still you know not, that ‘To see me is to see the Father?’.
Two apostles, hardly the giants of the church. Both saints, out of the limelight, yet both saints were instrumental in furthering the work of their Lord, both saints taking in his teaching and soaking in his presence. Both Saints can help us here at St. Mary’s., and I am mindful that we could take heart from them as we approach this event on Thursday.
What ideas do these saints give us?
Importantly, both Saints were with Him, being in His presence and following his teachings. This was their starting place, their continuing place and their ending place; that has to be you and I in the ways we can.
James has ‘less’ written about him We might be better to stay out of the lime-light like him? Maybe though we could be a bit like Philip, who was there, almost like in the front row of a picket-line, a bit of a dedicated agitator perhaps?
· He nudged Nathanael to ‘come and see’- ‘can anything good come out of St Mary’s?’, we say, ‘come and see’
· He asked questions of Jesus. At the 5000 feeding he nudged Him , and he nudged Andrew, and the miracle happened. Here, our ‘mission’ is to nudge- we might only have 5 small loaves and two fishes, a small ‘lunch-box’, but we might spiritually and physically ‘feed’ a multitude., the many who are materially and spiritually poor. Like Philip, though, we step back, and let God be God.
· The famous ‘nudge’ was that Jesus told the disciples, in answering Philip, that He was the very face of God. He, the Man Jesus, was how God thinks, feels and works; in Him was the very Nature of God. (Blasphemy again?), One ‘mission’ is that we are also able to nudge people in the direction of the gospel teachings of Our Lord, the very God, of very God.
The message:
· To know that something very good comes out of St. Mary’s, ‘come and see’.
· Living in the knowledge and presence of God
· Being unafraid to nudge, agitate even
· Being instrumental in the spread of the good news of Christ
· Letting others be fed by that knowledge of God, now and for the generations to come.
Neither James nor Philip would have conceived that we would be talking about them so many generations on.
Amen.
St John Ch.16.
26th April 2015
Easter 3
In this Easter season, our Gospels are looking St John’s way of having Jesus trying to explain what Easter is all about! Last week we saw Jesus as the Good Shepherd This week we have St. John having Jesus preparing all of us, disciples then and now, to have look at the very essence of this, ‘hard to understand’ time; these forty days between Resurrection and Ascension.
It is simple, straight forward for Jesus and John; as we see in the four line chiasm that we see later in this chapter 16 of John, v.28:
I came from the Father
And entered the world
Now I am leaving the world
And going back to the Father.
Those four lines are, indeed, the whole essence of John’s message, in Gospel and espistles, about the Christ. His disciples had to ‘ask’ Him, so that they might understand.
Interestingly, John has two words for ask; the one to enquire, to seek, (zeteo), so we might understand, the latter word, (aiteo), was to make petition/a request/prayer request . Only after understanding, might we come to believe, have faith, enough to ask!
At this stage, the disciples, were asking/seeking in order to understand; (soon they would come to ask believing.) It is as if seeking is a pre-resurrection way and asking in faith , comes with resurrection knowledge.
As we see, Our Lord in John’s writing, speaks in a way that demands questioning. He is obscure in his discourse about his dying and rising, about this ‘little while’ and then another ‘little while’. ‘Micron’, in the Greek, is mentioned nine times in two sentences, and so took on great significance for his disciples, probably panicked them with this sense of urgency. He also spoke of the sorrow to come, and he spoke of the joy too. They had to ask questions!
The sorrow , was then as now, easier to understand. Sorrow is a common, universal, usual, human state of being. We know about sorrow. Joy, we tend not to see as the usual state of man, not our norm. Were we, by chance, to experience it, it would be very fleeting. We don’t know Joy as well.
So it is that we hear of the phrase, in the literature and in different contexts, that idea of being, ‘surprised by it’, ‘Surprised by Joy!’
Joy can be known as a profound happiness, a blessedness, (macarios-the same word), but it is somehow indefinably different.
Joy, as many of us know, comes on the other side of grief and loss.
Jesus was trying to explain that, trying to explain how joy need not be a fleeting moment. There would be a lasting joy in ‘resurrection’ that they would come to know after the horrors of Golgotha.
However, ‘As yet, they knew not the scriptures’.
As yet, they didn’t know the joy of the co-criminal on that hill of Golgotha, the one who would be with him in paradise; as yet they did not, could not, know the joy of the Magdalene and indeed, their own, as the news of the risen Lord spread.
As yet, they had not had the loss of him, so as yet they could not know, at this stage, any sense of an everlasting joy of him, it was unconceivably abnormal.
Yet as we know, Joy can be very real indeed.
I mention Wordsworth in the leaflet. In the aftermath of the death of his three year old daughter, Catherine, he wrote that amazingly tantalising sonnet, ‘Surprised by joy-impatient as the wind’. He was able to retrieve her very presence, and that brought an exceeding joy.
The hesitantly Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, wrote his early biography of that title, and so is also oft referred to. He felt God had revealed Himself to him by giving him ‘joy’, a ‘joy’ which he found, early in his life, in the essences of nature. Severely academic and confessed agnostic, Lewis saw himself as the most reluctant of converts. It was joy that overwhelmed him. He found a similar wonder in his love for his wife, Helen Joy. She died of cancer after three years of marriage. Distraught as he was, in the passage of time, he too was able to retrieve a sense of her which rekindled the joy he knew. He wrote this,
‘All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago, or further away, or still ‘about to be’.
The disciples rekindled their joy by a sense of his presence, especially as we see in Scriptures, in the breaking of the bread, and they had that joy for what was still ‘about to be’.
This time after the resurrection, for disciples then, now, eternal and universal, is a time to get used to the idea of it. It is a time, less to enquire and, more to trust. We are urged to trust somehow, in light of the resurrection, after the darkness of grief and loss, that joy, like heaven itself, is there and awaits us. ‘Seek, and ye shall find’, we are told.
His presence today, in Eucharist, rekindles the Joy of something ‘longer ago’ and ‘still about to be’. We may yet be surprised by joy.
Amen
26th April 2015
Easter 3
In this Easter season, our Gospels are looking St John’s way of having Jesus trying to explain what Easter is all about! Last week we saw Jesus as the Good Shepherd This week we have St. John having Jesus preparing all of us, disciples then and now, to have look at the very essence of this, ‘hard to understand’ time; these forty days between Resurrection and Ascension.
It is simple, straight forward for Jesus and John; as we see in the four line chiasm that we see later in this chapter 16 of John, v.28:
I came from the Father
And entered the world
Now I am leaving the world
And going back to the Father.
Those four lines are, indeed, the whole essence of John’s message, in Gospel and espistles, about the Christ. His disciples had to ‘ask’ Him, so that they might understand.
Interestingly, John has two words for ask; the one to enquire, to seek, (zeteo), so we might understand, the latter word, (aiteo), was to make petition/a request/prayer request . Only after understanding, might we come to believe, have faith, enough to ask!
At this stage, the disciples, were asking/seeking in order to understand; (soon they would come to ask believing.) It is as if seeking is a pre-resurrection way and asking in faith , comes with resurrection knowledge.
As we see, Our Lord in John’s writing, speaks in a way that demands questioning. He is obscure in his discourse about his dying and rising, about this ‘little while’ and then another ‘little while’. ‘Micron’, in the Greek, is mentioned nine times in two sentences, and so took on great significance for his disciples, probably panicked them with this sense of urgency. He also spoke of the sorrow to come, and he spoke of the joy too. They had to ask questions!
The sorrow , was then as now, easier to understand. Sorrow is a common, universal, usual, human state of being. We know about sorrow. Joy, we tend not to see as the usual state of man, not our norm. Were we, by chance, to experience it, it would be very fleeting. We don’t know Joy as well.
So it is that we hear of the phrase, in the literature and in different contexts, that idea of being, ‘surprised by it’, ‘Surprised by Joy!’
Joy can be known as a profound happiness, a blessedness, (macarios-the same word), but it is somehow indefinably different.
Joy, as many of us know, comes on the other side of grief and loss.
Jesus was trying to explain that, trying to explain how joy need not be a fleeting moment. There would be a lasting joy in ‘resurrection’ that they would come to know after the horrors of Golgotha.
However, ‘As yet, they knew not the scriptures’.
As yet, they didn’t know the joy of the co-criminal on that hill of Golgotha, the one who would be with him in paradise; as yet they did not, could not, know the joy of the Magdalene and indeed, their own, as the news of the risen Lord spread.
As yet, they had not had the loss of him, so as yet they could not know, at this stage, any sense of an everlasting joy of him, it was unconceivably abnormal.
Yet as we know, Joy can be very real indeed.
I mention Wordsworth in the leaflet. In the aftermath of the death of his three year old daughter, Catherine, he wrote that amazingly tantalising sonnet, ‘Surprised by joy-impatient as the wind’. He was able to retrieve her very presence, and that brought an exceeding joy.
The hesitantly Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, wrote his early biography of that title, and so is also oft referred to. He felt God had revealed Himself to him by giving him ‘joy’, a ‘joy’ which he found, early in his life, in the essences of nature. Severely academic and confessed agnostic, Lewis saw himself as the most reluctant of converts. It was joy that overwhelmed him. He found a similar wonder in his love for his wife, Helen Joy. She died of cancer after three years of marriage. Distraught as he was, in the passage of time, he too was able to retrieve a sense of her which rekindled the joy he knew. He wrote this,
‘All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago, or further away, or still ‘about to be’.
The disciples rekindled their joy by a sense of his presence, especially as we see in Scriptures, in the breaking of the bread, and they had that joy for what was still ‘about to be’.
This time after the resurrection, for disciples then, now, eternal and universal, is a time to get used to the idea of it. It is a time, less to enquire and, more to trust. We are urged to trust somehow, in light of the resurrection, after the darkness of grief and loss, that joy, like heaven itself, is there and awaits us. ‘Seek, and ye shall find’, we are told.
His presence today, in Eucharist, rekindles the Joy of something ‘longer ago’ and ‘still about to be’. We may yet be surprised by joy.
Amen
12th April 2015
Easter 1.
These first few weeks after that first day of Resurrection, were, for the disciples, days of apprehension and misapprehension, belief mixed with foreboding, joy mixed with disbelief, reviews and forecasts. A psycho-spiritual whirlpool.
Gradually the ‘hold-outs’ came to believe as He made His various appearances. They felt better that He was around, but He was not the same. His appearance had changed and they could not touch Him, but they could see and hear something, enough to go on believing.
Now the problem was how to get organised. It was clear they had to do what He said,
‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you’,
They now had to translate that, work out want to do in the places they were to find themselves.
As we go on to view the Acts of the Apostles, how subsequent disciples, in even more bizarre places, could translate the words and works of Our Lord. In short, the question was, and is,
‘how do the people of God, channel the love of God and open a vision of the Divine, to an oft-times love-less and God-less Creation, one perishing with no vision?’
Easter has come here to St Mary’s, to this bizarre place, no doubt because disciples down the ages did some things right some times. The task is still right here for us, ‘how do we show the love of God and channel a vision of the Divine?’
I’ve often believed in and, worked with an idea, a model, which seems generally accepted, ‘that the whole is better than the sum of the parts’. The bicycle? It’s a collection of bits which make it what it is; it also has a purpose and function this machine.
I have seen this work in parish life. I am though, and I am saying this, so to speak, on the eve of our AGM, thinking that it might be quite a different model, an unspoken, unshakeable model operates here? I think it might be this model that the, ‘the part is greater than the whole’, that anything might be ‘more’ when it is incomplete rather when it is complete- sounds contradictory, but it might also be true?
Now to explore this, I want to take you to Fountains Abbey.(p8). Many of us know it, go there. Built by 12th C Cistercians, lying in an idyllic hollow with river and grounds. In its day it was a magnificent example of church architecture, dominating a wide open pastoral landscape. It had the lot, great towers, stained glass, mighty buttresses, beautiful wooden carvings. All of this was an awesome presence to all those peasant farmers scratching a living from the land.
All changed- 16th century saw, along with so many others, its destruction. The community of monks scattered, the roof fell in and the windows smashed. Over the years the stone was taken for local building and the abbey became a ruin. That, though, is not the end of the story.
Today, the abbey is obviously ‘incomplete’. Very little of the original remains; it is roofless and wordless. The strangeness is that the impact, because of its absent roof and the absence of men’s words about God, is greater today than when it housed a ‘wealthy religious community’. The roof now is the sky, and the walls now let in the world, when before it was shut out. The stone floor is now grass, the altar gone, but somehow a sense of the ‘holy’ remains.
The sun shines down onto the great open nave, warming the stones as they had never been warmed. Birds were given nesting spaces in the stone crevices. In spite of or, because of the shock of such brokenness, today we sense the dignity, the stillness and presence.
The abbey will never return to its former greatness, and in that sense will never again be whole or complete, it will always now be fragmented and damaged beyond repair. God cannot undo the damage, or find a monastic order to live there. God works, though, in His mysterious ways and, maybe, this ruin now, is more able to impress a much wider range of people, a greater number of people, with the ‘idea of the holy’,
In this way, that second model that I began with, makes sense, in that,
‘this damaged and incomplete fragment may be greater than the whole ever was when it was controlled by the mind of man’
Tens of thousands now visit, and these are they that would never go near a ‘monastery’ when it was working. Instead the draw is the silence, the reverence somehow, the draw its colossal failure.
The damage and the vulnerability of the ruin, somehow makes its message more accessible, the visitor can enter into the demise and failure and find compassion. Here, the breakdown of the finite, the touchable, allows a glimpse of the untouchable, the infinite. It is as if the failure becomes a channel of God’s love and purpose. The sacrament of failure.
Next week is our Annual Meeting, success or failure for us can pivot there. We might see the whole; we might only see the small part we call ‘church’. The positive thing is that, if we get it all wrong, God will not.
Amen.
Easter 1.
These first few weeks after that first day of Resurrection, were, for the disciples, days of apprehension and misapprehension, belief mixed with foreboding, joy mixed with disbelief, reviews and forecasts. A psycho-spiritual whirlpool.
Gradually the ‘hold-outs’ came to believe as He made His various appearances. They felt better that He was around, but He was not the same. His appearance had changed and they could not touch Him, but they could see and hear something, enough to go on believing.
Now the problem was how to get organised. It was clear they had to do what He said,
‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you’,
They now had to translate that, work out want to do in the places they were to find themselves.
As we go on to view the Acts of the Apostles, how subsequent disciples, in even more bizarre places, could translate the words and works of Our Lord. In short, the question was, and is,
‘how do the people of God, channel the love of God and open a vision of the Divine, to an oft-times love-less and God-less Creation, one perishing with no vision?’
Easter has come here to St Mary’s, to this bizarre place, no doubt because disciples down the ages did some things right some times. The task is still right here for us, ‘how do we show the love of God and channel a vision of the Divine?’
I’ve often believed in and, worked with an idea, a model, which seems generally accepted, ‘that the whole is better than the sum of the parts’. The bicycle? It’s a collection of bits which make it what it is; it also has a purpose and function this machine.
I have seen this work in parish life. I am though, and I am saying this, so to speak, on the eve of our AGM, thinking that it might be quite a different model, an unspoken, unshakeable model operates here? I think it might be this model that the, ‘the part is greater than the whole’, that anything might be ‘more’ when it is incomplete rather when it is complete- sounds contradictory, but it might also be true?
Now to explore this, I want to take you to Fountains Abbey.(p8). Many of us know it, go there. Built by 12th C Cistercians, lying in an idyllic hollow with river and grounds. In its day it was a magnificent example of church architecture, dominating a wide open pastoral landscape. It had the lot, great towers, stained glass, mighty buttresses, beautiful wooden carvings. All of this was an awesome presence to all those peasant farmers scratching a living from the land.
All changed- 16th century saw, along with so many others, its destruction. The community of monks scattered, the roof fell in and the windows smashed. Over the years the stone was taken for local building and the abbey became a ruin. That, though, is not the end of the story.
Today, the abbey is obviously ‘incomplete’. Very little of the original remains; it is roofless and wordless. The strangeness is that the impact, because of its absent roof and the absence of men’s words about God, is greater today than when it housed a ‘wealthy religious community’. The roof now is the sky, and the walls now let in the world, when before it was shut out. The stone floor is now grass, the altar gone, but somehow a sense of the ‘holy’ remains.
The sun shines down onto the great open nave, warming the stones as they had never been warmed. Birds were given nesting spaces in the stone crevices. In spite of or, because of the shock of such brokenness, today we sense the dignity, the stillness and presence.
The abbey will never return to its former greatness, and in that sense will never again be whole or complete, it will always now be fragmented and damaged beyond repair. God cannot undo the damage, or find a monastic order to live there. God works, though, in His mysterious ways and, maybe, this ruin now, is more able to impress a much wider range of people, a greater number of people, with the ‘idea of the holy’,
In this way, that second model that I began with, makes sense, in that,
‘this damaged and incomplete fragment may be greater than the whole ever was when it was controlled by the mind of man’
Tens of thousands now visit, and these are they that would never go near a ‘monastery’ when it was working. Instead the draw is the silence, the reverence somehow, the draw its colossal failure.
The damage and the vulnerability of the ruin, somehow makes its message more accessible, the visitor can enter into the demise and failure and find compassion. Here, the breakdown of the finite, the touchable, allows a glimpse of the untouchable, the infinite. It is as if the failure becomes a channel of God’s love and purpose. The sacrament of failure.
Next week is our Annual Meeting, success or failure for us can pivot there. We might see the whole; we might only see the small part we call ‘church’. The positive thing is that, if we get it all wrong, God will not.
Amen.
April 5th 2015
Easter Day
On that first day of the week Mary Magdalene was there in the garden, early. She misread the situation, thinking the body had been stolen. We can see Peter scratching his head a little later, when he saw the empty linen wrappings. The angels speak to Mary, still she cannot make it out, she goes to the gardener, tries to touch him, she is forbidden. In those few paragraphs of scripture there are so many misunderstandings. Worse, perhaps, is that they went back ‘to their own homes’, without each other and with nothing understood.
This can hardly surprise us, for ‘Easter’ had happened, burst in on time and space and matter; into a world of real history, real people, real life. The disciples were naturally forgiven their misunderstanding, so too are we forgiven, even as we still try and put this vast ocean of an idea into the little bottle of our brain!
We can read and read, research and research ‘about’ this resurrection event, and it really will not make it fit any better in this bottle. We have tried; we have the ‘swoon’ thesis, (namely Jesus just fainted), the ‘wrong tomb’ thesis, ‘body swap’ thesis; these are theses of a non-belief in the resurrection. Any academic tactician, however, knows that, if there is a thesis, there has to be an anti-thesis, the antithesis, which in this case, is belief!
In time, the disciples, even Thomas, came to believe. Their belief, by definition was irrational, and it was this irrational belief which was contagious. It has been that whole process of contagion that, over the centuries, has got you and I here today!
It was what those disciples did next which is so important.
Their understanding and somehow their knowing, became the source of the Divine contagion. What they did next, was to become even more ardent followers and students, (as discipulos implies) of Our Lord and became ferociously fiery in promoting his cause. Friday had been a disaster. On that day, all that He had ever said had become worthless. Now, here along comes this miracle. Now all that He had ever said and all that He had ever done came back into their consciousness. It was out of His words and His deeds that they lived and taught. They had become people of the contagious message of resurrection.
I guess I could end there?-and just say, ‘Happy Easter’ ? (Just a little more, I’d be failing in my duty else.)
I suspect we are sincere when we say ‘happy this or happy that’, but of all those occasions, we surely must give that word ‘happy’ greater substance when we apply it to Easter.
‘Macarios’ is the Greek word used in Scripture for ‘happy’, but it has the other, interchangeable, translation of, ‘blessed’’.
St.Mary, the poor maid, is our icon of ‘blessedness’. She was happy, yet overwhelmed, at being chosen to be His mother. She was ‘an in between person’ after her agony at the cross, and subjectively felt anything but happy. Her blessedness was completed as the news of his resurrection, the fulfilment of His life and, therefore hers, broke out on the world. Her happiness was complete..
Our Lord’s charter, for that complete happiness, was what we know to be Sermon on the Mount. The disciples, at the time, could not claim to understand him at all.
There we see His understanding, under God, of what happy-blessedness or belessed-happiness, is. It comes from a place where we, mostly, would not subjectively associate happiness.
It comes from what has become to be known as His ‘preference for the poorest’.
We have heard and read that Sermon many times, but we also have to ask if we have yet come to understand it. Certainly the disciples did not understand until that light of the resurrection dawned. It was a light that brought all they had ever thought they knew, into a shadow. It was a light in which they could now reflect, and begin to see, what He meant.
He meant, ‘Blessed are the poor, happy are the hungry, blessed the peacemakers, happy the bereaved, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart.
Happiness is not synonymous with comfortableness. Blessedness is not a subjective feel good thing. It is a divine objectivity, where sorrow and joy co-exist. The sorrowful give us life. To embrace the contraries of this life, embracing the ‘leper’ in whatever form, our own or the externally perceived, is then to know completeness, wholeness, in this life.
To deprive ourselves of an experience of poverty, or at the very least a profoundly prayerful awareness of it, is to deprive ourselves of the happy/blessed fullness of life which He gave us. This was His embrace of poverty and of persecution of, that ‘self-giving Friday’.
‘I have come that you may have life, life in abundance’.
To deny this, His central purpose, made clear by the light of his resurrection, is to deny Him, and all that He ever said and all that He ever did, all over again.
Easter is about abundant life, the whole roller-coaster of it all. Now, I can say, ‘Happy Easter’.
Amen
Easter Day
On that first day of the week Mary Magdalene was there in the garden, early. She misread the situation, thinking the body had been stolen. We can see Peter scratching his head a little later, when he saw the empty linen wrappings. The angels speak to Mary, still she cannot make it out, she goes to the gardener, tries to touch him, she is forbidden. In those few paragraphs of scripture there are so many misunderstandings. Worse, perhaps, is that they went back ‘to their own homes’, without each other and with nothing understood.
This can hardly surprise us, for ‘Easter’ had happened, burst in on time and space and matter; into a world of real history, real people, real life. The disciples were naturally forgiven their misunderstanding, so too are we forgiven, even as we still try and put this vast ocean of an idea into the little bottle of our brain!
We can read and read, research and research ‘about’ this resurrection event, and it really will not make it fit any better in this bottle. We have tried; we have the ‘swoon’ thesis, (namely Jesus just fainted), the ‘wrong tomb’ thesis, ‘body swap’ thesis; these are theses of a non-belief in the resurrection. Any academic tactician, however, knows that, if there is a thesis, there has to be an anti-thesis, the antithesis, which in this case, is belief!
In time, the disciples, even Thomas, came to believe. Their belief, by definition was irrational, and it was this irrational belief which was contagious. It has been that whole process of contagion that, over the centuries, has got you and I here today!
It was what those disciples did next which is so important.
Their understanding and somehow their knowing, became the source of the Divine contagion. What they did next, was to become even more ardent followers and students, (as discipulos implies) of Our Lord and became ferociously fiery in promoting his cause. Friday had been a disaster. On that day, all that He had ever said had become worthless. Now, here along comes this miracle. Now all that He had ever said and all that He had ever done came back into their consciousness. It was out of His words and His deeds that they lived and taught. They had become people of the contagious message of resurrection.
I guess I could end there?-and just say, ‘Happy Easter’ ? (Just a little more, I’d be failing in my duty else.)
I suspect we are sincere when we say ‘happy this or happy that’, but of all those occasions, we surely must give that word ‘happy’ greater substance when we apply it to Easter.
‘Macarios’ is the Greek word used in Scripture for ‘happy’, but it has the other, interchangeable, translation of, ‘blessed’’.
St.Mary, the poor maid, is our icon of ‘blessedness’. She was happy, yet overwhelmed, at being chosen to be His mother. She was ‘an in between person’ after her agony at the cross, and subjectively felt anything but happy. Her blessedness was completed as the news of his resurrection, the fulfilment of His life and, therefore hers, broke out on the world. Her happiness was complete..
Our Lord’s charter, for that complete happiness, was what we know to be Sermon on the Mount. The disciples, at the time, could not claim to understand him at all.
There we see His understanding, under God, of what happy-blessedness or belessed-happiness, is. It comes from a place where we, mostly, would not subjectively associate happiness.
It comes from what has become to be known as His ‘preference for the poorest’.
We have heard and read that Sermon many times, but we also have to ask if we have yet come to understand it. Certainly the disciples did not understand until that light of the resurrection dawned. It was a light that brought all they had ever thought they knew, into a shadow. It was a light in which they could now reflect, and begin to see, what He meant.
He meant, ‘Blessed are the poor, happy are the hungry, blessed the peacemakers, happy the bereaved, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart.
Happiness is not synonymous with comfortableness. Blessedness is not a subjective feel good thing. It is a divine objectivity, where sorrow and joy co-exist. The sorrowful give us life. To embrace the contraries of this life, embracing the ‘leper’ in whatever form, our own or the externally perceived, is then to know completeness, wholeness, in this life.
To deprive ourselves of an experience of poverty, or at the very least a profoundly prayerful awareness of it, is to deprive ourselves of the happy/blessed fullness of life which He gave us. This was His embrace of poverty and of persecution of, that ‘self-giving Friday’.
‘I have come that you may have life, life in abundance’.
To deny this, His central purpose, made clear by the light of his resurrection, is to deny Him, and all that He ever said and all that He ever did, all over again.
Easter is about abundant life, the whole roller-coaster of it all. Now, I can say, ‘Happy Easter’.
Amen
Maundy Thursday-2015
Tonight we are bi-locating. We are in an upper room and a garden.
We are reminded of the name ‘maundy’, it coming from the Latin, ‘mandatum’, which can be a demand, a commandment. The New Commandment is given,
‘Love as I have loved you’.
This is what He said and then He went on to show them how.
For me, tonight is all about a ‘divine visceral intimacy’. For it is all incarnational, all about the divine being embodied.
Strangely, in the Garden of Olives, the universal sign of intimacy, the kiss, is embodied in betrayal. The very bond of intimacy, trust, is broken.
‘Work is love made visible’ wrote Kahil Gibran, and tonight, Our Lord, ‘sets to work’. He takes on the task of divine intimacy. He risks intimacy, puts Himself up even for betrayal even as He washes his disciples’ feet and shares a meal with them. At the meal, He spoke of His very Body being given up.
This washing, this eating, this divine intimacy, demonstrates how far He loved, and so how far, according to the ‘maundy’, He expects us to love.
As we share, intimately, in the remembrance of His giving, by eating together, here inside the church, outside in the yard, the City’s poorest are lovingly being fed.
Do both these things, He said, in remembrance of me.
The poor are our teachers, as He is. He was poor, broken, shamed, stigmatised, excluded, and beaten, and so are our friends outside this night.
Tonight is a night of divine visceral intimacy; the kiss, the meal, the washing of feet, the sweat and tears of an agonising betrayal. It is all about God, ‘incarnating into a world of pain and brokenness’. Amen
Tonight we are bi-locating. We are in an upper room and a garden.
We are reminded of the name ‘maundy’, it coming from the Latin, ‘mandatum’, which can be a demand, a commandment. The New Commandment is given,
‘Love as I have loved you’.
This is what He said and then He went on to show them how.
For me, tonight is all about a ‘divine visceral intimacy’. For it is all incarnational, all about the divine being embodied.
Strangely, in the Garden of Olives, the universal sign of intimacy, the kiss, is embodied in betrayal. The very bond of intimacy, trust, is broken.
‘Work is love made visible’ wrote Kahil Gibran, and tonight, Our Lord, ‘sets to work’. He takes on the task of divine intimacy. He risks intimacy, puts Himself up even for betrayal even as He washes his disciples’ feet and shares a meal with them. At the meal, He spoke of His very Body being given up.
This washing, this eating, this divine intimacy, demonstrates how far He loved, and so how far, according to the ‘maundy’, He expects us to love.
As we share, intimately, in the remembrance of His giving, by eating together, here inside the church, outside in the yard, the City’s poorest are lovingly being fed.
Do both these things, He said, in remembrance of me.
The poor are our teachers, as He is. He was poor, broken, shamed, stigmatised, excluded, and beaten, and so are our friends outside this night.
Tonight is a night of divine visceral intimacy; the kiss, the meal, the washing of feet, the sweat and tears of an agonising betrayal. It is all about God, ‘incarnating into a world of pain and brokenness’. Amen
22nd March 2015.
Passion Sunday
(What is Holy Week?)
[Latin: Hebdomas Sancta]
Our journey through Lent, has been to help us connect with the ‘soul-making’ desert landscape. It has been a journey also to remind us of those forty days of Christ in the wilderness. The desert launched him into the sea of ministry; his ministry and life came to an end in in the stormy harbour of Jerusalem. This is where we are going now.
Next week we come to Palm Sunday, for some known as Passion Sunday, because it is at this service that we read the full Matthew Passion story. Holy Week or, The Holy and Great Week, as it is known in the Orthodox Church, begins on Palm Sunday. Practically, as we have this long reading of the Gospel next week, common sense says that we have no sermon! That means that, when we actually come to Holy Week, we never really know what we are getting into!
That seems rather bizarre, seeing that it is the most important week of our Christian year!
So, this week we can begin our thinking around Holy Week, and begin our thinking about The Passion. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday.
In origin, it was to be an intensification of the fast of Lent, like a sprint to the line. It is first referred to as ‘a week’, as ‘an item’, as early as the late 3rd C. The early regulations required that no flesh was consumed through the forty days, and a total fast to be kept on Fridays and Saturdays. These were developed in Jerusalem under the direction of one Bishop Cyril.
Queen and Saint Helena’s influence over her son Emperor Constantine was suffocating! So much so that, not only did she insist that he and the whole Roman Empire become Christian, she convinced him also to build churches on the sites, in the Holy City, denoting the key events of our Lord’s last days.
Going to Jerusalem today we can still visit the ‘sites’ where He was condemned, He fell several times, where He wept, where the cock crew, where He was betrayed, where He died and He rose again.
These sacred sites, by the 4th C, became sites of pilgrimage. This was essentially due to the famous Spanish pilgrim, one Egeria. In the 380’s she wrote her famous journal of her pilgrimage to these sites. It was her journal, importantly, that for the first time linked the sites with the scriptures, and that made pilgrimage popular. Today, that model survives. I have a book, ‘Around the Holy Land with the Gospel’. That is how pilgrimage works; as they say, ‘A pilgrimage to the Holy Land is the Fifth gospel, as it makes sense of the other Four’.
[For us, this means that the way of approaching the services of this week is ‘rememorative’. This means that the historical events are not enacted as in a passion play, but ‘remembered symbolically so that we may enter into them’. (Kenneth Stevenson, a liturgy advisor).]
The gospel story is the thread on which the events hang, and throughout the week, we move with Christ from event to event. Historically, the services began then in Jerusalem, and pilgrims took the ideas home.
The services gradually became embellished, especially with the Crusades when the ‘Stations of the Cross’ devotion was devised, also the burying of a cross or consecrated host in the Easter garden, and the using of a coffin on Good Friday. ‘Remembering’ symbolism becomes replaced then by a more ‘representationall’ worship. This is seen in art, moving from say a simple crucifix, to the more graphic bloody scenes of crucifixion. Mel Gibson style? We chose, do we not, in what ways we prefer to worship?
Today, we have a bit of both as we travel through Holy Week. It begins with a complex Palm Sunday. It is complex though, because during the service, we have to change our mood somehow. We ask ourselves to contain the paradox of God in an hour and fifteen minutes! We begin with the ‘Hosannas’ of the welcoming Jerusalem crowd, we receive palms of rejoicing. These rejoicing palms for us though, are in the shape of the cross.
For us, the rejoicing, the ‘riding on in majesty’, lasts as long as we are in procession. We could make it longer, go outside, go around the City? Have a donkey? It doesn’t last long this rejoicing; the crowd soon turns; we move from praise, to plot, to passion. On Palm Sunday then, once the procession ceases, we become turn-coats, and the Passion begins.
The Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday, look at Gospel scenes which precede the Crucifixion; Jesus’ anointing at Bethany; the foretelling of his betrayal at the last supper, and the Judas event. Sometimes Holy Wednesday, because of the Judas event, is also known as ‘Spy Sunday’.
We pass then to Maundy Thursday, that great ‘sacramental service’. Here we have the sacramental of ‘service’, for ministry, the institution of the Eucharist, confession. The sacrament is the outward sign of an inward reality; put simply, ‘we do what we know’.
So we know about Christian ministry, we know about the union of God, we know about sharing our mistakes. We show them through, the washing of the feet and the blessing of the holy oils, the breaking of the bread, the listening and the forgiving. These are the outward signs.
We move then, through the silent vigil of betrayal, as it were in Gethsemane. Then on to Good Friday, the day God Died.
Today, you’ll be pleased to know, will be the last time I address you in this way, pulpit to people. From now on the word and the sacrament will say all that can and has to be said. We shall find the ultimate Easter bargain, and we shall find it doesn’t come cheaply.
That is why the importance of the coming Holy and Great week cannot be underestimated. It contains the essence of our faith. It challenges each of us with our response to the sheer and naked Truth of the Gospel, of the inherent reality of life’s pains and joys. It challenges us, in the spirit of that desert solitude, to think again for ourselves; what do we make of it all; what does God want us to do with it all; what do we do with the sheer treasure of this life’s mystery that he has invested with us?
One of our Desert Fathers, Andrew of Crete, helps us to think more deeply about the Sunday of Palms next week,
‘So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless branches, matter that wastes away…we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, so let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet’
He also wrote, ‘Let us give voice to that sacred chant, as we wave the spiritual branches of our soul: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” ’.
Amen.
Passion Sunday
(What is Holy Week?)
[Latin: Hebdomas Sancta]
Our journey through Lent, has been to help us connect with the ‘soul-making’ desert landscape. It has been a journey also to remind us of those forty days of Christ in the wilderness. The desert launched him into the sea of ministry; his ministry and life came to an end in in the stormy harbour of Jerusalem. This is where we are going now.
Next week we come to Palm Sunday, for some known as Passion Sunday, because it is at this service that we read the full Matthew Passion story. Holy Week or, The Holy and Great Week, as it is known in the Orthodox Church, begins on Palm Sunday. Practically, as we have this long reading of the Gospel next week, common sense says that we have no sermon! That means that, when we actually come to Holy Week, we never really know what we are getting into!
That seems rather bizarre, seeing that it is the most important week of our Christian year!
So, this week we can begin our thinking around Holy Week, and begin our thinking about The Passion. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday.
In origin, it was to be an intensification of the fast of Lent, like a sprint to the line. It is first referred to as ‘a week’, as ‘an item’, as early as the late 3rd C. The early regulations required that no flesh was consumed through the forty days, and a total fast to be kept on Fridays and Saturdays. These were developed in Jerusalem under the direction of one Bishop Cyril.
Queen and Saint Helena’s influence over her son Emperor Constantine was suffocating! So much so that, not only did she insist that he and the whole Roman Empire become Christian, she convinced him also to build churches on the sites, in the Holy City, denoting the key events of our Lord’s last days.
Going to Jerusalem today we can still visit the ‘sites’ where He was condemned, He fell several times, where He wept, where the cock crew, where He was betrayed, where He died and He rose again.
These sacred sites, by the 4th C, became sites of pilgrimage. This was essentially due to the famous Spanish pilgrim, one Egeria. In the 380’s she wrote her famous journal of her pilgrimage to these sites. It was her journal, importantly, that for the first time linked the sites with the scriptures, and that made pilgrimage popular. Today, that model survives. I have a book, ‘Around the Holy Land with the Gospel’. That is how pilgrimage works; as they say, ‘A pilgrimage to the Holy Land is the Fifth gospel, as it makes sense of the other Four’.
[For us, this means that the way of approaching the services of this week is ‘rememorative’. This means that the historical events are not enacted as in a passion play, but ‘remembered symbolically so that we may enter into them’. (Kenneth Stevenson, a liturgy advisor).]
The gospel story is the thread on which the events hang, and throughout the week, we move with Christ from event to event. Historically, the services began then in Jerusalem, and pilgrims took the ideas home.
The services gradually became embellished, especially with the Crusades when the ‘Stations of the Cross’ devotion was devised, also the burying of a cross or consecrated host in the Easter garden, and the using of a coffin on Good Friday. ‘Remembering’ symbolism becomes replaced then by a more ‘representationall’ worship. This is seen in art, moving from say a simple crucifix, to the more graphic bloody scenes of crucifixion. Mel Gibson style? We chose, do we not, in what ways we prefer to worship?
Today, we have a bit of both as we travel through Holy Week. It begins with a complex Palm Sunday. It is complex though, because during the service, we have to change our mood somehow. We ask ourselves to contain the paradox of God in an hour and fifteen minutes! We begin with the ‘Hosannas’ of the welcoming Jerusalem crowd, we receive palms of rejoicing. These rejoicing palms for us though, are in the shape of the cross.
For us, the rejoicing, the ‘riding on in majesty’, lasts as long as we are in procession. We could make it longer, go outside, go around the City? Have a donkey? It doesn’t last long this rejoicing; the crowd soon turns; we move from praise, to plot, to passion. On Palm Sunday then, once the procession ceases, we become turn-coats, and the Passion begins.
The Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday, look at Gospel scenes which precede the Crucifixion; Jesus’ anointing at Bethany; the foretelling of his betrayal at the last supper, and the Judas event. Sometimes Holy Wednesday, because of the Judas event, is also known as ‘Spy Sunday’.
We pass then to Maundy Thursday, that great ‘sacramental service’. Here we have the sacramental of ‘service’, for ministry, the institution of the Eucharist, confession. The sacrament is the outward sign of an inward reality; put simply, ‘we do what we know’.
So we know about Christian ministry, we know about the union of God, we know about sharing our mistakes. We show them through, the washing of the feet and the blessing of the holy oils, the breaking of the bread, the listening and the forgiving. These are the outward signs.
We move then, through the silent vigil of betrayal, as it were in Gethsemane. Then on to Good Friday, the day God Died.
Today, you’ll be pleased to know, will be the last time I address you in this way, pulpit to people. From now on the word and the sacrament will say all that can and has to be said. We shall find the ultimate Easter bargain, and we shall find it doesn’t come cheaply.
That is why the importance of the coming Holy and Great week cannot be underestimated. It contains the essence of our faith. It challenges each of us with our response to the sheer and naked Truth of the Gospel, of the inherent reality of life’s pains and joys. It challenges us, in the spirit of that desert solitude, to think again for ourselves; what do we make of it all; what does God want us to do with it all; what do we do with the sheer treasure of this life’s mystery that he has invested with us?
One of our Desert Fathers, Andrew of Crete, helps us to think more deeply about the Sunday of Palms next week,
‘So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless branches, matter that wastes away…we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, so let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet’
He also wrote, ‘Let us give voice to that sacred chant, as we wave the spiritual branches of our soul: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” ’.
Amen.
15th March 2015
Charles de Foucauld
Lent IV
Ending our Desert Way.
These weeks we have been keeping to a Lent theme. Whatever you have made of it, I cannot tell. It would be remiss though, of me, not to introduce you to this massive area of spiritual wisdom and understanding, that we have called ‘The Way of the Desert’.
That wisdom, worked out in gruelling desert conditions, by those early fathers and mothers, as we have seen, has underpinned Christian thought throughout subsequent generations. Even, as we saw, our precious Book of Common Prayer, has that derived wisdom. That particular piece of wisdom we saw to be,
‘compunction’;
that severe awareness of God in all things,
and that severe awareness of the sheer sinfulness of all humanity.
To try to make some sense of what was said and what was set down for us in history, I thought I would introduce you one more person, more recent to us in time, who interpreted the early fathers and his life, literally in the desert. I speak of one Charles de Foucauld.
His is a fascinating biography. In particular, it is a ‘faith biography’. The comings and goings of his faith journey can echo so much of our own oscillations, vacillation, we just have to listen for any echoes!
Charles was born into a good Catholic family, in Northern France, in 1858. Throughout his life, he claimed that it was in the love in that family that he learned the love of God.
He went to university, read widely, and his infantile belief went away, he wrote,
‘I remained without denying or believing anything, despairing of the truth and not even believing in God. There was no convincing proof,’ and, ‘I was in the dark. I no longer saw either God or men: there was only me’.
His army career led to greater disillusionment and life-style problems. He was known as ‘Fats-Foucauld’. He did though, have two periods in Algeria. It was then he fell in love with the landscape.
He decided to leave the army, and with a family inheritance, decided to travel the world, using Algiers as his base. He wanted to take his travels seriously, not as a tourist, and although now not religious, but as a pilgrim.
He was fascinated by adventure and even danger. He wanted to explore Morocco, a Muslim land forbidden to Europeans, so he did pretended to be a wandering rabbi and joined a group of nomadic Moroccan Muslims!! He was to beg from town to town. He suffered insults, and stoning and was near to death several time, but when he had quiet moments he continued writing his journal.
After a year of this he ‘came in’ to Algiers, arriving at the border, ‘barefoot, thin and covered with dirt, to the world a poor Jew’. He had had his godless time, and his wanderings. He returned to Paris, started going to church, was welcomed like the Prodigal son: in short he found, after a desert experience he found the oasis in the service and love of God. A visit to Bethlehem and walking as a poor man through the streets of Nazareth, clinched it for him to follow in the steps of Christ.
His vocation brought him to becoming a Trappist Monk, (a very strict Benedictine order). He stayed with the ‘Poor Clares’ in Nazareth for a while, in a simple plank hut, and as ‘the poor work man of Nazareth’, he also wrote a monastic rule for his followers whom he called ‘The Little Brothers of Jesus’.
He had permission to return to the desert to live both as hermit, yet with a ministry to the Muslims whom he had great affection for. He arrived at Beni Abbes on the Moroccan border with Algiers. The local soldiers helped him build three huts and a chapel.
Hermit yes, but, from his journal, ‘From 4.30 am to 8.30pm, I never stop talking and receiving people: slaves, the poor, the sick, soldiers, travellers and the curious’. In his own way he spoke out about slavery which horrified him, calling the government, ‘sleeping watchmen’, ‘mute dogs’, or ‘apathetic shepherds’.
The rest of his time, he spent in prayer, before the Blessed Sacrament, praying especially that brothers would come to join him. Unlike those early desert monks, when thousands came to seek them out, no-one came to join Charles.
After two years he began to wander the desert again as a solitary hermit, yet he was glad he could meet more people as he travelled. By 1914 he had settled again with the Tuareg tribe, compiling a dictionary and continuing his prayer life for the peoples of the desert.
The war in Europe raged and had spread into the desert peace. The local French fort had been overrun by tribesmen controlled by Germany, and this tribe was on their way to Charles and his friends, only God could stop them. God did not. Charles was violently killed on December 1st 1916.
Nothing in his life time, save a journal to mark his life. But, like the real desert flowers, which lay dormant until life can be sustained, the memory and example and teaching of Charles, blossomed after his death: ‘unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground…’. As it was with Our Lord, so it was with Charles. No-one followed him, no-one converted, in his life time, but now the Order of ‘The Little Brothers of Jesus’ is a world- wide order of missionary beggars.
Charles a real flower in a real desert.
Amen
Charles de Foucauld
Lent IV
Ending our Desert Way.
These weeks we have been keeping to a Lent theme. Whatever you have made of it, I cannot tell. It would be remiss though, of me, not to introduce you to this massive area of spiritual wisdom and understanding, that we have called ‘The Way of the Desert’.
That wisdom, worked out in gruelling desert conditions, by those early fathers and mothers, as we have seen, has underpinned Christian thought throughout subsequent generations. Even, as we saw, our precious Book of Common Prayer, has that derived wisdom. That particular piece of wisdom we saw to be,
‘compunction’;
that severe awareness of God in all things,
and that severe awareness of the sheer sinfulness of all humanity.
To try to make some sense of what was said and what was set down for us in history, I thought I would introduce you one more person, more recent to us in time, who interpreted the early fathers and his life, literally in the desert. I speak of one Charles de Foucauld.
His is a fascinating biography. In particular, it is a ‘faith biography’. The comings and goings of his faith journey can echo so much of our own oscillations, vacillation, we just have to listen for any echoes!
Charles was born into a good Catholic family, in Northern France, in 1858. Throughout his life, he claimed that it was in the love in that family that he learned the love of God.
He went to university, read widely, and his infantile belief went away, he wrote,
‘I remained without denying or believing anything, despairing of the truth and not even believing in God. There was no convincing proof,’ and, ‘I was in the dark. I no longer saw either God or men: there was only me’.
His army career led to greater disillusionment and life-style problems. He was known as ‘Fats-Foucauld’. He did though, have two periods in Algeria. It was then he fell in love with the landscape.
He decided to leave the army, and with a family inheritance, decided to travel the world, using Algiers as his base. He wanted to take his travels seriously, not as a tourist, and although now not religious, but as a pilgrim.
He was fascinated by adventure and even danger. He wanted to explore Morocco, a Muslim land forbidden to Europeans, so he did pretended to be a wandering rabbi and joined a group of nomadic Moroccan Muslims!! He was to beg from town to town. He suffered insults, and stoning and was near to death several time, but when he had quiet moments he continued writing his journal.
After a year of this he ‘came in’ to Algiers, arriving at the border, ‘barefoot, thin and covered with dirt, to the world a poor Jew’. He had had his godless time, and his wanderings. He returned to Paris, started going to church, was welcomed like the Prodigal son: in short he found, after a desert experience he found the oasis in the service and love of God. A visit to Bethlehem and walking as a poor man through the streets of Nazareth, clinched it for him to follow in the steps of Christ.
His vocation brought him to becoming a Trappist Monk, (a very strict Benedictine order). He stayed with the ‘Poor Clares’ in Nazareth for a while, in a simple plank hut, and as ‘the poor work man of Nazareth’, he also wrote a monastic rule for his followers whom he called ‘The Little Brothers of Jesus’.
He had permission to return to the desert to live both as hermit, yet with a ministry to the Muslims whom he had great affection for. He arrived at Beni Abbes on the Moroccan border with Algiers. The local soldiers helped him build three huts and a chapel.
Hermit yes, but, from his journal, ‘From 4.30 am to 8.30pm, I never stop talking and receiving people: slaves, the poor, the sick, soldiers, travellers and the curious’. In his own way he spoke out about slavery which horrified him, calling the government, ‘sleeping watchmen’, ‘mute dogs’, or ‘apathetic shepherds’.
The rest of his time, he spent in prayer, before the Blessed Sacrament, praying especially that brothers would come to join him. Unlike those early desert monks, when thousands came to seek them out, no-one came to join Charles.
After two years he began to wander the desert again as a solitary hermit, yet he was glad he could meet more people as he travelled. By 1914 he had settled again with the Tuareg tribe, compiling a dictionary and continuing his prayer life for the peoples of the desert.
The war in Europe raged and had spread into the desert peace. The local French fort had been overrun by tribesmen controlled by Germany, and this tribe was on their way to Charles and his friends, only God could stop them. God did not. Charles was violently killed on December 1st 1916.
Nothing in his life time, save a journal to mark his life. But, like the real desert flowers, which lay dormant until life can be sustained, the memory and example and teaching of Charles, blossomed after his death: ‘unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground…’. As it was with Our Lord, so it was with Charles. No-one followed him, no-one converted, in his life time, but now the Order of ‘The Little Brothers of Jesus’ is a world- wide order of missionary beggars.
Charles a real flower in a real desert.
Amen
Delivered 8 March 2015
The Desert Sayings
‘The Speaking Outs’
Apophthegmata
Lent III
These past two weeks, we have looked at the why of the desert, and at the who of the desert, even at the how, but now is time to look at the ‘what’.
What did these desert fathers and mothers, in these scattered communities say to each other? What did the great hermit mentors, Simeon the Stylite from his pillar, and Anthony from behind his bolted doors, actually say to their disciples? What was it that was so attractive to the thousands who flocked into the hostile desert to hear and learn?
We have the early Latin sources, which describe how these eminently sensible men and women, the abbas and the ammas, in the desert extremis, were learning to live with nature and with each other under and with God. The learning emerged from a solitudinous life of prayer. Life in the desert though, was not about death and dying, but about new life.
The pattern was that of the Apostles’ coming to Jesus in his desert solitude and disturb Him with their questions; what about prayer, what about forgiveness, what about the kingdom of God?
The sources for their wise teachings, aphorisms, are the sayings or ‘the speaking outs’, the apophthegmata. (Greek).
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, the pillar dwellers found energy to argue their doctrinal positions, speaking out loudly what they believed from their eyries.
There was though, another ‘speaking out’ which was the way they talked and, by contrast, even whispered, to their disciples. Here was a mentoring, a teaching, a counselling, a directing, a forgiving, a healing. They taught in this grinding poverty, about how to live the ‘every day’ with God, and with each other. They taught through words of consolation and challenge.
Life and death and living together were the key issues. St Anthony the Great gave them one major foundational saying,
“Our life and our death is with our neighbour. If we win our brother, we win God. If we cause our brother to stumble, we have sinned against Christ”.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, the desert fathers showed, through practically living the gospel, that it was true and real. No-one was excluded. There were stories of repentant prostitutes becoming ammas, Mary of Egypt being one such.
They spoke out, as we saw sometimes in dispute, but mostly in the hope of creating right living amongst them and harmony under God.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, they could take a wry look at how they lived. There is humour in their sayings, recognising how important humour is for harmony, especially the ability to laugh at oneself. There is a story about,
“…two hermits who had lived together for many years without a quarrel. One said to the other, ‘Let’s have a quarrel with each other, as is the way of men’. The other replied, ‘I do not know how a quarrel happens.’
The first said, ‘Look here, I put a brick between us, and I say, That’s mine. Then you say, No it’s mine. That is how you begin a quarrel. So they put a brick between them. The one said, That’s mine. The other, No, it’s mine. The other said, ‘Yes, it’s your, take it away’ They were unable to argue with each other”.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, and the rumours of self-punishing penances, they were able to demonstrate great kindness and tolerance. The brothers came to Abba Poemen on one occasion, complaining that one of their company kept falling asleep during the holy offices.
‘What extra penance should he have?, they asked him. The holy abbot, reflected,
‘When I see any brother who falls asleep during public prayers, I put his head upon my knees and help him to rest’
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, these abbas and ammas, addressed all aspects of their monastic lives, on harmony, on obedience, on quiet, on hospitality and so on.
Some quick looks!
v Quiet. St Anthony, “He who sits alone and is quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing: but there is one thing against which he must continually fight; that is his own heart”.
v Compunction. Poemen said also, “Grief is twofold: it creates good and it keeps evil away”.
v Self-Control: Sisois said, “Our form of pilgrimage is keeping the mouth closed”. Also there is the story; “On a journey a monk met some nuns and when he saw them he turned aside from the road. The abbess said to him, ‘If you had been a true monk, you would not have looked to see that we are women’.”
v Hospitality: A story of, “A brother came to a hermit: and as he was taking his leave, he said, ‘Forgive me, abba, for preventing you from keeping your Rule. The hermit answered, ‘My Rule is to welcome you with hospitality, and to send you on your way in peace’.”
v Charity: A story, “A brother asked a hermit, ‘Suppose there are two monks: one stays quietly in his cell, fasting six times a day, laying many hardships on himself: and the other ministers to the sick. Which of them is more pleasing to God? He replied, ‘Even if the brother who fasts six days hung himself up by the nose, he wouldn’t be the equal of him who ministers to the sick’.”
So, there are many of these and it is worth looking them up. They are entertaining, but rigorously demanding of the pilgrim. They formed the next layer, if you like of teachings, after the biblical era of scripture, addressing, ‘how do we live the Christian life?’
The medieval church was greatly influenced and the mystical writers like Thomas ἁ Kempis and the author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’. So, by gravity, much of what these abbas and ammas had spoken out about has come to us.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert the flowers of their teachings have survived. With them though, there is always the final conundrum, almost a final disclaimer of all that they have done. Here is St Anthony,
“… some leave home and cross the seas and deserts in order to gain an education, but there is no need to go away on account of the Kingdom of God, nor need we cross the expanse in search of virtue. He Lord has told us, ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’. All that is needed for goodness is that which is within, the human heart’.”
AMEN
The Desert Sayings
‘The Speaking Outs’
Apophthegmata
Lent III
These past two weeks, we have looked at the why of the desert, and at the who of the desert, even at the how, but now is time to look at the ‘what’.
What did these desert fathers and mothers, in these scattered communities say to each other? What did the great hermit mentors, Simeon the Stylite from his pillar, and Anthony from behind his bolted doors, actually say to their disciples? What was it that was so attractive to the thousands who flocked into the hostile desert to hear and learn?
We have the early Latin sources, which describe how these eminently sensible men and women, the abbas and the ammas, in the desert extremis, were learning to live with nature and with each other under and with God. The learning emerged from a solitudinous life of prayer. Life in the desert though, was not about death and dying, but about new life.
The pattern was that of the Apostles’ coming to Jesus in his desert solitude and disturb Him with their questions; what about prayer, what about forgiveness, what about the kingdom of God?
The sources for their wise teachings, aphorisms, are the sayings or ‘the speaking outs’, the apophthegmata. (Greek).
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, the pillar dwellers found energy to argue their doctrinal positions, speaking out loudly what they believed from their eyries.
There was though, another ‘speaking out’ which was the way they talked and, by contrast, even whispered, to their disciples. Here was a mentoring, a teaching, a counselling, a directing, a forgiving, a healing. They taught in this grinding poverty, about how to live the ‘every day’ with God, and with each other. They taught through words of consolation and challenge.
Life and death and living together were the key issues. St Anthony the Great gave them one major foundational saying,
“Our life and our death is with our neighbour. If we win our brother, we win God. If we cause our brother to stumble, we have sinned against Christ”.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, the desert fathers showed, through practically living the gospel, that it was true and real. No-one was excluded. There were stories of repentant prostitutes becoming ammas, Mary of Egypt being one such.
They spoke out, as we saw sometimes in dispute, but mostly in the hope of creating right living amongst them and harmony under God.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, they could take a wry look at how they lived. There is humour in their sayings, recognising how important humour is for harmony, especially the ability to laugh at oneself. There is a story about,
“…two hermits who had lived together for many years without a quarrel. One said to the other, ‘Let’s have a quarrel with each other, as is the way of men’. The other replied, ‘I do not know how a quarrel happens.’
The first said, ‘Look here, I put a brick between us, and I say, That’s mine. Then you say, No it’s mine. That is how you begin a quarrel. So they put a brick between them. The one said, That’s mine. The other, No, it’s mine. The other said, ‘Yes, it’s your, take it away’ They were unable to argue with each other”.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, and the rumours of self-punishing penances, they were able to demonstrate great kindness and tolerance. The brothers came to Abba Poemen on one occasion, complaining that one of their company kept falling asleep during the holy offices.
‘What extra penance should he have?, they asked him. The holy abbot, reflected,
‘When I see any brother who falls asleep during public prayers, I put his head upon my knees and help him to rest’
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert, these abbas and ammas, addressed all aspects of their monastic lives, on harmony, on obedience, on quiet, on hospitality and so on.
Some quick looks!
v Quiet. St Anthony, “He who sits alone and is quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing: but there is one thing against which he must continually fight; that is his own heart”.
v Compunction. Poemen said also, “Grief is twofold: it creates good and it keeps evil away”.
v Self-Control: Sisois said, “Our form of pilgrimage is keeping the mouth closed”. Also there is the story; “On a journey a monk met some nuns and when he saw them he turned aside from the road. The abbess said to him, ‘If you had been a true monk, you would not have looked to see that we are women’.”
v Hospitality: A story of, “A brother came to a hermit: and as he was taking his leave, he said, ‘Forgive me, abba, for preventing you from keeping your Rule. The hermit answered, ‘My Rule is to welcome you with hospitality, and to send you on your way in peace’.”
v Charity: A story, “A brother asked a hermit, ‘Suppose there are two monks: one stays quietly in his cell, fasting six times a day, laying many hardships on himself: and the other ministers to the sick. Which of them is more pleasing to God? He replied, ‘Even if the brother who fasts six days hung himself up by the nose, he wouldn’t be the equal of him who ministers to the sick’.”
So, there are many of these and it is worth looking them up. They are entertaining, but rigorously demanding of the pilgrim. They formed the next layer, if you like of teachings, after the biblical era of scripture, addressing, ‘how do we live the Christian life?’
The medieval church was greatly influenced and the mystical writers like Thomas ἁ Kempis and the author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’. So, by gravity, much of what these abbas and ammas had spoken out about has come to us.
Despite the absolute relentless austerity of the desert the flowers of their teachings have survived. With them though, there is always the final conundrum, almost a final disclaimer of all that they have done. Here is St Anthony,
“… some leave home and cross the seas and deserts in order to gain an education, but there is no need to go away on account of the Kingdom of God, nor need we cross the expanse in search of virtue. He Lord has told us, ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’. All that is needed for goodness is that which is within, the human heart’.”
AMEN
1st March 2015
Lent 2
St Anthony of Egypt
During this Lent, we are looking at the way of the desert, which is the way of prayer, which is the way of the heart.
Last week we saw how the whole of the Judaeo-Christian system of belief arose out of the desert environment. We recognise that Jesus was a desert person, as were his fiery Old Testament predecessors, as were his immediate successors. If we but pause and have a think, we can see how our Christian practice, prayer, action and organisation originated in response to this desert place.
We saw, how that call changed. Persecuted, fearfully hiding Christians suddenly became respectable. Christianity became a ‘name only’, a ‘sign the form’ type of system under Emperor Constantine, the real seekers, the real revolutionaries, the real disciples, had to depart the comforts of acceptability, and regain the edge, the sharpness of the Gospel.
Some turned their back on this city civilized Christianity and went ‘bush’. Individuals began a movement which changed the face of Christendom.
Before we go further though, the reason for looking at these characters is that, yes, they are part of our spiritual history, but they are living analogies for aspects or stages, in our own spiritual development. When we hear of where they were, in a Lenten journey of our own, we ask where we are. So where they made geographical shifts, to get away from or get to something, someone or somewhere so to get new perspectives, then we might reflect some similar spiritual shifts in ourselves. It is a voyage of discovery and, like those early explorers, we shall see what we shall find!
So, this movement of individuals, of ‘odd-balls’, Rowan Williams calls them, was one of going into the desert to seek and, be sought by, their God.
St Anthony was one such person, and is possibly the most famous of such individuals, but there were two others we should be aware of and put into our Christian archive.
The oddest of all odd-balls must have been one Simeon the Stylite. He was a century or so later in time than Anthony, but he certainly developed his own style of how to be a desert hermit.
He was called a ‘stylite’, coming from the word ‘stylos’, ‘pillar’. In the year 423 he climbed up onto a high pillar, and stayed there for thirty seven years. There he fasted, prayed and preached. A friend of his, having stood for 53 years finally decided to lay down on his pillar. Although they were essentially solitary, and there was a fair distance between them they would still argue with each other, shouting their doctrinal views for all those below to hear.
The great 3rd -4th C St Anthony took his walk into the desert. He found safe places, setting himself to be solitary. He was aware though that there was someone else out there who was older and been in the desert much longer. He needed a mentor. This was St. Paul the Hermit, not toe confused with Paul the Simple!
Anthony went off in search of his mentor. So the legend goes, ‘of a sudden, he came upon him’. In the vastness they met. In recognising such a miraculous event, Anthony and Paul broke the Eucharistic bread in thanksgiving. St. Paul was 113 years old.
Anthony went his way, others followed. He would hide where he could. At one point, he found an old Roman fort. The followers would feed him from the outside, he would teach them through the locked doors. This went on for twenty years. His followers had to break down the door when he decided to come out. He was absolutely in the best health imaginable. The rumour spread and more men and women came to be with this wise one.
They formed little communities. Anthony never formed a monastery. In the terminology, he was the ‘eremite’ , they were the ‘cenobites’. He was the solitary hermit and they were the community of hermits. In this way he was called the ‘Father of Monks’.
Somehow, Anthony became seriously tempted. ‘By what?’, you may ask. It was apathy and boredom that afflicted him. In a dream an angel told him to work! So, ah, ah! The moment of realisation came. He started to weave rush matting, and boredom and apathy left him. From that, Anthony was able to teach the very basic monastic and, indeed Christian, practice, ‘pray and work’, in balance. More advanced thinking became, ‘to work is to pray’-or vice versa, ‘orare est laborare’, or ‘laborare est orare’
This may be well known to us, but it was new for them. Some two centuries later St Benedict formulated that principle into the basic monastic rule. Benedict became known as ‘the father of monasteries’ and, Anthony remained ‘the father of monks’.
St Anthony was 105 when he died in 356AD. Like his Lord, he was put in a shroud and laid in an unmarked grave.
How is that St Anthony has remained deeply revered by the universal church?
Primarily, it is because he had and , taught, the awareness of God and, he had and, taught, the awareness of the sinfulness of humanity.
In the history of Christian thinking, those two awarenesses denoted as ‘compunction’, that nudging of the conscience. The compilers of the Book of Common Prayer were very impressed by this ‘compunction’ which came from those early desert fathers and mothers.
Our prayer book, does it not teach us the awareness of God and the sinfulness of humanity? Well, yes it does, and that is derived from. Anthony. He was an illiterate man, but a holy man, and if he could have, he could have written the Book of Common Prayer.
May be we have inherited from Anthony and his disciples, our being as ‘odd-balls’ in this desert of a City.
AMEN
Lent 2
St Anthony of Egypt
During this Lent, we are looking at the way of the desert, which is the way of prayer, which is the way of the heart.
Last week we saw how the whole of the Judaeo-Christian system of belief arose out of the desert environment. We recognise that Jesus was a desert person, as were his fiery Old Testament predecessors, as were his immediate successors. If we but pause and have a think, we can see how our Christian practice, prayer, action and organisation originated in response to this desert place.
We saw, how that call changed. Persecuted, fearfully hiding Christians suddenly became respectable. Christianity became a ‘name only’, a ‘sign the form’ type of system under Emperor Constantine, the real seekers, the real revolutionaries, the real disciples, had to depart the comforts of acceptability, and regain the edge, the sharpness of the Gospel.
Some turned their back on this city civilized Christianity and went ‘bush’. Individuals began a movement which changed the face of Christendom.
Before we go further though, the reason for looking at these characters is that, yes, they are part of our spiritual history, but they are living analogies for aspects or stages, in our own spiritual development. When we hear of where they were, in a Lenten journey of our own, we ask where we are. So where they made geographical shifts, to get away from or get to something, someone or somewhere so to get new perspectives, then we might reflect some similar spiritual shifts in ourselves. It is a voyage of discovery and, like those early explorers, we shall see what we shall find!
So, this movement of individuals, of ‘odd-balls’, Rowan Williams calls them, was one of going into the desert to seek and, be sought by, their God.
St Anthony was one such person, and is possibly the most famous of such individuals, but there were two others we should be aware of and put into our Christian archive.
The oddest of all odd-balls must have been one Simeon the Stylite. He was a century or so later in time than Anthony, but he certainly developed his own style of how to be a desert hermit.
He was called a ‘stylite’, coming from the word ‘stylos’, ‘pillar’. In the year 423 he climbed up onto a high pillar, and stayed there for thirty seven years. There he fasted, prayed and preached. A friend of his, having stood for 53 years finally decided to lay down on his pillar. Although they were essentially solitary, and there was a fair distance between them they would still argue with each other, shouting their doctrinal views for all those below to hear.
The great 3rd -4th C St Anthony took his walk into the desert. He found safe places, setting himself to be solitary. He was aware though that there was someone else out there who was older and been in the desert much longer. He needed a mentor. This was St. Paul the Hermit, not toe confused with Paul the Simple!
Anthony went off in search of his mentor. So the legend goes, ‘of a sudden, he came upon him’. In the vastness they met. In recognising such a miraculous event, Anthony and Paul broke the Eucharistic bread in thanksgiving. St. Paul was 113 years old.
Anthony went his way, others followed. He would hide where he could. At one point, he found an old Roman fort. The followers would feed him from the outside, he would teach them through the locked doors. This went on for twenty years. His followers had to break down the door when he decided to come out. He was absolutely in the best health imaginable. The rumour spread and more men and women came to be with this wise one.
They formed little communities. Anthony never formed a monastery. In the terminology, he was the ‘eremite’ , they were the ‘cenobites’. He was the solitary hermit and they were the community of hermits. In this way he was called the ‘Father of Monks’.
Somehow, Anthony became seriously tempted. ‘By what?’, you may ask. It was apathy and boredom that afflicted him. In a dream an angel told him to work! So, ah, ah! The moment of realisation came. He started to weave rush matting, and boredom and apathy left him. From that, Anthony was able to teach the very basic monastic and, indeed Christian, practice, ‘pray and work’, in balance. More advanced thinking became, ‘to work is to pray’-or vice versa, ‘orare est laborare’, or ‘laborare est orare’
This may be well known to us, but it was new for them. Some two centuries later St Benedict formulated that principle into the basic monastic rule. Benedict became known as ‘the father of monasteries’ and, Anthony remained ‘the father of monks’.
St Anthony was 105 when he died in 356AD. Like his Lord, he was put in a shroud and laid in an unmarked grave.
How is that St Anthony has remained deeply revered by the universal church?
Primarily, it is because he had and , taught, the awareness of God and, he had and, taught, the awareness of the sinfulness of humanity.
In the history of Christian thinking, those two awarenesses denoted as ‘compunction’, that nudging of the conscience. The compilers of the Book of Common Prayer were very impressed by this ‘compunction’ which came from those early desert fathers and mothers.
Our prayer book, does it not teach us the awareness of God and the sinfulness of humanity? Well, yes it does, and that is derived from. Anthony. He was an illiterate man, but a holy man, and if he could have, he could have written the Book of Common Prayer.
May be we have inherited from Anthony and his disciples, our being as ‘odd-balls’ in this desert of a City.
AMEN
22nd February 2015
The Way of the Desert:
A Way for Life and a Way for Prayer.
Four Sermons for Lent.
Lent 1: Setting the scene.
A familiar image we have is,
“And Jesus went alone to a high place to pray”.
The way in Lent, the way in the desert begins somewhere, and for us, that is now.
This week, we have a brief introduction to this theme for this period of Lent, with the reminder,
‘Detachment from selfish concerns was always the essence for Christianity,
So, desert and prayer go together’
Our minds are drawn to the ‘desert’ in Lent. We are aware that the whole Judaeo-Christian history began and grew in a landscape which was real desert territory. Any spirituality, any religious system is mindful of the surrounding natural environment, ours is no exception.
Hebrew history was dominated by the desert dwellers, the great prophets and the warring tribes of epic proportions. It is the world of this awesome God who made this awesome geography. Yet there is nothing there!
(Maybe the early peoples were given the desert because there was less for them to destroy? It had already been ‘desertified’). God chose barrenness as the environment as the setting for the crucible of Christianity.
Every aspect of ‘being a Christian’ originates from a desert perspective.
After His Baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness because he was told to, because he was led by the Holy Spirit. It was as if he Himself had to learn the way of the desert before he could show anyone else, so that anyone else could then say that, “ He was ‘The Way’. “
Notably, he was exposed to and, had to face up to, his own demons, ones we ourselves can recognise. He learned to pray in solitude in the desert, he learned discernment between good and evil in a very powerful way in the desert. He learned a purity and an intensity and a compassion in the desert. His desert way of being, in terms of prayer, namely that seeking God and being sought by Him, was His inward strengthening for the great outward draining demands that we was about to encounter back ‘in the city’.
His way for life, His way for prayer, were then the templates for the early Christians, and has permeated all the way through to us.
In that first century, their Christian activities had to be kept secret, as we know. Christians were, believe it or not, had been seen to be ‘atheists’, by the Romans, so had to be suppressed in a way tyrants do.
Now, importantly, we keep a side thought, as we engage in this ancient desert landscape, and think of those earliest holy one, today the Coptic Church in severe persecution
So they had a ‘hidden’ form of praying; prayer then had to be, most usually, a solitary activity. Now, we have to imagine, if we were 1st C. Christians, how it would have been, always hiding, always meeting secretly, mostly underground, living in fear always of capture and punishment. Paradoxically, though these Christians were fully alive, and full of expectation also, let us not forget, for they lived in the hope of the imminent return of their Christ, to save them from this persecution. Some had begun to take flight into the desert, to wait his return, for there God would be, in the desert.
It was a very small world then. Everything concerning the emerging civilization of humanity happened around this ‘sea in the middle of land’, ‘our sea’ –‘mare nostrum’ , as the Romans called it- the Mediterranean Pond.
Yet, despite the persecutory Roman Empire encircling the Mediterranean, Christianity spread. The people of ‘The Way’, though politically suppressed were very alive and very well, thank you very much, under the ground, sometimes at sea, and certainly in the desert.
All that changed. In 313AD, with the Edict of Milan, the Roman Emperor, Constantine, an obedient little boy to his mother, Helena, who had travelled in the Holy Land and , amongst other things, discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem, became a Christian. Christianity became the State Religion.
Now ‘homeless’ after 300 years. There was an era of complete confusion in the Christian world. The believers had accepted that they were strangers, aliens, even lion fodder, but now suddenly all was acceptance, inclusion, safety, even cosiness!
This move, as we can see, took the cutting edge off the revolutionary Christian movement. For the first time nominalism, (that is ‘believers’ in name only), took root. Words like ‘compromise’ and ‘mediocrity’ crept in and worst of all,
‘Social standing became the reason for faith and not the love for and the commitment to the way of Christ’
There were those then, who knew the way of the heart, which told them to take up again the way of the desert, the way of Christ, which is the way of prayer and compassion.
So, this bizarre paradox, noted by the great man of prayer, Thomas Merton,
“It should seem much stranger than it does, that this paradoxical flight from the world attained its greatest dimensions (almost a frenzy), when the ‘world’ officially became Christian”.
There was a massive move to the desert, some did stay in the cities, both groups, accepting each other’s way working out their own paths to salvation in their different settings. At first it was the individual seeker, that took off into the desert, the ‘odd-ball’ as Rowan Williams calls them. These odd balls gathered others around them, and monasteries grew up in the desert.
Here the way of prayer, born of the way of the desert, gave us this way of the heart.
Next week, we begin to have a look at one odd-ball, St Anthony of Egypt, and the beginnings of the way of the monk, the monas, the one alone.
Henri Nouwen, in his book, “The Way of Heart” speaks to us about desert and prayer,
“It is in this nothingness that we have to face our own solitude. There we can find our heart, and our heart determines our personality, and our heart directs us to God and the person by our side”.
So next week, we move, with St Anthony, from any rich dark soil of a fertile Nile Valley, into the barren yellow sands of Egyptian nothingness.
Amen
The Way of the Desert:
A Way for Life and a Way for Prayer.
Four Sermons for Lent.
Lent 1: Setting the scene.
A familiar image we have is,
“And Jesus went alone to a high place to pray”.
The way in Lent, the way in the desert begins somewhere, and for us, that is now.
This week, we have a brief introduction to this theme for this period of Lent, with the reminder,
‘Detachment from selfish concerns was always the essence for Christianity,
So, desert and prayer go together’
Our minds are drawn to the ‘desert’ in Lent. We are aware that the whole Judaeo-Christian history began and grew in a landscape which was real desert territory. Any spirituality, any religious system is mindful of the surrounding natural environment, ours is no exception.
Hebrew history was dominated by the desert dwellers, the great prophets and the warring tribes of epic proportions. It is the world of this awesome God who made this awesome geography. Yet there is nothing there!
(Maybe the early peoples were given the desert because there was less for them to destroy? It had already been ‘desertified’). God chose barrenness as the environment as the setting for the crucible of Christianity.
Every aspect of ‘being a Christian’ originates from a desert perspective.
After His Baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness because he was told to, because he was led by the Holy Spirit. It was as if he Himself had to learn the way of the desert before he could show anyone else, so that anyone else could then say that, “ He was ‘The Way’. “
Notably, he was exposed to and, had to face up to, his own demons, ones we ourselves can recognise. He learned to pray in solitude in the desert, he learned discernment between good and evil in a very powerful way in the desert. He learned a purity and an intensity and a compassion in the desert. His desert way of being, in terms of prayer, namely that seeking God and being sought by Him, was His inward strengthening for the great outward draining demands that we was about to encounter back ‘in the city’.
His way for life, His way for prayer, were then the templates for the early Christians, and has permeated all the way through to us.
In that first century, their Christian activities had to be kept secret, as we know. Christians were, believe it or not, had been seen to be ‘atheists’, by the Romans, so had to be suppressed in a way tyrants do.
Now, importantly, we keep a side thought, as we engage in this ancient desert landscape, and think of those earliest holy one, today the Coptic Church in severe persecution
So they had a ‘hidden’ form of praying; prayer then had to be, most usually, a solitary activity. Now, we have to imagine, if we were 1st C. Christians, how it would have been, always hiding, always meeting secretly, mostly underground, living in fear always of capture and punishment. Paradoxically, though these Christians were fully alive, and full of expectation also, let us not forget, for they lived in the hope of the imminent return of their Christ, to save them from this persecution. Some had begun to take flight into the desert, to wait his return, for there God would be, in the desert.
It was a very small world then. Everything concerning the emerging civilization of humanity happened around this ‘sea in the middle of land’, ‘our sea’ –‘mare nostrum’ , as the Romans called it- the Mediterranean Pond.
Yet, despite the persecutory Roman Empire encircling the Mediterranean, Christianity spread. The people of ‘The Way’, though politically suppressed were very alive and very well, thank you very much, under the ground, sometimes at sea, and certainly in the desert.
All that changed. In 313AD, with the Edict of Milan, the Roman Emperor, Constantine, an obedient little boy to his mother, Helena, who had travelled in the Holy Land and , amongst other things, discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem, became a Christian. Christianity became the State Religion.
Now ‘homeless’ after 300 years. There was an era of complete confusion in the Christian world. The believers had accepted that they were strangers, aliens, even lion fodder, but now suddenly all was acceptance, inclusion, safety, even cosiness!
This move, as we can see, took the cutting edge off the revolutionary Christian movement. For the first time nominalism, (that is ‘believers’ in name only), took root. Words like ‘compromise’ and ‘mediocrity’ crept in and worst of all,
‘Social standing became the reason for faith and not the love for and the commitment to the way of Christ’
There were those then, who knew the way of the heart, which told them to take up again the way of the desert, the way of Christ, which is the way of prayer and compassion.
So, this bizarre paradox, noted by the great man of prayer, Thomas Merton,
“It should seem much stranger than it does, that this paradoxical flight from the world attained its greatest dimensions (almost a frenzy), when the ‘world’ officially became Christian”.
There was a massive move to the desert, some did stay in the cities, both groups, accepting each other’s way working out their own paths to salvation in their different settings. At first it was the individual seeker, that took off into the desert, the ‘odd-ball’ as Rowan Williams calls them. These odd balls gathered others around them, and monasteries grew up in the desert.
Here the way of prayer, born of the way of the desert, gave us this way of the heart.
Next week, we begin to have a look at one odd-ball, St Anthony of Egypt, and the beginnings of the way of the monk, the monas, the one alone.
Henri Nouwen, in his book, “The Way of Heart” speaks to us about desert and prayer,
“It is in this nothingness that we have to face our own solitude. There we can find our heart, and our heart determines our personality, and our heart directs us to God and the person by our side”.
So next week, we move, with St Anthony, from any rich dark soil of a fertile Nile Valley, into the barren yellow sands of Egyptian nothingness.
Amen
Preached 15th February 2015
Quinquagesima.
The name of this Sunday is derived from the variant and imprecise use of the number fifty. It is indeed a guesstimate when the fiftieth day before Easter actually falls. It is a name, however, that you will not see or hear anywhere else in Christendom. It is a ‘non-Sunday’ except in churches that keep to the Book of Common Prayer!
To add to our uniqueness, it is quite probable that we are the only church in the City to use the name ‘Quinquagesima’. At some point in church history, to sort of soak up the spare weeks when Easter is later, extra penitential, pre-lent liturgies were added.
The Roman Catholic Church, after the Reforms of Vatican II, decided it was an unnecessary lengthening of the ‘wilderness’ period, and so scrapped Quinquagesima, this wandering Sunday, and it became subsumed into ordinary time.
What has remained, however, is a piece of musical liturgy. It happens to be that which is based on Psalm 31. From the earliest monastic times through Johannes Sebastian and beyond, there have been various scores of what is now known as ‘Esto mihi’. The beginning of the Latin line which goes on, ‘Esto mihi in Deum protectorem’. Translated, that becomes, ‘Be thou unto me a God, a Protector…’. It is a psalm seeking God as refuge and shelter.
It is a psalm which seeks the God who will guide and nourish us, and allow for just treatment. It is a prayer for ultimate assistance to face the rigours of ‘the wilderness’. It is used as an Hebrew prayer, the foreseeing the pains of the forty years exile, and has always been part of the synagogue ritual .The Churches takes up the psalm for the recalling of the 40 days of Christ’s wanderings in the desert, on which we base the Lenten fast.
We could try and make something of this Sunday because of its proximity to the confectionary of a St Valentine.
We kept it yesterday. The most likely candidate for the title of Saint is one priest in 3rdC. Rome. He refused to obey the emperor over marriage rules. The Emperor Claudiusforbade young men to marry as married men made very bad soldiers. Valentine performed marriage in secret. He was discovered and imprisoned. On the eve of his execution he sent a letter to the gaoler’s daughter; simply ‘From your Valentine’. It was also marked with a cross- the upright one of crucifixion, not the cross of hugs and kisses.
Valentine aside, but we could also look today at where this day is celebrated for itself, and that is in the Orthodox Church. It is not called Quinquagesima, but is known both as ‘Cheese fayre Sunday’ and ‘Forgiveness Sunday’.
The Orthodox Christian communities, love their liturgy, they love Lent but they also love their food! Their gatherings are always around a real shared meal, so it is no surprise that they celebrate food for as long as they can before Lent begins. This Sunday is the last then when dairy products may be taken in, so, I guess, everything with cheese on, in, around is permissible this Cheese fayre Sunday.
Perhaps more seriously, it is also ‘Forgiveness Sunday’. At vespers all the people make a ‘poklon’ (bow), before each other. As they do so they ask forgiveness. Lent thus starts with a spirit of reconciliation and Christian love. Tomorrow becomes ‘Clean Monday’, when all are sparkling, unclouded, ready to begin the Great Lent.
Through all these themes, then, the words of Psalm 31, as might be kept, hold fast,
( ‘esto mihi’) “Be thou unto me a God, a Protector,
and a place of refuge, to save me:
for Thou are my strength and my refuge:
and for Thy Name’s sake Thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.
In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded:
Deliver me in Thy justice, and save me.”
We need that prayer everyday really, especially through our Lenten journey beginning on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps we could grateful, that all we have to do is to have the Holy Ashes put upon our foreheads; how would it be were we to bow and ask forgiveness of each other. That would definitely need ‘esto mihi’.
Amen.
Quinquagesima.
The name of this Sunday is derived from the variant and imprecise use of the number fifty. It is indeed a guesstimate when the fiftieth day before Easter actually falls. It is a name, however, that you will not see or hear anywhere else in Christendom. It is a ‘non-Sunday’ except in churches that keep to the Book of Common Prayer!
To add to our uniqueness, it is quite probable that we are the only church in the City to use the name ‘Quinquagesima’. At some point in church history, to sort of soak up the spare weeks when Easter is later, extra penitential, pre-lent liturgies were added.
The Roman Catholic Church, after the Reforms of Vatican II, decided it was an unnecessary lengthening of the ‘wilderness’ period, and so scrapped Quinquagesima, this wandering Sunday, and it became subsumed into ordinary time.
What has remained, however, is a piece of musical liturgy. It happens to be that which is based on Psalm 31. From the earliest monastic times through Johannes Sebastian and beyond, there have been various scores of what is now known as ‘Esto mihi’. The beginning of the Latin line which goes on, ‘Esto mihi in Deum protectorem’. Translated, that becomes, ‘Be thou unto me a God, a Protector…’. It is a psalm seeking God as refuge and shelter.
It is a psalm which seeks the God who will guide and nourish us, and allow for just treatment. It is a prayer for ultimate assistance to face the rigours of ‘the wilderness’. It is used as an Hebrew prayer, the foreseeing the pains of the forty years exile, and has always been part of the synagogue ritual .The Churches takes up the psalm for the recalling of the 40 days of Christ’s wanderings in the desert, on which we base the Lenten fast.
We could try and make something of this Sunday because of its proximity to the confectionary of a St Valentine.
We kept it yesterday. The most likely candidate for the title of Saint is one priest in 3rdC. Rome. He refused to obey the emperor over marriage rules. The Emperor Claudiusforbade young men to marry as married men made very bad soldiers. Valentine performed marriage in secret. He was discovered and imprisoned. On the eve of his execution he sent a letter to the gaoler’s daughter; simply ‘From your Valentine’. It was also marked with a cross- the upright one of crucifixion, not the cross of hugs and kisses.
Valentine aside, but we could also look today at where this day is celebrated for itself, and that is in the Orthodox Church. It is not called Quinquagesima, but is known both as ‘Cheese fayre Sunday’ and ‘Forgiveness Sunday’.
The Orthodox Christian communities, love their liturgy, they love Lent but they also love their food! Their gatherings are always around a real shared meal, so it is no surprise that they celebrate food for as long as they can before Lent begins. This Sunday is the last then when dairy products may be taken in, so, I guess, everything with cheese on, in, around is permissible this Cheese fayre Sunday.
Perhaps more seriously, it is also ‘Forgiveness Sunday’. At vespers all the people make a ‘poklon’ (bow), before each other. As they do so they ask forgiveness. Lent thus starts with a spirit of reconciliation and Christian love. Tomorrow becomes ‘Clean Monday’, when all are sparkling, unclouded, ready to begin the Great Lent.
Through all these themes, then, the words of Psalm 31, as might be kept, hold fast,
( ‘esto mihi’) “Be thou unto me a God, a Protector,
and a place of refuge, to save me:
for Thou are my strength and my refuge:
and for Thy Name’s sake Thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.
In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded:
Deliver me in Thy justice, and save me.”
We need that prayer everyday really, especially through our Lenten journey beginning on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps we could grateful, that all we have to do is to have the Holy Ashes put upon our foreheads; how would it be were we to bow and ask forgiveness of each other. That would definitely need ‘esto mihi’.
Amen.
Preached 8th February 2015
Candlemas 2015
Some brief history of this feast, I think, is needful and might clarify what we’re doing, as we are today, in a Church of England! For, as so often, in this Church of England, we don’t why we do what we do!
Mankind has always been fascinated by the difference of light and dark! We ‘switch on the light’ to see where we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going.
In terms of any documented evidences of any ritual, we need the ancient Romans, who at this time of the year, the time when winter is ebbing, the candles were lit to the goddess Ceres, the goddess of grain, fields, agriculture and fertility. Great parades of torches lit up the dark Roman streets.
As Christianity took its hold, the Pagan world nominally receded, and the lights were no longer lit for Ceres, but for the Virgin! The torches were replaced by candles.
The church as a whole has never really agreed about the use of candles! Was it idolatry to bless them? Some felt so. Then why bless church buildings or consecrate bishops and not bless a sacred wax? Henry VIII tried to sort it, as he fled Roman popery, he set the precedent for the Anglican compromise!
What he decreed was that candles may be lit, not to the Virgin but to the Christe, the Light of the World who now, on this feast day, is brought to the Temple.
All this was still too popish for the puritans, and the commonwealth sought to snuff them out altogether, but did not succeed, because we are almost genetically fascinated by the light that lightens our various ‘darknesses’. In fact we have the account of one John Cozens, the bishop of Ripon’s chaplain in 1628, who busied himself from 2-4 of the afternoon, climbing long ladders in the cathedral to ‘stick up wax candle’- 220 candles, 16 torches, 60 of which were on or near the high altar, ‘where no man came nigh’.
In 1725, one Henry Bourne wrote,
‘With some, Christmas ends with the Twelve Day, but with the Generality of the Vulgar, not till Candlemas’. Apparently, this is no longer generally so, except here at St.Mary’s, our traditions seem to go back at least as far as 1725. More recently, 1962, Pope John XXIII declared today as the ‘Christmas Feast’, because it looks back to the virgin birth of Bethlehem. Pope John Paul II, saw it as another Annunciation, so again a feast to point to Mary.
So we have ‘The Presentation of Christ’, we have ‘The Purification of the Virgin’, both have caused controversy. Perhaps a less controversial celebration in the gospel account is not the Anglican compromise, but the Orthodox one, a church of course which does not compromise! They celebrate ‘The Meeting’ or ‘The Encounter’. The hyperpante. Importantly this is, on the wider scale, the meeting of the old dispensation and the new. It was according to the old law that mother and child had to present themselves, but in Simeon they bumped into the prophecies of the New Testament. Simeon held the insights of what was to come.
This is the occasion of the holy man Simeon, long awaiting the messiah, found that he now held him, his salvation in his arms. The light to lighten the gentiles he held, candles must be lit.
Each Christian carries a figurative candle, bears the light of Christ, each Christian becomes a Christ-opher.
Yet he foresaw the sword to pierce Mary’s heart, and hence this Candlemas may be that turning point of Winter into Spring, it is also the turning point from the birth to the death of the Christ.
This feast holds the contradiction of our whole faith as the Christmas narrative comes to an end today, so the Easter one begins.
We light our candles at the beginning and end of those cycles, and as in life, the candles get snuffed out in between.
Amen
The Blessing of the Candles
O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, thou hast created all things from nothing;
Thou hast commanded the bees to produce the liquid wax for the candles we use.
Deign to bless and sanctify these waxen creatures for human use, for the welfare of body and souls on land or at sea.
These thy servants desire to carry them in their hands while they praise thee with their hymns.
Through Jesus Christ, who in perfect Trinity, livest and reignest, God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Candlemas 2015
Some brief history of this feast, I think, is needful and might clarify what we’re doing, as we are today, in a Church of England! For, as so often, in this Church of England, we don’t why we do what we do!
Mankind has always been fascinated by the difference of light and dark! We ‘switch on the light’ to see where we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going.
In terms of any documented evidences of any ritual, we need the ancient Romans, who at this time of the year, the time when winter is ebbing, the candles were lit to the goddess Ceres, the goddess of grain, fields, agriculture and fertility. Great parades of torches lit up the dark Roman streets.
As Christianity took its hold, the Pagan world nominally receded, and the lights were no longer lit for Ceres, but for the Virgin! The torches were replaced by candles.
The church as a whole has never really agreed about the use of candles! Was it idolatry to bless them? Some felt so. Then why bless church buildings or consecrate bishops and not bless a sacred wax? Henry VIII tried to sort it, as he fled Roman popery, he set the precedent for the Anglican compromise!
What he decreed was that candles may be lit, not to the Virgin but to the Christe, the Light of the World who now, on this feast day, is brought to the Temple.
All this was still too popish for the puritans, and the commonwealth sought to snuff them out altogether, but did not succeed, because we are almost genetically fascinated by the light that lightens our various ‘darknesses’. In fact we have the account of one John Cozens, the bishop of Ripon’s chaplain in 1628, who busied himself from 2-4 of the afternoon, climbing long ladders in the cathedral to ‘stick up wax candle’- 220 candles, 16 torches, 60 of which were on or near the high altar, ‘where no man came nigh’.
In 1725, one Henry Bourne wrote,
‘With some, Christmas ends with the Twelve Day, but with the Generality of the Vulgar, not till Candlemas’. Apparently, this is no longer generally so, except here at St.Mary’s, our traditions seem to go back at least as far as 1725. More recently, 1962, Pope John XXIII declared today as the ‘Christmas Feast’, because it looks back to the virgin birth of Bethlehem. Pope John Paul II, saw it as another Annunciation, so again a feast to point to Mary.
So we have ‘The Presentation of Christ’, we have ‘The Purification of the Virgin’, both have caused controversy. Perhaps a less controversial celebration in the gospel account is not the Anglican compromise, but the Orthodox one, a church of course which does not compromise! They celebrate ‘The Meeting’ or ‘The Encounter’. The hyperpante. Importantly this is, on the wider scale, the meeting of the old dispensation and the new. It was according to the old law that mother and child had to present themselves, but in Simeon they bumped into the prophecies of the New Testament. Simeon held the insights of what was to come.
This is the occasion of the holy man Simeon, long awaiting the messiah, found that he now held him, his salvation in his arms. The light to lighten the gentiles he held, candles must be lit.
Each Christian carries a figurative candle, bears the light of Christ, each Christian becomes a Christ-opher.
Yet he foresaw the sword to pierce Mary’s heart, and hence this Candlemas may be that turning point of Winter into Spring, it is also the turning point from the birth to the death of the Christ.
This feast holds the contradiction of our whole faith as the Christmas narrative comes to an end today, so the Easter one begins.
We light our candles at the beginning and end of those cycles, and as in life, the candles get snuffed out in between.
Amen
The Blessing of the Candles
O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, thou hast created all things from nothing;
Thou hast commanded the bees to produce the liquid wax for the candles we use.
Deign to bless and sanctify these waxen creatures for human use, for the welfare of body and souls on land or at sea.
These thy servants desire to carry them in their hands while they praise thee with their hymns.
Through Jesus Christ, who in perfect Trinity, livest and reignest, God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
1st February 2015
Please note this was a very ‘in-house’ sermon for the Commissioning of our Registered Pastoral Assistants, April Heywood and Philip Withers.
From the Gospel, Matthew 20.v.16
‘Many are called but few are chosen’.
May I speak in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen
May, when I speak, repeat, reiterate, re-emphasise, remind, re-visit, also in the same Name, some ideas of ministry and church.
One ‘repeat’ idea might be the phrase of a one-time Bishop of Whitby. It was about twenty years ago when he came to the Deanery Synod. There was a debate was over the ordination of women and, not known for his patience, the Bishop had enough of the infighting, back biting and general squabbling, and stood up authoritatively and challenged us with,
‘Are we fishers of men, or keepers of aquaria?’
Namely, what are we really about as ‘church’? Are we all in house, or out of house?
I think, as we commission April and Philip today as RPAs to the Parish, I thank them for this opportunity to be repetitive, and to get out of this aquarium.
At home, we acquired an aquarium last week! We bought two fishes. We feed the fishes, make sure they are clean and can that they can breathe. We watch the fishes. They swim about, play, dance, drift with the flow of water not from their own making, they seem to blow bubbles, eat their food and then go around again picking up the food they missed. Sometimes, however, they give the distinct impression that they want to get out! Well, let us take a look at how we might get out more.
As we look at our working parish model we can see why I wanted an octopus…
Our base line Parish Model.
This model has octopus-like tentacles!
worship
another servers
bell-ringers
fundraising
‘Friends’
choir
communications
social responsibility, with soup kitchens and food bank and mental health first aid
arts committee, with festivals, exhibitions, artist in residence, workshops
pastoral care
The centre, the ‘place we call St. M’s L., is a unit of ministry, the ‘oikos’, (Gk), with the expanding environs, the ‘para-oikos’, the centre of prayer and plotting place for action. The aquarium we need, but we have to get out more!
We see the various ‘action’ groups, like satellites, revolving around this place. So, out of the aquarium we go!
We all have our offerings, which are of equal standing and importance,
whether we offer head, heart or hands.
Into this pot goes and gets stirred, our music, instrument and voice, thinkers, writers, speakers, cleaners, mathematicians, dreamers, wardens, poets and painters, administrators, communicators, IT literate, those who welcome, the tea bar managers, the DIYers.
We have a massive kaleidoscope of skills.
The often inept parish priest proves that running a parish is in no way a one person job. The parish priest is really the Jack or Jill of all trades and master or mistress of none. She or he is good at helping out everywhere, but not really the expert anywhere, and so rarely consulted!
We have this wonderful hub, this centre, with a two 2-way communication system, outer circle back and forth to center. But for successful communications, there must be movement around that outer zone, the circumference. The choir member could give way to a user of the soup kitchen, and vice versa. ‘What is everyone about?’, should be our constant sense of enquiry.
Our Parish is both hub and circumference.
the oikos and the par-oikos.
So we go on, and that reminds me, we need a round of meetings again for each of our circumferential groups!
April and Philip are very much part of the plan to get us out of the aquarium. They are both already taking an increasing part in this ‘ferment of ministry’. In the future they will be popping up all over the place!
There are, of course, scriptural precedents for today, otherwise we cannot claim to be part of this holy catholic and apostolic church. Our Lord, after choosing the Twelve, commissioned the extra seventy-two, who were to take nothing with them for the journey. Here we all need to revise chapter 10 of St Luke’s Gospel.
I would like to add a note of caution though, with any vocation comes a sense of joy, but when that joy begins to ebb away, it is probably time to stop and reassess what you feel God wants you to be and do.
If ever there was a thing to say to anyone as they go about their ministry, it comes from one of the early medieval Irish saints, St Brendan(us),
‘Love the people, love them well. Love the Word, Love the Eucharist. Love your work, and try to be good’. Amen.
Please note this was a very ‘in-house’ sermon for the Commissioning of our Registered Pastoral Assistants, April Heywood and Philip Withers.
From the Gospel, Matthew 20.v.16
‘Many are called but few are chosen’.
May I speak in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen
May, when I speak, repeat, reiterate, re-emphasise, remind, re-visit, also in the same Name, some ideas of ministry and church.
One ‘repeat’ idea might be the phrase of a one-time Bishop of Whitby. It was about twenty years ago when he came to the Deanery Synod. There was a debate was over the ordination of women and, not known for his patience, the Bishop had enough of the infighting, back biting and general squabbling, and stood up authoritatively and challenged us with,
‘Are we fishers of men, or keepers of aquaria?’
Namely, what are we really about as ‘church’? Are we all in house, or out of house?
I think, as we commission April and Philip today as RPAs to the Parish, I thank them for this opportunity to be repetitive, and to get out of this aquarium.
At home, we acquired an aquarium last week! We bought two fishes. We feed the fishes, make sure they are clean and can that they can breathe. We watch the fishes. They swim about, play, dance, drift with the flow of water not from their own making, they seem to blow bubbles, eat their food and then go around again picking up the food they missed. Sometimes, however, they give the distinct impression that they want to get out! Well, let us take a look at how we might get out more.
As we look at our working parish model we can see why I wanted an octopus…
Our base line Parish Model.
This model has octopus-like tentacles!
worship
another servers
bell-ringers
fundraising
‘Friends’
choir
communications
social responsibility, with soup kitchens and food bank and mental health first aid
arts committee, with festivals, exhibitions, artist in residence, workshops
pastoral care
The centre, the ‘place we call St. M’s L., is a unit of ministry, the ‘oikos’, (Gk), with the expanding environs, the ‘para-oikos’, the centre of prayer and plotting place for action. The aquarium we need, but we have to get out more!
We see the various ‘action’ groups, like satellites, revolving around this place. So, out of the aquarium we go!
We all have our offerings, which are of equal standing and importance,
whether we offer head, heart or hands.
Into this pot goes and gets stirred, our music, instrument and voice, thinkers, writers, speakers, cleaners, mathematicians, dreamers, wardens, poets and painters, administrators, communicators, IT literate, those who welcome, the tea bar managers, the DIYers.
We have a massive kaleidoscope of skills.
The often inept parish priest proves that running a parish is in no way a one person job. The parish priest is really the Jack or Jill of all trades and master or mistress of none. She or he is good at helping out everywhere, but not really the expert anywhere, and so rarely consulted!
We have this wonderful hub, this centre, with a two 2-way communication system, outer circle back and forth to center. But for successful communications, there must be movement around that outer zone, the circumference. The choir member could give way to a user of the soup kitchen, and vice versa. ‘What is everyone about?’, should be our constant sense of enquiry.
Our Parish is both hub and circumference.
the oikos and the par-oikos.
So we go on, and that reminds me, we need a round of meetings again for each of our circumferential groups!
April and Philip are very much part of the plan to get us out of the aquarium. They are both already taking an increasing part in this ‘ferment of ministry’. In the future they will be popping up all over the place!
There are, of course, scriptural precedents for today, otherwise we cannot claim to be part of this holy catholic and apostolic church. Our Lord, after choosing the Twelve, commissioned the extra seventy-two, who were to take nothing with them for the journey. Here we all need to revise chapter 10 of St Luke’s Gospel.
I would like to add a note of caution though, with any vocation comes a sense of joy, but when that joy begins to ebb away, it is probably time to stop and reassess what you feel God wants you to be and do.
If ever there was a thing to say to anyone as they go about their ministry, it comes from one of the early medieval Irish saints, St Brendan(us),
‘Love the people, love them well. Love the Word, Love the Eucharist. Love your work, and try to be good’. Amen.
25th January 2015.
Paul’s Conversion?
When everything seems to have been written about St Paul, there seems little more I can say. Except, do you think, I could describe him as a fundamentalist extremist? In so many ways, he was. We’re troubled today by that term used of people who are creating terror, but as we know, in his life time, especially when known as Saul of Tarsus, Paul created terror.
Paul is, for some, the second most important Christian ever. For others he is a total bigot, for others a misguided mystic. However we view him, we tend to view him and use him in pieces, we use him to suit our own ends. We quote or, more often misquote, his sayings to prove our own point of view, in any ecclesiastical debacle.
One piece of Paul then is his ‘fundamentalism’. Far from being the ‘fault’ of any religious system, the fundamentalist is a disturbed person, who brings the religious system into disrepute. Paul, during his lifetime, variously did this with both Judaism and Christianity, with fatal consequences.
When we speak then of St Paul’s Conversion, we need to look at the entirety of his life. It was not just about his Damascus Road experience. His conversion was a life time process, a gradual conversion from his disordered fundamentalist personality.
In fact, his conversion is really about his maturing, and the fundamentalist phase, as it is for those so afflicted today, is really only an expression of a troubled adolescence. Hopefully, we grow through adolescence and its troubles. If we don’t, then we will wreak havoc for our whole lives!
Briefly, as we look at the typical adolescent ‘fundamentalist’, we can see the fanatic Paul. As we then look at the cure for ‘fundamentalism’ we see the truly converted mystic Paul.
The term ‘fundamentalist’ is one used of someone who is intolerant of other’s beliefs. We know them, maybe even been one; the maxim is, ‘we have the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth’. Then there are other personality traits:
· They need a hierarchical and authoritarian world view- Saul needed the order of the Judaic all powerful God, and the temple/ priestly system. Paul took the same God into Christianity and in his epistles and when he visited, we can see how he longed for more organised groups. To have apostles, evangelists, teachers, pastors- all must be done in order and for the building up of the local and total Body of Christ.
· The fundamentalist works with reward and punishment: a strict sense of heaven and hell. Any morality must be defined, and given by an external authority.- There seems to be a lot of guilt over sex. We can wonder over St. Paul- his extreme asceticism, and constant striving, often a sublimation.
· The fundamentalist cannot work with ambiguity: he/she cannot work with a maybe this or a maybe that,. Everything has to be clear cut, black and white. If ever they doubt, or there is a set- back, classically, in order to reassure themselves that they are right and good, they will redouble their efforts of evangelism.
· Well you read the Book of Acts, you can see how many times, Paul was ‘set-back’, with beatings, imprisonments, tortures, but still he bounced back all the more, and off again he would go.
· There is a lack of sense of humour: I don’t read of Paul ever laughing? The ability to see just how funny we are sometimes, just did not abide with Paul. Maybe it was the ‘thorn in his side’ that always seemed to keep him in poor humour
· They distrust their own judgement: Paul often goes on about being the ‘least of all the apostles’ with an apparently low self-esteem. The self-satisfaction, and self-assurance comes with the knowledge of being one of the ‘elect’. Very rewarding, isn’t it, to be assured that it is very difficult for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God. Then who are the elect? The Jihadi? The Jehovah Witnesses?, the 7th Day Adventists-the Anglicans? The list of fundamentalist self-defined elects is endless.
· There is fear rather than love around: some would say that this is all about bad parenting? Or no parenting. Well we don’t know about very early Paul, except that later he studied in a very strict Jewish school under Gamaliel- perhaps not a lot of love- a lot of fear, strict achievement based.
· School and synagogue were his family. Paul’s reward was to be very good at what he did- this ‘zeal’ he took into his Judaism, his persecution of Christians over the scandal of the cross, as he saw it then. That ‘zeal’ he then took into his mission for Christ. (there is still debate over whether he actually belonged to the extremist Jewish sect, the ‘Zealots’).
So we have an extreme Saul- who even after the trauma of Damascus Road, continued as he did but this time for, rather than against the Christ.
Once converted, he preached against the whole way society was ordered; the Jew, the Greek, the slave, the free, the man and the woman. For Paul all were equal in Christ. He preached against the pagan goddesses and gods. He moved amongst the Gentiles, and as a former tormentor upset them too!
Yet, yet, when we listen to St Paul at his best, we hear the matured person, the mellowed one, who through his gruelling life had learned the unconditionality of the love of Christ. His adolescent edges now smoothed.
Unconditional love, of himself and others, was now in his understanding. With that went a new tolerance of others. He learned to ‘work out his own salvation’, instead of waiting for God to do it all. He had a sense of personal responsibility- didn’t he Paul, get himself imprisoned or shipwrecked? He had learned to dialogue, to listen to reason. Sometimes, we can even sense Paul laughing at himself at the fixes he got himself into!
These are traits of a fundamentalist grown up!
St Paul, an unlikely candidate to teach us about the world of fundamentalist extremism today! He does though.
Mostly he teaches us that fanaticism is not part of a religious system. Rather the fundamentalist is a disturbed individual, or an uncertain convert who misuses the name of the god they claim has found them. The fundamentalist is a disturbed arrested adolescent.
The cure is a maturing, a learning to listen, to dialogue, to respect and even to enjoy the other, and their differing views. There is a willingness to change one’s mind, and to take more personal responsibility, and feel secure in so doing. Importantly, fear recedes and love breaks in.
St John tells us that perfect love casts out all fear. St Paul finally found out that the greatest virtues and gifts in life was that Love which would never fail. It is that Love which brings the tolerance that the world needs, that Love which brings a true and lasting peace. That is the peace of God which passes all understanding.
Amen.
Paul’s Conversion?
When everything seems to have been written about St Paul, there seems little more I can say. Except, do you think, I could describe him as a fundamentalist extremist? In so many ways, he was. We’re troubled today by that term used of people who are creating terror, but as we know, in his life time, especially when known as Saul of Tarsus, Paul created terror.
Paul is, for some, the second most important Christian ever. For others he is a total bigot, for others a misguided mystic. However we view him, we tend to view him and use him in pieces, we use him to suit our own ends. We quote or, more often misquote, his sayings to prove our own point of view, in any ecclesiastical debacle.
One piece of Paul then is his ‘fundamentalism’. Far from being the ‘fault’ of any religious system, the fundamentalist is a disturbed person, who brings the religious system into disrepute. Paul, during his lifetime, variously did this with both Judaism and Christianity, with fatal consequences.
When we speak then of St Paul’s Conversion, we need to look at the entirety of his life. It was not just about his Damascus Road experience. His conversion was a life time process, a gradual conversion from his disordered fundamentalist personality.
In fact, his conversion is really about his maturing, and the fundamentalist phase, as it is for those so afflicted today, is really only an expression of a troubled adolescence. Hopefully, we grow through adolescence and its troubles. If we don’t, then we will wreak havoc for our whole lives!
Briefly, as we look at the typical adolescent ‘fundamentalist’, we can see the fanatic Paul. As we then look at the cure for ‘fundamentalism’ we see the truly converted mystic Paul.
The term ‘fundamentalist’ is one used of someone who is intolerant of other’s beliefs. We know them, maybe even been one; the maxim is, ‘we have the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth’. Then there are other personality traits:
· They need a hierarchical and authoritarian world view- Saul needed the order of the Judaic all powerful God, and the temple/ priestly system. Paul took the same God into Christianity and in his epistles and when he visited, we can see how he longed for more organised groups. To have apostles, evangelists, teachers, pastors- all must be done in order and for the building up of the local and total Body of Christ.
· The fundamentalist works with reward and punishment: a strict sense of heaven and hell. Any morality must be defined, and given by an external authority.- There seems to be a lot of guilt over sex. We can wonder over St. Paul- his extreme asceticism, and constant striving, often a sublimation.
· The fundamentalist cannot work with ambiguity: he/she cannot work with a maybe this or a maybe that,. Everything has to be clear cut, black and white. If ever they doubt, or there is a set- back, classically, in order to reassure themselves that they are right and good, they will redouble their efforts of evangelism.
· Well you read the Book of Acts, you can see how many times, Paul was ‘set-back’, with beatings, imprisonments, tortures, but still he bounced back all the more, and off again he would go.
· There is a lack of sense of humour: I don’t read of Paul ever laughing? The ability to see just how funny we are sometimes, just did not abide with Paul. Maybe it was the ‘thorn in his side’ that always seemed to keep him in poor humour
· They distrust their own judgement: Paul often goes on about being the ‘least of all the apostles’ with an apparently low self-esteem. The self-satisfaction, and self-assurance comes with the knowledge of being one of the ‘elect’. Very rewarding, isn’t it, to be assured that it is very difficult for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God. Then who are the elect? The Jihadi? The Jehovah Witnesses?, the 7th Day Adventists-the Anglicans? The list of fundamentalist self-defined elects is endless.
· There is fear rather than love around: some would say that this is all about bad parenting? Or no parenting. Well we don’t know about very early Paul, except that later he studied in a very strict Jewish school under Gamaliel- perhaps not a lot of love- a lot of fear, strict achievement based.
· School and synagogue were his family. Paul’s reward was to be very good at what he did- this ‘zeal’ he took into his Judaism, his persecution of Christians over the scandal of the cross, as he saw it then. That ‘zeal’ he then took into his mission for Christ. (there is still debate over whether he actually belonged to the extremist Jewish sect, the ‘Zealots’).
So we have an extreme Saul- who even after the trauma of Damascus Road, continued as he did but this time for, rather than against the Christ.
Once converted, he preached against the whole way society was ordered; the Jew, the Greek, the slave, the free, the man and the woman. For Paul all were equal in Christ. He preached against the pagan goddesses and gods. He moved amongst the Gentiles, and as a former tormentor upset them too!
Yet, yet, when we listen to St Paul at his best, we hear the matured person, the mellowed one, who through his gruelling life had learned the unconditionality of the love of Christ. His adolescent edges now smoothed.
Unconditional love, of himself and others, was now in his understanding. With that went a new tolerance of others. He learned to ‘work out his own salvation’, instead of waiting for God to do it all. He had a sense of personal responsibility- didn’t he Paul, get himself imprisoned or shipwrecked? He had learned to dialogue, to listen to reason. Sometimes, we can even sense Paul laughing at himself at the fixes he got himself into!
These are traits of a fundamentalist grown up!
St Paul, an unlikely candidate to teach us about the world of fundamentalist extremism today! He does though.
Mostly he teaches us that fanaticism is not part of a religious system. Rather the fundamentalist is a disturbed individual, or an uncertain convert who misuses the name of the god they claim has found them. The fundamentalist is a disturbed arrested adolescent.
The cure is a maturing, a learning to listen, to dialogue, to respect and even to enjoy the other, and their differing views. There is a willingness to change one’s mind, and to take more personal responsibility, and feel secure in so doing. Importantly, fear recedes and love breaks in.
St John tells us that perfect love casts out all fear. St Paul finally found out that the greatest virtues and gifts in life was that Love which would never fail. It is that Love which brings the tolerance that the world needs, that Love which brings a true and lasting peace. That is the peace of God which passes all understanding.
Amen.
18th January 2015
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 18th-25th January.
Christian Unity
So says the writer of the letter to the church at Ephesus,
There is one body and one Spirit.. one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all and in all’ (Eph.4 v4-6)
Today marks the beginning of the designated week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Immediately though, we have to be clear in our minds about the difference between Church Unity and Christian Unity,
Somewhere in our minds also we might become clearer over what we mean by Unity. Except for that very first church in Jerusalem, on the birthday of the church when the spirit of Pentecost appeared on the scene, there has never been Church unity in the complete sense of the word.
There has, though, always been Christian Unity, and still is Christian Unity. The Church, as we saw the other week, is both a divine and human institution. It is the human element which institutionalises it. We humans understand institutions and live by them. We can control institutions, we can’t control God. It is institutions that have internal strife. After Eden, strife is what we created. In the Godhead there is no internal strife. It is God and his Gospel and His Christ that remain one.
Church Unity took its biggest blow in the fourth century when the church of Antioch took off from Jerusalem. The first schism, the first major split. It really was all a bit geographical, and high level church politics began to emerge. We had patriarchs, (the first fathers), at Rome, at Antioch, at Alexandria, later joined in the year 451 AD by the Bishop of Constantinople and Jerusalem. By that time, because of the lineage to St Peter, the Pope in Rome became the, ‘first among equals’.
Well, that didn’t work! So in 1054, or thereabouts, East and West found themselves at odds, mostly over power and control over the Balkan area, but justified it being in their remit for having a ‘churchy’ reason for a split. This was over the renown ‘filioque’ phrase.
Briefly the Roman church changed the Nicene creed to say that, the Holy Spirit proceeded both from the Father ‘and the Son’, (in the Latin, filio=son, and –que=and). This was a heresy according to the Council of Ephesus. There then was a right scrap. There was a mutual excommunication.
Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch Michael of Constantinople, and Michael excommunicated Leo. East and West Churches were now very different, they went their different ways, but importantly they were ‘out of communion’.
There was warfare too, in the Crusades. In 1204 Constantinople was basically wrecked and the Latin Empire took over the Eastern ‘Church of Holy Wisdom’ there. Well, that’s how it was until 800 years later. In 2004, Pope John Paul II apologised to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople for what happened in 1204. It took 800 years to say sorry!
Amazing what sorry can do!
So it is that as we speak, this week, at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the holy city of Jerusalem, Copts, Syriacs, Armenians, Ethiopians, Romans, Russians and Greeks, even Episcopalians, will all, join in prayers of thanksgiving for the unity that now exists,
both the essential Christian unity, and its creeping expression in the churches. Even at the highest level, of the institutionalised church, Christianity, not ‘churchianity’ can be foremost. It is putting the one God and his Christ first.
At lower levels, we still have had splits a plenty, and in 1534, after a strange monarchical ecclesiastical conspiracy, even such a thing as the Church of England burst into the world of schism. All that happens at ‘the top’ of the hierarchy, you and I, mercifully, inhabit humbler levels. We tend not to agree about all sorts of things, the trimmings we don’t like, ( the adiophora) .
Does that mean, if we squabble a bit, that we are not somewhere fundamentally united as Christian people? No, of course not!
As we are Christian in our heart and soul and our being, then we cannot be anything other than ‘one’. We break the bread, and we say and believe that we are.
Churches may be divided, but the Christian essence already exists by the action of the Holy Spirit, and that deeper level there are no divisions. That is the message this year from the World Council of Churches. From the Brazilian churches the theme is based on the passage in St John’s Gospel ch 4. v.7. It is when Jesus is at the well and the Samaritan woman comes along he says to her, ‘Please give me a drink’.
We are asked to try it out; to drink from the well of an-other.
Here is, the kind of unity that we give thanks for: When you pack a meal for a homeless person, are you really bothered about that renown ‘filioque’, clause? When you pick up a friend from hospital who just been diagnosed with a terminal disease- are you bothered whether a woman is going to be the next Bishop of Hulll?
When a new born takes his or her first breath, or an aged one breathes his or her last, are we really bothered whether we keep Common Worship or the Book of Common Prayer?
Therein lies the essential Christian Unity.
If we can remember nothing else, Our Lord was praying very hard before he was betrayed and arrested. St John records his heartfelt plea for all believers,
‘Father, may they all be one, as you and I are one’
AMEN
Sermon-2nd After Christmas. 4th January 2015
It’s done elsewhere, the leak of the essence before it is said! The Queen, the Archbishop, the Chancellor, we await eagerly to hear what they have to say, only we get a summary the night before! Well, today I want to leak something of next week before it happens!
Next week, we launch a New Year, ‘AD 2015-Our Year to Prepare’, which is symbolised by the setting up of ‘The Friends’. I guess I want to explore a vision with you- an image of how we might put ‘new wine in old wine skins’ or not!! To have an awareness that;
Any future here, resides with us.
This week, we address as a ‘congregation here present’ the religious significance of what, church is, what parish is, and who ‘friends’ are. With both, I do not want to get into any historical pedantry, but just to explore essences of both church and parish, as seen, in a truly Anglican way, using,
Scripture, Tradition and Common Sense.
Who would have thought we could have got to 2015? Will St. Mary’s survive into 2115?
Church comes to us in the word ‘ekklesia’, which means, ‘a gathering, a congregation’. People being together is part of ‘church’; ‘when two or three are gathered together’, Our Lord tells us. He is with us, when we meet in in His Name. Church is also where, ‘Eucharist happens’. It is clear, though, that ‘church’ is much more.
It has been always accepted that church is a divine/human organisation- it has always also been accepted that it is more human than divine in the way it is organised.
People ask, ‘where was the first church?’ and the answer is, ‘that upper room’ when on the day of Pentecost. The disciples huddled for fear of the Jews, and the Holy Spirit came to them that were ‘gathered’. The Spirit came to them where they were, and it was the same Spirit that was to empower them for ministry, and to help them understand each other.
So, from the beginning ‘church’ was on the move and spreading, as well as being in one place. Already ‘church is’ and ‘church does’.
The gathering places in those early centuries were usually Christian homes. St. Peter’s mother’s home in Capernaum, which we can see the excavations of today, was probably one of the very first such ‘house churches’.
The Roman occupiers of Palestine took exception to this new sect. So, they met and worked in secret. Perversely, as humans are, the more they were forbidden the stronger they became. The Romans, in fact, are to be thanked, for they gave to the early believers, precious time to consolidate and to ‘organise’.
Organised is the word.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles how the churches were set up outside of Jerusalem. Paul, of course was very active, visiting and writing letters. The bigger the church communities became, the more difficulties they had and the more the apostles had to correct them (Corinth and Ephesus especially; Acts 20; 17-38). Christians were seen to be different, ‘look how these Christians love each other!’.
In the New Testament era we see that ‘church’ was not a noun, but a verb, it was alive! Generally when the groups got too big to fit into a house, they split, and another set up. The effect was rather like a honeycomb. So, when we speak of any ‘first church’, we mean that fluid New Testament dynamic, which carried the notion of both ‘being’ and ‘doing’.
This is now, and through countless splits over the ages, we have arrived as a small parish in a small city in a small country.
We are administered by synod and governed Episcopally and we are an official ‘parish’ within the Church of England. This branch of ‘church’, has claim to the apostolic succession, namely that continuity of the lying on of Hands for ministry from the commission of St Peter. Our allegiance, (and I have sworn a solemn oath as minister of Word and Sacrament to the same), is given to both Monarch and the see of Canterbury.
We also have arrived here through those important determining principles of the Anglican Communion, which I have no hesitation to repeat for us, of;
Scripture, Tradition and Common Sense.
This is where the Anglican Church draws its authority, but we are genetically misshapen if we refuse to understand that,
The DNA of Anglicanism is ‘mission’, understood as the active presence of God in our church militant
The parish system, has been in place since the early middle ages. In origin, the parish was a spiritual organisation, at times a secular tool of administration, based on the manor or the shire or the council, and at times both. A helpful description might be,
‘In origin the parish was a unit of ecclesiastical administration and pastoral care. It was an area large enough in population and resources to support a church and its priest, yet small enough for its parishioners to gather at its focal church’.
Nature of ‘parish’ relates to a household and the surrounding area, the vicinity!
Something about the real meaning of ‘parish’, we can gather from the Greek, ‘para-oikos’, (παρα-οίκοσ).
It denotes the idea of neighbours, friends, those who are nearby and round-about, (para-), those who are not necessarily part of the house/household, (oikos), but are attached, have interest in, are affiliated to it, to some degree or another.
So today, a New Year and maybe New Ideas can emerge for us. It seems we are in apposition now to look at how we may redefine and enlarge both our sense and vision, and our parish boundaries! A shift is happening in understanding ‘parish’.
This whole notion of ‘restoration’ and the formation of the ‘Friends of St.Mary’s, is to enlarge the ‘the vicinity’, make the parish bigger! We cannot increase the ground space, but we can include more people; people yes, with ideas and a commitment, through arts, through social responsibility and pastoral care, through education, through a belief in Emmanuel. The pace of life is neck breakingly fast, but we tend to be glacial. Maybe we could compromise? Importantly we need to recognise our history and know that,
To be ‘Anglican’ has always been to have ‘adapted’ to the ‘culture’ rather than capitulated, surrendered to it, or be overcome by it.
Heritage is good, intellectually and aesthetically, but not just for those elite reasons. The philosophical historian will tell you that history tells us where we were, so to understand where we are and so help us steer where we will be.
The ‘parish’ is expanding because with ‘Friends’ new people, new ideas, more communication vectors can come within this enlarged local, but global parish, with global affiliates.
The new boundaries are ideas and spheres of action, and ‘walking the bounds’, becomes a philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual exercise rather than a physical one.
Worship/arts/social action/education/heritage-for the streets around us, for the city, and far beyond as the territory expands along gospel lines, where all are welcome, all are served, all understand each other.
We trust that this is an effect of the work of the Holy Spirit, a Pentecostal development which we call, ‘The friends of St. Marys’. There’s you and I and this wonderful ‘oikos’ and the time is now; we’ve past midnight.
Amen.
It’s done elsewhere, the leak of the essence before it is said! The Queen, the Archbishop, the Chancellor, we await eagerly to hear what they have to say, only we get a summary the night before! Well, today I want to leak something of next week before it happens!
Next week, we launch a New Year, ‘AD 2015-Our Year to Prepare’, which is symbolised by the setting up of ‘The Friends’. I guess I want to explore a vision with you- an image of how we might put ‘new wine in old wine skins’ or not!! To have an awareness that;
Any future here, resides with us.
This week, we address as a ‘congregation here present’ the religious significance of what, church is, what parish is, and who ‘friends’ are. With both, I do not want to get into any historical pedantry, but just to explore essences of both church and parish, as seen, in a truly Anglican way, using,
Scripture, Tradition and Common Sense.
Who would have thought we could have got to 2015? Will St. Mary’s survive into 2115?
Church comes to us in the word ‘ekklesia’, which means, ‘a gathering, a congregation’. People being together is part of ‘church’; ‘when two or three are gathered together’, Our Lord tells us. He is with us, when we meet in in His Name. Church is also where, ‘Eucharist happens’. It is clear, though, that ‘church’ is much more.
It has been always accepted that church is a divine/human organisation- it has always also been accepted that it is more human than divine in the way it is organised.
People ask, ‘where was the first church?’ and the answer is, ‘that upper room’ when on the day of Pentecost. The disciples huddled for fear of the Jews, and the Holy Spirit came to them that were ‘gathered’. The Spirit came to them where they were, and it was the same Spirit that was to empower them for ministry, and to help them understand each other.
So, from the beginning ‘church’ was on the move and spreading, as well as being in one place. Already ‘church is’ and ‘church does’.
The gathering places in those early centuries were usually Christian homes. St. Peter’s mother’s home in Capernaum, which we can see the excavations of today, was probably one of the very first such ‘house churches’.
The Roman occupiers of Palestine took exception to this new sect. So, they met and worked in secret. Perversely, as humans are, the more they were forbidden the stronger they became. The Romans, in fact, are to be thanked, for they gave to the early believers, precious time to consolidate and to ‘organise’.
Organised is the word.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles how the churches were set up outside of Jerusalem. Paul, of course was very active, visiting and writing letters. The bigger the church communities became, the more difficulties they had and the more the apostles had to correct them (Corinth and Ephesus especially; Acts 20; 17-38). Christians were seen to be different, ‘look how these Christians love each other!’.
In the New Testament era we see that ‘church’ was not a noun, but a verb, it was alive! Generally when the groups got too big to fit into a house, they split, and another set up. The effect was rather like a honeycomb. So, when we speak of any ‘first church’, we mean that fluid New Testament dynamic, which carried the notion of both ‘being’ and ‘doing’.
This is now, and through countless splits over the ages, we have arrived as a small parish in a small city in a small country.
We are administered by synod and governed Episcopally and we are an official ‘parish’ within the Church of England. This branch of ‘church’, has claim to the apostolic succession, namely that continuity of the lying on of Hands for ministry from the commission of St Peter. Our allegiance, (and I have sworn a solemn oath as minister of Word and Sacrament to the same), is given to both Monarch and the see of Canterbury.
We also have arrived here through those important determining principles of the Anglican Communion, which I have no hesitation to repeat for us, of;
Scripture, Tradition and Common Sense.
This is where the Anglican Church draws its authority, but we are genetically misshapen if we refuse to understand that,
The DNA of Anglicanism is ‘mission’, understood as the active presence of God in our church militant
The parish system, has been in place since the early middle ages. In origin, the parish was a spiritual organisation, at times a secular tool of administration, based on the manor or the shire or the council, and at times both. A helpful description might be,
‘In origin the parish was a unit of ecclesiastical administration and pastoral care. It was an area large enough in population and resources to support a church and its priest, yet small enough for its parishioners to gather at its focal church’.
Nature of ‘parish’ relates to a household and the surrounding area, the vicinity!
Something about the real meaning of ‘parish’, we can gather from the Greek, ‘para-oikos’, (παρα-οίκοσ).
It denotes the idea of neighbours, friends, those who are nearby and round-about, (para-), those who are not necessarily part of the house/household, (oikos), but are attached, have interest in, are affiliated to it, to some degree or another.
So today, a New Year and maybe New Ideas can emerge for us. It seems we are in apposition now to look at how we may redefine and enlarge both our sense and vision, and our parish boundaries! A shift is happening in understanding ‘parish’.
This whole notion of ‘restoration’ and the formation of the ‘Friends of St.Mary’s, is to enlarge the ‘the vicinity’, make the parish bigger! We cannot increase the ground space, but we can include more people; people yes, with ideas and a commitment, through arts, through social responsibility and pastoral care, through education, through a belief in Emmanuel. The pace of life is neck breakingly fast, but we tend to be glacial. Maybe we could compromise? Importantly we need to recognise our history and know that,
To be ‘Anglican’ has always been to have ‘adapted’ to the ‘culture’ rather than capitulated, surrendered to it, or be overcome by it.
Heritage is good, intellectually and aesthetically, but not just for those elite reasons. The philosophical historian will tell you that history tells us where we were, so to understand where we are and so help us steer where we will be.
The ‘parish’ is expanding because with ‘Friends’ new people, new ideas, more communication vectors can come within this enlarged local, but global parish, with global affiliates.
The new boundaries are ideas and spheres of action, and ‘walking the bounds’, becomes a philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual exercise rather than a physical one.
Worship/arts/social action/education/heritage-for the streets around us, for the city, and far beyond as the territory expands along gospel lines, where all are welcome, all are served, all understand each other.
We trust that this is an effect of the work of the Holy Spirit, a Pentecostal development which we call, ‘The friends of St. Marys’. There’s you and I and this wonderful ‘oikos’ and the time is now; we’ve past midnight.
Amen.
Christmas 1-Holy Innocents.
Out of the Twelve days of Christmas, we are on day four! So, if we think ‘it’ was all over, then we need to think again! We are in the period of the ‘ Twelve Days’ , ending in that famous Twelfth Night. This period we also call Christmastide.
As always, we experience this strange mingling of the sacred and secular, and I guess that carol the ‘Twelve-days of Christmas’ manages to do that. Day four, and we have the lover’s four calling birds, but they may also represent the Gospels or the Evangelists. We also have, on this fourth day, this Feast of the Holy Innocents.
In the tradition of the Western Church, Christmas lasts until the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th. The Epiphany is Christmas in the Eastern Church.
So, many choices as to what we do with these twelve days. In the church we have had the all too often over- looked feasts of St. Stephen, St John, Holy Innocents- these are part of the whole picture of the event of the Incarnation.
Today, in the very midst of all that is feckless and secular, we keep the Sacred Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Biblical story is familiar but somehow its significance gets a bit lost, or perhaps it is so atrocious that, somehow it is meant to be lost, like certain news items in our media.
We do though miss the whole point of the Incarnation, if we lose sight of this feast. Let us remind ourselves that the Incarnation is about our God taking on the whole range of human experience, even and especially that aspect of human suffering. We know that especially at Eastertide.
Herod’s jealous rage and abusive of power has him have slaughtered innocent children. He chose those boys, hoping that the supposed ‘king in waiting’ was among them. There is poignancy here. As always, as we explored at Christmas midnight, there is this utter senselessness in our human nature which is to kill our children, Herod has his fair share of senselessness.
It is a story which highlights the weakness in man’s resolve, shown, especially by the tyrant, in the need to destroy any opposition, but we are also directed to the strength of God’s love which endures suffering. Perhaps that is why it is in the Christmas narrative, for in that narrative we see human poverty and suffering wrapped in divine love, that symbolic Innocent wrapped in swaddling clothes.
The story is short, the significance greater. (Matth. Ch.2, vs.16-18) The Wise Men, if we remember, were commissioned by Herod to find, ‘this child’. For their part, realising his sinister interest, they ‘went home by another way’. Herod realised this, and took his own sweeping action. The number slaughtered, the Greeks tell us, was 14,000, the Syrians, speak of 64,000. With Bethlehem, however, being a very small district, it is common sense and the historians which tell us that the number was more likely to have been fifteen to twenty.
This is the 4th day of the twelve. Already, an arguably joyous tragedy of St Stephen, and then this apparently senseless and un-joyous tragedy of the Innocents, but wrapped somehow in the deep meaning of this season, wrapped in the whole story of God with man as man. We learn of the strength of God’s love, mostly through paradox and untruths, that whole story of salvation.
But this is a sacred/secular time, and very much in tune with that, is the popular sacred/secular composition, The Twelve Days of Christmas. It is thought to be of French origin, and was first published as an English Christmas Carol in 1780. For many it brings a bit of merriment to the dark days, and it still does. It can be chaotically sung in rounds, with forfeits dispensed, like kissing the vicar, should you get a line or a verse wrong; but it developed a ‘sacred’ use, as a catholic children’s catechism, it carries these meanings:
1. True love refers to God (some versions use mother)
2. Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3. French hens to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4. Calling Birds to the four Gospels or the four Evangelists
5. Gold Rings to the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, which gives the history of mankind’s fall from Grace.
6. Geese-a-laying to the six days of Creation
7. Swans-a-swimming to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or seven Sacraments
8. Maids-a-milking to the eight Beatitudes
9. Ladies dancing to the nine Fruits of the Spirit
10. Lords-a-leaping to the Ten Commandments
11. Pipers piping to the eleven faithful apostles
12. Drummers drumming to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed.
Well, that was guaranteed to take the merriment out of the young Victorian This is day four in Christmastide, and we shall be gathering this afternoon to make merry as we tell the story of the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, ever mindful of the holy innocents still in this
Amen.
Out of the Twelve days of Christmas, we are on day four! So, if we think ‘it’ was all over, then we need to think again! We are in the period of the ‘ Twelve Days’ , ending in that famous Twelfth Night. This period we also call Christmastide.
As always, we experience this strange mingling of the sacred and secular, and I guess that carol the ‘Twelve-days of Christmas’ manages to do that. Day four, and we have the lover’s four calling birds, but they may also represent the Gospels or the Evangelists. We also have, on this fourth day, this Feast of the Holy Innocents.
In the tradition of the Western Church, Christmas lasts until the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th. The Epiphany is Christmas in the Eastern Church.
So, many choices as to what we do with these twelve days. In the church we have had the all too often over- looked feasts of St. Stephen, St John, Holy Innocents- these are part of the whole picture of the event of the Incarnation.
Today, in the very midst of all that is feckless and secular, we keep the Sacred Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Biblical story is familiar but somehow its significance gets a bit lost, or perhaps it is so atrocious that, somehow it is meant to be lost, like certain news items in our media.
We do though miss the whole point of the Incarnation, if we lose sight of this feast. Let us remind ourselves that the Incarnation is about our God taking on the whole range of human experience, even and especially that aspect of human suffering. We know that especially at Eastertide.
Herod’s jealous rage and abusive of power has him have slaughtered innocent children. He chose those boys, hoping that the supposed ‘king in waiting’ was among them. There is poignancy here. As always, as we explored at Christmas midnight, there is this utter senselessness in our human nature which is to kill our children, Herod has his fair share of senselessness.
It is a story which highlights the weakness in man’s resolve, shown, especially by the tyrant, in the need to destroy any opposition, but we are also directed to the strength of God’s love which endures suffering. Perhaps that is why it is in the Christmas narrative, for in that narrative we see human poverty and suffering wrapped in divine love, that symbolic Innocent wrapped in swaddling clothes.
The story is short, the significance greater. (Matth. Ch.2, vs.16-18) The Wise Men, if we remember, were commissioned by Herod to find, ‘this child’. For their part, realising his sinister interest, they ‘went home by another way’. Herod realised this, and took his own sweeping action. The number slaughtered, the Greeks tell us, was 14,000, the Syrians, speak of 64,000. With Bethlehem, however, being a very small district, it is common sense and the historians which tell us that the number was more likely to have been fifteen to twenty.
This is the 4th day of the twelve. Already, an arguably joyous tragedy of St Stephen, and then this apparently senseless and un-joyous tragedy of the Innocents, but wrapped somehow in the deep meaning of this season, wrapped in the whole story of God with man as man. We learn of the strength of God’s love, mostly through paradox and untruths, that whole story of salvation.
But this is a sacred/secular time, and very much in tune with that, is the popular sacred/secular composition, The Twelve Days of Christmas. It is thought to be of French origin, and was first published as an English Christmas Carol in 1780. For many it brings a bit of merriment to the dark days, and it still does. It can be chaotically sung in rounds, with forfeits dispensed, like kissing the vicar, should you get a line or a verse wrong; but it developed a ‘sacred’ use, as a catholic children’s catechism, it carries these meanings:
1. True love refers to God (some versions use mother)
2. Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3. French hens to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4. Calling Birds to the four Gospels or the four Evangelists
5. Gold Rings to the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, which gives the history of mankind’s fall from Grace.
6. Geese-a-laying to the six days of Creation
7. Swans-a-swimming to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or seven Sacraments
8. Maids-a-milking to the eight Beatitudes
9. Ladies dancing to the nine Fruits of the Spirit
10. Lords-a-leaping to the Ten Commandments
11. Pipers piping to the eleven faithful apostles
12. Drummers drumming to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed.
Well, that was guaranteed to take the merriment out of the young Victorian This is day four in Christmastide, and we shall be gathering this afternoon to make merry as we tell the story of the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, ever mindful of the holy innocents still in this
Amen.
Christmas Morning-2014
Christmas time always gets me thinking about all sorts- I was just thinking about ‘life’!
Here is a fossil! I love fossils- great to find them--- first forms of life…amazing-trillions of years old. All those processes of extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme pressure have led to a once living creepy crawly creature coming to us here–in your hand, and bizarrely in the floor!
Then what of the first people? We have this idea of them scratting about, mumbling and grumbling, grunting and groaning, use of gestures, pointing at needs- amazing. Learning to communicate, learning to survive. I guess they taught us well, we too survive!
When did we first cook our food? First use a wheel? First plant food, rearing animals, use tools, make weapons, first to use herbs for medicines? Did they fear the heavens and the earth and the sea? When did they start to decorate their caves? When did they first realise they were very small and turned the sun and the moon the stars, the winds, the volcanoes the great fishes into gods?
So, good news, when did someone first light a fire? Life then changed, forever and for everyone! So many firsts- discoveries, that have changed peoples’ lives.
How many other changes have been for everyone and forever? There are so many new things; the printing press, steam, electric, computers, penicillin etc. etc. Most of these help people to live well, get on with each other, and now, google, Facebook and twitter, but we have made weapons…..
There is a first though, which made changes to peoples’ lives, I only recently found out about, and that is the first man made Christmas crib. It’s alright Mary having a baby in some desert village some 2000 years past, who for the people around saw to be the prince of peace the great king, but how did anyone else get to know?
Well, over the years the news spread- that was the work of the church- spoken word, only one to one story telling, news sharing, that was limited to local areas. Then came the written word, but not all could read.
Now, in the Middle Ages, somewhere between the time of this fossil and now, a young friar was very concerned, in his own desert town, that ordinary poor people, people who could not read, could not understand what ‘Christ-mass’ was all about.
Now this Friar, Francesco from Assisi in Italy, had been to the birth place of Jesus, Bethlehem. He was stunned. He tried preaching to folk in the streets about the great birth, but he just brought blank faces! He thought why can’t I bring Bethlehem here? Bring my words to life? So that my people may the more easily learn of the Christ-child.
A friend, Giovanni, who was a local lord, and a follower Francesco, Francis, who knew of a cave at Geccio, which would make a perfect grotto. So he set about getting his villagers to bring their animals, a new born baby and parents and some shepherds and some candles. The villages processed with their torches and singing, joyful at the birth of this child.
Francis though had given up all his riches to serve the poor, and he became poor- as the Christ was poor- his crib let people know of such humble beginnings for this God become as one of us. He shouts that all are welcome. Bethlehem- means the ‘house of bread’- the medieval food bank.
No-one was left out, unless they wanted to be!
So the first Christmas crib was born in the year 1293.
Those who came had their lives changed for all time, as so many have since, as they regard the Christ in the crib. This was new. The real birth in Bethlehem was new. We can be like those gathered- the shepherds, the wise men came later on, Joseph, Mary, the animals. Their response was awe, fear, disbelief, that turned to adoration and commitment. Outside there were those who couldn’t care. What about the people who weren’t in the cave?
All those in this crib scene, were just like us. They were there at the birth and stayed with this Christ until the end of him and to the end of their lives. How we react to this major event, this first Christmas? Some humility, is our response, so that we might learn about what God is like, so we could be like him, and so the world become a better place. That’s when, Life changed, forever and for everyone!
It was a first and it has changed life on earth completely- even more than that first flame. The love of God changes hearts; away from our primitive gruntings and grumblings, and from the fossilised hearts of stone we can carry around. It is the changed heart that will change the world.
A very young man, Francesco, was really bothered that folk could not understand the greatest thing that has ever happened to humankind, so in his own way, and in his own time did something about it. We might not all get to Bethlehem, but in every church, in every human heart, Bethlehem can come to us.
Christmas time always gets me thinking about all sorts- I was just thinking about ‘life’!
Here is a fossil! I love fossils- great to find them--- first forms of life…amazing-trillions of years old. All those processes of extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme pressure have led to a once living creepy crawly creature coming to us here–in your hand, and bizarrely in the floor!
Then what of the first people? We have this idea of them scratting about, mumbling and grumbling, grunting and groaning, use of gestures, pointing at needs- amazing. Learning to communicate, learning to survive. I guess they taught us well, we too survive!
When did we first cook our food? First use a wheel? First plant food, rearing animals, use tools, make weapons, first to use herbs for medicines? Did they fear the heavens and the earth and the sea? When did they start to decorate their caves? When did they first realise they were very small and turned the sun and the moon the stars, the winds, the volcanoes the great fishes into gods?
So, good news, when did someone first light a fire? Life then changed, forever and for everyone! So many firsts- discoveries, that have changed peoples’ lives.
How many other changes have been for everyone and forever? There are so many new things; the printing press, steam, electric, computers, penicillin etc. etc. Most of these help people to live well, get on with each other, and now, google, Facebook and twitter, but we have made weapons…..
There is a first though, which made changes to peoples’ lives, I only recently found out about, and that is the first man made Christmas crib. It’s alright Mary having a baby in some desert village some 2000 years past, who for the people around saw to be the prince of peace the great king, but how did anyone else get to know?
Well, over the years the news spread- that was the work of the church- spoken word, only one to one story telling, news sharing, that was limited to local areas. Then came the written word, but not all could read.
Now, in the Middle Ages, somewhere between the time of this fossil and now, a young friar was very concerned, in his own desert town, that ordinary poor people, people who could not read, could not understand what ‘Christ-mass’ was all about.
Now this Friar, Francesco from Assisi in Italy, had been to the birth place of Jesus, Bethlehem. He was stunned. He tried preaching to folk in the streets about the great birth, but he just brought blank faces! He thought why can’t I bring Bethlehem here? Bring my words to life? So that my people may the more easily learn of the Christ-child.
A friend, Giovanni, who was a local lord, and a follower Francesco, Francis, who knew of a cave at Geccio, which would make a perfect grotto. So he set about getting his villagers to bring their animals, a new born baby and parents and some shepherds and some candles. The villages processed with their torches and singing, joyful at the birth of this child.
Francis though had given up all his riches to serve the poor, and he became poor- as the Christ was poor- his crib let people know of such humble beginnings for this God become as one of us. He shouts that all are welcome. Bethlehem- means the ‘house of bread’- the medieval food bank.
No-one was left out, unless they wanted to be!
So the first Christmas crib was born in the year 1293.
Those who came had their lives changed for all time, as so many have since, as they regard the Christ in the crib. This was new. The real birth in Bethlehem was new. We can be like those gathered- the shepherds, the wise men came later on, Joseph, Mary, the animals. Their response was awe, fear, disbelief, that turned to adoration and commitment. Outside there were those who couldn’t care. What about the people who weren’t in the cave?
All those in this crib scene, were just like us. They were there at the birth and stayed with this Christ until the end of him and to the end of their lives. How we react to this major event, this first Christmas? Some humility, is our response, so that we might learn about what God is like, so we could be like him, and so the world become a better place. That’s when, Life changed, forever and for everyone!
It was a first and it has changed life on earth completely- even more than that first flame. The love of God changes hearts; away from our primitive gruntings and grumblings, and from the fossilised hearts of stone we can carry around. It is the changed heart that will change the world.
A very young man, Francesco, was really bothered that folk could not understand the greatest thing that has ever happened to humankind, so in his own way, and in his own time did something about it. We might not all get to Bethlehem, but in every church, in every human heart, Bethlehem can come to us.
Midnight Mass-2014
Newspapers, national and local, make much of any child who is born on Christmas Day. To be born on the same day as our Lord Jesus Christ seems pretty special. ‘Unto us a child is born’, they might say. Then surely any birth is special! No matter what date. Both parents, at best wondering quite what they’ve done!
It is strange that although we celebrate this birth of all births, our thoughts are so often drawn to our dying. Many of us have made our pilgrimage to the cemetery or garden of remembrance. Someone special will not be here again to celebrate the wonders of this birth.
Our tears of joy are mixed with those tears of sorrow. For a moment we are caught off our guard, for a moment we ask ourselves the great questions about the purposes of life and the vacuum of death.
It certainly is a time of honesty, these birth and death experiences. In many cultures across the world, when a person dies, especially one who had had a full and wrinkled life, there would be a great celebration, a real party. The sorrows of this life over, and there is a great reunion with the ancestors.
Yet, when a baby is born in, especially in extreme poverty, there is weeping, especially among the women. For the sorrowful time has just begun. The pain of the birth itself is always there, the pain of the heart will never go away, like Mary’s heart, when there is the loss. A child today dies every four seconds somewhere in this world, and a mother weeps.
At midnight, we are like T.S. Elliot’s Magi- have we come here to witness the birth or a death? The image of real births and deaths leads us, of course, on to a more spiritual notion.
The birth yes, but a death of sorts, as we, at best, slough off like a snake skin, the old year the old self even. The old day is gone, this new day begins, at this time when night greets day.
This is Christmas. This is the meaning. God had tried so many times to get through to his people. Somehow there was a great gap in communication-God had to sacrifice his Nature to take on our human nature, so that we might understand Him and his Nature. The Christ child had to be born for us, so we might know profound spiritual selves.
In this betwixt time, as the circadian cycle ticks, we are part of that whole cosmic movement, the dying of the old dispensation-that old covenant and the birth of a new covenant, a new testament, momented at that Bethlehem event.
Perhaps we cannot accept that a death is joyful because we cannot accept that life is joyful. We can rejoice fully with the angels and that whole host of heaven when we hear of this birth; the birth of the one who is to lead us through mortality to immortality.
This betwixt time is when we give ourselves permission to think, and sing, and pray in these terms. We catch ourselves out as we dare to digress from our well-worn grooves of normality.
Now is a time for reflection, prayer and resolve. We thank God for His birth, we give thanks for His death- we pray for a fearlessness towards both those inevitable births and deaths, as we see them that happen around us. We give thanks for our own birth, we only have the death to come! May we pray that what we do in between, will be our valued microscopic contribution to the kingdom of Heaven on earth.
This is the mystery of this betwixt time- the time between heaven and earth, time and eternity. Maybe as the night passes into a new day it is the Christ within us that needs birthing; we sing, and as we sing we pray, that the little child of Bethlehem be born in us today. Maybe then we all may have rebirthdays on Christmas Day.
A prayer of the Orthodox Church:
“‘It is Christmas Eve. Another year is about to dawn on us. Let you Light ,O God, shine upon us so that we may see a new vision, sing a new song, and dream a new dream. And if we live to celebrate another Christmas, give us courage to love You more, serve You more and worship You more ‘in spirit and in truth.’”
AMEN
Newspapers, national and local, make much of any child who is born on Christmas Day. To be born on the same day as our Lord Jesus Christ seems pretty special. ‘Unto us a child is born’, they might say. Then surely any birth is special! No matter what date. Both parents, at best wondering quite what they’ve done!
It is strange that although we celebrate this birth of all births, our thoughts are so often drawn to our dying. Many of us have made our pilgrimage to the cemetery or garden of remembrance. Someone special will not be here again to celebrate the wonders of this birth.
Our tears of joy are mixed with those tears of sorrow. For a moment we are caught off our guard, for a moment we ask ourselves the great questions about the purposes of life and the vacuum of death.
It certainly is a time of honesty, these birth and death experiences. In many cultures across the world, when a person dies, especially one who had had a full and wrinkled life, there would be a great celebration, a real party. The sorrows of this life over, and there is a great reunion with the ancestors.
Yet, when a baby is born in, especially in extreme poverty, there is weeping, especially among the women. For the sorrowful time has just begun. The pain of the birth itself is always there, the pain of the heart will never go away, like Mary’s heart, when there is the loss. A child today dies every four seconds somewhere in this world, and a mother weeps.
At midnight, we are like T.S. Elliot’s Magi- have we come here to witness the birth or a death? The image of real births and deaths leads us, of course, on to a more spiritual notion.
The birth yes, but a death of sorts, as we, at best, slough off like a snake skin, the old year the old self even. The old day is gone, this new day begins, at this time when night greets day.
This is Christmas. This is the meaning. God had tried so many times to get through to his people. Somehow there was a great gap in communication-God had to sacrifice his Nature to take on our human nature, so that we might understand Him and his Nature. The Christ child had to be born for us, so we might know profound spiritual selves.
In this betwixt time, as the circadian cycle ticks, we are part of that whole cosmic movement, the dying of the old dispensation-that old covenant and the birth of a new covenant, a new testament, momented at that Bethlehem event.
Perhaps we cannot accept that a death is joyful because we cannot accept that life is joyful. We can rejoice fully with the angels and that whole host of heaven when we hear of this birth; the birth of the one who is to lead us through mortality to immortality.
This betwixt time is when we give ourselves permission to think, and sing, and pray in these terms. We catch ourselves out as we dare to digress from our well-worn grooves of normality.
Now is a time for reflection, prayer and resolve. We thank God for His birth, we give thanks for His death- we pray for a fearlessness towards both those inevitable births and deaths, as we see them that happen around us. We give thanks for our own birth, we only have the death to come! May we pray that what we do in between, will be our valued microscopic contribution to the kingdom of Heaven on earth.
This is the mystery of this betwixt time- the time between heaven and earth, time and eternity. Maybe as the night passes into a new day it is the Christ within us that needs birthing; we sing, and as we sing we pray, that the little child of Bethlehem be born in us today. Maybe then we all may have rebirthdays on Christmas Day.
A prayer of the Orthodox Church:
“‘It is Christmas Eve. Another year is about to dawn on us. Let you Light ,O God, shine upon us so that we may see a new vision, sing a new song, and dream a new dream. And if we live to celebrate another Christmas, give us courage to love You more, serve You more and worship You more ‘in spirit and in truth.’”
AMEN
21st December 2014
Advent IV
αγαπη’
As is only right, during this Advent, we have been looking at those essential characteristics of our Christian faith. We have had a chance to review any ideas Holy Wisdom , about the gift and virtue of both faith and hope, and now today we look at, what St. Paul calls, ‘the greatest’, namely the Divine gift and the human virtue of Christian love. There is an immediate paradox, one of Paul’s famous contradictions, for what may be the ‘greatest’, shows itself only in the ‘very least’.
Paul had to write to the young and rather unruly, sometimes riotous, and somewhat promiscuous, church at Corinth and teach them what Christian love was. He wrote to them, what we call the ‘Hymn of Love’. It was one of St Paul’s ‘mystical outbursts’, but in it he tells of the essence of God, which is ‘self-giving love’. We have his writings in I Corinthians 13, that love is;
long-suffering, kind, does not envy, is not proud, ‘does not behave itself unseemly’,(particularly relevant to the people of Corinth), is not selfish, is not easily provoked, does not think of evil, does not rejoice in sinfulness but rejoices in the truth. Love can bear all things, hopes, and endures all things. ‘Charity never faileth’.
Everything else we do as Christians is fallible, all is without value; without love he says all his words would be like the gongs and cymbals of the pagan worship, the worship that Paul was eager to get his fledglings away from. This is why we only see strange images in a tin mirror, because this kind of love is more about the eternal divine essence than the transitory human facade. The kind of love he wrote of is ‘agape’ in the Greek, (αγαπη), and we know it to be the love that is unconditional, selfless and sacrificial. This kind of love implies movement, direction, and so is best understood as a verb, the proverbial ‘doing word’.
The word itself has ancient roots, but most importantly it was the Aramaic equivalent of the same word that Jesus used when he told his disciples to love their neighbour and, even more significantly, to love their enemies.
To be able to love like that is the calling and the aspiration of us all, but it is a particular desire of those who, through the centuries, have taken up the religious life. A wise old nun once told me how she saw her vow of celibacy. She said that she willingly sacrificed the opportunity to love just one person, in the sacrament of marriage, in order to have the time and the energy to live the sacrament of universal love, to love those who came into her orbit, both in time and place and in the prayers of eternity; her loving was sacrifice, selfless and unconditional- agape.
So St. Paul described it, theologians have defined it, but we can only know it by seeing how agape is lived out. St Paul’s greatest virtue which takes the way of the least, takes on the mantle of great humility, takes on that preference for the other.
St Francis was one such demonstrator of this essential love. His very rough habit, in the shape of a cross, and the distinctive tau cross, a bent cross which he chose is rooted in the ferment of the world’s agonies. The two twigs tied together are the sign of the saint’s courage towards the poor and obedience to ‘go and do likewise’.
Putting description and definition and action together- this is the way St Francis lived and taught; his followers today aspire to this; I quote from one of the Franciscan publications, ‘The Way of St Francis’,
“Our love is a response to God’s love. Love is the road to God and through love we encounter God in the way. When we stop giving, we stop loving: when we stop loving, we stop growing. Love is not a matter of emotion or of feeling but is the gift of one self to others. Love involves risk. Love demands renunciation. Love is a movement towards death for the purpose of life. All true love sooner or later leads to the cross”.
So we approach the human anniversary of the birth of that love in Christ, and we begin our annual journey from the crib to the cross.
Amen
Advent IV
αγαπη’
As is only right, during this Advent, we have been looking at those essential characteristics of our Christian faith. We have had a chance to review any ideas Holy Wisdom , about the gift and virtue of both faith and hope, and now today we look at, what St. Paul calls, ‘the greatest’, namely the Divine gift and the human virtue of Christian love. There is an immediate paradox, one of Paul’s famous contradictions, for what may be the ‘greatest’, shows itself only in the ‘very least’.
Paul had to write to the young and rather unruly, sometimes riotous, and somewhat promiscuous, church at Corinth and teach them what Christian love was. He wrote to them, what we call the ‘Hymn of Love’. It was one of St Paul’s ‘mystical outbursts’, but in it he tells of the essence of God, which is ‘self-giving love’. We have his writings in I Corinthians 13, that love is;
long-suffering, kind, does not envy, is not proud, ‘does not behave itself unseemly’,(particularly relevant to the people of Corinth), is not selfish, is not easily provoked, does not think of evil, does not rejoice in sinfulness but rejoices in the truth. Love can bear all things, hopes, and endures all things. ‘Charity never faileth’.
Everything else we do as Christians is fallible, all is without value; without love he says all his words would be like the gongs and cymbals of the pagan worship, the worship that Paul was eager to get his fledglings away from. This is why we only see strange images in a tin mirror, because this kind of love is more about the eternal divine essence than the transitory human facade. The kind of love he wrote of is ‘agape’ in the Greek, (αγαπη), and we know it to be the love that is unconditional, selfless and sacrificial. This kind of love implies movement, direction, and so is best understood as a verb, the proverbial ‘doing word’.
The word itself has ancient roots, but most importantly it was the Aramaic equivalent of the same word that Jesus used when he told his disciples to love their neighbour and, even more significantly, to love their enemies.
To be able to love like that is the calling and the aspiration of us all, but it is a particular desire of those who, through the centuries, have taken up the religious life. A wise old nun once told me how she saw her vow of celibacy. She said that she willingly sacrificed the opportunity to love just one person, in the sacrament of marriage, in order to have the time and the energy to live the sacrament of universal love, to love those who came into her orbit, both in time and place and in the prayers of eternity; her loving was sacrifice, selfless and unconditional- agape.
So St. Paul described it, theologians have defined it, but we can only know it by seeing how agape is lived out. St Paul’s greatest virtue which takes the way of the least, takes on the mantle of great humility, takes on that preference for the other.
St Francis was one such demonstrator of this essential love. His very rough habit, in the shape of a cross, and the distinctive tau cross, a bent cross which he chose is rooted in the ferment of the world’s agonies. The two twigs tied together are the sign of the saint’s courage towards the poor and obedience to ‘go and do likewise’.
Putting description and definition and action together- this is the way St Francis lived and taught; his followers today aspire to this; I quote from one of the Franciscan publications, ‘The Way of St Francis’,
“Our love is a response to God’s love. Love is the road to God and through love we encounter God in the way. When we stop giving, we stop loving: when we stop loving, we stop growing. Love is not a matter of emotion or of feeling but is the gift of one self to others. Love involves risk. Love demands renunciation. Love is a movement towards death for the purpose of life. All true love sooner or later leads to the cross”.
So we approach the human anniversary of the birth of that love in Christ, and we begin our annual journey from the crib to the cross.
Amen
The Pierless Bridge
By Emily Dickinson
Faith – is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not –
Too slender for the eye.
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side –
It joins – behind the Veil.
To what, could We Presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
By Emily Dickinson
Faith – is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not –
Too slender for the eye.
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side –
It joins – behind the Veil.
To what, could We Presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
Preached Sunday 7th December 2014.
Advent 2
Wisdom.
Were you to go to an Orthodox service, and the Gospel was about to be read, the Deacon would hold the canon of Scripture high, and as he moves it side to side and up and down, in the sign of the cross, in a blinding cloud of incense ,with a sonic boom, he announces,
‘Wisdom; let us attend. Wisdom’.
The gospel holds ‘wisdom’ for the betterment of our lives.
Last week we looked very briefly at how, wisdom was the mother of the Christian virtues of, faith, hope and charity. Several of you wanted to know a bit more of what we mean by this ‘wisdom’ that we are required to attend to.
Now over the years, like many of you I would suspect, I‘ve had people say to me that they wanted to know a bit more about God. So often I’ve heard something like this, ‘Paul, I started to read the Bible from the beginning, but I only got as far as Cain murdering Abel and thought, “This is just like the Daily Mail”’.
Mercifully, when I asked that same question in my distant youth, the wise mentor said, ‘Paul, start with the Gospel of Mark, that comes after Matthew in the thin bit at the back of the Bible, it’s a gospel, it tells the story of Jesus’ life, and it’s short!’
This is relevant to our appointed lectionary theme, as today, is often referred to ‘Bible Sunday’.
The truth is that the big book is many books, the Greek, hoi bibibloi, (όι βιβλοι) the ‘books’. We have the books Hebrew myth of creation, the history books of the Hebrew people, the laws of the Hebrews, their prophecies, and a whole group of books concerning their notions of ‘wisdom’.
Classically these books contain nuggets of sayings, the ones we get on book marks and prayer cards. They are quoted often, they are popular, in the true sense of the word, because they address the universal and timeless conundrums of people, and the act and the art of living.
So a whole chunk of our Bible is known as ‘Wisdom Literature’. These are the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon found in the Apocrypha.
We know the story of Solomon’s wisdom. Two prostitutes arguing over a baby. He lets them have their say, then comes his decision to threaten to cut the child in half. The real mother stepped down, so that the child would live. Here we see the impartiality of wisdom. Wisdom is also realistic and blunt. The ‘Hang On A Minute’, (HOAM), idea (as mentioned in the leaflet), prevails.
We know Ecclesiastes, when there is a season for everything under heaven which gives us that wise resumé of life’s experience. We see wisdom in the person who, when faced with a complex situation, will sort it out!
Simple questions of living are voiced; how to discipline an unruly child, how to teach children what they need to know, the dangers to communities of slander and gossip, the need for hard work and providing the necessities of life, why wicked people prosper, the arrogance of sudden wealth. Happiness and grief, health and sickness, wealth and poverty, life and death are the issues, both for the individual and the community.
Wisdom is God’s gift and the human task.
From the book of Proverbs, we are told, ‘..wisdom is supreme, so seek wisdom’.
Wisdom flows through both our biblical testaments, but even the Ancient Hebrews had to borrow ‘wisdom’ from other Ancient Middle and near Eastern cultures, especially Egypt and Babylonia. The primary topic throughout is the relationships between people. This continuity comes through to us too.
The New Testament sees the centrality of wisdom as a divine and human concern.
In Luke’s Gospel. (2:52), the writer explains how Jesus himself grew in wisdom. Throughout there is a wisdom-based way of reasoning. Jesus’ often paradoxical Parables come to mind. His narratives point us to wisdom, and there we have ‘The Good Samaritan’, a fine, very fine, piece of teaching.
According to one theologian, (Ben Witherington in Jesus the Sage), calls Matthew and John the ‘Gospels of Wisdom’, because of their narratives concerning Jesus, and goes on to say that Jesus’, ‘own story [is] the story of Wisdom in person’, (p.335). Epistles of James and I Corinthians, also contain wise advice to the new Christians.
There is more, much more, but there is one just one last idea.
Wisdom is the Divine gift and the Human task. Importantly it crosses political and religious borders. Without becoming too abstract, it is a valuable insight to know that the ‘Wisdom Tradition’ in human history, is the same as ‘Perennialism’- which in short, means that there is a mystic or perennial inner core to ALL religious or spiritual traditions, without trappings, stubborn doctrines, sectarianism and power structures.
· Here we can look at wisdom as an agency, a broker. It offers a way of working and being beyond personal, and international, humanly created barriers. Our religious trappings are the barriers. Wisdom concerns the stuff which is common to all humanity. In this rapidly globalised neighbourhood, wisdom tells us that, for the sake of common humanity, we need to be able to work and play AND PRAY, alongside those who are different from us, to move beyond ideologues to the common good in our frail human realities.
Just for an instance both the Qu’ran and the Bible speak of how God gives wisdom.
The middle Eastern cultures, the African cultures, Asian cultures, more than us, have always relied on reasoning in their daily affairs, in antiquity wisdom had to be studied and, without a beard or grey hair, you cannot be a wise man, or woman.
Our leaders are young, our computer controllers are young, our soldiers are young but, as Job asks his friend, ‘Is not wisdom found among the aged?’
‘Wisdom, let us attend’. Amen.
Advent 2
Wisdom.
Were you to go to an Orthodox service, and the Gospel was about to be read, the Deacon would hold the canon of Scripture high, and as he moves it side to side and up and down, in the sign of the cross, in a blinding cloud of incense ,with a sonic boom, he announces,
‘Wisdom; let us attend. Wisdom’.
The gospel holds ‘wisdom’ for the betterment of our lives.
Last week we looked very briefly at how, wisdom was the mother of the Christian virtues of, faith, hope and charity. Several of you wanted to know a bit more of what we mean by this ‘wisdom’ that we are required to attend to.
Now over the years, like many of you I would suspect, I‘ve had people say to me that they wanted to know a bit more about God. So often I’ve heard something like this, ‘Paul, I started to read the Bible from the beginning, but I only got as far as Cain murdering Abel and thought, “This is just like the Daily Mail”’.
Mercifully, when I asked that same question in my distant youth, the wise mentor said, ‘Paul, start with the Gospel of Mark, that comes after Matthew in the thin bit at the back of the Bible, it’s a gospel, it tells the story of Jesus’ life, and it’s short!’
This is relevant to our appointed lectionary theme, as today, is often referred to ‘Bible Sunday’.
The truth is that the big book is many books, the Greek, hoi bibibloi, (όι βιβλοι) the ‘books’. We have the books Hebrew myth of creation, the history books of the Hebrew people, the laws of the Hebrews, their prophecies, and a whole group of books concerning their notions of ‘wisdom’.
Classically these books contain nuggets of sayings, the ones we get on book marks and prayer cards. They are quoted often, they are popular, in the true sense of the word, because they address the universal and timeless conundrums of people, and the act and the art of living.
So a whole chunk of our Bible is known as ‘Wisdom Literature’. These are the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon found in the Apocrypha.
We know the story of Solomon’s wisdom. Two prostitutes arguing over a baby. He lets them have their say, then comes his decision to threaten to cut the child in half. The real mother stepped down, so that the child would live. Here we see the impartiality of wisdom. Wisdom is also realistic and blunt. The ‘Hang On A Minute’, (HOAM), idea (as mentioned in the leaflet), prevails.
We know Ecclesiastes, when there is a season for everything under heaven which gives us that wise resumé of life’s experience. We see wisdom in the person who, when faced with a complex situation, will sort it out!
Simple questions of living are voiced; how to discipline an unruly child, how to teach children what they need to know, the dangers to communities of slander and gossip, the need for hard work and providing the necessities of life, why wicked people prosper, the arrogance of sudden wealth. Happiness and grief, health and sickness, wealth and poverty, life and death are the issues, both for the individual and the community.
Wisdom is God’s gift and the human task.
From the book of Proverbs, we are told, ‘..wisdom is supreme, so seek wisdom’.
Wisdom flows through both our biblical testaments, but even the Ancient Hebrews had to borrow ‘wisdom’ from other Ancient Middle and near Eastern cultures, especially Egypt and Babylonia. The primary topic throughout is the relationships between people. This continuity comes through to us too.
The New Testament sees the centrality of wisdom as a divine and human concern.
In Luke’s Gospel. (2:52), the writer explains how Jesus himself grew in wisdom. Throughout there is a wisdom-based way of reasoning. Jesus’ often paradoxical Parables come to mind. His narratives point us to wisdom, and there we have ‘The Good Samaritan’, a fine, very fine, piece of teaching.
According to one theologian, (Ben Witherington in Jesus the Sage), calls Matthew and John the ‘Gospels of Wisdom’, because of their narratives concerning Jesus, and goes on to say that Jesus’, ‘own story [is] the story of Wisdom in person’, (p.335). Epistles of James and I Corinthians, also contain wise advice to the new Christians.
There is more, much more, but there is one just one last idea.
Wisdom is the Divine gift and the Human task. Importantly it crosses political and religious borders. Without becoming too abstract, it is a valuable insight to know that the ‘Wisdom Tradition’ in human history, is the same as ‘Perennialism’- which in short, means that there is a mystic or perennial inner core to ALL religious or spiritual traditions, without trappings, stubborn doctrines, sectarianism and power structures.
· Here we can look at wisdom as an agency, a broker. It offers a way of working and being beyond personal, and international, humanly created barriers. Our religious trappings are the barriers. Wisdom concerns the stuff which is common to all humanity. In this rapidly globalised neighbourhood, wisdom tells us that, for the sake of common humanity, we need to be able to work and play AND PRAY, alongside those who are different from us, to move beyond ideologues to the common good in our frail human realities.
Just for an instance both the Qu’ran and the Bible speak of how God gives wisdom.
The middle Eastern cultures, the African cultures, Asian cultures, more than us, have always relied on reasoning in their daily affairs, in antiquity wisdom had to be studied and, without a beard or grey hair, you cannot be a wise man, or woman.
Our leaders are young, our computer controllers are young, our soldiers are young but, as Job asks his friend, ‘Is not wisdom found among the aged?’
‘Wisdom, let us attend’. Amen.
ADVENT SUNDAY. Ppreached 30 November 2014)
The first time that Jesus came to Jerusalem with any sort of recognition, was as we heard in our Gospel, (Matthew ch.21. 1vv), It was of course, the last time he was to set the foot of entry in that holy city, but that ‘crowd’, which welcomed him as warrior king, was not to know that. A small group was beginning to see that he had not come as such a king to defeat the oppressor, but as a prince of peace with love, not war as his message.
The crowd dispersed when their delusion, their false belief, was exposed, and they became the vengeful. Everyone now seemed to be against him, but that small, nuclear group became stronger.
Today, we look around at the crowds on our streets, and in terms of the Christian faith, these crowds are surely deluded. Come the real St Stephen’s Day they will disperse, looking for more bargains and instant gratification, but the small group of the faithful will remain, thankfully and joyfully welcoming each new day.
It is S. Paul who told us about what endures, what lasts, what keeps that group together. When all the fripperies of religion inevitably fade away, three things remain, he says, ‘faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of these is charity’.
The Advent of God becoming as one of us, brought us that message of faith, hope and charity, and we celebrate the birth of those ‘virtues’ at the feast of the nativity.
The Second Advent, the Second Coming of the Christ at the incomprehensible ‘end of all things’, is yet to come, but at that final ‘sifting’ of all humanity, three things will still remain, faith, hope and charity.
Knowing them now, is to know them then, and so times past and times future are brought into the eternity of now,
which is Advent.
The strength of Christianity has been in the strength of the small group, and there are millions of them, millions of groups like ours. The one twig will easily break, but not a bundle. There have been countless stories of the smallest groups surviving, against all adversities, because of their carrying the Christ-like virtues, of faith, and hope and charity.
Over the centuries the Church, as the whole faithful group, has accrued, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, a degree of accumulated wisdom. The divine wisdom also abides, which, according to the apostle James, is,
‘pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits’.
It is this arcane wisdom which gives birth to and which wraps around these three-fold spiritual virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
In the time of the impious wall-building Roman Emperor Hadrian, there was, according to the Orthodox tradition a holy woman in Rome, a widow with three beautiful devout maiden daughters, soon to be of marrying age. Summoned, as the story goes, they were to the emperor’s court, for reasons of their beauty to be admired, and their Christianity to be punished. Even under the threat of torture, these maidens would not renounce the Christ. The mother was called to watch the tortures and the executions. Saying nothing during her ordeal, the first daughter at the end was to joyfully say,
‘My sisters, let us accept this common death…follow me to our Bridegroom who summons us to Himself’. Beheaded she was.
The second daughter declared she was of the same mind as her elder sister and was to say, ‘having Christ’s help, I fear no torments’. After the boiling cauldron miraculously spilled over the torturers, she too had to be sacrificed to the goddess Artemis by a beheading.
The third child equally bravely declared, ‘who can separate us from the love of Christ?’ Miraculously, she walked in the furnace but was not burned. Only the torturers were severely singed. She too, as a last resort had to be beheaded.
The mother had to witness all this, and was latterly made a saint because of the torture, not to her body but to her tattered heart. Each though, by confessing their love of Christ in his Incarnation, His first Advent, were indeed ready to greet him as he came to them a second time, as a second Advent, in their martyrdom.
Wisdom, faith, hope and charity, the virtues to get us through advent and through life. Oh yes, the names of those saints, the mother Sophia, the girls, pistis, elpis, agape-(σόφια, πιστις, ελπις, αγαπη), Wisdom- Faith, Hope and Charity.
As we open our prayer windows onto advent, we pray that where there is,
o Doubt, may we sow faith
o Despair, hope
o Sadness, joy.
o Hatred, may we sow love
Amen
The first time that Jesus came to Jerusalem with any sort of recognition, was as we heard in our Gospel, (Matthew ch.21. 1vv), It was of course, the last time he was to set the foot of entry in that holy city, but that ‘crowd’, which welcomed him as warrior king, was not to know that. A small group was beginning to see that he had not come as such a king to defeat the oppressor, but as a prince of peace with love, not war as his message.
The crowd dispersed when their delusion, their false belief, was exposed, and they became the vengeful. Everyone now seemed to be against him, but that small, nuclear group became stronger.
Today, we look around at the crowds on our streets, and in terms of the Christian faith, these crowds are surely deluded. Come the real St Stephen’s Day they will disperse, looking for more bargains and instant gratification, but the small group of the faithful will remain, thankfully and joyfully welcoming each new day.
It is S. Paul who told us about what endures, what lasts, what keeps that group together. When all the fripperies of religion inevitably fade away, three things remain, he says, ‘faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of these is charity’.
The Advent of God becoming as one of us, brought us that message of faith, hope and charity, and we celebrate the birth of those ‘virtues’ at the feast of the nativity.
The Second Advent, the Second Coming of the Christ at the incomprehensible ‘end of all things’, is yet to come, but at that final ‘sifting’ of all humanity, three things will still remain, faith, hope and charity.
Knowing them now, is to know them then, and so times past and times future are brought into the eternity of now,
which is Advent.
The strength of Christianity has been in the strength of the small group, and there are millions of them, millions of groups like ours. The one twig will easily break, but not a bundle. There have been countless stories of the smallest groups surviving, against all adversities, because of their carrying the Christ-like virtues, of faith, and hope and charity.
Over the centuries the Church, as the whole faithful group, has accrued, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, a degree of accumulated wisdom. The divine wisdom also abides, which, according to the apostle James, is,
‘pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits’.
It is this arcane wisdom which gives birth to and which wraps around these three-fold spiritual virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
In the time of the impious wall-building Roman Emperor Hadrian, there was, according to the Orthodox tradition a holy woman in Rome, a widow with three beautiful devout maiden daughters, soon to be of marrying age. Summoned, as the story goes, they were to the emperor’s court, for reasons of their beauty to be admired, and their Christianity to be punished. Even under the threat of torture, these maidens would not renounce the Christ. The mother was called to watch the tortures and the executions. Saying nothing during her ordeal, the first daughter at the end was to joyfully say,
‘My sisters, let us accept this common death…follow me to our Bridegroom who summons us to Himself’. Beheaded she was.
The second daughter declared she was of the same mind as her elder sister and was to say, ‘having Christ’s help, I fear no torments’. After the boiling cauldron miraculously spilled over the torturers, she too had to be sacrificed to the goddess Artemis by a beheading.
The third child equally bravely declared, ‘who can separate us from the love of Christ?’ Miraculously, she walked in the furnace but was not burned. Only the torturers were severely singed. She too, as a last resort had to be beheaded.
The mother had to witness all this, and was latterly made a saint because of the torture, not to her body but to her tattered heart. Each though, by confessing their love of Christ in his Incarnation, His first Advent, were indeed ready to greet him as he came to them a second time, as a second Advent, in their martyrdom.
Wisdom, faith, hope and charity, the virtues to get us through advent and through life. Oh yes, the names of those saints, the mother Sophia, the girls, pistis, elpis, agape-(σόφια, πιστις, ελπις, αγαπη), Wisdom- Faith, Hope and Charity.
As we open our prayer windows onto advent, we pray that where there is,
o Doubt, may we sow faith
o Despair, hope
o Sadness, joy.
o Hatred, may we sow love
Amen
(Preached on 23rd November 2014)
Last In Trinity.
‘And the end of all our
Exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time’
Those words of T.S. Eliot bring us to the end of a season.
Yet, if we think we’ve finished, there’s still probably at least one more thing to do! The seemingly unending Season of Trinity is like that. One last thing remains is to sum up, somehow, in a focussed way, what we’re about.
In ‘Trinity’ we heard what Jesus told his first followers about how heavenly principles can become earthly practice. ‘Loving God, neighbour and self’ is all we have to know about, then we get on with it!
The focus I’d like to make, a focus that has long been part of the life of St Mary’s, is ‘homelessness’, and to look at our reasoned and our informed response towards it. I guess also, we need to pay attention always to our own attitudes towards those who, in times past, were stigmatised as the ‘vagrant’, or the one who ‘tramps’.
We have people who come here who, for whatever reasons are without a fixed abode. I try to imagine it, waking up in the morning, (that is, of course that you have had any sleep) and wondering where you will safely find shelter come the evening. I try to imagine the cold, the damp. I try to imagine the rejection of people. I try to imagine the violence on the streets, not least amongst others in the same situation. I try to imagine being hungry all the time. I try to imagine filling up beaurocratic forms. I try to imagine contacting family. I try to imagine walking into a place which is warm and welcoming.
I actually don’t have to imagine most of that, as you know. That year at St Martin’s had me sleeping alongside some of the ‘tramps’, as they were known. No home, but would work for a crust in Covent Garden and so buy a bed.
The aboriginal people in Australia taught me something else about being ‘homeless and rootless’. They taught of the archetypal ‘nomad’. Archetypal, for there is in fact a ‘nomad’ in us all, or else why do we go on walking holidays and ‘get away from things’.
The aboriginal ‘goes bush’- it is in his nature- the earth is his home, he belongs to it, not it to him. He moves to survive, treads lightly, so he may return to the places that have nurtured him. Making him have a ‘home’ in our sense is torture. In the bush he is joyfully alive.
Somehow, even in our culture, we have had a sense that, ‘men of the road’ have chosen that way of life, so enjoy it. There is a tradition of the ‘wayfarer’, a bucolic one who moves through pleasant rural England, working on farms, staying in barns, calling at religious houses or country Parsonages. They would work, again for a crust and a bed. They would, long before the telephone, bring news of the wider world. There was an air of romance about these heart-warming rascals, these roguish ‘men of the road’.
There is a poem,
‘A Poor, wayfaring man of grief
Hath often cross me on my way,
Who sued so humbly for relief
That I could never answer nay.
Yet there was something in his eye
That won my love; I know not why’.
(J. Montgomery)
Perhaps we ‘wink’ at the ‘wayfarer’ out of an envy; ‘If only I was brave enough to give it all up and be my true ‘wayfarer’ self’. I saw these men, worked with these men in Dorset. I was an almoner at the Friary and nurse at the mental hospital. Yes, I saw these men, worked with these men in both settings. All in the pot there were the issues of faith, of health and care, recovery, support and direction. Somehow the romance, the twinkle in the eye was gone.
There is no glory in having nowhere to be; strange to say you are ‘on the road’ indicates something of the ‘wayfarer’ with somewhere to aim for, but to say, ‘on street’ sounds like the ‘down and out’ with nowhere else to go. The language of the street holds no romance either, we have the homeless, the vagrant, the rootless, rough sleeper, druggies, the beggar, the sofa-hopper and other derogatory terms.
Little or no choice exists here. If you have nowhere, then there is cascade of interacting reasons, physical, psychological, social and spiritual. A small group of us are now looking how far mental health issues have brought people to our streets and how far we in our churches may begin to understand, begin to be more effective in our Christian care.
A small gesture towards the tiny tip of a very large ice-berg. There is a very lost generation out there, and we can carry the wisdom of our age and our faith and apply it, not just to apply sticky plasters, but to effect systemic change.
That is the Season of Trinity in a nutshell. The task now ahead is to put the heavenly principles into earthly practice with Christ himself, the divine person of the road.
Amen.
16th November 2014:Trinity 22.
Matth.18.21ff.
The Now and ‘Not Yet’ of the Kingdom of God.
The old adage, ‘Be careful what you pray for’, comes to the fore today when we hear in that gospel passage, what the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom we pray to come, is like.
Throughout the Gospels we hear of Jesus speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven, (which is Matthew’s chosen title, or synonymously, the Kingdom of God), always in terms of allegory, in parables. He never tells his disciples what ‘it’ actually is, only what ‘it’ is like.
These stories were based on the world around him. It is so easy, in our thinking over the centuries, to forget that Jesus was a First Century Jew. This Palestine of Matthew’s Gospel was his world, this was his landscape.
Today, we heard something about the fate of the wicked servant, a parable prompted by Peter asking about how many times are we to forgive another. The answer, an infinite seventy times seven; forgiveness on that scale then is a kingdom [of heaven] principle. The wicked servant, did not forgive in the least, nothing about the kingdom principle about him; he is led away to his tormentors.
Last week we heard the story of the marriage feast, one guest had the ‘wrong garment’, not displaying ‘kingdom values’, he was cast into outer darkness. When kingdom principles and values are not in action, then there is separation from God, which is the torment, which is the outer darkness, or more accurately, the inner darkness.
There is a way, taught by the desert mystics, on how to glimpse God and to have a sense of his Kingdom, and that is the ‘apophatic (απωφατικ) way, the negative way (via negativa). It is a process of elimination. It is not this it is not that. The implication is that what is left is near enough!
The basic ‘kingdom principle’ is the love of God, neighbour and self. He didn’t say what ‘the kingdom’ was, because he knew that this Divine Commandment was well known in the then Jewish world.
The parallel Jewish prayer, to ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ was and is,
'May he establish his Kingdom during your life and during your days.’
Indeed, neither faiths pray, ‘may something like your kingdom come’.
Elsewhere we read that ‘it’ is something small like the mustard seed which grows, something like the small pearl of immense value, and something like the small pinch of leaven to make great loaf. These images are from his day, but the values, of course, are timeless. We have reminders there of William Blake’s grain of sand.
Our problems come when we over emphasise one aspect. Some have seen ‘it’ only as a political kingdom, like that of King David, and a kingdom yet to come. This is an idea we find especially throughout the Gospel of Mark. That was, of course, the immediate expectation of the ‘hosanna’ crowd on His final entry into Jerusalem. Jesus the liberator.
The liberal theologians teach that the kingdom is only God’s rule in the human heart. Central to this is Luke, (17:20-21), ‘the kingdom of God is within you’. Others see ‘it’ only to be a Future Kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, a supernatural kingdom to replace the sorrowing and corrupt earthly ones. This idea took hold in Europe at the turn of the century when war became global and God was silenced on this earth, and in the human heart. There was no kingdom near-by.
Then there is the idea of the present Kingdom. For Jesus announced that the Kingdom had come in his person, as the Son of Man. In his ministry the Kingdom of God had already come and so there was no need to wait. When two or three are gathered in His name, even now, He told us, He is there; He is present.
Something in the future? Perhaps only at the end of time, perhaps because we cannot bear for God to be so close? Yet we are told ‘it is come near you’, when Jesus preaches, Jesus teaches or touches, is touched, or just passes by.
The Kingdom of Heaven then, is not a place but a process. It is the activity of heavenly processes here on earth.
Those processes so clearly put out in the Sermon on the Mount, are the values which upturn, like those Temple tables, the old Hebrew dispensation, as well as the hellish comsumeristic values of today that the world holds to be ‘the normal order of things’. Wealth doesn’t get us into the Kingdom, being like a child does.
God’s rule is a sovereignty awarded to Jesus, and Jesus in turn conferred it on his disciples (Matt.28:16-20, Lk. 22:29). Now it belongs to us, and it is our response-ability, to exercise it on behalf of God. So that as we have contact with others, or as others come here, they can have a sense that the Kingdom of God has come near them.
The Kingdom of Heaven, out there and not yet? Or, intimately connected with our lives and now? The Divine Balance cries, ‘It is not an ‘either/ or’, but a ‘both/ and’.
Let us pray be bold to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come.’
Amen.
Matth.18.21ff.
The Now and ‘Not Yet’ of the Kingdom of God.
The old adage, ‘Be careful what you pray for’, comes to the fore today when we hear in that gospel passage, what the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom we pray to come, is like.
Throughout the Gospels we hear of Jesus speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven, (which is Matthew’s chosen title, or synonymously, the Kingdom of God), always in terms of allegory, in parables. He never tells his disciples what ‘it’ actually is, only what ‘it’ is like.
These stories were based on the world around him. It is so easy, in our thinking over the centuries, to forget that Jesus was a First Century Jew. This Palestine of Matthew’s Gospel was his world, this was his landscape.
Today, we heard something about the fate of the wicked servant, a parable prompted by Peter asking about how many times are we to forgive another. The answer, an infinite seventy times seven; forgiveness on that scale then is a kingdom [of heaven] principle. The wicked servant, did not forgive in the least, nothing about the kingdom principle about him; he is led away to his tormentors.
Last week we heard the story of the marriage feast, one guest had the ‘wrong garment’, not displaying ‘kingdom values’, he was cast into outer darkness. When kingdom principles and values are not in action, then there is separation from God, which is the torment, which is the outer darkness, or more accurately, the inner darkness.
There is a way, taught by the desert mystics, on how to glimpse God and to have a sense of his Kingdom, and that is the ‘apophatic (απωφατικ) way, the negative way (via negativa). It is a process of elimination. It is not this it is not that. The implication is that what is left is near enough!
The basic ‘kingdom principle’ is the love of God, neighbour and self. He didn’t say what ‘the kingdom’ was, because he knew that this Divine Commandment was well known in the then Jewish world.
The parallel Jewish prayer, to ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ was and is,
'May he establish his Kingdom during your life and during your days.’
Indeed, neither faiths pray, ‘may something like your kingdom come’.
Elsewhere we read that ‘it’ is something small like the mustard seed which grows, something like the small pearl of immense value, and something like the small pinch of leaven to make great loaf. These images are from his day, but the values, of course, are timeless. We have reminders there of William Blake’s grain of sand.
Our problems come when we over emphasise one aspect. Some have seen ‘it’ only as a political kingdom, like that of King David, and a kingdom yet to come. This is an idea we find especially throughout the Gospel of Mark. That was, of course, the immediate expectation of the ‘hosanna’ crowd on His final entry into Jerusalem. Jesus the liberator.
The liberal theologians teach that the kingdom is only God’s rule in the human heart. Central to this is Luke, (17:20-21), ‘the kingdom of God is within you’. Others see ‘it’ only to be a Future Kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, a supernatural kingdom to replace the sorrowing and corrupt earthly ones. This idea took hold in Europe at the turn of the century when war became global and God was silenced on this earth, and in the human heart. There was no kingdom near-by.
Then there is the idea of the present Kingdom. For Jesus announced that the Kingdom had come in his person, as the Son of Man. In his ministry the Kingdom of God had already come and so there was no need to wait. When two or three are gathered in His name, even now, He told us, He is there; He is present.
Something in the future? Perhaps only at the end of time, perhaps because we cannot bear for God to be so close? Yet we are told ‘it is come near you’, when Jesus preaches, Jesus teaches or touches, is touched, or just passes by.
The Kingdom of Heaven then, is not a place but a process. It is the activity of heavenly processes here on earth.
Those processes so clearly put out in the Sermon on the Mount, are the values which upturn, like those Temple tables, the old Hebrew dispensation, as well as the hellish comsumeristic values of today that the world holds to be ‘the normal order of things’. Wealth doesn’t get us into the Kingdom, being like a child does.
God’s rule is a sovereignty awarded to Jesus, and Jesus in turn conferred it on his disciples (Matt.28:16-20, Lk. 22:29). Now it belongs to us, and it is our response-ability, to exercise it on behalf of God. So that as we have contact with others, or as others come here, they can have a sense that the Kingdom of God has come near them.
The Kingdom of Heaven, out there and not yet? Or, intimately connected with our lives and now? The Divine Balance cries, ‘It is not an ‘either/ or’, but a ‘both/ and’.
Let us pray be bold to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come.’
Amen.
(Preached 2nd November 2014)
The Feast of All Saints.
St Matthew records the words of Jesus to the waiting hillside crowds; those words express His founding principles, and we’ve been struggling and stumbling ever since.
At the very best, the Church is always on the move towards being all inclusive. Today’s feast then, is a real sign of that. It is all of the saints that we revere this day, known and unknown, in the church militant and in the church triumphant.
There must be countless millions of them if we use the word in the way that St. Paul did. We recall his letters. He addresses several of them ‘to all the saints at, say at Philippi’. The hagioi , (áɤɪoɪ) in Greek, meaning ‘the holy ones’.
There is a the Latin phrase which can help us, ‘plebs sancta Dei’, translated means,
‘The holy ordinary people of God’, all God’s people. ‘Plebs, plebes’, in the Latin, means ‘ordinary person, people’, and so there is nothing wrong at all, in many ways it is a compliment to be with being a plebs!
We know that as the church expanded, when it became more organised, and in many ways more sophisticated, the hierarchy, as it emerged, began to pull away from the ordinary, and ‘sainthood’ gathered its own sense of sophisticated definition, in that a ‘canonisation’ review or check list was needed. Such things as holiness of life, martyrdom, great carer or preacher or teacher, were all part of the picture. The ultimate requirement was that proof of a least one miracle was required. With those criteria the number of saints is reduced to a relatively few elite.
Nevertheless, the list in the litanies of saints in the Roman church, the Eastern Orthodox, and the early Irish Church seem endless, and ninety-nine percent of the names are unknown to us and, for the greater part, are unpronounceable.
A perennial question is what are we doing with the saints? Do we pray to them? Well, many of us do! The ‘offical’ line is that only God is to be addressed in prayer. The saints in heaven are closer to God, and so will pray for us, should we gesture towards them.
Many ‘protest-ant’ about this, but many millions ask the saints for help, as in the rosary; to Mary, ‘pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death’. They truly stand before God on our behalf, and so they intercede for us.
Do we ‘worship’ them? In the true sense of the word, we do. To ‘worship’ is to give respect to, or to honour. This roughly translates into ‘adoration’. There is the higher adoration, ‘latria’, given to God alone, and there is ‘dulia’, the lower degree of honour given to the saints because of their humaness. To avoid confusion with ‘adoration’, the word ‘veneration’ is used to give honour to the saints, and objects like icons and wooden crosses.
In a sense we venerate them all at each Eucharist, not least because we have the altar. The origin being that an altar was traditionally built over the tomb of a saint. There is also a, ‘veneration’ with the call to ‘imitate’ the Saints. That only is because they are imitators of Christ. Likewise as we imitate them we might approach God, like them, in our prayers.
We are fascinated by the great saints, truth or legend, because they speak of their struggle to overcome the frailty, and fallibility of our human nature. Of course they largely failed, but they tried, and God loves human endeavour. We like them because they were/are spiritual entrepreneurs, willing to undertake ventures at a risk and at a cost. We like them because they were/are spiritual explorers, and they, like good explorers have left us maps for our own journeys.
After the Second Vatican Council our Anglican church began a process of reform to include a great many saints from the Western Tradition, and we find them in the ‘Common Worship’. The criteria for being a saint is less rigorous, than in the Roman Church; an imitation of Christ seems to be enough.
All the Saints today; those living and departed, known or unknown.
The most recent additions to our calendar are the seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood in the Solomon Islands, just eleven years ago. As we think of them, we think too of the thousands of unknown saints, this very day, who live in areas of religious intolerance, whose fate we cannot dare to imagine.
The seven brothers were merely trying to keep the peace in a siege of civil unrest. The so called Guadalcanal Liberation Army were the tyrants, and it was they who tortured and executed the peacemakers. On the day of their funerals the streets were packed with over 11.000 people; they were outraged and hysterical with grief. Yet even in death they preached the words of Christ, for on each coffin there was a banner with the words, which we heard in the gospel reading, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God”.
Crowns of Glory we believe through untold agony, now that is imitating Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The all the saints living and departed, known or unknown; they inspire us, they encourage us in our own pilgrimage. They encourage us to risk being ourselves, the saints, the ‘plebs sancta Dei’- the holy common people of God.
Amen
The Feast of All Saints.
St Matthew records the words of Jesus to the waiting hillside crowds; those words express His founding principles, and we’ve been struggling and stumbling ever since.
At the very best, the Church is always on the move towards being all inclusive. Today’s feast then, is a real sign of that. It is all of the saints that we revere this day, known and unknown, in the church militant and in the church triumphant.
There must be countless millions of them if we use the word in the way that St. Paul did. We recall his letters. He addresses several of them ‘to all the saints at, say at Philippi’. The hagioi , (áɤɪoɪ) in Greek, meaning ‘the holy ones’.
There is a the Latin phrase which can help us, ‘plebs sancta Dei’, translated means,
‘The holy ordinary people of God’, all God’s people. ‘Plebs, plebes’, in the Latin, means ‘ordinary person, people’, and so there is nothing wrong at all, in many ways it is a compliment to be with being a plebs!
We know that as the church expanded, when it became more organised, and in many ways more sophisticated, the hierarchy, as it emerged, began to pull away from the ordinary, and ‘sainthood’ gathered its own sense of sophisticated definition, in that a ‘canonisation’ review or check list was needed. Such things as holiness of life, martyrdom, great carer or preacher or teacher, were all part of the picture. The ultimate requirement was that proof of a least one miracle was required. With those criteria the number of saints is reduced to a relatively few elite.
Nevertheless, the list in the litanies of saints in the Roman church, the Eastern Orthodox, and the early Irish Church seem endless, and ninety-nine percent of the names are unknown to us and, for the greater part, are unpronounceable.
A perennial question is what are we doing with the saints? Do we pray to them? Well, many of us do! The ‘offical’ line is that only God is to be addressed in prayer. The saints in heaven are closer to God, and so will pray for us, should we gesture towards them.
Many ‘protest-ant’ about this, but many millions ask the saints for help, as in the rosary; to Mary, ‘pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death’. They truly stand before God on our behalf, and so they intercede for us.
Do we ‘worship’ them? In the true sense of the word, we do. To ‘worship’ is to give respect to, or to honour. This roughly translates into ‘adoration’. There is the higher adoration, ‘latria’, given to God alone, and there is ‘dulia’, the lower degree of honour given to the saints because of their humaness. To avoid confusion with ‘adoration’, the word ‘veneration’ is used to give honour to the saints, and objects like icons and wooden crosses.
In a sense we venerate them all at each Eucharist, not least because we have the altar. The origin being that an altar was traditionally built over the tomb of a saint. There is also a, ‘veneration’ with the call to ‘imitate’ the Saints. That only is because they are imitators of Christ. Likewise as we imitate them we might approach God, like them, in our prayers.
We are fascinated by the great saints, truth or legend, because they speak of their struggle to overcome the frailty, and fallibility of our human nature. Of course they largely failed, but they tried, and God loves human endeavour. We like them because they were/are spiritual entrepreneurs, willing to undertake ventures at a risk and at a cost. We like them because they were/are spiritual explorers, and they, like good explorers have left us maps for our own journeys.
After the Second Vatican Council our Anglican church began a process of reform to include a great many saints from the Western Tradition, and we find them in the ‘Common Worship’. The criteria for being a saint is less rigorous, than in the Roman Church; an imitation of Christ seems to be enough.
All the Saints today; those living and departed, known or unknown.
The most recent additions to our calendar are the seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood in the Solomon Islands, just eleven years ago. As we think of them, we think too of the thousands of unknown saints, this very day, who live in areas of religious intolerance, whose fate we cannot dare to imagine.
The seven brothers were merely trying to keep the peace in a siege of civil unrest. The so called Guadalcanal Liberation Army were the tyrants, and it was they who tortured and executed the peacemakers. On the day of their funerals the streets were packed with over 11.000 people; they were outraged and hysterical with grief. Yet even in death they preached the words of Christ, for on each coffin there was a banner with the words, which we heard in the gospel reading, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God”.
Crowns of Glory we believe through untold agony, now that is imitating Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The all the saints living and departed, known or unknown; they inspire us, they encourage us in our own pilgrimage. They encourage us to risk being ourselves, the saints, the ‘plebs sancta Dei’- the holy common people of God.
Amen
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity: Ephs.5.v.15: S. Matth.9.1 Preached on 26th October 2014.
Forgiveness or Healing?
These past few weeks, in the gospel readings, we have seen Jesus teaching his disciples but being interrupted in full flow, by either the Pharisees or the Scribes. It was as if every word of his was being monitored. They seem to be some sort of religious paparazzi, or some organised circle of spiritual spies gathering more information about him, to arrest him.
Of course, they were suspicious of him because he was gaining in popularity, and becoming a threat to their authority. They kept getting at him because he had notions that were not supported by the Judaic Law. Today’s gospel presents is no exception, indeed he is now accused of blasphemy.
To pronounce someone as ‘forgiven’ was only in the Divine remit. For Jesus, ‘forgiveness’ and ‘healing’ were the same thing, the same process. The issue was with the Scribes.
They had no problem with the healing only, but with this man Jesus taking on the divine prerogative of pronouncing forgiveness. He broke the holiness code. He put another nail in His Cross, but he pointed to the Resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to all, such that all believers, in fact, in God’s Name, can forgive sins. The result is that ‘the forgiveness of sins becomes a universal tool for healing’.
A serious point, to make in passing here, and to show what a serious and complex issue is before us, is that even today, when think about the Jewish holocaust, the strictest of Rabbis still teach an attitude of non- forgiveness, to do otherwise is to usurp God’s authority.
We are left with questions.
Forgiveness and healing? Are they the same thing, a simultaneous event? Or are they some mystical union of both? A divine intertwining of processes?
Well, we can have a little look, see what we see and see what we might believe. The most basic question that arises is:
“If forgiveness is a healing process, does that mean that illness is a sin?”
Does that mean that mental illness could be the result of sin? Now, I would often refer you to a web-site that might be helpful for your researches, now I warn you against one! It is ‘Biblical Psychiatry’- outrageously it has a base line belief, through strict adherence to particular scripture passages, that all mental illness is just that, the result of sin. This is patently not true, and is dangerous.
We here, now we move on, see what we see, and see what we might believe.
It is a truth though, when we find ourselves, or see others in a place of ‘un-forgiveness’ or in a place of being ‘unforgiving’ then problems of a health nature can arise. There is a dis-ease process going on.
The psychologists tell us that forgiveness is, ‘The moment by moment experience of peace and understanding that occurs in the transforming of a grievance’. It is not forgetting, it is not pardoning, it is not reconciling. It is an internal process which is a path to ‘freedom’, freedom from the hold of the offender. That is the word used by Jesus- in the Greek, ‘alphesis’-ὰλφησις’ means ‘remission’ or, ‘freedom from’. This applies also to a freedom from the power of any sin that might grip us.
So to forgive another is to lead to a place of peace. Not to forgive can lead to turmoil, anxiety and depression, and even to psychosomatic illness. Not to be forgiven can lead to the same.
Not to feel forgiven by God, leads to a cold spiritual emptiness, or a fiery furnace of torment. That is to be in the ultimate state of un-forgiveness. Breaking that bond is, of course, by ‘confession’. It is ownership and contrition, which break into that place of peace.
When Jesus healed the body of the palsied one, he didn’t see any sin in that hereditary disease, no; and the man seemed to have no need to confess. Jesus healed the body and any sins were forgiven at the same time!
Now you can tell when a body is healed or healing, but it’s not so easy to know when sins have been forgiven, save, perhaps, that a sense of peace inhabits, and surrounds that person.
Just last week I met Graham, young man with a bi-polar disorder. We spoke and he shared some of his writings with me. We used to call it ‘manic depression’; we see serious mood swings and sometimes life threatening behaviour.
Awareness of the syndrome has been raised by the likes of Spike Milligan, Stephen Fry and yes, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It is known as the ‘creative malady’. Spike Milligan said when he was ‘down’, he got found his inspiration; when he was ‘up’ he would play it all out. The complexity of genetics, biochemical and upbringing all conspire in bringing this malady into reality, nothing about ‘sinfulness’
Graham, when hypomanic, sees each day as a dance, impulsive, constant, but fragile and translucent; at age twenty four, ‘For the first time I felt, the absent Presence pouring love through everything-it made sense to talk to God. St Ignatius saw God in all things’.
Then the plummet, ‘Months lost at sea, struggling to stay afloat, fighting for the shore. Winter nights long and lonely, Darker than black’. So his roller coaster.
So, a long journey for him, where as he describes, he is, ‘unearthing with his own scarred hands a pearl of great price’.
Graham now lives a life of extreme sensitivity- he has come to live with the disorder, and has come to know a profound peace. It is the peace of no longer being angry with God. Graham has forgiven God for the ‘thorn in the mind’ that was given him.
AMEN
Forgiveness or Healing?
These past few weeks, in the gospel readings, we have seen Jesus teaching his disciples but being interrupted in full flow, by either the Pharisees or the Scribes. It was as if every word of his was being monitored. They seem to be some sort of religious paparazzi, or some organised circle of spiritual spies gathering more information about him, to arrest him.
Of course, they were suspicious of him because he was gaining in popularity, and becoming a threat to their authority. They kept getting at him because he had notions that were not supported by the Judaic Law. Today’s gospel presents is no exception, indeed he is now accused of blasphemy.
To pronounce someone as ‘forgiven’ was only in the Divine remit. For Jesus, ‘forgiveness’ and ‘healing’ were the same thing, the same process. The issue was with the Scribes.
They had no problem with the healing only, but with this man Jesus taking on the divine prerogative of pronouncing forgiveness. He broke the holiness code. He put another nail in His Cross, but he pointed to the Resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to all, such that all believers, in fact, in God’s Name, can forgive sins. The result is that ‘the forgiveness of sins becomes a universal tool for healing’.
A serious point, to make in passing here, and to show what a serious and complex issue is before us, is that even today, when think about the Jewish holocaust, the strictest of Rabbis still teach an attitude of non- forgiveness, to do otherwise is to usurp God’s authority.
We are left with questions.
Forgiveness and healing? Are they the same thing, a simultaneous event? Or are they some mystical union of both? A divine intertwining of processes?
Well, we can have a little look, see what we see and see what we might believe. The most basic question that arises is:
“If forgiveness is a healing process, does that mean that illness is a sin?”
Does that mean that mental illness could be the result of sin? Now, I would often refer you to a web-site that might be helpful for your researches, now I warn you against one! It is ‘Biblical Psychiatry’- outrageously it has a base line belief, through strict adherence to particular scripture passages, that all mental illness is just that, the result of sin. This is patently not true, and is dangerous.
We here, now we move on, see what we see, and see what we might believe.
It is a truth though, when we find ourselves, or see others in a place of ‘un-forgiveness’ or in a place of being ‘unforgiving’ then problems of a health nature can arise. There is a dis-ease process going on.
The psychologists tell us that forgiveness is, ‘The moment by moment experience of peace and understanding that occurs in the transforming of a grievance’. It is not forgetting, it is not pardoning, it is not reconciling. It is an internal process which is a path to ‘freedom’, freedom from the hold of the offender. That is the word used by Jesus- in the Greek, ‘alphesis’-ὰλφησις’ means ‘remission’ or, ‘freedom from’. This applies also to a freedom from the power of any sin that might grip us.
So to forgive another is to lead to a place of peace. Not to forgive can lead to turmoil, anxiety and depression, and even to psychosomatic illness. Not to be forgiven can lead to the same.
Not to feel forgiven by God, leads to a cold spiritual emptiness, or a fiery furnace of torment. That is to be in the ultimate state of un-forgiveness. Breaking that bond is, of course, by ‘confession’. It is ownership and contrition, which break into that place of peace.
When Jesus healed the body of the palsied one, he didn’t see any sin in that hereditary disease, no; and the man seemed to have no need to confess. Jesus healed the body and any sins were forgiven at the same time!
Now you can tell when a body is healed or healing, but it’s not so easy to know when sins have been forgiven, save, perhaps, that a sense of peace inhabits, and surrounds that person.
Just last week I met Graham, young man with a bi-polar disorder. We spoke and he shared some of his writings with me. We used to call it ‘manic depression’; we see serious mood swings and sometimes life threatening behaviour.
Awareness of the syndrome has been raised by the likes of Spike Milligan, Stephen Fry and yes, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It is known as the ‘creative malady’. Spike Milligan said when he was ‘down’, he got found his inspiration; when he was ‘up’ he would play it all out. The complexity of genetics, biochemical and upbringing all conspire in bringing this malady into reality, nothing about ‘sinfulness’
Graham, when hypomanic, sees each day as a dance, impulsive, constant, but fragile and translucent; at age twenty four, ‘For the first time I felt, the absent Presence pouring love through everything-it made sense to talk to God. St Ignatius saw God in all things’.
Then the plummet, ‘Months lost at sea, struggling to stay afloat, fighting for the shore. Winter nights long and lonely, Darker than black’. So his roller coaster.
So, a long journey for him, where as he describes, he is, ‘unearthing with his own scarred hands a pearl of great price’.
Graham now lives a life of extreme sensitivity- he has come to live with the disorder, and has come to know a profound peace. It is the peace of no longer being angry with God. Graham has forgiven God for the ‘thorn in the mind’ that was given him.
AMEN
Preached on 19th October 2014 prior to PCC meeting.
The Two Great Commandments
This week, in the gospel story, (Matt.22.v34 ff), Jesus stuns the religious leaders to silence yet again. Last week we saw him challenge the very law of Moses over working on the Sabbath: this week again he silences them as he explains how their law is still not enough!
This they couldn’t understand. They knew the great commandment to love the Lord their God with heart, soul and mind. This, the ‘Shema’, the devout Jew recited twice every day. The rabbis also identified 613 other laws.
For this new tough Rabbi, it was still not enough. His summary of the law included the love of neighbour. It was as if he was reminding them of the 10 commandments, where the first four relate to God and the other six relate to neighbour. As the story evolves, Jesus is about to expose their hypocrisy. Their besetting fault was the love of self, perhaps what we might see as the core sin for all sins.
What was then, is still now. Now we oldies, we long time church goers, have heard all this many, many times before. We shrug the wise shoulders and say, yet again, ‘nothing has changed’. Like the poor, we shall always have the self-seeker with us. It’s no surprise for me to hear us say that, but it was a surprise for me this week, to hear the voice of a group of 18 year olds which expressed the same sentiment.
It was Tuesday, it was a dozen degree level drama students. They had approached me for the use of the church to stage a play; ‘The seven deadly sins’, in the style of the mystery play, then moving on to a morality play. In pairs, one is to enact the sin and the other to describe it. The devil and God will lurk in the background.
It sounds great! They will begin with street theatre, and then return to the church, then on to the Sail Makers Arms’ courtyard for a traditional nativity scene. Any proceeds they are to give to the Church . They needed to know more about the ‘7-deadlies’. So, the first thing for them was to come here, to speak to me. They wanted to see the gothic architecture, see the gargoyles and learn of ‘ritual’.
I thought that the best way to approach this was to take them on the Christian journey as we pass through the building. They were to leave behind the evil, ‘the Deadlies’ and to make the new start in the West, at the font of Baptism. Then, they passed through and lingered in the Nave, and so to learn of the faith, from lectern and pulpit.
They learned of the differences and emphases, over the centuries, of ‘Word and Sacrament’. So I met them with incense, and the rite of passage began for them. Only two students had ever been to a church service ever. Now they arrived knowing what the ‘Seven Deadlies’ are: ( for us to realise,these are the mortal sins of the church-those which prevent God’s grace permeating, unless there is true Repentance).
We are experts too, are we not?
* lust
* gluttony
* greed
* sloth
* wrath
* envy
* pride.
We read St Paul’s passage to the Galatians (ch. 5; vv. 19-25)-works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. That was the basis for the church, by the 4thC to itemise these ‘Deadlies’. Alongside those the church itemised the fruit, the antidote to the toxicity- here there are two groups of seven, according to the catechisms.
So here they are- bullet points, a spiritual agenda for us:
The corporeal works of mercy:
* To feed the hungry
* To give drink to the thirsty
* To clothe the naked
* To visit the imprisoned
* To shelter the homeless
* To visit the sick
* To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy:
* To admonish the sinner
* To instruct the ignorant
* To counsel the doubtful
* To comfort the sorrowful
* To bear wrongs patiently
* To forgive all injuries
* To pray for the living and the dead.
Here our students were hearing, ‘morality’ for the first time. They were quite stunned. The message of the Great Commandments seeped in. They were taken through the life-passage of the Christian, by passing through this building. They knew about the ‘Deadlies’, indeed they came in accompanied by the ‘Deadlies’, they went out accompanied more by the works of mercy.
They saw the turning point as the entry and the baptism; because this was the first time of hearing, they understood that repentance was the beginning of the Christian way. At least, by the end of the session, their vocabulary had changed, certain blasphemies were being left out,’ awesome’ appeared, and a rare word was creeping in- “sorry”. So we all learned that some things can change.
The message of the Great Commandments seeped in. Some of Hull’s best then, could see and feel how special this place is and we, yet again, are reminded, that, as Jacob in Bethel said,
‘How awesome is this place; it is none other than the house of God’.
AMEN
The Two Great Commandments
This week, in the gospel story, (Matt.22.v34 ff), Jesus stuns the religious leaders to silence yet again. Last week we saw him challenge the very law of Moses over working on the Sabbath: this week again he silences them as he explains how their law is still not enough!
This they couldn’t understand. They knew the great commandment to love the Lord their God with heart, soul and mind. This, the ‘Shema’, the devout Jew recited twice every day. The rabbis also identified 613 other laws.
For this new tough Rabbi, it was still not enough. His summary of the law included the love of neighbour. It was as if he was reminding them of the 10 commandments, where the first four relate to God and the other six relate to neighbour. As the story evolves, Jesus is about to expose their hypocrisy. Their besetting fault was the love of self, perhaps what we might see as the core sin for all sins.
What was then, is still now. Now we oldies, we long time church goers, have heard all this many, many times before. We shrug the wise shoulders and say, yet again, ‘nothing has changed’. Like the poor, we shall always have the self-seeker with us. It’s no surprise for me to hear us say that, but it was a surprise for me this week, to hear the voice of a group of 18 year olds which expressed the same sentiment.
It was Tuesday, it was a dozen degree level drama students. They had approached me for the use of the church to stage a play; ‘The seven deadly sins’, in the style of the mystery play, then moving on to a morality play. In pairs, one is to enact the sin and the other to describe it. The devil and God will lurk in the background.
It sounds great! They will begin with street theatre, and then return to the church, then on to the Sail Makers Arms’ courtyard for a traditional nativity scene. Any proceeds they are to give to the Church . They needed to know more about the ‘7-deadlies’. So, the first thing for them was to come here, to speak to me. They wanted to see the gothic architecture, see the gargoyles and learn of ‘ritual’.
I thought that the best way to approach this was to take them on the Christian journey as we pass through the building. They were to leave behind the evil, ‘the Deadlies’ and to make the new start in the West, at the font of Baptism. Then, they passed through and lingered in the Nave, and so to learn of the faith, from lectern and pulpit.
They learned of the differences and emphases, over the centuries, of ‘Word and Sacrament’. So I met them with incense, and the rite of passage began for them. Only two students had ever been to a church service ever. Now they arrived knowing what the ‘Seven Deadlies’ are: ( for us to realise,these are the mortal sins of the church-those which prevent God’s grace permeating, unless there is true Repentance).
We are experts too, are we not?
* lust
* gluttony
* greed
* sloth
* wrath
* envy
* pride.
We read St Paul’s passage to the Galatians (ch. 5; vv. 19-25)-works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. That was the basis for the church, by the 4thC to itemise these ‘Deadlies’. Alongside those the church itemised the fruit, the antidote to the toxicity- here there are two groups of seven, according to the catechisms.
So here they are- bullet points, a spiritual agenda for us:
The corporeal works of mercy:
* To feed the hungry
* To give drink to the thirsty
* To clothe the naked
* To visit the imprisoned
* To shelter the homeless
* To visit the sick
* To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy:
* To admonish the sinner
* To instruct the ignorant
* To counsel the doubtful
* To comfort the sorrowful
* To bear wrongs patiently
* To forgive all injuries
* To pray for the living and the dead.
Here our students were hearing, ‘morality’ for the first time. They were quite stunned. The message of the Great Commandments seeped in. They were taken through the life-passage of the Christian, by passing through this building. They knew about the ‘Deadlies’, indeed they came in accompanied by the ‘Deadlies’, they went out accompanied more by the works of mercy.
They saw the turning point as the entry and the baptism; because this was the first time of hearing, they understood that repentance was the beginning of the Christian way. At least, by the end of the session, their vocabulary had changed, certain blasphemies were being left out,’ awesome’ appeared, and a rare word was creeping in- “sorry”. So we all learned that some things can change.
The message of the Great Commandments seeped in. Some of Hull’s best then, could see and feel how special this place is and we, yet again, are reminded, that, as Jacob in Bethel said,
‘How awesome is this place; it is none other than the house of God’.
AMEN
Sermon preached on 12 October 2014
WORK
It seems the Gospel of today gets us involved in work related issues.
You might say, ‘But it is the Sabbath, we don’t want to know about work’. The truth is, of course, that we are all at work; singing, reading, listening, speaking, serving, playing the organ, celebrating the Eucharist, all this is work; all of this is the Liturgy, ‘the work of the people’. Then again, we know, from the monastic world, that ‘orare est laborare’, ‘to pray is to work’, or ‘laborare est orare’ , ‘to work is to pray’. That is not an ‘either/or’ rather a ‘both/and’.
The gospel today lets us in to this whole notion of ‘work’ as a Christians in community.
According to the Hebrew mythology of Creation, God worked six days and then took a rest. That notion was embedded in Jewish Law, so as to keep the Sabbath Day, the ‘rest day’, Holy. It is very interesting when visiting the Old City of Jerusalem. As a leader of pilgrims I often had to steer the vast majority away from shops, so I devised the itinerary so that we went to the Muslim quarter on Fridays, the Jewish quarter on Saturdays and the Christian quarter , yes you’ve guessed it, on Sundays.
Even as Christians we can’t banish work from Sundays any more than we can only give God an hour slot on that same day: this same day, as we saw, is full of work activity and so symbolises the whole divine/ human co-operative work force we call Church.
On the Sabbath Day in question, Jesus was seen to be breaking the Judaic Law. Jesus, as it were, crossed the picket line, because there was essential life-saving work to be done. He was crossing a bigger line of course, putting his own life on the line, as he challenged the religious management. They of course, could not answer him; they too would go after an ox in danger, and they could not admit that the Law was left wanting. Jesus taught that God, through his people, is constantly at work.
Mankind was created for work, it is part of our essentials. ‘God took the man’, says Genesis 2.15,’and set him in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate it and watch over it’. To work was to live. With God as our employer, we have the privilege to share in his loving care .
The shenanegans of Adam and Eve, however, displeased the All Mighty and from then on humankind, only by the sweat of brow, could food be gotten. Work, especially manual work, thus became a far cry from the idyllic gardening in Eden. Through all of human history the image of God in His creation became distorted as work was associated with personal and social bondage; slavery, serfdom, child labour, penal servitude, we know about. Work in mines, quarries, galleys was brutal.
Apart from the sheer physical horror, there was the psychological torture of having no meaning in the work. There has to be a purpose, and with a purpose human beings can suffer much. The regime that ran the camp at Auschwitz knew that, hence the slogan that was to encourage them was, ‘Arbeit macht frei’, ‘work is freedom’. Cruelly, it gave the condemned thousands heart to go on. So many today have paid work and have no heart for it. The money is the only meaning, the work in itself has little or none.
I often walk here, and the work on the bridge seems to be taking a coon’s age. Little wonder because I never see anyone working! There’s a lot of sitting in the van, drinking tea behaviour. Yet further along the quay on the Arctic Corsair, there are often volunteers working, obviously enjoying doing essential repairs, never yet have I seen a cup of tea on deck!
If the meaning goes out of work, the meaning of life itself can be lost, and we have the basis for the modern scourge, the nervous breakdown, and suicide.
As Christians we can see that all work, under God has meaning. If nothing else, surely we follow Jesus the Man at work, who taught us that our daily bread follows our daily work; and that work maybe not for ourselves alone but for those who have none or indeed, cannot work. If we lose sight of that we forget the carpenter, and the man with the water the and towel. We are called to do with love what others may do through necessity.
Our daily work is holy, and we do that work with the best of our ability with thankfulness and to the glory of God. The monastic world knows that all too well: there is the work of prayer, there is the work of study, there is the work of living together in community, and there is the work of hands. Here there is humility, here there is identification with the non-privileged and, as so many of us know to, ‘get out of our heads and into our hands’ is massively therapeutic.
A monastic tip
“Make the sign of the Cross before you begin a task. Your time is God’s time; your tools are God’s tools; pray not just with words, pray with your hands for their movement is prayer; God will see the love in your heart”. St Thesesa of Lisieux is reported to often fall asleep during formal prayer, but she found God in the daily work of her hands, this was, she said, ‘her little way’.
All our little ways, you see, make up that great symphony of life, the great Opus Dei
Hence that quotation from Kahil Gibran in the leaflet: ‘Work, and therefore God, is love made visible’.
AMEN
WORK
It seems the Gospel of today gets us involved in work related issues.
You might say, ‘But it is the Sabbath, we don’t want to know about work’. The truth is, of course, that we are all at work; singing, reading, listening, speaking, serving, playing the organ, celebrating the Eucharist, all this is work; all of this is the Liturgy, ‘the work of the people’. Then again, we know, from the monastic world, that ‘orare est laborare’, ‘to pray is to work’, or ‘laborare est orare’ , ‘to work is to pray’. That is not an ‘either/or’ rather a ‘both/and’.
The gospel today lets us in to this whole notion of ‘work’ as a Christians in community.
According to the Hebrew mythology of Creation, God worked six days and then took a rest. That notion was embedded in Jewish Law, so as to keep the Sabbath Day, the ‘rest day’, Holy. It is very interesting when visiting the Old City of Jerusalem. As a leader of pilgrims I often had to steer the vast majority away from shops, so I devised the itinerary so that we went to the Muslim quarter on Fridays, the Jewish quarter on Saturdays and the Christian quarter , yes you’ve guessed it, on Sundays.
Even as Christians we can’t banish work from Sundays any more than we can only give God an hour slot on that same day: this same day, as we saw, is full of work activity and so symbolises the whole divine/ human co-operative work force we call Church.
On the Sabbath Day in question, Jesus was seen to be breaking the Judaic Law. Jesus, as it were, crossed the picket line, because there was essential life-saving work to be done. He was crossing a bigger line of course, putting his own life on the line, as he challenged the religious management. They of course, could not answer him; they too would go after an ox in danger, and they could not admit that the Law was left wanting. Jesus taught that God, through his people, is constantly at work.
Mankind was created for work, it is part of our essentials. ‘God took the man’, says Genesis 2.15,’and set him in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate it and watch over it’. To work was to live. With God as our employer, we have the privilege to share in his loving care .
The shenanegans of Adam and Eve, however, displeased the All Mighty and from then on humankind, only by the sweat of brow, could food be gotten. Work, especially manual work, thus became a far cry from the idyllic gardening in Eden. Through all of human history the image of God in His creation became distorted as work was associated with personal and social bondage; slavery, serfdom, child labour, penal servitude, we know about. Work in mines, quarries, galleys was brutal.
Apart from the sheer physical horror, there was the psychological torture of having no meaning in the work. There has to be a purpose, and with a purpose human beings can suffer much. The regime that ran the camp at Auschwitz knew that, hence the slogan that was to encourage them was, ‘Arbeit macht frei’, ‘work is freedom’. Cruelly, it gave the condemned thousands heart to go on. So many today have paid work and have no heart for it. The money is the only meaning, the work in itself has little or none.
I often walk here, and the work on the bridge seems to be taking a coon’s age. Little wonder because I never see anyone working! There’s a lot of sitting in the van, drinking tea behaviour. Yet further along the quay on the Arctic Corsair, there are often volunteers working, obviously enjoying doing essential repairs, never yet have I seen a cup of tea on deck!
If the meaning goes out of work, the meaning of life itself can be lost, and we have the basis for the modern scourge, the nervous breakdown, and suicide.
As Christians we can see that all work, under God has meaning. If nothing else, surely we follow Jesus the Man at work, who taught us that our daily bread follows our daily work; and that work maybe not for ourselves alone but for those who have none or indeed, cannot work. If we lose sight of that we forget the carpenter, and the man with the water the and towel. We are called to do with love what others may do through necessity.
Our daily work is holy, and we do that work with the best of our ability with thankfulness and to the glory of God. The monastic world knows that all too well: there is the work of prayer, there is the work of study, there is the work of living together in community, and there is the work of hands. Here there is humility, here there is identification with the non-privileged and, as so many of us know to, ‘get out of our heads and into our hands’ is massively therapeutic.
A monastic tip
“Make the sign of the Cross before you begin a task. Your time is God’s time; your tools are God’s tools; pray not just with words, pray with your hands for their movement is prayer; God will see the love in your heart”. St Thesesa of Lisieux is reported to often fall asleep during formal prayer, but she found God in the daily work of her hands, this was, she said, ‘her little way’.
All our little ways, you see, make up that great symphony of life, the great Opus Dei
Hence that quotation from Kahil Gibran in the leaflet: ‘Work, and therefore God, is love made visible’.
AMEN
Sermon Preached on Sunday 5th October 2014: The Feast of the Dedication of St. Mary’s.
Dedication
“I was glad when they said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord’ (Psalm 122:1)
From the beginning of time mankind has instinctively recognised ‘the presence’, ‘the Other’, ‘the Holy’, the ‘Numinous’.
As a consequence places and objects have been set aside when the ‘presence’ is recognised; we know about Stonehenge, the Aztec temples, sacred oaks and mountains and lakes and rivers. All are witness to the innate human desire to reverence and worship a god in dedicated places; our God, their god, their gods. It is no matter when there is still ‘reverence’. I still take my shoes off on entering a mosque, and I put on the ‘kipa’ in a synagogue; I still look skyward when a deer jumps or a dolphin rises; I still take a deep breath and face east at the top of a mountain.
Our ancestors in the faith, the Hebrew people, the people of the covenant, the people called to await the coming of the Messiah, were guided by God in dedicated places and with dedicated objects. The Law was given to Moses on the sacred mountain of Sinai, the Ark of the Covenant to contain the tablets of stone. King Solomon had the Temple constructed. This was the holy place where God could be approached, then only by the holy man, the High Priest once a year and then only in ‘The Holy of Holies’. Devout Jewish people still, to this day, revere even the remaining outer wall, we know it as the ‘Wailing Wall’, but properly the ‘Western Wall’. It remains the Holiest Place for present day Judaism.
We Christians too, as the early church saw the need for ‘gathering together’, dedicated caves and catacombs, then houses, then monastic houses and local churches and then, of course, through the ages, the most glorious of cathedrals. All were and are, dedicated houses of prayer where the Holy Word is taught and the Sacraments, instituted of Christ, are rightly and duly administered. We too, perhaps in our own homes, have a place which is dedicated to peace and quietness which we keep as a place of prayer.
Some of us, of course, believe that God is, Omnipresent, everywhere and that the ‘Divine Immensity’ fills all space, but that does not stop us creating that special place.
The earliest ceremonies of dedications, (synonymous with consecration), were marked by the recital of the Liturgy and possibly the placing of some holy relic or relics in the sacred space. The Rites of consecration became increasingly complex, but the essential use of psalms, holy writ and sacrament remained the basic pattern. In all the Rites there is the stunning exclamation of Jacob (as recorded in Genesis), at Bethel; his dream of a ladder ascending to heaven caused him to say,
‘How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven’ (Gen28)
With our Parish system, the whole country is ideally covered with prayer. The place set aside, the holy place into which, throughout the ages,the needy have and do come, and restored souls have done and do depart, is the Parish Church. The ‘awesome place’ in these our present times. Here is such a dedicated place, a consecrated place and humankind needs this space, our neighbourhood needs it, our City needs it. As a place of prayer, the nation and the world need it. Individuals who cross the threshold need it.
A psychotherapist, who recently came here, told me how several of his clients fed back to him that they had come and sat here and they felt at peace. They, even though not or any particular religious persuasion, said they sensed something ‘holy’. It gave them hope, and the experience was part of their healing.
We are guardians of that sense of the holy, which gives hope and healing. Importantly our own reverence must be seen; it is the sign-post for others, our reverence must be contagious. When we come here, we see holy things, we touch holy things, the foot of the chalice, as you touch and guide it to your mouth, is as the touch of the hem of His garment.
Today, by our conscious actions, we are proclaiming the continued dedication of this sacred space, set aside for the worship of God and the healing of souls. In a time when many churches are being made redundant, deconsecrated, ceasing to be dedicated as a ‘holy place’, closing for lack of dedicated people, we do well for this, another year, to ensure that St Mary’s remains ‘dedicated’, remains an accessible ‘ awesome place’.
1333 is the date we take when this site, and its then building, was dedicated, officially, and recognised as such a place of worship, and taking on, effectively, the beginnings of the work of a Parish Church.
The years have been kind or, I suspect, the congregations especially robust, and God very patient, but that sanctity has been defended against many odds. One major reason for ‘survival’ has to have been the ability of the congregations, themselves to be dedicated, but vitally, to adapt to the signs of the times. To be ‘prophetic’ is to read the signs of the times.
The space is dedicated as ‘holy’ within the context of the daily life that surrounds. To be prophetic is to be gifted with the Holy Spirit to discern the signs of the times and live in those times as ‘Church’. ‘Church’ is something special, awesome and here is set apart in the midst.
This is now for us. We haven’t been closer than this to making changes to this building; the changes we decide upon will need to determine the space as ‘holy’; the changes need to allow us to welcome the Christ in each sacred soul who enters, and is entrusted to us. Our task is to adapt, to read the signs of the times, and ensure that next October there will yet be enough dedicated ones to dedicate this place as a Holy Place.
As the Bishop is called to dedicate a new ‘space’, after the opening prayer he says, as the rubrics have it, ‘in a loud voice’,
‘Let the doors be opened’.
AMEN
Dedication
“I was glad when they said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord’ (Psalm 122:1)
From the beginning of time mankind has instinctively recognised ‘the presence’, ‘the Other’, ‘the Holy’, the ‘Numinous’.
As a consequence places and objects have been set aside when the ‘presence’ is recognised; we know about Stonehenge, the Aztec temples, sacred oaks and mountains and lakes and rivers. All are witness to the innate human desire to reverence and worship a god in dedicated places; our God, their god, their gods. It is no matter when there is still ‘reverence’. I still take my shoes off on entering a mosque, and I put on the ‘kipa’ in a synagogue; I still look skyward when a deer jumps or a dolphin rises; I still take a deep breath and face east at the top of a mountain.
Our ancestors in the faith, the Hebrew people, the people of the covenant, the people called to await the coming of the Messiah, were guided by God in dedicated places and with dedicated objects. The Law was given to Moses on the sacred mountain of Sinai, the Ark of the Covenant to contain the tablets of stone. King Solomon had the Temple constructed. This was the holy place where God could be approached, then only by the holy man, the High Priest once a year and then only in ‘The Holy of Holies’. Devout Jewish people still, to this day, revere even the remaining outer wall, we know it as the ‘Wailing Wall’, but properly the ‘Western Wall’. It remains the Holiest Place for present day Judaism.
We Christians too, as the early church saw the need for ‘gathering together’, dedicated caves and catacombs, then houses, then monastic houses and local churches and then, of course, through the ages, the most glorious of cathedrals. All were and are, dedicated houses of prayer where the Holy Word is taught and the Sacraments, instituted of Christ, are rightly and duly administered. We too, perhaps in our own homes, have a place which is dedicated to peace and quietness which we keep as a place of prayer.
Some of us, of course, believe that God is, Omnipresent, everywhere and that the ‘Divine Immensity’ fills all space, but that does not stop us creating that special place.
The earliest ceremonies of dedications, (synonymous with consecration), were marked by the recital of the Liturgy and possibly the placing of some holy relic or relics in the sacred space. The Rites of consecration became increasingly complex, but the essential use of psalms, holy writ and sacrament remained the basic pattern. In all the Rites there is the stunning exclamation of Jacob (as recorded in Genesis), at Bethel; his dream of a ladder ascending to heaven caused him to say,
‘How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven’ (Gen28)
With our Parish system, the whole country is ideally covered with prayer. The place set aside, the holy place into which, throughout the ages,the needy have and do come, and restored souls have done and do depart, is the Parish Church. The ‘awesome place’ in these our present times. Here is such a dedicated place, a consecrated place and humankind needs this space, our neighbourhood needs it, our City needs it. As a place of prayer, the nation and the world need it. Individuals who cross the threshold need it.
A psychotherapist, who recently came here, told me how several of his clients fed back to him that they had come and sat here and they felt at peace. They, even though not or any particular religious persuasion, said they sensed something ‘holy’. It gave them hope, and the experience was part of their healing.
We are guardians of that sense of the holy, which gives hope and healing. Importantly our own reverence must be seen; it is the sign-post for others, our reverence must be contagious. When we come here, we see holy things, we touch holy things, the foot of the chalice, as you touch and guide it to your mouth, is as the touch of the hem of His garment.
Today, by our conscious actions, we are proclaiming the continued dedication of this sacred space, set aside for the worship of God and the healing of souls. In a time when many churches are being made redundant, deconsecrated, ceasing to be dedicated as a ‘holy place’, closing for lack of dedicated people, we do well for this, another year, to ensure that St Mary’s remains ‘dedicated’, remains an accessible ‘ awesome place’.
1333 is the date we take when this site, and its then building, was dedicated, officially, and recognised as such a place of worship, and taking on, effectively, the beginnings of the work of a Parish Church.
The years have been kind or, I suspect, the congregations especially robust, and God very patient, but that sanctity has been defended against many odds. One major reason for ‘survival’ has to have been the ability of the congregations, themselves to be dedicated, but vitally, to adapt to the signs of the times. To be ‘prophetic’ is to read the signs of the times.
The space is dedicated as ‘holy’ within the context of the daily life that surrounds. To be prophetic is to be gifted with the Holy Spirit to discern the signs of the times and live in those times as ‘Church’. ‘Church’ is something special, awesome and here is set apart in the midst.
This is now for us. We haven’t been closer than this to making changes to this building; the changes we decide upon will need to determine the space as ‘holy’; the changes need to allow us to welcome the Christ in each sacred soul who enters, and is entrusted to us. Our task is to adapt, to read the signs of the times, and ensure that next October there will yet be enough dedicated ones to dedicate this place as a Holy Place.
As the Bishop is called to dedicate a new ‘space’, after the opening prayer he says, as the rubrics have it, ‘in a loud voice’,
‘Let the doors be opened’.
AMEN
Harvest Festival 2014
The idea of a Festival of Harvest Thanksgiving in this our technocratic age, is fraught with complexities, contradictions, nostalgic inaccessibilities, stark unrealities, inconsistences, anomalies and irrelevances. In our Christian minds such a festival, at best, is the awareness of the co-operative relationship of God with humankind.
We have the fruits of our labour, with God’s providential supply of essential and necessary environmental conditions, and real supply of the raw materials, as part of the Creating God’s activity. That co-operation, brings forth the fruit, of sorts, deemed, at baseline, to be necessary for the survival of life on earth. As Christian people then, we give thanks always and everywhere for that co-operation, that combined work. Our Eucharist is the apogee of that relationship.
One question that arises, though, when we consider all the complexities in a technocracy, is when did we last ‘plough the fields and scatter’?
Well, we could change the vocabulary a bit; something like, ‘We make the necessary risk assessment, input the required skill base, then trust for a favourable outcome’!
Much the same idea; we have things which we do, which are in our control, then trust to those things which are out of our control. As Christians, that ‘out of control’ bit, we call, ‘Providence’, something about God the Creator. Yet we ask, ‘What about God the Redeemer, the Christ whose earthly harvest was an abject failure?’
We have then, the anomaly of ‘splitting’ our notion of God. Then, what about God the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit which would have all life as sacred? Wherever we go with this thinking, we have to begin somewhere and that surely is with the belief in the sanctity of life, in particular human life. We wouldn’t be the first to start there.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, without being ‘religious’ endorses this sanctity;
Article 1 states,
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood.”
Article 25 states,
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and family….”
These are resolutions that we see violated daily. It seems, surely, that there is a massive shortfall in reaching the desired outcome of a global brotherhood.
How far does the real world fall short?
We know:
80% of the world’s population lives on less than £5.00 a day and 50% on less than 50p. The poorest 40% accounts for 5% of global income. While, the richest 20% accounts for ¾ of the world income.
UNICEF tell us that 22.000 children die each day through poverty. In their report is written,
‘they die quietly in some of the poorest village on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death’.
Helping is fraught with difficulty. There is the corruption and mismanagement in the misdirecting of resources, we know about, but there is the £1 given in aid, that demands £50 in repayment, which we don’t know about.
Our consciences though, continue to shout at us to help, and we worry how to give.One of the best known challengers of the misallocation of resources was one time a Bishop in Brasilia, Helda Camara,
“When I give food to the poor,’ he writes, ‘they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist”.
Of course, as Christians we are all communists, as in the early church when all things were held in common. All agencies, mostly charities, that challenge the present global economic disparities agree, that if there were to be a dissolution of political barriers and rivalries, there would be enough food to feed the world. That would take, though, a massive shape shift in attitudes, to put into practice that first universal human right, and to, ‘act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood’.
Then charities are charities, full of unrealistic idealism, as we Christians are seen to be. For that we are side-lined and our voice is weak.
There doesn’t seem to be much of God around when there is such insufficiency for the poor and scandalous superfluity for the rich. Yet, as we know, it is the poor who are more likely to be thankful for life and, in turn, the most generous of heart.
So, Harvest Thanksgiving today? It is far cry from some Victorian rural idyll. There was nothing idyllic about the Victorian labour market and the ‘below stairs’ slavery.
Yet there is something in human nature that wants to see the fruits of our labour, to reap positively from what we have sown. There is also the need for those with a conscience to give of the surplus. We give thanks that out of whatever we have harvested, in whatever field of work we labour, there is something to give away, something to reduce the gap between the ‘haves and have-nots’. It is an ancient principle which, sadly, still eludes us.
Our consciences are sorely tweaked, over tweaked, more perhaps than in any previous age, because our instant global communication systems over expose us. To preserve sanity we need, I believe, to take refuge in that old, but true, ‘Think globally, act locally’.
As always, being of good heart, we do what we can, where we can. Today’s collecting for the victims of the E-bola crisis in Sierra Leone, and a gesture to those in hostels for the homeless. Certainly in poorest parts of Africa, the pittance we might give here will be a fortune there.
We began with our anomalies and inconsistencies surrounding a Harvest Thanksgiving, we even seemed to have God in crisis!
‘God knows what He’s doing’ a rugged old nun once told me.
We give thanks today for God the Father who is Creator, on whose providence we rely. We give thanks for God as Son, who knew all our frailties, failures, our poverty. He knew about having no harvest; and yet gave, even this hardened technocracy, the guidelines for compassion. We give thanks for the Holy Spirit, who brings forth harvest, as it were, from Father the soil and Son the sower; the same Spirit that shares the Divine energy, so that harvest will come, to and through humankind; importantly, to the needy through us.
AMEN
The idea of a Festival of Harvest Thanksgiving in this our technocratic age, is fraught with complexities, contradictions, nostalgic inaccessibilities, stark unrealities, inconsistences, anomalies and irrelevances. In our Christian minds such a festival, at best, is the awareness of the co-operative relationship of God with humankind.
We have the fruits of our labour, with God’s providential supply of essential and necessary environmental conditions, and real supply of the raw materials, as part of the Creating God’s activity. That co-operation, brings forth the fruit, of sorts, deemed, at baseline, to be necessary for the survival of life on earth. As Christian people then, we give thanks always and everywhere for that co-operation, that combined work. Our Eucharist is the apogee of that relationship.
One question that arises, though, when we consider all the complexities in a technocracy, is when did we last ‘plough the fields and scatter’?
Well, we could change the vocabulary a bit; something like, ‘We make the necessary risk assessment, input the required skill base, then trust for a favourable outcome’!
Much the same idea; we have things which we do, which are in our control, then trust to those things which are out of our control. As Christians, that ‘out of control’ bit, we call, ‘Providence’, something about God the Creator. Yet we ask, ‘What about God the Redeemer, the Christ whose earthly harvest was an abject failure?’
We have then, the anomaly of ‘splitting’ our notion of God. Then, what about God the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit which would have all life as sacred? Wherever we go with this thinking, we have to begin somewhere and that surely is with the belief in the sanctity of life, in particular human life. We wouldn’t be the first to start there.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, without being ‘religious’ endorses this sanctity;
Article 1 states,
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood.”
Article 25 states,
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and family….”
These are resolutions that we see violated daily. It seems, surely, that there is a massive shortfall in reaching the desired outcome of a global brotherhood.
How far does the real world fall short?
We know:
80% of the world’s population lives on less than £5.00 a day and 50% on less than 50p. The poorest 40% accounts for 5% of global income. While, the richest 20% accounts for ¾ of the world income.
UNICEF tell us that 22.000 children die each day through poverty. In their report is written,
‘they die quietly in some of the poorest village on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death’.
Helping is fraught with difficulty. There is the corruption and mismanagement in the misdirecting of resources, we know about, but there is the £1 given in aid, that demands £50 in repayment, which we don’t know about.
Our consciences though, continue to shout at us to help, and we worry how to give.One of the best known challengers of the misallocation of resources was one time a Bishop in Brasilia, Helda Camara,
“When I give food to the poor,’ he writes, ‘they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist”.
Of course, as Christians we are all communists, as in the early church when all things were held in common. All agencies, mostly charities, that challenge the present global economic disparities agree, that if there were to be a dissolution of political barriers and rivalries, there would be enough food to feed the world. That would take, though, a massive shape shift in attitudes, to put into practice that first universal human right, and to, ‘act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood’.
Then charities are charities, full of unrealistic idealism, as we Christians are seen to be. For that we are side-lined and our voice is weak.
There doesn’t seem to be much of God around when there is such insufficiency for the poor and scandalous superfluity for the rich. Yet, as we know, it is the poor who are more likely to be thankful for life and, in turn, the most generous of heart.
So, Harvest Thanksgiving today? It is far cry from some Victorian rural idyll. There was nothing idyllic about the Victorian labour market and the ‘below stairs’ slavery.
Yet there is something in human nature that wants to see the fruits of our labour, to reap positively from what we have sown. There is also the need for those with a conscience to give of the surplus. We give thanks that out of whatever we have harvested, in whatever field of work we labour, there is something to give away, something to reduce the gap between the ‘haves and have-nots’. It is an ancient principle which, sadly, still eludes us.
Our consciences are sorely tweaked, over tweaked, more perhaps than in any previous age, because our instant global communication systems over expose us. To preserve sanity we need, I believe, to take refuge in that old, but true, ‘Think globally, act locally’.
As always, being of good heart, we do what we can, where we can. Today’s collecting for the victims of the E-bola crisis in Sierra Leone, and a gesture to those in hostels for the homeless. Certainly in poorest parts of Africa, the pittance we might give here will be a fortune there.
We began with our anomalies and inconsistencies surrounding a Harvest Thanksgiving, we even seemed to have God in crisis!
‘God knows what He’s doing’ a rugged old nun once told me.
We give thanks today for God the Father who is Creator, on whose providence we rely. We give thanks for God as Son, who knew all our frailties, failures, our poverty. He knew about having no harvest; and yet gave, even this hardened technocracy, the guidelines for compassion. We give thanks for the Holy Spirit, who brings forth harvest, as it were, from Father the soil and Son the sower; the same Spirit that shares the Divine energy, so that harvest will come, to and through humankind; importantly, to the needy through us.
AMEN
The Good Samaritan-2014
Preached on Sunday 14th September 2014
The ‘Good Samaritan‘, along with the ‘Prodigal Son‘, is surely one of the most famous of Jesus’ Parables, and probably the one least adhered to, one we find difficult to act upon.
It is full of so many of today’s politically incorrect issues. There is discrimination, there is unprofessional helping, the non-notification of an incident, there is blasphemy verging on treason, there is neglect, there is abuse.
It also speaks of the unconditional Love of God, very incorrect then in certain quarters, and very incorrect now in certain quarters. Controversial then, controversial now.
It is a famous parable, one precipitated by the question of a lawyer. Jesus deals with it, in a Socratic method, by asking another question. This puts the lawyer on the back foot.
It is a familiar parable, it is accessible to us because of it’s story format; its novel like genre, its telling tales of certain characters. Some novels are easily forgotten. It is a truism that this parable is least adhered to perhaps because of it’s very familiarity.
Equally if we take an obscure OT, King James story we might not adhere to that because it is not accessible, it is incomprehensible.
To take a ‘Good News’ version of the NT, with the little pictures, we don’t, paradoxically, and perversely, adhere to that, because it is far too below our intellectual radar. It lacks the gravitas of ‘Holy Writ‘. So like the lawyer we might be underwhelmed.
When obscure and opaque and complex, there is a tendency to overlook; when obvious and open, and simplistic, there is a tendency to overlook. When overlooking we are like the Levite and the Priest. Perhaps it is all too close to home, and unpalatable, because none of us can claim to be like Jesus, nor the Good Samaritan, unable to show that unconditional love.
Then, of course, we might see ourselves like some perpetual abuser or victim…and we’d rather not go there!
In this parable we have another problem, in that there are two interrelating stories which also challenges our ability to take it all in.
We have the clever lawyer and Jesus in one encounter. We have the victim, the robbers, the Levite and Priest, and the Samaritan, in another. It is the parable we look at and its implications.
For me, it is all about the ability to be surprised and even shocked. It is about how we respond to that surprise and shock.
To have that ability to be surprised is a quality of the soul.
All the characters in our story would have been surprised, may be even shocked. The victim would have been both. He wouldn’t have risked making a journey had he heard news that a gang of bandits was operating at that time. It was a treacherous road, that 17 mile stretch of road between Jericho and Jerusalem. It had many twists and turns, ups and downs, ideal for hiding bandits; but there was a ‘bush telegraph’ to warn of any gangs. So he was caught by surprise.
He was left, abandoned, by the bandits, deeply shocked physically. Later he maybe would have had post traumatic stress disorder, so latterly emotionally shocked. At the time, he was probably unconscious so unable even to call for help.
The bandits: they would have been surprised that anyone would have taken such a risk to make such a journey. Surprised too that no-one challenged them. Not shocked though; people were far too afraid for their own safety to make any interventions. Besides, it would have been none of their business.
The Levite and priest also would’ve been surprised, but probably not shocked. Both were of an upper class, and were probably riding an animal of some kind- mule, or camel. They’d probably blame the animal for not wanting to stop!
They were not shocked enough to stop; they saw beggars all the time, and they knew of the bandits- surprised that they hadn’t been the target. They would have been in a rush; they could not ritually defile themselves after or before their Temple rituals. They didn’t know if the person was dead or not- and to pass within 7 yards of a corpse is to be defiled.
Interesting here though is an intermingling of our two stories- and it concerns the Levitical law, the lawyer, the Priest and the Levite, the interpretation of ‘neighbour’.
In the Greek, ‘neighbour’ is interpreted as ‘the one who is near-by’, nicely translated in German too as ‘nachbar’. In the Hebrew, the language of the Temple, it means, ‘the one you have an association with’.
The Priest and Levite had no association with the person in the ditch, so he was not their neighbour, so to love him ,as was written in the Law, was not an obligation for them. By not stopping, in their interpretation of the law, they had not transgressed.
The Samaritan would have been surprised. He would also have been shocked; being on foot, he would have been more able to stop quickly, and be able to see up close the severity of the injuries he saw. He would have been shocked that the travellers who passed by hadn’t stopped. He would also had been shocked that the person wasn’t begging-but was voicelessly unconscious.
He would have been shocked at his own response; not only by putting himself at risk, but that he was partly under the same Law of ‘association with’, as the others. He knew the healing rituals though, pouring oil and wine into the wounds. He was though, not as obligated, and that was why the Samaritans were seen as unclean, and not to be associated with. He was not so obligated that compassion for the ’one near’ him, his neighbour, broke through. In short
What he saw, on this dangerous Jericho Road, kindled his selfless compassion into action, a glimpse then of the God of Compassion, the God of flesh and blood, not the God of the Law. He was surprised and shocked by God. This is what Jesus wanted the clever Lawyer to know; the true neighbour was the one who was near-by, maybe a stranger; not the one you were associated with.
To be open enough to be surprised and often shocked by God, and the cry of the world, known or unknown, near or far, is a quality of the soul. It is subject to the law of unconditional love. The Samaritan looked neither for reward nor to be repayed, and as they say, ‘he went the extra mile’.
We think though who we are in this parable. We as disciples of Jesus the Christ, in the face of the one, any one, who is ‘near-by’, (today that means near or far), we pray we may be constantly surprised and constantly shocked by the wounds we see. Even though we may be at risk, to fulfill the law of Love, we are to stop and pour in the oil and wine of the Holy Spirit.
This is especially so when no-one else stops and when the wounded one cannot ask for help.
Amen.
Preached on Sunday 14th September 2014
The ‘Good Samaritan‘, along with the ‘Prodigal Son‘, is surely one of the most famous of Jesus’ Parables, and probably the one least adhered to, one we find difficult to act upon.
It is full of so many of today’s politically incorrect issues. There is discrimination, there is unprofessional helping, the non-notification of an incident, there is blasphemy verging on treason, there is neglect, there is abuse.
It also speaks of the unconditional Love of God, very incorrect then in certain quarters, and very incorrect now in certain quarters. Controversial then, controversial now.
It is a famous parable, one precipitated by the question of a lawyer. Jesus deals with it, in a Socratic method, by asking another question. This puts the lawyer on the back foot.
It is a familiar parable, it is accessible to us because of it’s story format; its novel like genre, its telling tales of certain characters. Some novels are easily forgotten. It is a truism that this parable is least adhered to perhaps because of it’s very familiarity.
Equally if we take an obscure OT, King James story we might not adhere to that because it is not accessible, it is incomprehensible.
To take a ‘Good News’ version of the NT, with the little pictures, we don’t, paradoxically, and perversely, adhere to that, because it is far too below our intellectual radar. It lacks the gravitas of ‘Holy Writ‘. So like the lawyer we might be underwhelmed.
When obscure and opaque and complex, there is a tendency to overlook; when obvious and open, and simplistic, there is a tendency to overlook. When overlooking we are like the Levite and the Priest. Perhaps it is all too close to home, and unpalatable, because none of us can claim to be like Jesus, nor the Good Samaritan, unable to show that unconditional love.
Then, of course, we might see ourselves like some perpetual abuser or victim…and we’d rather not go there!
In this parable we have another problem, in that there are two interrelating stories which also challenges our ability to take it all in.
We have the clever lawyer and Jesus in one encounter. We have the victim, the robbers, the Levite and Priest, and the Samaritan, in another. It is the parable we look at and its implications.
For me, it is all about the ability to be surprised and even shocked. It is about how we respond to that surprise and shock.
To have that ability to be surprised is a quality of the soul.
All the characters in our story would have been surprised, may be even shocked. The victim would have been both. He wouldn’t have risked making a journey had he heard news that a gang of bandits was operating at that time. It was a treacherous road, that 17 mile stretch of road between Jericho and Jerusalem. It had many twists and turns, ups and downs, ideal for hiding bandits; but there was a ‘bush telegraph’ to warn of any gangs. So he was caught by surprise.
He was left, abandoned, by the bandits, deeply shocked physically. Later he maybe would have had post traumatic stress disorder, so latterly emotionally shocked. At the time, he was probably unconscious so unable even to call for help.
The bandits: they would have been surprised that anyone would have taken such a risk to make such a journey. Surprised too that no-one challenged them. Not shocked though; people were far too afraid for their own safety to make any interventions. Besides, it would have been none of their business.
The Levite and priest also would’ve been surprised, but probably not shocked. Both were of an upper class, and were probably riding an animal of some kind- mule, or camel. They’d probably blame the animal for not wanting to stop!
They were not shocked enough to stop; they saw beggars all the time, and they knew of the bandits- surprised that they hadn’t been the target. They would have been in a rush; they could not ritually defile themselves after or before their Temple rituals. They didn’t know if the person was dead or not- and to pass within 7 yards of a corpse is to be defiled.
Interesting here though is an intermingling of our two stories- and it concerns the Levitical law, the lawyer, the Priest and the Levite, the interpretation of ‘neighbour’.
In the Greek, ‘neighbour’ is interpreted as ‘the one who is near-by’, nicely translated in German too as ‘nachbar’. In the Hebrew, the language of the Temple, it means, ‘the one you have an association with’.
The Priest and Levite had no association with the person in the ditch, so he was not their neighbour, so to love him ,as was written in the Law, was not an obligation for them. By not stopping, in their interpretation of the law, they had not transgressed.
The Samaritan would have been surprised. He would also have been shocked; being on foot, he would have been more able to stop quickly, and be able to see up close the severity of the injuries he saw. He would have been shocked that the travellers who passed by hadn’t stopped. He would also had been shocked that the person wasn’t begging-but was voicelessly unconscious.
He would have been shocked at his own response; not only by putting himself at risk, but that he was partly under the same Law of ‘association with’, as the others. He knew the healing rituals though, pouring oil and wine into the wounds. He was though, not as obligated, and that was why the Samaritans were seen as unclean, and not to be associated with. He was not so obligated that compassion for the ’one near’ him, his neighbour, broke through. In short
What he saw, on this dangerous Jericho Road, kindled his selfless compassion into action, a glimpse then of the God of Compassion, the God of flesh and blood, not the God of the Law. He was surprised and shocked by God. This is what Jesus wanted the clever Lawyer to know; the true neighbour was the one who was near-by, maybe a stranger; not the one you were associated with.
To be open enough to be surprised and often shocked by God, and the cry of the world, known or unknown, near or far, is a quality of the soul. It is subject to the law of unconditional love. The Samaritan looked neither for reward nor to be repayed, and as they say, ‘he went the extra mile’.
We think though who we are in this parable. We as disciples of Jesus the Christ, in the face of the one, any one, who is ‘near-by’, (today that means near or far), we pray we may be constantly surprised and constantly shocked by the wounds we see. Even though we may be at risk, to fulfill the law of Love, we are to stop and pour in the oil and wine of the Holy Spirit.
This is especially so when no-one else stops and when the wounded one cannot ask for help.
Amen.
ST BARTHOLOMEW
St Batholomew-2014
24th August.
We have a sense that in those times when the first Apostles were getting galvanised into Action, turning the teachings of their Lord into their Acts, that there was great enthusiasm of people, in Jerusalem and the vicinities, to know more of this new faith system.
The sick and the needy we heard in today’s epistle, were flocking to Jerusalem for healing. The ‘resident’ Apostles, it seems were a bit short staffed, for the multitudes were content enough, we’re told, should even the shadow of Peter would pass over them!
So even though they were short staffed. Others took their Lord’s command to go out and about and preach, heal, baptise to the furthers corners of the earth. St Bartholomew was one of those. Very little is known of him. Strangely, I couldn’t seem to find any mention of him in our hymnody?
His name derives from the Aramaic, and means the son of Tolmay- or, ‘son of the furrows’. He is mentioned in the first Three Gospels, ( Matt.10.1-4; Mark, 3.13-19; Luke,6. 12-16). He was a witness to the Ascension, and on each occasion he is mentioned along with Philip, working as an apostolic team. (The essential work of an apostle is to set up churches, and the let the evangelists, teachers and pastors to develop ).
Bartholomew is not a name that appears in John‘s Gospel, rather it is thought that he is ‘Nathanael’ in that Fourth Gospel: again introduced by, and in the company Philip. Our information, from the historian Eusebius, is that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went to India and then into Greater Armenia. The Church was growing, so much so that even the King, one Polymius, converted. His brother, however, didn’t like that idea and, when in power, had Bartholomew beheaded, or another version, was that he was flayed alive and crucified head downward.
Like many of our earliest Saints, more is made of Bartholomew over time. His relics appeared in all sorts of near eastern countries, whilst an arm, apparently, is still venerated in Canterbury Cathedral. In tenth century Rome, a Church of St. Bartholomew there, had inherited a pagan healing centre, so, over time, his name became associated with healing and hospitals.
For the most part then, Bartholomew seems to have his name borrowed for other purposes- for things which have very little bearing, as far as we know, to the person himself. In France we had the St. Bartholomew Massacres- 16th C.- a Roman Catholic contribution to the French Religious Wars-against the Hugenots, (Calvinists)-5-30,000 killed. Just happened on 23-24th August 1572
Here of course, in the City of London, we have St. Barts Hospital and The Great St. Bart’s Church- healing again is the link- that Roman connection, but also one Rahere, cleric of St Paul’s, the founder of an Augustinian priory, on the site of the church there in 1123, was apparently healed of the fever- so 24th Aug. brought pilgrims galore- the aisles filled. In the middle-ages there was also a famous St Bartholomew’s Cloth Fair.
I suppose, if we wanted, today we could speak about the present, ‘St Bartholomew storms in Gaza, or Irag’? It might help us to remember? If we were of a mind we might link our saint with another despicable beheading in this last week. There is, however, a real legacy, that we can ascribe to this Saint, and that is his part, along with his companion Thaddeus, in the seed sowing of Christianity in Armenia, here truly an apostle.
He is then, the Patron Saint of The Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and this is the world’s first ,and therefore the oldest, national church, Armenia becoming officially a Christian country in 301 AD. As the most ancient of Christian churches , it has survived against all the odds. So much so that in the Old City of Jerusalem today, which is divided into Four Separate Quarters, one of those is Armenian. The church also has its own chapel in that great Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Their quarter butts onto to the other three of the Old City; the Jewish and the Christian and the Muslim. Amazingly, maybe because of the weight of antiquity, and so the respect of other faiths, that is the most stable quarter of Jerusalem.
The church too has survived a most troubled national history, and maybe it has been that the nation survived because of the strength of the Church. Situated, as it is, on the borders of Turkey, Georgia, and Iraq, Armenia has suffered greatly. Most notably was the genocide atrocities of 1915 committed by the crumbling Ottoman Empire, as it tried to annex Armenia. The Orthodox Church has always believed itself the stronger because of the periods of persecution. The Russian Church which meets here was founded Manchester, in the 1950’s by refugees from camps for displaced persons in Austria.
Not much of Bartholomew himself is known, but associations are strong. The lasting association is that of ’healing’. For so many then, the very name is loved. St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, from 11th C., through the ages, not least in recent war-time history, is still today in the forefront of research and care. The very name, somehow, conjures up a longevity, a strength, a reliability, a gentleness. We can only assume that our saint ‘got on’ with his work, quietly and he made sure that the legacy of his essential apostolic work would be enduring, because he had a laid a solid foundation.
To have such a church still surviving and flourishing in this present age, is surely and strongly the responsibility of this one man and his friend Thaddeus. As Our Lord said,
‘By their fruits shall ye know them’.
Our prayer for today: ‘Lord, may we learn from the example of St Bartholomew and so quietly strengthen the foundations here, that your Church may endure unto the ages of ages.’ Amen.
24th August.
We have a sense that in those times when the first Apostles were getting galvanised into Action, turning the teachings of their Lord into their Acts, that there was great enthusiasm of people, in Jerusalem and the vicinities, to know more of this new faith system.
The sick and the needy we heard in today’s epistle, were flocking to Jerusalem for healing. The ‘resident’ Apostles, it seems were a bit short staffed, for the multitudes were content enough, we’re told, should even the shadow of Peter would pass over them!
So even though they were short staffed. Others took their Lord’s command to go out and about and preach, heal, baptise to the furthers corners of the earth. St Bartholomew was one of those. Very little is known of him. Strangely, I couldn’t seem to find any mention of him in our hymnody?
His name derives from the Aramaic, and means the son of Tolmay- or, ‘son of the furrows’. He is mentioned in the first Three Gospels, ( Matt.10.1-4; Mark, 3.13-19; Luke,6. 12-16). He was a witness to the Ascension, and on each occasion he is mentioned along with Philip, working as an apostolic team. (The essential work of an apostle is to set up churches, and the let the evangelists, teachers and pastors to develop ).
Bartholomew is not a name that appears in John‘s Gospel, rather it is thought that he is ‘Nathanael’ in that Fourth Gospel: again introduced by, and in the company Philip. Our information, from the historian Eusebius, is that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went to India and then into Greater Armenia. The Church was growing, so much so that even the King, one Polymius, converted. His brother, however, didn’t like that idea and, when in power, had Bartholomew beheaded, or another version, was that he was flayed alive and crucified head downward.
Like many of our earliest Saints, more is made of Bartholomew over time. His relics appeared in all sorts of near eastern countries, whilst an arm, apparently, is still venerated in Canterbury Cathedral. In tenth century Rome, a Church of St. Bartholomew there, had inherited a pagan healing centre, so, over time, his name became associated with healing and hospitals.
For the most part then, Bartholomew seems to have his name borrowed for other purposes- for things which have very little bearing, as far as we know, to the person himself. In France we had the St. Bartholomew Massacres- 16th C.- a Roman Catholic contribution to the French Religious Wars-against the Hugenots, (Calvinists)-5-30,000 killed. Just happened on 23-24th August 1572
Here of course, in the City of London, we have St. Barts Hospital and The Great St. Bart’s Church- healing again is the link- that Roman connection, but also one Rahere, cleric of St Paul’s, the founder of an Augustinian priory, on the site of the church there in 1123, was apparently healed of the fever- so 24th Aug. brought pilgrims galore- the aisles filled. In the middle-ages there was also a famous St Bartholomew’s Cloth Fair.
I suppose, if we wanted, today we could speak about the present, ‘St Bartholomew storms in Gaza, or Irag’? It might help us to remember? If we were of a mind we might link our saint with another despicable beheading in this last week. There is, however, a real legacy, that we can ascribe to this Saint, and that is his part, along with his companion Thaddeus, in the seed sowing of Christianity in Armenia, here truly an apostle.
He is then, the Patron Saint of The Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and this is the world’s first ,and therefore the oldest, national church, Armenia becoming officially a Christian country in 301 AD. As the most ancient of Christian churches , it has survived against all the odds. So much so that in the Old City of Jerusalem today, which is divided into Four Separate Quarters, one of those is Armenian. The church also has its own chapel in that great Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Their quarter butts onto to the other three of the Old City; the Jewish and the Christian and the Muslim. Amazingly, maybe because of the weight of antiquity, and so the respect of other faiths, that is the most stable quarter of Jerusalem.
The church too has survived a most troubled national history, and maybe it has been that the nation survived because of the strength of the Church. Situated, as it is, on the borders of Turkey, Georgia, and Iraq, Armenia has suffered greatly. Most notably was the genocide atrocities of 1915 committed by the crumbling Ottoman Empire, as it tried to annex Armenia. The Orthodox Church has always believed itself the stronger because of the periods of persecution. The Russian Church which meets here was founded Manchester, in the 1950’s by refugees from camps for displaced persons in Austria.
Not much of Bartholomew himself is known, but associations are strong. The lasting association is that of ’healing’. For so many then, the very name is loved. St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, from 11th C., through the ages, not least in recent war-time history, is still today in the forefront of research and care. The very name, somehow, conjures up a longevity, a strength, a reliability, a gentleness. We can only assume that our saint ‘got on’ with his work, quietly and he made sure that the legacy of his essential apostolic work would be enduring, because he had a laid a solid foundation.
To have such a church still surviving and flourishing in this present age, is surely and strongly the responsibility of this one man and his friend Thaddeus. As Our Lord said,
‘By their fruits shall ye know them’.
Our prayer for today: ‘Lord, may we learn from the example of St Bartholomew and so quietly strengthen the foundations here, that your Church may endure unto the ages of ages.’ Amen.
Transfiguration
Transfiguration -2014
August 6th very often eludes us as a day to pay attention to.
This last week is no exception-one reason for attention, is that it is Hiroshima Day: the day, according to the rules of a ‘Just War‘, we won WW 2 illegally. For that event, we shall end our lives under that distinctive cloud as penitents.
We’ll keep a silence in our prayers.It is also the feast day of the Transfiguration. Sadly, unless it falls on a Sunday, we tend to miss it.
Christmas we know about, and Easter, these are the bookends of our Lord’s life, but this event, the half-way event, and it’s significance can get a bit lost.
The event, just a quick reminder; Jesus is taking Peter, James and John up a mountain; something happened; the disciples saw Jesus’ appearance change to a momentary dazzling white; they saw the figures of Moses and Elijah,; they heard the voice of God, affirming the divinity of Jesus. The disciples wanted to stay there; Jesus said, no chance- there’s work to be done……..
What we can miss, half way through this season of Trinity, is probably what the disciples needed half way through His ministry. We, like those disciples need(ed) a bit of a nudge, a bit of a reminder of who they were following after all. They needed a glimpse of the Glory of God. So, we know we need those points of refreshment. This is the holiday season, but equally even weekly in ‘Eucharist’ we can be refreshed. Without refreshment we can easily descend into depression and discouragement, the occupational hazards of being Christian.
According to the account in Luke’s Gospel, Elijah and Moses were seen there. Scholars agree that that was Luke’s attempt to tie in Jesus with the Law and the Prophets of his Hebrew predecessors. There was also the voice from the mystical concealing cloud, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him’. Pretty stark, and a direct commandment. In that fleeting moment, God the Father revealed himself and the glory of the God the Trinity in that translucency of Jesus, seen there as the Risen Christ. God came out of hiding- and we have a ‘Theophany’ , or Epiphany. This was also as it happened at the Baptism, God affirmed Jesus as his Son-
God on earth going about among them.
God also gave himself away, came out of hiding with the Hebrew ‘Skekinah’ the pillars of cloud and fire that led the Israelites to freedom.
So these disciples were the chosen ones to glimpse this ‘glory‘. Not, we believe, because they were the best, but actually because they were the worst! These were the ones that got things wrong, asked inappropriate questions, just as you and I do. They were the most fallible, and so most in need of reassurance, of being setting straight to face up to what lay before them. They were the ones though who, without question, just left everything and followed Him.
Of course, they got it wrong again on that mountain- they understood and they didn’t understand; even then, they wanted to settle down right there, on this mountain top, imagining that getting up one mountain was enough, enjoying all that cosy reassurance around them. No, they were to return to the valley to complete the work set before them, with only the remembrance of that ‘glory’ to keep them going. For they had that other peak ,of course, Calvary.
‘Glory’- it has many meanings. We use the word almost glibly in our prayers and hymns without lingering very much over what it might mean. It carries with it a sense of transience, non-permanence. We use it to signify great acclaim, like a Nelson’s victory at the Nile, Or some other victory like Southend beating Chelsea. Also something splendid, perhaps a flower show, a musical performance, a sunny autumn day….
The Glory of God is something else, something about awesome majesty. In Hebrew and so the O.T. word for ‘glory’ if Kavoth (Kabod). This is used of something of SUBSTANCE, notably the mountain, classically Sinai. The God of Substance. The N.T word is Greek, doxa -light unapproachable-ethereal but powerful, speaking of the Holy Spirit of God- like a great sparkling fountain.
God - images then of mountain and fountain, glory, fleetingly glimpsed, though, only by those with eyes to see. Such were those disciples. That is what they saw, and they too were bound to secrecy, to keep God hidden still. The event was just enough to keep them going. Then again we all have our own experiences of ‘glory’. It might be in the Eucharist, in the silence and sheer beauty here, or it might be in the natural world, or in a special relationship.
Before and after the Transfiguration there was a lot of work being done, both by Our Lord and His learners. Glory pushed up through the work every now and again to, give hope, energy, the vision itself, to keep us going! We can look at the disfigurement around us and pray for and work towards, the transfiguring of families, societies, nations, creation. Then again, we have to be transfiguring ourselves, which of course will take our life time, especially as we ponder the words of St Irenaeus,
‘The glory of God is a living person ‘.
Such a sight would be dazzling.
August 6th very often eludes us as a day to pay attention to.
This last week is no exception-one reason for attention, is that it is Hiroshima Day: the day, according to the rules of a ‘Just War‘, we won WW 2 illegally. For that event, we shall end our lives under that distinctive cloud as penitents.
We’ll keep a silence in our prayers.It is also the feast day of the Transfiguration. Sadly, unless it falls on a Sunday, we tend to miss it.
Christmas we know about, and Easter, these are the bookends of our Lord’s life, but this event, the half-way event, and it’s significance can get a bit lost.
The event, just a quick reminder; Jesus is taking Peter, James and John up a mountain; something happened; the disciples saw Jesus’ appearance change to a momentary dazzling white; they saw the figures of Moses and Elijah,; they heard the voice of God, affirming the divinity of Jesus. The disciples wanted to stay there; Jesus said, no chance- there’s work to be done……..
What we can miss, half way through this season of Trinity, is probably what the disciples needed half way through His ministry. We, like those disciples need(ed) a bit of a nudge, a bit of a reminder of who they were following after all. They needed a glimpse of the Glory of God. So, we know we need those points of refreshment. This is the holiday season, but equally even weekly in ‘Eucharist’ we can be refreshed. Without refreshment we can easily descend into depression and discouragement, the occupational hazards of being Christian.
According to the account in Luke’s Gospel, Elijah and Moses were seen there. Scholars agree that that was Luke’s attempt to tie in Jesus with the Law and the Prophets of his Hebrew predecessors. There was also the voice from the mystical concealing cloud, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him’. Pretty stark, and a direct commandment. In that fleeting moment, God the Father revealed himself and the glory of the God the Trinity in that translucency of Jesus, seen there as the Risen Christ. God came out of hiding- and we have a ‘Theophany’ , or Epiphany. This was also as it happened at the Baptism, God affirmed Jesus as his Son-
God on earth going about among them.
God also gave himself away, came out of hiding with the Hebrew ‘Skekinah’ the pillars of cloud and fire that led the Israelites to freedom.
So these disciples were the chosen ones to glimpse this ‘glory‘. Not, we believe, because they were the best, but actually because they were the worst! These were the ones that got things wrong, asked inappropriate questions, just as you and I do. They were the most fallible, and so most in need of reassurance, of being setting straight to face up to what lay before them. They were the ones though who, without question, just left everything and followed Him.
Of course, they got it wrong again on that mountain- they understood and they didn’t understand; even then, they wanted to settle down right there, on this mountain top, imagining that getting up one mountain was enough, enjoying all that cosy reassurance around them. No, they were to return to the valley to complete the work set before them, with only the remembrance of that ‘glory’ to keep them going. For they had that other peak ,of course, Calvary.
‘Glory’- it has many meanings. We use the word almost glibly in our prayers and hymns without lingering very much over what it might mean. It carries with it a sense of transience, non-permanence. We use it to signify great acclaim, like a Nelson’s victory at the Nile, Or some other victory like Southend beating Chelsea. Also something splendid, perhaps a flower show, a musical performance, a sunny autumn day….
The Glory of God is something else, something about awesome majesty. In Hebrew and so the O.T. word for ‘glory’ if Kavoth (Kabod). This is used of something of SUBSTANCE, notably the mountain, classically Sinai. The God of Substance. The N.T word is Greek, doxa -light unapproachable-ethereal but powerful, speaking of the Holy Spirit of God- like a great sparkling fountain.
God - images then of mountain and fountain, glory, fleetingly glimpsed, though, only by those with eyes to see. Such were those disciples. That is what they saw, and they too were bound to secrecy, to keep God hidden still. The event was just enough to keep them going. Then again we all have our own experiences of ‘glory’. It might be in the Eucharist, in the silence and sheer beauty here, or it might be in the natural world, or in a special relationship.
Before and after the Transfiguration there was a lot of work being done, both by Our Lord and His learners. Glory pushed up through the work every now and again to, give hope, energy, the vision itself, to keep us going! We can look at the disfigurement around us and pray for and work towards, the transfiguring of families, societies, nations, creation. Then again, we have to be transfiguring ourselves, which of course will take our life time, especially as we ponder the words of St Irenaeus,
‘The glory of God is a living person ‘.
Such a sight would be dazzling.
Translating the Gospel for here and now
St.Mary the Virgin, Lowgate, Hull
Ninth Sunday after Trinity
17th August 2014
(The sermon is arranged through the life and works of two martyrs of the 20th Century: the question we ask is, ‘How do we translate the Gospel for our unique times and place.’)
In Sermon lessons at Theological College, it was advised that one never begins with an apology! So I won’t !!
There is room though, for explanations. The concern is the meaning of today’s gospel reading, (S.Luke: ch.16v.1 ff) and the seemingly strange advice by Jesus. Last year, same reading and then I confessed I had no idea what it meant, so avoided it. This year I think I can make amends. By looking up the passage in a copy of Peaks Commentary. I learned what I had missed. It all hinges on the audience.
What we think it might mean, is turned around when we realise to whom Jesus was speaking. Briefly, it is seen by the scholars, as likely, that the whole parable is directed against the leaders of Israel as stewards of God’s property. He said they should be making friends of those they have been oppressing, (to them, foreign, a threat, evil, ‘mammon’), so they might find security as the old order decays, when the now last, shall then be first.
It seems to me then, when there can be so many ways of interpreting our Scriptures. To get an overview It is good to advance our understanding and to ‘look things up’! The strength and weakness perhaps, of our belief, as we have it, is that there are indeed many ways of interpreting the Gospel of Christ, both for our own lives and for our own age.
Jesus did it in his, using the story-telling genre of the times and adapting to those gathered before him. With that in mind , I’d like to introduce you to two men, (you might want to look them up after), two men who knew the whole Gospel of Christ, but who expressed it is quite different ways- but they were different men in differing times. They are : Maximillian Kolbe and Oscar Romero.
Maxmillian Kolbe was a Polish Priest who died as prisoner numbered 16770 in Auschwitz, on August 14th, 1941. I was prompted to ‘look him up’, as his feast day was Thursday this last week. Today we have examples of how war can bring out the very best, and the very worst, in humanity.
Of course we are cutting long stories short today. He had a childhood vision that one day, that he would be martyred. His life became a progression to that end. As an adult, he became a Franciscan Friar, he studied in Rome, he went on to set up Friaries in Warsaw, India and Japan, including one in Nagasaki. (saved when the bomb dropped as it was on the lee side of the mountain which took the blast).
In 1936, he was recalled to the original friary in Warsaw. The dark German tide was rising over Europe, and it flooded into Warsaw in 1939. He knew the Friary would be seized, so he sent most of his brothers to their homes. After a brief arrest, he was released and returned to that Friary, and with his fellow Friars began to organise a shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, 2,000 of whom were Jews. This, of course, was a crime against the Nazi Regime.
In May 1941, the Friary was closed and Maximillian and four companions were sent the Auschwitz death camp. There was a regime of systematic starvation for prisoners as well as regular torture. A survivor described Fr. Kolbe, ‘..that in the harshness of the slaughterhouse he maintained the gentleness of Christ’. He would visit everyone every day and offer was only a priest could offer, a peace at the end.
One particular event marked his Christ-like-ness: A prisoner had escaped; in reprisal the commandant took ten prisoners and put them into the total starvation hut. It meant certain and agonising death. One screamed out that he had a wife and young children. Fr. Kolbe spoke up, and declared, ’I am a Catholic Priest, I am old, take me instead’.
‘The polish pig’ as he was called, to everyone’s surprise was granted his request. The other nine died within days. Fr.Kolbe did not, but because the pit was needed for some more prisoners, he was given a lethal injection. He lifted up his arm for his executioners, and the carbolic acid was administered. He lay serene, his head to one side. Another survivor simply said, ‘In that desert of hatred he had sown love. His death was a shock filled with hope.’ Aged forty seven years, he was martyred on August 14th 1941.
Pope John Paul II saw his legacy as, ‘not an ode to the past, but a beacon of hope to the future…’ He was canonised by that Pope on 19th October 1982 he declared Fr Kolbe to be “The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century”. There is so much more- we can always look him up.
****************
Equally, today we can only glimpse at Oscar Romero. He lived in different times, in a different culture, and caught up in a different war.
How to be the bearer of Christ in his situation? His famous mission statement , I think we might call it, was,
‘We have never preached violence, except the violence of love’.
For his work, in 1997, Pope John Paul II entitled him ‘Servant of God’. The process towards Sainthood is still ongoing somewhere among the Vatican Cardinals.
So, what was his work, and how did he translate the gospel where he found himself? As a priest, he was renown for his work with the poor, the outcast, the most deprived around him. He worked quietly, unobrusively through, Mexico, Central and South America. Corrupt governments, violent drug cartels were the opposition, his ‘mammon’
To his and many of his radical colleagues, his appointment to Archbishop of San Salvador, in February 1977. was a complete surprise. His fellow priests had been experimenting, in their despair, with meeting violence with violence. The government, in its corrupt and dictatorial style, however, thought it would be good to have a ‘placid’ conservative Archbishop, namely one they could control, who in turn could control the multitude of malcontents.
The assassination of one of his priests who had spoken out against the oppressive Marxist regime, turned the meek and mild Romero, into a very outspoken saintly adversary.
The church itself was under attack for helping the poor. In three years over fifty priests had been attacked, others tortured, nuns violated; school churches were bombed. He became so outspoken, using the world-media. He took on President Carter about the so called humanitarian aid America was giving to the San Salvadorian government.
He broadcast an weekly sermon and then an hour long talk across all El Salvador. He listed the disappearances, the murders, the acts of torture by the government troops. His was the only free voice to expose the truth of the level of oppression.
‘There are many things’ he said, ‘that can only be seen through eyes that have cried’ . It was something like this that the authorities would no longer stand for,
‘’Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses the image of God, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom’.
On 24th March 1980, he gave his radio sermon and talk, this time urging the soldiers to stop carrying out the government dictates of repression and violation. From there he went to a small chapel in the hospital of La Divina Providencia, to say Mass and when he reached the middle of the altar he was shot.
At the funeral the Papal delegate eulogised him as, ‘a beloved, peacemaking man of God’. Over 250,000 people attended, it was the largest demonstration in the history of South American history. Smoke bombs, rifle shots greeted them from the National Guard-all that was left were the corpses and piles of shoes (eye witness). He was buried in the Cathedral crypt of San Salvador with gunfire still raging.
His tomb is now a place of pilgrimage to thousands, to honour this man of peace, yet violent for the love of God. Foreign dignitaries too, Obama’s been, have to be seen to pay him homage. Enough, he is well remembered. There is so much more, we can ‘look it up’.
Two contrasting men responding to the call of Christ where they found themselves. Romero having to speak out and speak against others so to expose and defeat an evil regime, out of love for the poorest; Kolbe quietly defeating the evil he lived with, by the love of his neighbour. Each in his own way ministered to the very least around them; they ministered to the Christ. They loved with a violent passion, and died, as did their Lord, a violent death.
Three things they had in common: 1. they both followed Our Lord without question; 2. they each uniquely translated the ‘Way, the Truth and the Life’ for their own times; 3. they are both have sculptures of themselves among the ten 20th Century saints over the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey.
There’s loads more- we can ‘look it up’ . Amen.
Leaflet: (*at the end the Nazis had to make friends with those they saw as mammon
There , of course, we ask ourselves, where are we to be found?
What does our translation of the Gospel look like?
Ninth Sunday after Trinity
17th August 2014
(The sermon is arranged through the life and works of two martyrs of the 20th Century: the question we ask is, ‘How do we translate the Gospel for our unique times and place.’)
In Sermon lessons at Theological College, it was advised that one never begins with an apology! So I won’t !!
There is room though, for explanations. The concern is the meaning of today’s gospel reading, (S.Luke: ch.16v.1 ff) and the seemingly strange advice by Jesus. Last year, same reading and then I confessed I had no idea what it meant, so avoided it. This year I think I can make amends. By looking up the passage in a copy of Peaks Commentary. I learned what I had missed. It all hinges on the audience.
What we think it might mean, is turned around when we realise to whom Jesus was speaking. Briefly, it is seen by the scholars, as likely, that the whole parable is directed against the leaders of Israel as stewards of God’s property. He said they should be making friends of those they have been oppressing, (to them, foreign, a threat, evil, ‘mammon’), so they might find security as the old order decays, when the now last, shall then be first.
It seems to me then, when there can be so many ways of interpreting our Scriptures. To get an overview It is good to advance our understanding and to ‘look things up’! The strength and weakness perhaps, of our belief, as we have it, is that there are indeed many ways of interpreting the Gospel of Christ, both for our own lives and for our own age.
Jesus did it in his, using the story-telling genre of the times and adapting to those gathered before him. With that in mind , I’d like to introduce you to two men, (you might want to look them up after), two men who knew the whole Gospel of Christ, but who expressed it is quite different ways- but they were different men in differing times. They are : Maximillian Kolbe and Oscar Romero.
Maxmillian Kolbe was a Polish Priest who died as prisoner numbered 16770 in Auschwitz, on August 14th, 1941. I was prompted to ‘look him up’, as his feast day was Thursday this last week. Today we have examples of how war can bring out the very best, and the very worst, in humanity.
Of course we are cutting long stories short today. He had a childhood vision that one day, that he would be martyred. His life became a progression to that end. As an adult, he became a Franciscan Friar, he studied in Rome, he went on to set up Friaries in Warsaw, India and Japan, including one in Nagasaki. (saved when the bomb dropped as it was on the lee side of the mountain which took the blast).
In 1936, he was recalled to the original friary in Warsaw. The dark German tide was rising over Europe, and it flooded into Warsaw in 1939. He knew the Friary would be seized, so he sent most of his brothers to their homes. After a brief arrest, he was released and returned to that Friary, and with his fellow Friars began to organise a shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, 2,000 of whom were Jews. This, of course, was a crime against the Nazi Regime.
In May 1941, the Friary was closed and Maximillian and four companions were sent the Auschwitz death camp. There was a regime of systematic starvation for prisoners as well as regular torture. A survivor described Fr. Kolbe, ‘..that in the harshness of the slaughterhouse he maintained the gentleness of Christ’. He would visit everyone every day and offer was only a priest could offer, a peace at the end.
One particular event marked his Christ-like-ness: A prisoner had escaped; in reprisal the commandant took ten prisoners and put them into the total starvation hut. It meant certain and agonising death. One screamed out that he had a wife and young children. Fr. Kolbe spoke up, and declared, ’I am a Catholic Priest, I am old, take me instead’.
‘The polish pig’ as he was called, to everyone’s surprise was granted his request. The other nine died within days. Fr.Kolbe did not, but because the pit was needed for some more prisoners, he was given a lethal injection. He lifted up his arm for his executioners, and the carbolic acid was administered. He lay serene, his head to one side. Another survivor simply said, ‘In that desert of hatred he had sown love. His death was a shock filled with hope.’ Aged forty seven years, he was martyred on August 14th 1941.
Pope John Paul II saw his legacy as, ‘not an ode to the past, but a beacon of hope to the future…’ He was canonised by that Pope on 19th October 1982 he declared Fr Kolbe to be “The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century”. There is so much more- we can always look him up.
****************
Equally, today we can only glimpse at Oscar Romero. He lived in different times, in a different culture, and caught up in a different war.
How to be the bearer of Christ in his situation? His famous mission statement , I think we might call it, was,
‘We have never preached violence, except the violence of love’.
For his work, in 1997, Pope John Paul II entitled him ‘Servant of God’. The process towards Sainthood is still ongoing somewhere among the Vatican Cardinals.
So, what was his work, and how did he translate the gospel where he found himself? As a priest, he was renown for his work with the poor, the outcast, the most deprived around him. He worked quietly, unobrusively through, Mexico, Central and South America. Corrupt governments, violent drug cartels were the opposition, his ‘mammon’
To his and many of his radical colleagues, his appointment to Archbishop of San Salvador, in February 1977. was a complete surprise. His fellow priests had been experimenting, in their despair, with meeting violence with violence. The government, in its corrupt and dictatorial style, however, thought it would be good to have a ‘placid’ conservative Archbishop, namely one they could control, who in turn could control the multitude of malcontents.
The assassination of one of his priests who had spoken out against the oppressive Marxist regime, turned the meek and mild Romero, into a very outspoken saintly adversary.
The church itself was under attack for helping the poor. In three years over fifty priests had been attacked, others tortured, nuns violated; school churches were bombed. He became so outspoken, using the world-media. He took on President Carter about the so called humanitarian aid America was giving to the San Salvadorian government.
He broadcast an weekly sermon and then an hour long talk across all El Salvador. He listed the disappearances, the murders, the acts of torture by the government troops. His was the only free voice to expose the truth of the level of oppression.
‘There are many things’ he said, ‘that can only be seen through eyes that have cried’ . It was something like this that the authorities would no longer stand for,
‘’Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses the image of God, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom’.
On 24th March 1980, he gave his radio sermon and talk, this time urging the soldiers to stop carrying out the government dictates of repression and violation. From there he went to a small chapel in the hospital of La Divina Providencia, to say Mass and when he reached the middle of the altar he was shot.
At the funeral the Papal delegate eulogised him as, ‘a beloved, peacemaking man of God’. Over 250,000 people attended, it was the largest demonstration in the history of South American history. Smoke bombs, rifle shots greeted them from the National Guard-all that was left were the corpses and piles of shoes (eye witness). He was buried in the Cathedral crypt of San Salvador with gunfire still raging.
His tomb is now a place of pilgrimage to thousands, to honour this man of peace, yet violent for the love of God. Foreign dignitaries too, Obama’s been, have to be seen to pay him homage. Enough, he is well remembered. There is so much more, we can ‘look it up’.
Two contrasting men responding to the call of Christ where they found themselves. Romero having to speak out and speak against others so to expose and defeat an evil regime, out of love for the poorest; Kolbe quietly defeating the evil he lived with, by the love of his neighbour. Each in his own way ministered to the very least around them; they ministered to the Christ. They loved with a violent passion, and died, as did their Lord, a violent death.
Three things they had in common: 1. they both followed Our Lord without question; 2. they each uniquely translated the ‘Way, the Truth and the Life’ for their own times; 3. they are both have sculptures of themselves among the ten 20th Century saints over the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey.
There’s loads more- we can ‘look it up’ . Amen.
Leaflet: (*at the end the Nazis had to make friends with those they saw as mammon
There , of course, we ask ourselves, where are we to be found?
What does our translation of the Gospel look like?
Pentecost
When Peace comes to Jerusalem, the world will be at peace.
Pentecost: 8th June, 2014.
Today we take a visit to antiquity and drink in, perhaps, a little arcane wisdom. There are, both historically and spiritually, many parallels between the Hebrew and the Christian celebration of this Feast of Pentecost. Not least the fact that it was because of the Hebrew tradition of this Feast Day, that the early disciples, in that upper room, were required to be gathered to celebrate. It was this that brought them together initially.
They knew that they were different though, but not quite sure quite how. It was because of that sense of a difference, and that they were beginning to be associated with that Jesus, and he was the great blasphemer. So, they were naturally fearful, and had all the doors locked.
It was though, on this Feast of Pentecost, that for many, the Hebrew experience came to be challenged by that of the Christians.
The Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, last week, spoke lovingly of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost or Shavuot. He began by reminding us of the saying, ‘There is nothing as dull as dishwater!’,
Then he quoted G. K. Chesterton,
‘Naturalists with a microscope tell me that dishwater is teeming with fun!’.
The essence for them at Shavuot, as Rabbi Ephraim reminded us, is to see the spectacular in the mundane, that which is amazing in the most humdrum. The spectacular for them is the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai some 3,300 years ago!
That place was chosen because that was also the place of the burning bush, where God appeared to Moses and directed him to lead the people from Egypt and out of slavery. The place itself couldn’t have been more ordinary!
No Grand Canyon, or Everest or Victoria Falls, just a parched piece of wilderness where a small bush managed to grow itself.
So dishwater can be fascinating a small bush can be holy and a ‘never before heard of mountain’ host an event would transform humankind . Our disciples…the fearful few, must have themselves felt quite a bit like dishwater! Fearful of being thrown out!!
So the upper room-any old upper room at the time-insignificant, like the burning bush. Right now even, there is a disused mosque on the site of the Upper Room or Cenacle.
Flames of the Spirit were to come upon them and the ordinary gathering became spectacular! As it were, the evidence of the Spirit was the very voice from Heaven. Now heard by those earthbound newest members of the movement known as the Way
For the Christians this event also represented the movement to a united early church-the Spirit to be seen as the spirit of harmony, and reconciliation. For the Christian it was the reversal of the Babel event. If we recall, the Hebrews were becoming arrogant and feeling that they could do without God. So God broke up their power base, scattered them and they all spoke in different languages.
The reversal then at Pentecost was a healing of the effects of that event. People were separated then- folk had learned to defend their ground from the others who had somehow learned to invade.
Many themes there are for this festival; Whit Sunday, being ‘baptised in the Spirit’-and the Pentecostal experience..it is also known as the ‘Birthday of the Church’ but…..caution here is preferred…Many of these themes can be very introverted, turned inward towards the internal machinations of Church.
We can tend to forget sometimes that as Archbishop William Temple once said,
‘The Church is the only institution that doesn’t for itself’ . We can forget that we are the dispensers of God’s love.
So for now, this notion of the reversal of Babel is enough to grasp and goes beyond our too well defended ecclesiastical boundaries. If we become church-bound, then we revert to the mutual deafness of that first Babel. In that room, those gathered, with one accord, could understand those who had once been complete strangers, aliens, threats even-they began to listen and began to understand each other.
If we can see that the shared Pentecost heralds harmony for both the Christian and the Jew, a feast of listening and understanding, then something quite spectacular could happen in this dishwater world, where the Muslim the Sikh, the Hindu and the Buddhist also live; dare we say that something amazing could happen……………….
a peace could break out in Jerusalem.
Pentecost: 8th June, 2014.
Today we take a visit to antiquity and drink in, perhaps, a little arcane wisdom. There are, both historically and spiritually, many parallels between the Hebrew and the Christian celebration of this Feast of Pentecost. Not least the fact that it was because of the Hebrew tradition of this Feast Day, that the early disciples, in that upper room, were required to be gathered to celebrate. It was this that brought them together initially.
They knew that they were different though, but not quite sure quite how. It was because of that sense of a difference, and that they were beginning to be associated with that Jesus, and he was the great blasphemer. So, they were naturally fearful, and had all the doors locked.
It was though, on this Feast of Pentecost, that for many, the Hebrew experience came to be challenged by that of the Christians.
The Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, last week, spoke lovingly of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost or Shavuot. He began by reminding us of the saying, ‘There is nothing as dull as dishwater!’,
Then he quoted G. K. Chesterton,
‘Naturalists with a microscope tell me that dishwater is teeming with fun!’.
The essence for them at Shavuot, as Rabbi Ephraim reminded us, is to see the spectacular in the mundane, that which is amazing in the most humdrum. The spectacular for them is the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai some 3,300 years ago!
That place was chosen because that was also the place of the burning bush, where God appeared to Moses and directed him to lead the people from Egypt and out of slavery. The place itself couldn’t have been more ordinary!
No Grand Canyon, or Everest or Victoria Falls, just a parched piece of wilderness where a small bush managed to grow itself.
So dishwater can be fascinating a small bush can be holy and a ‘never before heard of mountain’ host an event would transform humankind . Our disciples…the fearful few, must have themselves felt quite a bit like dishwater! Fearful of being thrown out!!
So the upper room-any old upper room at the time-insignificant, like the burning bush. Right now even, there is a disused mosque on the site of the Upper Room or Cenacle.
Flames of the Spirit were to come upon them and the ordinary gathering became spectacular! As it were, the evidence of the Spirit was the very voice from Heaven. Now heard by those earthbound newest members of the movement known as the Way
For the Christians this event also represented the movement to a united early church-the Spirit to be seen as the spirit of harmony, and reconciliation. For the Christian it was the reversal of the Babel event. If we recall, the Hebrews were becoming arrogant and feeling that they could do without God. So God broke up their power base, scattered them and they all spoke in different languages.
The reversal then at Pentecost was a healing of the effects of that event. People were separated then- folk had learned to defend their ground from the others who had somehow learned to invade.
Many themes there are for this festival; Whit Sunday, being ‘baptised in the Spirit’-and the Pentecostal experience..it is also known as the ‘Birthday of the Church’ but…..caution here is preferred…Many of these themes can be very introverted, turned inward towards the internal machinations of Church.
We can tend to forget sometimes that as Archbishop William Temple once said,
‘The Church is the only institution that doesn’t for itself’ . We can forget that we are the dispensers of God’s love.
So for now, this notion of the reversal of Babel is enough to grasp and goes beyond our too well defended ecclesiastical boundaries. If we become church-bound, then we revert to the mutual deafness of that first Babel. In that room, those gathered, with one accord, could understand those who had once been complete strangers, aliens, threats even-they began to listen and began to understand each other.
If we can see that the shared Pentecost heralds harmony for both the Christian and the Jew, a feast of listening and understanding, then something quite spectacular could happen in this dishwater world, where the Muslim the Sikh, the Hindu and the Buddhist also live; dare we say that something amazing could happen……………….
a peace could break out in Jerusalem.
The Spirituality of Restoration.
A transcript of the paper delivered by Rev’d. Paul Burkitt to mark the opening of the Festival or Arts and Music, August, 2013. Paul is a Novice Tertiary in the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis-TSSF.)
The Spirituality of Restoration.
According to:
St. Francis of Assisi
In the words of a contemporary bard, one Leonard Cohen, when he welcomed people at his latest concerts,
‘Some of you, I expect, have been somewhat inconvenienced, financially or geographically, by being here today. So, thank you for being here.’
The title for this talk seems rather presumptuous. This is not really a lecture at all, rather a ‘talk about’.
The choice of word, ‘Spirituality’ I suspect is also presumptuous. We have notions of what ‘it’ is but none us dare to define ‘it’ although we each, maybe, have some ideas how to describe ‘it’. So, I give no description, no definition, I proceed with the assumption that somehow, through whatever life has taught us, we know in the knowing place, what ‘it’, spirituality, is!
II
The idea for this presentation appeared through the open door of this church of St. Mary the Virgin . It was the May Bank Holiday Monday. I was plotting and planning for this Festival, getting artists and performers together, worrying about how to raise the profile of St. Mary’s, when everyone else was visiting the neighbouring church and listening to the new peal of bells. Concerns filled my head about how on earth we could find the money to restore the interior, diversify the internal spaces. Piously I prayed prayers of interiority. I thought of St. Francis and the command he felt he had received from God about restoring the church.
The church remained sans visiteurs. Save one, an apparently lost blackbird came visiting. He flew through the roof space, then swooped down, making use of the whole space for his flight and his for song. Those activities, after all, as well as birthing new blackbirds, were what he was best at. He was my only visitor, but he winged a clear message; surely he was saying, ‘Now then Paul. use the whole space, and do what you’re best at’. May be St. Francis sent this wonderful creature!
I was concerned, of course, that he might remain trapped in the building, but needlessly. It must have been my solitary plainsong that sent him on his way to the skyway. Yet, after I had locked all the doors again against the inimical world, there he was, in the churchyard, making sure that I wasn’t locked in either! Making sure that I too was ready to sing to the world.
III
Today, let us begin with focussing on what the word ‘ restoration’ might mean for us. The Oxford Dictionary is always a good place to start. One definition, useful to our purposes today, runs, ‘ to restore’, something about. ‘bringing something back to a former condition’. The assumption there is that the former state would be preferable to the present one.
So we might restore ourselves to health, restore peace after a war, restore justice where there has been none, restore a relationship that has been broken, restore a Monarchy that has been deposed, restore a footpath that has fallen into decay, restore faith after disillusionment, restore a building after a crumbling, we restore a painting after the ravages of time- we’ll make good, says the electrician after drilling a water main ….so the list can ramble on. On reflection, a great deal of human behaviour is engaged in the creative act of ‘restoration’.
In the case of this building, we have, I suppose, to be grateful that we are not in France! Restaurer, is the French verb, ‘to restore’. Therefore, a ‘restorating’ place essentially becomes a place to rest, to recoup… church serves as restaurant. What would be the difference, in the way of service, between the maniple and the dish-cloth?
Whatever… in all of this, as I said, there is the assumption that whatever is up for restoration has seen better days and that some internal, external or inter-current event has effected a ‘brokenness’ of some kind., an interruption, a fragmentation, a discontinuity. The event might be catastrophic- like a coronary heart attack, a broken bone, an earthquake, a flash flood, a declaration of war. Alternatively, there might be a dripping tap of neglect, a natural decay, there might just be aging.
There is a truth here; there is a ‘time-line’.
Nothing can ever be as it was because, whatever the restored item might appear to be, it cannot be what it had been, for axiomatically, the new will integrate the history, the experience of the intervening time. The history contains the lessons to prevent or at least minimise the causes of the collapse, and address the reasons for the decay. Time does indeed move on, internal and external stressors have gained in potency, such that, what was good and worked ‘then’ might no longer be fit for purpose ‘now’.
IV
So, here, St Mary the Virgin, Lowgate? For this hallowed hall, with all the well-beloved peculiarities, ‘for what are we striving?’ I think we strive for excellence. We desire an excellent end achieved through excellent means. As we turn to S. Francis in a moment, such an excellence, striven for by Francis, which befits our God.
What would we be restoring? Or are we more looking at conserving or preserving?
Is ‘church’ just this building or is it ‘The Mystical Body of Christ’ -either-or , or, both-and? What was this place, what did this this place signify, achieve in its hey day? What was it for then? What is it for now? ‘What is this place’, cried Jacob at Peniel, ‘but none other than the house of God‘.
There is every indication that, in past times, this church community served God and people as was most expedient to those times. My belief here is that restoration means the restoration of relevance as is expedient for these times.
That implies the restoration of health, wholeness, needs to integrate those episodes in the history of dislocation, separation, disease or decay, both intrinsically and extrinsically. That is a psycho-spiritual dynamic principle which implies growth to an integrative maturity, not through linear time, but through a spiral time. Namely, as T.S. Eliot lets us know, we come round to the place in which we started, but we are now changed.
So, that pre-amble carries the thoughts that we bear in our minds, as we now scr-amble through our locations in time and place.
V
What was going on between Francis from Assisi and God in the place of the church of San Damian?
As he lay dying Francis was heard to have said:
‘I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what is yours’
What we have to do in our thinking around Francis is to navigate in the mists between the reality and the legend. For example, we have the idealised Francis. He can be the, naturalist, the ecologist, the kind of saintly figure we would like, and so we invent attributes. The medieval church needed its saints to do miracles; the better the miracle, the better the saint!
Just an example, from the ‘Legend for use in the Choir’ (1230-1232) by Thomas Celano, to be used as readings at the Office as an aid to devotion (ch.VII).
‘Francis restored sight to many blind people: he gave sight to a man who never had it; another man’s eyes were popped out and dangling on thin veins down to his jaw: he returned them to their proper place. He also made the deaf hear and the mute speak. He gave a tongue to one who, if he had a tongue, it was so short that it could barely be seen…..and so it goes on, lepers, paralytics and the like- an untold number of people-so we are told- all through the power of Christ.’[1]
VI
So the dates we keep for Francis are 1181 - c1226. The time and place are Medieval Italy.
Three Stages to his Life.
1. In My Sins- 1181-1205
He was born in Assisi in Umbrian Italy. His father, Pietra di Bernadone was a wealthy fabric merchant. His mother, Pica, probably French and had the inherited wealth of the family. While his father was away he was baptised John. On his return, he was renamed as Francesco-Francis.
We’re told that, as a youth, Francis was likeable, sensitive, fun-loving and gregarious. As the years went by, his love of poetry, love songs, and the troubador romantic tradition brought to light hidden passion and ambition. He went to war. It was a local dispute between Assisi and Perugia. He spent a year in a Perugian goal, after which he suffered a prolonged fever. He may have had hallucinatory episodes and indeed may have experienced what we now know as ‘post traumatic stress’. After this, in the year 1204, he set out for Apulia with a papal army. He only went 25 miles and experienced a mystical moment in which he was told to return to Assisi. As we shall see later, this took him into the second stage of his life.
II. Conversion Process-1206-1209
Very briefly: there followed a period of torment, marked by prayer and fasting and the penances he set himself. He gave away his clothes, his father’s money. He renounced his earthly paternity. Strange ‘giving things away ’ behaviour, and his father broke and locked Francis up. When released, in a highly dishevelled, he went to Rome. On his return he met a leper. Previously, Francis could only see lepers as abhorrent, and nauseating. By this time, conversion for Francis was ‘happening’. He embraced the leper his attitude turning around. Later he established a leprosarium.
This was for Francis a way to serve his Christ in the very least of the brethren. We then have the Damiano episode. We come onto to that period of his conversion in just a moment.
III. Expansion and Consolidation- 1209-1226-
The last six years of his life was the expansion of his Orders. Having some, ‘First Friends’ was a surprise for Francis, that God would do this. In 1215 he became a ‘freelance penitent‘, residing at San Damiano. The church was restored and given to the Ladies of Poverty. (Other churches he also restored-San Pietro and St. Mary of the Angels-the Portiuncula). He travelled less and preferred home, where he wrote and revised his Rules he entered in a quasi- retirement, in a way he modelled the earliest urban hermit. Sickness prevailed in his final penance to sainthood.
Famously he received the Stigmata, on the Feast of the Holy Cross, 1224. His conversion process was seen to be complete with his full identification with Christ- from a poem on Mt Verna where he received his wounding:
‘I knew in blissful anguish what it means
To be a part of Christ, and feel as mine
The dark distresses of my brothers limbs,
To feel it bodily and simply true..’[2]
There are many pieces of Francis’ own writings; just two to note;
Testament-seen in two ways-1. As a bequest 2. As a covenant with his God, and the. Canticle of Creatures-adapted through time, even the last lines, written at the end to include Sister Death. So for Francis no-one dies alone.
Strangely his Sainthood is called into question by some Orthodox scholars, his being too Papist, too ego-centric, bordering on neurotic psychosis, encouraging of sentimentality. His sanctity has been in no doubt to the rest of the Church.
VII
As Thompson says[3], that so many variations and manipulations occur in the biographies, that ‘Vitae’ are now not readily being written. Scholarship now has turned its gaze on being thematic. One such theme is,
‘The episode of St Damiano from the Sources’ -midway through the year 1206.
The source is the Legend of the Three Companions-probably ones Leo, Rufino, and Angelo, words brought together in 1246.
Ch. 13:
‘A few days had passed when, while he was walking by the church of San Damiano, he was told by the Spirit to go inside for a prayer. Once he entered, he began to pray intensely before an image of the crucified, which spoke to him in a tender and kind voice; “Francis, don’t you see that my house is being destroyed? Go, then, and rebuild it for me.” Stunned and trembling, he said, “I will do so gladly, Lord.” For he understood that he was speaking about that church, which was near collapse because of its age. He was filled with such joy and became so radiant with light over that message, that he knew in his soul that it was truly Christ crucified who spoke to him.’[4]
The prayer in the passage here is probably the echo of one he had in a dream at Spoleto; but as always, seeking God’s will:
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Francis, don’t you see that my house is being destroyed?
(is standing in ruins?)
‘Go, then, and rebuild it for me.’ (FAED.II-L3C)[5]
There are two other accounts to consider, quoted in Gerard Straub’s book, and we can see what we’re most comfortable with. One from Celano’s Second Life of Francis;
..in the calm stillness of the abandoned church something happened:
‘The painted image of Christ crucified moved its lips and spoke. Calling him by name it said, “Francis, go, repair my house which, as you see, is falling completely to ruin.”’
Then again, from Straub, two other scholars, (Robert Melnick and Joseph Wood)[6] came up with this understanding of the ‘voice from the crucified’.
Yet just as self-pitying defeat seemed imminent, a whisper of sound broke through the gloom, Francis heard the great symphony of silence…’
So we have the tense to concern us; past - has been left. or present - is being destroyed. Is this neglect or active destruction? Is it this church only? Or the whole catholic church? We also have 3 words to consider; ‘restore’, ‘rebuild’ and ‘repair’.
We’re told that Francis’ response was ‘visceral’. From then on, in the words of St. Bonaventure, ‘..he could hardly keep from weeping and sighing whenever the Crucified Christ came into his mind’.[7]
The church was in ruins, the cross was within it. Once a Camaldolese Benedictine Monastery (first recorded in the year 1030) It is the iconography of the celebrated cross evidences the monastic origins. Iconography known as ‘theology in line and colour’. The icon ‘speaks’ to anyone who gazes at it with faith and love, as Francis did. The original cross was in the style of the Syrian of 12th C, and so we guess it had been gazed upon by many. ‘Gazing’ is a particularly Franciscan activity (for which St Clare was celebrated). By his gazing Francis became moved to action by the invitation of Christ.
He joyfully promises Christ to remedy the pitiful situation- again we wonder- this church or the Church? Then we are told in the ‘Legend of the Three Companions’
‘upon leaving the church, he found a priest sitting nearby and, putting his hands into the pouch, he offered him a handful of coins. “My Lord,” he said, “I beg you, buy some oil and keep the light before the Crucified burning continually. When this money runs out, I will again give you as much as you need”’[8]
This was, as they say, a ‘peak’ experience within Francis’ conversion process.
VIII
A Diversion towards the Cross itself.
What did he see? What evoked his faith response in the Crucified Christ?
Now to be venerated in a side chapel of the now basilica of San Chiara in Assisi, (once the chapel of San Giorgio where Francis was buried prior to his translation). The cross became, then as now, a concrete sign to each of the subsequent brothers, of the quest for the identity of his Franciscan calling
Symbolism of Cross. It depicts key moments from
The Spirituality of Restoration.
According to:
St. Francis of Assisi
In the words of a contemporary bard, one Leonard Cohen, when he welcomed people at his latest concerts,
‘Some of you, I expect, have been somewhat inconvenienced, financially or geographically, by being here today. So, thank you for being here.’
The title for this talk seems rather presumptuous. This is not really a lecture at all, rather a ‘talk about’.
The choice of word, ‘Spirituality’ I suspect is also presumptuous. We have notions of what ‘it’ is but none us dare to define ‘it’ although we each, maybe, have some ideas how to describe ‘it’. So, I give no description, no definition, I proceed with the assumption that somehow, through whatever life has taught us, we know in the knowing place, what ‘it’, spirituality, is!
II
The idea for this presentation appeared through the open door of this church of St. Mary the Virgin . It was the May Bank Holiday Monday. I was plotting and planning for this Festival, getting artists and performers together, worrying about how to raise the profile of St. Mary’s, when everyone else was visiting the neighbouring church and listening to the new peal of bells. Concerns filled my head about how on earth we could find the money to restore the interior, diversify the internal spaces. Piously I prayed prayers of interiority. I thought of St. Francis and the command he felt he had received from God about restoring the church.
The church remained sans visiteurs. Save one, an apparently lost blackbird came visiting. He flew through the roof space, then swooped down, making use of the whole space for his flight and his for song. Those activities, after all, as well as birthing new blackbirds, were what he was best at. He was my only visitor, but he winged a clear message; surely he was saying, ‘Now then Paul. use the whole space, and do what you’re best at’. May be St. Francis sent this wonderful creature!
I was concerned, of course, that he might remain trapped in the building, but needlessly. It must have been my solitary plainsong that sent him on his way to the skyway. Yet, after I had locked all the doors again against the inimical world, there he was, in the churchyard, making sure that I wasn’t locked in either! Making sure that I too was ready to sing to the world.
III
Today, let us begin with focussing on what the word ‘ restoration’ might mean for us. The Oxford Dictionary is always a good place to start. One definition, useful to our purposes today, runs, ‘ to restore’, something about. ‘bringing something back to a former condition’. The assumption there is that the former state would be preferable to the present one.
So we might restore ourselves to health, restore peace after a war, restore justice where there has been none, restore a relationship that has been broken, restore a Monarchy that has been deposed, restore a footpath that has fallen into decay, restore faith after disillusionment, restore a building after a crumbling, we restore a painting after the ravages of time- we’ll make good, says the electrician after drilling a water main ….so the list can ramble on. On reflection, a great deal of human behaviour is engaged in the creative act of ‘restoration’.
In the case of this building, we have, I suppose, to be grateful that we are not in France! Restaurer, is the French verb, ‘to restore’. Therefore, a ‘restorating’ place essentially becomes a place to rest, to recoup… church serves as restaurant. What would be the difference, in the way of service, between the maniple and the dish-cloth?
Whatever… in all of this, as I said, there is the assumption that whatever is up for restoration has seen better days and that some internal, external or inter-current event has effected a ‘brokenness’ of some kind., an interruption, a fragmentation, a discontinuity. The event might be catastrophic- like a coronary heart attack, a broken bone, an earthquake, a flash flood, a declaration of war. Alternatively, there might be a dripping tap of neglect, a natural decay, there might just be aging.
There is a truth here; there is a ‘time-line’.
Nothing can ever be as it was because, whatever the restored item might appear to be, it cannot be what it had been, for axiomatically, the new will integrate the history, the experience of the intervening time. The history contains the lessons to prevent or at least minimise the causes of the collapse, and address the reasons for the decay. Time does indeed move on, internal and external stressors have gained in potency, such that, what was good and worked ‘then’ might no longer be fit for purpose ‘now’.
IV
So, here, St Mary the Virgin, Lowgate? For this hallowed hall, with all the well-beloved peculiarities, ‘for what are we striving?’ I think we strive for excellence. We desire an excellent end achieved through excellent means. As we turn to S. Francis in a moment, such an excellence, striven for by Francis, which befits our God.
What would we be restoring? Or are we more looking at conserving or preserving?
Is ‘church’ just this building or is it ‘The Mystical Body of Christ’ -either-or , or, both-and? What was this place, what did this this place signify, achieve in its hey day? What was it for then? What is it for now? ‘What is this place’, cried Jacob at Peniel, ‘but none other than the house of God‘.
There is every indication that, in past times, this church community served God and people as was most expedient to those times. My belief here is that restoration means the restoration of relevance as is expedient for these times.
That implies the restoration of health, wholeness, needs to integrate those episodes in the history of dislocation, separation, disease or decay, both intrinsically and extrinsically. That is a psycho-spiritual dynamic principle which implies growth to an integrative maturity, not through linear time, but through a spiral time. Namely, as T.S. Eliot lets us know, we come round to the place in which we started, but we are now changed.
So, that pre-amble carries the thoughts that we bear in our minds, as we now scr-amble through our locations in time and place.
V
What was going on between Francis from Assisi and God in the place of the church of San Damian?
As he lay dying Francis was heard to have said:
‘I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what is yours’
What we have to do in our thinking around Francis is to navigate in the mists between the reality and the legend. For example, we have the idealised Francis. He can be the, naturalist, the ecologist, the kind of saintly figure we would like, and so we invent attributes. The medieval church needed its saints to do miracles; the better the miracle, the better the saint!
Just an example, from the ‘Legend for use in the Choir’ (1230-1232) by Thomas Celano, to be used as readings at the Office as an aid to devotion (ch.VII).
‘Francis restored sight to many blind people: he gave sight to a man who never had it; another man’s eyes were popped out and dangling on thin veins down to his jaw: he returned them to their proper place. He also made the deaf hear and the mute speak. He gave a tongue to one who, if he had a tongue, it was so short that it could barely be seen…..and so it goes on, lepers, paralytics and the like- an untold number of people-so we are told- all through the power of Christ.’[1]
VI
So the dates we keep for Francis are 1181 - c1226. The time and place are Medieval Italy.
Three Stages to his Life.
1. In My Sins- 1181-1205
He was born in Assisi in Umbrian Italy. His father, Pietra di Bernadone was a wealthy fabric merchant. His mother, Pica, probably French and had the inherited wealth of the family. While his father was away he was baptised John. On his return, he was renamed as Francesco-Francis.
We’re told that, as a youth, Francis was likeable, sensitive, fun-loving and gregarious. As the years went by, his love of poetry, love songs, and the troubador romantic tradition brought to light hidden passion and ambition. He went to war. It was a local dispute between Assisi and Perugia. He spent a year in a Perugian goal, after which he suffered a prolonged fever. He may have had hallucinatory episodes and indeed may have experienced what we now know as ‘post traumatic stress’. After this, in the year 1204, he set out for Apulia with a papal army. He only went 25 miles and experienced a mystical moment in which he was told to return to Assisi. As we shall see later, this took him into the second stage of his life.
II. Conversion Process-1206-1209
Very briefly: there followed a period of torment, marked by prayer and fasting and the penances he set himself. He gave away his clothes, his father’s money. He renounced his earthly paternity. Strange ‘giving things away ’ behaviour, and his father broke and locked Francis up. When released, in a highly dishevelled, he went to Rome. On his return he met a leper. Previously, Francis could only see lepers as abhorrent, and nauseating. By this time, conversion for Francis was ‘happening’. He embraced the leper his attitude turning around. Later he established a leprosarium.
This was for Francis a way to serve his Christ in the very least of the brethren. We then have the Damiano episode. We come onto to that period of his conversion in just a moment.
III. Expansion and Consolidation- 1209-1226-
The last six years of his life was the expansion of his Orders. Having some, ‘First Friends’ was a surprise for Francis, that God would do this. In 1215 he became a ‘freelance penitent‘, residing at San Damiano. The church was restored and given to the Ladies of Poverty. (Other churches he also restored-San Pietro and St. Mary of the Angels-the Portiuncula). He travelled less and preferred home, where he wrote and revised his Rules he entered in a quasi- retirement, in a way he modelled the earliest urban hermit. Sickness prevailed in his final penance to sainthood.
Famously he received the Stigmata, on the Feast of the Holy Cross, 1224. His conversion process was seen to be complete with his full identification with Christ- from a poem on Mt Verna where he received his wounding:
‘I knew in blissful anguish what it means
To be a part of Christ, and feel as mine
The dark distresses of my brothers limbs,
To feel it bodily and simply true..’[2]
There are many pieces of Francis’ own writings; just two to note;
Testament-seen in two ways-1. As a bequest 2. As a covenant with his God, and the. Canticle of Creatures-adapted through time, even the last lines, written at the end to include Sister Death. So for Francis no-one dies alone.
Strangely his Sainthood is called into question by some Orthodox scholars, his being too Papist, too ego-centric, bordering on neurotic psychosis, encouraging of sentimentality. His sanctity has been in no doubt to the rest of the Church.
VII
As Thompson says[3], that so many variations and manipulations occur in the biographies, that ‘Vitae’ are now not readily being written. Scholarship now has turned its gaze on being thematic. One such theme is,
‘The episode of St Damiano from the Sources’ -midway through the year 1206.
The source is the Legend of the Three Companions-probably ones Leo, Rufino, and Angelo, words brought together in 1246.
Ch. 13:
‘A few days had passed when, while he was walking by the church of San Damiano, he was told by the Spirit to go inside for a prayer. Once he entered, he began to pray intensely before an image of the crucified, which spoke to him in a tender and kind voice; “Francis, don’t you see that my house is being destroyed? Go, then, and rebuild it for me.” Stunned and trembling, he said, “I will do so gladly, Lord.” For he understood that he was speaking about that church, which was near collapse because of its age. He was filled with such joy and became so radiant with light over that message, that he knew in his soul that it was truly Christ crucified who spoke to him.’[4]
The prayer in the passage here is probably the echo of one he had in a dream at Spoleto; but as always, seeking God’s will:
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Francis, don’t you see that my house is being destroyed?
(is standing in ruins?)
‘Go, then, and rebuild it for me.’ (FAED.II-L3C)[5]
There are two other accounts to consider, quoted in Gerard Straub’s book, and we can see what we’re most comfortable with. One from Celano’s Second Life of Francis;
..in the calm stillness of the abandoned church something happened:
‘The painted image of Christ crucified moved its lips and spoke. Calling him by name it said, “Francis, go, repair my house which, as you see, is falling completely to ruin.”’
Then again, from Straub, two other scholars, (Robert Melnick and Joseph Wood)[6] came up with this understanding of the ‘voice from the crucified’.
Yet just as self-pitying defeat seemed imminent, a whisper of sound broke through the gloom, Francis heard the great symphony of silence…’
So we have the tense to concern us; past - has been left. or present - is being destroyed. Is this neglect or active destruction? Is it this church only? Or the whole catholic church? We also have 3 words to consider; ‘restore’, ‘rebuild’ and ‘repair’.
We’re told that Francis’ response was ‘visceral’. From then on, in the words of St. Bonaventure, ‘..he could hardly keep from weeping and sighing whenever the Crucified Christ came into his mind’.[7]
The church was in ruins, the cross was within it. Once a Camaldolese Benedictine Monastery (first recorded in the year 1030) It is the iconography of the celebrated cross evidences the monastic origins. Iconography known as ‘theology in line and colour’. The icon ‘speaks’ to anyone who gazes at it with faith and love, as Francis did. The original cross was in the style of the Syrian of 12th C, and so we guess it had been gazed upon by many. ‘Gazing’ is a particularly Franciscan activity (for which St Clare was celebrated). By his gazing Francis became moved to action by the invitation of Christ.
He joyfully promises Christ to remedy the pitiful situation- again we wonder- this church or the Church? Then we are told in the ‘Legend of the Three Companions’
‘upon leaving the church, he found a priest sitting nearby and, putting his hands into the pouch, he offered him a handful of coins. “My Lord,” he said, “I beg you, buy some oil and keep the light before the Crucified burning continually. When this money runs out, I will again give you as much as you need”’[8]
This was, as they say, a ‘peak’ experience within Francis’ conversion process.
VIII
A Diversion towards the Cross itself.
What did he see? What evoked his faith response in the Crucified Christ?
Now to be venerated in a side chapel of the now basilica of San Chiara in Assisi, (once the chapel of San Giorgio where Francis was buried prior to his translation). The cross became, then as now, a concrete sign to each of the subsequent brothers, of the quest for the identity of his Franciscan calling
Symbolism of Cross. It depicts key moments from