SERMON 81 - SUNDAY 12 JUNE 2016

Sermon at Winterslow Baptist Church and Whiteparish Evensong  – Sunday 12 June 2016

Psalms 52/53; Genesis 13; Mark 4:21-41

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

Do you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? Everything you touch seems to go wrong?  From breakfast until bedtime you have one of those horrible days when you wish you had never got out of bed in the first place.  The toaster doesn’t work, there’s not enough milk for your cereal, the eggs are past their sell-by date, the car won’t start and when it does, eventually, and you get to work the day gets even worse.  Everyone is demanding your attention, the computer decides to upgrade its software just as you need to get a 4,000 word document out which you were working on yesterday for three hours, and you then can’t find it or worse still it’s been deleted by the phantom gremlin which seems to inhabit your laptop; the client you expected to see early doesn’t turn up and that “nightmare one” you didn’t expect to see does!

And so on and so on.  Or perhaps you have a day you can look back on when you made a wrong decision which had lasting consequences on your life and other people, who seem to you to be far less “worthy”, seem to sail through life without seeming to ever have any problem.

Well you are not alone.  The great thing about being part of a Christian community is that although we still have those types of days (and as Christians let me make the point that we are never immune from them) we can share our ups and downs with the one who truly loves us, God the Three in One, and often things are either never as bad as they seem or we can sometimes even find that God had a better plan for us all along.

Has anyone ever seen the Michael Douglas film “Falling Down”?  As I read the two Psalms for today, 52 and 53, this film came immediately into my mind:

	Psalm 52
1		Why do you glory in evil, you tyrant, •
		while the goodness of God endures continually?
2		You plot destruction, you deceiver; •
		your tongue is like a sharpened razor.
3		You love evil rather than good, •
		falsehood rather than the word of truth.
4		You love all words that hurt, •
		O you deceitful tongue.
5		Therefore God shall utterly bring you down; •
		he shall take you and pluck you out of your tent
		and root you out of the land of the living.
6		The righteous shall see this and tremble; •
		they shall laugh you to scorn, and say:
7		'This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, •
		but trusted in great riches and relied upon wickedness.'
8		But I am like a spreading olive tree in the house of God; •
		I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
9		I will always give thanks to you for what you have done; •
		I will hope in your name,
		for your faithful ones delight in it.

		Psalm 53
1		The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' •
		Corrupt are they, and abominable in their wickedness;
		there is no one that does good.
2		God has looked down from heaven upon the children of earth, •
		to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks after God.
3		They are all gone out of the way;
		all alike have become corrupt; •
		there is no one that does good, no not one.
4		Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, •
		who eat up my people as if they ate bread,
		and do not call upon God?
5		There shall they be in great fear,
		such fear as never was; •
		for God will scatter the bones of the ungodly.
6		They will be put to shame, •
		because God has rejected them.
7		O that Israel's salvation would come out of Zion! •
		When God restores the fortunes of his people
		then will Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

[Take time out to read them in the WBC service]

Michael Douglas’s character, Foster, has a truly horrendous day which can only be described as going from worse to worse.  Having lost his job and his family he is on his way to work for the final time and then on to celebrate his little daughter’s birthday at the home of his estranged wife when he gets stuck in a terrible traffic jam on the freeways of Los Angeles.  He totally loses it, getting out of his car and wandering off into the neighbourhood – his abandoned car contributing further to the mayhem on the freeway.  He must have felt very much like the Psalmist as his anger started to explode.  In trying to call his daughter on a public payphone he runs out of change and goes into a small grocery store where the owner will only give him the change he needs if he purchases a small item for an exorbitant price.  Taking a baseball bat in the shop he then proceeds to smash up all of the store’s over-priced stock. Walking into a fast food chain burger store he is refused to be served an item from the breakfast menu because it’s three minutes past 11 a.m.  After a further altercation he is served a burger from the after-breakfast menu and then throws a “wobbly” when the burger does not resemble its advertised picture.  In this case the wobbly involves shooting up the staff with a gun acquired from an army surplus store.  The character’s behaviour just then deteriorates further with him becoming a dangerous wanted serial murderer.

Now I am not suggesting that Foster’s behaviour is typical of somebody whose day goes wrong but I am sure we can all remember times when frustration and anger have overtaken our normal level-headed characters.  Tiredness, illness, fear, anxiety, loneliness, a feeling of injustice (as with Foster) can all be causes or contributing factors to our reaction when things just don’t go our way.

The Psalmist doesn’t rant and rave at God but lets off steam in the way in which he rebukes those around him who seem to triumph over him or who seem to have a better life through their evil ways.  Very often, like him, we simply cannot understand why some people seem to delight in doing evil things, lying and saying things which hurt us and others.  As Christians, we too should question how it is that this can be so; but neither should we ever lose sight of the fact that God is also hurt by the things which make us upset.  Vicky Beeching wrote a lovely song “Break our Heart with the things that break Yours” indicating a need to understand God better by having empathy with those things which grieve him.

The Psalmist continues to have faith that God will bring down those who disregard him “trusting”, as he says, “in the goodness of the God for ever and ever”. 

In my own life there have been many occasions when doors have been slammed shut in my face.  I didn’t go to the grammar school of my choice; I didn’t go to the university of my first choice; I wasn’t able to find a firm of solicitors in my local town who could train me after leaving university; I never got the top job within the companies in which I did work; finally I was made redundant and my marriage failed.  But, despite all that, when I look back I have much to be thankful for : the grammar school I did attend resulted in the making of very valued lifelong friendships; the university I went to was 130 miles away and not 22 miles away from my home and taught me independence sooner within a totally different culture and again I made lifetime friends; the failure to get a training position within my local community resulted in me applying for a job which opened the doors to a far better training contract with a top lawyer in London; moving to the south launched me on a political career; not getting the top job meant that I could concentrate on the work I really enjoyed as a litigator and advocate and not burdened by the administrative duties of the senior lawyer allowing me time to undertake civic duties as a councillor; my redundancy led to me re-training as a church minister and finally the failure of my marriage, I have since discovered, has led me to a strengthening of my Faith and greater discernment through finding a new partner with whom I can truly share my Christian beliefs and grow.  A lovely image which was once given to me was that of a beautiful embroidery. Stunning and perfect on the front but on the back a seeming tangle of wool of different colours in different directions. So is our life.  From day to day we see it from the back – God sees the wonderful picture emerging in the front.

Time and time again we will reach crossroads in our lives, many of which lack signposts. Do we carry straight on or do we deviate from our path and if so do we go left or right?  We often simply do not know;  but God does and often he will, if we listen carefully, point us in the right direction if only we have the courage and humility to ask him – through prayer – and the patience to listen.  I also believe that if we do make the wrong choice, he will at some later time put us back on course because he alone knows, at any time, what plans he has – as it says in Jeremiah 29:11 (although in this Jeremiah is talking more about the people of Israel as a nation than individuals) “I know the plans I have for you; plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future”.  To give you a “hope”. 

In our first reading today, Lot and Abram part company.  Lot was the nephew of Abram, his brother’s son, and the family had already travelled extensively around the Middle East following God’s command to Abram to leave Ur and go to Canaan via Harran.  Following a famine the family moved into Egypt and following an altercation with Pharaoh, they moved on to the Negev (an area in the south of Israel between Beersheba and the Gulf of Aqaba) where we picked up the story in the reading.  The extended Abramic family and the herds which accompanied it had grown to such a size that wherever they now settled together, the land was unable to support them.  The obvious solution was to split off into two separate groups - especially as we read that quarrelling had now also broken out between the different family units. 

Abram shows immense grace in this passage.  In order that there should be no prolonged quarrelling he tells Lot that he can make the choice whether he goes left or right, east or west, at this crossroads. Abram is clearly quite content to let Lot make the decision.  Looking around Lot decides to go east, after having come to the conclusion, following a quick “reccy”, that the plain of Jordan in that direction looks well-watered and a much better bet to take his family and herds.  He seems to make this choice without any Godly discernment or prayer but purely on his own thoughts and desires and a cursory investigation; and dare we say by more commercial considerations.  As agreed, Abram lets him take his choice and goes off in the opposite direction leaving Lot and his family to make their way towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the fate which awaits them there. Who is to say we might not have done the same thing. So often the route which is the more tempting, often because it appears to give more instant gratification, is the one which will lead us away from God and his real plans for us - as was the case here.

Abram, on the other hand, by giving the choice to Lot has left the decision entirely in God’s hands so that after the parting, God speaks to Abram and tells him that he will be given all the land around him – north, south, west and east.  By letting Lot make the decision to go for the apparent better choice, Abram will be rewarded with far more. What a wonderful promise God makes to him – to prosper him and his family and to make his offspring numerous.  At this time we are told Abram is around 140 years old.  So in this simple story of Lot and Abram we see that when we leave a decision in God’s hands very often the least appealing of choices can very often be the correct one – the one God wants us to make leading to fresh pastures.

Jesus extends this theme in the sermon on the mount when he says “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth” [Matthew 5:5]. Here meek does not mean timid but means those who will wait upon God’s word and not jump forward with their own plans.  Those who have hope in God’s favour.  Jesus was not a person who was timid but spoke plainly and at times not politically correctly!

We see this theme again in the Song of Mary, the Magnificat (Luke 1:47-53), when it says “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts … and lifted up the lowly”.

Indeed, in our Gospel reading, Jesus is very clear that Christians should not be timid but should put their Faith in God.  We are told that as well as these three well known parables – the lamp on the stand, the growing seed, the mustard seed and calming the storm miracle – he illustrated the concept of the kingdom of Heaven in many other parables – a simple way to explain not only to the people but also his own disciples the purpose of his ministry and its goal.

Each of these parables talks of waiting upon God.  In the lamp parable he is saying that we should be open in our Faith – not conceal it but share it so as to illuminate others; in the case of the growing seed he is reminding us of God’s wonderful mysteries.  That the farmer scatters the seed and waters it; but it grows through God’s hand until it is ready for harvesting; likewise, the mustard seed starts from the smallest of seeds yet grows into a substantial bush.  This is how our Faith should grow. Something as seemingly insignificant as a tiny seed can, by the hand of God, become an immense and striking thing.  So too, can something seemingly insignificant in our lives, or our seeming insignificant lives themselves grow into something immense for the glory of God.

I could speak at great length on each and every one of these parables but for today simply want to illustrate the point that it is often important just to have the Faith and courage to leave it entirely in God’s hands.

The story of Jesus calming the storm emphasises this all the more and also makes it clear that even if we consider ourselves to be disciples, committed followers of Christ, this is still not easy.  The disciples had already spent much time in the presence of Jesus, they had observed miracles and other signs that Jesus was a unique and holy person, sent from God, yet when the wind and waves start to rock the little fishing boat out on the open Sea of Tiberius (Galilee) they fear for their own lives whilst Jesus seems oblivious to the storm and their fears.

Last time I came to talk to you I mentioned the dangerous hardships which the trawlermen of Grimsby faced on each fishing trip – dangers experienced by all those who put out to sea from the shelter of the Humber Estuary and well known by all families on shore.  Likewise, it’s almost certain that both the disciple fishermen and their families would have known of the intense dangers for all those who put out to fish on this inland sea.  It might not be the North Sea or the Barents Sea but it similarly renowned for the sudden winds which come down the Jordan valley and can whip up a frenzy on the surface of the lake.  We can, therefore, assume that on the occasion spoken of in Mark 4 it must have been a truly terrifying experience for it is recorded that they thought that they were in real and imminent danger of drowning.

Jesus admonishes them for their lack of Faith – “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  Jesus must have really getting frustrated with them as I believe he often does with us today!

Time and again, Jesus tells his disciples to have faith; and that is the message he continues to give us.

God is with us and God appears to us continually if we have Faith.  We often feel that God has either abandoned us, isn’t listening to us or doesn’t understand the situation we find ourselves in.  This is clearly what the fishermen disciples thought.  But both our Old Testament reading and the story of the calming of the Sea of Galilee illustrate that this is not the case.  Likewise the hope and prayers of the psalmist indicate the correct attitude we should have as believers in God and followers in Christ.

You each have a piece of paper and on it I would like you first of all to write down two things – something which has happened in your life in the past which seemed bad at the time but which later turned out for the good and something today something which you are struggling with and want prayer for.  You can either share them with somebody in your church family, keep them and pray yourself or give them to me at the end of the service for later prayer.  Note the prayer down and in a year’s time see if and how they have been answered,

In the meantime, let’s pray a prayer of serenity:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 
enjoying one moment at a time; 
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will; 
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. 

Amen.

MFB/81/06.06.2016

SERMON 80 - SUNDAY 5 JUNE 2016

Sermon at All saints Parish Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 5 June 2016

1 Kings 17:17-24; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

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

No one hearing those readings this morning can escape the amazing similarity between our Old Testament reading and the gospel reading.  It’s as though Jesus is copying almost precisely what the Jewish scriptures had written about Elijah many hundreds of years previously – during the period of the kings of Israel and Judah.  In the first instance, Elijah is raising to life the son of a Phoenician widow – a non-Israelite – and this is the first instance in scripture of the raising to life of a dead person.  Jesus, we are told, raised three people from the dead – his friend Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter and the widow’s son.  In each of the first three instances (including Elijah’s raising) it is the Faith of the bereaved which brings about the miracle – the Phoenician widow recognises Elijah as a great prophet, a Man sent by God, Mary and Martha had great faith in Jesus to have saved their brother Lazarus, as did Jairus; but in the case of the son in the coffin, Jesus takes compassion on the widow and without being asked touches the coffin and raises the son.  It is after this miracle that the family and mourners believe in Jesus’s power as “a great prophet”, no doubt remembering their scripture and the recognition of Elijah as a great man of God in the Old Testament reading.  A man taken up into the Heavens and whom many believe will return to eat with them at their Passover supper table.

The importance, therefore, of Jesus’s miracle is to establish him, first and foremost as a great prophet – by emulating Elijah he can establish himself amongst the Jewish people as being sent from God, being a man of God.  It is another great step entirely for him to establish himself and his divinity as the Son of God and as we know the Jewish leaders could never accept this and crucified him, ironically, thereby establishing it themselves for him and us through the power of the Cross and his own Resurrection which lives with us today.

However, we need to look at our widow in the Old Testament reading in a bit more detail.

The period of time of which this was written was a terrible time for Israel.  They were ruled by King Ahab who “did more evil in the sight of the Lord than those who went before him” (1 Kings 16:30).  We read that he married Jezebel and worshipped Baal.  Elijah then told Ahab that there would be “neither dew nor rain fall on the land for the next few years” unless Elijah commanded it at the word of the Lord.  Elijah was then told by God to flee and hide in the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan where he would find a brook to drink from and would be fed by ravens. Eventually the brook dried up and Elijah, at God’s bidding, went to Zarephath where he met the widow whom he asked for a drink of water and some bread.  Because of the drought which Elijah himself had summoned up, she had very little water and no bread, only a small amount of flour and oil – enough just to feed herself and her son for one meal. Elijah commanded her to first make a small cake for him to eat with what little she had and told her that in so doing her jars of flour and oil would not dry up. She did as commanded and indeed both flour and oil were replenished miraculously day after day.

Later, despite the ever restored ingredients for making bread, her son fell ill and gradually got worse until he stopped breathing. The widow’s immediate response was “What do you have against me, you man of God?  Did you come to remind me of my sins and kill my son?”  This response immediately tells us two things about the woman, first of all she recognised and acknowledged that Elijah was indeed a man of God – the miracle of the ever filling jars was tangible proof of this, but also, as with many Jewish believers, God’s wrath was punishment for sins committed.  Clearly, she had in mind sins which she herself knew of but which are not stated in the scripture or, presumably, apparent to Elijah.

As we read, Elijah performed some ritualistic kiss of life on the boy and his life was restored.  At this the woman again declares – “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is truth”; and this is precisely the response Jesus was seeking when he chose (not asked but chose) to restore the life of widow’s son in the coffin.  To get an acknowledgement that he was sent from God, that by the resurrection of the boy he could show not only his power through the miracle but also that, in Jewish terms, the resurrection also wiped away any sins of the deceased or his family.

Paul in his letter to the Galatians is writing to a bunch of Christians who are having doubts about Paul’s authority and authenticity.  As with many of Paul’s letters, this letter to the church in Galatia is in response to one written to him by Judaisers (or by those influenced by them). These were newly converted Jews to Christianity who believed that the old rituals and laws of the Jewish Faith in the Old Testament should continue including the practice of circumcision. Paul was of the view that the New Testament teachings of Christ, the New Covenant, overruled this and that new converts to Christianity did not have to adopt the old Jewish customs and practices. They therefore needed to know whether Paul’s teaching were right or whether they were being led along by a false prophet.

The letter is somewhat of a rant and in particular Paul needs to assert his authority and authenticity in a situation where it is known that he was never an apostle or disciple of Christ before the Ascension. He appears to be in direct conflict with Peter, Jesus’s right hand man during the years of his ministry on Earth.  Paul, therefore, like Elijah and Jesus, has to somehow prove himself as a true man of God.  In this he speaks of his amazing transformation from bigot and Jewish zealot to an apostle of Christ.  In effect, his experience on the road to Damascus is like a resurrection or re-birth.  Another miracle to show that he is indeed a man of God and that he should be listened to and followed seriously.

The language adopted by Paul in describing his conversion carries an ironic reference to Elijah – this time to 1 Kings 19 when Elijah has once more fled from Ahab and said “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me”. You will also remember that God’s response to Elijah was heard not in the wind nor the earthquake nor the fire but in a gentle whisper. And where was Elijah asked to go – the Desert of Damascus!

People often say to me “Why is it, in this day and age of so much evil we never see any miracles like those described in the Bible?”  Well my answer to this is that day in, day out there are indeed miracles.  I constantly hear of people coming to Christ, repenting and giving their lives over.  I read of the marvellous Christian revivals in Africa, Asia, especially China and other parts of the world and even in my own life some wonderful miracles have happened in recent times.  Yet, so often, miracles are not recognised as such. We often brush aside events as co-incidences, yet they can often be signs from God.  I tend to call them God-incidences when I cannot explain something yet it leads to a strengthening of my Faith.  Sometimes they seem to be a miracle but in many cases simply answers to prayers.

The bottom line is the courage to have Faith, to accept that God, when called upon can do great things in our lives and in the lives of others.  The important thing is that we continue to strengthen our Faith, continue to connect with God through his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit so that we can say, like the widow and the bereaved at the funeral and indeed the Galatians “I know that the words of the Lord and the prophets are truth”.

Amen

MFB/80/01062016

SERMON 79 - SUNDAY 28 MAY 2016

Homily – Sunday 29 May 2016 – West Dean Parish Church –

Team Service to Celebrate 150 Years of Reader Ministry

My colleague Debbie has already spoken to you about the history of Reader ministry, how it started, how it developed and how it impacts on church life today.  I would like to continue that theme with saying just a little about other areas of ministry and in particular those outside of the parish church environment – and in particular pastoral work and chaplaincy.

As well as being licensed as a Lay Minister in the Salisbury Diocese, I have also put my skills to use as an employment lawyer for that wonderful Christian charity, Alabare Christian Care and Support, by serving on one of their management committees.  Having been so impressed by the work of the charity at the top level I felt a call to become more involved at the “coal face” using the skills and training received as a lay minister and so offered myself as a chaplain at Alabare Place in the centre of Salisbury, which houses some 33 homeless people and runs a drop-in centre for those still on the streets or those who have moved on but still need the love and support of a community.  It is immensely rewarding and has made me realise that many who become homeless very often find themselves in difficulty through circumstances which are not necessarily of their own making. Addiction and mental illness, for example, can devastate people and their families.

Jesus said that he had come for the poor and sick (Mark 2:17); that the healthy do not need a physician. We read in the New Testament how he healed many both physically and spiritually and gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples (which includes us) to carry on this work after his Ascension.  It is my strong belief that the church has an immense role to play in the community at large and it is so pleasing to see that places such as here in West Dean, are engaging so well with the community.  The role of ministers of all types, not only ordained, and I include all lay workers, lay pastoral assistants and lay worship leaders, is to spread the gospel of our Lord by being as much like Jesus as our gifts can support.  James said “But someone will say ‘You have faith and I have works’. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Chaplaincy is one of the richest of ministries.  It doesn’t require ordination or lengthy theological training but it does require people who are steeped in their Faith and who are good listeners.  In a recent survey conducted by Alabare amongst its service users one of the most popular answers to the question “What makes for a fulfilling life” was “To be listened to and respected”.  It wasn’t about having lots of material things, although a few said it might help! It was simply to be treated as though the person mattered, important enough to be listened to and given an opportunity to be understood. 

I chose to be a chaplain amongst the homeless and the veterans – working within a charity local to us here in Salisbury and which I admire greatly and for whom I already worked. But there are many further opportunities to provide pastoral care within our communities. Chaplains will be found in schools, factories, prisons, hospitals, hospices, courts, football clubs and many other places associated beyond church. As Christians we are all called upon to minister to the people.  The church (with a small “c” – not the building but the community of Christian believers) can be a place where transformation can begin.  Lay pastoral assistants, for example, are to be greatly admired.  They quietly go around the community doing God’s work by helping, supporting and sometimes just listening to others in need or lonely.  In this busy world, made even busier by lots of new technology, it cannot be denied that there are vast numbers of people, especially the elderly who are very lonely.  A visit, a chat, can make an immense difference to their lives.

A great example of chaplaincy within the community is an organisation called Anna Chaplaincy for Older People providing pastoral care to the elderly.

An Anna Chaplain to Older People offers hope of transformation through a blend of friendship and intensive listening, and by sharing the gospel when appropriate. By hearing and reflecting back to people the stories of their life, and their memories, individuals can be helped to make sense of their identity - past, present and future.

A bereavement counsellor has said :

“It is such a privilege to be trusted, and you are trusted. People will tell you things, trust you with things; pearls of wisdom which stay with you, and you think about them. You get so much love from people. You get so much love back. So it's not all altruistic. Not by any means.”

This statement can be replicated for all forms of lay ministry – whether it’s preaching as a Reader or welcoming people at the door of the church or serving coffee on Sunday mornings. 

St. Francis of Assisi is credited as having said

“Preach the gospel always and only if necessary use words”. 

As Christians we are called upon to love our neighbours as ourselves – the Second Great Commandment left to us by Jesus.  We can do this no better than by serving others, listening to others, supporting others and preaching the gospel by the way we live our lives and show our love for those around us in our community.  Then our church will become the great transforming body God wants it to be.

Amen

MFB/79/26052016