Tuesday, 22 April 2025

SERMON 214 - SUNDAY 13 APRIL 2025 - PALM SUNDAY

Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church, West Grimstead – Palm Sunday – Sunday 13 April 2025

Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 19:28-40

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may the words that I speak be theirs and be a blessing upon all who hear them. Amen

It is quite traditional, in the Church of England, on this Sunday, Palm Sunday, to give a dramatized reading of the Passion of Christ according to Mark and, indeed, in my younger days as a chorister in Lincolnshire, I recall singing the St. Mark Passion on Palm Sunday as composed by the almost unknown Irish composer Charles Wood, a student of whom was Ralph Vaughan Williams.

I have always thought it a little strange to have a complete rendition of the Passion Story in advance of Good Friday itself and this year we have done things a little differently here in West Grimstead and I really want us to consider and reflect upon the events of the Sunday before Holy Week and the weekend of the Crucifixion and Resurrection and wonder what thoughts might have been going through Jesus’s head knowing that he was to die before the week was out.

Therefore, perhaps it is not possible to read the story of Palm Sunday without it being overshadowed by the knowledge of what lay ahead. Perhaps it is not possible to imagine the crowds in Jerusalem shouting, “Hosanna!” without also imagining them shouting, “crucify him.” Perhaps the sense of social isolation we felt during the Covid-19 pandemic can prompt thoughts of the isolation felt by Jesus of Nazareth as he rode into Jerusalem.

What do you say when you know you are going to die and can say nothing?

During the First World War, just before the Battle of the Somme in France in 1916, Captain Duncan Lennox Martin of the 9th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment had gone home on leave, he had taken with him a large-scale map which he used as his guide in making a plasticine model of the battlefield. The map and the model caused him to realise that when he and his company eventually advanced from their trench, they would die, cut down by fire from a machine gun post in the German line they faced. On his return he showed the model to his senior officers who, despite his misgivings, responded that to advance was his duty.

In Captain Lennox Martin’s company, was Lieutenant William Noel Hodgson. On 29th June 1916, Hodgson, the son of the Bishop of Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich and a man whose faith seems to have endured the horrors of the Western Front, wrote a poem called Before Action. His poem is a reflection on the death that awaited:

By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening’s benison
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills when day was done,
By beauty lavishly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a soldier, Lord.

 

By all of all man’s hopes and fears
And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavour that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.

 

I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good-bye to all of this; –
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.

 

On 1st July 1916, Noel Hodgson was killed by a single bullet through his neck, fired from the same machine gun that had killed his comrades. What had been his thoughts in the days before the battle? When he could not speak to his men of his death that lay ahead, not even hint at what would happen, how difficult was it to continue his duty? In Noel Hodgson’s mind, would there have been a terrible sense of isolation, a deep loneliness?

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, what poems might he have written? As he knew that his death was drawing close, how lonely must he have felt? How difficult it must have been to have continued through the days now remembered as Holy Week.

“Not my will, but thine be done,” says Jesus on the Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the final line of Before Action, Noel Hodgson asks that God will help him though the death that lay ahead. What a profound sense of desolation there must have been in those words.

And let’s spare a thought for the colt, the young donkey.  Jesus made a point of riding not as a conquering King, on a large white charger but on a humble donkey illustrating that he came to Jerusalem not as a conquering monarch but as a humble servant; to lay down his life for us all.  This poem written by Mary Oliver reminds us of this and is one I particularly like:

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
   leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
   clatter away, splashed with sunlight.

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.

So as we enter Holy Week, the last week of Lent, and before we follow the gloomy narrative of the Passion and the glorious story of the Resurrection, let us reflect fully on our own place in this narrative remembering that Jesus had come into the world to save us from our sins, to open the way to direct dialogue with our Creator.  Let us never forget the events of Holy Week, how the cries of “Hosannah” quickly changed to cries of “Crucify Him”.  How quick are we to change our allegiances in the face of difficulty?  How easily could we be swayed from the path of true Faith?

We are currently living in a world of complete chaos and confusion – politically, economically and culturally.  Very often some change is necessary but, so to, is the need to uphold and demonstrate those true Christian Values which we were taught by and exemplified by Jesus.  We must, if we are true followers be prepared to make sacrifices on occasions in order to continue to shout “Hosannah” and not turn away so easily from our own beliefs.

Amen                                                                                                       MFB/214/10042025

 

Thursday, 10 April 2025

SERMON 213 - SUNDAY 6 APRIL 2025 - FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish - 5th Sunday in Lent  –  Sunday 6 April 2025

Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3.4b-14;  John 12:1-8

When I first heard this morning’s gospel reading as a young chorister back in my home church in Lincolnshire, I misheard the name of the perfume mentioned and thought that it had been made from pure LARD!

 In fact, I later learned that soap is actually made from animal fat which has been emulsified by some pretty dangerous acids and other chemicals.  This then reminded me, when I read the reading again in preparation for this service of a story which I heard recently whilst away at sea and told by the chaplain.

He narrated how a missionary was sent to a very poor country in Africa to spread the word of the Lord.  Amongst those in the local village where he served were an elderly couple, or elderly by that country’s standards, who eked out a living by making soap and he observed how the making of this cleansing material was by such a dirty and dangerous (to health) process and that this couple’s arms and hands were so disfigured by the chemicals they were using that they found it hard to stir the pot of goo!  He asked them the usual missionary’s question – “Have you met Jesus yet” to which they answered “No! but we could certainly need some help with this soap making!

Seeing their distress, the missionary made a point of calling in on the couple every day at midday to stir the pot of obnoxious chemicals for an hour and thereby befriending them.

A few months went by and another evangelistic church minister arrived at the same village and, in introducing himself to the elderly soap makers, asked them, again “Have you met Jesus”. “Oh Yes”, came their unison reply, “he calls in on us every day at noon and stirs the pots of chemicals”.

When I first heard that story I was so touched by its simplicity as well as the wonderful message it gives.  It was by the simple action of helping this struggling couple rather than preaching a complicated theology that truly did make Jesus known to them.

In our gospel reading Mary, through the simple yet dedicated way in which she anoints Jesus’s feet and then selflessly wipes them dry with her hair shows more about her love of Jesus than any words could ever express. In the same way as, in a similar story, the sinful woman in the Pharisee’s House in Luke 7:36-50 (often taken to be Mary Magdalen) shows her love of Jesus and his Word by doing something similar which results in Jesus forgiving her sins and rebuking Simon the Pharisee.

Much has been made, in this passage, about Judas’s statement about the wastefulness of the perfume when, at its very expensive cost, it could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. John’s narrative adds, in parentheses, that Judas being the Disciples treasurer, had his own wicked agenda of helping himself to some of those proceeds. I have often wondered whether those additional words were added to make Judas out a greater villain than perhaps he was. For my part, I prefer to look more towards the actions of Mary rather than of Judas here. We know, from previous passages, that Jesus was a frequent visitor to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  We know that he so loved all three of them that he wept over Lazarus’s death and raised him up again, that Mary had already shown her love and devotion by here attentive listening to him when he visited them and recited scripture and that Martha felt compelled to ensure that all the correct preparations were made for the meal and visit to make him feel very welcome.  These actions lie in direct contrast to the actions and words of the Simon and Judas.

What is important to read here are the words of Jesus himself towards the end of the passage when he puts down Judas’s comment.  “Leave her alone” he says.  She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial”. By saying these words he is saying that that day is now upon them.  He then goes on to say that “You will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me”.

I have pondered these words a lot as a Christian and at first appearance they can appear quite selfish. Indeed, you could try and put things the other way round and say that in a fair and equitable world we should be able to alleviate poverty and, didn’t say to his disciples after his resurrection “I am with you always to the close of age”.  These seem to contradict Christian teachings.

In fact, Jesus was actually being a realist for the fact remains that here in the year 2025 we still do have a large majority of the world’s population living in abject poverty – something I have seen many times over on my prolific travels as well as many people who have not yet discovered Jesus or that they can have a personal relationship with him if they just allow him to enter their lives.

Today and every day, I find myself grieving for those who have not yet experienced the love of God and those for whom the world’s economies are making them poorer and poorer and I believe it is the duty of all believers to do their bit to fulfil Christ’s teachings.

Jesus in admonishing Judas, and of course with knowledge that he will be the one who betrays him, is reminding us all that first and foremost our lives should be focussed on God before worldly possessions and money. He is also predicting his own death and departure from this Earth and the fact that it will be up to us, his followers, energised by the Holy Spirit to carry on the work of making Jesus known throughout the world.

Salisbury Diocese’s strapline is now all familiar to us “Making Jesus Known”.  For some it may seem a bit of a “trite” statement – surely that is what being a Christian is all about – but we can so easily forget it and get focussed on ritual and church matters rather than the wider teachings of Christ and remembering the ultimate sacrifice he made for us.

So, I return to that elderly couple in faraway Africa and their little soap factory. They saw, by the selfless actions of a Christian pastor, who put his own health at risk, the face of Jesus. 

What opportunities do we then have for making Jesus known to others, through our actions, to those who don’t know him yet? 

Might I suggest that it is often through opportunities given to us outside of any formal religious event – something occurring in our ordinary lives.

The world is crying out for Jesus to be a major factor in combatting so much evil and selfishness in the world today; and it can start with something as simple as stirring a pot of goo for an elderly couple or a kindly action or word to somebody who is alone or struggling with life’s demands.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, may I sit at Your feet and worship You with all that I am and all that I have. May the beauty of Jesus seep into my soul and become a life-giving fragrance of His love, to all with whom I come in contact today and the days ahead. In Jesus' name I pray,

 

Amen                                                                                                                MFB/213/04042025