Lighting the Advent Candle

O God, we light the second candle of Advent.

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

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

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

Shine on us, O God of justice;

Guide our path through gloom of night;

Bear within us Wisdom’s glory;

Come to us, O Christ the Light.

Collect

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

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

Old Testament – Isaiah 40.1–11

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

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

Psalm 85.1–2, 8–13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epistle – 2 Peter 3.8–15a

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

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

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

Gospel – Mark 1.1–8

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

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

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

Sermon on Second Sunday of Advent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

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

O God, we light the first candle of Advent.

(The first candle is lit.)

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

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

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

Shine on us, O God of justice;

Guide our path through gloom of night;

Bear within us Wisdom’s glory;

Come to us, O Christ the Light.

Advent Sunday

Collect

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

or

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

Readings

Old Testament – Isaiah 64.1–9

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

so that the mountains would quake at your presence

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil –

to make your name known to your adversaries,

so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From ages past no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who works for those who wait for him.

You meet those who gladly do right,

those who remember you in your ways.

But you were angry, and we sinned;

because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,

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

There is no one who calls on your name,

or attempts to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,

and do not remember iniquity for ever.

Now consider, we are all your people.

Psalm 80

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epistle – 1 Corinthians 1.3–9

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

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

Gospel – Mark 13.24–37

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

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

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

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

Sermon on Advent Sunday

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

so that the mountains would quake at your presence

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil –

to make your name known to your adversaries,

so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

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

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

Epistle

Ephesians 1.15–23

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

Gospel – Matthew 25.31–46

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

Sermon on Sunday, Christ the King

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

Almighty and eternal God, you have kindled the flame of love in the hearts of the saints: grant to us the same faith and power of love, that, as we rejoice in their triumphs, we may be sustained by their example and fellowship; 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 glory, touch our lips with the fire of your Spirit, that we with all creation may rejoice to sing your praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Micah 3.5–12

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without revelation. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgement for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be ploughed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Psalm 43

1    Give judgement for me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; ♦
deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.

2    For you are the God of my refuge; why have you cast me from you, ♦
and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresses me?

3    O send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, ♦
and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling,

4    That I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness; ♦
and on the lyre I will give thanks to you, O God my God.

5    Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, ♦
and why are you so disquieted within me?

6    O put your trust in God; ♦
for I will yet give him thanks, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Epistle – 1 Thessalonians 2.9–13

You remember our labour and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was towards you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.

Gospel – Matthew 24.1–14

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, “I am the Messiah!” and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

‘Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.

Sermon on All Souls

November is the season of Remembrance, starting with this Sunday of All Souls. The liturgical colour is red, which calls to mind the sacrifice of martyrs, but also the coming of the Holy Spirit. Today we remember the passing of all whom we have known, the saints and sinners of our memory – those we have loved, those we have liked, those whom we have tolerated and even those who were so difficult to be near. They have all made up our past – and make us what we are today. In the midst of all that recollection, our readings this morning have a different cast, they are calling us to repentance, to change our ways.

Both the Old and New Testament lessons talk of false prophets and the misleading of the people by those in authority, whose interest is only in selfish gain, not the salvation of the souls in their care.

Jesus says, “because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.” What do you make of these words? Do they make any sense to you? Or are they like the whole of the bible for many of our contemporaries, totally irrelevant and incomprehensible?

I would like to try to understand this saying today with you. This saying has been fitted into a discourse about the dissolution of the world order, the destruction of the everyday, when there are wars, rumours of wars, when nations rise against each other, and even those who confess the faith will fall away from their saviour because of the hardship such a witness undoubtedly causes when rulers torture believers. Brother will give up brother and sister will hand over sister to the authorities. Parents, as well, will be betrayed. Anything to escape the terror of arbitrary acts of a wicked government. Nothing will stand as we know it now, because a lawlessness will destroy all that exists, particularly any love we may have – a lawlessness which, I would say, comes about because of an absence of love.

Because we don’t love one another, there will be no cherishing of life – neither one’s own life nor any other person’s life. We can see it for ourselves. So much is starting to fall apart in our lives, isn’t it? There are cracks appearing in our own lives – we don’t feel the same about anything any more. Family is not so united. For instance, I don’t know why my sister isn’t talking to me, or why my godson has ignored me for years or why my brother shows me an active dislike. Then, to top it all off, my own children don’t want to listen to me. And if my family is falling apart, that family which should be the bedrock of love, that family which should be the finest example of unconditional love in our lives, what do we find when we look to our neighbours and beyond? We certainly don’t see the law of the love of neighbour. Is it any wonder that we panic when we go out of the house? It is no wonder we live in the midst of high anxiety!

Jesus has to be right when he says, “because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.” We have experienced it, haven’t we? When I stop loving because others don’t love me as I expect, I have failed to keep the law.

What are we to do, if we want to keep love in our lives? “Anyone who endures to the end will be saved.” We have to endure these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune – we have to remain constant to the love we hold in our hearts. We cannot just give in to the lawlessness of hard-heartedness. We cannot listen only to the false prophets who preach only what many want to hear and present only a self-serving message, like the siren songs of commercial advertising. When we only hear those messages which have nothing to do with our care for each other, messages which promote selfish consumption, then we have fallen into that lawlessness deeper than we wish to acknowledge.

How depressing this is!

Our readings tell us about the dissolution of all we know, but they also tell us about real hope. The prophet speaks of the ill being done to the people of God in spite of the fact that those iniquitous leaders “lean on the Lord saying, ‘Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us.’” That hope is real. We all hope on the Lord, don’t we? But the Lord is a righteous judge who will examine the whole of our lives to see whether we have been law-abiding or not. Will we be found wanting like those false prophets and leaders who proclaimed good times and everything they did only provoked more misery?

We should judge ourselves and our own generation by this standard. Do their words and actions complement each other? You might consider the Covid Enquiry as an examination of our current standards. I would say we are all culpable – leaders, witnesses and observers. We are all guilty of not loving enough so as to fulfill the spirit of the law – caring to keep everyone safe. Aren’t we also in the wrong if we are to judge ourselves by the law of love? The hope remains that we all know that law. The hope is that we will all obey that law.

If we do, the lawlessness around us will dissipate, no longer will our hearts be like stone. The hard-hearted whom God condemns through the true prophets will be transformed and so everyone will have hearts of flesh, hearts warm and embracing, hearts that will break when those around them are breaking. Because of their hearts of flesh, they will act out of love for the sake of the other. No longer will the lawless selfishness of the present limit our care for each other in the future – if only we endure in the keeping of that one law.

‘Keep the faith’ – they used to say – when those hippies of the love and peace generation ranged the highways and bye-ways of the land. When all they said was “peace, man” and hoped that peace would settle on the land. They might have been idle and stoned, but their hearts were in the right place, they were human hearts loving their neighbours.

The hope is that we will see through all the condemnation of the ill we have done, we will see the hope all the souls before us have had and hold out to us, that hope for a world where there is care for one another, a world where the law will be obeyed and no one will ever be abandoned, a world where the ills of the past and present will be obliterated in a future of peace and love. We need to learn from all the souls whom we remember today and begin to make the world a better place just as all the souls, both saints and sinners, tried to do in their own ways and in their own time for the future of those to come.

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

Epistle – Philippians 4.1–9

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Gospel – Matthew 22.1–14

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity 19

Paul winds up his letter to the Philippians with these words –

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What more needs to be said? I could stop right here and we could have a Quaker meeting – silence in which the Holy Spirit would speak through and to each one of us. However, aren’t you expecting some sort of commentary on our readings this morning? Why else would you come to church? – Or is it the coffee and biscuits that entice you outon this cold morning? As I don’t want to disappoint some of you, let me plough through with my own thoughts.

There are many amongst our friends and contemporaries who might ask with Pilate, “What is truth?” Lots more questions arise from this point of view. How are we to know it when we see it? Indeed we might even ask whether we can recognise ‘whatever is true’ at all. What Paul is asking us to look for, you might say, is something which we may never see in our lifetime. However, time and again we all want to talk about truth, or the good. We all want to do what is commendable, don’t we?

But we have to admit that our ordinary lives are not spent in pursuing what we might consider ‘the pure’, are they? All we want is an easy life. Trying to live a life of excellence is not something we normally aim at – unless that excellence is comfort, like the rich man in last week’s parable who wanted to relax into eating and drinking to his heart’s content. Why even today’s parable is about a feast!

What are the things that we normally consider? Is there a goal in our everyday that we think worthy of all praise? Do we follow that focal point to the exclusion of all others just because it is right and just in itself? These are the questions we have to ask, not just because Paul has asked us to consider them, but because they point us to the Commandment of Love which Jesus handed on to us.

If we don’t love, how can anything we do be commendable? With perfect love as our impulse to act, won’t all our actions result in honour, justice and purity? Wouldn’t our lives be worthy of praise if we were to behave out of love in everything we do? Our Collect for the Day echoes Paul’s thoughts, doesn’t it? We would pray –

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.

Paul looks at us, as we consider our lives, while our Collect addresses God directly. We stand before that throne as petitioners, at the mercy of God. What worth does any action have which we offer to God? We are pathetic sinners before the divine majesty. In the words of this prayer, we say it is not possible for us to please God by ourselves. Instead, we pray that the third person of the Holy Trinity will transform us so that we, and what we do, might be pleasing to God.

We are the epitome of the Jesus prayer, which says, ‘Have mercy on me, a sinner.” How ever we present ourselves before God – or indeed anyone else, Jesus, archangels, angels, thrones, powers and dominions, even our fellow human beings – we stand before them as unworthy for any positive evaluation in the words of our common prayer, that Collect which gathers us up.

But Paul does not condemn us out of hand. Paul suggests that we can aspire to  true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing and commendable ends. Certainly we should consider them. We can conceive of excellence. There is hope that we can even approach or even accomplish any thing worthy of praise. We can certainly think of all these things. Paul suggests that we can raise ourselves into the realm of goodness in our daily life. Although the law condemns us, he says elsewhere, the spirit gives us hope and life.

Much of the western tradition of christianity is more than a little bit pessimistic and has given us a dire picture of humanity. This tradition has tainted our ordinary view of life. Hence we wonder what truth is, or whether we might be able to do something good. There is a whole tradition which considers human being as redeemed and ready to do what is right and good. Perhaps we have been tempted away from it – that is our weakness as human beings.

We have fallen and that image of God, which we ourselves are, is tarnished. We need to open ourselves in humility in order to receive the grace of God in our lives. The saints have always taught this possibility as true. In our own power, we can only acknowledge our ‘fallen’, ‘deficient’ nature, as in that prayer “Have mercy on me, a sinner.” However, in the power of the Spirit we can aspire, consider or even accomplish ‘whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable.’

Amen

Collect

Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you: pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself, and so bring us at last to your heavenly city where we shall see you face to face; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Gracious God, you call us to fullness of life: deliver us from unbelief and banish our anxieties with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Epistle – Philippians 3.4b–14

Even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Gospel – Matthew 21.33–46

‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:

“The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
   and it is amazing in our eyes”?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity 18

‘Listen to another parable,’ says Jesus. ‘Listen to another parable!’ and we cry – ‘Not another one!’ and Jesus seems to reply, ‘Just one more … you really might understand what the kingdom is, and what God is for you, if you focus on this parable.’

So, let’s think a little more about parables, but this time from a very different angle, perhaps you might think it an odd example, but it is one that has a link in my mind to the word “parable” itself.

Who has heard of parabolas? The word has a similarity, but a very different origin. It comes from geometry – you may have learned about them. The most well-known example of a parabola is a satellite dish. But we have also encountered a parabola close up. It is at a fun fair. – Who has ever been to one? We have all gone into the haunted house, haven’t we? In that house is often a hall of mirrors. A very scary place, isn’t it? Those mirrors use parabolas to create the effects that astonish us, but we enjoy them so much. We see ourselves in that very different way through those special mirrors. Sometimes we are long and thin, other times short and squat. Sometimes odd combinations of all sorts of shapes. It is amazing to look at ourselves in those strange mirrors, isn’t it?

The parabola has a unique property. There is unique focus in the parabola, and every point on the parabola is the same distance to the plane which is tangential to it and every line perpendicular to that plane goes directly to that focal point. – Don’t worry, I get confused at this point about geometric properties and mathematics as well, but I want to make this observation. I just want to say that the focal point is the important thing to consider. It’s what makes the satellite dish work. The parabola focuses everything on one point.

Isn’t this what a parable does? It forces us to think anew about ourselves and that one thing in our lives that gives us life in abundance. Our parable today brings us to consider how we treat others, especially someone who represents another. The son of the landowner becomes the focal point in our lives when we understand ourselves parabolically, when we think of the landowner in our lives (especially after Harvest!).

Again and again we listen to the parables of the Kingdom, and hope that the fellow standing in the pulpit might pull a rabbit out of the hat and make 21st century sense to this schizoid man (to quote a title of an old rock and roll hymn). We need to have that focal point in our lives so we can live and ordered life, like those lines on the parabola going through that special point unique to a parabola.

What does that parable mean for us right here and now? Do we understand what a parable is? We have heard them all time and again, but why are parables so important in the life of Jesus and the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church which follows her leader, Jesus Christ?

They focus our attention, but do we really understand them? Perhaps it is their obscurity which keeps them in mind. We struggle with them every time we hear them. I have always likened parables to the koans the zen masters pose their disciples. The most famous riddle is: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” The masters hope that their followers will attain enlightenment – the zen mind – but the students tend to disappoint when they struggle with the koan. They want the one quick answer that will provide the solution to all the riddles of life.

If the parables are like these zen koans, then we should be stopped in our tracks every time we hear any one of them. Certainly anyone speaking about them should be perplexed just as surely as the hearers of the parables are. Both the zen master and the preacher aim all their words at the heart for salvation.

If something is not really understood, if it is really a paradox, we may say there are two possibilities for its future. Either it can remain very significant in the tradition – or it can be forgotten. Of course, there is another possibility not mutually exclusive – that it remains front and centre for the tradition because it has been put aside and yet no one can let it languish in obscurity. This is the perversity of memory, isn’t it? When people say, “Oh, forget it,” aren’t we more likely to remember what we were supposed to forget? Isn’t it just like when we are told something is to remain a secret, don’t we want to share it with everyone?

Sadly, memories persist in a way that we don’t understand. We always remember the most embarrassing events in our lives, don’t we? Like those dreams in which we appear in the worst way possible – for instance, dirty and naked before the great and good, or running but never getting anywhere – you know the sort of thing, if you remember any of your dreams. These parables persist with the same sort of power as these diabolically remembered dreams do. They cause us to think again about what we ought to do and how we value everything. Parables and dreams – they arise from our own experiences. They teach in their own inimitable way – but only if we reflect on them. We can learn from the parables Jesus told, can’t we? They are teaching aids for those who wish to enter the Kingdom of God. They teach just like those teachers who helped you develop into the person you really wanted to be, deep in your heart – I imagine this was the sort of teacher the apostle Paul was, as he writes, ‘just as you have always [listened to] me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, [you must] work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’

The best teachers do let you “work out your own” self. They have confidence in you, although you proceed “with fear and trembling” into a future that is unknown. Those teachers threw you into the world with confidence because they had nurtured you in yourself. In spite of the knocking of your knees as you entered life alone, without your teacher to hold your hand and lead you along, you went forward with that abiding fear, but it was with a trembling of expectation.

I would like to think parables could give us all confidence in any situation like those best of teachers. We should take strength from our memory of them and the times we have struggled to make sense of the parables. As they say, every day is a learning day. We can learn so much from this parable when we focus all our energy on the one thing it is trying to teach us. We can always go forward – even if we do so as Paul says, ‘with fear and trembling’.

Amen

First Reading – 2 Corinthians 9.6-15

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written,

    ‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
    his righteousnessa endures for ever.’

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Second Reading – Luke 12.16-30

Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, 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, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Sermon on Harvest

“And Jesus told them a parable.” As Graham said last week, Jesus is telling a story that can change people’s lives. I would like to say that parables shock people from their usual way of thinking. I think we can agree this parable certainly does make us think about possessions anew.

Don’t we understand the attitude of the rich man? Don’t we all want to hold on to more and more of our possessions? So much so, that we have to find new places to store everything we have. Our cupboards are overfilled, like Mrs McGillicutty’s closet. (You have heard of her, haven’t you? She kept telling her husband, “don’t open that door!” but he always did and you would hear the tumbling of pots pans and everything else from those depths.)

We want to store up everything for ourselves, like the rich man in his counting house as the child’s rhyme goes. But everything goes wrong, doesn’t it? Blackbirds fly out of their pie and the order of things is disturbed and the maid has her nose pecked off (though it is restored thankfully).

The rich man in his counting house is much like everyone we know, isn’t he? He is the miser counting all his money time and again. We all enjoy looking at our possessions, don’t we? Some people go into their treasury to prize their trophies. The avaricious do so to a very dangerous degree. I hope we are not all so obsessed with the things we own and I am sure we don’t want to be like the biblical rich man who wanted to collect even more by building greater vaults. The parable tells us that all of this comes to nought, doesn’t it? The truism, “You can’t take it with you,” is a fact we too often forget in our lust for things. And so the accusatory voice from God resounds, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

Who will own the things you used to hold so dear? That is the question we need to consider now and do so urgently. Time is short. The end of the world is coming – maybe in our own lives – and we must prepare for it, or change our ways to prevent it. This is the message of the “extinction rebellion”, the “cost of living crisis”, or that man on the street-corner declaiming, “The end of the world is nigh!” These prophets are bringing to mind what we have forgotten, just like the OT prophets before them – we have forgotten to act well towards the environment, to other people and to God. Repentance for our misdeeds is demanded  of us by Jesus and every other prophet who has ever lived. They tell us we must remember what is right and good.

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

How can we do good things sparingly? Goodness and mercy are abundant gifts to be shared with all. – No, that is wrong, they are to be given away freely. – We should make no distinction between people with whom we share what is right and good. Everyone should benefit from the largess of love, the consequence of the one commandment we should all follow.

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Paul is asking us to consider our giving. It must be commensurate with who we are, with what we consider to be good and right. Paul is encouraging us to be cheerful, and who cannot but be cheerful when the good is being enacted in our lives for the sake of others. Who cannot but be cheerful when one is free from all compulsion? Who cannot be anything but cheerful when one is giving away everything in the generosity of the spirit of God?

In that happy release – in that real freedom from greed – we realise the truth of what Jesus says in the parable explanation. ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.’ We need not worry about our lives at all, because when you are truly alive there are no considerations to be made to any one thing which you touch in your everyday.

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

Paul realises that there is enough in life normally, when we live in the light of God. Only when greed and evil intentions get in the way do we have want and suffering. The mercy and generosity of love provides.

We all have the ability to do good to all whom we meet. This is a generous deed – a deed that does not rely on being tight-fisted, counting all the pennies in a completely selfish accounting way. We are not to be “bean counters”. If we are to be innocent as doves yet as wily as serpents, we ought to sow those beans for a greater harvest. Let us go back to the language of the parable. Sowing and reaping are metaphors speaking to how we need to lead our lives. We need to engender the good life actively by encouraging truth and justice with mercy. Mercy is without bounds, isn’t it? Mercy is generosity incarnate and I would suggest that generosity is how we sow in our lives. Generosity is that metaphorical sowing. Like the sower in that other parable the seeds are scattered indiscriminately, landing everywhere, rocky ground, on paths, but most will fall on good ground.

I work as a gardener and my wife and I have always had a vegetable patch. This time of year is when we begin to prepare for next year. As we harvest we are turning over the ground and enriching it. There is a saying that always comes to mind: “Money is like muck – it has to be spread around to do any good.” This is the generosity of the gardener. Lots of muck, that wonderful compost that has been maturing in the heap during the summer. I am often too generous, because we are always in danger of not being able to cover everywhere for spring, when everything begins again.

However, we are celebrating Harvest today. What do we harvest in our lives? We know what the garden offers us, but what do we offer others as their harvest from the garden we are for them? Have we been generous with our time and talents? What about the treasures in our store-houses? Seeds need to die in order to come to fruition as that other parable says. Has this happened for our harvest? Have we let go? Have we sown those seeds by letting them fall from our hands freely? These are all the questions we have to ask when we celebrate Harvest Festival. I am afraid I have raised more questions than given answers. Such is my generosity as I reflect on the parables of the kingdom and our celebration of Harvest.

Amen

Collect

Almighty God, whose only Son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence: give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth; 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

Merciful God, your Son came to save us and bore our sins on the cross: may we trust in your mercy and know your love, rejoicing in the righteousness that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Lord God, the source of truth and love, keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, united in prayer and the breaking of bread, and one in joy and simplicity of heart, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die’, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Ezekiel 33.7–11

Psalm

33    Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes ♦
and I shall keep it to the end.

34    Give me understanding and I shall keep your law; ♦
I shall keep it with my whole heart.

35    Lead me in the path of your commandments, ♦
for therein is my delight.

36    Incline my heart to your testimonies ♦
and not to unjust gain.

37    Turn away my eyes lest they gaze on vanities; ♦
O give me life in your ways.

38    Confirm to your servant your promise, ♦
which stands for all who fear you.

39    Turn away the reproach which I dread, ♦
because your judgements are good.

40    Behold, I long for your commandments; ♦
in your righteousness give me life.

Psalm 119.33–40

Epistle

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this saying, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 13.8–14

Gospel

‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

Matthew 18.15–20

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity Fourteen

Last week we thought about pride and its deleterious effect on our lives, and how it interferes with our fulfilling the one commandment Jesus laid upon each one of us. Paul carries on with his analysis of the law of love in this way –

The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul wants to overthrow the old understanding of the Law, doesn’t he? No more prohibitions, he proposes only positive action. He anticipates the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and God’s rule in our lives. He counsels us in these words, “Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Paul has described an entirely new way of being in the world here, hasn’t he? He goes on –

Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy.

Paul is counselling us to live a new life – he wants us to live “honourably”, a life in which we are fitted with a new type of protective clothing, an “armour of light”. This new accoutrement does not allow revelling and drunkenness, nor debauchery and licentiousness, nor quarrelling and jealousy. Different, indeed, is the life Paul expects in the light. These ordinarily acceptable states of affairs are a darkness, Paul tells us. We normally see parties and excess to be acceptable in our everyday life. However, Paul says there is no honour in them at all, and we would agree, wouldn’t we? We long for a life that is open, honest and bright – in the light, even though, apparently, we pursue a life hidden in the dark. In fact, I think Paul is describing what we would hope for in our moments of clarity.

He wants to overturn the usual – that all so natural, everyday mode of being – for something else. Normally, we only make provision for our immediate needs, what Paul is calling “the flesh”. We worry about food and clothing, and then that extends to fine food and rich clothing, and then that becomes mired in conspicuous consumption and its consequences for the planet but, more significantly, for our souls. Gratifying the flesh has never been more in question than in this generation, for everyone has been asking questions about the state of health for all existence on planet earth. The other day I was listening to the radio and there was a frightening exposition of how the environmental crisis has come about, and how long it has been building up. It would seem that the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism have coincided to reach this point in the history of the planet. They have conspired to deflect our attention away from spiritual health to the comfort of the flesh alone. Hymn writers have reminded us about this, from the time of Blake in the eighteenth century, let alone Paul so long ago.

Blake is asking us to put on that armour of light, just as Paul wrote to the Romans, but he is contrasting the new Jerusalem with the darkness of the satanic mills appearing in his time and still stand today. We must equip ourselves with new weapons. We must mount a chariot of fire and ride into the conflict on the side of the light against darkness. Blake wants us to realise that the holy lamb of God has walked the pleasant green land before the hills were clouded by the smog of concupiscence. The messenger is still amongst us, whose feet did roam in that ancient time of the garden of Eden, but, more significantly, even now moves among us – though he is too often unseen and unheard because of the darkness.

Blake, like Paul, wants us to wake up to the reality of our heart’s desire – its true intention for that heavenly Jerusalem to be built here and now for us, and for the generations coming after us. They both argue that it is possible to accomplish the coming of the kingdom. Paul wants to renew all of creation, while Blake’s desire is for a return of “England’s green and pleasant land.” Blake’s vision in the hymn is a national pride in a pure land where the master could truly walk from shore to shore, where we could see Jerusalem built here as it was, before the satanic mills clouded the horizons. We have obscured the vision which once was clear for all to see.

Paul also speaks of that time when God will be with us, a time of dread for those whose interest is only the flesh, and even more terrifying for those whose lives have taken a spiritual direction. Paul writes of our anxiety before this very real future, this extremely close advent of Christ’s final judgement.

The language is much the same as that of the climate protesters around us today. They have been interfering with a lot of everyday things, haven’t they? Interrupting all those sporting events, and causing traffic chaos. They and Paul want to rouse us from the sleepiness of the everyday, where we just keep going along with things as they are. But he asks, are we loving our neighbours? Those neighbours are more than the person next door just as Jesus taught, we must see the whole of creation as a neighbour – for everything has an impact on everything else, microcosms reflecting the macrocosm. The world is a cohesive whole and love is the only way to treat everything, if there is to be no harm.

That is the whole point of the revolution of the Law – the Law should be something we want to fulfill. The Law should not be something to “get around”. No one should obfuscate and turn words around from their intended meaning so that we can get our own way, to follow “the desires of the flesh”, as they used to say. – Love is never so selfish, is it? Love always tries to realise what is good.

Love always intends what is right, not what is convenient, not what is without peril. When we love our children or when we ask our partner for that life-time commitment, we are at risk. That is what we always say about true love, isn’t it? However, let’s start the revolution here – I want you to see yourself as invulnerable when you love, because you are clad in the armour of light. No harm can come to you because you are living and loving in the clear light of day, not in the night in which quarrelling and jealousy easily appear, that disquiet when the desires of the flesh disturb us. We would be very different people if we were to obey that one Law, don’t you think? Like I said last week, love could transform everything – even vengeance. Love would transform the everyday into the extraordinary. Jesus’ Law of Love would be something we would be happy to fulfill, and I would hope that spirit and flesh would no longer fight within us.

Amen

Collect

Almighty God, who called your Church to bear witness that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself: help us to proclaim the good news of your love, that all who hear it may be drawn to you; through him who was lifted up on the cross, and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Almighty God, you search us and know us: may we rely on you in strength and rest on you in weakness, now and in all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

God our creator, you feed your children with the true manna, the living bread from heaven: let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage until we come to that place where hunger and thirst are no more; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

O Lord, you know; remember me and visit me,

and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors.

In your forbearance do not take me away;

know that on your account I suffer insult.

Your words were found, and I ate them,

and your words became to me a joy

and the delight of my heart;

for I am called by your name,

O Lord, God of hosts.

I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,

nor did I rejoice;

under the weight of your hand I sat alone,

for you had filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable,

refusing to be healed?

Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook,

like waters that fail.

Therefore, thus says the Lord:

If you turn back, I will take you back,

and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,

you shall serve as my mouth.

It is they who will turn to you,

not you who will turn to them.

And I will make you to this people

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you,

but they shall not prevail over you,

for I am with you

to save you and deliver you,

says the Lord.

I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,

and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.

Jeremiah 15.15–21

Psalm

1    Give judgement for me, O Lord,for I have walked with integrity; ♦
I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.

2    Test me, O Lord, and try me; ♦
examine my heart and my mind.

3    For your love is before my eyes; ♦
I have walked in your truth.

4    I have not joined the company of the false, ♦
nor consorted with the deceitful.

5    I hate the gathering of evildoers ♦
and I will not sit down with the wicked.

6    I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, ♦
that I may go about your altar,

7    To make heard the voice of thanksgiving ♦
and tell of all your wonderful deeds.

8    Lord, I love the house of your habitation ♦
and the place where your glory abides.

Psalm 26.1–8

Epistle

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12.9–21

Gospel

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘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 will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

Matthew 16.21–28

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity Thirteen

I wonder if nowadays we listen to advice from anyone, whether they are our loved ones, our neighbours, or our teachers. I wonder whether we even listen to our priests and bishops speaking from the pulpit, let alone a mere Reader. Do we even listen to the advice given when it comes from the Bible, which we here in church confess to be the Word of God. Let’s take our reading from the epistle today as an example.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’

What wonderful advice! Vengeance is better served from an agency which has no connection with personal revenge – vengeance has to be that dish best served cold, without the heat of personal emotion. But we ourselves are not to seek revenge, are we. It seems our writer is counselling kindness whatever the situation. Why? Surely it would feel a lot better to take action against those who had wronged you in the same way they had treated you – or even more harshly …

So would we take this advice? Would we ever take any advice which goes against the grain of everyday expectation? – The other day I heard on the radio a few moments of a discussion of pride – that most heinous of the deadly sins, for it gives rise to just about any evil act a person can commit. For pride has contempt for all others. It would seem pride moves people to do just about anything, because a proud person is beyond considering anyone but him- or her- self. Psychologists might call it something else, narcissism or psychopathy or some other four syllable word. How ever it manifests itself, pride does demean everything one does, as well as the person doing it, let alone the degradation pride accomplishes on everyone else. Pride does not lift up, rather it destroys everything else except one’s self delusion.

Only the humble act can be exalted. We have heard about the meek inheriting the earth and the other blessings of the beatitudes, but do we really believe them? Kindness is the humblest of acts, and it does allow us to be exalted – if only in the eyes of the recipient of any small act of kindness.

What if that act of kindness were better known to a wider public? Would others also see you in another light? But more importantly, would you understand yourself anew?

At the moment, if we look around us, pride – not humility – is the mark of our society. We are to have pride in ourselves – black, white, yellow, male, female, trans, tall, short, extra-extra-extra-large or extremely petite. We should puff ourselves up in whatever the one thing we think defines us. This is what a profile on social media does – it is what we do to ourselves. We objectify ourselves and reduce ourselves to only one thing and that can change in the blink of an eye – from life to death.

This is what we have heard about before, isn’t it? Paul talks of this transformation in his letters time and again, as he speaks of the speedy, unexpected coming of Christ into our lives again, ‘at the last trump’ as they used to say. Paul and Jesus are agreed that we should live as though we were in the final moments before the gates of heaven are to open and that final judgement about each and every one of us is to be made. How humbling is that!

However, this message is not what social media proclaims, is it? It is not what the news conveys. Everything around us is about aggrandisement – and sadly this is a very selfish pursuit. We listen to that “chatter”, that prattle is what determines our actions all too often. What “they” think is more important to us than what is deep within our hearts. – I know you have heard me speak about this many times before, so I hope you can dredge up memories of those times when I spoke about the barbarous rule of the faceless crowd. – Today, I am again speaking of your own silent voice, the one that whispers to you in your disquiet when you are being led rather than stepping out on your own on the righteous path.

You remember that “still small voice of calm” from the hymn, don’t you – whose is it? How do we hear it? These are the questions the sage has always contemplated in deep thought. The religious have always confronted that silent voice in the prayer of the monastic cell. Just like each one of us, they have always wondered what the just path is as they followed their vocation, their calling to be their ultimate self, their ownmost being.

Is that true being the superman of the past, the conquering hero, the single-minded person whose only goal was that one prize? Or is one’s ultimate being to be the kindest person in the world? To follow that admonition we read from the bible today. To be good to your enemies – to heap those coals on their heads as they fester in the discomfort of their own self-judgement, let alone the judgement of God. – To be good to your enemies fulfills in ways we can never expect. We have no doubt. We have no self-reproach. We will love others as we love ourselves and so fulfill the great commandment Jesus laid on our shoulders, that heaviest of all labours anyone can take up. That is the cross Jesus wants us to carry – that command to love. Everything fades into insignificance if we fail in that one task. It is the humbleness of kindness. Pride can have no place in a kind heart.

In the kind heart there is nothing that takes our attention away from the task of love, and the true object of that love – God, that beyond which there nothing. Kindness strips away all our delusion. God is there before us when all become the objects of love. Kindness reveals that. The kind person really does reveal God in our midst – that love which is without expectation and yet is forever reaching out to an other.

This is getting rather mystical, isn’t it? But don’t we all wish for that vision of God? Don’t we all want to be kind and loving to each and every person we meet, just as we want each an every person to be kind to us? Don’t we want to love the other as he or she loves us? We should imagine love as the greatest revenge we can wreak in the world. In our everyday understanding, agape (true christian love) would turn everything upside down. Imagine if the worst we could do to others was to love them. Wouldn’t the world be such a different place? In other words, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Amen

There is a famous novel with the title, “The Heart of the Matter”. It has been made into films and deals with love and the deceit of self and others. – A story all too familiar, as it is an eternal theme.

Somewhere the line, “The heart of the matter is the heart,” appears – whether in the novel or about the novel, I don’t know, but that epigram speaks to the way we conduct our lives. Something is at the heart, at the very core, which guides us or induces us to certain ends. The heart of the matter is the very present in which we find ourselves with all of our hopes and fears. I think the heart infuses all our activity.

The psychologist, Viktor Frankl, lived through life in concentration camps in Europe during WWII, and found that there is a heart which can help us solve the problem of life, the universe and everything. He said that there was something profound which was guiding each person in the camps just for survival. That survival instinct drove people to some wicked acts on the one hand and some sublimely good acts on the other.

There at the heart of the matter was the principle of life, what Jesus calls life in all its fullness. That core value when grasped with purity, e.g. when it is not degraded by selfishness, leads to humanity plain and simple. Our being human is at our heart.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Did they hear him? Peter asks to wall to Jesus, and begins on his way. However, he was distracted from that call to take heart, he heard the wind howling. Peter became afraid, and he began to sink.

All of a sudden he took heart and called upon Jesus, ‘Lord, save me.’ He caught hold of his very self and was taken up by the hand of Jesus. At the same time Jesus castigated poor Peter. ‘Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ Peter had lost heart, hadn’t he? – Jesus was telling him that he doubted his own heart.

What a condemnation! This is a much more serious failing than what happened later, when Peter heard the cock crow the third time. However, it is of a piece with this story. Peter is not centred in himself, focussed on the necessary of his life, his human being.

I think we have all been in the same position – perhaps even every day. Don’t we recognise our failure to “Take heart!”? We are always falling into fear, and that fear can take many different guises in the course of our lives. As children, we are afraid of the dark. As teenagers, we are afraid of being left out of the crowd which has hogged all our attention. As young professionals, we are afraid of not accomplishing those goals that are placed ahead of us in our working lives. As middle-age approaches we are afraid that we will lose all that status we believe we have built up in the course of our lives.

But have we? As an old man, I am terrified that I have lost my heart. I have been so busy chasing the goals others have presented me that I am attenuated to one dimension as the philosopher described, and as Frankl feared for his fellow inmates in the concentration camp.

So many have grasped other things and let fear determine the heart of their lives. They have forgotten themselves in listening to all the voices screaming in the wind as they try to walk on the water of their very fragile lives. I think that is why Peter failed. He was distracted by something other than his heart, something other than his very real self which calls in a still, small voice at the heart of our lives.

Jesus called to Peter, “Take heart! It is I – do not be afraid.” I would like to believe the voice of Jesus is our very real self revealing itself to us. Instead of listening to the disparate, desperate voices of other people, we should be hearkening to ourselves, to that very core which is the heart of the matter – our own hearts. If we did listen to that heart, would we be deceitful in our dealings with others, or, more importantly, would we delude ourselves about what is really important and necessary in our lives? Would we be afraid at all?

We have all been in storms and been buffeted by winds we cannot track. It is too easy to roll with those punches, isn’t it? But is it right? Do we really want to give up our lives to things which are not at the heart of our lives?

This disjunction of self and others, this fundamental dichotomy, is what drives us. We know what we are fundamentally, but we are with others in such a profound way that we may not see that those others are setting the scenes of our lives. We are being manipulated as if they matter, and only they matter, those chattering voices on the howling wind. But the wind never sounds in the stillness of our hearts.

That is what we must recover. That is what Jesus is telling us when he asks us to “Take heart!” He is presenting us to ourselves when he says, “It is I!” Nothing else matters in that moment when we see Jesus there on the water and we have the heart to stride out toward him, because that is our true destiny. We want to stand on the water, on the edge of the abyss, on the cliff above a raging sea, to cling on to our heart and never be afraid – never to let go …

Unless, of course, we lose heart and any sense of self, or perhaps we might have grabbed hold of a false self presented by one of those voices in our ears, distracting us from that voice of calm which confirms itself in the turmoil of life in spite of everything. I think many have lost heart. Many listen to the fear which rises around them, as everyone has done throughout our lives. We may not have committed wickedness, but our hands are not a lily-white as they were when we were born, when there was silence and infinite possibility reigned, when the courses of our lives did not seem to be fixed.

Now we have done things of which we should heartily be ashamed. We need to confess – to God, but especially to ourselves – that we are sinners, and in that realm of conscience we should take heart. We should not be afraid of anything except it be the I which Jesus reveals.

“It is I!” Jesus declares as he calls to us in the midst of the raging sea. We are being called to ourselves, our hearts are being revived and revealed. We are to take up out heart, aren’t we? We are not to be afraid of anything or anyone except failing to be our very selves. I think the only fear we should have is that of losing the confidence of walking on the water of life toward Jesus in the midst of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We are destined to walk on water, if only we “Take Heart!”

Amen