Sermons

Collect

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

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

Old Testament – Job 38.1–7 [34–41]

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

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

Gird up your loins like a man,

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

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

   Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

   Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

   or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together

   and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

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

   so that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

   and say to you, “Here we are”?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,

   or given understanding to the mind?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

   Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

   and the clods cling together?

‘Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

   or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens,

   or lie in wait in their covert?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

   when its young ones cry to God,

   and wander about for lack of food?’]

Psalm 104.1–10, 26, 37c*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

37    Alleluia.

Epistle – Hebrews 5.1–10

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

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

‘You are my Son,

   today I have begotten you’;

as he says also in another place,

‘You are a priest for ever,

   according to the order of Melchizedek.’

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

Gospel – Mark 10.35–45

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

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

Sermon on Trinity 21

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

O God, forasmuch as without you we are not able to please you; mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

Old Testament – Genesis 2.18–24

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

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

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

Psalm 8

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

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

3    You have founded a stronghold against your foes, ♦

   that you might still the enemy and the avenger.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epistle – Hebrews 1.1–4; 2.5–12

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gospel – Mark 10.2–16

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

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

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

Sermon, Trinity 19

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

Eternal God, you crown the year with your goodness and you give us the fruits of the earth in their season; grant that we may use them to your glory, for the relief of those in need and for our own well-being, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever.

Readings

Old Testament – Joel 2:21–27

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

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 126

A Song of Ascents.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epistle – I Timothy 2:1–7 (or 6:6–10)

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

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

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

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

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

Gospel – Matthew 6:25–33

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

Sermon on Harvest Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers of your people who call upon you; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

Old Testament – Proverbs 1.20–33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 19

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epistle – James 3.1–12

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

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

Gospel – Mark 8.27–38

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

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

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

Sermon on Trinity 16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit upon your Church in the burning fire of your love: grant that your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel that, always abiding in you, they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

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

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 125

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

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

3    The sceptre of wickedness shall not hold sway

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

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

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

Epistle – James 2.1–10 [11–13] 14–17

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

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

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

Gospel – Mark 7.24–37

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

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

Sermon on Trinity 15

Part of our passage from the letter of James reads –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Collect

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

or

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

Post Communion

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

Readings

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

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 130

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ephesians 4.25 – 5.2

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

Gospel – John 6.35, 41–51

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

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

Sermon on Trinity 11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

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.

Post Communion

God of our pilgrimage, you have willed that the gate of mercy should stand open for those who trust in you: look upon us with your favour that we who follow the path of your will may never wander from the way of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – 2 Samuel 11.26 – 12.13a

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.

Psalm 51.1–13

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;

Epistle – Ephesians 4.1–16

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.

Gospel – John 6.24–35

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.”

Sermon on Trinity 10

The bible is full of examples of sinfulness and repentance, but perhaps we should ask ourselves – do our own lives show such changes? Do we willfully forget about the whole of our lives, both the good and the evil we have done? Is this why the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church has no bearing in today’s world?

God demands righteousness of us. The Old Testament has the Torah, the laws of God. The prophets make up a great deal of the OT, and they are forever revealing God’s judgement on the moral failure of the people of Israel. The OT lesson for this morning which is not in our booklet tells two versions of the story of David and Uriah. – The first is a simple declaration that the wife of Uriah lamented the death of her husband and when the mourning period was over David took her for his own wife and had a child with her. The second version, after a parable about sheep, is Nathan saying that David conspired to have Uriah killed by putting him in the front line and then, isolated in the midst of the fighting so that, outnumbered and alone, Uriah would fall by the sword of the Ammonite enemy. The prophet Nathan “outed” David’s perfidy, just as prophets always do reveal the sinfulness of the world.

In the epistle, Paul implies poor behaviour in his exhortations to the young churches, as today’s reading says,

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.

It is quite clear that Paul’s audience were not behaving well at all. They had no moral purpose guiding them along their paths in life – they seem to have schemed deceitfully and trickery was the order of the day. But Paul wanted everyone to speak truthfully – Paul wants everyone to live in love so that we grow into Christ, rooted there in Jesus, not blown about by a fickle wind of celebrity and fashion. – – Paul invites us to live a life of rectitude. “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.” This is a very different manner of life to that which he sees in his (and our) contemporaries. They enjoy “the latest thing”. They are happy to bumble along without anything guiding them to any unity, let alone “the bond of peace”.

The words of Jesus in our gospel this morning are more oblique in their exhortation to righteousness. “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.” This is very obscure, isn’t it? What food does not perish? As a gardener, I know that all vegetables eventually end up on the compost heap, there to rot away, to decompose so that perhaps sometime it might do some good.

Who can give us this enduring food Jesus is talking about? This saying is opaque to the world in which we live. We need to think about food in a very different way, don’t we? Jesus gave himself as this food, his flesh becomes bread and his blood wine for our benefit. With these enduring gifts he will fulfill us for eternal life – this is quite a different understanding than we have, for the everyday food and drink we get from Tesco or McDonald’s, and still different from the food we make from scratch with the freshest and healthiest ingredients prepared with the love of parents for their children or created for dear friends whom we invite to share our tables.

However, we are content with that food which perishes; we are happy with crafty trickery; and we even collude in despicable acts. If only life were as simple as Nathan, Paul and Jesus make it out to be! If only we could live “with all humility and patience, bearing with one another in love.” “If only!”  is the mantra of the present, This trope defines us in the hollowness of despair – we stand either alone on the precipice of anxiety or we huddle in the mass of humanity without a self to bear another for love’s sake. We do not stand ourselves up against the cruelty of the world for the sake of other people. We hide away in deceit and try to trick our way on whatever wind is blowing at any one time. Looking at the behaviour of politicians revealed in the last elections in Europe and the coming election in the USA, we find that “the bond of unity in the Spirit” – even if it is only a spirit of toleration – has had nothing to do with governance.

Nathan, Paul and Jesus are asking us to look at life in this world in a very different way. They are teaching a lesson which the world has abandoned because the world revels in the deception that we are all children who have nothing to do with those grown up virtues of humility, gentleness and patience. At present it seems that self-promotion, callousness and intolerance are the marks of life in the twenty-first century.

These children, it seems, have nothing to do with the goal of love, that healthy love which the sages have always described as being beyond all telling but lies beneath all that is good and true. It is that virtuous love called
Agape
, that very grown up love which at its very heart reveals what humility, gentleness and patience truly is. This mature love is not what Nathan, Paul and Jesus see around them, nor, I have to say, do we. Let us wake us to the virtues of a moral life, a life too often avoided because of its difficulty, that “If only!” which rules our hearts all too often.

Nathan, Paul and Jesus direct us to that virtue, even if the Church has made it rather difficult to attain and even more difficult to aspire to. We have heard the Church say, for instance, that we cannot have joy on Sunday. – Just think of the film, “Chariots of Fire”, where Eric Liddell’s joy  was constrained and he was loathe to run on Sunday. Our very puritanical brethren in fact would chain up playground swings so that children could not enjoy the outdoors on a Sunday. Nathan, Paul and Jesus do want us to be virtuous, rising out of the crowd to run that race to virtue, to be strong in ourselves so that humility, gentleness and patience become the character of our lives – that we might love.

It is true, “If only!” is the mantra for today – “If only!” we could express joy on every day of the week. “If only!” we could do what is right all the time. “If only!” we could be merciful and be shown mercy. “If only!” humility, gentleness and patience were the virtues we aspired to in our everyday lives. After COVID we talked incessantly about “the new normal” – where is that conversation now? What is the “normal” we have today? We need to look around us to see whether what Nathan, Paul and Jesus complained about in their time is still the case. The vision those teachers gave the world should still be our ownmost guide into a future of our own making, a future where righteousness rules life in all its fullness “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”

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.

Post Communion

Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life, ever giving himself that the world may live: may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Readings

Old Testament – 2 Samuel 6.1–5, 12b–19

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

It was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

They brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt-offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt-offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

Psalm 24

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

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

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

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

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

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

7    Lift up your heads, O gates; be lifted up, you everlasting doors; ♦
and the King of glory shall come in.

8    ‘Who is the King of glory?’ ♦
‘The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord who is mighty in battle.’

9    Lift up your heads, O gates; be lifted up, you everlasting doors; ♦
and the King of glory shall come in.

10    ‘Who is this King of glory?’ ♦
‘The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.’

Epistle – Ephesians 1.3–14

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.

Gospel – Mark 6.14–29

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.

Sermon on Trinity 7

From the beginning of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church there have been many ways of understanding scripture.The story from the gospel this morning has many layers and interpretations – much like “the dance of the seven veils” which is derived from it.

Let’s think about the layers of this story a little this morning. – First there is the literal meaning. A mother allows her daughter to dance for her father and guests at his birthday celebration. He is so full of joy that he promises her anything in his power, even half of his kingdom as a reward for her performance, if she wants it. What is the girl to request? She asks her mother for an appropriate reward. Mother harbours resentment against John the Baptist because he had denounced her marriage to Herod, so you know what she is going to ask. I am sure the general line of thought is that she could use this extremely generous offer of reward for her own ends, that she could get rid of the very present thorn of conscience which John represents in her life. So she directs the daughter to ask for John’s head. Herod is horrified by the request and terrified if he fails to grant it.

But there is more to this story, isn’t there? We can see there is so much to Herod’s character. He is just as complex as each of us.

Herod is a fearful man, like so many of us. He is scared of what the crowd will say about him is he doesn’t do what he promised that child – “whatever she wanted, even up to half of his kingdom”. That was too much to promise, but his word is his bond, as they say. Now the crowd can judge him. We all know how the crowd behaves, and we, like Herod, fear that assessment by faceless others in life.

Don’t we all fear what others might think about us? Just like Herod we don’t want to lose face in front of our peers. When we were younger this was certainly the case – well, it was if you didn’t feel as if you were already an outcast, or that your parents did not understand you. That fear is very real all through our lives, isn’t it? We want to fit into the world around us, that world made up of family and friends, where strangers have their place. Don’t we give way on what we think is right and good many times just to merge into that mass of humanity?

Fear does take over. Didn’t Shakespeare say something similar? “Conscience makes cowards of us all.” Sometimes conscience is driven by the crowd, that crowd which governs our everyday activity, that crowd which, perhaps inevitably, takes over the role of conscience all too often.

These are just two of the veils we have picked off the story of Herod and the demise of John. The literal story, how this incident came about, Herod’s weakness in the eyes of his wife and the world, his fear of his wife and the crowd. I would say that this is a very good interpretation of this story, but we can go further.

We have found two veils – two ways of hiding what lies behind the story of Herod and John the Baptist. There is a third that I would like to look at – Herod’s admiration of John. I think this reveals Herod’s conscience and how delicate it is.

Conscience asks us to consider the ethical choice: conscience demands that we separate ourselves from the everyday world to stand alone in the strange land of moral choice, a territory which like on the old maps is a region “full of dragons” – truly a place of fear, where it is not the crowd but our ownmost possibility we encounter.

One of those dragons we need to confront is our self-knowledge.

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.

Herod knows about John, is impressed by John, protects John and yet is “greatly perplexed” by John. Don’t we all know what is going on here? We have all been attracted by someone or something, which is “righteous and holy”, half attending to it, and half ignoring it, in our lives. We are just like Herod, aren’t we? Although we recognise what is righteous and holy, we don’t fully commit to it. Rather we skirt around it and continue in the manner of “the world” – the map of our ordinary, everyday lives. Just like Herod, we like to listen to what is righteous and holy but we don’t consider it an option at the core of our lives, even if there is some sort of harmony struck in the hidden depths of our souls, where righteousness and holiness are recognised. We are paralysed when we are asked to choose, just like Herod, and we do nothing. As that saying goes, “For evil to flourish, good people need do nothing.”

That is what Herod confronted in his life, the dysfunction of ethics, how little the moral compass guides us in that land of dragons in the map of our lives. This map is just another veil hiding the true story of Herod and John, that map revealing where we all will travel at some time.

We all must enter a space where we are alone, where the crowd will no longer support us, or cajole us, or force us to act in a certain way. The decisions we make in that unknown territory will be our own alone. Our ownmost selves must press onward to its own decisions for our own lives. We will begin to live life in all its fullness there in that alien place.

I would liken that place to the moment Kierkegaard exposes in the life of humanity, when we all must make the choice for life. He calls it standing at the abyss, that emptiness confronting us, the terra incognita of the ancients, where nothing is known at all.

There are no more veils that I wish to lift this morning. We have moved from the first literal explanation of the story of Herod’s murder of John the Baptist to an exploration of an individual’s fear in the face of his loved ones and the faceless crowd, a fear that reveals an anxiety in the face of moral choice. Then we have revealed the abyss which faces each one of us in our ownmost possibility.

You may find other veils to be pealed away from the story of Herod and John. I have looked at a very particular psychological aspect of the story, the role fear plays in our lives. You may see how love blinds Herod, with yet another psychological motivation.

Let us keep studying this story like we analyse the whole of our lives. Each of us needs to find the interpretation of the story that fits our circumstances at the different times and places we find ourselves in life, when we confront our ownmost possibility.

Amen

Collect

Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; 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.

Post Communion

Creator God, you made us all in your image: may we discern you in all that we see, and serve you in all that we do; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – 2 Samuel 5.1–5, 9–10

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, ‘Look, we are your bone and flesh. For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.’ So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years. David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David. David built the city all around from the Millo inwards. And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.

Psalm 48

1    Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, ♦
in the city of our God.

2    His holy mountain is fair and lifted high, ♦
the joy of all the earth.

3    On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place, ♦
stands the city of the great king.

4    In her palaces God has shown himself ♦
to be a sure refuge.

5    For behold, the kings of the earth assembled ♦
and swept forward together.

6    They saw, and were dumbfounded; ♦
dismayed, they fled in terror.

7    Trembling seized them there; they writhed like a woman in labour, ♦
as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.

8    As we had heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God: ♦
God has established her for ever.

9    We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God, ♦
in the midst of your temple.

10    As with your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; ♦
your right hand is full of justice.

11    Let Mount Zion rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad, ♦
because of your judgements, O Lord.

12    Walk about Zion and go round about her; count all her towers; ♦
consider well her bulwarks; pass through her citadels,

13    That you may tell those who come after that such is our God for ever and ever. ♦
It is he that shall be our guide for evermore.

Epistle – 2 Corinthians 12.2–10

I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows — was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Gospel – Mark 6.1–13

He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Sermon on Trinity 6

Have you ever thought where we get all those well-used phrases we use in common parlance? “Once more unto the breach”, “The spirit is willing”, “To be or not to be”. They often come from Shakespeare. Certainly, we usually consider that all our wonderful sayings come from Elizabethan English, from the great playwrites and poets of that time. We also know the King James’ Bible is from that period. Since most of our well-used sayings come from that time, should we be surprised that the bible can be an important source for our modern turns of phrase? We now use the phrase, “Shake off the dust from your feet.” This one comes from the bible; it is from one of the sayings of Jesus. For most of us that is a little surprising. – Such colourful sayings certainly don’t come from modern “corporate-speak” which I liken to George Orwell’s “doublespeak”.

Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or even reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (for instance, “downsizing” for layoffs ), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable.

In other words, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth and disfigures our use of speech. This is not the language of poets, is it? We learn about life through the commonplace phrases we use, like “Shake off the dust from your feet.”

Language is so very important for us, because it leads us everywhere in our lives – reasons for doing things and also reasons for inaction, statements of fact and statements of clarifications – and then there is the news, “fake” or not – but most importantly, declarations of love and declarations of war.

So let us consider our language and how we use it. Our use of language defines us in many ways. – I suppose you can say that human being is defined as linguistic. We are the only creatures on earth to speak to one another through words, for clarity in most cases, but sadly sometimes to deceive. We all know this is true, don’t we? I think we have all told “white lies”. I know that from time to time I have even told some whoppers.

Most of the time we speak so that people will understand what we are talking about. We don’t want to be misunderstood, just like the teenagers we once were, when we felt aggrieved because our parents really didn’t get what we were trying to tell them. We were just like those surly youths of today whom we wish would just say hello to us when we greet them.

Language connects us – badly sometimes, as when politicians obfuscate or when people just refuse to reply: and we speak well at other times. – For instance, when we declare our undying love, we are expressing as clearly as possible our intentions and hopes for the future.

So, let’s get back to the phrase, “Shake off the dust.” It is often used isn’t it? But do we know its origin? Do we know why it is so significant for us?

Jesus said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’

We are often house-guests, aren’t we? We visit our families and settle in, and we are happy to stay with them. Other times we might visit friends of long-standing at their invitation. We find ourselves comfortable in their presence, enjoying their company as they enjoy ours – well, we certainly hope so.

But what happens when we visit strangers? What happens when we are off on business trips or on an errand? We appear in a strange place, somewhere we don’t normally visit, or perhaps a somewhere we visited “a lifetime ago”, as we often say. We are strangers in this location and we feel “all at sea”.

What happens then? Don’t we make the best of it? We experience the warmth or the coldness of the welcome, which sets the tone for the whole of the visit. What if it goes badly? What do we do then? We usually want to run away. We don’t want to have anything more to do with the place at all.

However, when we run away, we do so in a panic. We don’t consider our experience with a dispassionate heart. We don’t coolly evaluate our visit with a view to either remembering any of its glory, or forgetting all its ignominy. When we do escape from the wretched place, we don’t take stock of the situation. Our tail is between our legs as we flee and we don’t see what we are taking away with us, willingly or unwillingly.

When I remember what went wrong on my visit, I hang on to that in excruciating detail, but do I remember any redeeming features of the visit? This remembrance of the embarrassing is even worse when it takes place in unfamiliar circumstances – when I recall being a stranger in a strange land, I am covered with shame, that film of remembrance which sullies everything derived from that experience.

We have tried to run away, but we see the event through a filter, that dust which covers the whole event, sometimes thick and concealing, sometimes a mere film and just unclear. How do we overcome that? We all remember the story of the foot-washing during holy week. The commentary always remarks that even when you have bathed and dressed freshly, when you walked over to the party, your feet would inevitably be grimy, so a foot-washing was necessary to bring you to that pristine, clean condition. So it is with our banishing all the bad memories of a place. We need to shake off the dust of that location, so that we no longer let it ruin our memories. No longer do we have to filter it through the film of that place.

There are many events like that in our lives, aren’t there? There was a zen holy man who told the story of walking with another monk. They met a beautiful woman trying to cross a deep river. The monk helped her cross the river by carrying her on his back to the other side. Then they all parted. The monks travelled miles further and when they settled down for the night, his companion who had been uncomfortable for the rest of the day since the river asked, “How could you have done such a thing? To have carried that woman across the river, when we should have nothing to do with women?” He answered, “No wonder you are so tired, you have been carrying her all this way, whereas when she alighted and went her way, I let her go.”

That fellow had a great weight on his journey, the dust of the road became boulders stifling him. We should realise washing the dust away is a painless process, easily done, and very effective in ridding us of that film of memory which may just cloud our judgement. After all the dust can be so very thick that we see nothing at all, or it can be just a thin layer which merely dims our sight. However thick, let us brush off all that dust and remember things clearly so that we can share life in all its fullness with everyone.

Amen

Collect

Lord, you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worth: send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you. Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Faithful Creator, whose mercy never fails: deepen our faithfulness to you and to your living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Loving Father, we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son: sustain us with your Spirit, that we may serve you here on earth until our joy is complete in heaven, and we share in the eternal banquet with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament – Genesis 3.8–15

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The Lord God said to the serpent,

‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’

Psalm

1    Sing merrily to God our strength, ♦
shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

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.

Epistle – 2 Corinthians 4.13 – 5.1

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture – ‘I believed, and so I spoke’ – we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Gospel – Mark 3.20 – 35

… and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’ – for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

Sermon on Trinity 2

A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

Where do we find Jesus in the gospel narrative? Most of the time we find Jesus in the middle of the crowd as in this story – just like all of us most of the time. In other words, Jesus is an ordinary person. Since we are ordinary people, we do understand where Jesus finds himself, don’t we?

We are surrounded by crowds. (Whether it is what they used to call “the in-crowd” – you might remember a song with that in its title – or whether the crowd is “the unfortunate”, the cast-off, the outsider, the poor, the diseased, the distressed, the stranger, the prisoner, anyone who is “not like us” doesn’t matter.) We are surrounded by a crowd all the time just as Jesus was.

That is true, isn’t it? As youngsters, we have our family around us. When we are teens, we have our “gangs”. When we leave home, we have our mates – good friends or life-partners. In work, our fellow workers. At the pub, our drinking buddies. Doesn’t the list go on?

The crowd surrounds us. I have asked you to think about the crowd before, haven’t I? Nameless and faceless, whispering and shouting, comforting or accusing, embracing or ignoring – the crowd is part of our lives.

The crowd plays the same sort of role in story of Jesus as it does in ours. And here we have the crowd telling Jesus that his family was there outside wanting to speak with him.

We today think Jesus’ reply is quite odd, don’t we? Most of us would be happy to welcome family, this special group of people, to embrace them, but Jesus asks who makes up one’s family. He has a very stark message for the crowd – his family is made up of those who do the will of God. Imagine that! Who would be his brothers and sisters, or his mother? Who would in all good conscience say they fulfill the will of God?

Such a pronouncement must have alienated the crowd gathered around him. Certainly, the whole crowd would have wondered whether they belonged in that family Jesus was willing to embrace. When Jesus defined his family with God as father and everyone else who does God’s will as his brother and sister and mother, doesn’t he overturn all the expectations which that crowd has?

Jesus’s statement is a radical re-invention of the individual, isn’t it? Who could redefine oneself as a person who does the will of God? Wouldn’t we hear what was reported about Jesus about ourselves?

People were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’

The crowd had a different interpretation of family, didn’t “they”? The crowd was chuntering about whether Jesus was in his right mind. This was why his family was there.

When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him.

They still cared for him, and they did not want him to be condemned as being out of his mind, as we would say, or as the scribes said, “He has Beelzebul,” or in other words, “He is possessed by a demon.” His mother, brothers and sisters wanted to save him from that condemnation. That is why they wanted to see Jesus. They wanted to restrain him, so no harm would come to him from the crowd.

But then he redefines the family and he overturns all normal, everyday expectations. No one is automatically part of Jesus’ family now. Only those who would do the will of God. And who would dare to lay hold of that claim in their ordinary, everyday lives, the life the crowd leads?

Jesus doesn’t make anything easy, does he? – Well, he doesn’t if we take him seriously in our lives. – Would any of us claim to do the will of God exclusively? I know that I cannot. What would make me think that I could? – Even the one commandment Jesus left us, To love God and to love my neighbours as I love myself, never mind loving my enemies. That love would be a beginning.

But how many false starts have I made on this road? How many times have I tried to love my neighbour but just plain failed? How many times have I tried to love my brothers and sisters and parents – and failed? And they are my flesh and blood!

Jesus does not make it easy – his demands are absolute. Without love, as Paul says, I am nothing. Our Collect for today also suggests this. “Lord, you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worth …” But we know that we should not despair. The Holy Spirit and our new-found “brothers and sisters” are here to help, just as we are here to help them on the radical path to life in all its fullness, the life of love, “the true bond of peace and of all virtues”.

The faithful life is one of mutual aid in every part of our existence. We should not forget that, should we? If we look at the sacraments of the Church, we find we are always in mind, at birth with baptism, in illness with the chrism, at marriage, in the comfort of confession and absolution, and finally at death with a funeral. The sacrament of the eucharist is at the heart of it all, when we gather to share the nourishment afforded by the cross of our Lord. Sustenance and comfort is offered daily through sacrament and prayer. The Church gathers us all together in all of these significant daily life-events and helps us experience life in all its fullness.

We become a family in Christ, don’t we? There is an unbreakable bond of love which ties everyone together, like the ties of human family whether we like it or not.

“People were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’”

Don’t we say this about people who act as if everyone was part of their own family? When I treat the stranger as if he or she were my brother or sister, don’t you look at me with a quizzical expression? Aren’t you thinking, ‘How can you be like that with someone you don’t know? You must be crazy!’

Crazy in the crowd’s estimation or not, when we are loving our neighbour, we are fulfilling the one commandment Jesus left his disciples. Living up to that single expectation Jesus had of all humanity would transform any crowd, wouldn’t it? Instead of a faceless crowd each individual becomes a focus for care, for love. — If this is “being out of my mind”, I pray that we all go crazy right now. Let us become brothers and sisters, and treat everyone else as dear relations just as Jesus treated the crowds gathered around him.

Amen