SERMON 125 - SUNDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2018

Sermon delivered at the Roman Catholic Family Chapel, Whaddon, Evening Prayer Service on Feast of Christ the King Service – Sunday 25^th November 2018

Psalm 72; Daniel 5; John 6:1-15

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

“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 … he will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy: he will crush the oppressor”. [Psalm 72:1-4]

So begins Psalm 72 in the New International Version of the bible.  It is spoken of Solomon, King David’s successor, but is echoed to some extent in the words of our own Queen’s Coronation Oath in 1953 when she made such a promise in answer to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s question :

Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?

Today we celebrate the Festival of Christ the King – hence the regal nature of many of our hymns this evening – “King of Glory, King of Peace” for example and so on and we are reminded that God sent us his only son to rule over us in a kingly capacity – his kingdom, though, not being of this world but through him and his disciples bringing something heavenly into this world: bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into this place – then and there - just as we as Christians are required to do each and every day of our earthly existence in the here and now.  Our heavenly king, Jesus Christ, is one of love and justice, a promulgator and defender of the faith in the truest sense of the word.

Our two readings today show two sides of the same kingly coin – justice and love.  In our first reading, which is a very long description of a lavish party at the Babylonian court we see the face of an angry God who has been humiliated by the actions of a very earthly king – Belshazzar – somebody who simply should have known better.

The story of Belshazzar’s Feast is a very long story, biblically, and one which became the sole subject of an entire opera by William Walton. It has to be read in the context of the whole Book of Daniel.  Belshazzar succeeded to the throne of Babylon vacated by his father Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler who finally invaded the southern kingdom of Judah and took Daniel and many leading and learned Hebrews into captivity for about 70 years, leaving only a few behind to till the soil and keep the conquered kingdom from total desolation.  Not only did he take the best and richest people he also took the valuable object from King Solomon’s Temple before it was destroyed.  

Nebuchadnezzar was warned many times by Daniel of the dangers of going against God – by doing all manner of thing including trying to make himself a god.  He was rebuked on many occasions and proved himself to the king as a prophet of God on many occasions by his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams.  Indeed, the king had also witnessed God’s power when three devoted followers survived the fiery furnace. 

So Belshazzar must have been aware from his father’s previous experiences that to disrespect God was likely to end badly for him – as indeed it did as we heard from our reading.

The message for us today is, I think, an underlining of those two great Commandments which Jesus told us underlies everything – “Love God and love your neighbour as God loves you”.  Love God, respect God.  Belshazzar’s kingdom, as we read, was taken away from him as was his life through his failure to do both.  Those material things which we often hold dear to us in this world are only transitory – as indeed is our tenure on this planet.  We are merely passing through and as we do so we must always recall that the true king over us is Jesus – who is also the omnipotent God, our creator and whose kingdom extends far beyond what we can see or understand.

Our second reading is, as I have said, the other side of the coin; the loving God – Jesus who cares for his people. The very beginning of our passage gives an example of God’s wonderful compassion for those who follow him.  Here we have a great crowd of people who have followed Jesus, probably a great distance on foot, to hear what he has to say. Jesus’s first thought is for their comfort – he is aware that they are now probably hungry and asks Philip where bread might be bought to feed them – knowing full well that he will perform a miracle.

It is a small boy who provides the answer with his picnic basket of fish and bread. Such was the miracle performed that there was abundant food for all present and plenty over.  A remarkable show of God’s powerful love.

We would all do well to remember that God has left us the Holy Spirit until the return of his son. The powers and love of God remain in this world today.  Miracles still do occur, God’s powerful love surrounds in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  God still does demand respect and the best way of respecting him is to imitate as far as we are able the ministry of Jesus; to remember that we are mere stewards of his creation and should preserve it for future generations.

There is a popular song written by Bryan Adams and which featured as the soundtrack theme for the Kevin Costner film “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves”. I think it sums up very clearly and simply the message from each of these reading and the last two lines provide a wonderful mantra which we can all use in our meditative prayer time;

Look into my eyes
You will see
What you mean to me
Search your heart
Search your soul
And when you find me there, you'll search no more

There's no love

Like your love
And no other
Could give more love
There's nowhere
Unless you're there
All the time
All the way, yeah

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for
You know it's true
Everything I do
I do it for you

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/22112018

SERMON 124 - SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2018

Sermon delivered at All Saints, Farley, Remembrance Day Service – Sunday 11^th November 2018

John 15:13

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

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you…I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another”

So speaks Jesus to his disciples in that same passage where he describes himself as the vine and them as the branches.

Today we remember and celebrate, yes celebrate too, the 100^th anniversary of the ending of one of the most fruitless and destructive wars of all time – the armistice of the First World War with countless loss of life and much suffering for what was described as a war to end  wars following the assassination of a member of a far-away foreign Imperial family, in a far-away foreign country, carried about by a foreigner resulting in the declaration of war by two far away foreign powers. 25 years later it was to all kick off again as a European conflict.

Yet, as we know, the First World War rapidly escalated into a global conflict played out largely by six powerful Empires resulting in a huge loss of life.  The Empires themselves never recovered (four of them disappeared altogether) and the remaining two were considerably weakened as a result.  So I do say “celebrate” today as well as remember because 100 years ago to this actual day at 11 am all hostilities ceased (or were supposed to cease) bringing to an end the senseless bloodshed. 

Today is, as always, is  a remembrance too of all those who lost their lives – in that conflict and in later ones too – especially the Second World War which was equally destructive. To remember those who “lay down their lives”:

I was recently shown this image of a young couple hand in hand in a beautiful green pasture overlooking the sea. This wonderful idyllic peaceful scene is being held up by dozens and dozens of First World War Soldiers some dead, dying or wounded. In who, in the words of the Kohima Epitath , “When you go home, tell them of us, and say, for your tomorrow wegave our today.”  For the young couple’s tomorrow they gave their today”.

A couple of years ago I went with my son to Ypres and was totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of names of those who lost their lives in that one salient alone – names bearing the same surname as my own family and many others I know.  It hit me hard as does each and every Remembrance Sunday; and when I read my history books the waste seems so terrible.

I have just finished reading a novel by William Boyd set in German East Africa – modern day Tanzania where I have recently spent a couple of weeks – and whilst it is just a novel it is set amidst the horror of the First World War as it affected the colonies of the warring European nations on the continent of Africa.. We often concentrate our remembrance of the First World War on the slaughter in the trenches and fields of Flanders but for those in Africa there was the added horror of terrible heat, tropical diseases and wild animals just like those who fought in the jungles of Burma and Malaya in later conflicts.  For several days many of the troops in Africa continued to fight and kill each other totally unaware of the signing of the Armistice on 11^th November 1918. How tragic is that?

One of the names on the Farley plaque of remembrance also lost his life on active service in or near the African Continent – in Palestine in fact close to the Egyptian border– Leonard Francis Parsons.

In the early part of the First World War, Kantara in Egypt was an important point in the defence of the Suez Canal against Turkish attacks and marked the starting point of the new railway east towards Sinai and Palestine, begun in January 1916.

Today the nephew of Leonard Francis Parsons, Gary Holmes, is with us here today and he would like to say a few words about his uncle and particularly about a visit his grandmother made to his grave in Egypt:

INTRODUCE GARY HOLMES

I would wish to introduce Leonard Parsons, when & where born, refer to his joining the Wiltshire Regiment as a 16 year old etc.

My mother Violet Holmes née Parsons ,was his sister.

To speak briefly about St Barnabas Society and its role in leading groups to to Egypt & Palestine. after the First World War

To introduce my grandmother, Vashti Louisa Parsons who joined the Pilgrimage in April 1927 & who wrote a warm detailed journal of her journey from Farley to Egypt, Palestine & the Holy Land.

To read the extract that speaks of finding her son’s grave.


Egypt

The special train awaited us at Alexandria to take us to Cairo. Some of the party remained behind in the town to visit the war graves there. From our train we watched them start off in motors with their wreaths.  Most of these were made on board by St Barnabas Stewards and were all alike two Calafa Palms tied at the base and top, large bunches of Flanders poppies and white African Immortelles. The tourists saw the sites and proceeded to Cairo by train later in the day. We join the train to arrive at Cairo by midday.

Here a large number of pilgrims take the train to Kantara Cemetery which is about half an hour from the terminus and a boiling walk they have across the desert passing only a few native huts on their way.

There are 1500 British dead here in a sandy waste. A high wall protects the cemetery to a certain extent from sand storms and the native keepers sweep the graves clear of sand twice a day - otherwise the headstones would soon be covered up and lost.  There are no flowers and trees to beautify this place and shelter the graves and the relatives can only bring away ‘a handful of sand’ from their beloved graves. A little girl of tender years goes to Kantara with her mother to visit her father’s grave. She is our youngest pilgrim.

We went by motor with the Dr. and his wife, the official photographer (and one other lady bound for the cemetery at Tel-el-Kebir), to as Ismailia Cemetery which is 120 miles from Cairo. We go through very wild and desolate country onto the very fringe of the Desert.

About four o’clock we arrived at Tel-el-Kebir, out of the wilderness (Sir Garnet Wolseley fought here many years ago) and after negotiating a ravine with the assistance of some natives, we entered a  sweet little Garden of Rest where are from 20 to 30 graves of Britishers who died in the war. Tall oleander trees in full bloom were the feature of the place with palms and other flowering trees and cypresses. There is the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ as in all other cemeteries.

The natives were keeping it in perfect order. They knew on which there and we had come and could not do enough for us. Maybe, they have lost their men in the same cause. The woman lent against a tree saying “O sorrow O sorrow!”

The men picked large bunches of pink oleander for us. The lady who was with us had found the grave she sought and we leave her whilst she places her wreath there. After a while the photographer takes a picture of the grave whilst we stand in silence for a time then board our car again. After an hour’s rapid ride through the desolate wilderness and alongside the canal over a very rough sandy track of a road we eventually arrived in Ismailia which is quite a large town with wide roads, flower gardens and a fountain in the chief square.  Most of the roads here have French names. The desert is quite close on the borders of which is a large camp.

At 5.30 on 3 May we found the Cemetery and entered by its fine stone archway which bore the inscription ‘This land is given over for all time for the British Dead by the Egyptian Government.’

We walked up a pathway between cypress trees until we had almost reached the ‘Cross a Sacrifice’ and there on the right I found my boy’s grave.  How can I say what I felt. I wonder whether the dead can see us at times and know our inmost thoughts. Did my son know that I could come all these miles after a weary waiting of nine years and that someone at last of his own who had loved him so, stood by that sacred spot where his body lies.

I did not feel that his real self was there as only his mortal remains were in the grave. He, I believe is in God’s keeping along with all those other precious lives but his memory is ever in my heart.

We placed a wreath at the headstone and an attendant brought me a can of water and in which to place the bunch of oleander given to me at Tel-el-Kebir. He placed it on the grave so reverently and with a bow he left me. For 15 minutes I remained in sweet communion with my boy.  Then a photograph was taken.

That was all.  ‘Goodnight, dearest! sleep on till the day breaks and we meet again.’  So we passed on leaving him lying in his restful tomb.

War is not, as has often been portrayed in films, romantic. Every person who lost his or her life as a result of war had a mother just like Leonard Parsons.  Families were torn apart by much grief and anxiety receiving or waiting to receive the dreaded War Office telegram.

So then how should the church approach this topic? What is the role of the church at times of such conflict?  I believe it is not just to bury the dead or lead services of remembrance after the events.

This was a question posed by and reflected on by the Reverend Geoffrey Studdard Kennedy during the First World War.  The Reverend Kennedy is better known by his nickname “Woodbine Willy”.

From the trenches he was asked on more than one occasion  “What the b ________ h___ is the church doing here?

His short answer was “It is trying to keep the hope of Heaven alive in the midst of a bloody Hell. It is trying to fill the army and keep it filled with the Spirit of the Cross, the spirit of strong love of Right which will triumph at all costs in the battle against Wrong”. Further, he said, the church has to counter “the temptation for men (and I will also add ‘women’) to become brutalised and to live as do brutes – The Spirit of the Bayonet without the Spirit of the Cross”.

Today, we may not be fighting a world war as between 1914-1918 and 1939-19545 but the world continues to be brutalised and we see people living as brutes.  Today is a remembrance of those who have laid down their lives in faith in those battles against Wrong.  The church continues to have that role today – as we remember the fallen we should also remember our role as reconcilers and instruments of peace.  Those we remember today made the ultimate sacrifice – their todays were given up for our tomorrows; as did Jesus Christ himself when he died on the Cross for our sins – in a spirit of strong love of Right against Wrong. Just as Woodbine Willy put it in his short answer.

In the words of Christ himself - “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you…I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another”.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them”

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/06112018

SERMON 123 - SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER 2018

Sermon delivered at All Saints Parish Church, Farley, Evensong 

on Sunday 28th October 2018

Deuteronomy 32: 1-4; John 14: 15-26

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

I was faced with quite a dilemma as to what I should preach on bearing in mind that according to the Church’s Calendar today is a triple celebration – the Last Sunday on Trinity, Bible Sunday and the Festival of St. Simon, St. Jude and all the Apostles!  I hope you will forgive me if I tell you that I have chosen to say a little bit about the bible as well as a brief biography on the life of St. Jude.  Perhaps the latter is most appropriate considering that St. Jude is the official Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes!

Jude is believed to be the brother of James the Younger, the fisherman and as such we can make a reasoned guess that he too was in that profession.  He is referred to as one of the Twelve Disciples in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles (also written by Luke) but does not appear at all by that name in the other gospels although in Matthew and Mark it is believed that the name Jude is replaced by Thaddeus – possibly to stop him being confused with Judas Iscariot. It is firmly believed that he was not the brother of Jesus’s own brother, James although theologians still remained divided on this. He wrote one epistle, the Book of Jude, and it is not clear who were the recipients – possibly the Gnostics as he labours the point about being led astray by false teachers and licentious living.  There is no mention of his calling by Jesus despite being named as one of the twelve.  It is believed that he did challenge Jesus at the Last Supper as to why Jesus made his true status known only to the disciples and not the world at large – Jesus’s response being that he and the Father would visit all those who loved and obeyed him. This is recorded in John’s Gospel and in the piece of scripture read to us earlier.

After Pentecost little is known of him.  It is believed that he spent much time in Armenia, northern Persia (Iran), and is believed to have been martyred alongside the apostle Simon the Zealot at Beirut It is for this reason that their Saint’s Day is the same – 28^th October being the date on which their possible execution, by be-heading, is recorded. The iconic symbol for both being an axe. It is believed that Jude was around 68 years of age when he wrote his epistle, moved to do so by the corruption and deceit he saw around him and the divisions which were appearing amongst the early Christians.  His message in his epistle is a very simple one and one we need to follow today – those who fall away from the true ideals of Christ’s teaching – who give themselves up to pride and lust will suffer God’s judgment. True Christians must build up their faith to resist such temptations and live in the light of Jesus’s second coming by praying and using the power of the Holy Spirit which was made available to all humans at Pentecost. There is then no need to be afraid or despair.  The Holy Spirit will protect us and give us all the power we need in a difficult and challenging world.

This does, therefore, lead me on to a consideration of the word of God through the bible.  On this Bible Sunday and I don’t think I can emphasise enough how the word of God remains so alive and relevant in this modern day despite having been written so many centuries ago. So many of the situations we find ourselves in now and ones which have occurred and been experienced by those early writers.  On this Bible Sunday I would like to pay tribute to a great American theologian who died earlier this week – Eugene Petersen - who was 85 and a very inspirational pastor and writer.  Although he was the prolific writer of over twenty spiritual books he is probably most famous for his paraphrase of the Holy Bible called “The Message” – a copy of which I always keep close by me in my study. Apparently 15 million copies are in the hands of Christians throughout the world. It should be emphasised that The Message is a paraphrase and should not be treated as an accurate translation from the Greek or Hebrew but it does give a really good flavour, in modern day vernacular English, of the sentiments and history which are expressed in more formal terms in the established translations. Petersen’s version of John 14:15-26 in The Message, which we heard read to us in the Second Lesson in the New Revised Standard Version is very clear – Jesus is leaving his earthly ministry but he will be replaced by the Holy Spirit – another form of God which will remain on Earth for all time and the disciples should not feel that they are being left alone

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We would do well to remember that Jesus did indeed leave us a friend in the form of the Holy Spirit until his return

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I think I can do no better than to read out to you again the Second Reading as paraphrased in the Message – as an easy explanation of that passage and in memory of a great and respected modern theologian:

 John 14:15-27 The Message (MSG)

The Spirit of Truth

^15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

^18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.

²¹ “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”

²² Judas (not Iscariot but Jude the brother of James the Younger) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”

^23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighbourhood!  Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.

^25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

I pray that with these words of John, we may all leave this church tonight knowing the truth of Jesus’s words being filled with the knowledge of the wholeness, power and love and truth of the Holy Spirit.

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/25102018