SERMON 193 - SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2023 - REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Sermon delivered at St. John’s Parish Church, West Grimstead Remembrance Day Service – Sunday 12^th November 2023

Micah 4:1-5

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

Each year I have found it increasingly difficult to say anything particularly new at this Remembrance Day Service especially if the scriptural passages given for the day are difficult or seemingly at odds with the occasion – a solemn occasion in which we remember all those who have given their lives to protect their country, their philosophies, their religious beliefs and in the west our forms of democracy.  It is an appalling fact that it is believed that out of the last 3,400 years of recorded history the world may have been at peace for only about 268 years of them.   A staggering fact and, as far as we can know, many little known and unrecorded tribes may very well have been warring during those 268 years too.

For many, growing up in my generation we lived through comparable decades of peace here in the western world.  The horrors of two World Wars seemed to be behind us and our armed forces were largely involved in peace-keeping exercises in such places as Cyprus, West Germany, and latterly Northern Ireland.  That is not to say that our valiant forces were not subject to attacks and intimidation during their tours (Northern Ireland being a particularly horrible example) but we were not involved in a full-scale war until 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and we saw, for the first time for many years, our Navy, Army and Air Force engaged in a major conflict.  I think it took us all by surprise and shock as the numbers of casualties rose and the glamour of war, which I and my friends at school played out in the playground, became the reality of death and mourning for families on both sides.  I remember in particular working at that time with a mother whose son was serving onboard HMS Coventry when it was hit by Argentinian bombs in May 1982. Fortunately, we heard that he was one of the fortunate survivors.  I am sure there are many here today who can recount tales of the horrors of war either first hand or through the experiences of others.

Since then we have seen more severe and horrific conflicts arise closer to home – the Balkans and most recently Ukraine and Israel. With the advent of the technology of the modern media the horrors of those conflicts, in many cases akin to some of the atrocities of the Second World War, come into our homes on our TV and other screens.  There can be no escaping the horrors of war and thereby also being aware of the heroism of those who continue to serve in peace-keeping exercises and fight to restore freedom and democracy. 

Many years ago, I bought and wore a poppy principally for those who died and suffered in the First and Second World Wars.  As we shortly enter the seventy-ninth year since the ending of that latter conflict not only are we today remembering those but now also many more who have given their lives in other conflicts to restore peace and love amongst the nations of the world.

I have chosen a passage of scripture this morning from the Book of Micah – a passage which also appears verbatim in Isaiah 2:1-5.  I have chosen this passage for two special reasons – it comes from two of the Books of Prophesy, at a time when the Jewish people had been dispossessed of their land and were in Exile in Babylon and secondly, being an Old Testament Book its message is of equal importance to Jew, Christian and Muslim with the Old Testament being common to all three Faiths.

In this passage Micah, is speaking of the evil rulers pre-Exile – around 700 BC, but we believe this passage was written around 500 BC. He is prophesying of a future when all those in conflict with one another will join forces and be one at peace with one another.  He prophesies that a time will come when there will be no need for armaments, that “swords will be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not rise up against nation nor will they learn war anymore” – in other words humans will use tools and implements for the greater good and not to destroy each other and live at peace and harmony.  That will happen, he says, at the beginning of the passage, this will occur in days yet to come. It reminds me so much of the John Lennon song “Imagine”.

Jesus in Matthew 24, however, also tells us that until this period of stability preceding the “end times” there will continue to be wars and rumours of wars and much disruption and destruction.  For this reason we must continue to be vigilant and safeguard our society and culture against those who would seek to destroy it.  We have much to thank and praise our armed forces for in protecting us and preserving freedom and peace in the UK.  The Jews, incidentally, in every synagogue service give prayers for the defence forces of Israel. I do not wish to comment on the rights or wrongs of the current situation in the Holy Land; suffice it to say if ever there was a time for the need of prayer and reflection in the context of warfare this is a time like no other to do so. 

 Time and time again I am reminded of two very famous photographs taken from outer space.  The first one was taken on Christmas Eve 1968 by astronaut William Anders onboard Apollo 8.  It shows the Earth rising above the lunar surface. Earth is seen, for the first time, from another world and appears as a small fragile ball orbiting through space. It is a sobering thought that every member of Humankind, with the exception of the three astronauts onboard Apollo 8, are living on that one small ball. It is also interesting to observe that from 240,000 miles away there are no political distinctions or country boundaries visible.  The whole of the Earth is the home of everything we know.

The second image was taken from Voyager 1, the space probe that flew past our most distant planets and then one beyond the Solar System. As it was about to leave the Solar System NASA instructed it to turn its cameras behind and capture an image of the Sun from over 6 billion miles distance.  As it did so, quite by chance a solar ray struck a tiny pinprick of blue.  It was Earth – a tiny almost invisible blue speck.

Both of these images remind us of our fragility and uniqueness.  It gives us feelings of both humility and grandeur, that in the creation of the Universe we are so fortunate to inhabit this tiny speck of cosmic matter – not too hot, not too cold – in fact astronomers call our planet as inhabiting the “Goldilocks Zone” of our Solar System. No other world has been discovered in a similar position or supportive of life. We are so fortunate yet we seem to have this constant desire to destroy.

A famous astronomer called William Thomson Hay once said “If we were all astronomers there would be no wars”.  I use that quote on my own Facebook page. Incidentally, William Thomson Hay was better known as the comedic film actor Will Hay of “Oh Mr. Porter” fame.

We would do well to remember and marvel at the vastness of the Universe and our unique place in it.  Micah, Isaiah and indeed Will Hay all make a wonderful point.  Let us avoid war whenever possible. Let us constantly follow the paths of peace and reconciliation but at the same time, never forgetting those who gave their lives in that cause as we continue to wear our poppies with pride.

Let us pray :

Hear us, O Lord, as we make our appeal in their memory;

Bless, O Lord our God, those who have fought and valiantly died that we might enjoy liberty and freedom.

May their sacrifice not be in vain. May your blessing, O Lord, be upon them. 

In Jesus’s name

 

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/10112023

SERMON 192 - SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2023 - 4TH SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish - Sunday 5 November 2023

Micah 3:5-end; 1 Thessaolonians 2:9-13; Matthew 24:1-14

Let us pray : Father God, we thank you that you sent your only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem our sins and to be a light to the World.  At this time of great disturbance in the Middle East and Eastern Europe we call upon you to shine that light in those dark places and guide all those in positions of power and influence to seek your ways of peace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen.

It is the strangest of “Godincidences” that, because of Bible Sunday and All Souls Festival falling at this time, the readings for this morning’s service at which I was asked to preach, were changed to become the very ones upon which I have been reflecting over the past four weeks; since the terrible events in Israel on 7^th October in fact. Much social media posting has been in the form of speculation about whether we are now truly entering the “end times” with professed theologians discussing interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the rise of power of many non-democratic nations.  I have no intention of speculating further on this topic this morning but I think it is necessary to think carefully about where our theology and philosophy lie.  We can so easily be led astray by false prophets and those who would seek to use biblical passages for their own purposes and not the purposes for which they were written.  It most walks of life it is advisable to keep things simple – both for understanding and success – and our Faith is no exception.

I will be looking more closely at our gospel reading later but first of all a short reflection on our first two readings, both of which warn us against falling into the trap of following dubious prophets.

Micah is very clear in his message, heard in our first reading and, back in the days of the Old Testament, warns against the hypocrisy of those who cry peace but at the same time declare war against those who do not follow them and their beliefs and philosophies. Sounds familiar? Micah declares that a time will come when such people as these will be uncovered for what they are.  Micah is, of course, one of the minor prophets who was prophesying at the time of the Great Exile – a time for reflection by the Jewish people as to why they had been disposed of their land and taken into captivity in Babylon.

In his first letter to the Christians in Thessalonica Paul appeals to his readers to keep their faith simple. They have been converted to Christianity through hearing the Word of Christ preached and are reminded that they went through much “labour and toil” in so doing.  Paul asks them simply to keep the Faith, to continue to follow the teachings of Christ by the manner in which they live and worship.  Paul is asking them to continue to live and proclaim the gospel to others and constantly to give thanks and praise to God.

In the course of my own reflections upon this morning’s gospel reading, which as mentioned earlier I was considering even before I knew that I might be preaching on it, Paul’s words as written principally in his letter to the Colossians - as opposed to the Thessalonians – emphasise the need to lead a Christian life, not simply by paying lip service to ritual and the legalities of religion, but showing the light of Christ by the way in which we treat those nearest and dearest to us as well as to all other members of the human race – whether believers or not.  Do please read Colossians in which Paul gives us a clear insight as to how we, as followers of Christ, are expected to lead a Godly Christian life.

I was interested to read and listen to what many modern Evangelical preachers had to say on the topic and have been appalled at some of the distortions of scripture which have come out – especially from some of those preachers who are found in the American “mega churches”.  Theology has been made complicated and twisted with much eisegesis – that is reading into scripture what are your own thoughts and views - as opposed to exegesis which is taking out of scripture what is meant whether it accords with your own views or not. It is a dangerous practice and one to be avoided.  We should always ask ourselves four questions when reading scripture – When was it written? Who wrote it?  To whom was it written? Why was it written?  It is always most important to ensure that we read any scripture in the context of its construction.

Applying that to our rather alarming gospel reading we can discern the answer to those four questions which hopefully assist us in understanding the passage better within its context and seeing it in light of our present situation.

Matthew 24

To whom and when was it written?  It is acknowledged that Matthew’s gospel was written some forty years or so after Christ’s death and resurrection, principally for Christian followers still living amongst the Jewish community in modern day Israel with original sources attributed to the gospel of Mark. It was written in Greek and therefore we need to be aware that it would have been a translation of the original Aramaic. It is largely, like the other Synoptic Gospels, a biography of the life of Christ. There is no reason, therefore to believe that it is not primarily an accurate account of what Jesus said and did.

Who wrote it? There is some controversary over its authorship but the commonly held belief is that it was written by Matthew, one of Jesus’s disciples – the tax collector Levi.  Whatever, we can be fairly sure that the author lived amongst those early 1^st Century Christians who found themselves persecuted by both the Romans and Jewish elders for their beliefs – which accorded with neither Jewish nor Roman doctrine.

Finally, why was it written? If we accept the authenticity of the scriptural passage, and we must remember that we are told by Paul that all scripture is God-inspired, then we must accept what Jesus is trying to communicate to those he is addressing.

We read that Jesus was coming out of the Temple when he told those closest to him, his disciples, to look at the building itself prophesying that not a stone of it would remain in the future – that the Temple would be destroyed.  Here, Jesus is not only talking about the actual building – which indeed would be desecrated and destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman General Titus – but that he himself would suffer and be destroyed – prophesying his own crucifixion.

Of course, the destruction of the edifice of the Temple was of immense concern to the disciples who had been brought up with the concept of the building being the centre of their Jeiwsh Faith and implored Jesus to tell them when this would occur.

We then have Jesus’s description of all those things which will have to occur before then with the recently much quoted list of disasters –

Wars, rumours of wars, nations rising up against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms, famines, earthquakes and so on.

It is quite easy for those who want to interpret the ending being now, in the 21^st Century, imminent, by looking at these things but, if we think about it, these things have been occurring over the last two thousand years and in some ways even worse than they are now.

What concerns me more is the rise of so many false prophets which Jesus predicts as an indicator of the end times.  He says, because of the increase of lawlessness the love of many will grow cold.

I look around at society today and I genuinely mourn the loss of the respect and values which we, of an older generation, have been brought up with.  My son, who is a teacher, informs me that respect for him and his colleague teachers by their students has almost disappeared.  The respect we once held for our politicians has now gone – not without justification when we see the untruths and misinformation we have been fed; and, again, I look upon many of the evangelical preachers, especially in the States, who use biblical eisegesis in support of less than biblical teaching for their own ends.

But, Jesus, as ever, has the last word.  He tells us in this gospel passage that “anyone who endures to the end will be saved”. This, he tells his disciples, is the good news. If we can discern false prophets from the true words of the gospel we can overcome the evil and falseness all around us.

Each and every day I pray for discernment. Discernment of hearing what God is truly telling me as opposed to what others, or I myself are saying or thinking; discernment in understanding the true nature of biblical teaching and recognising those who preach the true gospel and rejecting those false prophets who teach us their distorted version.

Jesus tells us and his disciples that the true ending will be a good ending.  Don’t you always like a good ending to a book or film?  I still cry every time I watch the last few minutes of “The Railway Children”!  Jesus says “The good news of the [coming of] the Kingdom of Heaven will eventually be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” – that will be the true and beautiful ending. Alleluia.

What a wonderful and beautiful thought but it does require us to keep the Faith and to keep the gospel message simple. “To endure” as Jesus says. avoiding falseness and deceit, keeping to those great Christian values set out in the New Testament.

Once more, Let us pray : Father God.  we ask that you give us the gift of discernment to recognise false prophets and false teachings from the true and simple message of your Son, Jesus Christ, as set out in the gospels. We pray that we may go forth with confidence and strength in proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen. 

MFB/192/03112023