Sermons

Readings

Psalm

1  God is our refuge and strength, •

   a very present help in trouble;

2  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, •

   and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea;

3  Though the waters rage and swell, •

   and though the mountains quake at the towering seas.

4  There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, •

   the holy place of the dwelling of the Most High.

5  God is in the midst of her;

      therefore shall she not be removed; •

   God shall help her at the break of day.

6  The nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken, •

   but God utters his voice and the earth shall melt away.

7  The Lord of hosts is with us; •

   the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

8  Come and behold the works of the Lord, •

   what destruction he has wrought upon the earth.

9  He makes wars to cease in all the world; •

   he shatters the bow and snaps the spear

      and burns the chariots in the fire.

10  ‘Be still, and know that I am God; •

   I will be exalted among the nations;

      I will be exalted in the earth.’

11  The Lord of hosts is with us; •

   the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Psalm 46

First Reading

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

‘Where, O death, is your victory?

   Where, O death, is your sting?’

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15.50–58

Second Reading

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 15:9-17

Sermon on Remembrance Sunday

“We shall remember them” echoes around this part of the month of November, but never more poignantly than today this year – the centenary of the Armistice of the war to end all wars.

Many have visited Slimbridge to stand watch, to remember, with the wire soldiers over the graves of the young men who died in that war. The loss of so many from the parishes of this benefice has been highlighted this year with the events in Slimbridge and throughout the country. So many have been remembered poignantly.

As you know I listen to Radio Three. The loss of so many musicians and composers has been lamented deeply, recalling them to mind by playing the music they had left behind them before their untimely deaths. Let us, as a song puts it, “beat the drums slowly” while we remember them, let the drums beat as our hearts pound in our breasts as we mourn the loss of so many.

Today we remember the dead from war, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We are their friends: we are friends unseen by the dead of war. So many wars have been fought in this century, some named as such, others hidden under other names, like “conflict” or “police action” or “peace keeping”. Whatever the name used, the dead lie in their graves, while all of us mourn their loss in some way.

We have stood by cenotaphs up and down the land. We have remembered those who laid down their lives for their friends. We have bowed our heads in the silence of eleven o’clock on November eleventh for the past hundred years, and still we mourn the fact that war continues and more will die because of mankind’s inhumanity. We will mourn those friends who have died for the sake of their friends, those who were by their sides and those who remember them today, at a far remove.

How can we transform this mourning into joy?

“We shall remember them” tolls in our hearts in that slow drum beat of remembrance. How – how shall we remember them? Their heroic deeds of going over the top? Their painful deaths after the battle? Their extended deaths well after the war has been declared over?

I believe the departed have passed life on to us. That is what we should remember and rejoice in our collective life humbly.

I was reading a novel, a murder mystery set in Canada, in which the central character reflects on the elderly, specifically the elders of the Inuit during the winter, the harshest time of the year for those in the frozen north. He said that in those times of hardship the elderly would walk off. They would find themselves on an ice-flow and sail away. I suppose it would be like the fellow with Scott in the Antarctic who stood up and said, “I may be some time,” and left. No one said anything, did they? Just as no one says anything in that village of the far north when one of the elders leaves quietly.

Captain Oats made the same ultimate sacrifice like the nameless elders of the Inuits. I am absolutely sure that we can imagine the thoughts of the freezing party surrounding Scott just as easily as we can imagine what the immediate family in the frozen north thought and felt – don’t we do the same at the side of the sick-bed of a loved one who is less than vigorous, whose life is passing before our eyes.

“We shall remember them.” summarises all, doesn’t it? It is a shorthand for thoughts and feelings, for our mourning.

Whom shall we remember today? We are in the midst of the season of remembrance. We have remembered all the saints and we have remembered all the souls. Today we answer “We remember the fallen”. Certainly we remember the soldiers and sailors who have given their tomorrows for our todays. But there are many others who have fallen, aren’t there?

So many have died less than heroic deaths in war. Some died in prison camps. Some died by the wayside, forgotten. Some died much later than the end of the battle, at home in their rooms, alone in terror because of their experiences. Some just, as McArthur said, “faded away” into the mist of time anonymously. – There are so many ways of falling because of war. So we must continue to remember in order to learn from the bloody past.

Memory plays the greatest of roles in culture, doesn’t it? We remember the past, like in a rowboat – we travel forward as we look behind perhaps occasionally looking over our shoulder, but that future glance is so hard.

We remember. And to transform the tears of grief into tears of joy, just like those who made that sacrifice, we love. This is  our battle which we must win. We must love.

In spite of all the odds, in spite of the culture of hatred, and doubt, and self-absoption – we struggle to love, to care without concupiscence for the person in front of us. We struggle against the enemy, those who are unkind, those who are selfish, those whose horizons encompass no-one else.

So we wander into the frozen wasteland of our contemporary society, hoping to conquer the loneliness, the lack of compassion, everything we realise is lacking when we have no friend, when we feel no love. “What a friend we have in Jesus”, as the venerable children’s hymn goes, Jesus who is willing to give everything up for us – Has he done this for me??? we sometimes ask. He has done this for me!!! we then proclaim with joy.

Amazing grace, indeed. That old hymn is the adults’ standard, one that we children grow up to sing with gusto, ultimately understanding just what a friend really is.

How shall we remember those people who have shared the grace of love with us? That is the struggle love faces every moment of every day. How shall we remember those friends we have in Jesus, let alone the one friend we do have in Jesus?

Paul writes, “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” When we do remember our friends is that moment of the last trumpet, that twinkling of a conscientiously and conscious seeing eye.

“We shall remember them”

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

Now this is the commandment — the statutes and the ordinances — that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:1–9

Psalm

1  Blessed are those whose way is pure, •

   who walk in the law of the Lord.

2  Blessed are those who keep his testimonies •

   and seek him with their whole heart,

3  Those who do no wickedness, •

   but walk in his ways.

4  You, O Lord, have charged •

   that we should diligently keep your commandments.

5  O that my ways were made so direct •

   that I might keep your statutes.

6  Then should I not be put to shame, •

   because I have regard for all your commandments.

7  I will thank you with an unfeigned heart, •

   when I have learned your righteous judgements.

8  I will keep your statutes; •

   O forsake me not utterly.

Psalm 119

Epistle

But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

Hebrews 9:11–14

Gospel

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Mark 12:28–34

Sermon on Fourth Sunday before Advent

We are told, “When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.” Why did no one dare? Why did everyone give up asking Jesus questions?

I am just the opposite, full of questions, questions that only my Lord and my God can answer. I am also jealous of that young man who replied to Jesus because he is not far from the kingdom of God, while I am lost in this desert of sorrows, this landscape of desolation. So, I can only question everything and expect that answers will come before my hope runs out, before I despair at the lack of any answers to my questions. After all, no one I know can give me the response I seek.

This is especially true at this time of year, when memories crowd around me, as the Church remembers those who have gone before, saints and sinners alike.

The saints cause us to falter on the way to our ownmost possibility. How can we behave like any of them, like Ignatius of Antioch who offered himself to the lions in Rome, like Thomas Aquinas who devoted his life to his summa theologica, like Oscar Romero who was shot to death as he celebrated mass? They went on in their own ways but stop us on ours – like that young man who talked with Jesus about the greatest commandment, that scribe whom Jesus judged to be near to the Kingdom.

When we look at ourselves, we are only filled with doubt, with questions about reaching that Kingdom. Questions which those around Jesus never asked. Questions which our contemporaries will never raise. However, here we are with those pointed interrogatives bristling everywhere.

Do we dare to ask those prickly enquiries? Do we approach Jesus in our doubting confidence to ask about the coming of the Kingdom? Are we as wise as that fellow was who asked Jesus about the greatest commandment?

I often come back to what Jesus says to this scribe,

‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’

Here is the beginning of all theology. First there is God, then there are people. These two commandments to love concentrate our attention on the two focal points of life as we know it. The scribe, like us, must live a moral life, amongst our fellow human beings for their sake, not just our own. But we can love our neighbour only because we have a love greater than all creation, because we love God.

That love transforms all life, and so we can appreciate ourselves and our fellows. I know that my world is transformed when I love. When my beloved enters the room, everything changes. I have an inner strength which when I am alone and afraid, when I am without love, is impossible. When I realise that my beloved is with me, literally and metaphorically, when holding my hand or merely at the forefront of my mind, then I am a new being. We can all understand how the creation is vitalised when we love God, that beyond which nothing can be conceived, when I love God the ultimate cause of all things. The fact is: when I love God I am invincible, nothing can harm me and I can harm no one.

I have been reading a novel lately – a murder mystery naturally – and one of the characters says that when someone is religious, when he loves God, then his actions are good and right. It is only when there is hate that evil events can take place in life. Hatred disfigures everything – nothing appears as it is. The kindness shown to others when viewed through through hate is evaluated as weakness, and the distortion continues throughout every virtuous action we might accomplish. All is diminished and demeaned and the world is dark, a place without grace and pity, a place where no one really wants to dwell. However, even that seemingly dark place can be transformed by that love religion offers that same love – the love of God and of neighbour. The world can become a place we desire to dwell because of our engagement with each other and beyond. This is the symbolic life, where the lived world becomes greater than the sum of its parts, its meaning is outside of time and space, and that symbolic life is where we want, and need, to dwell.

No longer do we escape into other worlds, worlds characterised by fantasy or denial, but the two commandments validate the whole of our lives. We expect the dark night will give way, at some time, to a bright dawn of which we sing later on in the year, at the beginning of the church’s new year.

Where there is love, there is light. No darkness in true love. Everything is illuminated with care, with kindness. This is the world Jesus talks about. It has nothing to do with the tax man or riches. Instead the tax man becomes our companion and we distribute riches to all in need.

The great prize is that innocent love of neighbour which arises from the love of God. The richest of gifts is the zealous love of God which focuses beyond the horizons of the world as we experience it here and now in the cramped conditions of human frailty. And we are to distribute the prizes to all and sundry without prejudice, without any agenda. When we give this gift away, when we love as Christ loves us, then we know the love of God. That love which makes us the object of love and which concentrates on God. That love is an end in itself and like the philosopher’s moral action is sought for no other reason than it should be so.

Jesus is talking about something we all know deep within our hearts, at the base of our lives, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Jesus wants to be asked questions about life.

However, we must dare to do so. Do we dare like that scribe to ask Jesus about the commandment which is first of all? Do we dare to talk about it with one another? If we don’t dare, we are silent – we become that silent majority of the politicians which they say condones all they do in our name. Let us dare to be a vocal majority, moving all to a brighter world where hearts are open and horizons infinite, a world where there need be no barbed wire at the borders, just a warming cup of tea and a heartfelt welcome into a very brave, new world.

Amen

Collect

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

(or)

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

Readings

Old Testament

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

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

Gird up your loins like a man,

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

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

   Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

   Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

   or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together

   and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

‘Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

   so that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

   and say to you, “Here we are”?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,

   or given understanding to the mind?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

   Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

   and the clods cling together?

‘Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

   or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens,

   or lie in wait in their covert?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

   when its young ones cry to God,

   and wander about for lack of food?

Job 38:1-7, 34–41

Psalm

1  Bless the Lord, O my soul. •

   O Lord my God, how excellent is your greatness!

2  You are clothed with majesty and honour, •

   wrapped in light as in a garment.

3  You spread out the heavens like a curtain •

   and lay the beams of your dwelling place in the waters above.

4  You make the clouds your chariot •

   and ride on the wings of the wind.

5  You make the winds your messengers •

   and flames of fire your servants.

6  You laid the foundations of the earth, •

   that it never should move at any time.

7  You covered it with the deep like a garment; •

   the waters stood high above the hills.

8  At your rebuke they fled; •

   at the voice of your thunder they hastened away.

9  They rose up to the hills and flowed down to the valleys beneath, •

   to the place which you had appointed for them.

10  You have set them their bounds that they should not pass, •

   nor turn again to cover the earth.

26  O Lord, how manifold are your works! •

   In wisdom you have made them all;

      the earth is full of your creatures.

35  I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; •

   I will make music to my God while I have my being.

Psalm 104

Epistle

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

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

‘You are my Son,

   today I have begotten you’;

as he says also in another place,

‘You are a priest for ever,

   according to the order of Melchizedek.’

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

Hebrews 5:1–10

Gospel

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’ When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity 21

I wonder if our prayers are the sort of thing the disciples, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asked of Jesus. Do we call upon God with, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you”? I wonder whether our prayers are so self-centred that we fail to ask God for what is right and good?

This reminds me of the story of the poor widow who pesters the unjust judge to do what is right. His exasperation with the constant reminders the widow bombards him about her cause, provokes a final “To get rid of her, I will do what I should have done all that time ago.” This story is about prayer, how we should be constant and insistent in our addressing God. But what is our  “cause” with which we pester God? Why do we keep calling out to God?

But let us return to the story of the sons of Zebedee. They are asking for prestige and power. “Who will sit at your right hand? Who will sit at your left?” We expect our contemporaries to ask these questions – we do not expect any of the disciples to do so. How could the original followers of Jesus be so cras, so un–spiritual? Just to be in that band of disciples should have been enough, don’t you think?

Jesus upbraids these thunderous petitioners. He tells them they don’t know what they are asking. – Do they really want to drink the cup of sorrow that Jesus must drink? Do they understand the baptism through which he is about to pass? The obvious answer is – No. The disciples are surely just like us: the disciples really don’t understand the how of Jesus’ leadership into the Kingdom of God. But their assurance that they are willing to follow, allows Jesus to confirm that they will experience the same baptism and that the same cup will be presented to them to drink to the dregs.

However, Jesus tells them in no uncertain terms that who will sit where is not in his power to announce. Those places will be prepared for those who will have them. Isn’t that enigmatic? Isn’t this the sort of remark one of those mysterious eastern sages would make to his naive pupil before he sends him out on the quest for enlightenment?

At this point, I think we have to pause. We have to ask ourselves, are these questions of power and status the sort of things we should be pursuing? Jesus gives us the answer, doesn’t he? Jesus tells us the lowest place in the kingdom is where the greatest will be found. In other words, don’t struggle to go to the head table, rather just slip in through the door and find a seat somewhere at the back. It doesn’t matter where, because, wherever you are, you will be a comforter to those around you. There is the best place in the kingdom. There is where we find our proper place as servants.

If this is to be likened to prayer, we must examine the “cause” which we pursue. The sons of Zebedee say, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Isn’t that what we do with our prayers? We want this or that. But are they really the sort of things we should pray for?

Are we praying to undergo the baptism which Jesus anticipated in the gospel? Are we prepared for the cross? Are we prepared to drink deeply of that cup of sorrow? I think the story of the widow and the unjust judge should guide us to what we should pray for. The this and that of our scattered thoughts and desires should be ‘the right’.

The widow pursued the judge to grant the right resolution of her case. They both know what would be good. but the judge did not want to do it – he had his own agenda, as we would say. He was pursuing his own ends, and they had nothing to do with righteousness. The widow, however, was relentless in her quest for justice. She would not stop. Neither should we.

Prayer is what distinguishes the religious person, for the religious is in a constant dialogue with God, like that widow chasing justice. The story of this widow reflects the great prophets, like Amos’ “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream.”

But these petitions are an internal dialogue, aren’t they? When we pray for justice privately and publicly, aren’t we pricking our conscience individually and collectively? When we pray aren’t we hoping for conversion experiences so that we can let righteousness flow in the world as that ever-flowing stream?

Our prayers are not just wishing for something to happen. Our prayers are ways of concentrating on the object of our desires. They impel us to action. So our private prayers should become a question about our morality. Our public prayers should be a collective call to the Good, to God. We are not arguing about the power of prayer. Prayer raises the question – Is it ethical that we ask anything of anyone, or as the sons of Zebedee put it – “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” I wonder, is that a righteous request?

We disciples today are asking the same question as John and James. We want to sit high above the crowd, but that is not a place of ease, power and authority. No, Jesus understood that even before he was lifted high on the cross in ignoble death.

Asking for positions of power as the gentiles, those benighted people who have no moral code, to commandments to obey – when we ask to sit on the raised throne of secular power, we are failing to grasp that cup of sorrow. We fail to see the world as it is.

It is the moral imperative that drives Jesus. “Whatever we want” does not satisfy the ethical demands of being a servant, of eschewing power for its own sake. In our care for the other, when we love our neighbour, we understand the sorrow and baptism Jesus leads us through.

I keep seeing religion as tied up with the how of our behaviour.  If we are religious, then how can we be “like the gentiles”? I am using this phrase to distinguish anyone who professes religion to those who do not. The gentiles live a life so very different to the religious – at the heart of it is the morality shown in true love, that love of God and neighbour.

So, how can we ask anything of anyone else? Rather, shouldn’t we be offering everything to the other as we meet them in their needs? From that position of service, we understand what is right. We understand the cup and the baptism Jesus offers, even if we don’t know where we stand with him.

Amen

Collect

God, the giver of life, whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church: by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ and make us eager to do your will, that we may share with the whole creation the joys of eternal life; 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, our light and our salvation: illuminate our lives, that we may see your goodness in the land of the living, and looking on your beauty may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Psalm 

1  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, •

   and are so far from my salvation,

      from the words of my distress?

2  O my God, I cry in the daytime,

      but you do not answer; •

   and by night also, but I find no rest.

3  Yet you are the Holy One, •

   enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4  Our forebears trusted in you; •

   they trusted, and you delivered them.

5  They cried out to you and were delivered; •

   they put their trust in you and were not confounded.

6  But as for me, I am a worm and no man, •

   scorned by all and despised by the people.

7  All who see me laugh me to scorn; •

   they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

8  ‘He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; •

   let him deliver him, if he delights in him.’

9  But it is you that took me out of the womb •

   and laid me safe upon my mother’s breast.

10  On you was I cast ever since I was born; •

   you are my God even from my mother’s womb.

11  Be not far from me, for trouble is near at hand •

   and there is none to help.

12  Mighty oxen come around me; •

   fat bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.

13  They gape upon me with their mouths, •

   as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.

14  I am poured out like water;

      all my bones are out of joint; •

   my heart has become like wax

      melting in the depths of my body.

15  My mouth is dried up like a potsherd;

      my tongue cleaves to my gums; •

   you have laid me in the dust of death.

Psalm 22

Epistle 

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:12–16

Gospel

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

Mark 10:17–31

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity 20

Jesus tells us quite clearly that everything will be turned upside down. The wealthy will be forsaken and the ignored will come into the centre of the Kingdom.

This saying, that the camel will go through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich man is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, has been the source of so much debate in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. When we couple this saying with the story of the rich man and Lazarus, don’t we often give up hope because we are so disoriented in the present. If the rich man can be so bad in this life with all his possessions, no wonder there is trouble brewing. The haves and have-nots are always in conflict. What was called, “The Politics of Envy”, has always been playing in all our minds and on the world stage. We have all said, “If only …” haven’t we?

But “If only …” does not mean that we are covetous, does it? Whenever we compare ourselves with others, do we always desire their possessions – do we always set our hearts on something we do not have? Envy is not what our thought, “If only …”, means. – When we say to ourselves, “If only …”, don’t we really mean that things have to change? Don’t we really mean what John Lennon meant when he sang, “Imagine …”

I think this is the import of  Jesus’ saying. Things have to change – it may seem impossible, but Jesus tells us that things will change radically. We, however, have to see how many things we put in our way on our journey to the judgement whether we enter the Kingdom or not. Is our way going to be as difficult as putting a camel through the eye of a needle?

This has always been a problem for the Church. There has always been great conflict over the use of money and its collection – Can we charge people for coming into this place of worship? Or should it be free at the point of need? Do we fix the roof or do we make charitable donations? These may seem to be outlandish questions for us here locally, but our cathedrals are faced with this problem. Some do charge people for just crossing the threshold.  (And I say, no wonder people have never been into a church today!)

But is this really the intent of Jesus’ words? I think we should see these words of Jesus less as a condemnation of the rich than as a description of the worldliness of humanity, that we concentrate on our possessions rather than using them to mutual advantage. Our greed gets in the way of our passage through to our ultimate goal, our ownmost possibility.

The other night there was a programme about the Medici – you know, the ruling and banking family in Florence which had bankrolled everyone in the medieval period. Some of the family were gold-diggers, and there were some who were scared about the state of their salvation. Particularly there was one who went to a monastery, eventually he became a pope. His cell was decorated with the art which had become synonymous with the family – beautiful yet full of meaning.

His cell was more like a suite of rooms rather than the cell of a monk who had taken the vow of poverty. In the cell shown on the programme there were two frescos. One, the crucifixion, was in the room you immediately entered. It was the humbling sight of the saviour on the cross, then up some stairs was the other fresco,  depicting the adoration of the Magi in a similar beautiful but simple style. The Christ-child was central, with the Magi offering their gifts around him. It is that adoration, that giving of self and possession to something other than ourselves, which is the focus of that fresco. It is the expression of their faith which the artist depicts. – Yes, they are rich kings, offering gifts of immense value to a newborn child, but that is not the meaning of that fresco.

I think the adoration of the magi allows us to put the rich man and the camel together on that passage through to the Kingdom. These rich men are divesting themselves of their possessions in front of the Christ. They see something which is of more value than their riches, so they are happy to give up that gold, frankincense and myrrh, those symbols of wealth. Their delight was in the child they had found, outside of themselves and their possessions.

In Florence in this period of the Medici, the Magi became the preeminent figures in popular piety,  even assuming a place of honour in the Medici palace – there the Magi were portrayed as kings with their exorbitant gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They were pictured in regal robes and crowns with gold leaf as the content of the paint. Obviously, no expense was spared in that palatial portrayal. They were seen as the powerful which the medieval period had come to know. The palace’s fresco is a completely different style to that in the monastic cell, but the fact that the magi are depicted, points to something, doesn’t it?

I remember being told that the explanation of this saying about the salvation of a rich man was simply that “the eye of the needle” was a gate in the city wall which required that the camel’s load had to be removed before the animal could enter this very low doorway, on its knees was how it was described. I don’t know about the factual truth of that explanation, but the symbolic intent was very clear. – The camel had to be divested of everything it was carrying, if it were to enter that gate. It had to get down on its knees to enter – unburdened, to enter naked, just as we ourselves enter and leave the world. Jesus must be saying to us that we can carry nothing through this portal to the Kingdom of God. That gold we covet, whether we be rich or poor, has to be left on the other side for us camels to pass through the gateway. I like that interpretation of this saying. It is fanciful and yet an accurate account of how we need to live our lives. Possessions have to be forsaken at some point, maybe only at that last moment when the decision is made to enter or not.

To pass through the eye of a needle makes no sense to us camels, does it? But as human beings we do understand.that very small gateway through which we must pass, that doorway to something other than what we understand here and now on this side of the wall. Here we burden ourselves with the politics of envy. Here we have forgotten how to live with one another for mutual benefit. Jesus’ saying should show us rich camels the way through the eye of this needle.

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.

Readings 

Old Testament 

But the ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death;

considering him a friend, they pined away

and made a covenant with him,

because they are fit to belong to his company.

For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,

‘Short and sorrowful is our life,

and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,

and no one has been known to return from Hades.

‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;

he reproaches us for sins against the law,

and accuses us of sins against our training.

He professes to have knowledge of God,

and calls himself a child of the Lord.

He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

the very sight of him is a burden to us,

because his manner of life is unlike that of others,

and his ways are strange.

We are considered by him as something base,

and he avoids our ways as unclean;

he calls the last end of the righteous happy,

and boasts that God is his father.

Let us see if his words are true,

and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,

and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

Let us test him with insult and torture,

so that we may find out how gentle he is,

and make trial of his forbearance.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death,

for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’

Wisdom 1:16–2:1, 12–22 

Alternative OT reading

It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;

   then you showed me their evil deeds.

But I was like a gentle lamb

   led to the slaughter.

And I did not know it was against me

   that they devised schemes, saying,

‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,

   let us cut him off from the land of the living,

   so that his name will no longer be remembered!’

But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,

   who try the heart and the mind,

let me see your retribution upon them,

   for to you I have committed my cause.

Jeremiah 11:18-20 

Psalm 

1  Save me, O God, by your name •

   and vindicate me by your power.

2  Hear my prayer, O God; •

   give heed to the words of my mouth.

3  For strangers have risen up against me,

      and the ruthless seek after my life; •

   they have not set God before them.

4  Behold, God is my helper; •

   it is the Lord who upholds my life.

5  May evil rebound on those who lie in wait for me; •

   destroy them in your faithfulness.

6  An offering of a free heart will I give you •

   and praise your name, O Lord, for it is gracious.

7  For he has delivered me out of all my trouble, •

   and my eye has seen the downfall of my enemies.

Psalm 54 

Epistle 

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 3:13–4:3, 7–8a

Gospel

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

Mark 9:30–37

Sermon on Sunday Trinity 17

James’ letter has something interesting in the Greek which I would like to explore. He is writing to those ‘in two minds’ (“double-minded” was the translation I read). However, the Greek suggests something other than what we would consider ‘mind’, it uses the word psyche, from which we get psychology, it is the mind, but it is more embracing than what we normally consider “mind” – well, that is the implication of the word, you know, that world of dreams and fantasies, that part of us which gets all messed up by so many things in our lives.

The Greek word “psyche” means “life” in some uses, so I would suggest that psyche bundles together the whole of our experience. The psyche also allows us to hive off every aspect of life into separate areas – our emotions, our rationality, our fantasies, our dreams (including nightmares and hopes). In other words, our psyche embraces the whole of our lives but allows us to see different aspects of experience. The psyche deals with life well in some cases, and in others disastrously.

But within that phrase, where this word, δυψυχη, appears, is καρδια, heart. We all know that the heart is taken as the seat of life. We say so when we profess our love to another – “My heart belongs to you!” or, on the other hand, we say. “You have broken my heart!”

Why has James connected the two here? Why has he connected the heart with the psyche?

Perhaps James sees the human being as a singular entity. Mind and heart are a whole, they belong to each other and one is not whole without the other. Perhaps James sees this as the essence of Jesus’ “life in all its fullness.” The Greek language, like English, has lots of words to describe the inner workings of human being.

My intention, however, is not to do a dictionary search about the inner life of the human being, rather I want to understand why James has unified the human being’s experience in this very short phrase, a phrase which acts as a condemnation of so many people. James speaks of those who are in two minds – when it comes to submitting to something greater than one’s own self. This follows hard on his harsh words about how badly we restrain ourselves and how we speak to others, using the tongue which is like a poisonous serpent, that tongue which can curse as well as bless.

Perhaps this is why he uses this word – “double-minded”. The tongue which can curse and bless, must reflect what is in our minds. – Don’t our military leaders warn us that although we may defeat an opposing army, unless we win their hearts and minds we will never win the peace.

We do fight a war daily – we fight against evil for the good. Too often we are in two minds in this struggle.  James exhorts us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is the dualism the human being faces, God or the devil. There it is, stark and simple, good or evil, just as we read in the letter. The solution is simple, as James puts it, isn’t it? “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” However, in our doubting, in our two minds, we don’t commit to anything – we invest ourselves in neither the devil nor God.

James sees this battle very clearly as it plays out in our lives. He thinks it a simple matter. He tells us, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Let’s think about this sentence a little more, for it is not as easy as it first appears.

Cleansing one’s hands is symbolic of purification – we all know about Lady MacBeth trying to wash her hands of the bloody sin staining them. We know that we ourselves like to wash thoroughly when we feel “dirty”, when we have really messed up in some fundamental way, when we have sinned. This is all James is saying, isn’t it?

How do we purify hearts? This is the second part of James’ call to better behaviour. I think it is revealed in the phrase to whom James is speaking, “you double minded”. I have already suggested that the unity of the heart and mind is the basis of faithful behaviour. Single-mindedness in the broadest sense of that phrase – single-mindedness is not doubting one’s final goal – single-mindedness is not obsession with some one thing. Rather someone who is not in two minds can go forward through the many choices of life to that one goal, one’s ownmost possibility. The balanced single-minded approach to life would be able to do what James suggests, because they have clean hands and a pure heart.

It is that singleness of innocence whither James steers us. James wants us to grasp God, the only true good in our lives. Our collect confirms this, that our hearts are “restless until they find their rest in God”. Our hearts will continue to be restless until the final resting place is attained – and that place is at the right hand of God.

Why does James use this complicated, simple phrase, “Purify your hearts, you double-minded”? We often hear how different Jews and Greeks were. Their cultures were so very different. The bible is written from the Jewish point of view, and we often hear the phrase, “the heathen” – everyone who is not a Jew.

What if James was using this phrase to speak to the two sides of this cultural battle? What if he were speaking to the Jew by talking of purifying the heart and to the Greek by addressing the disturbed psyche – as he speaks to the double-minded? Is James actually trying to unify the two populations which are so disparate? We always say that Paul is doing this. Why not James? Here he is showing – very subtly, I admit – that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, for he is addressing them in the same phrase. James is using words which are culturally specific to speak of the good life in God.

Perhaps this is a model we need to keep in our own minds as we speak to our neighbours about the most important thing in life, when we talk about the ownmost possibilities of life. We need to remember that hearts and minds do form the unity of life. These hearts and minds are what life in all its fullness is all about. That singular experience of salvation unifies us into the soul ascending to God. We should take hope as we purify our hearts and become single-minded. Isn’t this single-minded purpose the essence of a caring love between ourselves and with God just as Jesus commanded?

Amen

Collect

O God, you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace, that we, running the way of your commandments, may receive your gracious promises, and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

(or)

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

Readings

Old Testament

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

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

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

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

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

2 Samuel 18:5–9, 15, 31–33

Psalm

1  Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord;

      Lord, hear my voice; •

   let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.

2  If you, Lord, were to mark what is done amiss, •

   O Lord, who could stand?

3  But there is forgiveness with you, •

   so that you shall be feared.

4  I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; •

   in his word is my hope.

5  My soul waits for the Lord,

      more than the night watch for the morning, •

   more than the night watch for the morning.

6  O Israel, wait for the Lord, •

   for with the Lord there is mercy;

7  With him is plenteous redemption •

   and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.

Psalm 130

Epistle

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

Ephesians 4:25–5:2

Gospel 

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

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

John 6:35, 41–51

Sermon on Sunday Trinity 11

The reading from Paul today is an exhortation for us to change our ways. Like so many fire-and-brimstone preachers of the past, he is quick to spot the evil practices of the present but in contrast to those very severe preachers Paul is quick to commend the good practices of the coming Kingdom.

Paul wrote, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.” Here, I would say, is the proof that Paul does not condemn the good life, the enjoyment of life, contrary to so many who contend that Paul does not want us to enjoy ourselves.

I think Paul wants us to engage in the joy of life in all its fullness. I think he bases this on Jesus’ own words. Paul is quick to condemn those who live a life which does not enhance the fullness of life – and he gives some explicit examples: the angry, the thief, the slanderer, the liar, the wrathful, the contentious and the malicious – all of these people do not enhance life, for they denigrate the people around them. In the case of the thief, it is obvious that he has harmed the victim in the commission of his crime. By taking that object, the thief compromises the world of his victim.

You can see how the wrathful demean the people around them. – Or those who are argumentative. – All of these behaviours Paul wants to change because they do nothing to prove one’s faith in Christ, for they do not enhance the life of anyone around them, they do not show any sign of keeping the love of Christ for everyone.

But I would say that at the same time as these sinners strangle the life out of the objects of their terror, they are snuffing out their own lives. Paul explains that the thief should give up stealing, for the sake of his own personal fulfilment. “Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.” Everyone knows the work of their own hands creates a worth nothing else can. How can a stolen item compare with something I made myself? When you accept the present I created for you, don’t we both feel so much better – to use a current term – so much more affirmed, than when I present something which was whipped away in the dead of night? You feel treasured, that I would dedicate the time, effort and skill to make you a present. I feel so much more valued for myself because I was able to present you my own work.

I suppose that is why I like my present job. It is good honest toil. I create and make anew for someone else, because they are unable to do so for themselves because of any number of reasons.

That honesty of self is what Paul wishes to establish in this reading. The thief no longer has to lie about his work. He can gladly share what he is doing wherever he is, whenever someone asks. The thief no longer has to move about furtively, staying in the shadows where no light can illuminate what he is up to. If the thief can do this, how much more should we do so in the whole of our lives? We have to say that honesty is the best policy – to use that trite phrase – in a new way, I hope. It is the best policy for myself as well as those around me. The thief becomes an honest worker and he benefits by living a simple life, and everyone benefits by his efforts.

But let us take this another step. Many of the wretched activity Paul named are not physical – like the thief. What are they: slander, anger, lying, wrath, contentiousness and malice. These are not physical evils, but they are just as evil as stealing – they are ways of attacking others in a covert way. I may not be wielding an axe, but when I slander someone I strike at that other’s heart with a word.

We all know how this feels, don’t we? “How could they say that about me?” “Everyone is thinking this about me – what am I to do?” I am destroyed by this ill will towards myself – and it could be someone who I called a friend who has done this to me. Imagine how belittled I would feel at that. And we can see the same thing happening in all of these – anger, lying, wrath, contentiousness and malice. This sort of behaviour is not like waging war with armies or bullying people with sticks and stones, it is more subtle, as we know being bullied need not mean getting beaten up, but words can hurt so very much. These sorts of words do not allow us to appreciate the other, rather it is ourselves – our selfish selves – which is puffed up and distorted. That self displaces everything that could help ourselves and others to get along in life, to enjoy life in all its fulness, just what Jesus wants us to have.

But how do we get away from this usual behaviour, the way people normally live in the world? Don’t we all get angry when others doing something which impinges on our little world, that selfish world we know so very well? When we are angry, don’t we want to quarrel with everyone? Don’t we bear ill will, that malice, toward the world outside? Eventually, don’t we lie to ourselves about everything and then proceed to lie to everyone around us. Then everything turns to dust, doesn’t it?

The relationships we thought we had disappear. Affection is lost. However, most importantly, love seems to be abandoned. What fulness is there in that sort of life? Paul writes: “Let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.” Here we have the basis of Paul’s hope. That we belong to one another, that we are members of one another, only subsists when there is truth, that openness, the unhidden-ness of a quiet life, a life which in itself is full, a life we find we really enjoy. We enjoy life because we share it – the monastic hermit shares with God, I share it with my family and you, my friends. When it is shared we grow, we expand our horizons and hope flourishes.

In another place Paul asks us to “speak the truth in love”. How else should we speak? He has implied that we “lie in hate” with all those expressions of the bad life.

So with the thief we have to give up those worldly behaviours because we only demean our humanity. I want to speak the truth with my neighbour because I will be able to let them be themselves, just as I can be myself with my honest way of life.

No longer will anyone constrain another by such ill suited behaviour. Like the thief, I will honestly toil with hand and tongue. Love will express itself through everything I do because that is what I want to be. Let’s get rid of slander, anger, lying, wrath, contentiousness and malice. Let us enjoy life in all its fulness honestly, and sinlessly.

Amen

Collect

Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

(or)

Lord of heaven and earth, as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer, give us patience and courage never to lose hope, but always to bring our prayers before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, ‘There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meagre fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveller to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.’ Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’

Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan said to David, ‘Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a

Psalm

1  Have mercy on me, O God, in your great goodness; •

   according to the abundance of your compassion

      blot out my offences.

2  Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness •

   and cleanse me from my sin.

3  For I acknowledge my faults •

   and my sin is ever before me.

4  Against you only have I sinned •

   and done what is evil in your sight,

5  So that you are justified in your sentence •

   and righteous in your judgement.

6  I have been wicked even from my birth, •

   a sinner when my mother conceived me.

7  Behold, you desire truth deep within me •

   and shall make me understand wisdom

      in the depths of my heart.

8  Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; •

   wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

9  Make me hear of joy and gladness, •

   that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

10  Turn your face from my sins •

   and blot out all my misdeeds.

11  Make me a clean heart, O God, •

   and renew a right spirit within me.

12  Cast me not away from your presence •

   and take not your holy spirit from me.

13  Give me again the joy of your salvation •

   and sustain me with your gracious spirit;

Psalm 51

Epistle

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said,

‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;

   he gave gifts to his people.’

(When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Ephesians 4:1–16

Gospel 

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

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

John 6:24-35

Sermon on Sunday Trinity 10 

One of the books on my shelves is entitled Man’s Search for Meaning. Just what we are looking for in our lives. I wonder whether we are trying to find something that is “in the world” – amongst the fleeting and perishable – to grab ahold of. Are we, I ask myself, like those people at Capernaum? Perhaps we are all seeking Jesus. But then Jesus turns to us and demands, “Why are you looking for me?”

That is a rather odd response, isn’t it? Why would a person turn to his followers to ask such a hard question? Why would Jesus rather go off to a mountain-top, instead of relishing the adulation of the crowd, a crowd that swarms around him wanting to compel him to be The King? I considered that story last week somewhere else, but this week we have the same behaviour exhibited by Jesus. He rejects the crowd’s behaviour toward him. He does not accept that the crowd knows best for him.

Jesus is confronting the crowd around him, asking them why they are doing what they are doing. – Why do you follow me? he asks. Is it the fact that 5000 of you ate bread and fish from the meagre fare of five loaves and a few fishes? Do you come to me to make me leader because you have been fed so well? Or is it because you see signs of something else? Do these miracles symbolise the eternal and draw you beyond the ephemeral? Or do the symbols themselves capture your imagination, your psyche, your soul? Do they enthrall you into a life of sublimated worldly desires? Are you controlled by the bread and fish you ate, or that wine I made out of water in Cana? In short, do your stomachs really control the lives you lead?

This is not the rhetoric of “the spiritual” – those who have taken a stance over against the world. Rather this is the language of conscience, that small voice which calls us to that place of freedom for action in our lives, that place where faith dwells – that place where the philosopher retreats to in order to seek the Good and the Right.

It is this confrontational nature of the great prophets which draws me to their message. They are not transparent – that transparency we all desire from everyone nowadays. — No, Jesus is opaque. He confronts us in order to make us see and hear in ways the world does not. In the transparency of the world, nothing is there to be seen. Rather we see through people and things. We grasp them by avoiding them as they are. Rather we would control the people around us in manifold ways as the psychologists will tell us. Rather, we would conform to the world in ways the social anthropologist and political philosopher expound. In the world we are indistinguishable from everyone else. We become the controlling crowd which swarms around, prodding and pushing everyone else into certain actions which may or may not be good in themselves, but they are certainly what the crowd wants.

That is why everything in the world is transparent to the crowd. They don’t care. The crowd do not have eyes to see what is right there in front of them. We all do this, don’t we? When we ask people how they are, we don’t expect an honest answer, just the same old “Fine, thank you,” and we both move on, the greeting forgotten. We have looked but not seen that person in front of us, they have become transparent in a very real sense. We have acknowledge them, but that is all. We continue on our own way, without a thought for the other, all dismissed. 

This is why I like the opaque nature of the prophets and Jesus. While they both accuse us of a primordial guilt by confronting each and every one of us, they all want us to be colourful and seen. Jesus and the prophets don’t want us to be stared through like panes of glass, so transparent the crowd doesn’t even notice us. – The crowd sees through the other to control in subtle or even very blatant ways. The crowd sees through in order not to have to deal with the other person. Such a state of affairs should be quite obvious to us. We all shop online, don’t we? the delivery comes in a box, dropped off on the doorstep, sometimes we don’t even see the delivery man. Even in the local library, the human has been suborned – there are fewer and fewer librarians to deal with your books. You are expected to go to the machine, scan the books and take the ticket. You no longer are able to speak with the librarian about the books you are taking out – after all sometimes you want to ask if someone else has read the book you have in your hand and what they thought. — This is the world’s transparency – that we look through the other in order to remain in our own little worlds, the solipsism of the I-myself. I applaud the opaque nature of Jesus. It shakes me out of my self and demands I deal with that other person, who hides behind that face in front of me, a face I am inclined to look through. That is something so many people have done, isn’t it? To “blank someone” to do worse than to look through, not even to notice the other person is there in front of you. I have done it. I am sure you have done it – perhaps even with the Jehovah’s Witness standing in the road in front of you.

This is something Jesus would not countenance, is it? His story of The Good Samaritan is a condemnation of this sort of behaviour in the most absolute terms. No person should look through another, and certainly not “blank” another. When someone is opaque, we must deal with them in the most human of ways. No one should be a cog in a transparent machine.

Jesus never treated anyone in this manner, did he? We have, but – I hope – not very often. This is part of the guilt the philosopher and the theologian heap on humanity. We well deserve such castigation. The fire and brimstone preachers have got the condemnation of the world right. But they often don’t preach the two commandments Jesus taught, to love God completely and to love our neighbours as ourselves. And here I have arrived yet again at the new Law.

Always I return to this pair of most pressing commandments we have, love being ever so simple but always so hard to accomplish. This is the proof of the opaque nature of the I–Thou relationship, don’t you think? The philosopher spends his whole life exploring that I–Thou, just as we do in our lives together with friends and family, and the one beloved. But even more pressing is the  investigation of the divine, how God confronts us in our everyday lives through all of creation. We are opaque when we look with those eyes that see, and listen with ears that hear. The light is reflected back from the other so that we can see them. No longer will anything be transparent, but always opaque because we want to see the world around us just as Jesus did.

Amen

Collect

Almighty God, who sent your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your Church: open our hearts to the riches of your grace, that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love and joy and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

(or)

Gracious Father, revive your Church in our day, and make her holy, strong and faithful, for your glory’s sake in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’

So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’ Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house’, David said to Uriah, ‘You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’

2 Samuel 11:1–15

Psalm

1  The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ •

   Corrupt are they, and abominable in their wickedness;

      there is no one that does good.

2  The Lord has looked down from heaven

      upon the children of earth, •

   to see if there is anyone who is wise

      and seeks after God.

3  But every one has turned back;

      all alike have become corrupt: •

   there is none that does good; no, not one.

4  Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, •

   who eat up my people as if they ate bread

      and do not call upon the Lord?

5  There shall they be in great fear; •

   for God is in the company of the righteous.

6  Though they would confound the counsel of the poor, •

   yet the Lord shall be their refuge.

7  O that Israel’s salvation would come out of Zion! •

   When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,

      then will Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

Psalm 14

Epistle

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14–21

Gospel

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.

John 6:1–21

Sermon on Ninth Sunday of Trinity

There have been a number of television programmes about world leaders of late. Can you imagine any of those world leaders doing what Jesus did?

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

It is obvious that our political leaders want to surround themselves and be surrounded by phalanxes of their supporters. But just who are those people who gather around them? Are they merely “yes–men”? Are they people who desire their own way? Or do they argue what is right and proper? Or would those leaders take themselves off to a high mountain to be by themselves? – I don’t know.

What is the dynamic between the leader and his coterie? That is a very important question to ask, let alone try to answer. Ir is also a question we have to ask of ourselves as we make our own ways in our own journeys – the walk we take with our friends and families. How do we expect them to behave toward us? How do they expect us to behave toward them? How does everyone behave toward each other?

Are they a crowd pressing me to one way of acting or another? Do they act as my conscience, forcing me to make up my own mind about the issue at hand?

I have been reading a novel about life in Minsk in World War II. It is a harrowing account of a man’s journey from an idealistic young man working for the police in a high status job to a murderous thug of the worst type, an SS man in charge of one of the many camps in Hitler’s final solution. The details of the novel don’t matter, but they sent me to my bookshelf to find a book by a Holocaust survivor – it is a psychological rendering of a man who had lived through the concentration camp.

These two books taken together make sense of each other. They describe how a person is desensitised to others and then to himself. That is the fundamental point of these authors, that one no longer is connected to anything but survival. The high moral values of the church and schoolroom no longer make any sense because no one plays a part in anyone else’s life. This leads to making poor choices toward others. Then when one loses interest in one’s own person as a human being because of the degrading treatment received, what hope can there be for anything? So why am I relating this to you this morning? – I think it is because of King David. He is the leader we all thing about when we imagine an ideal leader, but he has this dark side, doesn’t he? He becomes obsessed and then he dehumanises poor old Uriah. Uriah is of no interest to him except as a barrier to his pleasure – Uriah stands between David and Bathsheba. David has lost all consideration of the other person. He has wrapped himself up in his own desires. He feels nothing for Uriah, only for himself. That, I think, is the key to this story of David and the point of the novel I read.

There are more subtle points to be made in the psychology of this event, not least because this dehumanisation occurs not just in relation to others, but even to one’s own self. When that happens, my reading leads me to believe that the worst can happen. Again, this is the point of the story of David and the novel. They converge on the fact that when one has made objects of everything, no human or divine rules apply.

That has implications for society. We have considered the ill will of the crowd many times, so we need not consider that again. Let us just say that the crowd should never control us. But the novel points out how the crowd can control us. When we deal with other people merely as bags of bones, our choices are flawed. The most brutal treatment can arise because of it – and the crowd condones it, affirming our wretched behaviour as acceptable. How is that possible? How can the crowd do that?

It happens when we let the person, both self and other, fade to nothing. How can we act against that? It would seem impossible. First of all we have to admit that we can break away from the manipulating crowd. We have heard that the truth will make us free, but I think something else can do that as well.

I would like to suggest that faith frees us from all domination and provides us with  self-control. I believe that the only control of our own behaviour we should allow is self-control. What about that King of the Bible all remember? Sadly, no: David did not, he indulged himself. He did not let the truth and his faith in the jealous God to guide him.

Do our leaders show us self-control on this grand scale? Or do they behave like David? I will leave you to answer that for yourselves – as politics is not our object here. Rather we are here to meditate on how faith redeems human value.

I think we need to look at our leader, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. How does he help us understand out redemption?

What was Jesus doing when he took himself off to the high mountain? Wasn’t he showing the highest self-control a person can, when he removed himself from the crowd pressing around him, trying to point him in their direction, rather than letting him go on his own way? The way we know as the way of the cross. Jesus turns away from the crowd. He turns away from their demands, the calling for more and more miracles, the demand for instant gratification. They want him to be their king and he turns away. He had been doing great acts of power in the midst of them, when faith brought the miracle about. Because they were trying to be his control, he leaves. He only wants to control himself, not a Kingdom.

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

I have been considering this “force” the crowd uses to control us for a while now, and how faith frees us for self control, the only control there should be. Faith frees us from everyone else, it frees us to be able to act for the other, not just ourselves. That is the point of that Holocaust survivor’s account. He shows that our dedication to that significant other, is what frees us from the degradation of extreme selfish behaviour that gives rise to the horrors of any kind of war. By positively lifting the other up in our estimation, we raise ourselves up. This faith saves us from the sinfulness of being fixated on something base: faith frees us for those two other great things in life, hope and love.

Amen

Collect

Almighty God, whose Son restored Mary Magdalene       to health of mind and body and called her to be a witness to his resurrection: forgive our sins and heal us by your grace, that we may serve you in the power of his risen life; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Readings

Old Testament

Upon my bed at night

   I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but found him not;

   I called him, but he gave no answer.

‘I will rise now and go about the city,

   in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.’

   I sought him, but found him not.

The sentinels found me,

   as they went about in the city.

‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

Scarcely had I passed them,

   when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him, and would not let him go

   until I brought him into my mother’s house,

   and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Song of Solomon 3:1–4

Psalm

1  As the deer longs for the water brooks, •

   so longs my soul for you, O God.

2  My soul is athirst for God, even for the living God; •

   when shall I come before the presence of God?

3  My tears have been my bread day and night, •

   while all day long they say to me, ‘Where is now your God?’

4  Now when I think on these things, I pour out my soul: •

   how I went with the multitude

      and led the procession to the house of God,

5  With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, •

   among those who kept holy day.

6  Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, •

   and why are you so disquieted within me?

7  O put your trust in God; •

   for I will yet give him thanks,

      who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

8  My soul is heavy within me; •

   therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,

      and from Hermon and the hill of Mizar.

9  Deep calls to deep in the thunder of your waterfalls; •

   all your breakers and waves have gone over me.

10  The Lord will grant his loving-kindness in the daytime; •

   through the night his song will be with me,

      a prayer to the God of my life.

Wisdom 6:17–20

Epistle

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

2  Corinthians 5:14–17 

Gospel 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

John 20:1-2, 11–18

Sermon on Sunday remembering Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene – or do we call her after the Oxford college “maudlin”? – is the subject of our reflection today. I rushed to my bookshelves to retrieve a book to help me understand this saint – but it was not the Golden Legend, my favourite miscellany of saints’ lives from the middle ages, but The Last Temptation of Christ from last century on which my hand fell.

The novel is Nikos Kazantzakis’ ruminations on the life of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene figures prominently in his telling of the story. It caused a great controversy when it first appeared. As I remember it, many parts of the Greek Orthodox church and other churches, east and west, condemned the author for his blasphemy. But why is a meditation on the life of Christ the cause of such vehemence? Don’t we do this every day? Don’t we wonder why? Don’t we consider the reality of the passion as it relates to our own lives? Well, I suppose we don’t all publish novels based on our meditations, do we? We are rather quiet in our considerations of the root of our happiness.

But let’s think about the work of this novelist in the light of the literary tradition in Greece from the earliest times. The early playwrites, like Sophocles and Euripides, took the stories of the tradition and told them anew, to their own generations. I think this is what Kazantzakis is doing for our time. In fact this is what I do whenever I step up here in front of you – I try to convey the wonder of the story of our Lord and Saviour as I speak to you. Are we so very different to one another?

Don’t the Greek playwrites, that novelist and all the preachers standing in pulpits throughout the world try to convey the marvellous story of salvation through the many characters who populate the saving history? Don’t we all talk in our own words in order to share the joy of what we have experienced at the hand of God? I think we all do, whether we acknowledge it or not, for whatever we say is grounded in that story, even if we don’t use the language of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in our everyday speech.

Let us not be ashamed to speak of the many characters in the saving history which we know for ourselves. Today we are considering just one of the many saints who tantalise us with the reality of the better life with God in Christ. And I think that is what Kazantzakis did when he wrote his novel – he considered the teaching, the miracles and the passion of Jesus Christ and tried to explain it to himself. This novelist was very generous, for he shared his thoughts with the world so that we too could get closer to the “end of humanity” – the purpose of life.

In his prologue he writes:

The dual substance of Christ – the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain to God, or, more exactly, to return to God and identify himself with him – has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me … . Every man partakes of the divine nature in both his spirit and his flesh. That is why the mystery of Christ is not simply a mystery for a particular creed: it is universal. The struggle between God and man breaks out in everyone, together with the longing for reconciliation.

So – Mary Magdalene, that character who was so important in the novel, becomes important for us today in our reflections – who was she? Well, we really don’t know. Mary is named in the gospels; she was so generous with that fragrant ointment; and we know she was in the garden at the end of the gospel story. However, that is all we know. Later tradition paints her a harlot, which our collect recalls, if not in so many words. Perhaps she was – perhaps not – after all, how could she afford all that perfume? We really don’t know anything at all about her life outside of these few references. Let us just remember that she was the first to “see the Lord” – we should let our reflections begin at that point in the story, when she went to the disciples to announce her news.

The Church has told this old, old story time and time again – every moment we recite the history of Mary up to this point – the now – this very moment we experience. The human being is caught up in temporality, trying to figure out the whence and the whither of life because of now.

We participate in the past, in all its decrepitude as well as all its glory, and here we stand at the threshold. Where are we about to go? Here must be where Mary Magdalene finds herself as she blurts out that shocker of news to the disciples who had not even bothered to get up that morning. After all Mary is on her way back when she meets them. Mary was the one there to see and now she wants to tell.

Our lives are very curious with regards time – we wonder about how the past and present mix to lead us to the great unknown, the future.

Is this what the gospel is all about? That our salvation is out there before us, not in the codifications of the past, the moments passed over. Our salvation is out there because we can say, “We see,” and we are glad to talk about our vision for the sake of moving forward with all those milling around us.

But what does all of this have to do with Mary Magdalene? She has seen! Hasn’t she seen the Lord, alive and walking in the garden – shades of that other garden, don’t you think? What would you do if you had been Mary in that paradise garden? Doesn’t your heart burst to tell the good news?

Just because no one wants to listen does not mean that you don’t want to share it. That is when the crowd determines us, and we all know that faith lets us stand apart from the crowd, that we can do what is right and good despite the fact that no one else would dare to because, as they say, “No one does any good,” or “Don’t make waves.” Mary’s declaration of the news, that very good news, sets her apart from the crowd which is despondent, the crowd without energy for the future.

Mary Magdalene should give us hope, shouldn’t she? Hers is a mention or two in the bible, but look at how she has been remembered. She acted before anyone else on that dark morning and she was rewarded. She stepped from the past into the freedom of the future.

We should all have her courage. We should all want to step over that threshold to make that leap of faith now and forever.

Amen

Collect

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: graft in our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy keep us in the same; 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)

Generous God, you give us gifts and make them grow: though our faith is small as mustard seed, make it grow to your glory and the flourishing of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said,

‘See, I am setting a plumb-line

   in the midst of my people Israel;

   I will never again pass them by;

the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

   and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

   and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

   and Israel must go into exile

   away from his land.” ’

And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’

Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Amos 5:18–24

Psalm

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.

Psalm 85

Epistle

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14

Gospel

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

Mark 6:14-29 

Sermon on A Sunday remembering Bonaventure 

When I was in Chicago many years ago, the University’s Divinity School brought many famous scholars together for a great celebration of the 700th anniversary of the deaths of Aquinas and Bonaventure, among them Dom Helder Camera and Karl Rahner. These two men were giants in the field of christian theology, even though neither of them were taller than I and they both were very soft-spoken, whether that was a function of age or personality was difficult to tell. I mention this high point of my career only because my diary marks St Bonaventure as today’s saint.

Bonaventure is called the seraphic doctor, a Franciscan who wrote extensively on many theological subjects. I am not an expert on this saintly theologian, so I will rely on others more skilled than I to expose us to some of his life and thought – and here I am relying on the encyclopaedic internet . So how did Bonaventure begin his life in the Church?

He fell ill while a boy and, according to his own words, was saved from death by the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi.

Entering the University of Paris in 1235, he received the master of arts degree in 1243 and then joined the Franciscan order, which named him Bonaventure in 1244. He studied theology in the Franciscan school at Paris from 1243 to 1248. …

By turning the pursuit of truth into a form of divine worship, he integrated his study of theology with the Franciscan mode of the mendicant life.

This is a rather different type of theology than the sort of thing we hear about when scholastic theology comes up. The medieval period was supposed to be filled with arguments about angels dancing on heads of pins. Nevertheless, this description of Bonaventure’s endeavour should give us pause. We should begin to think that it is possible to do a meaningful theology today in this high-tech age, when even religion has come to Facebook.

Bonaventure was particularly noted in his day as a man with the rare ability to reconcile diverse traditions in theology and philosophy. He united different doctrines in a synthesis containing his personal conception of truth as a road to the love of God.

This is the culmination of his work, that experiencing the love of God is the purpose of human life. Is it surprising that the love of God does incorporate all truth and so be able to reconcile the diversity of human intellectual endeavour? My source continues: “[His] works showed his deep understanding of Scripture and the Fathers of the early church – principally St. Augustine – and a wide knowledge of the philosophers, particularly Aristotle.” This fascination with Aristotle binds the two doctors of the Church together, for Aquinas and Bonaventure both mined that ancient Greek’s thought for insight into human endeavour. Rahner spoke about this all those years ago. Camera spoke of the seraphic doctor’s insistence on love as uniting knowledge, as the apex of human knowledge.

His Journey of the Mind to God (1259) was a masterpiece showing the way by which man as a creature ought to love and contemplate God through Christ after the example of St. Francis. 

Bonaventure writes at the beginning of this, his greatest work:

“Therefore to the groan of praying through Christ crucified, through whose Blood we are purged from the filth of vice, I indeed first invite the reader, lest perhaps he believes that reading without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without admiration, circumspection without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge [scientia] without charity, understanding without humility, study apart from divine grace, gaze [speculum] apart from divinely inspired wisdom is sufficient for him.” [Pro. 4]

Can you imagine any of our contemporary teachers describing the work of learning in this way? Everything for Bonaventure is founded on prayer and the illumination emanating from that divine source. He continues “one must not run perfunctorily through the course of these speculations, but ruminate (on them) with the greatest of lingering.” He wants us to contemplate most deeply our motives for our continued learning. He exhorts us to the greatest effort of allowing divine wisdom to penetrate into our very selves. Much of this argument depends on the medieval notion of understanding based on the received interpretation of Aristotle. It seems that the human being has a bond with the perceived through memory and projection. It is complicated and I have not been able to succinctly state it so I apologise. However, what I do hope to convey is that Bonaventure sees that the human being and the final and first cause have a bond which reveals itself when we acknowledge the divine source. We have to accept that we know because there is an affinity between creature and created in the fact that divine wisdom can be grasped by the human being.

Moreover if you seek, in what manner these things occur [fiant], interrogate grace, not doctrine, desire, not understanding [intellectum]; the groan of praying, not the study of reading; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness, not brightness [claritatem]; not light, but the fire totally inflaming, transferring one into God both by its excessive unctions and by its most ardent affections.

Bonaventure comprehends the world through faith, and upon faith stands all wisdom and all knowledge – indeed all human endeavour. This is quite a different way of viewing the world than that of ours today. Bonaventure does not say with Luther, “Faith alone [sola fide]”, but he begins with faith and comprehends God through all things because of his faith. Further knowledge and wisdom – both of which succeed faith – complement faith and inform the life of faith. So Bonaventure’s faith does not restrict in any way, but rather it unfolds, it expands, all experience, helping to make sense of it through the use of all the human being is.

As a leading scholar, Bonaventure became embroiled in the strife amongst the Franciscans and he is credited with saving the order.

The work of restoration and reconciliation [of the Franciscan Order at a time of great disorder and discord] owed its success to Bonaventure’s tireless visits, despite delicate health, to each province of the order and to his own personal realization of the Franciscan ideal.  …

In his travels [as head of the Franciscans], he preached the Gospel constantly and so elegantly that he was recognized everywhere as a most eloquent preacher. As a theologian, he based the revival of the order on his conception of the spiritual life, which he expounded in mystical treatises manifesting his Franciscan experience of contemplation as a perfection of the Christian life.

Perhaps this is what we ought to remember about Bonaventure – that his teaching and his life were a unity, just as he saw wisdom as the core of human being once it was awakened through faith.

Amen