SERMON 167 - SUNDAY 12 DECEMBER 2021

Sermon at Winterslow All Saints’ Parish Church, - Advent 3  –  Sunday 12^th December 2021

Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18

So today we reach the Third Sunday in Advent, as illustrated by the burning of three candles on our Advent Wreath.  I don’t know about you but this year Advent seems to have flown by so quickly and my conscience is pricked daily by the sheer amount of lack of preparation which I seem to have achieved during these dark dismal days.  The weather, I am sure you will all agree has left many of us feeling a little tired with the added uncertainly of further Covid variants and restrictions.

Advent, as we all know, is a time of expectation and waiting; we wait for Christmas and as Christians we celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world and are reminded of his return at some future time.

Each of the candles reminds us of those individuals who prepared us for Christ’s first coming – the first candle reminds us of the Patriarchs – Abraham and his offspring in particular; the second candle reminds us of the prophets – those who foretold of the coming of the Messiah; today it is the turn of John the Baptist who proclaimed Jesus as the one who is to come after him as told in our  gospel reading; the fourth which we light next week remembers the virgin Mary who carried Jesus in her womb and, of course, on Christmas Day we light the fifth and central candle to remember Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem as foretold by the others.

Our first two readings this morning have a similar theme – joy and rejoicing. The prophet Zephaniah in our first reading is reminding the exiled Jews that their time of exile is nearly over and that God will restore them to their land.  This follows the fall of Babylon and the occupation of that country by the Persians whose king, Cyrus, will let the Jewish people return to Israel and re-establish their Temple at Jerusalem.   The bad days are over, for now that is, and it is time to thank God with praises and song.

In our second New Testament reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Christian church members in Philippi, Paul is echoing the words of Zechariah by reminding his readers that by putting their trust in God, through his son Jesus Christ, and that instead of being fearful and worrying about everything we can now, through prayer in the name of Jesus, make our requests directly to God – that is what we do every Sunday when we say our Intercessions –we make our requests known to God through prayer through Jesus.

In our Gospel reading, John the Baptist is telling those who are coming to him to be baptised in the River Jordan that he is not the Messiah but the messenger bringing news of the Jesus’s arrival and that the people should prepare themselves for the message of Jesus’s ministry. John tells them how they should behave to be true to the repentance (or turning away from evil towards what God wants for his people) – sharing food and clothing to those who have none, not extorting others or taking advantage of the vulnerable and seeking to unjustly enrich oneself and above all being content with what God has already given you.

In today’s commercial world, we see so many examples of selfishness and greed.  Often I see and read of people who have so much still being unhappy. Often people think that if only they lived in that house, or owned that car, or earned that much more, then their life would be complete and they would be happy – but often it is just the reverse.  I have visited Africa and Asia and seen people in what we would describe as abject poverty yet they often seem so much happier than many wealthy people I have known in the western world. 

The message which comes across in these readings is that God wants us to be happy – not miserable.  Sometimes I hear it said that people don’t go to church or are not “religious” because they want to have fun and enjoy life – as though being a Christian or having a faith somehow is designed to make us miserable; that the bible is full of “don’ts” with few “dos”. 

 When we come to church, when we meet together as Christians, we are meant to be joyful – to be grateful for what he has given us – enough for our own needs and more.  In this part of the world we are very fortunate to have immense wealth compared to those parts of Africa and Asia I mentioned earlier and therefore the capacity and resources to help those less well off than ourselves.  God doesn’t look badly on those who have wealth provided that they use it wisely and for the benefit of the Kingdom of Heaven he wants to establish here on Earth.

John, in the Gospel passage is directly challenging earthly kingdoms and in particular the authority of the puppet king, Herod. Here is a direct warning to the population to change their ways ahead of Jesus’s ministry and ultimate victory on the Cross.   Sometimes we have to also make a stand against what is wrong and unjust.  In this passage from Luke I am reminded of the work and sacrifice of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his stand against the authoritarian rule in Nazi Germany – brave man who was prepared to put his life on the line to expose the excesses of an evil regime.  John  the Baptist too was to pay for his ministry with his life.  

As Christians we belong to a greater kingdom than any that exists on earth.  We are citizens of God’s wonderful Kingdom of Heaven which much of Jesus’s ministry was involved in describing it and advocating how this could be achieved on Earth.  We want people to embrace the Faith which we ourselves have found and the best way to do that is to be joyful and act joyously and have the courage to proclaim the Good News of Christ to those around us.  This also means having the courage, like John the Baptist and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to stand up against injustices and unfairness when we see it and also ensuring that we ourselves act with integrity, fairness and morally.  That doesn’t mean we have to lead miserable lives.  Our aim should be, by sharing our Faith in the way we treat others and behave ourselves, to make people feel happy and content.  God wants us to do that daily.

This Christmas we shall no doubt make many people feel happy when we visit them, give them presents or simply spend some time together with them.  That is often quite easy with those whom you know well and love.  How about making somebody you don’t know so well feeling good and happy this week? Perhaps a smile, or a friendly word to that Big Issue seller or a compliment to that shop assistant.  Today we can so easily be focussed on the task in hand or the place we are heading for without realising that the odd acknowledgement to a stranger could make a huge difference to them – a feeling of worth and happiness.  That is what John the Baptist is telling his audience and like John, you will be spreading the good news to the people – the true and real reason why we celebrate Christmas.

Amen                                                                                       MFB/167/09122021

SERMON 166 - SUNDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2021 - REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Sermon at Farley Parish Church, - Remembrance Day Service –  Sunday 14^th November 2021

Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-8

Today, this Day of Remembrance, is set aside in our Church Calendar to remember and give thanks for those who gave their lives in those great conflicts of the Twentieth Century, predominantly the First and Second World Wars.  None, now, are left who can actually remember the Great War of 1914-1918 and as each year passes fewer and fewer can recall the Second Great Conflict.  It is therefore ever more important that we keep alive the memories of those who gave their lives in the these conflicts and all those who suffered as a consequence.  The Great War of 1914-1918, the First World War as it became known, was described, on Armistice Day, as the War to end all Wars yet, less than twenty years later the world was caught up in yet another terrible conflict with the loss of millions of lives. To a greater extent, this was perhaps a more terrible war than the First World War with its additional massive loss of civilian life in the Holocaust, the Blitz and finally the Atomic bombings in Japan.  As we heard earlier, for our future many made the ultimate sacrifice of their present.

Today, despite the horrors of those two great conflicts of the past century, war and suffering continues with the continuance of lives lost and suffering caused by the displacement of people from their homelands.  Tyranny and disrespect of human lives and cultures continues today and it is nothing new.  Throughout the bible we read of conflicts and wars, of death and destruction and the suffering of people. People often ask that very important question – why does God allow suffering on this scale? Why does he allow suffering at all?  Not easy questions are they, and often dodged by Christian apologists. Sometimes I really wonder this myself; but each and every time I do ponder on this question I remember the ultimate suffering and sacrifice made by Jesus on the Cross. We know that through his suffering, crucifixion and resurrection, death was itself defeated.

We all long for a world where suffering is eradicated, but the truth is that however hard we might try, the reality is that suffering and poverty are likely to remain with us for all time until Christ’s return. Indeed Jesus himself rebuked the disciple Judas Iscariot when Judas complained about the amount of costly perfume which was being lavished on Jesus by Mary Magdalene saying that the perfume could have been sold and the proceeds distributed to the poor. You will recall that Jesus retorted that “The poor will always be with you but I am only here a little longer”.  The truth of the matter is that Jesus is right, poverty and suffering are likely to continue until his return when we are told that there will be created a new Heaven and Earth.

But back to the present; I often respond to the question “why is there suffering” in this world and “why doesn’t God do something about it” with my view which is that God gave us free will and the responsibility for looking after this our fragile planet. However hard we try, we humans are, to use a cliché “only human” and our own personal gratification, thirst for power or recognition or just simply plain dogma leads us into conflict with others who might not see the world exactly as we do. History has shown that most conflicts have occurred because of a thirst or drive for power or territory or promulgation of a particular political or religious dogma. I have frequently heard people say “religion is the poison of the people” and we would be a better world if it didn’t exist. In my view, the very essence of our Christian religion is to spread the good news of Jesus as our Saviour irrespective of any particular denominational doctrine; to simply to be faithful to the words of Jesus Christ during his three and a half years of ministry and recognise and understand about his ultimate sacrifice for our sins. That is the true Christian message which is designed to reduce conflict.

We live on a very fragile yet precious planet – one of eight orbiting a relatively small star in the Milky Way Galaxy. To our current knowledge, we are the only planet in our Solar System upon which life exists – certainly civilisation.  Despite investigating thousands of other exo-planets orbiting other star systems, we have yet to detect one with the ability to support life.  That makes us extremely precious – that’s why a global understanding of the need to preserve our resources and use them sensibly is so important.  That’s why COP26 is such a ground-breaking and important conference in Glasgow. 

At the Creation of the world, we are told that God gave the stewardship of this planet to Adam and Eve and their human offspring; that’s us! - a huge responsibility. I have made reference before to that amazing photograph of the planet Earth rising over the surface of the Moon taken by astronaut Bill Anders on the Apollo 8 mission and beamed back to Earth.  A fragile beautiful world and taken from just above the lunar surface - no country boundaries could be detected all looked serene and peaceful – just as the Earth is meant to be. It also reminded Bill that we are all huddled together on this small planetary spacecraft hurtling through space and there is nowhere else we can go.  The Moon’s desolation - “magnificent desolation as it was described” - was in deep contrast to the deep blue of the Earth’s oceans and green of the verdant forests; so precious.

In these days of global communication and news – when we can have a Zoom meeting with our friends and family as far away as New Zealand and Australia, or the United States or Canada, there is no excuse for not knowing what is going on elsewhere on our globe or, worse still, not caring. The future of our world, to keep it environmentally clean and conflict free, rests with us and our prayers and petitions to and for those in authority.  No longer can the words of Neville Chamberlain which he used to justify signing the Munich Agreement which “sold out” the Czechs to the Nazis be used by us to stop caring in the future “a quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing".  It could be argued that a stance made then in 1938 could have prevented the outbreak of World War II in 1939. But that is historical conjecture.

The simple fact is, it is for this reason (that history can teach us how to behave in the future) that the sacrifices made by the warriors of the First and Second World Wars and, regrettably later conflicts in many other parts of the world, must never be forgotten. My history teacher taught me that the importance of learning history was not simply to remember a catalogue of dates and events of the past but to take heed of the warnings it gives for the future.

And so, from the going down of the Sun and in the morning, we must remember them.

  

Amen                                                                                       MFB/166/11112021

SERMON 165 - SUNDAY 10 OCTOBER 2021

Sermon at Winterslow Parish Church, and Farley Parish Church–  Sunday 10^th October 2021

Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Hebrews 4:12-16; Luke 15:1-10

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted that today’s three readings are not the ones prescribed in the Church of England Lectionary for this, the 19^th Sunday after Trinity.  These readings have been chosen by the Clarendon Team as we embark upon the Diocese’s Generous Giving Campaign which, for us in the Clarendon Team, is as much about our own self-awareness of the generosity which is given to us by God as it is about giving money to the church.  I have to say that I don’t particularly like the term “generous giving” in the context of us giving money as I am sure that the giving already made by members of our community and church is already very generous in respect of not simply money but also the time which we give to both the church and our local community – I know this is especially true here in Winterslow/Farley.  The essence of my talk here today and the readings which precede it are to reflect upon and realise the generosity already provided to us, in many different circumstances, by God.

In our first reading, Moses is reminding the Jews whom he led out of Egyptian captivity that it was the generosity of God which created the opportunity for them to be released from slavery for many years and that that they owed it to him to choose His Ways, His Commandments, Decrees and Laws which by following them so far they had been brought to the brink of entering the Promised Land.  In other words, they were to recognise the power by which they had found freedom and a new life in a new land and honour it.  He warns them that “you will not live long in the new land” if they now turn away from God having accomplished the long journey and reached their destination.

It is a warning for us too.  Very often, we find ourselves praying fervently when things are going wrong – arrow prayers, prayers of intercession and so on.  Then at other times, when everything seems to be well with us and the world, we can forget about God and pat ourselves on the back for being successful or content.  It is at times like this that we can lay ourselves open to spiritual warfare – something which I firmly believe in.  That is why we must constantly remember the blessings which have been bestowed upon us by the grace and generosity of God – grace being those times when we probably don’t actually deserve His generosity.

One has to be careful, though, not to get sucked into the idea of the prosperity gospel – something which has, in the past, been quite prevalent in the American churches – that idea being that the more you give to the church (and particularly the minister) the more you will receive back from God.  That suggests that God operates some form of double entry accounting system – a massive ledger in the sky!  As we will discuss further in a moment, that is actually contrary to the whole concept of generosity.

Moving on to our reading in Hebrews, the writer, whose identity we are  not quite certain of, is here addressing a group of intellectual Jewish Christians, who would have been well versed in the scriptures of the Old Testament and would be well acquainted with the story of Moses and the Exodus.  Their Faith would be well grounded in Jewish rules, regulations and ritual and the author, in his letter to them, is explaining how Jesus’s teachings and ministry and, indeed, crucifixion and resurrection are not inconsistent with, but supplement and fulfil Old Testament prophecies and scripture.  That is why, in my view, it is so important to read the bible story right through from Genesis to Revelation – to follow the thread of Jesus throughout. What the author of Hebrews is telling those Jews is that God is alive and working now – through the living Jesus.  In our Collect this morning and every morning we end with “… your Son, Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you…” That is the essence of our Christian belief, that Jesus is not simply an historical figure, a prophet in a long line of prophets but so much more and that through his resurrection he is still alive and we can, through him, reach out directly to God – as we shall do shortly in our prayers of intercession ending our prayers always with “through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

But, Jesus was also wholly human too.  As the writer of Hebrews puts it – someone “who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses but who has also been tested as we are”.  Again the writer, like Moses tells us that we can approach the throne of grace with boldness and receive mercy and find grace – again, grace being something so generously given to us because it is not something which we have earned and are therefore owed in that imaginary ledger in the sky, but is given to us sometimes when we don’t actually deserve it at all.  That is what true grace and generosity means

In our final gospel reading we hear from Jesus himself.  Here Jesus actively shows God’s grace and generosity by illustrating them with two very familiar parables.  The context, as we read, is that the self-assured Pharisees, having in their mind fulfilled the laws set down by Moses and referred to by him in our first reading, are grumbling and upset that Jesus was spending time with a bunch of sinners – tax-collectors for example who were deemed to be evil collaborators with the Roman occupiers.  These were people who were not following the laws and Commandments, people who should be cast out of society, certainly not encouraged by Jesus. Yet, when we read the gospels we find that it is these same Pharisees for whom Jesus has few good words. Why? Because they are not displaying any grace or generosity to those who do not fit in with their views of what it right. 

Jesus, in his two parables that follow – the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin, illustrates that it these very “missing” people whom God wants us to find and bring back into the fold or the purse; to bring them out from the cold and isolation, to be generous of spirit. 

In today’s world there are many “lost souls”; people who struggle and are considered outcasts.  We should always remember what Jesus said early on in his ministry in the context of meeting up with Levi the tax collector “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick, I have not come for the righteous but for the sinners” (Matthew 9)

So what does all this mean for us.  Well, first of all, we should never forget the generosity of God in our lives – that he will forgive us whatever we do provided that we acknowledge and confess our sins and truly repent. “There is joy in the presence of the angels” he said “over one sinner who repents”.  We should secondly remember that everything we have, indeed our very lives, we do owe to God.  Recently in a lecture I was reminded how every element on Earth, every atom and combination of atoms only exists because of the creation of stars in the universe and the very creation of the universe itself.  When I accept the offering which you make in church I offer them up to God with these words “All things come from you and of your own do we give you”.  It is only by the grace of God’s unconditional generosity that, like those first Jewish exiles, we can live in a land of milk and honey.

However, there are many places in the world where this is not so.  There are places so very poor.  There are also many people who are so poor in faith and spirit in our own relatively affluent society.

My message for this morning, therefore, is to leave here today reflecting on God’s generosity in your life – not in terms of double entry accounting – but in how he has given you his Son, Jesus, as the greater intercessor through whom you can pray.  As Christians our aim should be, in following Jesus Christ, to be as Christ-like as we can.  We will, obviously never achieve it totally, but we can consider his grace and generosity when dealing with those in worse places than ourselves.  To be generous of spirit to those whom we might find difficult to deal with.  To give generously of our time, if not our money, to worthy causes and even to the church so that we can spread the Good News of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, to make the world a better place full of His grace and generosity.

 

Amen                                                                                       MFB/165/09102021

SERMON 164 - SUNDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2021

 Sermon at West Grimstead Parish Church, West Grimstead Harvest Festival Morning Service  -–  Sunday 12^th September 2021

It is lovely to be back here at West Grimstead Church, and whilst I have taken a few services at some of our other churches in the Clarendon Team it seems an absolute age since I was addressing you here in this wonderful old church with its magnificent Tree of Life window and to be back amongst friends on this special occasion when we give thanks to God for the harvest and all the good gifts which he gives us – “All good things around us are sent from heaven above” goes that most famous of hymns which I can recite by heart after hearing it so many times at school assemblies and harvest festivals throughout my life and country.

How often, though, do we stop and think about those words?  Each of the readings today emphasises this thought and shows a consistently of approach throughout the bible – from the Exodus to the teachings of the apostles; never to forget that everything which we have, our wealth and the planet itself upon which we live, is a gift from God.  I hope that we Christians think about it a lot and perhaps it is the spreading of this message to everyone that is the true mission of the Church.

We live in a society where wealth and capital gain are applauded.  We tend to make assumptions and obtain impressions about people according to where they live, what car they drive, what clubs or societies they join, how they dress and so on.  Often it is with a view to gauging how wealthy they are.  In fact, we can often decide whether somebody is worth getting to know better by such trappings instead of looking deeply into the heart of the person.

You will recall, for example, how God spoke to the prophet Samuel when he was sent out to find and anoint a king to replace Saul and told him not to look upon the outward appearance of the person because God sees beyond that into the heart of the person.

As explained earlier, each of our readings has, at the heart of this message, the importance of recognising that everything in the Universe belongs to God and that he provides everything for us. When the minister receives the collection during a service and offers it up at the altar he uses the words “Of your own do we give you O God” meaning that we are merely returning to him something of what he has already given us.

We can do no better, really, than look at each of the readings and examine the context in which each of these messages was made.  In Deuteronomy we read of God bringing the Jews from out of captivity into the Promised Land – a land of plenty, a land flowing with milk and honey.  The writer is reminding those same people and their descendants not to forget the trials and tribulations which the wanderings promoted and reminds them that God provided for them throughout – water from desert rocks and manna from heaven. They have now been delivered into a place of plenty – a land with good soil for crops and much mineral wealth; everything for them to survive and thrive. However, this is not of their own making but is a gift to the people from God.  All He requires is that they obey the commandments, which He gave Moses, for the people and to remember where such wealth and riches came from. “Do not say that my own power and my own might have gained me this wealth” God reminds the people, but acknowledge that what God has given he can also take away.  A theme we will return to in our gospel reading.

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians we read that famous line – one biblical quotation my mother knew well – “God loves a cheerful giver”. When I was growing up I was encouraged to share my sweets with others – lesson my parents hoped would set me in good stead as an illustration of how I should live my life.  That wasn’t always easy I have to say – better to choose sweets others didn’t like I thought!  Paul isn’t talking about sweets of course, he is talking generally about how we should live our lives. “You reap what you sow” was another biblical quote from my parents – this time from my father. This passage has been used on countless occasions by those who peddle the “prosperity gospel” – God will award according to how much you give to the Church. I don’t believe in that philosophy for one moment.  God will only ever demand of you what you can afford to give and that can be time and talent as well as money. The importance is in the line about being a “cheerful giver”.  When you do give away anything – time, talent, money do so willingly and with good grace. That is the importance of this passage.

Finally, let us look at the gospel passage. For me this was one of the hardest passages which I read as a young professional and still is today.  Again a word from my father – he applauded prudence in all things financial.  As a family we never had great wealth, we were living in northern town dependent on its fishing industry which declined over the years of my childhood.  When we did have any money we were careful to save and not spend until it was absolutely necessary. It was a philosophy which has remained with me until today.

Our rich man in the gospel is acting prudently.  He is thinking that as he has done so well and amassed a great wealth in crops he can do even better if he demolishes his current storehouses and builds bigger ones to store more and more so he can settle down to a quiet enjoyable life living off the gains of the past.  In today’s modern age many are doing just this – they earn more and more and open bigger bank accounts – sometimes offshore.  But to what purpose? My grandfather was a sexton in a parish church in Norfolk and assisted the local undertaker. When he died he left very little money. His philosophy was that he had all that he needed for, he once told me : “I have seen a good many bodies in their coffins over the years and I have never ever seen pockets in a shroud!  You can’t take anything with you!”  This was what the rich fellow in the biblw was to find out.

I do not think, for one moment, that God wants to punish the prudent – in fact I still think prudency is a virtue, but it is the attitude that the person has towards his wealth and what he does with it which God doesn’t like.  The man in our gospel parable is collecting and keeping and indeed intends to increase his wealth purely for himself.  There is no hint of using that wealth for others or sharing it.  He is thinking solely of the easy life which he could have. His life is taken from him – he will never enjoy the fruits of his labour because of his selfish attitude towards his wealth.

Here in this church today we are sharing our wealth.  Never, in my lifetime, has it been so necessary with so many families on the “bread line”.  We are coming to church this morning and presenting gifts of food back to God to be re-used for those who are struggling because they are not wealthy, to those who wonder each day where their daily bread is coming from. The Church’s Harvest Festivals have two purposes. To remind us that everything comes from God and of his own do we give him back and also to remind us of the needs and wants of others who are less fortunate than ourselves and, rather than building bigger and better barns for ourselves for our own use, we should share our excess products and wealth with others less fortunate than us.

It has a name – it’s called social justice and in my own mind this is the true purpose of the Church.  We are here to spread the word of Jesus to others both by words and actions. He tells us in the gospels that he came for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry.  As James wrote – “I’ll show you my faith by both words and actions for faith is hollow without actions”.

May God bless and preserve you and grant you all health and wealth – wealth to share amongst those less fortunate than ourselves. Let us be good examples of what social justice looks like – a glimpse of the kingdom of Heaven.

Amen                                                                                       MFB/164/10092021

SERMON 163 - SUNDAY 25 JULY 2021

Sermon at Winterslow Baptist Church, Winterslow, Morning Service  -–  Sunday 25 July 2021

It is lovely to be back here at Winterslow Baptist Church, and whilst I have taken a few services at All Saints Church here over the last few months, it seems an absolute age since I was addressing you here in what you affectionately call the “tin tabernacle”.

I have to confess that I did struggle a bit putting together today’s talk as I was not sure how and where we would be doing today’s service.  The original plan was for me to come here and preach in person at a normal service, then possibly on Zoom or via a recording made at home; but finally it was decided in view of the continuing Covid-19 guidelines you would have a café-style church with limited numbers and I was delighted that I could come here in person and talk to you.  When Jason phoned me a couple of days ago to find out what I might need by way of hymns and themes I decided that it would be good to keep it simple and rather than a formal sermon, in view of the café-style approach you might like to hear my musings on how my faith has been affected and survived these eighteen months of restrictions and lockdowns.

I thought about biblical examples too and, of course, the obvious one is the Great Babylonian Exile of seventy years at a time when the Jewish nation were separated from their place of worship, the Temple at Jerusalem, and encouraged to worship other idols in Babylon.  There seems to me to be a parallel with our experiences of late – the inability to sing songs of praise and worship in our established churches of whatever denomination.  The Book of Daniel has been, for me, a great encourager during these unusual times.  Like the faithful of today, Daniel found ways to continue to worship his God despite all the obstacles and restrictions put upon him and I do recommend you to read that wonderful book of the bible again in the context of where we have found ourselves in recent days.

So a question for you, how have you managed to remain connected with God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost?  How has your faith suffered or grown through these dark days of pandemic?  Let me tell you my story and my own thoughts on this subject.

I think a lot of us, right at the beginning, thought of the first lockdown as a bit inconvenient but also a “bit of fun” – an opportunity for the old Spirit of the Blitz” to be restored to this nation.  Following the divisions in this country caused by Brexit when families and friends had argued with each other over whether it was a good thing or not to leave the European Union, there needed to be a healing process and I think many saw this pandemic and restrictions on each and every one of us an opportunity to pull together and help one another irrespective of colour, creed, sex/sexual orientation or religion. I personally witnessed many genuine acts of random kindness and understanding particularly in the community in which I live in Downton and I knew that this also happened in great measure in Winterslow.  The Clarendon Ministry Team, of which I am a full member, actively sought to ensure that we found alternative ways in which to bring Jesus into the homes of anyone seeking Him through Zoom – something I had never heard of, let alone used, before March 2020.

Our wings were clipped though, and my weekly visit to the homeless hostel in Salisbury as chaplain stopped and I had to content with my ministry becoming a weekly and then fortnightly telephone conversation with the manager.  Liz and I continued to recite the Morning Office together and read our bibles and pray together although as time went on we started to pray less frequently and not necessarily together.  My praying occurred during my daily allowed walk when, during those early few weeks the weather was glorious and I was able to walk five or six miles a day around Downton.  Additionally I would keep a journal and write down, each day a Thought which I shared with others online.

As time went on I have to confess that I stopped missing the actual going to church and reciting similar liturgy and turned to connecting with God through the wonders of nature – a realisation that God had left the building – because we could no longer attend – and was to be found within the community and within nature itself. The wonders and mysteries of God were to be found all around us, and in my case, especially above us!

Many of you will know that I write the monthly article in the local parish magazine about what any casual observer might see in the night sky in any given month.  I have been a keen amateur astronomer since I was twelve years of age and bought my first telescope with my paper round money. Over the last several decades of my life I have added further instruments to that first little 60 mm refractor so as today I have five telescopes of differing types and sizes as well as a number of binoculars. 

However, during my busy life as a lawyer and then, following early retirement, my retraining as a church minister and then a spiritual director, I had little time to pursue my passion of astronomy as I was busy building on my career, bringing up a family and then, concentrating on my theological training – writing endless assignments and attending lectures and courses.  My interest in the night sky continued but got shoved to one side and became a casual pastime.

When the pandemic struck in March last year, the weather was glorious and the night skies beautifully clear and dark – no aeroplane trails across the sky and the sky seemed to be generally much less polluted.  Out came my telescopes and I made a conscious effort to re-acquaint myself with some favourites – stars, planets and other celestial objects which I had observed as a 12-year old boy from the back garden of my family home in Lincolnshire. It was an amazing feeling to see these objects unchanged from back then – a feeling of continuity and closeness to the faithful unchanging face of our Great Creator. The vastness of the Universe and the mysteries of those objects that we can only just see on the edge of the visible Universe make me feel extremely humble and small and yet so amazingly important to think that we exist on this small fragile planet, orbiting an average star, on one of the arms of an average galaxy amongst billions.  How is that possible?  And to think that we are so important to God that he sent his one and only Son to save us.

When the space probe Voyager 1, having flown past and taken images of the outer planets of the Solar System was on its way out of the Solar System, it was instructed by Mission Control back on Earth to take one final photograph looking back towards the Sun.  The image was taken on 14^th February 1990 when it was at a distance of 3.7 billion miles 6 billion kilometres) from the Sun. The photograph captured, in the glare of the Sun, a tiny pale blue dot – the Earth. The photograph was later to inspire the tile of Carl Sagan’s book “Pale Blue Dot: A vision of the Human Future in Space”.  He said “Look again at that dot, that’s here, that’s home, that’s us”.

To me, though, that same little blue dot image inspires me to say “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future on Earth”. For me it should always remind us, as did that famous “earthrise” photo over the Moon taken by Bill Anders on Apollo 8 that we live on a fragile space craft spinning at a vast speed through space.  We are fragile enough without trying to destroy it ourselves with wars and climate change activities.

I once more return to the Book of Daniel.  Despite all the efforts of the Babylonians to make Daniel conform with their ways – how they ate, how they dressed, how they worshipped, Daniel remained faithful to God.  In recent times we, as Christians, have faced many challenges and persecutions and the stronger we become the greater those challenges will be.  We should look upon these challenges, including the pandemic we have faced and continue to face, as opportunities to grow our faith – perhaps in new ways beyond what we have done in the past.  A certain decree of traditionalism is important but too much legalism can actually destroy our true purpose.

The lessons for me during these difficult times has been to look at things afresh – to find God in new places – to “boldly go where we have not gone before” to paraphrase a famous space sci-fi series. The church has left the building just as Jesus left the synagogues and preached on the mountain tops and in the streets.

Yes, it is good to meet together and worship – that is one way of expressing our praises and thanks to God, it is also a way of helping and supporting each other but Jesus probed the unknown, went to the houses of sinners, ate and drank upon the ordinary people.  He left us the Holy Spirit to inspire and impassion us.  I once heard a preacher say to his congregation “What is your passion?  What do you really care about?  “What really gets you excited?” Answer that question and you will find God for where your passion is, there is God because he inspired you to it!

I shall continue to attend church but I shall also continue to seek God in heavens above as well as amongst the communities below.

 

Amen                                                                                       MFB/163/24072021

SERMON 162 - SUNDAY 11 JULY 2021

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow, Morning Worship -–  Sunday 11th July 2021

Mark 6 14-29

Back in my schooldays, when morning assemblies and Christian teaching were commonplace I especially loved those stories from scripture which contained blood and gore – I guess I was no different from many schoolboys of my age and times or even today.  The stories I especially loved where those of David and Goliath, the stabbing of King Eglon of Moab, the 46,000 Ephraimites being slain on the banks of the Jordan, the execution of the baker in Joseph’s prison and many more.  Indeed, the Old Testament seemed to be full of battles and bloodshed and quite often we would recreate these gory scenes in the playground – not literally I hasten to add although scraped knees and the occasional battle wound would be sustained.

The story of John the Baptist’s beheading was another of such stories and I think, as a child, I didn’t realise the subtleties of this particular story; and I wonder how many other people realise that it has a lesson for us all in today’s modern world of envy and revenge.

Mark, in our reading today, sets out the scene very clearly for us, but to recap, King Herod II (Antipas), who was the puppet monarch of the Roman occupiers in Judea, had already heard of all the miracles and particularly healings which had been carried out by Jesus and knowing what had happened to John the Baptist was now superstitious of John having come back from the dead to haunt him. So much so that he was absolutely convinced of this and that Jesus was not a mere prophet but the Baptist back.  He must have been terrified living in fear of revenge for his part in John’s death.

What is clear is that before the fateful party where Salome, the king’s stepdaughter, danced, King Herod held John the Baptist in high regard and acknowledged his righteousness.   John had warned the King that nothing good would come out of marrying his brother’s widow, Heroditas, and in our own British history I am sure this piece of scripture would have been well known to King Henry VIII when he married his brother Arthur’s widow, Katherine of Aragon.  For this reason Heroditas had a terrible hatred of John the Baptist and wanted above all things to have him done away with but Herod fearing the power which John wielded through his preaching and baptising of the common people feared both them and in particular God’s wrath knowing that his marriage and kingdom were not secure.

Then, of course, during the course of what we can only imagine was something of a drunken party he was struck by the erotic dancing of his stepdaughter and made a wild promise that she could have anything she desired up to half of his kingdom. This was King Herod showing off and trying to impress his guests with his largess. This was the moment that Heroditas had been waiting for, priming her daughter, Salome, to ask for John’s head. Revenge served up on a platter before the king and his guests.

We read that King Herod realised the mistake he had made and certainly did not want to harm John whom he feared but so as not to lose face amongst his guests he submitted to Heroditas’s request through Salome and the gruesome deed was done.  This was why when Jesus started moving amongst the populace with tales of miracles and healing King Herod feared the worst – that as John reincarnated he would be out for revenge.

When we analyse this story there are so many aspects of it which we can apply to our own attitudes and beliefs today.  In the tradition of lectio divina I wonder where, after careful reading, prayer and re-reading we would place ourselves in the story and what emotions it evokes?

Leaving aside John himself for the moment, we have a fearful king – a man who knows that his hold on power depends upon his ability to control his subjects for the benefit of the Roman occupiers – a well-known policy of Rome was to ensure that to keep control of its Empire it needed the assistance of collaborators – just as Hitler’s Nazi Germany needed Vichy France.  Also, Judea was a God-fearing nation which looked back on its history and its freedom from slavery and exile at the hands of Jahweh, the one true living God.  Herod therefore had to be careful, treading a tightrope – keeping the Romans and his religious community happy.  He also wanted to be popular with those around him to maintain his throne and power – hence the throwing of lavish parties and feasts.

Then we have a vengeful woman, Heroditas. She knows that in marrying her dead husband’s brother she is breaking with the law and thus the religious community. Although we are told this in the passage which we read this morning, she was probably not thought of well by the population – another parallel with English history – Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson.  John had been very vociferous of his condemnation of their union and this had brought about an intense hatred on the part of Heroditas.

And finally, Salome, the exotic dancing stepdaughter/niece of the king who entranced him and his guests.  She has been told she can have anything she wants up to half of his kingdom but she consults with her mother and does her bidding, asking for John’s head. Clearly she was not her own person, she was being controlled by her mother because she had to go to her to decide what she could ask for. Was she a pawn in all this – being used by her mother in the same way her stepfather was using her to titillate his guests or was she part of a wider conspiracy to remove the Baptist?

These are some of the questions which the passage poses and we may never know the true answer but when we read this passage again and perhaps again I am sure there have been times in each of our lives when we have been in similar situations to all three players – although hopefully not with such tragic consequences.

Let’s look at them again.  Herod. Have you found yourself in a situation where you have been forced to do something by another which you know was wrong or with which you found yourself very uncomfortable doing? Perhaps at work?  I know I have and I can think of a number of such times – especially when I practised law and took on a case which I was unsure about the truthfulness of witnesses for example.

Heroditas, the woman whose position was tenuous and unlawful.  Her power and strength came from being married to the king and here was a strange man influencing her husband and others emphasising her weakness.  “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” wrote William Congreve in 'The Mourning Bride' in 1697.  Have there been times when you have sought revenge or wanted to remove someone who is compromising your status or position? Perhaps not in having them murdered but perhaps in trying to remove their influence or reduce their reputation?

Finally, Salome.  How innocent is she in all this?  Well let’s say she is or at least naïve. Have there been times when you might have been used by somebody else for their benefit and not your own?  In this story, Salome could have had riches beyond compare – she could have been co-ruler with Herod but she went along with her mother’s evil plan to remove the thorn from her flesh.

All this, goes to show us how stories from the bible can help us understand ourselves and our own emotions.  Scarcely is there an issue can arise today in which we will not find some biblical precedent.  That is the beauty of theological reflection and in many cases we will discover that we are far from perfect ourselves.  Each of our three characters was flawed and each of our three characters will have displayed some of our own faults too.

This goes to remind us that whilst we all want to be Christ-like it is always a long journey which we will never complete until we are re-united with Him. We will go on making mistakes but we know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and the Holy Spirit which, through Jesus, will intercede with us.

As they say, there but for the grace of God go any of us.  Indeed, God’s grace will always surmount our darkest moments and raises us up.

 

 

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/162/09072021

SERMON 161 - SUNDAY 6 JUNE 2021

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish, Morning Worship -–  Sunday 6^th June 2021

Genesis 3:8-15; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35

Well, I feel I’ve drawn a bit of a short straw this morning as each of the three readings set aside for today is, I think you will all agree, quite difficult not particularly encouraging!

First, we have God’s discovery of the Adam and Eve’s disobedience and what is known as “The Fall” – the moment when Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge so that they might be like God and know everything – an upsetting of the perfect equilibrium which God had created – the perfect world.  It is also the instance in the bible where we first come across the trickery of Satan in the shape of the serpent who convinces Adam and Eve that no harm will come to them if they eat the fruit.  How often are we tricked in today’s world by false promises and assurances that no harm will come to us if we disobey?

Secondly, we have St. Paul writing to the Christians in Corinth, that great city where sin abounded with the inhabitants worshipping false Gods and idols and Paul anxious to ensure that the Christian community did not disobey the commands of Jesus however much they might be tempted to turn away from Him. Paul is reminding them of the need to stick to the straight and narrow and that the ultimate reward of God’s glory will far outweigh the quick fixes of others.  As he puts it “we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, as a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens”.

My wife Liz often complains about my indolence and Paul gives me a perfect answer.  As we have seen in both of these readings the temptation was a quick fix and we can all so often have that temptation – whether it’s a sugar high or something more – we can feel good for a time but then in the longer term we suffer the consequences. My indolence, if that is what it is, is caused largely by my wish to ensure that I do right thing and not rush in and then regret what I have done.  Sometimes it has also been my undoing and I have lost out on opportunities and not “seized the day” but on other occasions waiting on or for something has actually profited me and put me in a better place in the long run.  I can think of many cases where that has happened and I am sure you all can to.

The third of our readings is probably the most difficult of all. Once again we meet Satan and the rather bizarre accusation from the scribes that Jesus is a servant of Satan, or Beelzebul as he is called in our reading.  The circumstances surrounding this biblical narrative are that Jesus has been teaching and preaching to the crowds and much of what he has said has been difficult for the scribes and elders to understand.  They worshipped Jahweh, the God of Israel who was a remote entity living within the Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem. Now here was a man, made of human flesh and bone, claiming to be Jahweh’s son – in fact Jahweh incarnate. It’s no wonder they were confused and their natural response was that Jesus was either mad or bad.  If he was not bad, a disciple of Satan preaching this bizarre theology, then he must be insane.  Indeed, the crowd seems to have believed the latter – that he was probably possessed of evil spirits.

It must have been a worry to his earthly family (his mother Mary and her other sons) who we read were called in. “Your son and brother is off his head or worse, a terrible blasphemer” is what they were faced with.

Jesus’s response to these accusations is that if he was demon possessed or a blasphemer then if they actually listened to what he was saying they would understand that he is speaking against Satan and casting our demons.  Surely somebody who was working with Satan would not be doing or saying things consistent with God’s will!  He then says something very profound indeed “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that house will not stand and if that house is divided against itself that house will not be able to stand”.  I think that passage is something we should all learn and recall in today’s modern world.  In many countries of the world today evil authoritarian regimes thrive through the doctrine of “divide and rule” and this can also apply to our Christian Faith. Jesus is saying something very simple – an undivided kingdom or house is strong and will stand up against powers that seek to destroy it.  A divided kingdom or house will crumble.

Jesus doesn’t stop there though. Having argued strongly that the evidence does not support the contention that he is acting against God but against Satan he reminds the people of his true purpose of coming down to Earth – so that sins can be forgiven through him with a direct line to God and not through pious ritual in the temple; prior to Jesus coming all atonement for sins was by way of sacrifice and through the High Priest in the Temple. Now all sins could be forgiven with one major exception – blaspheming or grieving the Holy Spirit. Jesus is telling his listeners that this is one sin that can never be forgiven. So what is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit or grieving the Holy Spirit?  Well, as Christians we believe that after Jesus returned to his Father in Heaven the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost to all the disciples and from that moment on became available to all who believed. The Holy Spirit is that part of the Trinity, which we celebrated only last week, which remains here on Earth and which we readily have access to if we have true faith – that is we believe in it and ask for it.  However, once given, if we blaspheme it, that is to deny it, then we commit a sin which cannot be forgiven.  That does seem incredibly harsh but such is its power and importance in the Trinity.

After Jesus had said all these things it is clear that the scribes, elders and crowds were extremely uncomfortable and called in Jesus’s mother and earthly brothers and sisters to try and control him and take him away. We then have one of the most difficult and misunderstood passages in the whole of the New Testament Gospels. He asked the question “Who are my mother and brothers?”  You can imagine that this must have been exceedingly upsetting to his family, especially his mother who had given birth to him.  I wonder if at that moment she remembered what Simeon had said to her in the Temple about their being times of anguish with him?  In this passage he seems to be denying them.  He then goes on to explain by looking around to everybody else with him and saying “Here is my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother”.

A few years ago I discovered that this passage had caused a major rift in a family. The daughter of a non-churchgoing family had come to Christ and joined what I can only described as a sect.  Because her parents and siblings were not a member of that sect the elders told her that they were now her new family and that she must cut all ties to her blood relatives.  They quoted this passage in Mark as justification.

I don’t believe for one moment that Jesus meant to replace his own family with a new family of supporters but to supplement it.  My interpretation is that what he is saying is that if we give our life to him and do the will of God, it is as if all those who have also done so have become just the same as our blood related family.  We are all brothers and sisters of the one great family of faith.  In fact, although it isn’t very Anglican to do so, we should perhaps regularly call each other brother and sister and certainly you will often hear the term “brother or sister in Christ”.  That does not mean we shun or deny our family but that we are all members of an even larger family of Christian hope, faith and love.

Why don’t we reaffirm that now to each other by turning to the person next to us and saying “You are my brother/sister in Christ and I love you as such”.

Here is a lovely hymn which on reflection we should perhaps have sung this morning but I will end by reciting the first verse of it as a prayer to remind us of our status in Christ’s church:

“Brother, sister, let me serve you

Let me be as Christ to you

Pray that I may have the grace

To let you be my servant too”.

 

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/161/05062021

SERMON 160 - SUNDAY 16 MAY 2021

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean, Morning Worship - Sunday 16^th May 2021

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19

Thank you again for your very warm welcome back here at West Dean again this morning.  It has seemed very strange to have been away for so long but like so many of you, Liz and I have been anxious to ensure that we remain well and take no unnecessary risks during this pandemic.  Last week we both received our second vaccinations and I must admit to feeling much more relaxed now.  It has been wonderful to see so many of you join our online services over the last few months but we hope that we can now return to some further semblance of normality as we move forward through 2021 and return to sharing worship together in person more regularly.  I thank God for so far having come through this pandemic safe and I continue to pray for you and your families likewise.

For me, the Book of Acts is one of the greatest in the whole of the Bible.  Written by Luke, the author of one of the Gospels, it continues the story of Jesus and the works of those who followed afterwards – the Apostles – and their story carries on to be our story today as modern apostles – followers of Christ.  The way in which those original followers acted is, for me, a great source of inspiration as to how we are expected to behave today.  Each of these three readings this morning – Acts, the First Epistle or Letter of John and our Gospel Reading from John – remind us how we should behave in our relationship with God and also with each; particularly as Jesus may no longer be with us here in physical form but the Holy Spirit was left to help and guide us to continue his great work.

So what is going on in our first reading this morning – from Acts. Well the context is well explained, I think, in the reading itself. Following the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, and his subsequent suicide, the disciples are one down in number. So what! you may ask? What was the significance of needing to have twelve?  Tom Wright, that well known biblical scholar, suggests that it was because Jesus had chosen just twelve disciples as being symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel.  The prophets of the Old Testament had foretold that Israel would be regathered and most of the tribes had simply disappeared after the division of the Kingdom of Israel and the great Exile of Babylon. Therefore, having twelve disciples was important on biblical grounds.  I am not sure that I agree with Tom Wright on this – certainly later on apostles were not replaced as several unpleasant things happened to them, but what is significant is that the manner in which Matthias was chosen is something we can learn today. The eleven prayed! – “Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in his ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside…” As we look to appoint a new Team Vicar and new Team Administrator there can be no better way to make the correct choice than to pray about it.  Here we have the perfect biblical precedent. So, I ask that you continually prayer for God’s chosen to be appointed to those important posts.

In our second reading the apostle John, in his epistle, reminds us that having belief is not simply about paying lip service – just relying, as he puts it, on human testimony – it’s about having a real belief in Jesus as the Son of God, a belief that Christ is the incarnation of God on Earth; an existential belief. As we saw last week, the most important aspect of being a Christian is this fundamental belief – not simply to believe in God the Father, the Creator of all Things etc. etc. but also, as we say in the Creed, in the Son and his death and resurrection being the creation of eternal life for us all who genuinely and honestly believe. There can be no compromise on this belief, it’s a non-negotiable for a Christian. John puts it even stronger “Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Wow, how powerful is that!

Jesus does not require us to go out on a limb though – going it alone. In our final Gospel reading he connects with his disciples, realising that as he ascends to heaven he is leaving his work for them to continue.  His disciples were very much “of the world” – fishermen, tax collectors, businessmen and so on. Until called they were very much in and of this world scratching a living from their respective professions and indeed, in the case of Matthew, not very honestly at that! Jesus, though, acknowledges that at all times they belonged to his Father – just as each and every one of us does, whatever our original status or integrity - and that they were given to him by his Father to assist him in his earthly ministry and beyond. Jesus acknowledges that they have been transformed – that now they believe and understand why Christ came and that there continues to be work to be done.

Jesus asks that his Father protects them as he leaves them on their own to carry on his ministry. “They are yours, You gave them to me”, he prays, “now I give them back to you into your safekeeping as I leave to join you in Heaven”. He realises that their ministry will not be easy – and as we know many suffered dreadful fates for their faith – that they will be hated and despised – just as Christ was. Their situation is that, unlike Jesus, the disciples/apostles whilst no longer being “of this world” remain “in this world” – a concept we looked at a few weeks ago.  They need protecting just as Jesus needed his Father’s protection until it was time for the ultimate sacrifice to be made.

So what does this mean for us, his modern disciples? Well, we are currently in that strange period in the Church’s calendar between Ascension and Pentecost. During that period we have “Thy Kingdom Come” reflection time to think about what all this means.  After they said farewell to Jesus at the Ascension the disciples were told to go back home and stay inside until the Holy Spirit came. It must have seemed a strange state of affairs for them.  We recently have experienced something similar – “go, stay at home until the vaccination appears”! We now know what it is like to be under a sort of house arrest – hoping and praying for better times.  The disciples were not sure quite what to expect or how it would end. They needed to rely substantially on their Faith and the words of prayer spoken by Christ on their behalf.  First of all they had seen their leader, their rabbi, tortured and executed, then resurrected and now whisked off to Heaven. They must have felt lost and lonely.

But the story doesn’t end there – not for them and certainly not for us. In a few weeks we shall celebrate Pentecost – the day that the Holy Spirit entered the lives of those self-same disciples.  The promise God made to protect and sanctify them arrived and today that promise still exists. The Holy Spirit is there available, free of charge and delivery without the need of Amazon, for all who want it and truly believe in its power. Many people believe that the Holy Spirit and miracles belong in the pages of the Bible – historical or fictional stories.  Not so!  I have seen the workings of the Holy Spirit myself and I am sure many of you too have.  Sometimes we may not recognise it at the time but then, just like when we look at a painting on the wall from a bit of a distance, it becomes clear and obvious.

Just like those early apostles whom Jesus describes as being in the world but not of it, we too should emulate that. We live and work in the world, we interact with people in the world but because of our faith as Christians, our belief in Jesus as the Son of God and not just a good man or prophet, we too are not of the world but ministers of God’s heavenly world here on earth.

Let us end with the famous quote of St. Teresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, yours are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

 

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/160/14052021

SERMON 159 - SUNDAY 9 MAY 2021

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley, Morning Worship -  –  Sunday 9^th May 2021

Acts 10:44-48; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17

Thank you again for your very warm welcome back here at Farley again this morning.  It has seemed very strange to have been away for so long but like so many of you, Liz and I have been anxious to ensure that we remain well and take no unnecessary risks.  On Tuesday I received my second vaccination and I must admit to feeling much more relaxed.  It has been wonderful to see so many of you join our online services over the last few months but we hope that we can now return to some further semblance of normality as we move forward through 2021 and return to sharing worship together in person more regularly.  I thank God for so far having come through this pandemic safe and I continue to pray for you and your families likewise.

For me, the Book of Acts is one of the greatest in the whole of the Bible.  Written by Luke, the author of one of the Gospels, it continues the story of Jesus and the works of those who followed afterwards – the Apostles – and their story carries on to be our story today as modern apostles – followers of Christ.  The way those original followers acted is, for me, a great source of inspiration as to how we are expected to behave today.  Each of these three readings this morning – Acts, the First Epistle or Letter of John and our Gospel Reading from John – remind us how we should behave in our relationship with God and with also with each.

Whenever we read scripture we should always ask ourselves two questions – first, what is the context of the passage? What is going on? Why?  It has been said that knowing the context is so important because if you take the “text” out of “context” all you are left is with a “con”.  So we will first look at each piece of scripture this morning and see it in its context.  Then we need to ask ourselves a second question. What meaning does it have for us today? 

Looking first at Acts, the context is that Peter, that wonderfully impulsive disciple upon whom Jesus was to build his church, had been on a preaching tour. Earlier he had met with a Roman army officer, Cornelius, in the city of Caesarea which was an important outpost of the Roman Empire, and converted him to Christianity.  Inspired by this and encouraged by Cornelius he had then gone on to spread the Gospel amongst the Gentiles – non-Jews in the area. His preaching was principally about Jesus as the Messiah having been prophesised about in the Old Testament and the importance that the forgiveness of sins was no longer simply a matter of asking the Jewish High Priests to make sacrifices in the Temple.  The ultimate sacrifice had been made on the Cross and everybody was now free to intercede with God through the resurrected Christ.

It is clear that he had drawn a large crowd around him, both his own Jewish followers as well as many non-Jews.  At this time, his Jewish followers – the “circumcised” as they are called in our passage – thought the message of Jesus was for them alone and not for the non-Jews as well.  This is why they suddenly became amazed when they realised that the Holy Spirit had also descended on the Gentiles evidenced by the fact that they started talking in other languages and praising God – not some other Gentile God but their very own  Jewish God!    The Gentiles were then baptised just as the whole household of Cornelius had been baptised – accepting the Christian Faith and the God of the Jews for themselves.

This is an amazing passage because it reminds us that nobody, absolutely nobody, is excluded from seeking and receiving the free gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Christianity is an inclusive and not an exclusive faith and that is something we must all remember and keep at the forefront of our thoughts – Jesus came into the world for everybody irrespective or race, creed, colour or sex or indeed whether they were pure or sinners.  Even today we hear of hardened criminals being converted to Christianity in prison and going on to become evangelists themselves not to mention the thousands of Muslims in Africa who are hearing the word of the Gospel and converting.

In our second reading this theme is continued. The three epistles of John, are called “letters” although they are not written, as Paul’s are, in the style of a letter and they are assumed to be John’s work because of the similar style to that of his gospel writing. 1 John appears to have been written essentially to combat some early form of Gnosticism from former church members who now thought themselves possessing superior knowledge of God beyond that of the  traditional Jewish view of God and the world. John in the passage read this morning is emphasising again that EVERYONE, yes EVERYONE who believes that Jesus was Christ, the Messiah has been blessed with this knowledge and that to love one another is to share God’s nature and to be absolutely certain of it. It does not require intense theological study or some special rank or academic award to know God.  Nobody is excluded from God’s love who truly believes.  There is no special knowledge required to be saved other than a certain faith in Jesus as our saviour.

Finally we have Jesus’s own words in John’s Gospel reading. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”; and of course his commandments are to love God and to love one another as he has loved us.

For me, this is one of the most important statements made by Jesus whilst with us on Earth; having a complete and sacrificial love for God and our fellow humans.  Jesus, as we know, went through an agonising time in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to his father that the time of trial could be put aside and that he would not have to sacrifice his life in such a gruesome manner. That is why he says “No greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Jesus went a stage further, he laid it down not just for those who were friendly towards him but also those who hated him too.

Jesus ends his speech to his disciples in this passage by saying “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name”.   

Whether we like the idea or not, we are all here as practising Christians because we were chosen – called. A calling to ministry does not necessarily mean a calling to authorised ministry, to be collared, but a calling to carry out those commandments laid down by Christ. Your ministry may take many varying forms - all equally important in the eyes of God; but it does require us to discharge it for him and for the world he created, not just for ourselves.  A good start is to remember the events described in our Acts reading.  Because we go to church and worship God does not necessarily mean that we are in any way special or different from any one else that God created.  That is verging on the heresy of Gnosticism which John was trying to combat in his epistle. Anyone can benefit from the love of God and his gifts of the Holy Spirit.  We are the conduit through which people of little or no faith can find it – through our varying ministries - be they encouragement, teaching, pastoral care, friendship, listening, our good behaviour, kindness and so on. If others see us loving one another in our Christian communities and also those without them, whatever their current beliefs, race, creed, colour or sex, then we are truly the modern day apostles of Christ – going out into the world to spread the good news of Christ.

It’s an enormous responsibility and when I see so much racism, hatred of those different from others and fear of others unlike ourselves these passages read out today hold a greater and more powerful influence on our Christian values than I can ever remember.

As Jesus said to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospels – we are meant to go out into the world and spread the good news but first of all we must love God and love each other before anything else.  Then we are truly his disciples.

 

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/159/05052021