Fr Michaels Sermons 2007
Sermon 3rd Sunday before Lent (Year C)
Sunday Next Before Lent (year
C)
Fr Michaels Sermon second
Sunday of Easter Year C 2007
Fr Michaels sermon for Trinity Sunday 2007
Fr Michaels
Sermon for Second Sunday after Trinity
Fr Michael Sermon for Trinity 6.
Fr
Michaels Sermon for Trinity 9
Fr
Michaels Sermon for Trinity 10
Fr Michaels Sermon for Harvest Festival 2007
Fr Michaels Sermon for Remembrance Sunday 2007
Fr Michaels Sermon for Midnight Mass 2007
Today’s feast has in the Western
Church three names. The Lectionary refers to it as the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the Book of Common Prayer
calls it The Presentation of Christ in
the Temple commonly called The Purification of St Mary the Virgin. The most
popular and well known term is however Candlemas. All three terms, The feast of
the Presentation , the Feast of the Purification and Candlemas describe some
aspect of what we are celebrating and give the feast a three dimensional
quality.
This morning’s Gospel
reading in the very first verse gives us a clue to why two of the names are
used. When the time came for their
purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to
present him to the Lord.
Today’s feast should
come 40 days after the Nativity of Jesus,
Under Jewish Law a mother who had given birth to a boy was considered unclean
for seven days; moreover she was to remain for three and thirty days "in
the blood of her purification." Candlemas therefore corresponds to the day
on which Mary, according to Jewish
law (which we can read in the book of Leviticus
12:2–8), should have attended a ceremony of ritual purification.
This involved the mother bringing to the door of the Temple a one year old
lamb and a pigeon or a turtle dove: the lamb for a burnt offering in
recognition of God’s sovereignty and in thanksgiving for her happy delivery,
and the bird for a sin offering. These being sacrificed, the woman was cleansed
of the legal impurity and was reinstated in her former privileges. In the case
of poor people, a lamb was not required but two pigeons or turtle doves had to
be brought – one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So like every other mother Mary the purest of virgins, came for this
ceremony of her ‘purification’, honouring
God by observance of the law. And being poor, she and St Joseph brought
the offering appointed for the poor.
Now to us in the 21st
Century the idea that giving birth somehow makes a woman unclean spiritually
doesn’t seem quite right. It is interesting however that until the early 1960’s
it was quite common for a ceremony called The Churching of Women to be carried
out shortly after childbirth. It was not considered right to receive communion
until this had happened. (Being the Church of England there was of course no
need for the doves or pigeons.) The intention of the service was actually to
give thanks for the safe birth of a child but the idea of the woman being
unclean was widely held. Needless to say the Churching of Women is not
something that occurs these days. It is also why today’s feast is not often
referred to as The Purification much these days.
The second aspect is the
Presentation. Ever since Moses’ time when the first born sons of the Egyptians
were killed, but God spared the first born sons of the Israelites First born
sons had been presented to God in the Temple. In other words offered to God and
then ransomed back. Mary would have offered her precious Son to God the Father.
Joseph would have paid 5 shekels to the priest and Mary would then have
received Jesus back in her arms and they would have been free to go home. Mary’s action reminds us of Abraham offering
his son Isaac to God. Mary consecrates her son to God. She is offering
absolutely everything to God and at the same time providing us with a wonderful
model of Christian life. Like Mary we should be generous with God, always ready
to sacrifice whatever he may ask of us. It is not an easy job but we are called
as Christians to offer everything - our whole life - to God.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church
this feast is called "Hypapanty" (Hypapante), a Greek word meaning
"meeting". It is the first encounter of Jesus, our Saviour, with His
people. Christ comes into the midst of the temple, the gathering place of all
the people of God and even of some Gentiles assembled to pray and to fulfil the
laws of God handed down by Moses. Jesus submits to the laws of God and customs
so that He might illumine all human life. We hear Simeon describe Jesus as a
light for revelation to the Gentiles. Jesus is not just for God’s chosen people
the Jews he is a light for all people. Jesus is the Light of the world. As a
result to celebrate Christ being the light of the world from very early in the
Church’s history the practice was on this feast to have candlelight
processions. It also became traditional for the priest to bless al the candles
that would be used throughout the year both in the church and in people’s
homes. Of course seeing this one doesn’t have to have a doctorate in theology
to see how the feast became known in the western church as Candlemas. It used
to be one of the most popular services of the year until I suspect, the onset
of electric lighting. It is sad in many ways as people just don’t want to come
to a weekday service that these days we have to hold it on the Sunday before 2nd
February since there are such important messages within this feast, whether we
call it Candlemass, The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple or the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin.
Now many of us will be very
familiar with some of the words in this morning’s Gospel. They are known as the
Song of Simeon or the Nunc Dimittis
Master,
now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.’
Lord, now
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace :
according to thy word.
For mine
eyes have seen : thy salvation;
Which thou
hast prepared : before the face of all
people;
To be a
light to lighten the Gentiles : and
to be the glory of thy people Israel.
The Song of Simeon is part of the night prayer of the Church
which we call Compline. I can see those of you familiar with The Book of Common
Prayer saying no it is part of Evening Prayer. Well Evensong in the Book of
Common Prayer is actually Evening Prayer and Night Prayer rolled into one.
(Obviously Cranmer liked early nights). The Nunc Dimittis is also used very
often at funeral services. It has become a comforting piece of scripture, very
soothing, like a sort of lullaby. Well that is the danger of taking scripture
out of context. We see from the verses after the Song of Simeon that he told
Mary that her soul would be pierced. That yes, Jesus was the light of the
world, the saviour of humankind, but he also foretold of his suffering. The
Feast of the Presentation, Candlemas, call it what you will serves not only as
an end point to the forty days of the Christmas period, it also points us to
the forty days of Lent, to Holy Week, to Christ’s Passion, his horrific death
on the cross, and yes thank God to his Resurrection. There is a danger that we
won’t move form the Christ child in the manger, the sentimentality of
Christmas, the wonder of new life. We need to remember that for Christians the
greatest new life comes through Christ’s passion
and death and his Resurrection. St Paul is clear that we must die with Christ
to experience the Resurrection. We pray every day in the final prayer of the
Angelus which rings out from this Church that ‘As we have known Christ’s birth by the message of the angels so by his
passion and cross we may come to know his Resurrection’ Today in this wonderful multi-dimensional
feast we are being pointed to his death and ultimately his Resurrection. So let
us all commit today to move our lives in that direction too, away from
sentimentality to realism, from the old life to the new Resurrection life that
can only be found in Christ through his Passion and death.
The readings this morning all
relate to God calling people. The Old Testament Reading which is thought to be
the original beginning of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we hear how Isaiah was
called to prophesy to the people of Israel. In the Epistle St Paul talks to the
Corinthians about his calling and finally in today’s Gospel St Luke tells us
how Jesus calls Simon Peter to leave his boat and join him to ‘fish for people’.
In all three situations those
being called express their unworthiness. Isaiah says ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among
a people of unclean lips’ St Paul tells the Corinthians ‘For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to
be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.’ And Peter ‘fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go
away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ These three incidents show us that despite being unworthy we are
still able to accept God’s call. Isaiah tells how ‘one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken
from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and
said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your
sin is blotted out.’ St Paul explains ‘that
by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in
vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I,
but the grace of God that is with me.’ We are all unworthy but as St Paul
says by Gods grace we can do God’s work.
When I preached on Christmas Eve I
talked about how Mary said Yes to God. The scripture readings this morning are
encouraging us to say Yes to God. God calls us all to some kind of ministry.
Some are called to be priests some to be teachers of the faith and some to be
monks or nuns, and if that is what God is calling you to be then listen to him.
Do not be worried that you are not worthy. Take it from one who knows, none of
us are worthy. Don’t use that as an excuse to ignore the call. If we are
willing to say Yes to God then through his grace God will use us as we are. He
will transform us and develop us. Remember the words of the angel Gabriel when
Mary was told that she was to bear Jesus and her cousin Elizabeth in her old
age even though she was said to be barren would also have a son. ‘For nothing will be impossible with
God’. God calls us for who we are.
I remember when I was preparing to go to theological college a number of people
couldn’t get their heads around the idea of me being a priest (I suspect some
of you often wonder about that and I still have to pinch myself sometimes.) I
think their idea of priests were formed by the caricatures they had seen on
T.V. such as the vicar in Dad’s Army and perhaps the older ones among them
Derek Nimmo in All Gas and Gaiters. Someone even said to me ‘don’t let them change you, be yourself’ Well
that is all we can be isn’t it – ourselves. That isn’t to say we don’t develop
and grow. Ordination doesn’t suddenly transform you; you don’t suddenly grow
angel’s wings or acquire a halo. God wants us for who we are.
Clearly not all of us are being called to the priesthood or
the religious life, but as Christians we are all called. Christians all have a
calling to spread the Gospel, to tell the Good News. I don’t know about you but
when I was a child and I went to Church I was told to sit down, stop fidgeting
and shut up. Well I am afraid that is one thing God is not calling us to do but
sadly many of us as adults are still sitting down and shutting up and not
fidgeting when it comes to spreading the Good News of the Gospel. We are all
called to be witnesses of God’s love and the power of the resurrection. It is
an amazing faith we have. God sent his Son to take upon himself our
unworthiness, our sin, to die for us and to blot it out. In the Old Testament
reading Isaiah’s sin and unworthiness was blotted out by the placing of hot
coals on his lips. We don’t need those coals or anything else for that matter
because Jesus died for all people that our sins may be forgiven and our
unworthiness made irrelevant in our service of him. The Cross and Resurrection
are evidence of God’s love for us. It gives us the hope and expectation of
Eternal life. Life with God. And that eternal life starts here and now for
those of us who believe. Is there anything more amazing and wonderful than
that? We are called as Christians to witness to that amazing Love. In
generations gone by this witnessing was left to priests and monks and nuns, who
by and large were the only educated people about. In fact in 14th
century Europe they were often the only ones who could read and write and there
were very few if any competing religious views. We are not in the 14th
century any more. We are all reasonably well educated the vast majority of us
are able to at least read, write and communicate effectively. There are also
dozens of non-Christian views that are currently being aggressively promulgated
today. In the main we (and I have to confess that I am probably as guilty as
anyone else in regard to this) sit back passively expecting our Christian
values and morals to somehow magically be absorbed by our fellow citizens. Then
we are shocked yes shocked when we see our society becoming violent, profane,
crass and selfish.
There is a view that we should leave the sharing of our Christian
faith to the trained experts. This mornings readings actually tell us something
different. Our three bible heroes all express doubts as to whether they are
qualified to be God’s messengers. They all felt unqualified to talk to others
about their faith. But as we know despite their doubts and their insecurities
each of these men Isaiah, Paul and Simon Peter were spectacularly successful in
spreading the truth and good news of God.
It’s a scary thing to do, but it is without any question
what God calls all Christians to do. He does support us and gives us the tools
to do it. This mornings Gospel shows what happens when we do as God asks.
Jesus told the tired and weary
fishermen to cast their nets again not in the water near the shore but out in
the deep waters. They had worked all-night and caught nothing. I suspect that
they weren’t too happy to go out again but Simon Peter said to him ‘if you say so, I will let down the nets’
They caught so many fish the boat was in danger of sinking. Obedience isn’t a
very popular concept these days but we must be obedient to God. Even
pessimistic, grudging obedience like that, which Peter showed will gain much.
With God everything is possible.
The instruction from Jesus in the Authorised King James
translation, is Launch out into the deep.
That is the call to all Christians Launch
out into the deep. Whether that means
to respond to God’s call to be a priest or a monk or a nun which would
require a change of lifestyle or whether it is to simply witness to God and what
he has done for us through Jesus in your life as it is, it is what he is
calling us all to do. Lets make no bones about it that can be scary, it can
simply be tiresome and seem pointless, but obedience to the call will have
amazing results as evidenced by this mornings Gospel.
So let us pray for the courage to do that.
Lord, here
I am, not at all confident that I am ready to be sent. Give me the courage that
only you can give, when I am called to some new task in your service.
Strengthen me not to fear the deep water of life, for in its depth I shall find
new challenges and new mercies.
Amen
I was surprised when I read this
morning’s Gospel that once again I was having to preach on the transfiguration.
Those of you here in August last year will remember that we heard St Marks
version of the same event. When I preached for the second time here at All
Saints, somebody asked me afterwards if I recycled sermons. I explained that I
had only preached about six times in total and as yet I had not recycled any of
my sermons, although there is a theory that preachers only have three sermons
or at least only three themes and therefore each time they preach one of the
three themes is recycled. Well that is a subject that is up to you to decide. I
have to say I was very tempted to recycle my sermon from August (it has been
such a busy week, Father Kevin has been on holiday, so I have had to do
everything, arrange funerals visits etc…) but I decided that even after 22
sermons it is still too soon to start repeating sermons. If you weren’t here in
August then you can see a copy of that sermon online at
www.allsaintshockerill.org.uk.
When I read the passage again, the
thing that hit me was the fact that Jesus took
with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. There is no doubt that we can pray anywhere,
in the kitchen, whilst we are working, in the car, anywhere and this was true
of Jesus too, but he went up on the
mountain to pray. He chooses to take the time, go up the mountain and pray.
Mountains for me are special places. I love to be in mountainous areas and have
spent many happy times climbing mountains, skiing, and I have just bought a
house on the edge of the Apennine mountains. I actually find it very easy to
pray when I am up a mountain. I think it has something to do with space. The
vast amounts of space there are somehow make me feel closer to God. Now it
isn’t easy in Bishop’s Stortford to find any mountains, but I think the point
is that Jesus made space to pray. He went up the mountain but we too can find
space, it may be a special place in the house or the garden, I know many people
pray when they are in the countryside on a walk, the important thing is to make
the space and the time to speak and listen to God. This Church provides space
and is open every day. This could be your special space. The other point from
the passage I have spoken about is that Jesus did not go alone, he took three
of his friends with him Peter James and John. I like to pray alone but Jesus
shows us another way and that is solidarity instead of solitude. There is something wonderful about praying
with others. Even if that prayer is completely silent there is a power that
doesn’t come from solitary prayer. You can not be a Christian alone, you need
the support of others, even Jesus took his friends with him to pray. (Gavin who
is being baptised this morning needs the support of his family and friends, as
we all do, in his Christian life. He won’t get that support in solitude; he
will only get it in solidarity with his fellow Christians. All of us have a
responsibility to support him and pray for him and with him as he joins the
Christian family here at All Saints this morning).
This week sees the start of Lent
that great season of forty days when we are called to fast and pray. It is
traditional during Lent to give something up, usually sweets or alcohol or some
other bad habit. The idea is that it should help us to get closer to God. Lent
is also a good time to take on something extra. The message from this morning’s
Gospel is surely to make space to spend more time with God and to do that with
others. So I would ask you to consider that as well as possibly giving up
whatever you give up during Lent you also use the opportunity to make space for
God. Perhaps just by coming into church occasionally and spending a few moments
talking to and listening to God, light a candle perhaps. Or you may want to
make a special place in your home that is a Godly space where again you could light
a candle or play some music, meditate or just be in silence with God. There are
also opportunities to do something with your fellow Christians. There are
Masses on Tuesday evenings Wednesday Mornings and Friday mornings, why not make
it your Lenten discipline to come to one of those? There is also Morning and
evening prayer every day. In addition to that there are also Lent Lunches with
addresses on Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays which are joint efforts by the
three Anglican Churches in town. So there are lots of opportunities to do
something extra to make space for God and to pray with our fellow Christians.
When Jesus and the disciples did this they were transfigured or to use a more
everyday word they were transformed. Moments of transformation begin with
moments of prayer. We need to take the time and make the time to pray. Amen.
Jack, was a painter, and quite often he would thin his paint
so it would go further. So when the local Church decided it was time to paint
the outside of the building, Jack was able to put in the lowest bid, and got
the job. As always, he thinned his paint down with turpentine. One day while he
was up on the scaffolding -- the job almost finished -- he heard a horrendous
clap of thunder, and the sky opened. The downpour washed the thinned paint off
the church and knocked Jack off his scaffold and onto the lawn.
Jack knew this was a warning from
the Almighty, so he got on his knees and cried: "Oh, God! Forgive me! What
should I do?" And from the sky, a mighty voice thundered: "REPAINT!
AND THIN NO MORE!"
This morning’s Gospel is all about repentance. Unfortunately
most of us understand the word repent in a very limited way. It seems to imply
regret for some wrong that we committed. Repentance, understood in this way,
means to change a particular behaviour that is sinful.
Biblically, this is not quite what is meant. In the gospels, the particular
word used for repentance is literally, to do an about face, to turn around, to
go in an entirely new direction.
Seek the
Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There is a very clear message in
this mornings Gospel passage. God is very patient but we can not afford to take
advantage of that patience. It isn’t very popular these days to think of God as
judgmental but there is no doubt from this mornings Gospel that he will be. We
are given every opportunity over and over again to respond to God’s love for
us, but unless you repent, you will all
perish. Not my words but those spoken by Jesus in this mornings Gospel. The
parable of the fig tree shows us that it is simply not enough to believe in the
existence of God. Those of you familiar with C. S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape
Letters will know that even the Devil believes in God. We need to respond to
Gods Love for us, in the way we live our lives. We need to bear fruit. Now the
fact that we are here this morning is in many ways a first step in that
response. But we need to examine our reasons for being here. Are we here simply
because we have to be, to preach a sermon or because we like the atmosphere or
the singing? It is not my job to judge anyone’s motives except my own and it
has to be said that even for the most devout and holy people there are times
they come to Church simply because they know they have to rather than out of a feeling of love for God. Our motives are
aways mixed and that isn’t a problem, God works with that. God loves us, that
is the central message of Christianity. He loved us so much that he sent his
Son to suffer and to die for us. Jesus lived on this earth as a human, so he is
in no doubt the trials and tribulations we have to deal with. But if we truly
believe in the Christian message we must bear fruit. Jesus tells us in this mornings parable that God is like a farmer
who walks around the garden to see what the plants needs for fruits to be
produced. When all has been done and he still finds no fruits he will cut the
plants down and plants new ones. We need to be honest with ourselves are we
bearing fruits or not. If you are bearing fruits multiply them, increase them,
if you are not bearing fruits you have more time to do so but who knows how
long?. One day there shall be a judgement day, when all people (including me
and you) will be judged according to OUR WORKS ….. our fruits. God will not be
interested in hearing how beautiful we were, how rich we were, what position
you had, what type of car we drove, or house we lived in or all the possessions
we had. He will be interested in what you did and how we used our gifts.
Remember my thoughts are not your
thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. What is important to the world is
not important to God.
God expects us all to produce
fruit, but it is important to remember that that fruit is not beyond our ability.
The fig tree produces figs. It doesn’t produce apples. Now that may seem an
obvious thing to say but we often forget that God gives us the strength to do
what we need to do. In the new Testament reading this morning St Paul tells us God is faithful, and he will not let you be
tested beyond your strength
I heard this week about a rather
large priest who decided, not before time to go on a diet. When he turned up
for a meeting at the Church with a huge chocolate cake the rest of the team
were to say the least a bit surprised. He explained that it was a special cake.
He had seen it in the shop window as he drove passed and prayed ‘Lord, if you
really want me to have one of those delicious chocolate cakes, let me find a
parking space right in front of the cakeshop.' And sure enough, on the ninth
time around the block, there it was!"
We all have different gifts. All
of us have some natural ability, and the secret is to find our natural
abilities and give them all we've got. That's the secret of being fruitful -
find what we're naturally good at and give it our best in the service of God
and of others.
Fruits that please God are many. I am not saying go and
start preaching. Love is one of the greatest fruit that God wants us all to
have, joy, peace, humbleness, kindness, meekness, truthfulness, honesty,
working for his Him, worshipping, giving, righteousness, seeking His kingdom
more than anything else, etc.
All this does not stop us from going about our daily work,
it does not stop us from studying, and it does not stop us from living our
normal lives. What it does mean is that we need to live our lives centered on
God.
It may not seem like it if you are struggling with whatever
it is you may have given up for Lent, but Lent is a wonderful time. It is a
time that gives us space to take stock of our spiritual lives. It gives us the
opportunity to do give things up that distract us from God and also to
something extra to bring us closer to Him.
We need to be serious about our prayer life, regular communion, bible
reading, loving others, sharing the word. We need to be serious about bearing
fruits. We are fortunate that we have a loving God who is patient with us and
understands our struggles. We are his fig trees he tends us and cares for us,
but we need to produce fruit.
There is still time
Seek the Lord while he may be found
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
There is so much happening in today’s
liturgy. It is rich with symbolism. Tonight we celebrate the institution of
Holy Communion, we remember Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, we strip the altars and remove all decorations
from the Church. Already we have rung the bells and now they will be silent
until Saturday evening when we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection. At the end of
this evening’s Mass we will take Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament in solemn
procession to the Lady Chapel which represents the garden of Gethsemane and we
will do what the disciples could not do, we will stay with him and pray.
At the heart of all of this is
love. We heard those words in the Gospel ‘ I give you a new commandment that you love
one another’ and it is from the Latin mandatum novum new commandment
that we get Maundy Thursday. Commandment Thursday.
Tonight’s liturgy celebrates God’s
love for us and our response to that is to love him by loving one another. God
loves us so much that he allowed his only Son to take our sins upon himself and
to be the sacrificial lamb. Dying that most horrific death which we will
remember more vividly tomorrow.
Last Sunday we greeted Jesus as
our King tonight we celebrate Jesus as the King of Love. Jesus is a different
type of king, he is not the kind of King
who merely dictates how we should live our lives. He shows us in what he does ‘Just
as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’ In a few
moments twelve people representing the twelve disciple will have their feet
washed by the priest. Jesus set the standard. He washed all of their feet, even
those of Judas who was on his way out to report Jesus to the authorities. At
the time of Jesus’ earthly life foot washing was something that only the
lowliest servant did for their masters or mistresses. Jesus was a servant King.
For Jesus to stoop down and wash their feet was more than humbling.
And that really is the point.
Jesus is saying we must learn to stoop down and serve people as if we were
their slaves.
Sometimes, however, it's difficult
to love. Sometimes it's difficult to serve.
I think of the disciples at the
table that night, and I wonder what it was like to watch Jesus get down on his
knees and take the role of the servant who washed their feet.
How demeaning.
How awkward.
How demanding.
How amazing
Sometimes loving one another means
being bold. Sometimes it means swallowing our pride and doing what God has
called us to do.
After the disciples had
experienced Jesus washing their feet they went with him to the garden of
Gethsemane and Christ asked them to stay with him and pray. They couldn’t even
stay awake. Our relationship with God and our growth towards him depends on
prayer. In Prayer we relate to God and he relates to us. Whether that prayer is
a short intercession or a long period of mediation it is a step on the road to God. Without prayer we are lost.
Our vigil tonight is an
acknowledgement by the Church of just how important prayer is and to have the
opportunity to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament is something very special.
Christians throughout the world are doing the same thing and it reminds us that prayer is such a powerful thing
Tonight is also the anniversary of the institution of
Holy Communion. Tonight we obey another of Jesus commandments. Do
this in remembrance of me. Tonight
we give thanks for Holy Communion, that wonderful meal that we as a community
are called to share together. The meal that Jesus shared with his disciples was
a very special meal. It was a Passover meal, a religious celebration and a rite
of remembrance. It was a meal that looked back to the days of slavery in Egypt,
and it celebrated freedom and the delivery from bondage. It celebrated God’s love for the people of
Israel. Holy Communion celebrates our freedom and our delivery from bondage, the bondage of sin. Every time we
celebrate the Mass we somehow in a mystical and mysterious way join with
Christians throughout the world and beyond time in as St Paul says proclaiming
the Lord’s death until he comes. Holy Communion is a sign of God’s love
for us. Every time we come to the altar we taste the love of God.
God’s love is the most important
thing in the world, nothing else really matters. If we acknowledge God’s love
for us we have riches beyond compare. Tonight as the altar is stripped and the
Church is left bare we are reminded of that fact. God’s love is beyond all
things it is above all things and when there is nothing else there is God’s
love.
Today’s liturgy leaves us in no
doubt how we as Christians should respond to that love. Jesus gives us clear
instructions.
Love one another as I have loved
you
Do this in remembrance of me
Stay with me, remain with me,
Watch and pray
The Christian way is contained in
those three instructions or commandments that we celebrate here tonight. Let us
pray for strength to fulfil his wishes.
(Seeing is believing. If you go
home today and speak to anyone who wasn’t at this morning's Mass and tell them
that Fr Michael ate part of the flower arrangement many will not believe you. I
suspect that those who know me may say that they aren’t surprised as they
always thought I was a little mad, but many will express disbelieve. But you
know it happened because you saw it.) That is the situation we hear about in
this morning’s Gospel. Thomas refuses to believe that his friends had seen
Jesus. Thomas had seen Jesus die on the cross and thought in the words of
Luke’s Gospel talk of sightings of the risen Jesus were just an idle tale.
Thomas down the centuries has had quite a bad press. He is known as Doubting
Thomas and many people who have never heard the Gospel stories will use the
expression ‘doubting Thomas’ of others without really knowing why. Many of us
have a tendency to look down on Thomas
This morning I want to plead the case for Thomas, because I think
we as Christians have much to learn from him. Thomas I actually think was one
of the braver of the disciples. He was certainly loyal and in the story of
Lazarus we see him willing to go to Jerusalem to die with Jesus. We do not know
why Thomas wasn’t with the rest of the disciples when Jesus first appeared to
them. Perhaps he was grief stricken and wanted to be alone. Thomas however
despite not believing the disciples was loyal to his friends and they kept
telling him they had seen Jesus. I am sure that Thomas wanted to believe but he
couldn't. He was honest too ‘Unless I see
the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails
and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
There is nothing wrong with having doubts. The risen Jesus heard
Thomas’ doubts just as he knows ours, whether we voice them or not. Thomas
expressed his doubts very clearly. He wasn’t prepared to believe in the risen
Christ just because he had heard about it. That wasn’t enough to move him from
doubt to faith. He heard the witness accounts over and over again for seven
days after expressing his doubts but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to see with
his own eyes, feel with his own hands, the marks of the wounds. It sounds a bit
like an ultimatum. God knows our frailty and he knows us better than we know
ourselves he knows when we have doubts and whereas we don’t have any right to
make outrageous demands on God he does understand and care particularly if we
are honest in our search for truth.
Some of my time with the bank was spent as a trainer and I had to
train people to sell. We used to have an expression Telling is not Selling People will not buy something just because
you tell them about it. They need to understand how it relates to them and
their needs. Thomas wouldn’t buy this idea that Christ was alive again just
because he was told about it. He needed a personal encounter with Jesus before
he would believe. As I said earlier it was seven days after the resurrection
that Jesus appeared to Thomas. He wasn’t angry with him he just invited him to
put his fingers in the wounds and look at his hands. There is a wonderful
painting by Caravaggio called ‘The Incredulity of St. Thomas’ which shows
Thomas with Jesus. Jesus is holding Thomas’ hand and placing his finger in the
wound on his side. Interestingly Thomas is not looking at Jesus he appears not
to be able to bear to. There are a
number of paintings depicting this particular Gospel scene. One common theme
running through them all is Thomas placing his fingers in Christ’s wounds. If
we look at the Gospel account however St John makes no mention of Thomas
actually touching Jesus. Certainly Jesus invites him to but Thomas responds
with those famous words, My Lord and My
God.
Thomas encounters the risen Jesus
and he no longer doubts. He doesn’t need to touch the wounds he just knows. And
his response My Lord and My God.
Thomas’ belief came from a
personal encounter with the risen Jesus. The faith of all the disciples came
from a personal encounter with the risen Lord. Yes they were afraid and
unbelieving when they first heard about the resurrection. We too need a
personal encounter with the risen Jesus before we believe. Yes Jesus has
ascended to heaven so we can not meet him face to face like Thomas and the
disciples did. We can meet him in many ways though. Through other people, in
our prayers, through Holy Communion, through reading the bible. People
encounter Jesus in many, many ways. St Paul had a vision of Jesus on the road
to Damascus. Most of us don’t experience such things but there are many
occasions in our lives when we know that God is at work. And people see Christ
through us.
Yes we all have times of doubt,
when are hearts are closed to the risen Lord. But remember Christ burst through
the door the tomb, Christ entered the upper room through closed doors and he
can enter our hearts if we want him to. When Christ has entered our hearts when
he breaks in and we declare my Lord and my God, then God calls us out of our
locked rooms into the world. Once we have had that encounter we can no longer
sit in silence we must go out and live our lives in a way that reflects that
encounter. Yes we can tell people what a wonderful God we have, but as I said
earlier Telling is not Selling. Before I was ordained I lived in West London
and occasionally on a Saturday I would pop into the shopping centre in
Uxbridge, which was only about three miles from where I lived. Quite often
there would be a group of people standing around the men were all in suits with
beards and the women and girls had pinafore dresses and headscarves. One of the
men (it was always a man) would be standing on a box with a bible held aloft in
one hand shouting something about God while the others just stood around. Now I
think that we should all be able to talk about our faith, but I really don’t
understand why those people thought that anyone would come to God because they
stood shouting at them. I am sure they were very sincere in their faith but I suspect
that no one ever came to the faith through there so called witnessing. People
come to a personal encounter with Jesus when they see him alive in our hearts
and lives. The way we love each other, the way we respond to the needs of
others, the way we are responsible with all God gives us are all visible signs
that Jesus is alive and present in our lives. That is quite a responsibility
knowing that others will come to faith not by what we say to them but by the
way we show God’s love in our lives. The challenge to us all is to be a vision
of Christ for others. We must allow someone to have that encounter with the
Risen Jesus by opening our hearts to others and by sharing the joy of the
resurrection in the way we live our lives. That is what happened in the early
days of the Church and it changed the world. Let us continue to do that because
in the words of St Augustine of Hippo. We
are and Easter People and Alleluia is our song.
Today is the only Sunday in the year when we celebrate a
doctrine rather than an event. It is also for me a dreaded day for any preacher
my first sermon on the Holy Trinity. So why is this particular feast so
difficult? Well simply because we have to preach on a doctrine and as I have
said many times before, doctrine is about trying to explain things about God in
human terms, and there are no words that can do that adequately and no brain
big enough to fully understand God. There is also the danger that in preaching
on the Holy Trinity one can easily stray into heresy and whereas these days the
punishment is probably nothing more than a lecture from vicar, in the past when
we weren’t quite so tolerant and there was no TV people loved a good burning at
the stake of a heretic.
In his book ‘Does God Exist’ Hans Kung tells the story of a
priest who on Trinity Sunday said that the Holy Trinity was a mystery and as
such couldn’t be explained therefore there would be no sermon that morning. I
think many preachers may be tempted to do that but whereas, a mystery is
something that one does not understand that doesn’t mean that we are unable to
express anything at all regarding it or even examine it.
Many of us love a good mystery, (the viewing figures for
Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Inspector Morse etc are proof of that), However what
we don’t cope well with is not knowing at the end who did it. I even get
frustrated when a mystery is in two parts and I have to wait a day or even
worse a whole week to discover the answers. Unfortunately with regard to the
mystery of the Trinity, one thing I can guarantee is that none of us will fully
understand it in this life. Sermons and readings may help us to get closer to
some sort of understanding but however good or not the sermon is or the writing
is it can not fully or adequately explain the Mystery that is the Holy
Trinity.
Some people through the ages have dismissed the Trinity
saying that it is not mentioned in scripture. Jehovah’s Witnesses even go as
far as saying that it is a demonic doctrine. It is the biggest stumbling block
in talks with Muslims who are convinced that Christians worship three gods. The
Trinity may not be mentioned in the bible specifically in the terms we have
come to hear but there is no doubt that the doctrine is firmly based in the
Bible. There are however numerous references to it in the scriptures. In the
most explicit one Jesus himself commands the disciples to go out and make
disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.
It is important to realise that the Doctrine of the Trinity
doesn’t explain God, it explains the way in which God is revealed to us. The
early Church fathers in an attempt to put down a number of heresies produced
something called the Athanasian Creed. You can find it in full in the Book of
Common Prayer, although it is rarely if ever recited these days. The Athanasian
Creed sets out the Church’s belief in the Holy Trinity. It is extremely
complicated and states we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity,
neither confounding the Persons,
nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father,
another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated,
but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty,
and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three
Almighties, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God,
and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord,
and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.
I think the keyword is
incomprehensible.
Throughout the history of the
Church preachers have tried to explain the Trinity in simple terms. St Patrick
famously used the shamrock to show how something divided into three was still
one. I have seen people use the analogy
of water which exists in three states ice, steam and liquid. The problem with
all these pictures is that they only go so far they are incomplete and often
leave more questions unanswered than they answer . The Athanasian Creed to a
great extent explains the what of the
Holy Trinity. The pictures try to explain the how but, as I said, with limited success. To me the most important
question we need to ask is why? Why does God choose to reveal himself in this
way to us? What does the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity tell us about the God we
worship and why is this important to us?
Well first let me look at the
second part of that question, why is it important to us. Well, God created
human beings in his own image. I am sure that doesn’t mean in a physical way. I
suspect that God is not like an old man with a long white beard. I am pretty
certain it doesn’t mean culturally either. It may come as a bit of a shock to
hear that I don’t think God is an Englishman nor an Anglican for that matter.
(Gosh I can hear the fire being built and the logs starting to burn as I
speak.) The point is God gives us a model to which we should aspire to,
socially and spiritually. The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity shows us that God
does not exist in solitary isolation but in a community of loving and sharing.
That is what we as Christians are called to do. Mathew in his Gospel tells us
that Jesus instructs us to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. So if
we are in search of Godliness as we should all be we should not be withdrawing
from the world but embracing it and building a loving and sharing community.
God exists in a Trinitarian relationship, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Society
often encourages us to exist as a Trinitarian relationship me, me and me.
Sometimes Society allows another existence me, me and you which although better
is still incomplete and doesn’t reflect the Holy Trinity which challenges us to
adopt a me and God and neighbour principle. We are Christians because we exist
in a relationship of love with God and our neighbour. Let us pray that the Holy
and Blessed Trinity will help us to get rid of self-centredness so we can live
our lives in love of God and our neighbours.
So what of the unsolved mystery?
Well it is important to realise
that just because we don’t understand something doesn’t make it untrue.
Hopefully we can learn from what we do know and understand of the Trinity and
use it to develop our faith and our relationship with God and each other.
Desmond Tutu in his book Hope and Suffering relates how Anthony Bloom The
Russian Orthodox Archbishop used to tell the story of a priest in a country
village was confronted by an important scientist who spent a lot of time
producing many arguments against the existence of God. ‘So’ he said ‘I don’t
believe in God’ The priest who was no academic replied very quickly ‘oh it
doesn’t matter – God believes in you.’
So next time you get uptight or
confused by The doctrine of the Holy Trinity or any other doctrine hold onto
that. God believes in you and God loves you.
One of my favourite films is
Sister Act. The main character in the film is Delores Decartier (played by
Whoopie Goldberg). She is a singer in a nightclub and has witnessed a gang
murder and is called to give evidence. There is however a contract out on her
and she could be murdered herself at any time. The policeman in charge of the
case decides that to protect her she needs to be hidden in a convent. Delores is taken to the convent and the
priest who is in on it all talks to the Mother Superior and explains the
situation and how Delores is in great danger. ‘Certainly we will accept this
poor unfortunate woman’ Mother Superior says. Then she opens the door and sees
Delores and is shocked. Delores has hair that frizzes out in all directions she
is wearing designer shades and a purple sequinned body suit and has enough
jewellery and gold to open a jewellers shop. Mother Superior shuts the door on
her quickly with clearly no intention of helping her out. The priest through a
false smile reminded Mother superior that she had taken a vow of hospitality to
all in need. With a solemn face she says ‘I Lied.’
The story in this morning’s Gospel
has many messages but one of them is clearly about hospitality. Hospitality is
something that has been of great importance in the Christian world from early
times. We learn in Matthews Gospel that whatever we do for others we do for
God, and the story of the good Samaritan which we all know so well tells of the
lawyer who asks Jesus 'What must I do to inherit eternal life' the answer is
'love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your
strength and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself, and the story
of the Samaritan is told to demonstrate who is your neighbour. Jesus finishes
by saying 'Go and do likewise'. So when we sign up to being a Christian that is
part of the package. Just like the Mother Superior who vowed to be hospitable
to those in need. I wonder whether like the Mother Superior there are times
when we say by our actions ‘I lied’
In the story in today’s Gospel we
heard about Simon the Pharisee. Simon is hosting a dinner at which Jesus is the
guest. Why Simon has invited Jesus is unclear. He could have been an admirer of
Jesus but that seems unlikely since as we hear later that he was somewhat
discourteous in the way that he treated Jesus. He didn’t give Jesus water for
his feet, or greet him with a kiss or give him oil for his head. All these
things were considered at the time the polite way to treat a guest. Perhaps
Simon had invited Jesus in an attempt to trap him into saying something to
condemn himself. But then Simon calls Jesus Rabbi so that is unlikely too.
Perhaps Simon was a bit of a snob and liked to collect celebrities. (A bit like
Mrs Bouquet and her candlelit suppers.) I think this is probably the most
likely explanation and would explain the strange mix of respect and omission of
courtesy, but frankly we just do not know.
What we do know is that Simon is a
Pharisee and that tells us a lot about him. Simon is a man who takes his faith
seriously, he also fasts, gives 10% of everything he has away, and he regularly
goes to the temple or the synagogue and follows the law of God rigorously. He is basically a model for people who take
their spiritual life seriously. But
there is something missing. There is a disconnection between faith and
hospitality.
In the middle of the dinner in
comes a woman who approaches Jesus. Just like Simon we have no idea of her
motives, but she starts to weep and
Washes Jesus’ feet with her tears.
She lets her hair down to wipe his feet, and that would have been truly
shocking since to let ones hair down had major overtones. Even worse was
touching a man’s feet, that was a complete no no. Simon was absolutely
scandalised. What was even worse for him was that this man Jesus who people
said was a prophet allowing all this to happen
to himself. Outrageous. Simon
decides that no way is Jesus a prophet if he doesn’t know what sort of woman
this is.
Well actually that is just where
Simon was wrong. Simon knew her as a sinner, a Delores DeCartiers. Jesus knew
her too but he welcomed her as a guest. Simon withheld hospitality. Jesus
recognised that more than anything else in her life she needed to be welcomed
by God, to be forgiven her sin.
Sadly I think that we sometimes
identify more with the Pharisee than we admit even to ourselves. Most of live
our lives conforming to what society expects. We worry what people will think
of us. We have never done anything bad we tell ourselves. We go to church
regularly, we work and take all our responsibilities seriously. But let us not
deceive ourselves, we all fall short of Christian perfection. We are all
sinners. One of the deadliest traps we can fall into is to be consumed with
self-love. When we take too much pride in our own achievements and our social
status. When we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we are unable to see the
needs of others. We can sometimes be a
bit like the Pharisee in church too with our fellow Christians. Clergy are the
worst at that often watching out for any slight mistake in the way a fellow
priest celebrates the Mass for example.
There’s a story of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who was
deeply immersed in meditation during a church service, and he failed to kneel
at the appropriate moment. His enemies hurried to the bishop and demanded that
Dante be punished for his sacrilege. Dante defended himself by saying, “If
those who accuse me had had their eyes and minds on God, as I had, they too
would have failed to notice events around them, and they most certainly would
not have noticed what I was doing.”
(I experienced a similar type of thing myself, when I was
attending Church with my mother a few years back. The tradition of that Church
was for the congregation to stay kneeling throughout communion, except
obviously whilst they went up to the altar rail, but immediately on their
return everyone got back onto their knees. Very devout and commendable, except
that this particular Sunday I had injured my back and although I could kneel it
was a bit uncomfortable so I decided that I would be better off sitting as I
could be more prayerful if I was comfortable. The lady behind me, a pillar of
the community I found out later was not impressed though, she started to tut
and boy could she tut. She went on for at least a minute and that is some
tutting. She only stopped to sing the communion hymn…… Well I resisted the
temptation to turn around and glare at her (or worse) but I did think that if
she had been concentrating on her own devotions she would not have noticed me.
As it was she spoilt my prayer time too.
The point is we need to recognise
our own sins rather than be looking for faults in others. It is interesting
that the better a person is the more he or she feels their own sin. It could be
that the greatest sin is to be oblivious to our own sin. If you are not aware
of your own sin then you feel no need for God’s saving Grace. We can deceive
ourselves and we can deceive others but we can never deceive God. He knows us
better than we know ourselves. Honesty with ourselves will help us to be aware
of our need for forgiveness, for reconciliation with our loving and merciful
Father. That sense of need opens the door to forgiveness from God. The woman who had sinned was fully aware of
her need for forgiveness and Jesus gave it to her freely.
It is free to us as well if we
only are aware of our need for it. And it is from that forgiveness that new
life flows. The love of God is a free gift available just for the asking. So
let us all consider ourselves no better than anyone else and accept that we are
all precious in God’s sight.
Sermon for
Trinity 6 Year C
The Story of the Good Samaritan
which we have just heard is probably the most well known of all of Jesus’
parables. Even people who have never picked up a bible in their lives are
likely to know what a Good Samaritan is, even if they don’t know its origins.
I think that the Good Samaritan is
one of the most amazing parables Jesus told. The danger for us is that because
it is so familiar to us we can either gloss over it or even miss some of the
message. Whilst I was preparing this sermon I discovered some exciting things
about the passage. There are actually different ways of looking at this
parable. There are at least two different messages hidden in this familiar
story.
Firstly the message that is clear
to everyone even the lawyer. The message about loving ones neighbour as
oneself. That is written in the Jewish law and the lawyer repeats it for Jesus. You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all
your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’
But Jesus takes it further and his
message is actually a really radical message. It was counter cultural at the
time of Jesus and is still so today. At the time of Jesus Samaritans were
social outcasts. They were considered unclean by the Jewish society. And yet it
was the Samaritan who helped the injured man. So Jesus is calls us to love not
just those people we get on with, not just those who agree with us. The story
of the Good Samaritan only appears in St Luke’s Gospel, but it is at the core
of Jesus’ teaching in all the Gospels. In St Matthews Gospel, Jesus tells us You have heard that it was said, “You shall
love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, he goes on to say For if you only love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do
not even the tax-collectors do the same? Words we see in St Luke too. It is easy to just love people who
love us or people that we like. It is
infinitely more difficult to love those who do us harm or are rude to us or
abuse us. It is difficult to love those who don’t conform to what we think is
right. The tramp who smells, the person whose morals we feel are questionable.
The bully the thief, the illegal immigrant, the young person with an ASBO. I
could go on and on. Jesus tells us that to inherit the kingdom of heaven we
must love our neighbour as ourselves and to illustrate who our neighbour is he
uses the image of the Samaritan. The image of someone unclean in the eyes of
those who he was talking to. We don’t get to hear the reaction of those who
were listening, but I suspect they were stunned if not shocked to hear the
message. How does it affect us? What do we feel about being challenged to love
people who take us out of our comfort zone?
And what about the people in the
story? Who do we associate with the priest or the Levite or are we like the
Samaritan. I guess most of us if asked would say that we would be like the
Samaritan. But would we?
I read recently about a group of
ordinands who were set a test by the tutor in ethics. They were given a
10-minute break half way through the test to get a coffee or tea. Well it was a
warm day so many of them once they had got a drink stepped outside into the
grounds of the college for their short break and discovered a short way off
there was a man lying groaning on the grass. Well they were just about at the
end of the break and were concerned that they would not be back in the exam
room to finish the test. They didn’t know what to do but I was shocked to hear
not one of the students went to help the man. What they didn’t know was that it
was a set up. The tutor had planned this as part of the test. Not surprisingly
not one of the students passed. As I said I was quite shocked but I am assured
it was true story.
Are we like those students? Do we
have more important issues to deal with. Or if we go back to the story perhaps
we take the attitude that it was the man’s own stupid fault. Everyone knew that
the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was highly dangerous it was known as the way
of blood for goodness sake. He should have known he was likely to be attacked.
It was crazy for him to set out on his own I have no sympathy.
It isn’t easy is it. But then being a Christian is not about
things being easy. It is often hard and uncomfortable.
C.S. Lewis in his book God in the
dock wrote
If you
want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t
recommend Christianity.
It would be good for us all in the next few days to think through the Story of
the Good Samaritan and relate it to our own lives. If it begins to make us
uncomfortable then we have to work out why and change. That is the big
challenge of being a Christian.
It may be that by know you are
actually feeling a little uncomfortable anyway. Well I don’t want to leave you
feeling desperate and that is where the other message that I mentioned earlier
comes in.
The early Church Fathers applied
an allegorical interpretation to the parable. In simple terms the man going
from Jerusalem to Jericho, from the heavenly city to the worldly one was Adam.
The robbers represent evil powers leading the man into sin and leave him dying
in sin. This represents humankind as separated from God. The priest and the
Levite refer to the Law and its sacrifices, which are unable to help. But the
good Samaritan is Jesus, who provides the help needed. The wine represents the
blood of Christ; the oil, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The inn is the
church, the inn-keeper representative of the apostles; the two coins
representing baptism and the Eucharist. So we see that the only one who can
help us out of the mess of sin is Jesus. The law and sacrifice which the Jewish
people of the time placed so much store in are useless, we have to have Christ
in our lives. Jesus brings us out of sin, by the shedding of his blood on the
cross and sends his Holy Spirit to comfort us. He left us the Church and the
apostles to care for us and he gives us the sacraments to nourish us on our
journey. So by acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we are brought back
into relationship with God.
Today we are welcoming a new
member into the Church. It is through baptism that Harrison will start his
journey with Jesus. The Christian journey is a difficult one full of challenges
and it is a journey that we can not travel alone
A man died and approached the
Pearly Gates. St. Peter told him heaven was getting crowded so he had to test
people with the point system. If he got to 100 points he could enter. The man
told Peter that he gave to the poor. Peter marked him down for 3 points. The
man thought again, then said that he had given 10% of his income to the Church.
Peter added 4 points. The man, desperately searching his memory, finally said
that he had never sworn. Peter added 1/2 a point. By now the man got very
frustrated and said that at this rate he could only get in by the grace of God.
Peter replied, "Come on in!"
And that is the Good News of the
Gospel. Through our own efforts we can achieve very little, but with God’s
grace so much can be done. God loves each and every one of us. He loves us so
much that he sent his Son Jesus to suffer and die for us, to be our Good
Samaritan. Jesus offers everyone the opportunity to have their wounds bandaged,
our relationship with God repaired. Through the Church he offers us nourishment
for the journey with the sacraments. All we need to do is to accept him as our
Lord. The reward as Jesus tell us is to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. There can
be no greater prize
An atheist was sitting under a tree one day smugly thinking: "God,
I know you don’t exist but if you do exist you must be really stupid. Look at this huge oak tree. It’s got a
little acorn on it. And look at this huge marrow carried by such a puny marrow
plant.
Now, if I had been you, I’d have created the oak tree to carry the marrow and
the marrow plant to carry the acorn.
While he was reflecting on his wisdom, suddenly an acorn fell and hit him on
the head.
“Thank God that wasn’t a marrow!” he exclaimed.
Well our thoughts are not Gods thoughts, and that is pretty clear from the
parable of the rich fool, which was told in this morning’s Gospel.
Jesus must have been quite
frustrated. He had just spent time teaching about God’s love and how important
we are to Him when a man stands up and asks Jesus to settle a dispute about
inheritance. Jesus tells him about the rich man who placed more importance on
his wealth than anything else. The man in the parable Jesus tells is only
concerned with himself. He speaks to himself. He plans for his own future. He
congratulates himself. He never consults with his wife or his children or
anyone else. He never offers a prayer of thanksgiving or asks God for wisdom.
A recently read about a reporter who asked a young high
flying stock broker what his chief goal was in life. "To make my first
million pounds by the time I am 28," was the answer. "Then
what?" the reporter continued. "Well, I suppose I would like to
become a multi-millionaire." The news man pressed on. "Then
what?" Beginning to get a bit irritated, the broker said, "I want to
have a family and enough money to retire at 40 and travel around the
world."
Do you see the next
question coming? "Then what?" Exasperated, the would be
multi-millionaire said, "Well, like everyone else, I guess someday I will
die!" I suppose the next question
could be -- "Then what?"
Like the rich man in
Jesus' story, the difficulty with the young broker was not that he desired to
have possessions -- it was that his desire for possession had him. Jesus'
warning is strong. "Watch closely! Be on your guard! When your desire for
things gets its claws into your life, it can lead you down a very dangerous
road!" In other words, desire for material things may grow into greed
which can distort and then destroy the meaning of your life.
Now I think it is important to
realise that what Jesus was not doing was preaching against having possessions,
nor was he against justice. What he was doing was urging us to see what is most
important in life. We live in a society that places great store on possessions.
It is important to have a good home, a nice car, smart clothes, but when he
desire for these things becomes the most dominant thing in our lives we are on
a slippery slope. Unfortunately our Society often judges people’s worth on
these things and if we are not careful we can easily be sucked in and we can
place too much importance on material things.
There is a lovely passage in
Isaiah
Seek the
Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
That is one of my favourite pieces of scripture and it is used as a
canticle at morning prayer on Wednesdays. It tells us that God is a merciful
and loving God and that our aim in life should be to seek him. Jesus in this
parable tells us the same thing. We shouldn’t get hooked up in search of wordly
things and put them above everything else. In the section in Luke’s Gospel just
after the parable he concludes by saying ‘Therefore
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your
body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than
clothing.’ He goes on to say that God will provide for us and not to worry.
If we strive for the kingdom of God all things we need will be given to us. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.
It is a difficult thing to leave
go sometimes of things that are important to us and simply trust in God. I am a
born worrier, it is hereditary I get it from my mother but in this very same
section of Luke’s Gospel though Jesus tells us not to worry. He asks ‘can any of you by worrying add a single
hour to your span of life?’
I know its hard to believe but I
am getting more relaxed as I get older. It could be just down to old age or
perhaps I am getting just a bit wiser. (Ok its old age).
It is really hard sometimes just
to trust God but I have had some
amazing experiences when I have done just that. When I was accepted for
ordination I decided after a lot of thought, prayer and consultation to sell my
house. Well as the time grew nearer to going to Theological College nothing
seemed to be happening. I had employed the services of an estate agent and in 6
weeks despite telling me how desirable the property was had sent no one round
to view the house. So I decided to use another agent who did send quite a
number of people but not one of them thought it suited their needs. Well time
was moving on and I had visions of getting to college and finding myself in a
very difficult situation financially as I would have had to somehow find money
for the mortgage and all the other bills without having any income. Panic was
beginning to set in. Then a friend said to me ‘stop worrying about it. God has called you to this and he will provide
for you.’ Well initially I thought that
is easy for you to say but then I decided that actually there was something in
that. I spent some time praying about it and said to God if being a priest is
something that you want me to do I need your help and I lifted the situation to
him. Within three or four days something did happen. I was just finishing my
supper one evening when there was a knock on the door. There on the doorstep
was a middle aged Irish couple who asked me if it was true that I was selling
my house. They wanted to move over from Ireland to be close to their daughter
and their grandchildren who lived just down the road from me. Although there
was no estate agents sign outside the house they had been chatting with a
couple of my neighbours and found out that I was moving. When they found out
what I was going to do they were thrilled as they were Christians and told me
that I was the answer to their prayers. They were certainly the answer to my
prayers and I did sell the house to them without the aid of an estate agent. It
was a huge lesson for me in trusting God and not worrying about things. That is the lesson from this mornings
Gospel. Don’t put your trust in riches, they wont bring you happiness. Don’t
put your trust in material things they fade away. Don’t put your trust in the
latest fashions, the latest fads, the latest cars. Put your trust in God and he
will provide for all your needs.
You only have to look into any newspaper to see how terrible
young people are these days. When I was younger, children and youngsters had to
be seen and not heard it’s a pity they aren’t like that now.
These are two things over the
years I have heard said quite a lot. I am sure those who know me well will not
be surprised to hear me say that I think that both statements are complete
nonsense.
I have had two experiences in the
last fortnight that confirmed my view that young people are amazing.
The week before last I visited the
World Scout Jamboree in Chelmsford where 36000 young people and 4000 leaders
were celebrating 100 years of Scouting. World Jamborees take place every four
years and are Scouting’s equivalent of the Olympics, but on a much larger
scale. Unlike the Olympics however it is not a spectator sport. Scouts from
most countries in the world camped along side each other and for 10 days showed
the world how things could be. Christians, Jews, Muslims Sikhs, Hindus, Mormons
and Buddhists, lived in perfect harmony. I only spent a few hours there but the
atmosphere was amazing, it felt like a huge party. But it was more than that.
As well as numerous exciting and challenging activities the Scouts from all
over the world were involved in environmental and community projects. Putting
their Scouting into action to help others and showing a real commitment to
respecting creation. To commemorate the
actual 100th birthday of the movement on 1st August,
Scouts across the globe met at sunrise to renew their promise. I was privileged
to be able to join Bishop’s Stortford Scouts at the castle in the park where at
8am together with Scouts throughout the UK we renewed our promises. It was a
moving and powerful experience. The aim of the Jamboree was to make One World ,
one promise a reality, as an observer I could see that they achieved that aim.
This week I went to Walsingham
with a number of the youth group and some adult help to take part in the Annual
Youth Pilgrimage. We spent four nights and five days camping. It was hard work.
The facilities were far from perfect. Queues for the showers started at 5.30am,
the nights were freezing, the wind nearly blew our dining tent down and our
tents were so close to each other that the symphony of snoring each night was
clearly audible and meant that some of us had very disturbed sleep and early
mornings. Despite all that everyone, and I include myself in that had a
brilliant time. Every year the Pilgrimage has a theme, last year we celebrated
Holy Week and Easter and the liturgy took us from Palm Sunday on the Tuesday
through to Easter Day on the Friday. This year the week took for its theme the
Holy Spirit and was called Comfort Zone. Taking from scripture that Jesus said
that when I am gone I will ask the Father to send the Holy spirit, the
Comforter to be with you. The comforter who visited Our blessed Lady, The
comforter who inspires thousands of Christians into lives of love and service.
The heart of each day was Mass, which took place in the worship tent which was
actually a circus big top. In many ways the Mass was quite traditional, with
servers, incense etc and it lasted well over an hour each day. And yet no one
ever asked me do I have to go, they all went and had a fantastic time. I have
never been to a Mass anywhere else where there was so much enthusiasm, energy
and yet a deep respect and love of God. The music was led by a worship band who
were amazing, at times we were clapping, jumping about, some even danced, at
other times we were sitting quietly meditating. Drama and films were used for
intercessions and homilies and even for the scripture readings along with more
traditional methods. It was fun, there were times when it seemed like a big
party, there were times when we laughed there were times when we were moved
close to tears but above all we worshipped God and we encountered his Son Jesus
in so many different ways The Agnus dei we sung every day at Mass in English and Latin and . I found
it quite interesting that one of our group was often to be heard at various
times whistling or singing it. As well as the Mass there were other worship
sessions at different times of the day and some of our group went to the daily
bible study. There were also one afternoon a number of workshops. Our group
went to the craft workshop and made among other things prayer beads. I was really
impressed but even more impressed when one member of the group gave me one,
which I have to say I have used quite a lot since. What touched me more though
was when that evening we were sitting in the Comfort Zone Café playing various
games and drinking coke and elderly priest who was chaplain to one of the
Bishops attending came over to chat with us. He admired the beads and the
youngster who made them, (I shan’t mention names I don’t want to cause
embarassment) said oh I made four and I have already given one to Fr Michael
you have one too. The priest was clearly impressed with the generosity. I was
really proud to be their leader at that point. I changed my mind slightly when
the priest had gone and they were all saying what a great chap the priest was when
one of them said to me it’s a pity you aren’t more like him Fr Michael.
There were 700 young people at
Walsingham this week all at different stages of their life’s pilgrimage. The
thing that struck me was that regardless of where they were from, what social
background they had they all go on with each other. They were a great crowd and
I was proud to be part of it all. It certainly put the lie to those who say
young people aren’t interested in God these days. It showed to me that when
what they do in Church has meaning and is energetic they will go and they enjoy
it.
Both my experiences over the last
two weeks have given me great hope. Yes our young people like you and I are
part of a society that places great store as I said last week on possessions.
But they seem to me to still have a vision of a world which is a better place.
The Gospel this morning tells us to make purses for ourselves that will not
wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven. And you know I think huge numbers of
our young people actually get what that is all about. They know that where
their treasure is there heart is also. We have a huge amount to learn from our
young people. I sometimes hear people say oh we must look after the youngsters
and children, they are the Church of the future. I am sorry but they are not.
They are not the Church of the future they are the Church of the present as
much as you or I are and unless we realise that and listen and learn from them
we will faiI in our duty to them and what is more we will be much the poorer
for it.
Now I really don’t want anyone to
think that I am advocating that All Saints becomes what one of the Youth Group
calls Happy Clappy. What I do think is that worship should be fun, we should
enjoy it, but we should also be generous to each other and open to the Holy
Spirit moving us in directions that we may not be totally comfortable with. As
one of the speakers this week said we need often in our lives to move out of
our own Comfort Zones into Gods Comfort Zone a far more rewarding and
energising place to be.
The new vicar had just arrived and
the people were looking forward to hearing him preach his first sermon. He got
up in the pulpit and said, “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my
favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane
where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went to
preach what they all agreed afterwards was a jolly good sermon.
The following week they looked up
expectantly as he climbed into the pulpit, so they were a bit taken aback when
he began with precisely the same introduction: “I’d like to speak to you today
about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the
Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,”
and he went on to preach exactly the same sermon as the week before – word for
word. After the service, there was a bit of muttering, but people agreed that
he’d only just moved in and he must have been busy unpacking and sorting
himself out, so they could understand that perhaps he hadn’t had time to write
a fresh sermon. They would see what happened the following Sunday.