SERMON NO. 109 - WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018

Homily at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish  and All Saint’s Parish Church, Winterslow -  Ash Wednesday  – Sunday 14 February 2018 

Matthew 6:16-21

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

Do you ever have those moments, during bible reading, when the words spring off the pages as though they were written, not nearly 2,000 or more years ago, but perhaps only that day?  And specifically for you!  Well for me, when I read the Gospel Reading again yesterday in preparation for this homily, the words of Matthew did just that – and I do hope that such an experience something you’ve all had at some time or another as it is the proof that the bible is as much or perhaps even more relevant  today as it always has been – words written centuries earlier but also for today and indeed tomorrow.  It’s the living word of God.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of that period in the church’s calendar called Lent. You won’t find the word Lent anywhere in the bible and the word, so the Internet tells me, comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lecten meaning “Spring” – that period leading to new birth. So, in the Christian tradition we prepare ourselves, during 40 days or so, for the Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Day. We use this period, traditionally and historically for fasting and reflection.

Fasting was nothing new for the Hebrews.  Indeed, in our Gospel reading Jesus is, in fact, echoing the words of Old Testament Isaiah (Isaiah 58:3) – “Why do we fast but you do not see?  Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?  Look you serve your own interest on your fast-day and oppress all your workers.  Look you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.  Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.”

And at verse 6 - “Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house … the n your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly”. Jesus is reminding his listeners, in this, his great Sermon on the Mount, that fasting is about personal reflection and meditation – that in fasting the Hebrews should be dedicating themselves to deepening that greatest of relationships – with God himself – and not just using it to show to others how holy they were in their self-denial.  “Hypocrites” he called them – “players” in modern day terms.  We are told in 1 Samuel 16:7:

“For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”

We would do well to remember this.  Jesus frequently chastised the elders of the Jewish religion, Pharisees and Sadducees who would appear, to all outward appearances, as very righteous holy people, fasting and observing the law but Jesus also knew them to be sinful, else why would he have said of the woman found in adultery – “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”.  For all their outward holiness, they were flawed just as we humans will always be flawed but we are able to repent through following Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

Jesus tells his listeners that when they fast they should put oil on their heads and wash their face – in other word not make a big show of the sacrifices they are making but appear to all outwards appearance as they would normally – not to look dismal emphasising their sacrifice.

There was a time, following the Ash Wednesday service when I had had the sign of the Cross smeared in ash and oil on my very prominent forehead, when I would go around trying to preserve it all day.  Why? Well I told myself it was as a witness to others but in reality I soon realised that it was, in all probability, something more to do with my own vanity and “self-righteousness” showing others that I was “holy” in observing the beginning of Lent.  This is precisely what Jesus is saying – “wash your face so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you”.

he second part of Jesus’s message in today’s gospel seemed even more relevant to my situation today!  As many of you will know, Liz and I have sold our respective houses in Whiteparish and Old Sarum and effectively moved from a total of eight- bedroomed accommodation to a four-bedroomed house in Downton.  During the course of the move it struck us both, in the process of trying to “downsize”, just how many possessions we have between us – many of which we had either forgotten we had or which we had been clinging onto as part of not letting go our history. Jesus tells us “not to store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume or where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-21). I am also reminded of the parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12 who builds bigger barns to store more crops in the hope of an easier life in the future – his life is suddenly taken away and the futility of such actions becomes very apparent.

Jesus gives us a template for how we should behave not just during Lent but also during the whole of our lives. We should be ourselves, we should be the people God created us to be and we should remember always to dedicate our lives to God.  God gives life and God takes it away. We bring nothing into this world and we can take nothing out. We should concentrate on the present and our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  The past often gives us regrets, the future brings us worries but the present is for living.

Lent is not just about self-denial – no wine, no chocolate, no fun.  It is a time for reflection but it is also a time to pray, to provide charity and share the good News of the Cross with others not only by what we do for ourselves but how we act towards others.

I love the film “Chocolat” starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and hear t throb Johnny Depp. If you haven’t ever seen the film, I highly recommend you try and watch it during Lent and, if you feel so inclined, have some chocolate too.  For me the message is clear, as Isaiah so clearly put it :

Is [not a period of fasting] not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? … then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly”.

Amen

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SERMON 108 - SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2018

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish   -  Morning Worship  – Sunday 4 February 2018 

Proverbs 8:1, 22-31;  Colossians 1:15-20; John 1:1-14

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

It may come as something of a surprise to us that the Church’s Lectionary has these well-known words at the beginning of John’s Gospel as today’s reading so soon after Christmas when we heard them read out as the last reading for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. We may also hear these scriptural passages read out again at the end of the Ash Wednesday service.  It is so familiar to us, echoing as it does, the opening words of Genesis, the very first words of our Holy Bible, yet when written it was quite revolutionary – new words for a new era – a revolution and a revelation of the true theology long practised by the Hebrews but not understood by them.  It not only reminds us that Jesus Christ was God incarnate but that as such he had always been there – he was God who was there at the beginning of Creation and will be with us always and that this new era marks the beginning of a New Creation.

This is where our religious belief differs so markedly from those of the other two Judeo religions.  Judaism tells us the there is only one God, Yahweh, and that there have only been prophets; The Messiah, is yet to come.  Islam tells us that Mohammed was a great prophet but that he is separate and distinct from Allah, their word for the same God.  Our own Faith, which is sometimes very difficult to understand by those who are not Christians, confuses people into thinking that we actually worship three Gods, Yahweh, the same remote God as worshipped by the Hebrews (which is true) but also two further Gods – Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, whilst others think of Jesus Christ as a good man and prophet but not divine.  So it is sometimes extremely difficult for us to explain that we actually are a mono-theological faith – believing in one God but in three forms – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now this is not Trinity Sunday so I don’t want to go into great lengths about the Trinity but I do think it very important, as we come to just less than two weeks before the beginning of Lent, to reflect upon the importance of John’s theology at the beginning of his Gospel and to see this in the context of what went before and Paul’s own theology in today’s readings.  It’s really big stuff and I don’t want to turn this sermon into a heavy theological lecture but allow us some time to think about the implications for our world today.

“In the beginning” – so starts both Genesis and John.  “In the beginning God” (Genesis) “In the beginning was the Word” (John).  Immediately John is using the first words of the Torah, the important first five books of the Hebrew bible, to emphasise this most important point – both God and the Word (Jesus) were together – one and the same. As Jesus told his disciple Philip in John 14 - “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

In other words, we need the wisdom and discernment which Jesus can give us in his teachings and actions to understand this and which, in our first reading in Proverbs, reminds us of the importance of such wisdom  - “Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?” (Proverbs 8.1) – and then, harking back to Genesis “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago” (Proverbs 8:22)

The Hebrew word for “beginning” also means “sum total”, “first fruits”, and the word “in” can also mean “through” or “for” – so the words “In the beginning” can also mean “through the sum total of God and Christ” – in other words “Christ is the one in, through and for whom creation and redemption are accomplished”.  

As Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians “Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation for in him all things in Heaven and on Earth were created – things visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:15-16).  And later “Christ is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning.” (Colossians 1:18).  In other words we are reminded that Jesus is the head of our church, and it is in, through and for him only that all things are accomplished.

John makes it very much plainer still in his opening Gospel.  He reminds us that nothing came into being in the world which did not involve God’s Creation and as Jesus Christ is also God Incarnate, then nothing came into being which Jesus Christ did not create. The strength of his ministry and his Word, and ultimate death are made all the more stronger by the revelation of him as divine as well as human. He has the ultimate authority in our lives and world; the rest of us just have a tenancy, a stewardship of his creation.

As Christians this is the Good News which we are expected to reveal to all we meet.  The challenge for us is how do we do this in a world of secular values? 

Earlier I said that this message can be extremely difficult for Non-Christians to understand and that is the reason that often the Gospel of John is given out to non-believers or those who have recently attended an Evangelical Church to get over this message of the oneness of Christ and God.

When I get involved in conversations with non-believers who are curious as to my Faith the conversation often begins with the words “Why do you believe in God an invisible person we cannot see?”  God the remote being somewhere out there beyond our world in space.  Just think for a moment, how do you envision God?  It may be a white-bearded Old Man looking down on us and keeping a record of all our misdeeds, that certainly was my image as a child, or is he or she somebody loving – a good mate or a loving parent?  We may have many different ideas as to the entity which we pray to or it may be just a great mystery and we really don’t feel we know.  This coming Lent let us all try and understand and apply the wisdom we have been given to get closer to Jesus.

Jesus told Philip “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” and that is why it is so important for us to follow closely the teaching of Jesus from the Bible.  God came down to Earth in human form so as to be amongst us and as John says “we have seen his glory … full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).   

Christianity is about relationships – it is about loving God, not being frightened of him. He loves us unconditionally,  he created us and as such only wants what is good for us – just as those of us who are parents want only the best for our children.  Jesus has something to say about this too - “Who when his child asks for bread to eat would give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9)

God wants a relationship with us – he gave us himself in human form for 33 years on Earth and then left us with his Holy Spirit – that same spirit which is described as sweeping over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2.  As the church, as the body of Christ it is important to maintain that relationship.  Christianity is based on that relationship and not on the observance of the rules and regulations of Faith as with the Hebrews of the time.  Jesus made that very clear when talking with the Pharisees and Sadducees and with many of his seeming provocative actions; but at the same time reminding them that he had come to fulfil the law not break it.

If we are to be true followers of Christ we must get the message of God’s incarnation across and the importance of having a true relationship with Him. 

In this period of Lent leading up to Holy Week and beyond let us reflect on the awesomeness of John’s statement at the beginning of his Gospel “that [whilst] no one has seen God the Father; it is God the only Son … who has made him known” (John 1:18).  Let us also use these forthcoming weeks to build up that relationship through prayerful meditation, giving thanks that God became incarnate for our salvation.

Let us pray: (after Michael Forster)

Thank you, God, for incarnation:

For taking the risk of being human,

Of making friends

Of offering love

Of living in hope

Thank you for being here, for calling us to do that too

Thank you, God, for incarnation.

Amen.

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