MY NEXT SERMON

I AM  PREACHING TWICE NEXT ON SUNDAY 11 MAY 2025 - AT WEST GRIMSTEAD PARISH CHURCH, WILTSHIRE (9.15 a.m. Morning Worship) AND AGAIN AT FARLEY PARISH CHURCH, (11 am Morning Worship)

SERMON 215 - SUNDAY 4 MAY 2025 - EASTER 3

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish – 3rd Sunday in Easter – Sunday 4 May 2025

Acts 9:1-6 [7-20]; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.

When I saw the reading for today, I was absolutely delighted at their theme and I was equally surprised that I had not preached on these passages before because, for me, they are the fundamental cornerstone to our Christian belief and faith – that to know God our Creator we need to know Jesus and have a relationship with him.  That is why we call ourselves Christians – followers of Christ.

In each of our readings we find a situation where God reveals himself to ordinary mortals through Jesus. Our first reading from Acts describes the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus where, as a Jewish Zealot, he intended to persecute Christians; in our second reading from Revelation, John, in a vision, sees all of Heaven worshipping the Lamb (Jesus) proclaiming him as the Worthy one and finally in our Gospel reading from John, we see Jesus appearing to the remaining disciples in the ordinary course of their work as fishermen instructing them where to cast their nets, as once he did before.  The importance of this passage though is the dialogue between Jesus and Peter when three times he asks him if he loves Him – the three times being significant in absolving Peter from his three times denial on the night of Jesus’s arrest.

I want to look a little closer at the first and last readings and for us to reflect on what these passages of scripture teach us today.

First of all, Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. For me, this passage is one of the most wonderful stories in the whole of the bible.  We have previously read in the Book of Acts how Saul the Zealot had hounded the followers of Jesus believing him to be a false prophet and a blasphemer. Saul was well versed in Jewish law and all the rules and regulations which went along with abiding by the Jewish Faith.  Based upon the Pentateuch or Torah, the first five book of the Old Testament setting down basic Jewish Law handed down by Moses, the Jewish Faith system had complicated it further by adding many other rules and regulations which, on occasions, Jesus and his Followers had not adhered to.  This made Jesus and his disciples heretics and blasphemers in the eyes of Jewish lawyers such as Saul.  Saul was determined to stamp out this falsehood as he saw it – hence he was on his way to Damascus to confront Christians there.

The story of the conversion of Saul into the apostle Paul is too well known to repeat in detail here but what we can say is that for all concerned, except the Trinitarian God,  the events of that day and the following ones could never have been envisaged – the complete reversal of Saul’s philosophy and hatred into becoming one of the most ardent Christians the world has ever known – such that his letters to the various churches of western Asia have become the backbone of our own modern Christian doctrine. In my experience, most of the evangelical churches in the world today spend most of their time studying and preaching from Paul’s writings.

Our gospel reading is, for me, one of the most important pieces of scripture in that it reminds us that Jesus is still with us – that he is not just an historic figure. We read that Peter, after all the excitement of his time as a disciple of Jesus, following him around Judea and witnessing many extraordinary events, is perhaps bored.  Jesus has appeared to the disciples, post-Resurrection, on a number of sporadic occasions but they are in limbo.  Peter suggests returning to the occupation they know best and which took up most of their time before Jesus came into their lives and called them.  They go fishing.  It is whilst they are doing so and catching nothing that Jesus appears suddenly and unexpectedly on the banks of the Sea of Galilee.  He asks them if they have caught anything to which they respond “no”.  He then does something which he had done before, he asks them to cast their nets in a different place and their net is filled with 153 fish – we don’t actually know the significance of this number except that it was also my room number when I was at university in Liverpool! It is probably at this point that the realisation hits them that this is Jesus back with them.

They probably had thoughts that he was a ghost at first and he dispels this notion by sharing breakfast with them by once more symbolically breaking the bread and fish and eating a morsal himself. 

As mentioned earlier, there then proceeds the dialogue with Peter about the disciple’s love of Christ and a command to feed his sheep – to be a pastor and to be the rock upon which Jesus’s church will be built.  Although not in this passage we can also remember the great commission which Jesus gave all his disciples in the last verses of Matthew’s gospel – to go out and make disciples of all nations adding “and I shall be with you always”.

Returning to the common theme of these readings I want to just reflect on how Jesus appeared to Saul/Paul and to Peter and his companions.  At the time of Jesus’s appearance in both instances, the recipients of Jesus’s approach were carrying out what they considered their allotted roles in life – Saul the Persecutor and Peter et al the Fishermen.  Jesus did not appear to them in some special Holy Place but on the roadside and on the banks of the sea; just as he appeared to those disciples on the road to Emmaus.  On each occasion the appearance was unexpected and life changing.

The essence of each of these stories is that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with each and every one who accepts the Christian Faith.  The Christian Faith differs from other faiths in that it believes that God is of a threefold nature – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus became a human being, lived on our planet and died on the Cross so that we might have a direct line of communication with the Father. He also left behind the Holy Spirit which is alive and present with us now and through which we can have that special relationship which he craves.

Our Diocesan strapline is “Making Jesus Known” in our communities.  It is not about “Knowing about Jesus” and we must be careful not to get the two confused. If I say to you “Let me introduce you to Jane Dunlop” that is quite different from say “Let me tell you all about Jane Dunlop”. The question which we should be asking people is “Would you like to know Jesus” not “Would you like to know all about Jesus”.  In order to do that, though, we need ourselves to know him. There is that famous painting by Holman Hunt of “Jesus the Light of the World” knocking at the door.  The door has no handle on the outside so can only be opened on the inside. Only we can open that door and let Christ into our lives – to invite him to be with us, to be like Mary, sister of Martha, and sit at his feet and listen.

If you haven’t let Jesus through your door yet, then I invite you to do so – to have a fulfilling relationship with him.  If you have done so, I ask you to reflect on how and when that happened and think how you might encourage others to do so.  Here is a prayer to help

"Lord Jesus, I come before you, seeking to know you more deeply. I desire not just to understand your teachings, but to experience your love and power in my life. Help me to see you in everything I do and to respond to your call with a willing heart. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I may be empowered to live a life that reflects your grace and glory. May I walk in your light and be a witness to your love. Amen." 

 

 

Amen                                                                                                        MFB/215/01052025

 

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

 

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

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish - 5^th 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

 

SERMON 212 - SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2025 - FOURTH SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

Sermon at St. Mary’s Parish Church, West Dean and All Saints’ Church, Farley - 4^th Sunday before Lent  –  Sunday 9^th February 2025

Isaiah 6:1-8(9-13); 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

May I start with a confession; I preached much of this sermon three years ago in Whiteparish, and when I came to reflect upon what I would preach to you today found that it contained much of what I wanted to say to you three years later.  If anything, this emphasises the unchanging message of God throughout the ages and the relevance of Holy Scripture today as well as in the past.  

Each of the three readings this morning has, essentially the same theme. Can you identify what it is?  Yes, it is the call of God to ordinary people to be his messengers – to be disciples and apostles, to bring the God News to ordinary people through ordinary people and it never ceases to amaze me, and bring me hope, that throughout the Bible, God chooses the most unlikely and seemingly inappropriate people to be his spokesmen and women. In addition to those in our scripture readings today we can think of others such as Moses, Rahab, Job and David to name but four.

I have always liked the gospel reading in particular.  Many of you will know that I was brought up in a tough northern town – Grimsby on the southern bank of the Humber Estuary famed for its fishing and food processing. Indeed, when I was growing up it boasted of being the largest deep sea fishing port in the world with literally hundreds of trawlers sailing daily out of the port and spending several weeks at sea before returning with their catch – mainly haddock and cod. My grandfather was a trawler skipper captaining one of these vessels.  On their return to Grimsby, he and his crew would be well rewarded with a percentage of the money from the sale of the fish, but if either there was a glut which kept the price low or a poor catch they would receive little if anything.  It was literally feast or famine.  For the most part they did well, as attested by the plethora of smart shops in the town at that time, but if not, their only hope was to go back to sea and hope for a better catch and, indeed, hopefully return with their lives too!  Having recently returned myself from two weeks at sea to the frozen northern coast of Norway, I can even better than before understand the hardships which my grandfather, and men like him, had to endure.

These fishermen were tough and sometimes quite rough characters and I have no reason to suppose that Simon Peter and his brethren were any different.  We know from the direct way Simon Peter often spoke that he, like his counterparts in Grimsby, would get straight to the point.  I would see all the fishing nets strung out on the dockside for repair or for returning to their ships and every time I read or hear this passage the sights, sounds and smells of my home town come flooding back to me. Unfortunately, it is pure nostalgia now as there are only a handful of vessels still sailing out of Grimsby and then only for a few days at a time into the shallower waters of the North Sea.  Most of the fish processing which still occurs is mainly using fish imported from overseas and not directly landed in the port. The town itself has lost its main reason for existence and can be described as a deprived area of the country.

I am using this example, not to make any political statements, but as a reminder that when Jesus chose his first disciples, his first followers, he was not choosing theologically learned people as most “rabbis” would have chosen, but ordinary hard-working men just as he might have found in one of the pubs along Freeman Street in Grimsby. These were men who probably drank hard, partied hard and swore frequently – they were as far from the Pharisees and Elders of the Temple as you could get.  They probably laughed at this “preacher-type” who had used one of their boats (probably at a price) to preach to the crowd. When he told them to go out and fish on the lake, Simon responded that they had had no luck despite their superior knowledge of where the fish might be. However they did humour him, (or did they find something special in the way he had preached?} and put out to sea and were astounded by the catch they had – so many fish that other boats had to come to their assistance. If they had been sceptical about Jesus and his ministry, they were no longer because he had, effectively spoken their language – the language of fishermen – the catching of fish.  Jesus then went on, in inviting them to join him, to use “fishing” as a metaphor – “From now on you will be catching people” or as some translations have it “You will become fishers of men”.  And so, here we have a most unlikely scenario – rough and ready fishermen becoming disciples – ministers of religion if you like.  But, as we saw, this had happened before.

Our reading in Isaiah is one of those pieces of scripture which is most often read at services of ordination and licensing – especially the phrase “Whom shall I send?”. There is a hymn – “I the Lord of Sea and Sky” which is being sung in our service today. Once again we have a situation where the writer feels totally unprepared and unqualified to take on the role of prophet.  He says, perhaps pre-empting the thoughts of the fishermen several hundred years later - after hearing and listening to Jesus – “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts!”  We read that Isaiah’s lips were touched with a hot coal from the Altar of the Lord and his guilt departed him such that he then felt ready to offer his services in ministry.

Our epistle reading again touches on this theme.  Paul was always conscious that he had never been an actual disciple of Jesus – living and working with him – but only met him after Jesus’s death and resurrection on the road to Damascus where he was going to persecute Jesus’s followers. Accordingly, we find throughout his writings his need to justify his authority – especially on those occasions when he comes into conflict with Peter, Andrew and James (those self-same fishermen).  In this passage though, he humbles himself for once and describes himself as “the least amongst the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because he persecuted Jesus’s church.  But he recognises that, in spite of this, he has a story to tell which makes his testimony all that stronger because he was chosen by Jesus despite his appalling antecedents.

What I really love about all three of these readings is that in their individual and collective way, they remind us that whatever we might have done in the past, however educated or uneducated we are, we are all qualified to be disciples.  Indeed, Paul went even further in reminding us of the concept of the priesthood of all people. It shows us that to know Jesus is not necessarily about knowing about him intellectually, it’s about having a personal relationship with him. It also reminds us that God will meet us where we are.  He met Isaiah in a Vision of Heaven whilst Isaiah was contemplating the destruction of the Temple and the Exile; He met Paul through Jesus on the road to Damascus on his way to officially persecute Jesus’s followers, and he met the fishermen in their workplace – on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  So, not only does he seek out unexpected people, he also meets them in unexpected ways and places.

And today he continues to meet people in their everyday lives.  We hear reports that thousands of Muslims have been converted to Christianity after seeing visions of Jesus. In the Bible too there are many instances of people being called to service from where they are.

As Jesus’s modern day “fishermen and fisherwomen”, I guess I should now say “fisherpersons” we should recall the instructions he gave to his first disciples in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel :

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”.

 

Let us pray

Father God, we remember your call to those first disciples

by the Sea of Galilee

who left their occupation and followed you without question.

Grant that when so called, we too may have the courage to answer

with the words of Isaiah :“Here I am, send me”

so that the Good News so much needed at this time

may be spread throughout the world.

We ask this through your Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord

 

 

Amen                                                                                           MFB/212/06022025

 

(This Sermon is an updated version of Sermon 169 preached at Whiteparish in February 2022).

SERMON 211 - SUNDAY 12 JANUARY 2025 - BAPTISM OF CHRIST

Sermon at Farley All Saints’ Parish Church, - Baptism of Christ  –  Sunday 12th January 2025

Isaiah 43:1-7; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17,21-22

Today we celebrate the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist in the River Jordan; but as well as being such a celebration we are still in the Season of Epiphany – that time when we remember the coming of the wise men or “kings” bearing three prophetic gifts to the infant Jesus – gold to represent his kingship, frankincense to represent his holiness or divinity and myrrh, that perfume with which the dead are anointed to represent the great sacrifice he would later make for all.

However, in these readings we are reminded that not all kings come bearing such gifts.  It has been suggested that John the Baptist’s reference to Jesus, the one who is to come, the Messiah, with a winnowing folk in his hand, to clear the threshing-floor and burning the chaff is a veiled reference to Herod Antipas, who although probably a shadow of his tyrannical father, the old King Herod, is nevertheless probably a danger to modern prophets as John himself would soon find out.

The two New Testament readings, one from Acts and one from Luke’s Gospel, are rich in lessons for us today. In our epistle reading from Acts we read, straight away, that the Samaritans had accepted the word of God.  Historically, the Samaritans and the Jews had been at logger-heads – distrusting each other. Just like many divided communities today, they had each built up over many generations a hatred for each other.  In very simple terms, it arose because of fundamental religious differences – like so many conflicts we see in the world now.  Samaritans believed that their form of worship was the “true Jewish religion” because Samaritans had remained in the land of Israel during the period of the Babylonian Exile whereas those who went into exile and returned had had their religion tainted by leaving the Holy Land. It is true to say, therefore, that both Jew and Samaritan believed in God but not necessarily where the Word came from.  Now we read that following on from Jesus’s ministry they truly believed the same as those early Christians.  Christianity as a global phenomenon was being established.

This is why the words of John are so important. Up until the time Jesus began his ministry – which was on the day that he was baptised by John, those who wished to accept the New Testament of God acknowledged and accepted this by being baptised in the Jordan – baptism of water.  A symbolic act to wash away the old life and begin the new – what John called “metanoia” or repentance; an acceptance of the new way.  We do this today.  However, with Jesus would come the Holy Spirit to all who wanted it – “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and Fire” – in other words not only will you be changed through the cleansing of your body as a symbol of washing away the old tainted ways, but you will also have something brand new bestowed upon you.

We read towards the end of the passage in Luke how this was revealed to the people. After Jesus had been through the ritualistic baptism with water, Heaven, we read, was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form like a dove.  You will all recall that it was also the dove which came back to Noah’s Ark with an olive branch in its beak to indicate that the cleansing of the world, by the Great Flood, was now over and a new world can begin; it is also the dove which for generations has been the symbol for peace and the messenger of peace throughout the world; a symbol of new beginnings and of understanding between all peoples.

With the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus, he was able to share that spirit with all who came to him and sought and followed his ministry and, as we know following his death, resurrection and ascension, at Pentecost the Spirit descended upon all who sought it.  That is precisely where we find ourselves today.  The Wise Men came bearing gifts to the infant Jesus, Jesus himself, through his ministry, death and resurrection has bestowed the greatest gift of all, the Holy Spirit, free and unconditionally to all who seek it.  Actually, there is one condition, and that is that having received it you do not grieve it – that is do not renounce it or denigrate.

I believe the world is, today, hungrier for the Holy Spirit than at any other time.  Sometimes we get so caught up with our own little worlds that we forget that we all live in one greater world; but it is not all that great.  We are all living on a planet, a spaceship which is less than 8,000 miles in diameter in the vastness of a cold and hostile universe, billions and billions of light years across – if it has any boundaries.  It is the only home we have and really one which we can only ever have this side of the grave.  Jesus, we are told by John, came into the world to save the world not to condemn it.

We read this morning and we have just discussed how he brought with him that greatest of extra-terrestrial gifts – the Holy Spirit; that is the presence of God here on Earth. These last few words I have spoken remind me of the words of the 1930s and 1940s film comedian Will Hay – star of “Oh Mr Porter” – who, as William T. Hay, was an accomplished amateur astronomer – when he said “If we were all astronomers there would be no more wars”.

Similarly, a few years ago I watched the movie “Don’t Look Up” starring Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance and Leo DiCaprio.  It is a little wacky but the essence of it is that in today’s modern age we spend a lot of time looking down at our devices and accepting what social media is saying, or not saying, and not enough time looking up and around us and discovering reality for ourselves. In the case of this film there is a large comet heading straight for Earth which will destroy the planet in six months’ time. The politicians and media people don’t seem to care, worrying more about mid-term elections and the love lives of celebrities.  In fact, social media and politicians start a campaign doubting the existence of the comet despite the scientists’ assurances.  Does that ring any bells? 

In fact since I watched that film in 2021, it seems that its relevance to what we see going on in 2025 is greater than ever!  I heard a lawyer remark, on the radio on Friday, with regard to the news stories surrounding our Prime Minister and the “grooming gangs” debacle, that people are listening and relying more and more on the “15 – minutes on social media experts”, rather than the true experts in the field who have been studying these cases over 15 years. In fact, the result of repeating lies and disinformation is leading to the re-traumatising of some of the historic victims.

Sometimes, I think that those of us who know the true nature of God’s love and compassion for Humankind are crying in the wilderness just like John, but cry we must otherwise we have no chance of being heard at all if we totally give in or give up.

I am reminded of a notice displayed at Auschwitz I Concentration camp in Poland written by Pastor Martin Niemoller which reads

“First they came for the Communists

 And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

 Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew

 Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

John the Baptist spoke out and encouraged those around him to repent – metanoia; to look at things afresh. To wash away the old and tainted and to step out clean, refreshed and into a new world with Jesus Christ as our king and saviour. As true Christians we should honour the pledges he made on our behalf – to move forward with the aid of the Holy Spirit, never grieving it but upholding it, promoting it and its powers and making disciples of others.

God bless you all in your continued fellowship and ministry here in Farley over the next twelve months and may you too have the courage to speak out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit here alongst us now..

 

Amen                                                                                           

MFB/211/07012025

(An updated version of Sermon 168 delivered in 2022).

SERMON 210 - SUNDAY 8 JANUARY 2025 - EPIPHANY

 

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish – Sunday 8 January 2025 – Epiphany Sunday

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12

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

May I start this morning’s sermon by wishing you all a Very Happy New Year and I look forward to continuing to minister to you in this lovely church and parish for many years to come.  A very special place indeed for Liz and I, being where we got married just over eight years ago. How time races on!

As we enter this New Year let us continue to pray for peace and prosperity not only in our own community and country but throughout the world.  Jesus came into the world to bring light to a dark world and to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God and so, as we enter 2025 let us, as his Christian Family do all we can to make that dream a reality.

Last year, I took this same service with its same readings and chose to concentrate on the gospel passage describing the coming of the Magi – who are more commonly described as wise men, astrologers or even kings.  Last year we looked at where they might have come from, and what celestial object they might have actually observed in the night sky which led them to travel from, possibly, Babylon to Bethlehem.  I am still intrigued by what it was, comet, planetary conjunction or was it simply supernatural.  I am intending to put together an astronomical talk on the subject for a future occasion, but today, as we enter 2025, a year which I think will see some monumental global changes, I would like to concentrate on the passage of scripture from Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus which we heard read out this morning.

I think it would be helpful and interesting if I read out that passage again, but this time from Eugene Petersen’s paraphrased translation of the Bible known as “The Message”:

^1-3 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

^4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

^7-8 This is my life’s work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

^8-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

^11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

The essence of Paul’s message is that he finds himself in prison for preaching a new message, one seeming to be at variance to ancient Hebrew teaching and he refers to those who have changed their theology into understanding and following Christ, as well as those who have not yet even heard of Jesus as “outsiders”. Paul is reminding his readers, and thereby through the study of the biblical scripture to us, that Christ came into the world for everyone, not just those who felt chosen by following the law, but very much those who appeared to be outsiders – the poor, the sinners, the sick and so on.  Those who seemed to be on the outside of society just as the early followers had been placed on the outside through their following Christ instead of simply following Hebrew law and tradition.

This is emphasised, I believe, by those who were given special notice of Christ’s coming into the world – the shepherds out in the fields – shepherds were especially despised and looked upon as the lowest of the low and the Magi who werer foreigners – outsiders pure and simple.

It always gives me such comfort that the light – Jesus – came for the poor and outcast of the world.  “The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us” as John puts it at the beginning of his Gospel.  “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overwhelm it; but the darkness does not understand it”

This leads me to say, once again, something about how Paul’s words and the Epiphany story have such a great significance and relevance to us today – some 2,000 years later. Indeed, as we see global politics polarising more and more with the left wing and the right wing seeming to divide further and further apart, we see, through the influence of the media, social and public, people flocking to their own kind - a type of herding instinct often without discernment; something which I have mentioned before and which the journalist James O’Brien has termed “footballing” - taking the example of the tribal nature of football fans for the way in which we stick to our own group come what may.

Everywhere in the world today we see people “footballing” creating cultures of “them and us”.  To some extent that is human nature but is it the true nature of Christianity? Are we not better than that?

Daily I pray for discernment – to be able to see the light of True Christianity from the darkness of so many Fake Doctrines.  The birth of Jesus was meant to break the “Them and Us” culture by abolishing the word “Them” for ever, leaving only with a society of “Us”. 

He came for all – rich and poor, homegrown and foreigner.  We seem, today, to live in a deeply divided and ungodly world.  Once more a very dark world with war and conflict between nations as well as civil wars both over territory and culture/doctrine. Our Western culture seems to be dominated by selfishness and self-centredness. Instead of being in a state of self-awareness we seem to be living in a world of self-righteousness and blame with people using terms like “woke” in a derogatory manner to discredit often genuine concerns for people who are different from ourselves.  Very often people look to blame others because they cannot bring themselves to examine their own lives and sins.

So, in conclusion, in addition to prayer for the world and the darkness of war, conflict, famine, climate change and natural disasters is there an area of pain and darkness in your own life or the life of your family and friends or community?  How can you ask God to bring his light within it to shine away the fear which that darkness brings?  How will you seek out that light – be it bright or dim in your life just now? Finally, what will you do to bring God’s message, the Good News, to those who haven’t heard it or who have rejected it? How will you bring an outsider into the warmth of God’s love?

Let us pause for a moment and reflect upon this – PAUSE –

Let us pray

God of light, we thank you that you are present everywhere, even when we cannot see you. As the Wise Men saw the unusual light in night sky all those years ago and followed it to Jesus please shine your light into the difficult places of the world and our lives, and help us to listen and help those who are different from ourselves to know and love you.

Amen                                                                                  

 MFB/210/04012025