SERMON 36 - SUNDAY 29 DECEMBER 2013

Sermon at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Alderbury  – Team Eucharist - Sunday 29 December 2013

Isaiah 63:7-9;  Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:3-23

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

Have you all had a Happy and Blessed Christmas?  I don’t know about you, but Christmas seems to take so long in arriving, with all the trappings of Christmas being found in our shops almost before the Summer has finished and then, after just a couple of days, Christmas Day itself and Boxing Day, it’s all over and we are eating cold left-overs for several weeks thereafter.  It is a strange time, between Christmas and New Year, when we look back at what has happened over 2013 and we start making those promises about what we will do, or not do, in the New Year.

The Church Calendar is also peculiar at this time as our gospel reading today is that difficult one about the Slaughter of the Innocents and the flight of Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus into Egypt – and yet we don’t celebrate the arrival of the Magi, at Epiphany, for several more days.

Leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Day itself we celebrate Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem and we sing about lowing cattle and a baby who is so good he doesn’t even cry. We have shepherds coming with their gifts and, probably a little out of chronological context, three wise men arriving with exotic presents from the east.  A lovely story told year after year in little school playlets videoed by adoring parents. Indeed, the one time when the story of God’s incarnation reaches many people who probably never lift up a bible let alone read it and probably have little understanding of incarnation and salvation.  And now, when the large congregations have gone, we read of the darker side to the story – of a tyrant puppet king who, in trying to ensure the death of this little baby to secure his own succession, gives orders to kill every male child in the Bethlehem area under two years of age.  A terrible piece of genocide.

In all probability, as Bethlehem in those days was probably really a village no bigger than West Grimstead, the number of children who were put to the sword was probably no higher than 20 yet it illustrates the danger with which the ruling authorities viewed this infant child – a real danger to the stability of the Roman-collaborating Jewish hierachy.

Dreams feature a lot in the bible – remember Joseph and Daniel’s gift of interpretation of kingly dreams in the Hebrew bible - and in our gospel reading today both the wise men and Joseph are warned not to return to Judea. In the case of Joseph and Mary they are told to actually go into Egypt, the very country from which the Exodus had occurred all those centuries previously.  Poor Mary, how she must have been confused – first told by an angel that she will bear the Son of God, vilified by her close family and friends when she became pregnant, nearly rejected by her fiancé, Joseph, made to make an 80 miles journey to a town in the south she did not know, finding that all the hotels in that town were fully booked and then given a highly unsanitary room in which to give birth to this special child. 

Following the visit of some shepherds, and perhaps the wise men too – although it is likely that they would have appeared later – she treasures up all these memories of how special the birth is being treated – Joseph then informs her that they have to flee into a foreign country – the very country where their ancestors had been slaves.  Not a very propitious start for the life of the Son of God, the Messiah. It certainly didn’t seem that God’s favour was shining on any of them.

It has often been said that bad news is best buried under good news. I think this often happens at Christmas too.  As we sit here, replete after the festivities of Christmas in our comfortable western world, Christians are being persecuted and killed in huge numbers in other parts of the world and these stories often don’t hit our headlines in the way they might if the same things were happening here. In the South Sudan, a new country is still coming to terms with its political and religious agendas.  Millions of Christians in China are forbidden to celebrate Jesus’s birth unless they abide by strict state legislation in state registered and approved churches where the Good News of the gospel is sanitised to ensure that it doesn’t compromise Communist Doctrine.  Little has changed really, Bethlehem itself remains a divided city today with the conflicting claims of Jews, Christians and Muslims, situated on the west bank of the Jordan in Palestinian territory. 

The beginning of Jesus’s life, therefore, was as troubled as it was during Holy Week.  In the words of theologian Tom Wright - Matthew reminds us, and it is an important reminder, that God’s personal redeeming activity had, from the first to make its way in the disorderly and dangerous real world of violence and conspiracy.”

Egypt plays an important link between our Old Testament and Epistle readings and the gospel.  Isaiah reminds his readers that it was God’s saving presence there, through the prophet Moses, that had saved the Jewish people from slavery in years gone by and that God would come again, by his own presence, to save them. The writer of Hebrews, in our second reading, talks about redemption through Jesus sharing in the same problems and troubles as the people.  This is a clear message – a golden thread which must run through our Faith – that God came down as man to redeem the world, to save us by sharing in our suffering and suffering himself for us.  It is therefore not surprising that shortly after his birth he should have to flee with his parents. 

As I read the Hebrews passage in preparation for this sermon I was reminded of a famous piece of newsreel shown during the Second World War.  I hasten to add that I am too young to remember it personally, but I do have a great interest in that conflict and in particular trying to fathom out human’s inhumanity towards itself.  That piece of newsreel shows King George VI and Queen Elizabeth examining the bomb-damaged Buckingham Palace which received no less than seven hits including the destruction of the Palace’s chapel.  After the most serious of these raids, in 1940, the famous newsreel was published in which the Queen is heard to declare “I’m glad we have been bombed. Now I feel I can look the East End in the face”.  

The East End, being close to London Docks, had been the first and most consistent target of the German bombers during the years of the Blitz and the Palace may have felt remote by comparison.

Jesus’s life and ministry was to share the despair of his people. To again bring salvation – but in a very different way to that which was expected by the Jewish religious leaders.  Ultimately he was to bring down the Jewish barriers between the sinful people and God.

It is during this Christmas period that the prophecies of the Old Testament are so important in confirming the true identity of Jesus.  Matthew refers to Jesus’s flight to Egypt as fulfilling another prophesy – he refers to Hosea 11.1 which reads “Out of Egypt I called my Son”. This and his birth in Bethlehem, also foretold in the Old Testament by Micah (5.2) are clear examples of prophesies being fulfilled.

As we now enter the New Year, we shall move away from the celebrations and tribulation surrounding Jesus’s birth and flight and during the next four months we head towards the other bookend of Christ’s life and ministry – the Passion and the fulfilment of the most important prophesy of all – that Jesus was sent, as the Son of God, to die for our sins and give us eternal life and leave us all with the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray:

 

Almighty God,

We thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the World

As we ponder on these pieces of Scripture let us remember that he shared our suffering so that we could bear whatever burden we might be asked to bear

That he came into the World so that through his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death and be an atonement for all our sins because he himself was tested by what he suffered

And that being alive and reigning with you is able to help those of us who are even now being tested.

Amen

SERMON 35 - SUNDAY 15 DECEMBER 2013

Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church, West Grimstead  – Parish Eucharist - Sunday 15 December 2013

Isaiah 35:1-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to you, O God.  Amen

As a child, these last few weeks before Christmas would conjure up two great emotions – frustration and the excitement which comes with anticipation.  The frustration was brought about by what seemed an indeterminable wait – Christmas never seemed to get any closer and the school term seemed to stretch on for ever and ever and ever – and the great anticipation of the hope and joy that the special present I had asked the real Father Christmas in Hull to bring me (we didn’t call him “Santa” – that was too American in our household and I was convinced that the real St. Nicholas could only be found in Hammonds store in Hull) would duly arrive under the Christmas tree.  Today, for me, Christmas seems to come around exceedingly quickly and as for hoping for that special present, well it is no longer a great issue for me – the special present we now hope for is that our children have a lovely time.

The three readings we heard today are linked by those same emotions – the frustration we often associate with waiting and the anticipation of the joy which will come about at some future time.

In our first reading, Isaiah is prophesying to those same exiled Jews to whom he had said earlier in Isaiah 6 that the Lord would “stop up their ears and shut their eyes”.  You will recall how the author of the book of Isaiah earlier described having a vision in which God asked who would go to his people with this unhappy message and Isaiah had replied “Here I am, Send me!” It is a popular piece of scripture at ordination and licensing services. The message is also captured in the hymn we often sing on those occasions, “I the Lord of Sea and Sky”.

Back in Isaiah 6, the Jews, who had been taken into captivity in Babylon after the fall of the Temple and City of Jerusalem, were given this terrible message and when Isaiah asked how long this would continue he was told in Isaiah 6.11 – “Until cities lie waste, without inhabitant and houses without people and the land utterly desolate” – In other words a long time.  In fact the Exile lasted for around 70 years and when the Jews did finally return with Ezra it was to find Jerusalem pretty much in the condition just described.

But in our reading in Isaiah 35, the prophet is now telling the exiled Jews that the long wait will come to an end and result in the reversal of all those things he was told by God to tell them would happen.  In our reading this morning he now says that “the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped”. The period of the exile, of being in the wilderness, will end and that there will be rejoicing and singing – another hymn springs to mind - “You will go out with Joy”. But it took seventy years before the prophesy could be fulfilled.

The stories of the Hebrew bible are constantly ones of the Jews waiting for something to happen and often when they try and force the issue God’s wrath seems to be generated – for example, Abraham was told that he would found a great nation and that his descendants would be more numerous than the heavens – but he tried to force the issue by sleeping with his slave girl Hagar who was later sent into the wilderness with her son Ismael; David wanted Bathsheba, the wife of his good friend and brother-in-arms Uriah to produce an heir to the throne of Israel, and resorted to murder to cover his adultery.  The result was to cost the life of the illegitimate son and the delay in the building of the Temple. Time and time again, whenever God’s hand has been forced against his Will, things simply go wrong – wrong as far as we are concerned.

In our Gospel reading, John the Baptist is in a dark place. He has been imprisoned and, as we know, will eventually lose his head. He hears news of what Jesus is doing and his mind must have gone back to the prophesy of Isaiah – the blind will see and the deaf will hear.  News of the coming of the Messiah was long overdue.  And it is indeed very interesting that Matthew in this passage talks about “when John heard what the Messiah was doing” not Jesus or Christ but the Messiah.  John must have thought that the long wait was indeed over but still sent his disciples to Jesus to ask whether he was indeed the one who is to come - or did they have to wait for another?

Isaiah’s prophesy took some 400 years to be fulfilled in its entirety. 

But if Jesus could heal the sick, make the blind see and the deaf hear then why could he not or more precisely did he not free John from prison?  Surely that would have been an easy task for the Messiah.

And that, in the words of former Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright,  leads us to the “dark mystery of the ‘now-but-not-yet’ of the gospel” – both in Jesus’s ministry and after the resurrection – hence James’s call to Advent-style patience. 

I love the Book of James – his no nonsense black and white style and his clear pragmatic viewpoint on life and faith.  James harks back to the prophets of the Old Testament and praises them for their endurance.  And such praise is justified for the Jewish people went round and round and round – not only in their wanderings in the wilderness but also at times in their Faith as they conquered and were conquered.  No wonder God sent his only Son – he had tried time and time again through the prophets to keep his people on the straight and narrow and time and time again they failed. But God is patient with us when we don’t answer him and we, likewise, must be patient with Him when we pray and wait for our prayers to be answered.

This modern technological world has changed us greatly.  When I first started work in a lawyer’s office in the 70s I would dictate a letter, wait for it to come back from my secretary of the typing pool, correct it if needs be and then eventually send it off in the post.  Some five to seven days later I would get a response – possibly longer.  Today, that same message would be sent by email typed by me personally and I could expect a response within the hour.  That is how our patience has changed.  We no longer want to wait for anything – and this has led to terrible over extensions of credit.  My children now see the latest gadget and it takes quite a lot to convince them that often they must wait.

God often has a completely different time scale to us – he must also become frustrated with us too.  For example, my call to ministry came a good year, probably two, before I did anything about it. I kept putting it off and off until the nagging became more of a shout.  Once called, and after I did something about it and started training and so on, I then asked myself and God through prayer, why had he called me to this ministry so late in my life?  I am still figuring that one out but in all probability it has much to do with his desire to form me into the person he needed to do that ministry and that my lengthy formative years were as much about carrying out his ministry, it’s not mine, in the places I found myself then.  I am also grappling with and praying to try and discern where he might want to place me in the future.  But I have a great sense of calm and serenity about that because I know that, in the words of Jeremiah 29:11 he knows what plans he has for me and each and every one of us – but we must be patient – not like my wife who goes around feeling all the presents under the Christmas tree.  All will be revealed at the right time.

But that doesn’t mean that we should abdicate all responsibility and do nothing whilst we await God to reveal his plans for us.  He very much wants us to get on with life and to act towards Him and each other in accordance with the Great Commandments which Jesus left us – “To love God with all our hearts and to love one another as he has loved us”.  In other words, to continue to do his work on earth. 

In a few days time we will celebrate Jesus’s birth.  In our hymns and carols we sing about the nativity and about his crucifixion and resurrection.  We sing about his coming for our salvation – but we should never forget all the other aspects of his ministry which he did over those three short years – ministry prophesied by Isaiah, Jeremiah Malachi and other Old Testament prophets.  A ministry which he has left us to continue here with the aid of the Holy Spirit.  As James says, the farmer nurtures his crops, he does indeed wait for the rain and the sun to do their work before harvesting, but he must also weed and tend to them too.

So as we wait for Jesus’s coming, let us remember that patience is indeed a virtue.  Let us listen out for God’s voice in those moments when the hustle and bustle of daily life slows down sufficiently to give us the time to re-connect with Him. 

Let us pray:

Almighty Father,

At this time you remind us once more of the joy you gave to the world in the coming of your Son, Lord Jesus Christ.

As we wait for the time when he will come again confirm our faith and fix our eyes on him until that day dawns

And Christ the Morning Star rises in our hearts.

Amen

 

SERMON 34 - SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 2013

Sermon at All Saints Parish Church, Whiteparish, Evensong  – First Sunday in Advent - Sunday 1 December 2013

Psalm 9; Isaiah 52:1-12; Matthew 24:15-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to you, O God.  Amen

Today is, as we all know, the first Sunday in Advent and begins a month’s long wait until Christmas Day. A period of waiting with great anticipation – a time of preparation whether you are a Christian or not because it brings with it those stressful shopping trips (well they are for me), the Christmas card writing, trying to think what to buy Aunt Agatha or that 14-year old grandson or nephew.  These next four weeks are probably the most stressful many will experiences other than a bereavement, marriage breakdown, job loss or change or house move.  It is a well documented fact, unfortunately, that Christmas brings with it, quite often, many family and marriage breakdowns in the New Year.  Not a very happy picture is it?  And the reading we heard from Matthew this evening does little to improve the mood – being part of a much longer speech by Jesus to his disciples prophesying the sacrilege and final destruction of the Temple and the suffering which will accompany the final times.

On the face of it, therefore, this seems to be an incredibly odd reading to have on the day when we light the first of the five Advent candles – the Candle of Hope.  It seems on reflection, that Jesus is indicating that there will be little hope for many at the end of the age.

Since March of this year I have waited with great anticipation the arrival of what has been heralded by many as the Comet of the Century.  Comet ISON was discovered as a dim smudge well out beyond the solar system but appeared to be remarkable in that it was extremely large and was heading directly towards the Sun.  Astronomers, myself included, expected it to become a brilliant object as it passed around the Sun and proceeded on its way.  During the last three weeks I have scanned the early morning dawn sky for a glimpse of it – but to no avail and when it passed by the Sun on Thursday it appears to have broken up and the remnants certainly will not shine with anything like the brilliance the comet would have had if it had survived its solar encounter.

Comets appear regularly in our sky but usually you need to hunt for them if you are going to see anything – and then it is often nothing more than a smudge of gaseous light – only infrequently, and with much excitement will a comet be near enough and bright enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye – the last really bright one being Hale-Bopp in 1997.

The emergence of Comet ISON from a dim distant object into what was hoped to be a brilliant splash of light across the sky has reminded me that the first Sunday of Advent is traditionally a celebration of darkness into light – moving from the long period after Trinity Sunday towards the celebration of the light coming into the world on Christmas Day.  It has often been said that it is always darkest before the dawn and this is, I think, what Jesus is saying in Matthew.  To some extent it is an echo of the passage from Isaiah we heard in our first reading.

Isaiah is more upbeat but the situation and the times in which he was writing were, for the Jews at least, much more desperate.  Isaiah is writing at the time of the Great Babylonian Exile.  The Jewish people had largely been expelled from Judah and were living in Babylon.  They saw this as a punishment for their failure to adhere to the Godly laws given to Moses.  However, Isaiah in this passage reminds them that they were taken into captivity before – into Egypt as slaves and more recently by the Assyrians, yet God took them out of Egypt and he assures them that they will be restored to their lands again and Jerusalem will be rebuilt.  He prophesies that the return will not be like the hasty flight which accompanied the flight from Egypt or the Exile to Babylon but an orderly peaceful procession.  This message is repeated in Chapter 55 in the words of the famous song “You shall go out with joy and be led back in peace…”

Jesus’s message seems to be the complete opposite.  The beginning of Chapter 24 of Matthew starts with the disciples asking Jesus to look upon the Temple in all its glorious architecture.  In complete contrast to Isaiah, Jesus pronounces that the Temple will be destroyed so that no stone will be left one on top of another.  Here he is prophesying precisely what would happen in 70 AD when the Romans under Titus finally destroyed the city and Temple.  Jesus also predicts a hasty flight which was indeed what occurred. A complete contrast to Isaiah.

So what is the connection between these two passages and how do they link into the theme of today?

As so often happens, when faced with a difficult lectionary passage I can be tempted to put it aside and try and find something simpler but as I read these passages again and again, and indeed even discussed them with my house group – a message did begin to emerge.

Much of our world is in a deep darkness.  We hear on the news of wars and rumours of wars, death and destruction at the hands of tyrants, natural disasters such as flooding, typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.  Many charismatic Christians point to this peace of scripture and indicate that the “end is nigh”.  In fact, Christians and non-Christians alike have pointed to scripture to support their own view that the world must be coming to an end soon.  Indeed, 39 members of a religious cult in America called the Heaven’s Gate Cult committed mass suicide when Comet
Hale-Bopp appeared in the sky. 

Yes we are indeed living in the end times but not in the way these cults would have us believe.  Just as we celebrate the coming of Jesus at Christmas, we also await his second coming but until that occurs he asks us to live in hope, in the knowledge that we can continue to have a relationship with him through the power of the Holy Spirit if we seek out and maintain that relationship. God, Jesus is within us and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can produce those glimpses of the light of Christ in the world today.  We live in the end times because by his crucifixion and resurrection he punched a hole through between Heaven and Earth and we can see Heaven shining through – sometimes dimly like ISON when it was way off and sometimes like Hale-Bopp – illuminating the darkness.

Lights are more use in the darkness.  What use is there to carry a lighted torch in the middle of a summer’s the day.  Jesus asks us to carry a torch with us to light up the darkness.  His great disciple and apostle Peter also takes up this message in his first letter when he says to the new converts to Christianity. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” [1 Peter 2:9].

There is a wonderful poem by Robert Louis Stevenson which I had the privilege of hearing a great theologian once recite – and I want to quickly share it with you.  It is entitled “The Lamplighter” :

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky.

It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;

For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,

With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

 

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,

And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;

But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,

O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

 

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,

And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;

And oh! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;

O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!

I have a very strong image of a Victorian foggy night with Leerie, the lamplighter, lighting the gas lamps one by one and, little by little illuminating, the dim foggy street – punching holes of light into the gloom.

Jesus will return, like a bright comet, but in the meantime we are left here to punch holes of light into this dark world with the torch provided by the Holy Spirit.  Dim comets may come and go but we must be ready for the big one.

As we embark upon Advent, and the coming of the great light, let’s do our bit to light the way for the kingdom of heaven – let’s bring the hope of that light to all we meet.

 Amen

SERMON 33 - SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2013

Sermon at Holy Trinity Church, East Grimstead – Christ the King Sunday - Sunday 24 November 2013

Psalm 72; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43

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

Today is, as we have seen, the last Sunday before Advent and is traditionally the day when we celebrate Christ as our King – the one to whom we pray, frequently – “Your Kingdom Come” in the words of the prayer which he left us.  But what exactly does that mean?  And especially, what does that term mean to you and to me?  In the next few minutes I’d like to explore those questions further.

Many terms are used to describe Jesus in the bible – Lord, Saviour, King, Messiah, Emmanuel and so on.  Indeed, Jesus was all of these things but above all he came to save us from our sins by dying on the Cross – a Cross upon which the Roman authorities, in the form of Governor Pontius Pilate, had placed, as a description of his crime, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”.  The Jewish authorities had denounced Jesus to the Romans as a traitor of the Roman Empire by stating that Jesus claimed kingship over a Jewish people who had, as their ruler, a puppet King beholden to Caesar already. When questioned by Pilate during his trial as to whether he was indeed a King he responded that his Kingdom was not from this Earth – something which we Christians now understand but which puzzled and concerned the Roman Governor.

Today we live in a world of relatively few monarchies.  In just under a year’s time we will be commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.  At that time Europe was largely governed by a plethora of Royal and Imperial families – in Russia, Germany, Turkey, the Balkans, Scandanavia, United Kingdom -whose colonising extended sovereign or imperial rule much farther afield – notably in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.  It has to be said that the fall of many of those imperial dynasties and royal families was brought about by a realisation that absolute monarchy was no longer suitable to nations which craved some measure of democratic rule.  The absolute rule of monarchs was something which could no longer be tolerated to enlightened people.

It is interesting to reflect that in the Old Testament we read that originally the Hebrew nation had been governed by Judges but the supreme ruler had always been Yahweh/Jehovah – the one true and living God of Abraham, Jacob and Moses.  God was the King not only in Heaven but on Earth. Yet the Jewish people had sought and were given a King (Saul) to rule over them and ultimately their system of monarchy became divided and fell with the people being taken into exile.  God had warned the people, through Samuel that one day they would “cry out for relief from the king they have chosen and the LORD will not answer you on that day” [1 Samuel 8:18]. And so, eventually they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians and ultimately ruled by the Romans after a succession of bad kings and foreign occupations.  So, the idea of earthly kings has not, in biblical terms, been an entirely happy one.  Furthermore, the absolute authority of some tyrant kings in our more modern day history has not been without a great deal of accompanying suffering. 

Now let me make it clear, I am not a republican!  When I use the term “king” I use the term loosely to encompass many autocratic rulers or unfair systems of totalitarian government which have existed.  Those monarchies that have survived have done so because they have realised that they need to rule within a democratic constitution.

I have recently come back from a holiday where I had the uninterrupted opportunity to read a fascinating book of speeches and sermons by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu entitled “God is Not a Christian”.  This rather bizarre title is easily understood when you read the speeches and sermons from which this phrase is taken – Desmond Tutu says that God is not the sole property of Christians but because he created the world and all that is within it, he is the God of everyone and everything.  Many of his speeches and sermons contained in the book are concerned with criticising the Apartheid system in South Africa – an unjust system perpetrated by an unjust regime.  Quite often, he refers, in the arguments he had with the regime to Psalm 72 the first lines of which reads

Endow the king with your justice, O God,

The royal son with your righteousness.

He will judge your people in righteousness

Your afflicted ones with justice

The mountains will bring prosperity to the people

The hills the fruit of righteousness.

He will defend the afflicted among the people

And save the children of the needy

He will crush the oppressor.

He will endure as long as the sun

As long as the moon, through all generations.

Tutu says that, any ruler or regime which shows these qualities has no need of extensive or oppressive security forces to keep it in control – the people will themselves want to ensure that such a regime prospers and continues in power.  The Archbishop was often cited by members of the Apartheid government of South Africa as being a Communist sympathiser and was accused of quoting from Communist literature. I think it came as quite a shock to them that his manifesto, if that was what they wanted to think of it as, was actually taken from scripture contained in the bibles on which many of the Apartheid supporting politicians would have sworn an oath of allegiance!

When I was made a Freeman of the City of London I was obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth and to the Lord Mayor and Common Council of the City.  But above this, I was first and foremost to swear obedience to God – in other words to my Heavenly King – and to me that also means reading and following scripture and particularly the words of Jesus in the gospels.

Jesus was crucified because he spread the news about the kingdom of heaven – no earthly domain but a place where the king of David’s psalm would rule with that justice and compassion which was spoken of.

The two robbers on each side of Jesus couldn’t have been more different.  The first, who taunted Jesus to save himself if he was truly Christ – meaning, in Greek, “the anointed one” the king and son of God - had completely missed the point – unlike the second robber who actually received more than he asked for.  Realising that Jesus was indeed what he claimed to be, and knowing that he himself deserved the punishment of crucifixion meted out to him, he simply asks Jesus to remember him when he reaches the kingdom of heaven and probably was thinking in terms of some form of redemption at a future time; but he gets far more than he asked for, for Jesus responds that the criminal will enter paradise with him that day. 

The importance of this passage is, I think, that Jesus is demonstrating that the kingdom of heaven is not something in the future and he is not the monarch of some future kingdom but he has authority as the king of heaven today – at the present time.

I fear that many people today, many Christians, think in terms of heaven as a place to which they aspire to go by the good works they do – to earn a place in the kingdom when their earthly life is over – by doing good works and generally being nice people.  

Of course there is nothing wrong in that as it stands, but I think as Christians, in contrast to simply being nice people, we are expected to live as though the kingdom of heaven is here – not to concentrate on finding a way to mount the staircase to heaven but to act and think in ways of bringing the kingdom of heaven down to earth now.

As we progress through Advent I think we need to think and reflect beyond the Nativity.  We need to remember that the Jesus of the manger was to have a short ministry of just over three years culminating in his cruel death and resurrection.  Those tiny hands and feet in the manger would, just three decades later, be driven through with those awful nails.  And we need to reflect upon the resurrection – which is the fundamental episode which, by our belief, defines us as Christians, and finally the Ascension and Pentecost when we were left with the means by which we can indeed be the subjects of a heavenly kingdom here on earth.

Empires and regimes may come and go, but Christ’s kingdom, will, in the words of Psalm 72, endure for so long as the sun rises and sets and the moon shines in the evening sky… and beyond.

Let us be kingdom people and acknowledge, daily, our service to that kingdom and our love and loyalty to Christ the King.

 

Amen

SERMON 32 - SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2013

Sermon at St. John’s Church, West Grimstead - Remembrance Sunday - Sunday 10 November 2013

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5; 13-End

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

Whenever I stand in silence for those two minutes on each Remembrance Sunday I not only remember those who have died in  those two World Wars and other conflicts since then, but I also reflect on the fact that I belong to a very privileged generation for whom those great and devastating wars are no more than pages in history books. Having been born only 8 years after the plutonium bomb was detonated over Nagasaki, I have lived in a period of relative peace and prosperity for which I regularly, through worship, give thanks to God.

When I was a child a regular event in our household was to watch the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall on our small 9-inch black and white TV.  Back then in the 1960s a large number of veterans from World War I, together with veterans of my own parents’ age (or slightly older) from World War II, would march into the Arena.  They would include Chelsea Pensioners who had been at Gallipoli, Jutland, Ypres and so on – servicemen and women who had real and vivid memories of the horrors of war – who had seen, for themselves, comrades killed and companions maimed and many who had seen the legacy of evil and inhumane regimes in Europe and Asia.

As a child, the war held a great fascination for me and many of my schoolboy friends and invoked a great interest in modern history – especially as many of my friends’ parents and my own family members could remember vividly the Blitz and Battle of Britain – when the Second World War came to our shores. Today, whole generations have grown up having little or no understanding of those horrors although, of course, here in Wiltshire there are many families involved in the armed forces which, today, have personal experiences of the effects of warfare in far off lands; where our servicemen and women continue to fight for justice and peace. 

However, for many of our younger generation, there is no real concept of why those whose names are engraved on our war memorials gave up their lives.  Indeed, recently, during a discussion with a school friend of my 12-year old daughter, it became clear that she had no idea who Winston Churchill was, let alone the role he had played for this country in those dark days of the 1940s. 

Remembrance Sunday, then, is such an important occasion – not just for those veterans to recall what they went through or to remember companions who never survived the conflicts, but also so that those generations from my own onwards may clearly understand why so many lives were given,  and can continue to give praise and thanks that so many stemmed the tide of evil which could have so easily engulfed the world.

Today, those conflicts in which our troops are engaged are largely in far flung parts of the world and the issues which have provoked them are complex.  Again many young people have no real understanding or concept as to why or where these conflicts are taking place – indeed many adults, including some politicians it could be argued, don’t, either.  Although these modern conflicts may be remote, the battles now often fought with technology,  and the victims largely unknown to us, the horrors are still the same.

The true reality of those horrors perpetrated by the Nazis in World War 2 was brought home to me and to my 16-year old son, Thom, quite recently.  He and I spent a short break in Poland last summer and during our trip we arranged a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau – the infamous extermination camp about 50 miles from Krakow in the south of the country.  In this terrible place, 2.3 million people were sent to the gas chambers – many from Western European occupied countries including the Channel Islands  - and to where an estimated 700,000 British Jews and other “undesirables” would have been sent had the Germans ever successfully invaded and occupied the United Kingdom. 

Thom had read about the Holocaust in history books but I don’t think had any concept of the scale of the atrocities committed in that one single camp.

As we approached Birkenau in our minibus, the first thing to be seen was the infamous Hell’s Gate – the railway gatehouse into the camp. His face dropped and his complexion was ashen.  He turned to me and simply said “Dad it’s in colour, it’s real!”  Up to that point he had only seen it in black and white photographs in history books. In that split second, his perception of the horrors of that evil regime turned from the recorded pages of history to the reality of the suffering and horrors beyond that real gate.

And so, the importance of today cannot and should not ever be trivialised.  We owe it to forthcoming generations to keep alive the memory of those brave fallen and the causes for which they fell – to remember the evil which could have engulfed us.  In the words of the Kohima they gave their today so that we, all of us and the generations to follow, could have our tomorrows.

And this is what, in effect, Paul is saying in our passage from his second letter to the Thessalonians, read this morning.  I could speak at great length about the Christian ethical doctrines on the justification for war – but I’ll leave that for the moment for my academic essay writing – there is also a good article in this month’s Christianity magazine in the context of Syria.  Instead I simply want to re-iterate Paul’s thoughts here.

Paul reminds us that the return of our Saviour Jesus Christ will only come after the “lawless one” is revealed through rebellion.  In other words, as Christians we are expected to uphold the ethics which we have been taught by Jesus and should stand up against and expose all  who would deceive the truth as revealed by him.  Throughout history leaders have waged war and oppressed people either in the name of Christianity or by pretending to be Christians themselves.  In Nazi Germany, Hitler and his regime tried to appeal to Catholics and Lutherans alike that there was a score to settle against the Jews because the Jewish leadership had been responsible for Jesus’s crucifixion.

I have just finished reading a wonderful book of sermons, lectures and speeches by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu with the interesting title of “God is not a Christian”.  In it he reminds us that there is only one omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God – creator of all thing and all people, everybody, black white, and yellow.  He appeals to Christians and God-fearing people everywhere, just as Paul does, to stand up against tyranny and oppression.  He puts it simply – If the Church is not going to stand up for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed, the discriminated, then who is?

This brings me back to the two-minute silence.  During those two minutes I try to recall all the battles of the two world wars, all the sites of oppression, all those areas of suffering, the blitz, the death camps, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hamburg and so on and especially members of the church like Bonhoeffer and Maximilian Kolbe.   Two minutes is simply not long enough.

I praise and thank all those who have so courageously given their lives to oppose tyranny and evil.  Let us never forget them.

Amen

SERMON 31 - SUNDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2013

Sermon at St. John’s Church, West Grimstead - Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Morning Worship – Sunday 8 September 2013

Philemon

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

As I child I used to enjoy those I-Spy books – remember- I-Spy road signs, or I-Spy star constellations, or I-Spy castles or I-Spy cathedrals. The object, just like taking steam locomotive numbers  and bus numbers (another great hobby of mine) was to complete the books so that you could say that you have spotted or visited each of the objects in the book – and I think you also got a prize of a badge or something if you completed the book and had your observations verified.

Well today you tick off a complete book of the bible – one of the 66 books which make up our accepted and authorised versions of the Holy Bible (only another 65 to go) – Philemon, an odd little book tucked in at the end of the weightier and, on the face of it, much more theological tomes written by St. Paul.  The Lectionary for today had the Philemon reading assigned as being two verses shorter than we heard - but I thought that if we are going to have the Philemon reading at today’s service we might as well have the whole book because, I think, by reading the whole of Paul’s letter to his friend Philemon we can get a better understanding of  its structure and purpose.

As with all of Paul’s writings contained within our bibles, Philemon is actually a letter – but unlike most of Paul’s letters this one does not appear to be in answer to a request from one of the churches founded by Paul on his missionary travels but, rather, seems to be a very personal frank plea to his good friend Philemon who was, we believe, a church leader living at that time in Colossae.  It is more of a pastoral letter than a letter of teaching or preaching and for this reason is one from which we can learn much of how Christians should approach one another in circumstances where the subject matter could be one of great controversy. 

The letter itself was written when Paul was in prison with his assistant and co-missionary, Timothy.  We are not certain where this prison was but most scholars believe it was Ephesus but what we do know is that for the most part Paul would dictate his letters to a scribe or assistant who would actually put the pen to paper – whereas the letter to Philemon appears to have been written personally by Paul in his own hand for he says this himself to emphasise the importance of this correspondence and his personal assurance to Philemon concerning any debts owed to him by Onesimus.

It seems, on the face of it, an odd piece of scripture to include.  In all probability it was sent along with the more theological letter to the Colossians as a side and it concerns the most delicate matter of the Philemon’s runaway slave.

Back in those days, slaves were a “must have” just like our mobile phones and pcs today.  It was unthinkable that anyone of any standing should not have at least one slave and the Christian leaders, such as Philemon, were no exception.  A slave was a chattel, a possession and to lose one or worse still, for one to run away, was something which would cause loss of face to the owner and, as for the slave, punishable by death if caught. Paul’s letter concerns one of Philemon’s slaves, Onesimus  (“Own-E-Simus”) whom it appears did just that, run away from his master.  It also appears that he turned up on Paul’s doorstep, probably in Ephesus, where Paul was undertaking a trade as a seller of leather goods at the same time as spreading the gospel.  Onesimus probably knew Paul because of his visits to his master’s house in Colossae and perhaps, at some time in the past, had shown him true Christian kindness.  Whatever reason, it appears that Onesimus became useful to Paul and helped him in his ministry – we are not entirely sure in what capacity but it does seem certain that Onesimus became a devoted follower of Christ and a strong friendship grew up between the two men including after Paul became imprisoned – presumably for being a nuisance to the authorities with his preaching in the city.  Paul, however, would also have known that Onesimus was not his property and that he should be rightfully returned to his proper owner, Philemon.

Here was the dilemma.  If he did that then he might be sending Onesimus back to retribution which could include capital punishment – something which Philemon would have had every right to have carried out – yet if he kept him, he Paul was equally guilty of stealing property belonging to another.  Both, according to Jewish law were great crimes punishable under Leviticus law – so, in this letter, Paul uses his words most carefully – flattering the recipient as well as calling upon him to exercise grace and pardon in accordance with the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.  This letter, therefore, is a wonderful example of where the early church leaders were faced with a situation where the new teachings of Christ could affect what would be the normal procedure under the old Jewish law. 

By writing the letter himself, Paul is indicating the personal and important nature of the letter and in so doing catching Philemon’s attention to his words.  It should be noted that nowhere in the letter does Paul tell Philemon to do anything – he is more subtle than that – he expresses the view that he hopes that Philemon will do the right thing; but before that, even, he flatters Philemon by telling him that he is constantly in his prayers and that whenever he prays about Philemon he praises God for having instilled such wonderful Christian ideals and principles in Philemon and reminds him that he is aware of the wonderful love and hospitality which Philemon has shown to his fellow Christian believers. 

Having buttered up Philemon, he then introduces the Onesimus situation – by telling Philemon what a useful chap Onesimus has been and how he is, like those others to whom Philemon has shown love and grace, a dedicated follower of Christ and even if he was “useless” to Philemon before (by running off) he has more than proved his worth as an assistant to Paul, and that to treat Onesimus as a simple criminal slave would no longer be appropriate, any more than punishing any other follower.  Indeed, Paul suggests, but does not insist, that Philemon should take him back as a fellow Christian follower and not a slave.   Paul emphasises his belief in Onesimus’s worth by offering to pay from any costs and damages occasioned by the slave’s sudden disappearance.

Now we have no idea what Philemon did when Onesimus turned up on his doorstep with Paul’s hand-written letter.  I like to think that he did what Paul suggested he should do – act like the father in the story of the prodigal son – welcome him back as a more useful individual for all his experiences away from home.  Paul, I believe, certainly had confidence in Philemon to send him back with the letter and I have read that later on a Bishop Onesimus appeared at Ephesus and I would like to think that this is the same person as the slave in our story. 

When I first read this book I could never quite understand its inclusion in the bible – it seemed an odd one – on the face of it no clear theological or spiritual message – but as I have read it over and over again I have come to understand a much deeper meaning than simply the story of an errant slave.  Paul, in this letter, challenges the very social structure of society in those days.  He is exercising the grace which Jesus himself showed to sinners – even to the thief on the cross.  If the errant Onesimus can make amends – become “useful” – then surely a church leader like Philemon can exercise Jesus’s teachings and show grace, compassion and love to a returning slave.

The one thing which Paul clearly does, in this letter, is to leave the decision up to Philemon.  He does no more than make suggestions as to how the slave should be received back.  Likewise, in our lives, the scriptures are not simple codes of conduct, laws, rules and regulations to be observed religiously – and I use that term purposefully, for many people outside of the church see the bible as a book of “don’ts” and not “do’s” whereas the true teaching of Christ is to empower us, the followers and disciples of the true and living God, to sometimes act outside our comfort zone and that of established society.  To do what is right – not necessarily what is expedient or expected.  Oscar Wilde once said “The mark of true intellect is to expect the unexpected”. I think that quote can be applied equally to true faith and I am sure that Onesimus’s sudden appearance at Philemon’s door with a handwritten letter from Paul was most unexpected. 

If we were Philemon how would we have reacted?  When God puts us into an unusual or unexpected situation how will we react in the future?  Some reflections for us until the next time we read this amazing letter.

Amen

SERMON 30 - SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2013

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean - Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – Morning Worship – Sunday 11 August 2013

Genesis 15:1-6; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11:1-3; 8-16; Luke 12:32-40

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

“The Lord brought Abraham outside and said ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’  Then he said ‘So shall your descendants be’”.

I thought, as I sat down to write this sermon, how appropriate it was that we should have that reading from Genesis here in West Dean this morning where those wonderful stars, painted on the ceiling behind me, look down at us every time we come here to worship.  I know that each time I arrive I am drawn to look up at them in wonder and amazement at their beauty and craftsmanship and have often remarked about them to you.

It’s probably hardly surprising that I am drawn to them because, as quite a few of you will already know, amongst my many interests and hobbies (my wife says too many!)  the most enduring has been my love and study of astronomy which I began when I was about 10 years old and was given my first very small telescope and looked at the crescent moon through it. In fact, it was given to me on the day that President Kennedy was shot – so vivid is the memory even today.

It opened a whole new world for me – as my parents remarked – often leaving me with my head in the air!   …and if you ever see the Winterslow Parish Magazine you will know that each and every month, for the past twelve years, I have written a centre page article entitled “The Wiltshire Sky at Night” explaining what and where to see some of the wonders of the heavens.

Recently, I was asked by a fellow theology student how I could reconcile my great interest in the science of astronomy with my faith.  “Surely,” I was asked, “Didn’t many of the discoveries of space lessen the belief that God exists – that there are astrophysical explanations for many of the things which we have ascribed to God’s creation because we don’t have an answer for them?”

My response has always been unequivocal – the more I learn of space and the wonders of the cosmos the more I believe that these things were not brought into being by a random series of events - but were the creation of a divine being – God or Yahweh in our Faith.  For example, we now know that the particles of atoms – those protons, neutrons, electrons we learned about at school - are themselves composed of smaller particles and ultimately, we believe, at the moment, “strings” which are infinite and point to the possible existence of other universes outside of our own.

Even on a scale which we can understand, our own solar system and galaxy is immense – the light from our closest star, apart from the sun, taking 4.2 light years to reach us.  The light from our own sun takes 8 minutes to reach us.

All these facts go to suggest that even with all the sophisticated instruments and resources at our fingertips – both for looking outward to the heavens and inward to the atomic particles - the immensity of God’s creation goes far beyond anything we can comprehend and it is interesting that the one thing which keeps eluding the scientists is that “God”-particle – the one thing which started it all off.

When I look through my telescope at the rings of Saturn or the crater-marked face of the Moon or the celestial dance of the satellites around Jupiter, I see the wonder of God’s creation just as I see it in the faces of smiling children or the flowers of the field. It gives me a great sense of insignificance, yet at the same time I know that God loves us all, each and every one of us despite our faults and failings. It therefore, also gives me a great sense of importance because it puts everything into perspective and importance and makes that love all the more outstanding.

That is why having a faith is so important – it brings meaning to everything – when there sometimes appears to be no meaning at all. Last week we heard from the writer of Ecclesiastes – how everything was meaningless.  What he meant was how transient most things are, material things especially - and how everything can pass away so quickly – life itself - and that we should not concentrate our lives on amassing and collecting material things which will not last but on those things which make us righteous in the sight of God. 

When I look at the night sky I am also encouraged by the seeming permanence which seems to exist.  The shape of the constellations will not have changed since Roman times – we look upon the same stars that Jesus and Abraham saw.  Even the planets in their nightly wanderings follow the same paths they did in the pre-historic times.  Yet, despite this seemingly stillness, astronomical objects are moving through space at tremendous speeds too and things are, on an immense scale, changing and developing.

When Abraham was shown the night sky, it would have been familiar to him – and with his naked eye the stars in the desert would have been bright and numerous – there was no light pollution in those days. In fact, in the near-Eastern desert it is estimated today that about 8,000 stars can be seen with the naked eye.  It would therefore have been difficult to count them.

 Yet here he is, an old man, childless with an old wife - what possible hope could there be for him to expect to found a family whose generations would be as numerous as the stars he could see?  It seems an impossibility – as impossible as counting the stars themselves.

We are told, in the scripture, that despite this seeming impossibility, he believed in the Lord, he had faith and as a result he was held up as righteous in the eyes of the Lord – righteous meaning that he was favoured by God, that his belief had been judged by God as an indication that he was leading a life pleasing to God.  It is a concept of great significance in Hebrew theology.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews, takes up this theme in our second reading when he talks about Abraham’s obedience to the call from God to set out for Canaan and to found a dynasty. That by having faith, the descendants of Abraham were indeed as numerous as the stars and as innumerable as the grains of sand on the shore. 

The writer of Hebrews is addressing the young Jewish converts to Christianity who would have been familiar with the language and stories of the Old Testament - the Hebrew bible. The importance of the message to them, and to us today as we read that letter in the New Testament, is that it is the hope of things longed for and a faith in things unseen which includes a belief that Jesus was the son of God and that by his death and resurrection we can be redeemed.

It is a pity that the passage from Hebrews read today, as prescribed by the Common Lectionary, misses out some further examples of faith in impossible situations described by the author – Noah building a massive boat in the middle of the desert; Enoch being taken by God to avoid an otherwise earthly death.  Both of these characters are described as being “righteous”  because of their unfailing faith.

Our gospel reading also picks up on the theme of righteousness in which Jesus tells the disciples that it is by being watchful and acting in a state of readiness to receive God, they too will be blessed by an inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven. As with the message from Ecclesiastes, it is far better to deal with the treasures available from heaven than on Earth.  To have faith that God knows your needs and will provide.  In other words, we must be ready to expect the unexpected, just as Abraham did – and to answer the call however hard or difficult it is to comprehend or seems impossible to carry out.

To use another astronomical analogy, astronomers can never know with any certainly (apart from a very few examples) when a comet will appear in the sky.  It is only by watching and waiting night after night that they can first be observed.  It takes a great deal of patience and faithful observing to find it – but when found it is wonderfully rewarding.

God, like the night sky is immense, often unfathomable, seemingly unchangeable. He may often seem remote.

Jesus is like the Hubble telescope through whom we can see God the Father more clearly and through whom we can have a close relationship.   By studying our bibles, by listening out for his voice, by praying we get so much closer.

I have also been asked why I didn’t become a professional astronomer.  The answer apart from the fact I am no good at maths, is that I enjoy the pleasure that amateur status brings.  I love to observe the heavens and seek out things for myself with my own small instruments. Because I am an amateur, the night sky is equally available to me as well as to the professionals and the casual star-gazer.

God is just like the stars in this respect – He is available to everyone – not just priests and trained holy people. We all have direct access – but without having faith we cannot see clearly.

On the next starlit night, look out at all those stars, remember God’s promise to Abraham.  He is also making promises to each of us too if we listen and observe carefully with hope and faith.  

 

Amen