SERMON 157 - SUNDAY 11TH APRIL 2021

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

Acts 32-35

Thank you again for your very warm welcome here at Winterslow this morning.  It is always a delight to be here with you and the hymn which we have just sung, which I wrote this week especially for this service, I am dedicating to you and this church in recognition of the all your support and growth of my faith over the many years I attended here regularly as a member of this congregation.

It was with extreme sadness, yet I guess not surprise, that we heard that the Duke of Edinburgh died on Friday morning – in fact I didn’t hear of it until quite a few hours later.  I think it will leave a hole in the lives of many and marks the passing of an era.  As the Archbishop of Canterbury said he faithfully supported our Queen over 73 years of devoted service through turbulent and changing times from the end of Empire to the establishment of the British Commonwealth of Nations; through the numerous changes of government and prime ministers and above all the triumphs and tragedies of Royal Family life – never unwavering in his support and dedication to our Queen.  Without him, Queen Elizabeth must feel a great loss and emptiness and we pray that at this time her family and ministers will all pull together to support her, just as her husband did.

Our reading from Acts couldn’t be more appropriate. It reminds us how those early Christians, the followers of Jesus, conducted themselves after Jesus’s return to his Father on Ascension Day. They too would have been at a great loss – probably disorientated and in despair immediately following his crucifixion – anxious worried and frightened.  Then bewilderment at his resurrection and return amongst them – so bewildered and, in Thomas’s case unbelieving, that it must have taken quite a strength of belief to get their heads around it all. Then, finally, his farewell and ascension into heaven leaving them probably more bewildered and disorientated than ever.

Of course, we know how the story continues – Pentecost and the coming down of the Holy Spirit to them and to all believers then and in the future including us today; but I am getting ahead of myself. Pentecost is still a few weeks off.

The NIV version of our passage this morning reads “All the believers were one in heart and mind”.  Let us just pause there for a moment – “all were one in heart and mind”. I wonder how many times today we can say that about any group of individuals.  In my years as both a lawyer and minister rarely have I come across such situations – indeed, my legal career was built on and around disputes of one kind or another and upon people doing unlawful things to others.  Even in church and voluntary bodies, let alone the work environment, there are frequently clashes of personalities, differences of opinion and long running disputes and feuds. Churches I have to say, in my experience, are particularly bad which seems such a contrast and paradox to what we have just heard about those early Christians.

We are all human and therefore we do, indeed, have different views and opinions but it is really how we behave towards others even when we might be in dispute over whether to serve bourbon biscuits or custard creams with the morning coffee – if only we could!  When you read the letters of Paul, they are frequently replies to letters that he himself had  received from the various churches questioning his theology or asking him to settle disputes amongst themselves – Galatians is a good example. It would be quite interesting to read those letters to Paul as well as the letter we do read from him.  I think we might find many of them written in a similar vein to Victor Meldrew or “Annoyed of Tonbridge Wells”.

The importance of this narrative in Acts was that in their early days the first Christians were trying to establish themselves as a group of people looking after themselves and the needy – following in the footsteps of Christ, following his example of not amassing possessions for themselves as individuals but of sharing.  When I first read this passage I thought that it sounded very much like a Communist manifesto.  Indeed, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was accused by the White Supremacist Government of South Africa of being a communist activist in his preaching and writings. His response was to say that nothing he preached or taught or spoke was at variance with what they would find in that same book upon which each and every Member of Parliament too their Oath of Allegiance when they took up their office – the Holy Bible.  The Archbishop of Cape Town was simply reminding them that as a Christian nation their duty was to uphold those same principles taught in that book.

Today I believe the Church has a most important role to play in our society – in upholding morals and reminding the population at large of our duties to show compassion and help to those less fortunate than ourselves and ensure that we keep those objects always in our sights.

I heard a lovely story once about a group of villagers on the Cornish coast who were concerned about the number of shipwrecks and loss of life happening along their particular stretch of coastline.  I think it might be a story which Nils told and my apologies to those who may already know it, but I think it acts as a good parable today.  Anyway, this group of villagers decided that they needed to do something about it and clubbed together to found a Lifeboat Society which produced a lifeboat and clubhouse.  Things went well and the lifeboat did indeed save many lives but as time went on the social side increased and they built a bigger and better clubhouse, increased their membership, formed different committees, held dances and gala dinners whilst all the time the lifeboat and boathouse started to fall to pieces and before long nobody really could remember why they had formed the club in the first place.  Factions arose, disputes arose and out at sea people continued to drown.  One faction broke off and founded another Lifeboat Club and the same thing happened all over again.

The moral of the story?  Well I think it is quite self-explanatory.  We should never stop thinking why any society or organisation was formed in the first place and the church is no exception.  I have seen it happen in churches – and I hasten to add I am not including Winterslow by the way – but in quite a few “free churches” I have seen the wonderful founder’s or planter’s very laudable aims evaporate as different factions or authoritarian administrators have taken over.  Like those early disciples we need to get back to the basics of Jesus’s teachings.

At this time of the Christian calendar we remember the great sacrifice which Jesus made for us all on the Cross – celebrated in the words and music we heard today – but let us also remember his earlier ministry, his teachings, parables, and actions and follow in his footsteps, “with one heart and mind” just as did those first disciples in Acts.

 

Amen                                                                                          MFB/157/10042021

SERMON 156 - THURSDAY 2 APRIL 2021

 Sermon on Maundy Thursday -  Clarendon Team Online Service  –  Thursday 1^st April 2021

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-7, 31b-35

There can be no doubt that this year, as with last, this important service in our Christian Year, Maundy Thursday, has to take on a strange and unusual form as we celebrate it together online.  Normally, we are familiar with the physical aspects of this service which give us such a vivid imagery of what took place on that evening immediately before that first Good Friday – the washing of feet, the partaking of bread and wine and the vigil in the garden – all real and actual physical elements of those important events.

Whilst we cannot do anything of these things together this year, we can, nevertheless, reflect strongly on their significance and the words associated with them.  In our Gospel reading John reminds us of Jesus’s words to Peter when he demanded that Jesus wash all of him, of Jesus’s revelation that one of those who was going to sit at the table and eat and drink with him at the last supper was to betray him.  We all know the story so well, I dare say, but have we ever thought to really reflect how these words connect with us today?  How the disciples must have felt to hear them and the disbelief and anguish they suffered after Jesus was arrested?

Let’s look a little closer at each of these elements.

The washing of feet.  This was usually the task of the lowliest person in a household – an unpleasant task as the feet, however clean the rest of person might be, would still be rather dirty and smelly as their owner had trudged through the dusty dirty streets in open sandals to reach the house of their host. The host would therefore arrange for somebody to undertake this task so that the guest would be completely clean. Jesus is thereby reminding his disciples that he came into the world to serve, not to be served and implores his disciples to likewise serve each other.  We are his modern day disciples and we too are expected to act humbly and serve one another. We no longer wash the feet of our guests because we have rather more sophisticated footwear these days but there are many other ways in which we can show our humility and service – by giving our time and money, without detriment to our family, to help others.  During this past year of the pandemic it has been wonderful to see so many doing just that by helping those who find it difficult to get out or who have struggled in other ways.

However, this story of the feet washing has another major point to illustrate. Peter, once more, doesn’t really understand what Jesus is trying to portray. He asks Jesus to wash him all over thinking that he, in allowing Jesus to do this, is currying favour with him by allowing him to do this and fully cleansing him.  As mentioned before, it would be expected that the guest had cleaned himself up already before attending upon his host except for the feet which, of the necessity of travel, would have become dirty. That is why Jesus says “You have no need of further washing if the rest of you is clean” and then goes on to reveal his knowledge of his forthcoming betrayal when he says “but not all of you are clean”. A clear reference to Judas Iscariot’s complicity. 

The bread and wine. We are informed in the bible that after the meal was concluded Jesus took the bread and wine and this was shared out amongst the disciples.  In our Epistle reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us of the words spoken by Jesus as he did so. He reminds us that the bread and wine are symbols of his soon to be broken body and shed blood.  Of course those words are very familiar to all of us as part of the Liturgy for the Eucharist or Holy Communion.  As we normally go up to the Altar to receive them during the Holy Communion service these words are repeated as the bread and the wine are administered to us.  Today that cannot happen because of the Covid-19 restrictions.  However, I would like to suggest a good way of using these elements to remember the great sacrifice he made for us.

Back in those times, wine, corn/wheat and oil were often the means by which people were paid for their labours. These were essential – corn or wheat to make bread, oil as fuel and wine as purified water. Every day people would eat bread and drink wine – a common every-day and essential occurrence. In asking his disciples to remember his sacrifice on the cross each and every day of their remaining lives he took those everyday necessities and used them to symbolise his forthcoming fate. Likewise, as his modern day disciples so should we remember him in our everyday lives and be in communion with him; not just when we take the sacraments in church on a Sunday or at a formal church or worship service but every time we sit down with our families and/or fellow Christians to eat and drink. Meal times were very important to Jesus, he loved a good party or feast, and similarly to the early Christians as we read in Acts how those early Christians met in each other’s home to break bread and presumably also drink wine remembering Jesus’s sacrifice as they did so.

At Passover celebrations in the Jewish faith, an empty chair is set aside for Elijah at the meal table, who, it is believed, will return to join in those Passover remembrances one day in the future.  It is therefore very significant that Jesus’s trial and execution occurred at around that time of year when the Passover is celebrated and why Jesus used that special supper as the occasion to meet with his disciples and tell them what was about to happen. The symbolism is massive but at the same time simple and ordinary.  That is how Jesus wants us to remember him and have a relationship with him – in our everyday lives as a fellow diner with us.  In many traditions, for example in the navy, during or after a meal there is a toast to absent family members, friends and fellow serving officers and ratings – to remember them and feel close to them.  Jesus wants us to feel close to him too at those times.

The vigil in the garden. The third element of the Maundy Thursday services is the vigil in the garden. In past years many of our churches have gone to wonderful efforts to make these gardens inside our churches so realistic to enable us to re-enact the time Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples in order to pray to his Father before he was arrested, tried and executed.  He asked only one thing of his disciples, minus of course Judas, and that was that they stay awake with him.  Of course we know that they fell asleep!  If any of you have undertaken the vigil on Maundy Thursday you may have yourself started to nod off.  I have to confess that I have. In a way that was also a betrayal of Jesus, and, as we afterwards learn, they also denied their involvement with him and/or ran away.  It is a reminder that we should at all times be vigilant in our Faith, to be alongside him as he is alongside us – remember when Jesus said to his disciples – “you know not when the thief may come in the middle of the night”.  It is yet another reminder that our Faith should never be put away in a box to bring out on Sundays or on special occasions, but that we should to awake to his presence with us at all times.

As we move forward in our Easter remembrances and celebrations, hopefully with family and friends as much as we can, let us apply all of these elements to our thinking and remembrance of the great sacrifice which Jesus made for all of us, atoning for our sins and the great debt we owe to Him every day of our lives.

Amen                                      MFB/156/31032021