Author: Stilman Davis

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 – Malachi 3.1–4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Psalm – The Benedictus

Look towards the east, O Jerusalem,

and see the glory that is coming from God.

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel,

who has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour,

born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets God promised of old

to save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all that hate us,

To show mercy to our ancestors,

and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham:

to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

Free to worship him without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

To give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of all their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning is now and shall be for ever. Amen.

Epistle – Philippians 1.3–11

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Gospel – Luke 3.1–6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

15 The lord will come and not be slow ( metre 8.6.8.6 )

13 O quickly come ( metre 8.8.8.8.8.8 ) or
9 Lo he comes with clouds

7 Hills of the north rejoice

466 Thou whose almighty word

Sermon on Second Sunday of Advent

The gospel reading and the reading from Malachai which we heard as we lit the Advent Candle both speak to us of the very next moment in our lives. We are at a time when the messenger of the Lord is before us, begging for our attention, pleading with us to change our ways because the Lord is coming and right soon.

Isn’t the first thing Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark, “The Kingdom of the Lord is right close at hand!”? When you look at the Greek text of the verse,  you find that it uses a form of verb that has a significant meaning, the integral sense of the tense means the action has been finished. It remains complete. The approach of the Lord has been completed, it is within touching distance. It is so very close that you should feel the Lord’s breath on your cheek, but why don’t we see the advent of the Lord has been perfected and he is about to act in our lives?

Last week I reflected on prophetic and apocalyptic language – language which presents the coming of the Kingdom so radically, language which should shake us out of our lethargy so that we will take Malachi’s warning about that day seriously – “who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” We must be found pure as the gold which has passed through the refiner’s fire. Malachi says we must be able to present ourselves in righteousness, but who can do that today? Sadly, even between ourselves in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, we fail.

Last week we found that the terror surrounding the people of the past is akin to what we feel today. Whatever period in history we inspect, we find armies on the move, natural disasters and inhumanity, whether it is a foul reaction to race, or gender, or even custom. Our experience is replete with wretched human behaviours, whether we have personally been affected or it has been something we have just heard about. I think we are all complicit in these acts, as the saying goes, “By just doing nothing …” We may not have acted viciously towards some innocent, but we may have not relieved the awful situations which we have witnessed.

We must see the signs all around us. We are now in the refiner’s fire of war and rumours of war, and those natural disasters. What good will come out of that process? Will the evil of our lives be incinerated? Will the wretched behaviour of the past be transformed into good intentions for the future?

These are the observations of the prophets. There are actions required by our prophetic sense, whether we embody the ancient or  contemporary, expressing traditional or apocalyptic visions for the present generation.

Let’s take a step back from the apocalypse, that final moment of all time, that moment which may be the very next one, that moment which is my ownmost possibility. Let us consider just what prophecy really is. The scholars tell us the word means “telling forth” – and I like to extend this to mean “not holding back what the truth is”. When we “tell forth”, nothing can remain hidden. We cannot dissemble. We cannot hide the truth in any way – we cannot spin the truth one way or another, we cannot deflect, we cannot misdirect, our audience. Telling it like it is characterises what we prophets do. It may be a rather hard thing to say and to hear, but it must be done – but it can always be done with love, just as Paul says somewhere. Paul begs us always to speak the truth with love. No one loses, no one is hurt if that is the case.

In other words, we fulfill the one commandment Jesus gave the world and we complete our prophetic calling when we speak out the truth with love. And yet, we do hear Pilate ask that question, “What is truth?” And we stand in silence before that question, just as Jesus did those millennia ago.

That moment of silence, the philosopher described as the call of conscience, when no one else but I can answer. At that moment I find the weight of all of history pressing down on me for my response. I must answer with the whole of my being. I am right up against that moment of the apocalypse, for the Kingdom is right there before me and waits to reveal itself to me in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, just as we sing in Handel’s Messiah.

What happens in the very next moment in that time when the weight of all history – past and future – presses down upon us awaiting our decision for the truth and love? This is the moment of prophecy each one of us meets. It is the moment of faith as we stand on the edge of the abyss. The future of our citizenship of the Kingdom is pressing upon us, for our decision for truth and love.

I would say to you that there is no wonder that there is so much madness in the world because such moments are happening to everyone at any time in our lives – I would say that these moments are happening at every moment of our lives, if we are living faithfully.

Not everyone can cope with the silence of conscience. People fill that expectant quiet with chatter and distraction as we have discussed before. The crowd presses in and sweeps us away from that moment of decision for the silence of truth – but more distressingly it sweeps us away from the quiet of true love.

That moment of decision is the apocalypse, for it can pull down everything we know. Jesus spoke about the time when the temple is to be destroyed, a circumstance no one at the time thought possible, but an event that did happen and many turned to apocalyptic prophecy to make sense of it. Isn’t that what is happening today? Isn’t that what the political rhetoric points to during our election campaigns, or even happened in France this past week, or even last night in Syria? We are in the midst of unprecedented change. We are trying to make sense of it. We are seeking truth and we are flailing about. We are grasping at love and grabbing at truth. We lash out at whatever floats by. That event at the end of time has come up to us so very close we can feel its heat as it presses up against us.

We are in the moment of apocalypse here and now, because we are being asked to speak of truth and love. The demand of conscience is that we live out truth and love. What is more fitting for that final moment? What is more right than for us to speak of truth with love for all to hear – that we might announce the reality of the Kingdom of God to all by speaking the truth with love? And that God’s mercy might cover the earth as the oceans cover the sea?

Amen

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 – Jeremiah 33.14–16

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

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 Thessalonians 3.9–13

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Gospel – Luke 21.25–36

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

Sermon on Advent Sunday

Today we stand at the beginning of our preparations for the coming of the Lord God Almighty into the world as the incarnate Son of Man, the Christ-Child. His advent is heralded with such outrageous language and expectations – both religious and secular. Let’s just look a little into the language the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church uses about the Advent of Jesus at Christmas.

Both the classic and the apocalyptic prophets are quoted. Their words of expectant hope form the ground of our faith. We have sung, “All my hope on God is founded” many times in order to align our actions to the one command Jesus gave us to follow – to love our neighbours, friend or enemy, as we love ourselves. What a hope we have as God approaches us.

The classic prophets used imagery as we heard in the Jeremiah reading today, where he says, “I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David.” This sort of saying is parabolic, just like many of the sayings of Jesus. The prophet uses a parable, the image of a branch, to speak of a king. It is a very clear one-to-one equivalence which invites our imaginations to add leaves and fruit to it. Engagement of the hearer is required with their word, isn’t it?

These classic prophets took everyday things and raised them into consciousness – for instance, the pottery jug, beautiful at one instant while the next finds it smashed. Such a happenstance reminds us of our fragility and how ephemeral our faithfulness can be. Or the image of a woman, the base woman of the night, a scarlet woman over against the good wife, a woman whose rectitude redeems humanity. The woman who is the symbol of the kingdom of Israel, at one moment seen as faithful, and at the other a woman whose morals are questionable at the very best.

Commonplace images are the usual of the classic prophetic utterance. They draw us into a dialogue with everything around us, to see the world anew. We have to say that the world takes on an urgency when we see it through the prophetic eye. Human endeavours to satisfy frailty pale into insignificance: the faithful wife becomes a harlot; the beautiful pitcher becomes a handful of shattered clay shards lying in the dust. However, all is redeemed by realising that God puts everything into perspective. Divine love for creation revitalises each and every object. The prophets may be describing the loving father who punishes his children when they speak of shattering pottery, but they really do believe in the message of God dealing with his chosen people so radically. The prophets speak of a divine love we don’t usually understand. Probably because we have forgotten it.

There is an urgency in all the classic prophets, demanding that we put our lives in order, but in apocalyptic prophecy there is an even more cutting edge to this urgency. These latter prophets use a language that is very different – the imagery changes from the everyday which is energised by the urgency of conversion to a language of fantasy, for instance, beasts with four faces, figures with feet of clay and arms of iron and bronze, four horsemen, the sky turning to blood and those images are just from canonical books. There are many books that did not make it into our bible which have more blood-curdling images. So many images which confront our everyday complacency to drive us to the edge of reason – perhaps into the region of belief, if not madness.

The gospel reading speaks of outlandish human expectations in the more extreme language of apocalyptic imagery. Today we read,

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

Don’t these words speak to our situation today? Aren’t these the signs on the earth? Greta Gunberg has pronounced about the harm being done to the planet, hasn’t she? We have listened to the news about the damage the weather has done during the last few weeks the world over – floods where there haven’t been any and so on. We hear daily about the wars being fought far away, the destruction armies and air forces are effecting on civilian populations. And we even hear stories about people destroying the lives of others with knives in their hands. All of this carnage dominates the news. The signs, these apocalyptic prophets say, are visible if we would but open our eyes to see.

The Book of Common Prayer was written in a time as perilous as those of the apocalyptic prophets. It was a time of political upheaval where people were summarily executed. There was no stability and people made decisions of convenience. The hopes of the people were exactly the same as in biblical times, that there would be peace and righteousness everywhere.

“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.”

This petition from our Collect speaks of our earnest desire for the good, that works of light would be the only thing we could possibly do because of the coming of Christ.

The incarnation of Jesus should allow us to have the strength to change the world by transforming ourselves. We pray “to cast away the works of darkness” – we petition for grace. We know what is right, don’t we? We know what we should do to one another. We do know what we should do for each other, don’t we? Isn’t it clear what is good?

Jesus exhorts us, ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.’ Jesus speaks of “that day” – this is the last moment, when all will fall away and God will come in glory. That day is what all the prophets pronounce. There is no escaping that day. All creation will be judged by its creator. Can anyone stand on their own on that day? Have our lives been without stain? That is the question the prophets continually ask as they speak about that day, whether in the gentler language of the major prophets or the extreme of the apocalyptic. We now pray for strength. We should be able to see some of our contemporaries echoing these essential questions as they raise our consciousness to what is the right thing to do in our everyday lives. Whether it is the council trying to get us to separate trash for appropriate disposal or the anger of the people ignored for the whole of their lives over justice as in the Post Office scandal. We need to respond to the right, and speak for the truth at all times, just like the prophets. Let us remember – Prophets are all around us. Prophecy speaks at every moment – if only we were to open our eyes and ears. – Too often we are complacent and are “weighed down with the worries of this life.” Then people are caught out unexpectedly by that day as in a trap. I think the prophets speak radically, demanding our attention with their exotic language, language which causes us to wonder just what that day will be like and whether it is just around the corner.

Amen

Collect

Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life: grant that we, having this hope, may purify ourselves even as he is pure; that when he shall appear in power and great glory we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Heavenly Lord, you long for the world’s salvation: stir us from apathy, restrain us from excess and revive in us new hope that all creation will one day be healed in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Heavenly Lord, you long for the world’s salvation: stir us from apathy, restrain us from excess and revive in us new hope that all creation will one day be healed in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Daniel 12.1–3

One in human form said to me, ‘At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.’

Psalm

1    Preserve me, O God, for in you have I taken refuge; ♦
I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my lord, all my good depends on you.’

2    All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, ♦
upon those who are noble in heart.

3    Though the idols are legion that many run after, ♦
their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, neither make mention of their names upon my lips.

4    The Lord himself is my portion and my cup; ♦
in your hands alone is my fortune.

5    My share has fallen in a fair land; ♦
indeed, I have a goodly heritage.

6    I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, ♦
and in the night watches he instructs my heart.

7    I have set the Lord always before me; ♦
he is at my right hand; I shall not fall.

8    Wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; ♦
my flesh also shall rest secure.

9    For you will not abandon my soul to Death, ♦
nor suffer your faithful one to see the Pit.

10    You will show me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy ♦
and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Epistle – Hebrews 10.11–14 [15–18] 19–25

Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

[
And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,

‘This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds’,

he also adds,

‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
]

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Gospel – Mark 13.1–8

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.’

Sermon on the Second Sunday before Advent

Jesus said “‘Beware that no one leads you astray.’” We have heard this before, from trusted friends and teachers as well, haven’t we? Even our parents told us the same thing. But do we listen? How are we led astray? What diverts us from the straight and narrow way of living good lives ourselves? What can possibly take us into poor decisions, decisions which deflect us away from what is good and right?

We stray, I think, when we don’t love ourselves and our neighbour in equal measure, when we don’t follow the golden rule – of dealing with others as we would wish others to deal with us. When we don’t love, have we missed God in our lives? Where, then, have we travelled on our way?

“Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us,” are words we have sung in a well known hymn – and there are so many other songs and hymns which express our heartfelt hope of staying on course. We are people of faith who always call on God to lead them into those pastures green. That hymn shows how we long for guidance, and warns us that we are open to being taken in to going astray. That hymn admits that only with proper guidance will we walk the true path of goodness.

In the Lord’s Prayer we petition God, our heavenly father, to “lead us.” Where is that guidance taking us? We pray that our father in heaven will lead us – “not into temptation”, but we pray God will “deliver us from evil.” Some have wondered about this petition. Can God possibly lead us into temptation, into sin? The answer is “No!” obviously, but why does Jesus ask us to pray in this manner? Is it that God can lead us astray? Or is it that our confidence in God allows us to forget our everyday task – that we forget to love as we are bidden by Jesus, to love neighbour as ourselves, and even in the extreme to love our enemy. The temptation is there before us, the temptation is that we will lead ourselves astray.

How does this happen? How can we lead ourselves astray? The ancient Greeks knew about this – the poets and playwrites called this human fault “hubris”, which is that “extreme or excessive pride, or dangerous overconfidence and complacency, often in combination with arrogance.” (Wikipedia) Don’t we all know that we can be just that bit too arrogant and lead ourselves into morally dangerous situations? We see this all the time in our leaders, don’t we? Politicians speak with a dangerous overconfidence of their plans and machinations for the world. I think we find ourselves deeper in ethical debt because of our own hubris.

Hubris is how we are lead astray, even people of great faith have missed the mark of mercy and truth, the heart of the target of love. We have seen this in fiction and in history. Hubris stalks us in our everyday confidence. We never think in our pride, “This could go wrong all too quickly.”

That doubt, I think, checks us in our complacency. We can therefore never be 100% sure about anything – that doubt strips away pride and grants us the insight of humility. In spite of that doubt arising from humility, we can go forward, but we proceed with a modest hope. Although we know that we might fall from our moral high ground, we hope that we might, just might, achieve our aspiration of the good life.

The philosopher once spoke about standing on the cliff’s edge, that the abyss is at our feet and we might fall. That awareness brings everything into a very sharp focus in such a way that we have to concentrate on each step along our way.

The other week I spoke about rethinking all from first principles. It is that most difficult project of appropriating tradition for one’s own self, to keep tradition alive for each and every one of us. If we are to do this, how can we go astray? We will be listening to our conscience, balancing what others say against that modest inner voice which, I hope, speaks to us of truth.

But at that point we stop short, on that knife edge of the abyss, the chattering of the crowd on one side and the silence of conscience on the other. – We are standing before Pilate with Jesus as we are asked, “What is truth?” I don’t think we really know the answer to this question, except when we have to answer it in particular situations. In fact, I think that Pilate’s question is the very one we normally avoid. There are many definitions of what is true, but they only start us down this road towards an answer. They aren’t entirely satisfactory as answers to this existential demand. When Pilate asked Jesus that question, I don’t think he was being entirely honest. He was taunting this humiliated and beaten prisoner, a man broken and now mocked as a king – he stands in a purple robe holding a reed like a sceptre and crowned with thorns. How could anyone at the lowest point of his life answer such a question?

But that is exactly the point. In the midst of the most wretched circumstances, we are asked to answer the most important question of life, “What is truth?” With Jesus, we are confronted with our ownmost possibility in this searching for that answer. I suppose when everything is swept away and we have nothing to distract us, we have to find out just what is true for us. We have to be sure that we have not been led astray from the path of life and truth. “Beware no one leads you astray,” Jesus says.

This challenge which Jesus issues is one which echoes at every moment in our lives. I cannot answer the question once and for all. That temptation is always present for us. “Beware” is a command that is a constant throughout the whole of life. Truth requires it must be grasped at every moment. Truth is an enterprise which demands we are aware of our very tentative grasp on its ephemeral nature at each and every moment of life. Truth is something which may disappear in an instant, especially if we are distracted, and in that blink of an eye we are led astray.

The philosopher has revealed an approach to truth which is very different to our everyday, forgetful grasp of it. He suggests that something is true when there is no concealment. At the philosopher’s cliff edge, we see with a clarity, because there is nothing in the way nor is there a crowd – there is only the singular abyss of conscience’s silence.

Jesus, I think, is demanding the same clarity as well. He was nailed high above the crowds on the cross, There he saw everything. There we can look to see our selves in singular silence, alone, raised up as a sign for our salvation, pointing the way so that we will not be led astray. In the silence of clarity, we must make our way. Forsaking the chattering of the crowd we must follow Jesus to that high point of life in all its fullness, in its silence and its truth. It is then we begin to love as Jesus asked us in that one commandment.

Amen

Collect

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; 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 holiness, your glory is proclaimed in every age: as we rejoice in the faith of your saints, inspire us to follow their example with boldness and joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

God, the source of all holiness and giver of all good things: may we who have shared at this table as strangers and pilgrims here on earth be welcomed with all your saints to the heavenly feast on the day of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Isaiah 25.6–9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.

And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever.

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Psalm 24.1–6

1    The earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it, ♦
the compass of the world and all who dwell therein.

2    For he has founded it upon the seas ♦
and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep.

3    ‘Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, ♦
or who can rise up in his holy place?’

4    ‘Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, ♦
who have not lifted up their soul to an idol, nor sworn an oath to a lie;

5    ‘They shall receive a blessing from the Lord, ♦
a just reward from the God of their salvation.’

6    Such is the company of those who seek him, ♦
of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Epistle – Revelation 21.1–6a

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

‘See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away.’

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.’

Gospel – John 11.32–44

When Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Sermon on All Saints

When we think of all the saints, do we have in mind the book of Revelations? Don’t we rather think about the letters of Paul which speak of the saints in Jerusalem, or the beatitudes which extol the blessed for their virtue. We don’t have visions and portents in our minds’ eye when we think of holy people and those influencers of our lives who have died.

I and many others find the book of Revelations one of the most difficult to understand. The writer gives us prophesies of a future when the Lord and Saviour of all will return in power and might, a figure about whom the gospel of John says

“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

This adventist Son of God who is to come in the judgement of salvation is also called the Son of Man, a much more understandable image of the person of God. We see Jesus as an incarnate being, just like us – flesh and blood, experiencing the highs and lows of life as we do.

How does this very human picture of Jesus become that very awesome God who terrifies humanity with the end of time and space the end of all life as we know it? How does our meek and mild Jesus, the Lamb of God, become just like the Hindu Shiva, the god of destruction of all created things, or an Oppenheimer who said “I am become death?”

The descriptions of these apocalyptic figures of the end of the world might help us to understand some cosmology from astrophysics in which the scientists speak of the big bangs of many billions of years in the past and the end of the universe as we know it many billions of years in the future. The imagery of eschatological events is scary, beyond our everyday imagination. So monsters come to mind, or the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Does the creation of the world billions of years ago make sense to us in any real way? What about that far distant future? For me, cosmology just sets me in the middle of time and space – it places me here and now. I must act in a way that all remains in a balance between the two “thens”, that very long ago past and the yet to come distant future.

This is a much more philosophical view of time and space than most people have, isn’t it? No one else whom I know takes this long view of life, balancing the weight of all time and the ever-expanding height, depth and width of space.

It places me right here and now and I begin to hear the voices of tradition and the silent future speaking to me. I have to listen because of my being at the very centre of all space and time. When “the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’”, I am convinced that this renewal is happening here and now. After all, there are wars and rumours of wars and all manner of destruction of all the things we know? Aren’t the four horsemen running amuck right here and now and that is a prelude to the final judgement of creation which is to say, each and every one of us, just as the good book tells us.

Who knows when the King of Glory will enter into this world I inhabit? I certainly don’t know the when of the revelation of all things, when that book with the seven seals will be opened by the one innocent and all powerful Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. When will that judge make an appearance for the final moment of our salvation.

Back to that voice of tradition which speaks through this morning’s reading – Who is seated on the throne? Who speaks with such authority? However, I want to ask this question, “Who listens?” Is anyone else interested in that voice I hear? Perhaps you are and you have never admitted it to anyone else. Perhaps I am deluding myself as I listen to the fantastic ramblings of St John the Divine, as that monk in Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” did. These particular voices of tradition are the more outlandish ones people hear, aren’t they? But there are other voices in the tradition, the ones which hide away in tomes in the library skulking behind the dewey decimal numbers between 100 and 300. The philosopher has written at length about how we have gone along one way of thought since the Pre-Socratics, and the same might be said of the theologians of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, that they have followed one particular route through history with a particular view of God’s interaction with the creation.

The philosopher wants us to begin thinking for ourselves, to go back to the beginning and evolve thought anew in, and for, every generation. There are also theologians who have considered the same enterprise within the Church, to think through the notion of salvation anew – to present the message of God to this generation here and now at the centre of all time.

In the 1970s there was radical liberation theology, but what renewed thought has happened since then? Have we started our thinking again lately? What has marked our renewal? Lately, I have been thinking about the Incarnation and how we should look at it again, because of the image of the body our society has. I wonder whether we look at how we are in the world in a balanced way – to get back to that more philosophical understanding of life, where and how we are in space and time. We should consider that we are at the centre of time and space and we are responsible for remembering past tradition and handing on our hopes to future generations. How many generations we look back will give us a more penetrating gaze into the future. Our life binds us to history and our place in the world.

So, you have listened to me prattle on about metaphysical concepts of space and time because we have read a very impressive vision from St John the Divine’s Apocalypse. What does this have to do with All Saints and All Souls, the Sunday we celebrate today? And we haven’t touched the story of the resurrected Lazarus which was our other reading.

I think we have to take the past seriously, to understand the people who have led to this unique point. Here and now we have to remember them all. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church has called all believers members of the cloud of witnesses, and from the beginning they were called “saints” – so many unnamed and unrecognised people who have propelled us to this moment. We have to remember that we are “the saints” as well, for we have been set apart from the mass of humanity, because we rise up and follow the Lord, making way for all to join in this happy fellowship.

The forgotten of this generation have had a hand in the here and now we experience. They may be as insignificant as I am on the world stage, but they have touched our lives somehow. Years ago a preacher spoke about the irascible saint, the fellow who was spiky and hard to get on with, but he was a saint – we need only consider St Augustine whose Confessions shows just how difficult saints can be. I’ll leave that book for you to read at some point. Perhaps I will take it down from my bookshelf, dust it off to read it again – perhaps I will write a little about it in the new year.

Who are the saints we are asked to remember today. The saints generally are un-numbered and un-knowable, just like us, but they will be remembered. Someone remembers them. We remember our friends and sometime we call to mind strangers whom we have encountered. We call to mind the meek and the powerful in our experience. We may have a moment of remembrance when we look at graves or hold in our hands things that have been given to us. We will remember them. I would like this Sunday to be just the start of our calling to mind and thinking anew which Jesus asks us to do when we love one another. Here we are at the centre of time with all the saints surrounding us. Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord of time and space whose hand hovers over us at every moment, just as those who might benefit from us hover in witness to our lives.

Amen

Collect

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind; 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

Almighty God, in whose service lies perfect freedom: teach us to obey you with loving hearts and steadfast wills; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Father of light, in whom is no change or shadow of turning, you give us every good and perfect gift and have brought us to birth by your word of truth: may we be a living sign of that kingdom where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Job 38.1–7 [34–41]

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,

I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

   Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

   Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

   or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together

   and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

[‘Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

   so that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

   and say to you, “Here we are”?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,

   or given understanding to the mind?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

   Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

   and the clods cling together?

‘Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

   or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens,

   or lie in wait in their covert?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

   when its young ones cry to God,

   and wander about for lack of food?’]

Psalm 104.1–10, 26, 37c*

1    Bless the Lord, O my soul. ♦
O Lord my God, how excellent is your greatness!

2    You are clothed with majesty and honour, ♦
wrapped in light as in a garment.

3    You spread out the heavens like a curtain ♦
and lay the beams of your dwelling place in the waters above.

4    You make the clouds your chariot ♦
and ride on the wings of the wind.

5    You make the winds your messengers ♦
and flames of fire your servants.

6    You laid the foundations of the earth, ♦
that it never should move at any time.

7    You covered it with the deep like a garment; ♦
the waters stood high above the hills.

8    At your rebuke they fled; ♦
at the voice of your thunder they hastened away.

9    They rose up to the hills and flowed down to the valleys beneath, ♦
to the place which you had appointed for them.

10    You have set them their bounds that they should not pass, ♦
nor turn again to cover the earth.

26    O Lord, how manifold are your works! ♦
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

37    Alleluia.

Epistle – Hebrews 5.1–10

Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honour, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,

‘You are my Son,

   today I have begotten you’;

as he says also in another place,

‘You are a priest for ever,

   according to the order of Melchizedek.’

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Gospel – Mark 10.35–45

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

Sermon on Trinity 21

When someone speaks about a slave, what do you think of? … Our reading today uses the Greek word for slave–servant (δουλοσ), a word applied to Jesus and ourselves as followers of Christ. When we use the word slave, we often picture people dressed in rags, working at menial jobs, doing the work that no one wants to do, like working in the fields from dawn to dusk, perhaps digging ditches for sewerage, maybe it is the work of the chain gangs, that hard labour of breaking up rocks for roadways portrayed in movies like Cool Hand Luke. Unpaid and despised and usually mistreated in the bargain. Think of something you really wouldn’t want to do and that is the work we imagine a slave has to do – neither for any reward nor for any consideration for what was done by whom for the sake of someone who casually enjoys everything in life.

But don’t we say that slaves are not part of western culture any more? We say, no one today is forced to work at jobs they don’t want to do. Everyone has their reward, don’t they? However, if we look around us we can see that there are people dressed in rags of cast-off clothing wandering around – they are called the homeless, the feckless, the unlucky, the people who fall between the cracks of society’s institutional care.

Their slavery is a submission to cultural ignorance. Like the indentured servants who were shipped to Australia and the Americas, these unseen slaves to our hard-heartedness succumb to an oppressive lord and master – which may be we ourselves – while we continue on in our comfortable carelessness.

X Robert wrote a piece on the diocesan website about slavery, which I only read on Friday. As it is so apposite, I would like to consider it a bit today, but I would recommend that you trawl through the website to find it some time – and perhaps you might find some other articles of interest. So, X Robert wrote about the Diocese of Western Tanganyika, and remarked on

the town of Ujiji [which] is famously where Stanley met Livingstone and more infamously, for many years [was known as] a holding place for men, women and children captured and enslaved, before transportation to Zanzibar and then on to Mauritius and India among other destinations.

The lessons we should learn about Africa are hard for us to accept today, for we say it is merely history. In contrast, X Robert tells us about a College of Bishop’s conference in Oxford which focussed on the inheritance we, the Anglican Church, have right here and now from the slave trade. He also tells us about his reception in Western Tanganyika. It was bittersweet, full of joy and acceptance, but he also felt the ambivalence towards him and the history shared between many generations past. X Robert concludes his essay with these words:

It was very special to stand in the beautiful lands of Western Tanganyika … with the people who live there, our beautiful brothers and sisters in Christ. A land and a people that have been marred by such evil, a land that seeks right justice, the justice for which we pray, thy Kingdom come.

We don’t see the slave as the dying figure in deserted places doing another person’s work. The slave is now the person who is forced by circumstances to do the unmentionable job by unscrupulous gang-masters. A shift in our understanding of slavery has come about, I think. Today, then, no one has any responsibility for, or to, another. That is the real slavery, that we do not connect with each other in any loving way. It constricts life to me alone without any reference to any other person. The slave is bound to only one thing, calculated prices, money. The slave owner must remind us of the obsessives who cannot see how bound to the object of their compulsion they are. – Our blindness to ourselves allows slavery – or any other evil – to continue.

Our normal language has pushed slavery away from everyday life. We no longer talk about slavery. The reality of a slave in history became the indentured servant. In modern parlance, slavery becomes service. The isolation of the individual becomes complete with this shift of language and a resulting negative shift of conscience.

However, we have not fully eradicated slavery, have we? What should we do now? – Let’s consider our reading for this morning from the gospel which started me thinking about slavery.

‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.’

That Greek word δουλοσ is rendered by servant in this saying of Jesus. It could mean two distinct things to us, servant or slave – I think this double meaning of the Greek word explains our shift of language and the easing of our conscience. We feel better about ourselves because we have redefined slavery as service. Don’t we say a servant is a very different person from a slave. We have humanised the servant in a way the slave had never been.

But is the slavery of service really what we wish to foster? Modern slavery is this diabolical use of others for no humane end. Rather it is the objectification of the human contract of care, the isolation of the individual behind a language which does nothing to take the hard heart stone in order to turn it into a heart of flesh beating with its care for the world and all its inhabitants.

I have stepped out of the argument from history into the realm of ethics, how we ground all our decisions in the value we place on life in all its variety expressed through our family, friends, neighbours and the strangers on the road – perhaps especially those strangers on the road whom we don’t consider as part of our lives. I would say that the stranger brings out the best and the worst in each and every one of us. We must remember that Jesus said the sick, the hungry and the prisoner – those strangers par excellence – are the people who reveal just how we care for ourselves and others. He said that whenever we treat another with respect we dealt so with Christ.

Jesus’ own prophetic role in his ministry to the whole world is harsh. His one law to replace all the statute books had to do with our most personal behaviour, that activity which shows our love for one another. Such love would show our true humanity, our true worth. No one who can love indiscriminately and impartially can possibly have anything to do with a harmful slavery. That love transforms us into people who display what Paul called the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, characteristics which are inimical to this age of social media, with its selfies and facebook. Such a spiritual life becomes a slavery to care, a loving service to the stranger, because we love God and ourselves, a transformed life in fullness, the life Jesus wants us to live for others.

Amen

Collect

O God, forasmuch as without you we are not able to please you; mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; 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

Faithful Lord, whose steadfast love never ceases and whose mercies never come to an end: grant us the grace to trust you and to receive the gifts of your love, new every morning, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Holy and blessed God, you have fed us with the body and blood of your Son and filled us with your Holy Spirit: may we honour you, not only with our lips but in lives dedicated to the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Genesis 2.18–24

The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

‘This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.’

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Psalm 8

1    O Lord our governor, ♦
how glorious is your name in all the world!

2    Your majesty above the heavens is praised ♦
out of the mouths of babes at the breast.

3    You have founded a stronghold against your foes, ♦

   that you might still the enemy and the avenger.

4    When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, ♦
the moon and the stars that you have ordained,

5    What is man, that you should be mindful of him; ♦
the son of man, that you should seek him out?

6    You have made him little lower than the angels ♦
and crown him with glory and honour.

7    You have given him dominion over the works of your hands ♦
and put all things under his feet,

8    All sheep and oxen, ♦
even the wild beasts of the field,

9    The birds of the air, the fish of the sea ♦
and whatsoever moves in the paths of the sea.

10    O Lord our governor, ♦
how glorious is your name in all the world!

Epistle – Hebrews 1.1–4; 2.5–12

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,

‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honour,
subjecting all things under their feet.’

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’

Gospel – Mark 10.2–16

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Sermon, Trinity 19

Last week Graham asked the question, “Why do people stay away from church?” Why don’t church congregations wrap everyone in love so that they want to join in worshipping God? These questions about churches led me to another, more general, question. Why do people not love one another? I don’t think the problem of people staying away has anything to do with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, because I see people still coming to this building in spite of the fact that they don’t consider its significance to them, or its mission in their community.

So, when do I see them come? They come when there is a “Life Event”. “What is a Life Event?” I hear you ask. Life events are what some used to refer to as “hatch, match and dispatch” – or, more correctly, baptism,  marriage and funerals. People want to celebrate a new state of their world, for instance, when their children are born, or when a couple want to declare their everlasting love for one another in a very public manner. Or, more sadly, people want to recognise the passing of a loved one – they open the doors of their grief to everyone when there is a funeral in Church.

These Life Events occur at a stark change of life, they are celebrated amongst a greater family, siblings and blood relations share their recognition of a new life with friends and neighbours in a building so much larger than their own two-up–two-down, where all their acquaintances can gather together. They want everyone they know to meet together for those most significant times in their lives, and a church building can afford the space and traditions which everyone expects for those times.

When we celebrate these life events, what happens to the individual? What has fundamentally changed so that they can enter a building which they ignore every other day of their lives? I think their heart has changed – they are happy to share something with people they may not have been engaged with for a long time. Not that they have consciously ignored them, but they may just have been too busy with all those other things in their busy-ness to include them. In these special times, people are open to everyone, for joy has transformed them. They may even show a deep love for everyone they know.

We have all seen how the unfeeling barriers of the everyday disappear at these events, haven’t we? Why, we may have even dropped our own defences when we have been at a wedding or funeral and talked with people whom we may have shunned at other times. When we wet the baby’s head, we see the parts of the family from which we are estranged. We may even have conversations with people whom we don’t know – those strangers from the spouse’s family who are invited and come because they too want to celebrate life’s change.

We may even begin to have deep conversations about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with strangers at funerals – and I don’t think that it is the drink that is doing all the talking, although we have seen that happen as well, haven’t we?

I think we are all genuinely happy at a wedding. We are celebrating love and a new, full life-partnership for those newly-wedded people. We are happy for, and with, them, and that happiness overflows into our own behaviour. Our hearts, I believe, are full of a real joy and we are without barriers against others, if only for the duration of the event, which nowadays is a whole day, if you don’t count the trips abroad for the stag or hen do’s. I am convinced our hearts are open in joy – they can enfold the stranger, if only for a moment. I think a good heart is what keeps people coming into church buildings

Life events reveal so much about ourselves and others – this is particularly true of a funeral, we learn things about the departed which we had never known. Whether we are the subjects of the events or witnesses about those lives, we see and hear anew. We have opened ourselves up to the possibility of loving one another.

That brings me in a very round-about way to our gospel reading. Jesus speaks about the demise of marriage – he speaks of divorce. Jesus doesn’t deal with the legality and the technical issues of divorce. Rather, he drives right to the heart of the matter. Sure, Jesus says, Moses made divorce part of the Law, but let’s speak about the reason he did so. Moses allowed divorce not for this or that reason, but for an underlying cause deep within those people who are drifting apart.

Jesus states that fundamental reason for divorce has to be the hardness of the human heart. The calcification of the centre of one’s being is beating love away. No longer can we have those deep, meaningful conversations with strangers or even our nearest and dearest. The distance between hearts becomes a “no man’s land”. We can no longer touch each other either literally or metaphorically. We cannot reach out and grasp the reality of being with a loved one.

When our hearts harden because of this distance, we lose more than the opportunity to speak with each other, we lose the chance to love ourselves. The only thing Jesus wants us to do is apparently no longer even possible for us. We have distanced our very own selves. We are alienated. We have lost touch with our ownmost possibility.

When we are at a life event, we have stepped out of our insulated selves, a self that has nothing to do with anyone or anything else. We are tempted to join in, to lose ourselves in the Life Event.

When we are at a wedding, we are full of joy at love being there before us. When we are at a funeral, we are full of sadness because the object of our love has been taken from us. At a baptism, we begin to see life anew with the infinite possibilities open to the child in the priest’s arms as the child is washed of sin and welcomed in innocence into a wider family and into the wider worshipping community through the witness and commitment of godparents. In all of these life events, whether we are church-goers or not, our hearts have been revealed as soft beating organs of love. We can feel that our hearts alive, ready to live and love.

The heart beats when there is a profound being with each other. A beating heart cannot be a stone – because it just can’t beat. The prophet tells us that the Lord will transform those hardened hearts into hearts of flesh, hearts beating with life. Let us remember that every heart-beat is a life event during which our hearts can love. Jesus’ heart beats for us even now. That sacred heart beats within life, especially when the cup of joy is shared in a life event.

Amen

Collect

Eternal God, you crown the year with your goodness and you give us the fruits of the earth in their season; grant that we may use them to your glory, for the relief of those in need and for our own well-being, 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.

Readings

Old Testament – Joel 2:21–27

Do not fear, O soil;
be glad and rejoice,
for the Lord has done great things!

Do not fear, you animals of the field,
for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.

The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,
the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent against you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
and praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

Psalm 126

A Song of Ascents.

1    When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, ♦
we were like those who dream.

2    Then our mouth was filled with laughter, ♦
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’

3    The Lord has done great things for us, ♦
and we rejoiced.

4    Restore our fortunes, O Lord, ♦
like the watercourses in the Negeb.

5    May those who sow in tears ♦
reap with shouts of joy.

6    Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, ♦
shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Epistle – I Timothy 2:1–7 (or 6:6–10)

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. for there is one God;

there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all

– this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth,a I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes,

(Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. )

Gospel – Matthew 6:25–33

Jesus said, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Sermon on Harvest Sunday

There are some ironic words from one of today’s readings –

for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.

There has been a lot of rain throughout the world lately. No one wants any more, do they? In North Carolina they had three months worth of rain in three days with the passing by of that storm which was once called Hurricane Helene.

Rain and storms are the opposite of what we think of as harvest time – doesn’t the poem speak of mists and mellow fruitfulness? Gentle days. The fullness of the harvest does not call to mind storms, but rather we walk out into our gardens in the bright light of early autumn to harvest all the fruit and veg ripened on the plot we have tended all the other parts of the year. That gathering-in is to get us through the winter. We think of sunny days during which we gather the produce of the land. The early and the later rain has fallen during planting and through the growing season. Now the harvest can be gathered in. All the hymns and songs tell us about thankfulness for the abundance around us, and we share that in our collections and the redistribution of our good fortune.

Every year we gather together to think about the whole of food production, from the farmer to our tables – all the intricacies of the supply chain are highlighted in sermons up and down the country. But today I am not going to talk of those mundane concerns.

Rather, I would like to wonder about the phrase, “All is safely gathered in”. We sing in the hymn, but do we really think about everything when we repeat these words? When we gather everything in, doesn’t that  mean we have garnered the good and bad together. We have brought into our storehouses everything that has been produced. But is that all that happens in our harvest? Are there other tasks required when we collect these treasures of the earth?

When we gather the apples from the tree, do we put every single apple into storage? – No, we don’t. On television’s Gardener’s World Monty Don tells us that a triage is required. We have to examine everything we have assembled together. We must assess each item. We take the damaged fruit and put it to one side. Then we take the perfect fruit, wrap it up, and carefully place it in our boxes, and stack the cases up for use in the future.

What do we do with the misshapen which the supermarkets are now trying to sell? If it is sound, without blemish, we can keep it, for there is nothing wrong, nothing to spoil it fundamentally. It is just an odd shape.

What do we do with the damaged fruit, the ones with scabs, or the apple that has fallen off the tree and has a bruise (visible or not)? We deal with them immediately before they go completely bad. Sometimes the damage is superficial like scab or the windfall has not developed a real bruise, but there is an opening for  damage to enter and so rot the fruit. What do we do? We cut out the bad and then we use the rest of those fruits immediately. After cutting out the slight damage, we make our jams and sauces and bottle them up. We make use of all except the damaged. We cut out the affected parts so that it does not ruin the rest of the fruit and the resulting processed food.

So, like preachers the world over, I want to consider “the rotten apple” from my example. This very bad fruit has been neglected from the beginning, hasn’t it? These apples reveal themselves on the ground and we have just left them there. As they lie there, the natural process of decay has begun, with the small bruise as the start of its self destruction.

We may not see it, but the damage has been done when the apple falls to the ground, perhaps invisibly, but it has begun. Eventually, the whole fruit becomes unusable, either hard and mummified or a soft, congealed mess on the ground. It is no good for anything except the compost heap, where we hope it will be transformed and be of benefit some time in the future. It will be spread on the garden eventually but it will never become part of our supplies in the cupboard.

Like so many commonly used phrases, “rotten apple” can be seen to be true of people as well. I wonder, have you ever used the phrase, “rotten apple” to describe someone? Our parents may have used it. I think we all know what that phrase means. It is a judgement on the state of another person. We have decided that they are no good when we describe them that way. We are saying that a rotten apple is without character and value.

Is this really the case? When did that person become a rotting corpse in plain sight? When did that person become worthless – so damaged that there is no redeeming value?

A rotten apple is deceptively dangerous in many respects. It may appear perfectly sound, but somehow there is damage, and when the fault shows itself the apples around it could also be affected. All the apples in the barrel could begin to rot away. So not only does it become inedible, but so many others can become rotten as well. We have seen rotten apples in our own lives, haven’t we? We may have had friends whom our parents judged to be a “bad ‘un”. Our friend who appeared so innocent finally exhibits the true depth of depravity and has enmeshed others in that corruption. We realise that we only just escaped the same fate.

So what happened when we parted company with that suspect friend? Didn’t we examine ourselves and them in the course of our lives and realised they were damaged in some way? We began to distance ourselves from them and so we saved ourselves from their bad influence.

Perhaps a superficial glance when we were young, over that perfectly good-looking fruit at that point sufficed – however, I say repeated, thorough examinations help us to evaluate ultimate goodness in apples and friends. We have to examine our friends in the same way we look at our selves to see where we could have done better.

Questions arise about apples, when did the apple go bad? Was it when it dropped from the tree? Or when the scab fixed itself on the skin? We wonder about that fruit when it goes bad in the store and ask why? Was it bad from the very beginning?

I have to admit talking about apples and friends in the same terms is helpful but not the final word on the matter. We have to admit that apples need harvesting and careful handling. However, it is even more important for our friends, friends who are selected and kept forever with the love of Christ in spite of their blemishes. This is true harvest.

Amen

Collect

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers of your people who call upon you; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them; 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

Lord of creation, whose glory is around and within us: open our eyes to your wonders, that we may serve you with reverence and know your peace at our lives’ end, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Proverbs 1.20–33

Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.

Because I have called and you refused,
have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
and because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,

I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
when panic strikes you like a storm,
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.

Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
would have none of my counsel,
and despised all my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.

For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.’

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 – James 3.1–12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

Gospel – Mark 8.27–38

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

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 Trinity 16

“How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is [such] a fire.”

Isn’t the epistle absolutely accurate in this description of the fierce effects of speech? This is particularly true during elections. Other campaigns also try to stir us up to their way of thinking and move us into a crowd of like-thinking people. When we join that crowd, do we stop thinking about what is right and good? In our hearts, don’t we all burn hotly when we hear lies or we are the butt of calumny? Don’t  our lives turn to ash when we take to heart the wickedness of the people around us?

Our lives, as our writer makes clear, are like those great forests that blaze – just like those forest fires that threatened Athens last month. We feel the threat of extinction when tongues wag with lies, those lies which mock what we consider authentic in our lives. Jesus calls those around him an “adulterous and sinful generation”. He even berates Peter because of his timidity in face of the cross of  “life in all its fullness.” He says, “Get behind me Satan!” when “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him” – for his words about suffering and death, for his prediction of the end of the son of man on the cross.

Throughout his ministry Jesus warns about truth and how difficult it is to live. Imagine how hard it was to hear that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and the certainty of his death. He was speaking about the end of a life of fullness which the disciples and believers had experienced. It is no wonder Peter began to rebuke Jesus at those words. Can we accept a friend’s words that he or she is about to take the last steps on the journey through this vale of tears? Such statements are devastating between people who love each other. I can well understand Peter’s “rage”, which I think is only Peter’s bitter disappointment when he is told to be silent when he made his pronouncement of who Jesus is – the Messiah.

Imagine that! When you have told that significant other of the esteem and honour you hold them, to be told to be silent – ordered not to mention that wonderful good news to the world, that news of universal salvation. It would be like telling me not to extol the virtues of my wife.

However, that silence should make us remember and treasure the value of that person. It should make us very careful about the words we say – especially in the light of the reading from James we had today.

In spite of Luther’s judgement on the Letter of James, we need to take his letter seriously, for it calls to mind the responsibility we all have whenever we speak. What we say can become the moment when other person takes us at our word. We may not realise it, but we are teachers every moment of our lives. Whatever we say may be taken seriously by those listening to us. We have to realise that everything we say will be heard and someone will take it personally.

James tells us to be careful in what we say: he also says that teachers bear a greater responsibility in their lives because they are working with vulnerable people – the people who are searching for meaning. Teachers need to be truthful, guiding their pupils to be honest in all their dealings. – Dare I say that everyone bears that responsibility? Shall I say parents especially bear this heavy burden of safe-guarding?

We all know the expression, “Loose lips sink ships”, don’t we? We are all ships on life’s ocean. So we all bear the responsibility of safety on this sea. We don’t want to cause others to sink into the chaos of the deep. James is right to tell us to weigh our words carefully before we let them loose. Life can be seen as avoiding the flotsam and jetsam on the waters we navigate. We should not add to the obstacles in other people’s courses. Nor do we want to encounter anything thrown overboard from their voyages – it is enough to struggle with our own shifting cargo and baggage on board our own ships during our journeys.

The ocean is getting more and more crowded, isn’t it? – It is just like our lives with the inconsiderate and unconsidered words jettisoned in our way. The seas are covered with the plastics collecting in the Pacific to form a new continent of waste. We have to admit that we are now adrift near that sort of danger in our own lives.

How did we get here? Have we listened to the siren calls of the crowd rather than the silent voice of our conscience, that still small voice of calm which we hear as Jesus’ own voice? What words of comfort have the crowd given us? The crowd does not pacify but it enflames. We can see this happening all the time all around us.

The words of bitterness, of ill-use, of hatred – they fly with great speed around us and, if we are not strong, strike us to the heart, destroying the life we want to lead. Sometimes they are not directed towards us directly, but like overheard conversations they sting and break the bones of our self confidence and self worth. That is the dangerous power of words and overhearing rather than direct and bold conversation.

That is why, I think, Jesus told his disciples to remain silent about the truth of his life until all is revealed about this son of man, the messiah everyone expected. If we were to go off at half-cock, no one will know the truth – even we who would want to speak about Jesus. We might speak well before we understood just who this saviour is. Jesus rebukes Peter powerfully, doesn’t he? “Get behind me, Satan!” How could he say that to the man who called him “the Messiah”?

I think that precisely because Peter did not understand what the messiah’s mission was, that is to say, Jesus came to light up the world with truth about life, to offer enlightenment to each and every one of us through life in all its fullness. That does not mean that we should chatter and run off at the tongue about our latest experience. No, I think Jesus wants us to be considered and considerate when we speak. Out of silence comes the truth, our voices become the still small voices of conscience for all around us, voices which call for the deepest love to happen between strangers, as deep a love as we have towards God and ourselves.

The crowd, that wicked generation, threatens us, just as it did Jesus, but Jesus understood that sacrifice he was about to make, that “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world” which we considered last week. That was the whole purpose of his existence. We should also understand our lives as a giving up when we live out our ownmost possibility of love, our christian agape, with the quiet confidence of someone whose words burn away the dross of untruth, those considered and considerate words of true love, a silent love at the centre of the whirlwind of life.

Amen

Collect

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit upon your Church in the burning fire of your love: grant that your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel that, always abiding in you, they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service; 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

Lord God, defend your Church from all false teaching and give to your people knowledge of your truth, that we may enjoy eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy; and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall, keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Proverbs 22.1–2, 8, 9, 22, 23

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favour is better than silver or gold.

The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail.

Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

Psalm 125

1    Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,  ♦
which cannot be moved, but stands fast for ever.

2    As the hills stand about Jerusalem,  ♦
so the Lord stands round about his people, from this time forth for evermore.

3    The sceptre of wickedness shall not hold sway

 over the land allotted to the righteous,  ♦
lest the righteous turn their hands to evil.

4    Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,  ♦
and to those who are true of heart.

5    Those who turn aside to crooked ways the Lord shall take away with the evildoers;  ♦
but let there be peace upon Israel.

Epistle – James 2.1–10 [11–13] 14–17

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. [For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement.]

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Gospel – Mark 7.24–37

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

Sermon on Trinity 15

Part of our passage from the letter of James reads –

“My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?”

This question leads to his statement that faith without works is empty. Here is a real example of why he believes that. When we have favourites, we are not living out the love that the Lord expects of those who say they believe. How can we love our neighbour as ourselves when one person takes precedence?

I wonder, with James, do we show favouritism in our lives? Don’t we in little things show that we prefer one person to another?  At a party, when we move from one person to another, don’t we reveal our preferences in some way? These choices may be altruistic, but quite often they are merely selfish. We say to ourselves, “Wouldn’t it be nicer to talk with that person than this one?” or “I would really like to go over to that person” and we move on to that momentary favourite. This happens all the time. At times we blatantly show that we desire to be in a “celebrity’s” company rather than to be with the plain vanilla of ordinariness. That is our penchant for the latest thing, isn’t it? – Paul wrote about that in one of our recent weekly readings, didn’t he? – This is just one more example of how we are swayed by popularity and the crowd.

We do have our favourites, don’t we? After all, don’t we marry one another to cement that relationship of the favourite? We wed ourselves to a perception of a loved one so that we will not be left lonely. I would say that the beloved is the highest form of “a favourite” in life. Marriage confirms us in our love of one other – however effusive or deficient it may in fact be. However, we have to admit that the public face of marriage expresses the fact that we have chosen a favourite with whom we wish to spend our lives.

Favouritism, I think, shows just how we lean toward inauthentic living. It shows that we don’t want to go against the crowd. The “they” of the crowd can often be wrong – they do not necessarily do the good for its own sake. Everything is evaluated against the project of remaining within the mass of humanity and its celebrated influence. When we favour the furtherance of the crowd’s wishes, don’t we deny our own choice in the matter of what is right and good in life? By showing favourites we don’t love one another as Christ loved the world. His love was complete, without let or hindrance. When we prefer one over against another – even if it is our life partner – do we show that same authentic love which Jesus Christ shed for the whole world – in the crucifixion, that self oblation given once and for all on the cross? Doesn’t the BCP say,

Jesus Christ “made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.”

Is this the act of preferential treatment? No, not at all! Jesus shows utter “indifference” to each and every one of us (to use a BCP prayer’s description of our rulers’ behaviour towards their subjects). All humanity receives this impartial largess, this grace of God – all have been offered salvation through the blood of Christ. Each and every one of us can experience this mercy of God, if only we would be faithful and believe. So how can we imitate Christ? How do we act with that same perfectly indifferent impartiality through the whole of our lives? How do we show our faithfulness in the little things of life? For instance, how do we show our love in that example of the party which began this reflection?

So we can see why James condemned favouritism, can’t we? He takes us to task because there is no even-handedness when we treat one differently one to another. We have to see that this inclination is wrong. If our politicians or civil servants behaved in this way, wouldn’t there be a dreadful outcry? And that is just the world looking on these acts of injustice. What then of God’s judgement on such behaviour?

Let’s turn this around. – What happens when we expect to be treated with great favour? I always remember the story of the guest at the feast to make it clear to myself about expecting favouritism to be directed towards myself. The guest at the feast took a seat at the high table as if by right. Then when the host spots another guest arrive, he moved that guest lower down in order to accommodate the new arrival – one of those late arrivals at the ball which were so well characterised on that radio programme, “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue”. – But I digress.

If I were the guest who took that seat at the high table, doesn’t it say something about my character? Am I so ambitious, or conceited that I expect such special treatment? How can I possibly justify such an attitude toward myself? – But don’t we do this all the time? Don’t we consider ourselves to be special in all sorts of ways? We need only look at any social media page to confirm this. We reveal our characters so blatantly if we were to take a disinterested view of our public activity there.

When we love others as our very own selves, everything has another look. Celebrity is forsaken, because it is seen for what it is. I think that the greedy concupiscence that distorts everything we find meaningful in our lives is to be found in favouritism. In contrast with true love the singular person becomes the focus of attention, and the crowd has no significance. In that prayer, we remembered that that “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction” is nothing less than a complete selflessness. I no longer matter more than anyone else. That is to say either everyone matters or no one does. No one person can take precedence – no person can be a favourite. That is not the story that is painted everywhere in the media. The news is full of stories where the selfish gene is extolled, and generous selflessness is denigrated.

How can we change this? There is an old pop song which I remember from my youth called “What’s going on?” – in it we hear, “For only love can conquer hate / –
You know we’ve got to find a way / To bring some lovin’ here today”. – Sometimes even pop songs can point the way. – Only love can conquer the hate which favouritism engenders. If I focus only on that celebrity, how can I turn my attention to and love others? If I only look in the mirror, will I ever see anyone else to love? When we have favourites, we don’t have the capacity for any attention for anyone or anything else. Favouritism is a dangerous obsession and self-indulgence – everything that the media promotes in advertising to encourage our over-consumption of things we do not need. So we do have to ask, “What’s going on?” don’t we? We read in the gospel:

Jesus said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’

Perhaps those crumbs are the proof of largess, the impartial sharing of God’s gifts to all. Perhaps we should be satisfied with the crumb of attention, whether we are giving it or receiving it. Like the dogs we should be happy to be at the table with everyone else. And in our lives here and now we should not worry who is the centre of attention – who is the favourite at the moment.

James questions favouritism in ourselves and in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, both past and present – and it will always be a question to be asked in the future. It is a question for every generation – in fact it is a question for every person to ask at every moment. So how do we answer this question here in Slimbridge today? How do we guide this and future generations in this very difficult question of favouritism? How will we love one another as God loves all of humanity? I ask these questions as a prelude to the coming of the kingdom of God.

Amen

Collect

O God, you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace, that we, running the way of your commandments, may receive your gracious promises, and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; 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

Lord of all mercy, we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace: by our communion keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel and preserve us from all sin; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

God of glory, the end of our searching, help us to lay aside all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom, and to give all that we have to gain the pearl beyond all price, through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Readings

Old Testament – 2 Samuel 18.5–9, 15, 31–33

The king gave orders to Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.’ And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom.

So the army went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country; and the forest claimed more victims that day than the sword.

Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And ten young men, Joab’s armour-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him, and killed him.

Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, ‘Good tidings for my lord the king! For the Lord has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the power of all who rose up against you.’ The king said to the Cushite, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ The Cushite answered, ‘May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.’

The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!’

Psalm 130

1    Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; ♦
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.

2    If you, Lord, were to mark what is done amiss, ♦
O Lord, who could stand?

3    But there is forgiveness with you, ♦
so that you shall be feared.

4    I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; ♦
in his word is my hope.

5    My soul waits for the Lord, more than the night watch for the morning, ♦
more than the night watch for the morning.

6    O Israel, wait for the Lord, ♦
for with the Lord there is mercy;

7    With him is plenteous redemption ♦
and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.

Ephesians 4.25 – 5.2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Gospel – John 6.35, 41–51

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

Sermon on Trinity 11

Last week I spoke about Paul’s words concerning, humility, gentleness and patience, “bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Paul continues this theme of living well in this part of his letter. He writes that loving one another through truth is the root of life. We heard, “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.”

What have we seen in the last few weeks? We have seen people take on, rather than eschewing, falsehood. I would want to ask – How have we behaved toward our own neighbours? Have we thought of them as members of our family? – or, even more radically, have we thought of our neighbours as if they were part of ourselves? Is my neighbour as precious to me as my very own self?

I don’t think anyone considers this moral stance as their own. Paul is offering a very different way of thinking about our lives than we usually have. If we look at the bane of our lives – social media, which used to be called gossip – we find that we accept opinions which are not really reasonable, and certainly not truthful and loving. If we think about what the influencers are saying, we have to confess that we can not really repeat those opinions as our own. On social media we find a great many opinions which do not foster efforts to “bear with one another in love”. Rather those opinions tear us apart and there is no possibility of establishing a bond of peace between anyone, and they may even cause each one of us to fall to pieces, let alone society in general.

Even families are breaking down. It seems that children and parents do not talk with one another – they would rather disappear into the silence of their smart phones even while they sit in the same room together. No one is visible to anyone else. Everything and everyone is hidden behind screens. We have lost the value every person represents. We have lost our grasp of truth – we have even forgotten that we have to speak with one another openly and with love. The truth is no longer the content of any of our communication. It would seem that self-promotion, callousness and intolerance are the marks of life in the twenty-first century. Can we afford to let this be the case in the future?

We can all look to the past in order to see what the disregard of truth and love have produced. The most clear example is that of slavery. Slaves were treated as chattel, goods which could be exchanged without any regard for their true worth. Slaves were not considered as people who loved and could be loved in their own right. Then we can look at the concentration camps of WWII both German and Japanese, or the gulag system of Stalin’s Soviet Union, or even the prison camps in Viet Nam of the 1960s and 1970s. There are even more recent historical examples of this devaluation of humanity. There is the reality of current, modern slavery, the trafficking of people as commodities with no personal value in themselves. Today we can also see people disregarding others through sending people out into the channel in unseaworthy boats and the murder of children, cutting out parents’ hearts with the slash of a knife.

What can possibly foster such behaviour? I think we let others do our thinking for us. We do not consider the moral values others reveal through constant dialogue, whether it is on line or in person. Screens hide us from one another and we do not value them in the same way as when we look them in the eye as we talk with them.

If we are going to hide behind those screens, we need to be able to understand just what is being said by the bloggers, the influencers, the spin doctors and the outright liars. We must be able to see what they put up on their pages for what it is. – We have to look at what is being said as they do on that television program, “Would I lie to you?”

I would like to suggest that academic studies – in fact biblical studies – can help us in our everyday life. When I was a student, I was asked to read articles about the same incident from three different newspapers. They were radically different accounts but about the same incident. We began to discuss how this could possibly be the case. We started by discussing the sources, where did the substance of the story come from and how did they agree. We then saw there might be factual differences, certainly there were judgements made which differentiated them. Then we were asked to read three passages from the gospels. They revealed three different ways of handling the same event. We then began to wonder the sources and about how the same incident about Jesus could be dealt with so differently.

This was my introduction to biblical hermeneutics, the art of the interpretation of the bible.

There is a type of biblical scholarship which identifies different forms of speech. This morning’s section of the epistle is an exhortation, a form of speech we all know. Our parents, our teachers, our bosses – they all have tried to encourage and exhort us to do better. Depending on who was speaking to us, we understood the underlying message. They wanted us to have some control in our lives – by either promoting their own stifling control over us or encouraging our own self control liberating us for righteousness. We saw that exhortation can take negative and positive forms, like so much in life.

Exhortation is one of the forms which are to be found throughout the letters of Paul. You can also find it in the prophets of the OT as well. It is a universal way of speaking with a group of people. It is used to change behaviour.

However, Paul encourages us to “Speak the truth in love”. Haven’t our teachers and parents also exhorted us to behave in the same way? They have asked us to exercise a discipline we don’t often see among our contemporaries. We needn’t go into details from the many examples around us. I think we can agree that many do not behave well, that there is deceit and wickedness all around us, just as Paul is writing about it in this letter to the Ephesians. We can all agree that truth and love would elevate life into something in which there is a fullness, where we can find joy. When we exhort each other to truth and love, I am convinced we are not offering a vain hope, that deceit is not our aim. Rather we are describing an ideal which does have very real consequences for all of us – just as being blown about by the latest thing has its own aftermath, like the results of a hurricane. However, let us find the gentle breeze of truth which bears love in its wings. I think in that way everyone can become part of one another as Paul suggests.

Amen