Fourth Sunday of Lent

Collect

God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, shared the life of a home in Nazareth, and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself: strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

God of love, passionate and strong, tender and careful: watch over us and hold us all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Loving God, as a mother feeds her children at the breast you feed us in this sacrament with the food and drink of eternal life: help us who have tasted your goodness to grow in grace within the household of faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

First reading

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Second Reading

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Mothering Sunday

As they used to say, are you comfortable, so let us begin, as we “listen with mother” today, Mothering Sunday.

“Woman, here is your son.” What a verse we have from the gospel this morning! Jesus looks down upon the Mary’s gathered at the foot of his cross and speaks these enigmatic words. These words give all of us a great deal to think about, don’t you agree?

What strikes you as the meaning of these words? There seem to be a number of obvious meanings – but, I feel none are right and none are wrong. But we do have to hunt for them as we read the verses, or hear them as they are declaimed from the lectern. We do have to engage with these words somehow, don’t we? Don’t we have to make sense of them?

In our reading, Jesus is talking to the disciple whom he loved and his own mother. We are told that, from that hour, the disciple took Mary into his own household.

This fact seems very curious to us today, doesn’t it? Why did the disciple take this woman into his home? – Was it because it is Jesus’ mother? Was it because these words Jesus uttered from the cross were his last? Why take in a woman whose son has just been executed in such a horrific manner?

Was it guilt – the guilt of a survivor? Did the disciple feel responsible in some way for Jesus’ death, or guilty that he survived the man who loved him? Or, more likely, did the disciple feel that this woman now had no family to care for her – after all, her son had just been killed in excruciating pain. Who was now to care for her? She had no one to support her. There was no welfare system then. Widows and orphans were on their own, as they have always been until universal social care began. They usually starved unless they were lucky with friends and family, or they were able to pursue some sort of trade.

Widows surviving on their own were unusual in the ancient world; after all, the west’s nuclear family was not part of that society’s norms. Families were large and integrated. So, we should think that the disciple whom Jesus loved must have been like a brother – why else would they become part of the same household? Wasn’t he a beloved brother to Jesus and so it was natural that he should care for Mary and Mary’s care devolved upon him?

Another possibility is that Jesus shamed the disciple into such action. Jesus “blackmailed” him, as it were – a gentle coercion to be sure, the metaphorical twisting of the arm as it were.

Perhaps the words, “Here is your mother” were even addressed to Mary – what if Jesus was actually telling his mother to regard that disciple as her son? – Not to coerce the disciple, but to draw Mary’s attention to another young man to take his place. The disciple would have adopted this woman as his mother, if she recognised that the disciple could act as her son. Is Jesus enabling his mother not to become obsessed with these last moments, that she should not think of him only, and of his death at the hands of murderers, those Roman legionnaires. Jesus wanted to heal his mother in extremis, for he knew it was possible that she might never move on from his death, like so many mothers mourning their dead children.

Could these be the only scenarios to make sense of these words of Jesus as he drew his last breath? I don’t think so. I think Jesus was referring to himself as he spoke to his family, friends and disciples gathered there to witness his last few moments on earth. I think Jesus was saying to Mary that her son was hanging on a cross, there were no angels or armies to rescue him from the hands of the hated Romans.

I think Jesus was re-establishing the loving interdependence which exists all around us. On the one hand he was taking himself out of the equation, and, on the other, he was pointing people towards the living. As he was being lifted out of life, he pointed down to those who loved him and those whom he loved, to hold the living precious, and to love one another. Even at the last, the one commandment which he handed on to us is directing his whole being.

I don’t think these thoughts are anything new. But I think they all arise from the text we have heard and read so many times. Why does he call Mary (whichever one he was talking to doesn’t matter) “Woman”? It is a stark address to one of those who were so attached to him. Imagine you yourself looking at your mother and saying, “Woman,” to her. Is this a universalisation of these last few words Jesus spoke from the cross? Are we supposed to be addressed directly in such a declaration? If I were that woman, Jesus would have been challenging me to take care of this man standing beside me – I am being told that I have to care for this man as if he were my son. And, as a man, I am to take this woman – any woman – as if she were my own mother. This is an affront to all normal sensibilities. But Jesus always did strike at the heart, didn’t he? I have talked about the sleepy-headedness of the crowd, their unthinking and uncaring attitude toward the world in which “they” live with “their” “normal” everydayness.

This final episode with his mother and the beloved disciple turns our normal world on its head. When Jesus utters these words, doesn’t every single one of us become someone of importance? The disciple takes the woman to his own home, she becomes part of his family. I would like to say that the disciple “appropriates” this woman, he makes her his own, as he takes her under his wing and into his home.

If we hear and act on these sayings to the people gathered at the foot of the cross, Every man becomes a son – and every woman becomes a mother. Sons and mothers without the tie of blood – I would say that is the core of Jesus’ message to us – we are all part of this family torn apart by death, but a new family reconstructed by Jesus’ only commandment, “Love one another.” This tie of love is what distinguishes the christian community.

Everyone can experience this compassionate care of absolute love when they enter the doors of a church. The building can offer the place where the silent brooding of our God can be experienced in a new creation – if we are open to it. The busy fussing of God can be given when the congregation welcomes the stranger of a morning, just as the Holy Spirit agitates with those so very valuable gifts for every one of us.

Love should define us, especially in those last moments of life, which the philosopher says is every moment of life. The sayings, “Woman, behold your son,” and “Behold your mother,” should regulate all our actions, from that moment, like a heartbeat.

Amen

Lent iii

Collect

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Eternal God, give us insight to discern your will for us, to give up what harms us, and to seek the perfection we are promised in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Merciful Lord, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Exodus 20.1–17

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Psalm 19

1    The heavens are telling the glory of God ♦
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

2    One day pours out its song to another ♦
and one night unfolds knowledge to another.

3    They have neither speech nor language ♦
and their voices are not heard,

4    Yet their sound has gone out into all lands ♦
and their words to the ends of the world.

5    In them has he set a tabernacle for the sun, ♦
that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course.

6    It goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again, ♦
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

7    The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; ♦
the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple.

8    The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart; ♦
the commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes.

9    The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; ♦
the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10    More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, ♦
sweeter also than honey, dripping from the honeycomb.

11  By them also is your servant taught ♦
and in keeping them there is great reward.

12    Who can tell how often they offend? ♦
O cleanse me from my secret faults!

13    Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me; ♦
so shall I be undefiled, and innocent of great offence.

14    Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, ♦
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Epistle – I  Corinthians 1.18–25

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Gospel – John 2.13–22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Sermon on Sunday, Lent iii

I would like to paraphrase some words from Paul’s letter which we read this morning.

For some demand signs and others desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to the former and foolishness to the latter, but to those who are the called, everyone who are called, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Everyone who is “the called” gets the best of everything, don’t they? But who are the called? Do some of us want only miracles which speak of some unearthly power? Do others among us want only revelatory pronouncements that will become statements which will never be questioned? The third way denies the power of the crowd, some of which are seekers of the magical and the others who rely on the words whispered by no one, both ways are flawed, don’t you think? For both ways take away one’s autonomy, one’s own self. After all, I have no part in the crowd’s deliberations. The crowd will take over my whole being, if I let it. Either the miraculous or the siren song becomes the arbiter of all I would do in my everyday, normal life in the world. One or the other part of the crowd will overwhelm me.

The third alternative, that stumbling-block, which Paul reveals, is never considered, is it? We pass over this third way because it doesn’t conform to what we in the crowd expect – it is neither miraculous nor is it a set of words to keep us quiet. The crowd doesn’t think about this third way at all, does it? Paul tells us that Christ is the power of God and that Christ is the wisdom of God. Christ is both together. Christ is the miraculous and the wise incarnation of God in the world. Christ is a challenge to our unthinking. Christ confronts the crowd and its expectations. Christ makes us stub our toe.

So, if that is right, if we are always stubbing our toes, it is no wonder that no one wants to take this third way. It is so much easier not to answer a challenge, to slide along as we always do, without conflict in relation to ‘natural’ expectations, we are part of that crowd which drowns out all our very own thoughts. We don’t listen to the call of our conscience which questions the chattering of the crowd and wakens us from that soporific chuntering of those around us.

The religious life in every culture is no simple thing. Rather it is like that stumbling block which Paul reveals. Even the philosopher falls prey to the crowd when he joins in the crowd’s opinions. And that is despite the fact that she decries the unthinking, baying crowd because no one in it ever hears, let alone listens, to the call of conscience.

What if we do listen? What if we find that stumbling-block more persuasive than the siren-voiced crowd? What if the course of our lives takes a turn away from the simple non-choices the crowd offers us? Wouldn’t things be very different? I wonder, could we say the stumbling block is to be our mountaintop? Does it allow us to see above the crowd milling all around us? Is this stumbling block our own cross?

If so, I think we would be careering through the whole of our lives, always hitting our toes on what might be considered a foolish stumbling block by everyone around us, everyone who does not hear their inmost self crying out to let it be its authentic self. That is the crime the crowd commits – that the crowd does not accept the other as he or she needs to be cherished.

Don’t we see this all the time, when the crowd bays for the blood of someone, a politician of strong character or a leader of no quality at all? We can even see it when we go out in public. We see it in the way people rush by someone in pain, not seeing the very evident pain of homelessness or depression or even delusion. We do not let empathy have a hand in our lives, because sympathy would have us feel for the other and do something for that person. Alas, we do nothing because the crowd has diminished us.

The crowd does not want us to be different from what “they” persuade us is the case. The crowd empowers us to be like itself. I ask, whence comes our strength in the face of this overwhelming weight of the crowd by which we are immobilised? The psalmist says “my strength comes from the Lord”, doesn’t he? But who of our acquaintance would dare to say such a thing to us or who among us would dare say such a thing to anyone else today? If we listen to the crowd, we are to raise ourselves up by our own bootstraps, or get on our bikes, or some other cliché which means nothing. All these tropes assault us and weaken our resolve to do what is different, to do what is morally responsible. The crowd wants us to take an easy path, one that has been smoothed by the crowd’s unthinking and unfeeling erosion in the course of life.

When Amos reported God’s word, “Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,” did he have a crowd in mind? No, he was talking to you and me, individuals who would choose how to live well in the world. Amos was talking about Paul’s third path, wasn’t he? The path which ultimately is one of painful suffering, if only of the ego. Amos and Christ knew the sacrifice of a pure heart, a suffering in front of the eyes of the world, a life of constant stumbling against the blocks of moral behaviour.

The crowd has swept away the stumbling block because it looks elsewhere for its sense. It concentrates on only one thing and can see nothing else. Either it is looking at miracles or worldly wisdom. Paul suggests to his hearers that both are necessary for the good life. Both the power of God to do miracles and the wisdom of God to guide through all life’s difficulty are integrated in Paul’s third way. It is a balanced mode of life.

The christian can extol the power of God in the world and her own life – that is, the wisdom of God can be discerned. The christian does not limit life to one aspect. The christian lives in power and wisdom, what has been given to us all. I would like to say that the christian can engage with all of creation because of the balance of faith, the life of moderation.

We can stand alone because we know about power and wisdom. Perhaps the christian stands atop of those stumbling-blocks and can see more in life than the crowd might see in its blinkered imagination in the valleys between those blocks. Paul recommends to us a way that we have to make our own. It must be made real in every single life because nothing stands still in space and time. Each of us has to live out our conscience for ourselves. This is not something a crowd can do! The crowd becomes our ownmost possibility for the individual paradoxically. We stand alone in the midst of the crowd to become ourselves as we stumble and we must encourage the person beside us, who will have to struggle, just as we did, long after our own battles are over and the victory is won.

Amen

Lent ii

Collect

Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth, that they may return to the way of righteousness: grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Almighty God, by the prayer and discipline of Lent may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings, and by following in his Way come to share in his glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Almighty God, you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Genesis 17.1–7, 15, 16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’

Psalm 22.23–31

23    Praise the Lord, you that fear him; ♦
O seed of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, O seed of Israel.

24    For he has not despised nor abhorred the suffering of the poor; neither has he hidden his face from them; ♦
but when they cried to him he heard them.

25    From you comes my praise in the great congregation; ♦
I will perform my vows in the presence of those that fear you.

26    The poor shall eat and be satisfied; ♦
those who seek the Lord shall praise him; their hearts shall live for ever.

27    All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, ♦
and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

28    For the kingdom is the Lord’s ♦
and he rules over the nations.

29    How can those who sleep in the earth bow down in worship, ♦
or those who go down to the dust kneel before him?

30    He has saved my life for himself; my descendants shall serve him; ♦
this shall be told of the Lord for generations to come.

31    They shall come and make known his salvation, to a people yet unborn, ♦
declaring that he, the Lord, has done it.

Epistle – Romans 4.13–25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Gospel – Mark 8.31–38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

Sermon on Sunday, Lent II

Who likes to read? And what sort of thing do you like to read? I know most people have to read set books as students. I wonder if you have ever picked them up again and tried to read them with new eyes, seeing the motifs, the language and the whole course of the story as if it were the first time, with the literary eye which your teacher tried to develop in you when they were trying to teach you.

I ask this question about reading because the gospel of Mark began what is called the critical study of the bible. A few weeks ago we read the story of the transfiguration and Jesus’ admonition to the disciples not to tell anyone anything about what they witnessed on the mountaintop. This week we hear that Jesus spoke openly. His words were heard by ordinary people, Pharisees and Sadducees, Samaritans and even pagans (the foreign merchants and all those Roman soldiers occupying Jerusalem, for instance). This seems to be a contradiction in the narrative, doesn’t it? Silence and openly speaking? 150 years ago a German scholar, William Wrede, investigated it. He began, it seems, the literary study of the bible, for he examined the book of Mark as a literary artefact. As a consequence of his endeavours, he gave the world a number of scholarly gems – the most important being his view of the synoptic gospels and the conclusion that there was a priority of Mark.

Wrede’s work on what he called the messianic secret opened rich veins of investigation by scholars and a way of reading documents with a clarity from which we have all benefited. Part of that benefit is that we can all employ these scholarly techniques ourselves in our own reading of literature.

For instance, if we read the newspapers, rather than just being entertained by the different opinions expressed by the leader writers, we can put the articles next to one another and see what different language is used in reporting the statements of the main characters in a news item.

We can benefit from form criticism, one of the many modern disciplines of literary theory. How statements are made reveal a lot about the speaker and audience, and if there are different reports of the speech, we can investigate just why the writer expressed the news in a particular way. This is the same thing the early biblical scholars did when they placed Matthew, Mark and Luke side by side to see the similarities and the differences in the stories reported in the gospel narratives. We can hone our literary acumen by looking at our daily papers. Such an exercise can render our politicians’ words – or even their spin doctors’ presentation of his principal’s words – with a lot more clarity.

One of my teachers was a biblical scholar who compared secular and sacred sources in his work on the bible and patristic literature. He took on a project which seemed to have no relation to his academic work. He used secular sources to see whether these methods of textual criticism worked in what we call “the real world”.  Just after the war he took some public documents about the sinking of ships and submarines during World War II. He examined all the disparate and contradictory stories which were in the public domain in the same way he investigated the ancient literature. He eventually wrote up his conclusions, went into the German Navy Archive and compared his findings with the facts as the Navy had them in their private records. He went into the archive and began checking his results. His wife was waiting for him at the door at the end of his exercise and she was startled to see him emerge from the archive, because his face was pale and he was trembling. “What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously. He replied, “I was right.”

This story was told to me by a fellow student who was a great friend of the scholar and his wife, so I don’t doubt the veracity of it. I saw the man at work in the classroom, so I can also see that the story had to be true. He had a way of making the history of the church immediately relevant. He spoke of the Nicene Council as if it were a meeting of the G20. He said that the Church Fathers were herded into the building and told that they had to come up with a solution to end the controversy on the streets about expressions of the faith, as if there were flashing blue lights outside, pressuring them to come to a conclusion.

Here we have a biblical scholar who used his discipline to make sense of the world around him – literature of all sorts was examined and its truth and falsehood was exposed, warts and all.

I think we can learn a lot from biblical studies for our own benefit in contemporary culture. If we take time to carefully inspect the words of everyone around us, we can come to a better understanding of life in all its complexity.

We might even come to the conclusion that people have secrets that need to be kept, but they also speak openly about so many other things. If we put together their whole narrative, we might be able to reveal some of the secrets of the heart which they want to keep hidden. But if we carefully read their narrative with the skill of our biblical scholars, we could begin to understand what they reveal about themselves.

I believe that religion should wake us up to what is right and good, that God was at the core of our lives. I have always wanted the faith to be intellectually respectable, that it should be something to be examined in any way that is acceptable to reason and faith together.

I once spoke with some people about whether they went to church, and one replied, “Oh, I left that behind a long time ago, for it seemed so childish to me.” But what if he had the idea that faith and its documents could be examined with an eye to truth which could be revealed by examination? What if he had a set of tools which made sense for a twenty-first century schizoid man, he could have left those childish things behind and looked at everything in a new way. He could have entered into a world of maturity.

It is not a big leap from examining ancient documents to scouring social- or multi-media to extract some meaningful material for our own benefit here and now. Studying the bible is as good for us as examining a school text, the newspapers or even FaceBook. Everything should become grist to the mill of minds eager for clarity in the world around us. – I think we should watch with untiring eyes to see just what will be revealed about the reality of our own world, whether it is found in the open chattering of the crowd or in the silence surrounding a secret.

Amen

Lent 1

Collect

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness, and was tempted as we are, yet without sin: give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit; and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Heavenly Father, your Son battled with the powers of darkness, and grew closer to you in the desert: help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer that we may witness to your saving love in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Lord God, you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven; by it you nourish our faith, increase our hope, and strengthen our love: teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread, and enable us to live by every word that proceeds from out of your mouth; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Genesis 9.8–17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

Psalm 25.1–9

1    To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
O my God, in you I trust; ♦
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies triumph over me.

2    Let none who look to you be put to shame, ♦
but let the treacherous be shamed and frustrated.

3    Make me to know your ways, O Lord, ♦
and teach me your paths.

4    Lead me in your truth and teach me, ♦
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you have I hoped all the day long.

5    Remember, Lord, your compassion and love, ♦
for they are from everlasting.

6    Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions, ♦
but think on me in your goodness, O Lord, according to your steadfast love.

7    Gracious and upright is the Lord; ♦
therefore shall he teach sinners in the way.

8    He will guide the humble in doing right ♦
and teach his way to the lowly.

9    All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth ♦
to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Epistle – 1 Peter 3.18–22

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Gospel – Mark 1.9–15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

Sermon on Sunday, Lent 1

“Forty days and forty nights” – with that phrase we have begun our great fast in preparation for the events proclaiming our salvation, in preparation for Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

But why forty? What is the significance of that particular number? A teacher of mine in Vermont told his class – “Forty is a perfectly long time. Four is the perfect division of all things. Quaternity is the perfect partition of space – the four compass points. And ten times four is a very long time.” You get the idea. My teacher wanted us to think poetically about the statements in the bible. I still do that. So what do we imagine the forty days and forty nights is all about? Do we think about perfection at all? Or do we hurumph and complain ‘when can I have my chocolate and wine again?’

Forty days is such a long time in our lives, isn’t it? Imagine fasting for forty days! I can’t because I love my food too much. But we can symbolically fast for such long times, can’t we? Can’t we abstain for the whole of our lives? I know people who have taken “the pledge”, don’t you? I know people who have never taken drugs for pleasure – they have taken drugs only when the doctor told them.

We all know that it is possible to live the great fast, don’t we? We have seen others do it. We ourselves might have been able to do it. The great fast is something more than the ascetic foregoing of pleasure. I think we can all agree about that, can’t we? The great fast is the transformation of our lives. We make the great fast the starting point for a new life. We begin to forsake the horrible for the noble. We begin to value what is good in life.

The great fast is the point at which we change our worlds. We move from the everyday forgetfulness of the honourable to the extraordinary care for each person we encounter around us. I would like to suggest that the great fast gives us so much more than we could possibly give up.

Coincidently, the other night I was exploring Search Engine Optimisation and the writer was talking about an exercise to see how to get better search terms – he talked about “voluntary fasting” – and it led to a lot of information about giving up eating for periods as opposed to “involuntary fasting” which is another way of saying “starvation”.

Maybe we should think about that distinction when we think about our Lenten discipline. Is our fasting seen to be like starvation? Do people outside the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church see our fasting for Lent to be something that is involuntary and akin to starvation when they consider it in relation to their everyday lives? Do people inside the Church think the same? – I don’t know. These are just questions that pop into my head, exactly as they appear in your minds when you think about faith and its expression in your own lives.

So, imagine my surprise when I realised that even my Search Engine Optimisation research could impact my reflection on faith – on this talk I am giving today.

But should we be surprised? Doesn’t everything connect with everything else? Don’t we realise that in or everyday lives? We have all heard about “the butterfly effect”, haven’t we? The effect of when the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings will have some bearing with an event on the other side of the planet. – I always remember a science fiction story in which people go back in time to go dinosaur hunting. They are told to stay on the path. However, one person did not and he stepped off the path for just one step which landed on a butterfly. No one thought much about it until they returned. Not much had changed, except there were nazi insignia everywhere and everything was just so subtly different.

This is the sort of effect that I think the great fast can have for the world. If lots of people – if the majority of the people in an area took on the discipline of the great fast, imagine how things could change!

If our great fast was not just about giving up chocolate or wine for forty days and forty nights, but if our great fast was to do good deeds for forty day and forty nights or even the whole of our lives, imagine the changes that might occur. We would have changed ourselves a bit – we would become aware that doing good is not an extraordinary thing, that we could do it day in and day out for the rest of our lives. Imagine how that would change everything around us! Life would be better for everyone, starting with ourselves. Every year during Lent we should be transforming our world. The perfectly long time of forty days would have an impact on the world – we might even be able to perfect the world in which we move and have our being.

We christians should be taking a longer view. Imagine the forty days as forty years, like the wandering in the desert which the Hebrew people did, the Hebrew people who are the foundation of Jesus’ life, the foundation of our Lord’s life here on earth.

Imagine if we made that period the great fast of our discipline. Imagine how strong our resolve would be! We would be able to do good at every moment of our lives. Our world would be one in which the poor and widow would not be ignored. Our world would be one in which everyone was cared for because we loved one another. Self would be left behind and the other would be the focus for all our activity. Because we would take care of others, others would take care of us. No one would be unloved.

Imagine that our great fast of Lent could transform the world in which we live like that. Wouldn’t we gladly participate? It could, don’t you think? So why don’t we fast greatly? Do we listen to what “they” say, those who say “it doesn’t make any difference,” or “this is the way it is.” Why do we listen to those voices without love? Shouldn’t we hear the word of love as it sounds all around us? Or do we turn a deaf ear to the joyful message of universal salvation?

Forty days and forty nights – the great fast of Lent – we have started it. Let us continue with it, transforming the giving up of Lent to the giving the good over to the world. Let us pray that our Lent becomes the making over of the world. May Lent make us engage with everyone we meet. May Lent be the means by which Love becomes incarnate in us. Let us fulfill Christ’s wish, to show that we have the faith, because we love others as Jesus loved his disciples. I want us to be the presentation of Christ now, as Jesus loved the world that he became nothing for all. We can become the image of Jesus Christ to our neighbours because we love one another in the way a true family has affection for each and every one without concupiscence, warts and all.

Amen

Second Sunday before Lent

Collect

Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever.

or

Almighty God, give us reverence for all creation and respect for every person, that we may mirror your likeness in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Epistle – Colossians 1.15–20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Gospel – John 1.1–14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

Sermon on Second Sunday before Lent

Recently, I have been reading two novels which had to do with murder and the mayhem such an event engenders. In both the victim was a young girl. The horror which all felt at such a crime was on every page. The pathos everyone feels when hearing such news draws out the character of the sleuths. They show their humanity in their behaviour, evoking in the reader a sympathy with victim and detective. The author is trying to describe just how the lost life affected all the world around each of them.

One of the detectives described his emotions quite precisely. It seemed to me that he was in the throes of grief. The investigator kept thinking, “What if … ?” He wondered how he would be able to cope if this dead young woman had been his daughter. That thought drives him in many directions, but the most important thing is the eruption of compassion for the bereaved and the lost girl. It was as if the dead girl were actually his beautiful daughter. He began in anger, and proceeded in guilt – that “What if …?” haunted him to ever greater exertions. Eventually, with the solution of the murder he became reconciled to the loss of the girl’s life and both could rest in peace.

The important thing, I thought, is the observation that the inspector’s world had collapsed in on itself when he imagines his daughter as the victim, just as his world has revealed itself as a nexus in which everything is connected with everything else. We all experience this, don’t we? When something dreadful happens, don’t we begin to question everything? Like the sleuth, we realise that everything may not be what it seemed to be just a little while ago.

Our world is a Gestalt – a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. The detective realises, just as we do, that when a part is missing the whole is diminished by more than just that small part. The girl’s death throws many personal worlds into disarray, that of the detective with his “What if …?” and the world of each of those who mourn the murdered girl. Everything has become disjointed, the cohesion of everything we know has been dissolved. We all wonder how anything can become “normal” again, don’t we? The detective is in the midst of this chaos until the one part is fitted back into the events and a new world is created, one in which justice is found for the victim and everyone’s worlds are created anew and a new normal can begin. Everyone’s life is renewed by the solution of the murder. The world may not be what it was just a little while ago, but it has become a whole again, greater than the sum of its parts and new.

Our readings from John and Paul talk about the character of a believer’s world. Both speak of the Creator in terms so fulsome that we are comforted in a way that our ordinary understanding often doesn’t accomplish.

When I consider the Creator God, the Lord whom Paul extols in our reading, I have to look upon the world in an entirely different way, don’t I? The early spring flower struggling up through the terrible weather of winter and its aftermath is a very different creature for me when I see it through the prism of Paul’s thought that “all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” How can that blossom rising from the detritus of storm and flood be anything but fantastically beautiful, when I consider that in God everything is held together?

Don’t I know the truth of this chaos of interconnection myself? Don’t I know that because I love my wife so much everyone becomes precious to me in some way? Even the fellow with whom I have such difficulty, don’t I treat him differently because I know how to love him because I love my wife? Or because I know love as a child,  doesn’t that transform my feelings for all those squalling children flooding the pavement as they stream home at three o’clock? Doesn’t that happen for all of us?

I hope we can acknowledge how we transform our environment, trying to make the best of all possible worlds amidst those slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Just like me, everyone else is looking at the world through spectacles, which may be tinted rose but some may be some dark shade.

One hundred years ago, the deepest depression oppressed the world, when the shilling would not buy very much, in some countries even hundreds of shillings would not buy enough for survival. Their lives were filtered through the poetry of men mired forever in the stench of the trenches. That filter produced the next generation, those people who flapped about in excess, whose thoughts gyrated between colourful joy and black sorrow. That filter produced all the parents of the 1920’s. Now we are doing the same for our children as we pass on our own filters of tradition and attitudes.

Here we are producing the world, with those filters which allow us to function amongst all around us. Just as previous generations left us their attitudes, so we leave ours to our children. What have they learned from us? What have we handed over from the generation before us? What will our children give to the future?

This is an observation about society as well as individuals. Culturally we are handing on something we may not be aware of. Is it a culture of the bully or the culture of the caring shepherd? Only our children will  show what we have handed on … and only the future can tell what we and our children have done. I would say that love reveals the connection of everything. I think that we reveal ourselves completely in love, and that love can help us understand the world as Paul does in our reading. Or to paraphrase John, “Love became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen its glory, the glory as of the parents’ only child, full of grace and truth.”

Amen

Epiphany II

Collect

Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Eternal Lord, our beginning and our end: bring us with the whole creation to your glory, hidden through past ages and made known in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

God of glory, you nourish us with your Word who is the bread of life: fill us with your Holy Spirit that through us the light of your glory may shine in all the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Epistle – Revelations 5:1-10

Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals; and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’

Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song:

‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.’

Gospel – John 1: 43–51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

Sermon on Epiphany 2

‘A mighty angel proclaimed in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”’ We have just heard this question, haven’t we. If that were all we heard of our lesson, what would we answer?

We might be like the narrator, “I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.” That scroll had writing on the outside and inside, but it was sealed with seven seals. Who would be able to break those seals in order to reveal the contents of the scroll?

An elder spoke, cutting through John’s despair, saying that he should not weep. “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” We all ask – Who is this Lion? What will he be like? In the proceeding chapters of the book of Revelations, we have already read about figures which terrify with their feet of clay and arms of bronze, one had a head of a man with long flowing hair and beard with a sword emerging from his mouth, … then there are the four creatures standing around the throne, but also standing in the presence of the throne are the elders and the saints. If they are not worthy, who is? We must ask ourselves – Why is the question asked?

The first four chapters tell us of John’s vision, the vision which he is to record for the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church’s benefit. They tell of the danger and terror about to be unleashed in the world, but especially on the church, as the letters to the seven churches make clear. Amidst all this chaotic vision, wouldn’t we weep? – because no one is worthy to look upon this scroll, held in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne in the middle of all these heavenly witnesses to the power of this throne before which John falls down in terror and awe? The implication is that this scroll contains the answer to all our fears. Who is to open this scroll?

Who is this promised worthy one? Who is this Root of David who has conquered? What is his countenance? Will he be so fierce no one can stand in his presence? That is what we expect, isn’t it? In our everyday understanding, don’t we have hopes of a warrior of terrifying mein? A champion worthy, because of his triumphs, to open the seven seals of the scroll and to reveal all to us?

These are the thoughts of everyone who expects the coming of the final kingdom, that the one who is to come will be mighty and powerful, so strong that none can stand against that agent of the final change. These are the thoughts of so many throughout history. We need only look at the hopes and fears of all the generations after Moses, and from Isaiah and all the other prophets – the coming King of Israel will subject all to fealty to his God. We all know how disappointed so many generations were in those expectations.

Even christians have harboured such grand hopes. Many preachers and modern prophets have had their hopes dashed too. But then there are those who turned to John’s apocalyptic visions and read the chapter we began this morning. We read of the revelation of the Lamb of God, the one who is worthy of opening the scroll – the one who would be able to break the great seals and open up the secrets of God for all.

‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
and they will reign on earth.’

But what does this worthy one look like? Is his visage strong and commanding? Everyone who now stands in that kingdom as priests serving God, even they were not worthy to open the scroll. Who do we see now approaching the seven seals?

A Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

What a bewildering image to have of one who is worthy to open that scroll! – A slaughtered lamb, dismembered, with seven horns and seven eyes – who would accept this monstrosity as the one worthy to open the scroll and to read its contents to the world? But we proclaim Jesus dead on a cross and buried, to be our saviour, don’t we?

Our faith is full of paradox and mystery – and even confusion. The book of Revelations has always been one such instance. Can you say, hand on heart, that you understand this book? I cannot – I rely on commentaries to comprehend the ins and outs of this book of the bible. However, I think it encourages our imagination to soar freely, to incorporate dreams into everyday reality. Thus we can see wars and rumours of wars around us as part of that divine plan for the whole of creation.

However, it has also allowed the demons of our imagination to gain a hand-hold in our lives as well. When the excess of fear grasps at our throats and our propensity for violence against our enemies holds our hearts so tightly, I see that the dark side of apocalyptic visions may have taken hold of our lives.

Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose, shows us that it is possible to be overwhelmed, as the librarian is, by the visions of evil in the world and become obsessed with rooting out all that we consider dangerous. The librarian found that laughter was so dangerous that all the books which expounded comedy and explained the power of laughter to turn everything into something to be embraced for its absurdity, they had to be hidden away. The librarian was convinced that even Aristotle’s book on comedy had to be kept within the seals of his secret library. Eco’s novel shows us just how easy it is to succumb to temptation. We can see it in our own lives, can’t we? Haven’t we acted without moderation from time to time? Haven’t we let fear rule our actions now and again? I am sure you can think of times when this has happened in your lives. I can think of many in mine – a fear that keeps me from acting boldly to do what is right, a fear which prevents me producing the good for all those around me, which in my enlightened moments I know would be right.

Who is worthy to reveal all these secrets in our hearts? – The Lamb of God, we answer. Perhaps, I am like that slaughtered lamb after all, I am a broken human being – perhaps I like the lamb can break the seals of ignorance and misunderstanding, perhaps I can read the scroll and comprehend and teach its reality. Perhaps, you are like that slaughtered lamb – perhaps you can, like the lamb, break the seals of ignorance and misunderstanding, perhaps you can read the scroll and comprehend and teach its reality. — Sadly, we will have to continue reading this prolix and confusing book to find out just what message those seals were keeping safe. I encourage you to continue reading John’s Revelations, but moderate your imagination by obeying the Lord’s only command, that we love one another so we won’t succumb to the many excesses found in history. I think these visions reveal the truth and we must see them through love for the sake of universal salvation.

Amen

Epiphany

Collect

O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may at last behold your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Creator of the heavens, who led the Magi by a star to worship the Christ–child: guide and sustain us, that we may find our journey’s end in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Lord God, the bright splendour whom the nations seek: may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light discern the glory of your presence in your Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Epistle – Ephesians 3:1-12

This is the reason that I, Paul, am a prisoner for Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles – for, surely, you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace, that was given to me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Gospel – Matthew 2:1–12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:


    “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Sermon on Epiphany

What does the word “epiphany” mean to you? I think it is a strange word in English. We take it to mean the birth of Jesus as it is linked with the magi. However, just as a word it does not mean that – no, it merely means “manifestation”, when something shows itself as it is. Wikipedia says:

Epiphany in literature refers generally to a visionary moment when a character has a sudden insight or realization that changes their understanding of themselves or their comprehension of the world.

And at another place,

Epiphany is an “Aha!” moment. As a literary device, epiphany is the moment when a character is suddenly struck with a life-changing moment of clarity.

Let’s incorporate that newer meaning into our christian understanding of the word – that moment when the magi appeared in Bethlehem. When we put these two meanings together, don’t we get a more interesting understanding of this wonderful feast of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church? When we see these iranian magicians at the manger with gifts so symbolic, don’t we see the story anew? Don’t we comprehend a greater significance because of the whole of this story of the strangers at the birth of Jesus? We are with these strangers and see a new relation with the divine just as they did. We can now understand why Eastern Orthodox christians celebrate the Incarnation more fully on this day than on what was Saturnalia in the Roman calendar, the West’s December holiday.

Christians have transformed that pagan celebration by associating the birth of our Lord and Saviour to the 25th of December. Now we are confronted by the appearance of the divine in the world. It is revelation, pure and simple, as Paul says. We see Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Light of the world, the Comforter, the Prince of Peace … and ever so many other names associated with Jesus, the Christ. However, all of these names must be collected into the image we have of our Lord and become what we understand to be God in our lives – Emmanuel. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians tells us that everything he knows about his Lord comes from revelation – that moment of epiphany if we would like to use that term to explain just how radically Paul’s understanding of Jesus Christ had been changed. However, I think we should make use of another word to emphasise the extraordinary nature of this moment of insight which we have on this feast?

I would like to introduce you to a new word, “theophany.” It is the word the historian of religions uses for the appearance of a god in the myths, symbols and rituals of any religion. It is a word which denotes the majesty the believer experiences in the life of faith – whatever that faith is – when there is the awakening  to the wonder of the god amidst the things of the ordinary world, a moment when the world is transformed into a sacred envelope into which the believer is inserted. Can’t we understand how this happens when we celebrate this feast of the Church?

This technical, academic term should help us come to a new understanding of this traditional christian term, epiphany. No longer is it merely a day in the calendar when we remember three persian magicians arriving in Bethlehem because they were led by a star. We have to ask ourselves, does that story make any sense to us today? But can it make sense when we understand that this is one way we might experience how the divine revealed itself to the world? That, I think, is the way we have to understand “theophany”. Theophany is how the divine manifests itself in the history of our tradition. We must comprehend that it has happened. We should celebrate the feast of the Epiphany with a completely new sense of its significance.

We have the notion that God has entered into our world in a very specific way, through incarnation. God manifests himself in the world through flesh and blood. This is what the beginning of the Gospel of John tells us, isn’t it? With the words, “and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory” doesn’t the evangelist reveal this reality? Further evidence of the divine among us are all those miracles attested of Jesus in the gospels and the many traditions that did not make it into the canonical bible. John the Evangelist does in fact say that the whole world could not contain the miracles God has wrought, doesn’t he?

The believers’s eyes are open to see, just as their ears are open to hear. The faithful looks around at a sacred world and sees evidence of the divine everywhere. It changes everything. Since we have experienced the theophany, existence has been made even more real, it has touched the everyday moment and transformed all time into a different sort of time – it is sacred time – and all space becomes sacred space because our God is here with us – here and now.

All our celebrations on the streets and on television can be seen as cute recitations of the story of the birth of Jesus, when we happily see the scrum of our children around a girl we call Mary and her doll on the school stage. They sometimes wear costumes, sometimes they carry their own dolls of sheep, donkeys and cows as they act out their roles. Then for the older children and adults we proclaim the story in the nine lessons and carols services, or watch this spectacle on television as it is acted out at that college in Cambridge. — I would like to say that our Christmass celebrations become the re-enactment of the holy birth and we understand just what the incarnation really is. You might say that we have seen the star and we are making our journey to the nativity with eyes wide open to see the babe. We travel with ears unstopped ready to hear the angelic host. We see and hear the declaration of the divine in all the voices around us, young or old, traditional or completely untamed.

Here we are beginning the new year. We are celebrating the Feast of the Incarnation still, especially as we journey with the wise men to the baby Jesus, the babe who holds the promise of universal salvation. That is the miracle we all long for in our retelling the story of this remarkable event. We make this magi/magic journey for the sake of confirming the reality of our lives. We know we can see it there and then, here and now – in the time which was before and now is. We journey to Bethlehem with the magi and comprehend that we have travelled over half the earth in order to stand by the manger as the poor babe sleeps – the stoic child now awake without crying he bears the world’s suffering for its redemption. This child makes all things new and returns us to Eden, both in time and space. There in the garden of innocence we stand without stain and experience life in all its fullness, a life we should share with, and give to, others.

Amen

Second Sunday of Advent

Lighting the Advent Candle

O God, we light the second candle of Advent.

(With the first candle already burning, the second candle is lit.)

We seek your comfort. Both mighty and tender, you come to us. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you. We have sought just such a God, both mighty and tender, and we recall those who sought that might and tenderness of God. Isaiah announced God’s coming to a people exiled in a broken and parched wilderness. He declared that God’s redemption would make a highway in the desert and change the rough places into a plain, that God would come as a shepherd—feeding, leading, and cradling the weary flock. This Advent, we seek such a God.

Let us pray: Saving God, look upon your world and heal your land and your people. Prepare us to be changed. This Advent, teach us to be tender and just, as you are. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Shine on us, O God of justice;

Guide our path through gloom of night;

Bear within us Wisdom’s glory;

Come to us, O Christ the Light.

Collect

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Almighty God, as your kingdom dawns, turn us from the darkness of sin to the light of holiness, that we may be ready to meet you in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Post Communion

O Lord our God, make us watchful and keep us faithful as we await the coming of your Son our Lord; that, when he shall appear, he may not find us sleeping in sin but active in his service and joyful in his praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Isaiah 40.1–11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

A voice says, ‘Cry out!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’ See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Psalm 85.1–2, 8–13

1    Lord, you were gracious to your land;
♦you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

2    You forgave the offence of your people ♦
and covered all their sins.

8    I will listen to what the Lord God will say, ♦
for he shall speak peace to his people and to the faithful, that they turn not again to folly.

9    Truly, his salvation is near to those who fear him, ♦
that his glory may dwell in our land.

10    Mercy and truth are met together, ♦
righteousness and peace have kissed each other;

11    Truth shall spring up from the earth ♦
and righteousness look down from heaven.

12    The Lord will indeed give all that is good, ♦
and our land will yield its increase.

13    Righteousness shall go before him
and direct his steps in the way.

Epistle – 2 Peter 3.8–15a

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him,

Gospel – Mark 1.1–8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,


    ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

Sermon on Second Sunday of Advent

John the Baptist is our focus today. What does he mean to you? –– I have always been attracted to the Baptiser. Someone once tried to give me my star sign without my birthday. She placed me in December, but I was born in June. This little memory gave me an insight into John’s relationship with Jesus. They are opposites but the same.

John and Jesus are cousins, and they are two sides of the same coin, the prophetic coin which the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church promises to donate to the world. The coin is one of truth spoken in love.

John is the precursor for Jesus, the one who is to come and whose sandal John confesses he is unworthy to touch. The one to come is more powerful than the Baptiser. John is able to make the water an instrument of confession and conversion. But the one to come will transform by the Holy Spirit.

John is also so very different to Jesus, for Jesus enjoyed feasting with everyone who invited him in and who came to him. John fasted in the wilderness. He was like a reed shaking in the wind. His feast was locusts and wild honey, he did not produce wine for the enjoyment of a wedding feast. His clothing was camel hair, not the rich clothing of the Pharisees and sinners or the wedding guests. – We all know that Jesus was surrounded by those tax collectors and harlots – those sinners – and we can’t imagine they were in the habit of dressing down, but would rather wear silk and soft wool, can we?!

But what about that prophetic coin they passed on? John and Jesus spend a new currency. It is a way of being in the world FOR those around them, it is the way of conversion to a life dedicated to God, a life of loving one another. They eschewed the trappings of pagan concupiscence: they were ascetic monks almost. On the one hand John lives in the desert and on the other Jesus has no place to call his home. Both live the life of an itinerant preacher – a life which the Jew of their time would have rejected. It was akin to being a shepherd, and we all know their reputation at that time and even now, don’t we?

No one liked the lives shepherds lead. They reject anyone of no fixed abode, and our law continues to follow that line of thinking. – We need only think about how we must identify ourselves for some legal formality, “Bring along your latest utility bill, or a letter from some government agency.” Those shepherds John and Jesus can not fulfill such a requirement, can they? We must ask, “Just what determines who people are?”

Jesus and John are not defined by anything as mundane as a mailing address. They just presented themselves to those around them. Their abode was the company of God and those they loved, either in the temple or out in the wilderness. Don’t we ourselves say we can worship God on a walk in the countryside as well as in this church? We understand this roaming aspect of Jesus and John quite well, don’t we?

Perhaps our churches are empty because we don’t marry together these two aspects of worship. Everyone either worships outside or inside the church, rather than worshipping wherever we are. Worship seems to be an “either–or” rather than “both–and”. I think we should be the first to sing psalms and hymns as we walk in the countryside, just as we do when we sit in these magnificent ecclesiastical buildings. It is a shame that processions don’t figure high on our religious exercise regime. If they did, we might be able to encourage the joining of these two quite different congregations, those who worship here in church and those who need to be unconfined outside. However, to do that we need to encourage a more muscular christianity, one that strengthens legs and arms as well as the spirit. If so, we might realise that prayer is an everyday pursuit. As Jesus and John preached in the world, so should we. As well as coming to church, we should enjoy walks in company with the itinerant, and so our conversation could encompass important matters, not just anodyne comments about the weather. If we were confident in the highways and byways to speak our own hearts and minds, then we might be able to come inside to enjoy that freedom  as well.

John and Jesus were easy in any company, in any place, to speak their minds. They were charismatic, itinerant preachers. Are any today able to feel good in anyone’s company, to settle themselves and speak of matters significant to their world? Jesus and John were lively conversationalists, talking about the world in which they lived and moved and had their being, it was just the sort of dialogue everyone likes to have with strangers and friends. Such conversation just clarifies one’s own thoughts about everything.

That is the coin in which we trade – truth and love with no boundary. Whether in this building or out on the highways and byways, we too can enjoy such a freedom of expression – we can talk about working for world peace or taking a moral stance. All our conversations with others should be open and need not be questionable in any way, unless of course speaking the truth with love undermines world order.

The coin of which Jesus and John are the two sides is the reality of everyday life, a coin whose value has been debased by the corruption of false concerns. Jesus and John remind us of what our ultimate concern truly is, when we remember our ownmost possibility – to be people whose dwelling is with God just as Jesus and John were in their time. Let us keep those memories lively when we actively recount their stories with one another, when we attempt to capture with our own lives the reality of dwelling with God, when we remember that God is with us. This is our ownmost possibility – salvation.

Jesus and John lived out that reality. Whether we are rich and come feasting  like Jesus, or whether we have nothing and stand like reeds in the desert shaken by the wind, we can enjoy life with one another by speaking about the important things in life, speaking about truth and love.

So let us spend this two-faced coin freely, with joy let it fall from our hands into the palms of those around us. It is a good investment – everyone will benefit with this coin of  truth, everyone will be blessed by love. The good of salvation can only be purchased with this prophetic coin. I have to say that everyone will find their ownmost possibility when they give away this coin of truth with love freely, at any time and in any place.

Amen

Advent Sunday

Lighting the candle on the First Sunday of Advent (Focus: Isaiah 64:1–9)

O God, we light the first candle of Advent.

(The first candle is lit.)

We kindle it with hope. We long for you to come to our world, to break through and reign with compassion, justice, and peace. Let us remember times we longed for God to be present with us, with this congregation, and with this world.

The prophet Isaiah also cried to God to tear open heaven and come down. He called God’s people to do right. Isaiah called them to be refashioned like clay by God, the potter. This Advent, we call out to God.

Mighty God, creator of the world, break through all that keeps us from you. We ask for your mercy and reform us in your image. This Advent, visit us with your justice, love, and peace. Amen.

Shine on us, O God of justice;

Guide our path through gloom of night;

Bear within us Wisdom’s glory;

Come to us, O Christ the Light.

Advent Sunday

Collect

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Almighty God, as your kingdom dawns, turn us from the darkness of sin to the light of holiness, that we may be ready to meet you in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Readings

Old Testament – Isaiah 64.1–9

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,

so that the mountains would quake at your presence

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil –

to make your name known to your adversaries,

so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From ages past no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who works for those who wait for him.

You meet those who gladly do right,

those who remember you in your ways.

But you were angry, and we sinned;

because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

There is no one who calls on your name,

or attempts to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,

and do not remember iniquity for ever.

Now consider, we are all your people.

Psalm 80

1    Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, ♦
you that led Joseph like a flock;

2    Shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim, ♦
before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.

3    Stir up your mighty strength ♦
and come to our salvation.

4    Turn us again, O God; ♦
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

5    O Lord God of hosts, ♦
how long will you be angry at your people’s prayer?

6    You feed them with the bread of tears; ♦
you give them abundance of tears to drink.

7    You have made us the derision of our neighbours, ♦
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

8    Turn us again, O God of hosts; ♦
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

18    Let your hand be upon the man at your right hand, ♦
the son of man you made so strong for yourself.

19    And so will we not go back from you; ♦
give us life, and we shall call upon your name.

20    Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts; ♦
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Epistle – 1 Corinthians 1.3–9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind – just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you – so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gospel – Mark 13.24–37

‘But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

Sermon on Advent Sunday

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,

so that the mountains would quake at your presence

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil –

to make your name known to your adversaries,

so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

What heart-rending words we read from Isaiah, the prophet, who stands firmly in the tradition of those who wait for the advent of the Messiah. Isaiah cries out to God that the Lord would come in power to wreak havoc upon earth and in heaven – to tear through the heavens which separate God from his people so that God’s name would be made known to everyone so that everyone, that all the nations including Israel, would tremble before the judgement of this most terrible of judges.

But what is THAT DAY? It is described by prophets in two ways, the first that it will be a genuine justification of the hope of Israel, as a day of glory and peace. The second way is that of apocalypse and destruction wrought by the four horsemen.

However that day appears, the ordinary – dare I say “the profane” – the everyday will be overthrown, as Isaiah says heaven would be torn apart and the earth shake. On that day humanity will tremble in awe. The Holy will appear with the power which Rudolph Otto described in his book, The Idea of the Holy. We will stand in fear and fascination at this tremendous power before us, this
theophany
, the eruption of God in space and time for us to experience, if only we would open our eyes to see and our ears to hear.

The judgement of God will come, just as we read in the Gospel, when the Lord comes home unexpectedly and we are supposed to be ready for his arrival. We are to “keep awake” – but how can we keep awake at every moment?

This is a reasonable question, isn’t it? We can ask the same question about the everyday inquiry, “How are you?” Do we have the time, or energy, to listen to the outpouring of another’s heart when we enquire after them? Or do we have the stamina to bare our deepest feelings to a casual acquaintance who throws away that most innocent of questions? We even ask that question innocuously when we visit someone in hospital, don’t we? Do we expect the truth when we ask it?

But I think we should be ready for the flood ready to break out of the barriers of self-restraint when our request finally chips away that last fragment holding back the flood-waters of self-revelation which had been locked away because of shame or shyness, self-pity or humility. Whatever has kept the story back could be broken at that moment of our innocent enquiry and the whole story rushes out over us. Will we be ready for it? When the Lord comes back will we be ready for that advent?

We are preparing for the apocalypse now in this period before Christmas, this season of Advent. We aren’t just waiting for the 25th of December when we have the feast. As christians we are waiting for the ultimate revelation of love in the world – in our lives. But what happens if the great exposition does not come on Christmass Day?

This is not an idle question. Every year we could be disappointed on the Feast of the Incarnation. The hopes and fears of all the years may not be met in Bethlehem that night. We must still continue in that attitude of expectation – at least that is what the Gospel reading is saying to us, isn’t it?

The Lord has gone away – he told us he was – but we must await his return. Isn’t this the same thing Isaiah was experiencing himself? Moses had talked with God – God had manifest himself in the entirety of the saving history of the Hebrew people, and the Jews of modern time await God’s arrival again. Christians believe that the Messiah has come in the form of Jesus, whom we call “the Christ” and we still await the second coming, don’t we?

This longing expectation is wearing, isn’t it? We don’t have the patience or strength to wait with an earnest longing every moment of every day, do we? Much like we don’t want to hear the whole story of another’s life even though we ask innocently the everyday question, “How are you?” to a passer-by.

The theologian understands this ambiguity we have in our lives. She looks at the ordinariness of the everyday and tries to transform it into the moment when the Lord arrives, just as he promised. THAT day is one we desire fervently because we hope we will be worthy of the glory the Lord will reveal.

But what if we are not? What if we are found to be like the foolish virgins? Not able to light up our dwellings for the Lord to enter. What happens to us then?


    ‘But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

THAT day will not be like anything we have ever known. Heaven and earth will be shaken – not stirred – and everything we ever thought we might have known will be questioned. What we thought were good deeds will be examined. The daylight we treasured will be made dark. The sky will fall and the earth will swallow us up. Jesus and Isaiah agree on this.

And what will we say? Will we be able to justify our silence when others asked us how we were? Will we be able to justify our failure to listen to the outpourings of another’s heart when we asked how she or he was? We should fear “that day” – because we may not live up to the expectation of the returning Lord. We, the servants of the Master, who have been left in charge of the mansion, who have been charged with careful execution of our duties, should ask ourselves, “Have we done the tasks assigned with all our hearts and minds and souls?” – What if, in all conscience, we must reply, “No, I have failed.” Will we then say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner”? Will we accept the wrath of God which is the only reward for a life badly lived?

We await the last day, our ownmost possibility. Shall we fear it? Or shall we embrace it? How shall we see our lives at that moment of the Master’s return? Will we say that we have kept to the duties we were asked to perform – to love the Lord our God and our neighbours as ourselves? Or shall we have forgotten those requirements of the Lord? I say we must not fail in these duties – after all, they are not too difficult. We need only to open our hearts and minds to those we meet day by day and we shall shake the foundations of the everyday. I think we need only love one another wholeheartedly in order to shake those foundations and call down the heavens in anticipation of the second coming and our salvation.

Amen

Christ the King

Collect

Eternal Father, whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven that he might rule over all things as Lord and King: keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace, and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

God the Father, help us to hear the call of Christ the King and to follow in his service, whose kingdom has no end; for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, one glory.

Post Communion

Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by you be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Epistle

Ephesians 1.15–23

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Gospel – Matthew 25.31–46

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

Sermon on Sunday, Christ the King

It is said that there is a moral maxim to which doctors swear when they take up their calling to heal. It is part of what is called the Hippocratic Oath. – They promise to “Do no harm.” Doctors, we feel, do their best to fulfill this promise in the faithful service they offer to any who come to them for attention. I think it should give us heart when we approach our physicians for help with our lives. However, is that as far as anyone should go in the moral universe? – Just to “do no harm”?

A doctor’s calling is to the whole person. Our hope, I think, is that the whole person is the object of a doctor’s care and I believe they want to do so much more for us when we present ourselves in illness to them.

The moral maxim to “do no harm” has to be the start of the doctor’s road, but it is not the final destination. What can be added so that we can move along further down the road of righteousness?

Our gospel reading this morning seems to be demanding a lot more than Hippocrates required from those who would subscribe to his moral code. What does Jesus ask of us? What is our duty toward others? It seems we are to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty. We are even enjoined to visit the sick and the prisoner.

This is what Jesus Christ did in his life, isn’t it? Jesus visited the outcast when he sat down with tax collectors for instance. He healed the pariahs of society, the blind and the lepers. He fed so many in the desert, those thousands of people who listened to him and shared their hunger and received his sustenance in the wilderness. All of the people for whom Jesus cared, felt as if they were alone, thrown into a world where no one noticed them at all. It seems they were isolated and rebuffed by ordinary society – that no one wanted anything to do with them. They must have felt abandoned – but don’t we sometimes?

How can we move along in the steps Jesus wants us to take, to care for the ailing and dispossessed, the runaways and the rejected – all those of whom he speaks in our gospel lesson? What must our fundamental attitude be in these ethical situations?

It is clear that ethics and morals are not foremost in our minds today. We need not discuss that rather bold pronouncement, but let’s all agree that doing the righteous thing is certainly not the first thing contemporary society considers.

So what is this next step in the moral maze? What will guide us beyond doing no harm? In each situation we need to see how we affect all around us. We need to show our care for the other all the time – this is not one simple thing. It is a myriad task which never ends.

The promise to “do no harm” can only be the start of our moral journey. It means that we will not actively make life difficult for anyone else. We won’t, for example, be bullies. Don’t we all know how a bully can blight life for another? And this is one of the less dangerous forms of harm which one can inflict on another. We all know that there are worse things. Doing no harm would at least keep everyone healthy and free from intentional injury.

I have been reading detective fiction lately, and the homeless and the vulnerable in Los Angeles play a large part in my reading. However, no angels figure in these stories, but consciences should be piqued. Certainly mine is as I read along. The characters in the novels go on about their way, but still around them are the hungry, the thirsty, the dirty, the naked, and, eventually, the imprisoned. However, their minds – like the reader’s – are ill at ease. We all know there is more we should do, and the words of Jesus echo in my mind as I read the passages about the vulnerable in Los Angeles.

Nowadays there is a very real movement to improve health and safety in the world. In the church we extend this attitude through pastoral care. And we all know that the pastoral care of a shepherd is more than “doing no harm” – it is an active engagement with the sheep under his watchful eye. It is not merely ensuring that the wolves are kept away. The shepherd moves her flock to good pasture, the shepherd keeps count of all entrusted to him. The shepherd will search out the one he is missing, even to the extent that she will put herself in danger to find the lost sheep. We all know that, don’t we? We feel that those charged with our care, our pastors, will do precisely that. When marauding wolves appear, the shepherd heads toward them to keep the sheep safe.

The Church enjoins all of us to be aware of danger to the vulnerable among us. We are asked to be part of “safeguarding” in the parish. I think this activity means that everyone in the church is aware of a basic pastoral care. This is supposed to be a conscious awareness, a very active being toward one another for their safety. I would like to say that, ultimately, safeguarding is for the sake of  everyone’s salvation.

Today, it seems, we don’t speak of matters spiritual amongst ourselves, do we? Or if we do, it is only when we talk to ourselves, under our breath, like those crazy people who walk down the street mumbling to no one at all. I think this monologue culture needs to be reformed. We need to start talking with each other, speaking of the things that matter to us – what the philosopher calls “our ownmost possibility”.

At this point we return to the message of our gospel, that we have to act righteously, morally – we must work for the good of the other. I am in the midst of billions of people whose lives I can affect, so I must act with integrity for their sake, not just my own. I have to start by doing no harm, but I must go further – I must do good deeds. I must visit the sick and those in prison, whatever that prison might be, behind the bars of iron, the bondage of illness, or the barriers of paranoia. Perhaps it is just the skin of social respectability. I am an agent of love when I clothe the naked or feed the starving. Perhaps it is just an unconscious, small act of kindness.

What does our King do to those who don’t care for the unfortunate? He casts them into the outer darkness where there is ever a gnashing of teeth. However, for those who love neighbours as their own selves, he offers the pearl beyond all price, the glory of salvation, to rest by the crystal fountain where there will be no ignorance or want of any sort because he, the King, has been honoured in every person – because he, the King, is ever before us as our ownmost possibility.

Amen