MY NEXT SERMON

I shall next be preaching on Sunday 12 May 2024 at the 11.00 a.m. Morning Worship Service at St.  at All Saint's Parish Church, Farley.

SERMON 201 - SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2024 - EASTER 3

Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church West Grimstead and All Saints’ Parish Church, Farley   -  Easter 3  – Sunday 14 April 2024

Acts 3:12-19; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

On Wednesday evening this week I attended a meeting, over a light supper at Sarum College, where Bishop Stephen met with a large number of lay people from five of the deaneries, including our own, which make up the Sarum Archdeaconry.  The purpose of this meeting was for him to tell us of his vision for mission – “Making Jesus Known” and finding out what the laity felt it needed to assistant them to carry this out – or rather what members of the laity felt they were lacking as a resource.  As you can imagine there was a great deal of discussion and many questions but out of this, one thing spoke to me louder than any other and this is reflected in our gospel reading this morning.

Bishop Stephen told us a story about when he had first been appointed as the Dean of Gloucester Cathedral.  At his first service, he had witnessed the departure of a long-standing director of music and at the end of the service a presentation was made and he asked the congregation to give a round of applause. Afterwards, a leading member of the congregation pointed out to him that people do not give applause in cathedral services and also, whilst on the topic, they also object to being referred to in his sermon as “disciples” – that is far too evangelical. They prefer to be called churchgoers.  Quite a number of the people at our meeting laughed or gasped but I think some others sympathised with the Gloucester member of the congregation.

It got me thinking - how do we in our rural churches see our ourselves? Churchgoers or disciples? Well certainly we are the former, if we regularly attend church, but what does that mean?  Are we going simply in the hope of doing the right thing by God or are we really following the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ?

So, what is it to be a disciple?  Webster's definition of a disciple is "a pupil or follower of any teacher or school.”  A true disciple is therefore not just a student or a learner, but a follower: one who applies what he has learned.  This was the assumption or hope which Bishop Stephen was expressing to his cathedral congregation in Gloucester and this is the assumption and hope which he is expressing today in his new diocese of Salisbury – to us all!  That we know Jesus – hence “Making Jesus Known” not simply “knowing about Him”.

In our first two readings this morning, first from Acts written by Luke and secondly from John’s First Epistle, we reflect upon the mistakes of the past in not fully knowing Jesus. Luke in our first reading reminds us that Jesus was put to death on the Cross by people who were ignorant of who he was and also the reason why it was necessary for him to die. John in our second reading reminds us that now we know him we can be truly called God’s children and, when Jesus is revealed to us, we can be like Him.  That explains why properly knowing and following Jesus is to be a disciple - a true follower and that is why, if we are to call ourselves Christians, we have to acknowledge and realise that we are true disciples and that in everything we do and say we do so in the spirit and grace of Jesus.

Our gospel reading reminds us of the disarray in which those first disciples found themselves after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It occurs after the resurrection and they are all together in one place talking about what they had heard; rumours, as they would have been, of Jesus having risen from the dead.  It must have been an awesome experience for them to have the risen Christ suddenly appearing in front of them.  Even after he had shown them the scars of Crucifixion they were still disbelieving – no doubt thinking that he was some sort of ghost. It is for that reason that he demonstrated that he was really still flesh and blood and alive by asking them to give him some food – a piece of grilled fish. He then reminds them that all this was foretold in the Old Testament and that having known him and having witnessed his resurrection they can be true witnesses of all that has happened, witnesses of God’s love to the people of the world and that those who truly repent are forgiven their sins without the need for the Temple ritual previously required.

It would take a long session to consider all the arguments about the meaning of the Cross and its significance but I think we can be well satisfied that God sent Jesus into a broken world, a religiously corrupt world so that Humankind could be reconciled with God and that through the death and resurrection of his Divine Son, Jesus, we could seek direct forgiveness through repentance and prayer – hence the tearing of the Temple Veil to signify that every believer and follower has direct access to God without the need of complicated rituals and hierarchy.

Today, this service is being led by me, a Licensed Lay Minister, not a Priest. My role is to teach and preach in a pastoral context.  Yes, I may have gone through four years of theological and ministerial training and wear these robes of church authority, but, like all of us here today, I am simply, at best, a follower of Christ and, hopefully a reasonably good disciple although, like many of those original disciples, I often get it hopelessly wrong!

So how can we be good disciples and how can we undertake the role we are being asked of making Christ known if we don’t know Christ ourselves? In my view only by studying and following the example of Christ – first by studying the gospels and secondly by “walking the talk” just as Jesus requested of those first disciples in Matthew 28 – the Great Commission – which I think useful to set out again here - 

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So ends Matthew’s Gospel as well as the TV production of “Jesus of Nazareth” but do note that even here, at the end, some disciples still doubted, even after all this time and experience.

In his talk last Wednesday night, Bishop Stephen ended with another story. As many of you will realise, the Bibby Stockholm barge, housing a number of asylum seekers at Portland, is within the Diocese of Salisbury. Bishop Stephen, together with a local priest, went there on Maundy Thursday after the Chrism Service in the cathedral and washed the feet of some of those asylum seekers.  As he did so to one particular man, the asylum seeker said “Surely, we should be doing that for you”!

Bishop Stephen used this story to illustrate that this is an example of where we can “evangelise” our faith to others – doing as Christ did to his disciples.  Serving and not being served and teaching others by the way we demonstrate our good discipleship and knowledge of Jesus to those who have yet to know him.

As we shall say, once again at the end of the service, let us depart in peace to be sent out to love and serve the Lord.

 

Amen                                                                                                            MFB/201/11042024

SERMON 200 - SUNDAY 31 MARCH 2024 - EASTER SUNDAY EUCHARIST

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Winterslown   -  Easter Sunday Eucharist  – Sunday 31 March 2024

Isaiah 25:6-9; Acts 10:34-43; Mark 16:1-8

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today’s readings should bring an overwhelming sense of joy and emotion to Christians throughout the whole – a reminder that Jesus having been executed by the cruellest of methods by the Roman occupiers of Judea – has risen on the third day and is alive.  Whenever I read or hear today’s gospel passage it always sends a feeling of upwelling emotions and tears.

One of my favourite films, largely because I love railways and trains (in fact my current house lies on the old trackbed of the Salisbury to Bournemouth railway), is “The Railway Children” – the 1970 version directed by Lionel Jeffries with Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Dinah Sheridan Bernard Cribbins and William Mervyn (of the Church of England sitcom All Gas and Gaiters fame).  This wonderful story written by Edith Nesbit in 1906 tells the story, I am sure you will recall, of three children and their mother who are forced to leave fashionable London and live in a small house near a village with a railway station because their father, who holds an important position in the Civil Service, has been falsely accused of being a traitor, a spy, and put in prison.  We later find out that a work colleague framed him to cover for his own crime.

The book and film tells the story of the adventures which the children get up to in and around the railway line and station including preventing a train wreck after a landslide, preventing an injured schoolboy being killed in a railway tunnel and helping a foreigner to be re-united with his family. There is also a scene, you will recall, where the boy Peter attempts to steal coal from the station yard in order to provide heat for his poorly mother.  During their time away from London they have to survive much deprivation which their changed circumstances have brought about and after an affluent life in London, their changed circumstances and the stigma of their father’s incarceration prove to be a great challenge.

The scene which I want to remind you of, though, is that moment when Roberta, the elder daughter played by Jenny Agutter, is told by the station master (Bernard Cribbins) that “today is a very special day – I’ve seen it in the papers”.  She has no idea what he is talking about but feels that everyone and everything seems a little odd and she wants to be alone.  The passengers on the train all wave to her and the station master seems to be so excited as he fusses around, as do the passengers waiting for the train to arrive.

It does not matter how many times I see the film version, or even think about that final scene, as I am doing now, my eyes always well up with emotional tears of joy as Roberta sees her falsely accused, but now released, father standing with his case on the platform as the smoke from the locomotive disperses and she shouts “Daddy my Daddy”!

For me, there is a direct parallel here with the Easter Story.  Like Roberta’s father, Jesus was falsely accused of seditious activity against the Roman authorities and paid the price for others’ sins.  Indeed he paid the ultimate penalty and Jesus’s followers and family must have felt that his ministry and life were firmly over.  That Good Friday and Easter Saturday must have been absolutely dreadful for them – just like the children in the railway children – their life had been turned upside down and doubts must have entered their heads as to what or who Jesus had been. 

We have been journeying with Jesus through Lent, Holy Week and shared his pain as we have remembered and re-enacted the events of Good Friday; but here we are on Easter Day, standing on the steamy platform like Roberta as Jesus Resurrected appears to us through the narrative of Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of James. Upon realising that Jesus was back, the feeling which they must have had must have been that same overwhelming feeling of joy as we experience with Roberta in that film scene; and like Roberta they are amazed and confused and we read also terrified at the same time.  For me, like watching that scene again and again, I still get an incredible lump in my throat when I hear and read that passage read as I explained earlier; but for me I know how the story ends, the two Mary’s didn’t.  It was an experience so remarkable that it was difficult for them to comprehend.

At times when our Faith is tested it is good to remember this passage. In today’s extensive secular society Christians continue to be persecuted for their beliefs – especially surrounding the resurrection.  The early Christians had much to put up with from non-believers; in fact even those who believed struggled, such as those disciples on the road to Emmaus.  Luke, in the reading from Acts which we also heard read this morning, recalls Peter speaking to those surrounding Cornelius’s House reminding them of the great sacrifice made for all mankind – not just those of the Jewish Faith. Cornelius, you will remember was a Roman Centurion who heard God calling him to summon Peter to his where he, his family and his whole household were baptised as Christians following a vision which Peter had demonstrating that it was not just those of the Jewish Faith who obeyed the Mosaic Law who were worthy of being Christians but everyone and everyone who accepts Jesus as their true saviour who died on the Cross for the sins of all.  That such believers and followers will receive forgiveness through his name.

I think it is wonderful that, like the name of a seaside town running through the length of a stick of rock from first lick to last lick, the coming of Jesus as our Saviour permeates the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Our First Testament reading from Isaiah is an example of this when it is written:

“… the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the Earth, for the LORD has spoken.  It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, so that he might save us.  This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation”.

There are really two important points which Isaiah conveys – first of all, he will wipe away the tears of all, he will take away the disgrace from all the Earth; and secondly, here is an acknowledgement that the LORD (Yahweh) for whom we have waited has come and that therefore Jesus is indeed GOD (Yahweh) incarnate.

Whenever my Faith is shaken or I feel not quite in tune with God I remember these words. I remember the fact that in the context of the universe which God created as a whole, our little planet is so insignificant. It is one of the smaller planets revolving around a small yellow dwarf star, on the outer limits of a galaxy which is not the largest of a group of galaxies a group which is one of the smaller ones contained in a larger galactic cluster set in the infinity of a universe whose boundaries we cannot currently discern.  Yet, despite this, the Creator God was so concerned and compassionate about us and the way in which we were going, he sent himself, in the form of Jesus, to save us from ourselves.

We live in an ever-increasing secular world – in a world where most worship material things – money, possessions, celebrities. We live in a world where untruths abound and through social media we spread gossip and lies without stopping to examine their veracity or the harm they do to others. We are constantly being led by false shepherds, false prophets, people who appeal to our greed.  They spread Bad News because it appeals to us – conspiracies, and rumours or because it fills their pockets with our hard-earned money. 

As Christians, we have to stand up against such falseness and fake news and we do so by going back to the message of Jesus – “I am the way the truth and the life”.  It is our role as Christians to spread this Good News to all we meet in our daily lives.

It grieves me so much to see a world which honours and follows those who appeal to our poorer nature and instincts instead of inspiring us to follow Christ and his teachings of loving one another as God loves us.

I am optimistic though.  Just as everything worked out well in the end for Roberta and her family in the Railway Children, justice did prevail, her father was restored to his family and his position – no manner of falsehood or fake accusations could destroy them in the end.  I daresay the whole family though benefited from going through the turmoil of giving up their comfortable life in London for a harder but I think richer life in the Yorkshire countryside.

Likewise, through Jesus’s passion, death and resurrection we are richer in that we are now able to access God directly through Jesus and the Holy Spirit and can be restored to the people which God created us to be. Let us not simple proclaim this with our Alleluia’s in church but in our daily lives as we spread this Good News to all we meet.

 Amen                                                                                                   MFB/200/27032024

 

SERMON 199 - SUNDAY 10 MARCH 2024 - MOTHERING SUNDAY

Sermon at St. Mary’s Parish Church, West Dean   -  Mothering Sunday – Morning Worship  – Sunday 10 March 2013 (Sermon 21 adapted)

Exodus 2:1-10; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:33-35

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Since Monday, I have seen literally hundreds of advertisements from commercial organisations as to how best to celebrate “Mothers’ Day” as it is more commonly known in the secular world – from cards, flowers  and meals to some quite bizarre and exotic gifts – cruises, weekends in Paris and so on.  This  got me into thinking about what the origins of this festival were and how did it develop into the secular celebration we often see today.

Mothering Sunday is clearly set out as a festival within the Church’s Lectionary and indeed, when putting together this service, there were plenty of both on-line and good old fashioned off-line resources to help me – not least from the Church of England itself.  Unlike Fathers’ Day, which started in 1910 in the United States to show equality of honouring fathers with mothers, Mothering Sunday goes much further back and its origin, whilst steeped in ecclesiology, was not quite what we see today and I thought that I would share my research with you.

Mothering Sunday always falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent and as such has no connection with the American celebration of Mothers’ Day.  Traditionally, it was the day when children, mainly daughters who had gone to work in domestic service, were given the day off to visit their mother and family.  As we know, now it is the day when children give cards, flowers and presents to their mother. 

Churchgoers, generally, worshipped in the church nearest to where they were living – although this is not always the case today – known as their “daughter church” – and in the sixteenth century it was felt important that people returned to their home or “mother church” at least once a year.

So each year, in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their “mother church” – the main church or cathedral of the area.

Inevitably, the return to the “mother” church became an occasion for family re-unions when children who were working away returned home (it was quite common in those days for children as young as ten to leave home and find work away).

Most historians think that it was the return to the “Mother Church” which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family.

How lovely it would be if our modern day employers allowed their staff a long weekend off to visit their mothers and go to their mother’s local parish church once a year)!  Unfortunately, I cannot see that happening.  In today’s modern age many children are separated from their parents by many hundreds, if not thousands, of miles – often across continents.

As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift – hence the tradition of giving flowers to the mums.  The term given to these visits was to go “a-mothering”.

Another explanation is that Mothering Sunday derived from the original Epistle scriptural text for the Fourth Sunday in Lent as set out in the Book of Common Prayer before the modern Lectionary came into being – Galatians 4:26 – which reads

“.. Jerusalem that is above is free and she is our mother”. 

Paul, writing to the church of Galatia, was wanting to explain to the Christian community there what their relationship as Christians was to the Jewish law which the Galatians were being told, by others, they were breaking by following Paul’s teachings.

In the full passage (Galatians 4:21-31), the two children born by Hagar and Sarah to Abraham are seen as symbolising two promises from God:

One is the Torah which is restraining and earthly.  The other is the Gospel, which is spiritual and liberating.  The Galatians are told to regard themselves as the children of the Gospel.

“Mothering Sunday” has also been called Refreshment Sunday amongst other names.  It stands right in the middle of Lent and traditionally it has been seen as the one day when the rules of fasting can be relaxed. You can eat chocolate and drink wine today!  I rather like that idea. In some Church of England churches, even today, it was also seen as the one and only day during the period of Lent when a couple could get married.

Finally, it was also a day when the congregation engaged in a tradition known as “clipping the church” – when everyone would encircle the church holding hands – a bit difficult with the size of our modern congregations and embrace the building.  I don’t expect anyone to do that today!

Enough of Church history! Neither our modern Lectionary nor Book of Common Prayer has the Galatians reading assigned for today – but they do have the readings which we heard – and how much more they are relevant too.  Both the Old Testament reading from Exodus – part of the Torah - and Luke (one of the Gospels) are well known stories which often appear in the junior bible stories – the first where a mother abandons her child out of the deepest love and emotion she can have – to protect him for a certain death.  What a wrench, though,  it must be for any mother to be separated from her child. 

In the passage immediately before the one we had read to us, Pharaoh has given commands to ethnically cleanse his country by culling the number of Israelites in his country - killing every male child immediately after he is born by throwing him in the Nile.  In a bid to save her new-born child, Moses’s mother hides him in the rushes by the side of the Nile where he is shortly picked up by the daughter of the very same Pharaoh who has decreed he should die.  In a twist of providence, the child’s mother is later employed to act as his nurse.

So many parallels with the Gospel story – the slaughter of the innocence and the hiding of the child to avoid capture – ironically in the case of Jesus by taking him to the very country where the kinsmen of Moses were being enslaved and persecuted. It must have been a wonderful re-union for the mother of Moses but, in its way, must have been quite painful to know that the child being cared for by the Egyptian princess is the very child you went through labour and birthing pains for.  He was, after all, her flesh and blood.

In our Gospel story, Mary and Joseph have taken the baby Jesus to the Temple to present him to the Lord and give praise and thanksgiving for his birth.  There they meet Simeon and Anna, two devout old worshippers.  We read that Simeon had the Holy Spirit on him and that he immediately recognized whom the baby was.  After taking Jesus in his arms he gave praise in the words of the Nunc Dimittis (which we say at Evening Prayer) and Mary and Joseph marvelled at these words.

But, in the next breath, Simeon says something to Mary which must have sent a cold shiver down her spine – “This child is destined to cause a falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.  A sword will pierce your own soul too”.

Prophetic words indeed – Mary, 33 years later was to witness the cruellest of deaths of the child which she had just borne and whose tiny hands clenching in her arms, would one day be nailed to a crude instrument of execution.  One wonders what she must have thought.

All parents have only the best thoughts and intentions for their children.  Both the mother of Moses and the mother of Jesus could not have known, in those early days, how life would pan out for their first born sons. But of one thing that is certain, both mothers lavished so much love on them and formed them into the people they became and Mary’s love for her son clearly lasted beyond his crucifixion and resurrection.

Mothers bear many strains and anguish.  The joy of having children bears with it physical pain and suffering too.  C. S. Lewis describes in his book “Surprised by Joy” his relationship with joy Gresham and recounts her words to him during their wonderful day out to the Golden Valley which I think ring so true: – “The pain then (in the future), is part of the happiness now. That’s the deal”.  In other words, whenever there is much happiness there is likely to be pain at some time in the future – and the happier the experience or relationship now, the greater the pain is likely to be in the future.

Our mothers are, or have been, cooks, nurses, storytellers, waitresses, bottle washers, shoppers, designers, taxi drivers, preachers, teachers, and much much more. 

Human mothers have a bond with their children which is probably the strongest in nature. 

The reading which I did not choose today is the piece of scripture when Jesus from the Cross says to his mother Mary who is standing next to the disciple John,

“Dear woman, here is your son”, and to John, “Here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home”.

Even in the middle of his own agony on the Cross, Jesus realised also the pain which both mother and disciple were going through – a mother needed a son and the disciple a mother. 

We all need our mothers, whether our natural mother or our mother church.  For those who have lost their mothers today can be the painful part of the happiness you have had as described by Joy Lewis.   As we later give and receive flowers as a token of the love which exists between mother and child, let’s not forget that such love comes from God himself and is a sample of the love that he has in amazing abundance for all of us.  Like the Levi woman, the mother of Moses, and Mary, mother of Jesus, they sacrificed up their sons for the greater glory of God.

Amen

SERMON 198 - SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2024 - CANDLEMAS

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow – Sunday 28 January 2024 – Candlemas (Adapted from Sermon 144)

Luke 2:22-40

“Master, you are now 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 the glory of your people Israel”

I think everyone here is very familiar with this passage – it has been sung over the centuries in its King James Version under its Latin heading “Nunc Dimittis” meaning “now you are dismissed” and this morning, later in our service, we will stand around the font, the symbol of our first entry into the Christian family, and recite it.

We call this Sunday “Candlemas” and I think it is important to understand why the presentation of Jesus in the Temple has been given this name.  The early church leaders recognised and spoke of Jesus’s presentation as being the presentation of the light of the world – as we have just read “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel” and services, especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church, still use a great many candles in their services at this time – hence Candlemas. When preaching on this passage in the past I have concentrated on those two elderly dwellers in the Temple – Simeon and Anna and their importance in this story; but this morning I want to talk more about bringing the light of Jesus into the world and concentrate more on the future rather than the past, something which I think worries us all as we see parts of the world in flames and important elections just around the corner in important western democracies.

On Saturday 7^th October the Holy Land was shaken by the savage attacks, murders and kidnappings of civilians in Israel by Hamas terrorists and since that date, we have observed, through the media, the devastation of the people of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force as they seek to eliminate those terrorists – with immense civilian casualties. Added to that, the war in Ukraine has intensified, within again substantial destruction and loss of life to civilians and we have also seen the situation in the Red Sea worsen at the hands of the Houthi terrorists against western shipping and the bombing of Yemen by British and American forces. As the situation in the Middle East continues to escalate with Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraqi becoming involved the world seems a much sinister and darker place than even it was on 6^th October. For most I think we feel darkness descending upon us all.

But there is a greater light amongst any darkness and that is the light of Jesus who, as God incarnate, came upon this Earth some 2,000 years ago and died on the cross for us.  God, in the form of Jesus Christ, his son we are told in the bible, came to heal the sick and to bind the wounds of many – both Jew and Gentile. 

I often reflect on how it must have been for Mary, the mother of Jesus to present her little bundle of joy in the Temple as was the custom.  A small helpless baby swaddled up close to his mother’s breast.  Possibly his little hands were opening and closing, clenching and unclenching as I so often saw in my little grandchildren; a precious bundle of love. And then I think of those same hands, 33 years later being stretched out by brutish foreign soldiers for massive nails to be driven through the palms as that same little child is prepared for the cruellest of executions; his only crime – being the light of the world.  That story will be told again in March when we remember and celebrate the events in Jerusalem during that Passion Week.

For now, though, let us dwell on Simeon’s praise.  Let us remember that God so loved the world that he came down and was made flesh amongst us.  That he became wholly human as well as wholly divine. He cried like any child and gazed into his mother’s eyes like any child does in its mother’s arms.  He came for all of us, again I repeat - not just the Jews, but for the non-Jews as well; all of humankind – whatever our race, colour or political persuasion.  We are all children of the same God.  We were all innocent babes at one time and we are all created in God’s image.

Back in 2020 I quoted James Finley and I think it appropriate to do so again :

“When God eases us out of God’s heart into the earthly plane, God searches for the place that is most like paradise, and it’s the mother’s gaze. In the mother’s gaze, she transparently sacramentalises God’s infinite gaze of love, looking into the eyes of the infant. And when the infant looks into her eyes [they are] looking into God’s eyes, incarnate as her loving eyes.”

Simeon was able to prophesy the future for Mary. A sword will pierce your very soul too. Sadness and despair would descend upon Mary some 33 years later but; also, so would joy and gladness at the resurrection.

That is the promise for us all.  Whatever our lives might be like now, however we might feel about ourselves or our situation, by trusting in God’s light, the living Christ and the Holy Spirit we can get through all the darkness and shine his light in the world.

We are told that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon. The Holy Spirit leads us today, as then, into the future with hope, because the future is God's and God will always give us hope. The challenge for each of us is to put our trust in God in the same complete way that Simeon and Anna did when they glimpsed the divine face of that small baby in the Temple.  Simeon knew that this small child would be tested and eventually die a cruel death – but he also knew that he had seen a great light and that he could now die himself a peaceful fulfilled death.  As we light our candles later on in this service, let us remember that as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ and blessed with the Holy Spirit we carry that light within us all the time – sometimes it is only a little pilot light flickering away almost undetected, but at other times it whooshes up and fires us to do great things in his name.  If you come here this morning and don’t yet feel that you have Christ’s light within you, still leave your candle here at the front and pray that the Holy Spirit will enter your life and turn on that inner flame.

We live in an ever increasing humanist world. We think we can take control of our own lives and destinies.  During the Brexit campaign, we heard much about gaining our own sovereignty. The word means “over all reigns” – in other words a supreme control over a kingdom.  In this modern day and age it has come to mean taking control over ourselves but without understanding and realising that there is one to whom we must all obey and venerate – to the true ruler over all, the Universe and everything in it – God.  Nothing happens without it being part of God’s plan – when we stray away from his plan he will gather us up, like the lost lamb of the parable, and return us to His flock like the good shepherd He is. Our life may have many cul de sacs or dark valleys but He  will, if we believe and trust in Him lead us to the bright uplands and hill tops.

We should, therefore, like Simeon have the faith to recognise God at work in this world; have the faith to trust that God has a plan for his world; we must, like Anna, be able to look to the dawning of a new age however dark the dawn may be for some today.  Look again into the face of the person or persons sitting next to – you are looking into the face of God’s created image – a glimpse of God himself who loves you and say to that person “God loves you today and always”. When later on we extinguish our lighted candles it is a symbol of the light of Christ now being transferred to be carried inside us.

Let us pray:

O Lord Jesus Christ, as a child you were presented in the Temple and received with joy by Simeon and Anna as Redeemer of Israel and a Light to all Nations: we ask that we, like them, may be guided by the Holy Spirit to acknowledge and love you until the end of our lives and that we might go out to others carrying your light to all whom we meet today and always.

 

Amen                                                                                                   MFB/198/26012024

SERMON 197 - SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2024 - EPIPHANY 3

Sermon delivered at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean – Sunday 21 January 2024 – Epiphany 3

Genesis 14:17-20; Revelation 3:1-12; John 2:1-11

May I speak in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

I guess everyone here this morning is very well acquainted with our gospel reading this morning – the miracle at the wedding at Cana – a favourite of mine having heard it from childhood and, of course, a miracle involving wine – a favourite tipple, especially a good Medoc.  Indeed, it is rather ironic that first of all, I have never preached on this particular piece of scripture before, and secondly, I recall a rather cold and wintery Maundy Thursday held in this very church sometime before I was licensed as a minister when Nils took the Eucharist service and Richard Carter and me acted as chalice bearers.  As was Nils’ custom, we did not use communion wine but instead a rather nice claret.  So much wine was left over afterwards that Richard and I were asked to consume it at the end of the service.  I somehow managed to get home okay but if stopped by the police I suspect I would have been over the limit and that would have been an end of my ministerial career.  “I have only been to church officer” might not have been enough.

But back to the story of the Cana wedding.  It is interesting that an account of this event, described as the first miracle performed by Jesus, is only to be found in John’s Gospel.  You will not find it mentioned in any of the three other synoptic gospels and this might be significant in that John’s Gospel is to some extent more of a theological nature than the other three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, which are more biographical.  You would have thought that a recording of the first miracle would have been very much an event to be written down as a matter of biographical importance. I believe, therefore, as it does appear to have been of significant theological importance to John we must look very closely, again at the passage. As we do so, I would like you to see if you can note something extremely important and different from the accounts of other miracles performed by Jesus.

The first thing to note is that this story appears in the second chapter of John’s Gospel, after the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist and after the calling of the First Disciples.  Last week we looked at the calling of Philip and Nathanael and it has been suggested by some biblical scholars that the bride at this wedding might have been Nathanael’s sister.  Another suggestion has been that it might have been a relation of his mother’s, Mary. These suggestions have been made to give a reason why Mary was so concerned about the shame or embarrassment to the host family if the wine had run out and the party abandoned. Another suggestion is that Jesus bringing extra guests in the form of his new acquaintances, the disciples, might have upset the carefully budgeted catering arrangements. It really doesn’t matter which, if any of these theories is correct, or none, it is clear that Mary was concerned and knew that her son, Jesus, could provide a solution.  What this passage does show, though, as with other pieces of gospel scripture, Jesus and his disciples were very much part of the communities around them and that Jesus himself enjoyed convivial company and at times a party and this passage has been used on countless occasions to dissuade people that being a Christian is all about being miserable and a kill-joy.  In the right place and right time and circumstances Christians are encouraged to be as fun-filled as anyone else.

As we read on the wine did give out which, as mentioned earlier, would have been a very embarrassing moment for the host.  Weddings, at that time and place would have gone on for several days and therefore it was expected that the host would ensure that there was plenty of food and drink to last out that period. Mary seems to be the one to whom somebody has confided that the wine has run out – this leading to the earlier suggestions that the host was a close relation to her or to one of the disciples.  Mary conveys this news to Jesus who replies “Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My time has not yet come”.  We don’t hear or read of a response to that question and comment from Mary, instead turns to the servants and in a “fait accompli” tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.  Until his Crucifixion, this is, I believe, the only time that Jesus appears not to be in control of any situation but, as with the Passion, he is being controlled by God the Father, on this occasion through his mother, Mary.

We are then told that there were six jars each capable of holding twenty or thirty gallons of water which would have been used during periods of purification. If we say the average was twenty-five gallons then this equates to 150 gallons or 682 litres. That is equivalent to 909 bottles of wine so, in all probability it might have been as much as 1,000 bottle of wine.  What an amazing party that must have been.

As we find out, the servants fill each of the jars with water and that water miraculously turns into the finest of wines – better than what had been provided earlier.

So, has anyone yet spotted what the interesting fact is surrounding this miracle? What did Jesus actually do? ……. In fact he did NOTHING!  He simply gave instructions to the servants.  It is them who filled the jars with 150 gallons of water, it was the servants who then transported the wine to the chief steward or “maitre d’” and drew out the wine. There is nothing in the passage anywhere to indicate that he took any part in the process unlike when he spread out his arms and stilled the sea during the storm.

This is where we can look carefully for messages of theology in John’s account. The steward does not know where the good wine came from or how it was made – indeed, he calls the bridegroom to compliment him on having given out the best wine last unlike what would appear to be the normal manner of providing guests with the poorer wine after they were already drunk on the better stuff. Only the servants, behind the scenes are aware of what has taken place, apart from Jesus and his mother.

So, who performs the miracle or more correctly who makes the miracle happen? It’s the servants who do all the work – and filling six jars with 150 gallons of water would have been quite a heavy task, just think of a two-gallon bucket full of water!

 

 Two things, therefore become, I think obvious from this event and reading of it in John’s account. First, under Mary’s instructions, not Jesus’s, the servants are told to be obedient to what Jesus is going to ask of them.  Secondly, on Jesus’s instruction, it’s the servants, not Jesus who undertake the work they are instructed to do by Him and are therefore obedient to his call resulting in the amazing miracle.

Likewise, as followers of Christ, we too are expected to be obedient to his calling however strange that may sound – I am sure the servants could never, in a million years, think that the ordinary water with which they were filling the jars would turn into a fine wine which normally would take years to grow and mature. Again, we might be called to do ministry in the strangest of places or in the strangest ways – even what might appear a casual encounter with somebody which could change their lives through the will of God.

In March we will once again celebrate the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday in this church I believe – possibly with a good wine again (I hope!).  We will also be reminded in that service of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples – a task given in those days to the lowliest servant in a house. Jesus took on the form of a servant – as Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:6-7 – “Though he was God, [Jesus] did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Miracles do still happen and we often provide the hands and feet to make them occur – just as the servants at the wedding in Cana did all the hard work. I think that I can do no better than leave you with that wonderful prayer of Theresa of Avila which I have quoted on many occasions because it reminds us that as Christians we still have much work to do, so many jars still to fill :

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which He looks with Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body.

 

Amen                                                                                                   MFB/197/18012024

SERMON 196 - SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2024 - FEAST OF EPIPHANY

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish – Sunday 7 January 2024 – Epiphany Sunday

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12

May I speak in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

May I start this morning’s sermon by wishing you all a Very Happy New Year and I look forward to continuing to minister to you in this lovely church and parish for many years to come.  As we enter this New Year let us continue to pray for peace and prosperity not only in our own community and country but throughout the world.  Jesus came into the world to bring light to a dark world and to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God and so, as we enter 2024 let us, as his Christian Family do all we can to make that dream a reality.

I am particularly fond of this morning’s gospel passage introducing the wise men who came from the east following the “star” which would lead them to Bethlehem and the birthplace of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  As an astronomer I have always been fixated on trying to discover what this strange, and obviously unusual celestial occurrence might be and also intrigued by trying to figure out who these “wise men” were and where they had come from.

We are told in our gospel passage – and here it is interesting to note that they only appear in Matthew’s Gospel – that they came from the east and that they clearly knew their night sky as they had observed something distinct and interesting.  There have been many theories as what it was that they saw – some historians and astronomers believe that it was a comet, others a triple conjunction of planets, others a nova or supernova.  For me, I think that it was probably an exceptional comet because it was seen to move through the sky and the Renaissance painter Giotto, in his Adoration of the Magi, depicts a large bright comet over the roof of the stable. Indeed, a spacecraft which visited Halley’s Comet in 1986 was named Giotto after the painter of this depiction.

But to what extent does it really matter?  We know that God is capable of all sorts of supernatural acts and if we astronomers cannot explain this phenomenon then why not be content to accept that it was something supernatural from God?

The other mystery, where did the wise men come from? might not be such a mystery and clues may be found back in the Old Testament and the Book of Daniel.

We know, pretty accurately from historical records that the Jews were exiled in Babylon between 597 BC and 538 BC.  During that time the cream of Jewish Society, the wise intelligentsia, were taken into captivity and integrated first with the Babylonians and later their Persian successors.  The Persians, especially, relied heavily on the Jewish administrators and advisors to assist them in ruling Babylon and other lands incorporated into their Empire, and it is these same Jews who, despite being subsumed into Persian culture and religions would have continued to study and remember their own heritage and religious upbringing.  They therefore, as the court advisers and astrologers, would know of the prophesies and would be looking out for the signs of the coming of God incarnate, the Messiah.  It is highly likely, therefore, that these “wise men from the east” were indeed descendants of those same captured Jews serving the Persian Empire and would indeed have come from the east with knowledge of the prophesies of the Old Testament.

They were clearly wealthy – bringing with them three of the most expensive commodities of their time – gold for kingship, frankincense for divinity and myrrh, the bitter perfume used in time of burial to represent sorrow and suffering.  The wise men, expecting the “star” to announce the birth of an earthly king, assumed that Jesus would be born in a palace – hence their trip first to Jerusalem to the palace of King Herod to be told that this wasn’t the place they were seeking. In our nativity scenes we place the Magi with the shepherds in the stable whereas in Matthew we are not told exactly where they ended up except that it seems to have been in a house rather than the stable of Luke’s gospel – and possibly sometime after his birth. 

We have given them names too – Balthasar from Arabia, Melchior from Persia and Gasper from India yet nowhere in the bible are they identified as such, nor are we told their number; so they still remain a mystery.  What is significant, however, is that they are identified as foreigners coming from the east and together with the shepherds they represent the outcasts of the Jewish faith – shepherds being poor and lowly – the butt of many Jewish jokes of the time - and the wise men, albeit rich and well educated, being foreigners, identified as gentiles. Yet, here we have these two groups being especially chosen – one set with a heavenly Angelic host and the other with an unusual astronomical phenomenon - to be the first to hear the good news of Christ’s coming.

It always gives me such comfort that the light – Jesus – came for the poor and outcast of the world.  “The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us” as John puts it at the beginning of his Gospel.  “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overwhelm it; but the darkness does not understand it”

This leads me to say something about how this story has such a great significance and relevance to us today – some 2,000 years later. Psychologists will tell you that people will always flock to their own kind – a type of herding instinct; something which the journalist James O’Brien has termed “footballing” - taking the example of the tribal nature of football fans for the way in which we stick to our own group come what may.  The birth of Jesus tried to break that mould as did his ministry.  He came for all – rich and poor, homegrown and foreigner.  We seem, today, to live in a deeply divided and ungodly world.  Once more a very dark world with war and conflict now also in Europe once more. Our culture seems to be one of selfishness and self-centredness. Instead of being in a state of self-awareness we seem to be living in a world of self-righteousness and blame.

God gave us his only Son so that we might be saved and receive eternal life; that we might see the light and understand it – just as the wise men saw the star and understood that. That process began with his birth in Bethlehem, a town which is currently seeing the worst of inhumanity surrounding it as the Israeli-Arab conflict continues unabated.

So, in conclusion, in addition to prayer for the world and the darkness of war, conflict, famine, climate change and natural disasters is there an area of pain and darkness in your life or the life of your family and friends or community?  How can you ask God to bring his light within it to shine away the fear which that darkness brings?  How will you seek out that light – be it bright or dim in your life just now?

Let us pause for a moment and reflect upon this – PAUSE –

Let us pray

God of light, we thank you that you are present everywhere, even when we cannot see you. As the Wise Men saw the unusual light in night sky all those years ago and followed it to Jesus please shine your light into the difficult places of the world and our lives.

 

 

Amen                                                                                                   MFB/196/06012024