Michael's Ministry (Sermons for Reflection)
A place to view all the sermons I have delivered since January 2012
Friday 18 October 2024
MY NEXT SERMON
SERMON 206 - SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 2024 - TRINITY 20 / HARVEST FESTIVAL
Sermon at St. John’s Church, West Grimstead - Trinity 20/Harvest – Sunday 13 October 2024
Mark
10:17-31
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and may these words be yours Lord, and may
you bless all who hear them. Amen.
“Here
comes that man again, running up to Jesus with a question about eternal life.
We can hear those dreaded words on Jesus’ lips even before the man approaches:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone
who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Even before Mark tells us so, we know
that the rich young man will turn away grieving, for he has many possessions.
And some of us grieve with him as we see him leave, knowing his choice could be
ours as well.”
Thus, begins
a sermon by an American pastor, Stacey Simpson.
She then
goes on to recount that she remembers the first time she read the story at the
age of 7 in her childhood bible book. She tells how she was so alarmed when she
reached verse 25 that she slammed the Bible shut, jumped out of bed, and went
running down the hall and shaking her my mother out of a sound sleep. “Mom,”
she whispered urgently, “Jesus says that rich people don’t go to heaven!”
“We are not
rich. Go back to bed,” came her mother’s response.
The little
seven-year old girl knew better. She knew that she and her family had all they
needed plus plenty more. She would later learn of fascinating attempts to
soften the text (the use of the word “camel” for “rope,” or “eye of the needle”
for “a small gate”), but the little girl inside her knew that these words of
Jesus were clear and hard and scary.
Mark
10:17-31 hangs on the question of eternal life. The rich man wants to know how
to get it. The disciples want to know who can have it. And the good news that
Jesus offers is this: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God
all things are possible.”
This story
can be regarded as one of the gospel’s healing stories. The rich man runs up to
Jesus and kneels, just as countless other Jesus-pursuers have done throughout
the Book of Mark. The scene is set for him to request and receive healing, and
his running and kneeling show that his request is both urgent and sincere. But
he is the one and only person in the entire book who rejects the healing
offered him.
We read, in
Mark’s account that “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Matthew and Luke
leave this out. But Mark, who seems always spare with words, takes the space to
note that Jesus loves this man. He offers him healing. “You lack one thing”,
he says; “go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (In Mark, the word
“go” is used almost exclusively in the healing stories.)
What is the
healing that this man needs? What he lacks is that he does not lack. This man
is possessed—but only by his possessions. Jesus is offering to free him of his
possession, to cure him of his excess. But the rich man turns his back.
Stacey
Simpson goes on to say that she too grieves because she has accumulated so much
since first reading this text. Likewise, I am constantly being reminded by my
wife that we have “too much stuff” and really need to rid ourselves of so many
possessions we either do not use or do not need. Stacey raises an interesting
question for us. Are we also possessed, but only of possessions? Are we
refusing to be healed by Jesus? What can we do to inherit eternal life? Jesus
tells his disciples - Nothing. For mortals it’s impossible. But not for God. To
say we must give up all our wealth in order to be saved puts the burden on us
to save ourselves. Neither wealth nor divestment of wealth saves us. God does.
Our Harvest
Festival service today reminds us, as we sing in our hymns, that all good gifts
are sent from Heaven above. That whilst we might sow and then nurture that sown
grain, we still rely upon God to send us the rain and the sun to grow and ripen
it. It is a reminder that without God and the nature which he has created, we
can do nothing.
For the
young rich ruler, it was a test. Jesus truly loved him and his sentiments to
want to follow the Christian way but when the crunch came, he simply could not
part with his possessions. He could not change his life-style and be saved.
Even Jesus
realized he could not save himself. Those who think they can will surely lose
their lives. But those who recognize the utter futility of self-reliance, who
realize that their salvation really is not possible, will be saved by the God
who makes all things possible.
Yes, there
is still the problem of having too much stuff. It keeps us from realizing our
need for God because we use it as a buffer against vulnerability. We use it to
fill the emptiness in our souls. We use it to feel less susceptible to the
vagaries of life. It keeps us from seeing how needy we actually are and gives
us a false sense of security.
The rich
man’s secure status in life led him to keep asking the wrong question: What can
I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus’ response was that there was nothing he or
anyone else could do. And Jesus told him to release his wealth and give it to
the poor—to grow closer perhaps to the fragility of life, to take his own place
among the poor.
The poor,
the sick, the demon-possessed and the children of whom Jesus speaks all live
close to the fragility of life. They are thus more likely and more able to
respond to a vulnerable Christ. The disciples freed themselves of what would
stand between them and that fragility and were somehow able to follow the One
whose life would soon be a ransom for many. In many ways we have to be like
children, as Jesus reminded us in our gospel reading from Mark last week, or
like those who know they are really sick or like disciples who have let go of
all the things they once relied on—in order even to see how much we need Jesus.
What must we
do to inherit eternal life? We must let go of all that we have and all that we
do that gets in the way of seeing that there is nothing we can do to save
ourselves. Even then, letting go of it all is beyond our capacity. The hardest
news Jesus has is the best news we could get—our salvation is impossible except
for God.
To conclude,
I can recall an instance of my own when I knew somebody who once said to me “I
don’t need to go to church any more, I don’t need God, I have everything I want
– a successful career, a lovely wife and family, a big house and a secure
financial future”. A few months after
making that statement he suffered a severe stroke which, fortunately, was not
fatal and he did recover, but that one devastating event changed his whole
outlook on life and Faith and he praised God for his eventual although lengthy
return to health.
In saying
that it is difficult for a rich man to get into the kingdom of Heaven, it is
not just by being rich, per se, but by allowing our possessions and the love of
those possessions get in the way of the true richness of loving Christ and
being close to him through the knowledge of our fragility and the need for
perseverance – “to go through the severe times”; for as Paul writes in his
letter to the Romans (5:3-5) “we also glory in our sufferings, because we know
that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character,
hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…”
Jesus himself had to persevere through the Passion and the Cross – an
example to us all and a reminder for us not to take for granted that we do not
need God’s love and grace so that we can really prosper as his children.
Amen MFB/206/09102024
Wednesday 9 October 2024
SERMON 205 - SUNDAY 6 OCTOBER 205 - TRINITY 19
Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley - Trinity 19 – Sunday 6 October 2024
Genesis
2:18-24; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and may these words be yours Lord, and may you
bless all who hear them. Amen.
Today’s readings are quite a
personal challenge for me, so thank you, Simon, for allocating this Sunday in
the Lectionary for me to lead and preach a service to you!
In today’s modern age, our Old
Testament Reading and our Gospel Reading may seem outdated and of little
relevance to many. During my lifetime,
our cultural world has changed almost beyond recognition. When I was born, homosexuality was a criminal
offence punishable by imprisonment and divorce was frowned upon and in many
situations, people were shunned if they left their spouse, even in
circumstances where there had been violence, mental abuse or control. Today we see legal same-sex marriages and
no-fault divorces. The question which we
as Christians have to consider is where we stand in relationship to the Word of
God and the teachings of Christ.
In fact, statistics show that
within the Church at large, the divorce rate is pretty much exactly the same as
it is in the wider secular community. I
don’t have any figures for same-sex relationships but guess it might not be
much different except for being more clandestine.
Taking our first reading, from
Genesis 2, not many people realise that this is the second account of Creation
– the first being found in Genesis 1 and when it comes to the creation of
humankind the two are quite different – don’t take my word for it, read it for
yourselves at the front of your bible at home. Today’s reading, the second
account, has Man being created first and then Woman being created out of
Man. This second account was placed in
the bible to underline the thinking at the time of Man’s superiority over
Woman. The first account, in Genesis 1, however reads:
“So God created
Humankind in his image; in the image of god he created them; male and female he
created them”. (Genesis 1:27 – NRSV).
No mention here of Man being
created first and then Woman as an afterthought so that she could be his
“helper” – no, God created them equally in his image.
The purpose of this illustration
is to remind us that whilst we can accept scripture as being inspired by God,
and I have no trouble with that, we still need to be aware of context and
history relating to when and why it was written – especially Paul’s letters –
otherwise we can find ourselves being judgmental and unkind to others in
circumstances where it is not right to be so. Scripture can so readily be used
as a weapon against others when it should inspire us through the lens of the
Cross – indeed, in all our studies of the Old Testament we have the benefit of
looking back through the lens of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection.
The writer of Hebrews, who
incidentally we do not think was Paul, reminds his readers of this when he
talks about God now speaking to the Jews, whom he is addressing, through Jesus
and no longer through the prophets. We have passed from old creation to new
creation, from Old Covenant to New Covenant, and our importance to God is
emphasised by the suffering of his own Son, Jesus, on the Cross. We are,
thereby, slightly lower than the angels – we are in the Premier Division of
God’s Creation. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that with Christ having
come amongst us and suffered alongside us God has effectively made Humankind
the brothers and sisters of his own dear Son, Jesus Christ. Wow, isn’t that
just amazing? Isn’t that just wonderful?
Now we turn to the Gospel Reading
which for many can be very daunting and difficult – for me it certainly is. The
reading seems so clear and unequivocal that for any preacher it seems to be a
clear message – divorce and remarriage are unacceptable and amount to a sin –
adultery – a breaking of the Seventh Commandment. Today’s reading is from Mark’s Gospel and in
Luke’s Gospel, also, (18:18) the same absolute unconditional prohibition is
read –
“Anyone who divorces
his wife and marries another woman commits adultery and the man who marries a
divorced woman commits adultery”.
For some out and out Evangelicals
the passage stops there. Both Mark and Luke record a clear unconditional
statement.
At this point I should stop; leave
the pulpit and go outside so you can stone me!
In researching this sermon, I was
relieved to find that the situation is far from having the clarity which that
short passage has alone. Fortunately, our fuller reading gives more of the
context.
Jesus we read is being tested by
the Pharisees who worked on the black and white words of scripture – just as
today so do some evangelicals. Jesus replies to the Pharisees question in his
usual manner of asking them a question back – “what did Moses command you?” –
referring back to the Ten Commandments. In fact, when you read the fullness of
his answer to the Pharisees, he emphasises that a man will leave his parents
and be joined to another woman in matrimony and that they should consider
themselves as one. He ends with the famous words which are part of the Anglican
marriage ceremony “Let those who God has joined
together let no one separate”.
Later on we read that the
disciples asked him again about the matter and we get the famous passage.
Why would the Pharisees have asked
Jesus the question in the first place? Well, at the time there was a great
debate going on between the conservative school called the Shammai and a
liberal school of thought called the Hittel about the correct interpretation of
the Jewish law. Sounds familiar? In
fact, the piece of scripture which was being debated was not the Seventh
Commandment but Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which actually reads:
Suppose
a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he
finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of
divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves
his house and goes off to become another man’s wife. Then suppose the
second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and
sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); her
first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his
wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you
shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you
as a possession.
Quite different from the simple question which is put to
Jesus. Indeed, this law is quite complex and what Jesus is saying irrespective
of all these conditions a man and a wife are expected to remain together where
the marriage is blessed by God. A man should not divorce a woman merely because
she displeases him – whatever that it meant to mean!
The two schools or thought differed in that “displeases”
could either mean sexual immorality or some other lesser attribute which the
man did not like.
In Matthew 19:3-6 we find a much better version of this
discussion between the Pharisees and Jesus. In that version the Pharisees ask:
“Is
it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have
you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and
female”, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So,
they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together,
let no one separate.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to
give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ He said to them, ‘It
was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your
wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever
divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits
adultery.’
For
unchastity! There we have it, a condition. In fact, nowhere do we find it
unacceptable in the bible to divorce in circumstances of adultery and I think
we can go one further – I cannot envision a situation where God would want
somebody to continue in a marriage which was ungodly or abusive or for that
matter simply dangerous. It is not simply a matter of displeasure but something
much more serious and fundamental. You
can put down your stones now!
Here
the Christian teaching is at variance with modern day thinking. Same sex
marriage is not found in any of the teachings – it simply did not exist, even
in the first decades of my life - and no-fault divorce seems to be a thing of
the present.
The
essence of Jesus’s teaching is that we have responsibilities to each other – to
love one another, to work things out and not flit in and out of relationships
as the wind blows. God is there for us
through good times and bad and as we were created to be relational beings, so
too must we be there for each other, supporting each other and loving each
other as well as God.
Let us pray:
Father God, we
pray for our relationships and friendships with others and thank you for your
grace that at times when life becomes difficult and we blame others, especially
those nearest and dearest to us, we will remember that we were all created in
your image and remember that we are all the children of a loving father and are
brothers and sisters in Christ who suffered and died for our salvation.
Amen MFB/205/02102024
Monday 26 August 2024
SERMON 204 - SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2024 - TRINITY 13
Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow - Trinity 13 – Sunday 25 August 2024
Joshua
24:1-2a; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Listening to and reading each of
the passages of scripture which we have heard this morning reminds us all of
the greatness and wonder of God’s grace and power but it also reminds me that
being a Christian and being faithful to the Trinity is also, at times, quite
difficult and challenging.
In our first reading, Joshua is
acutely aware that there have been negative murmurings from the Jews led out of
captivity in Egypt as far back as the early days of their wanderings with his
predecessor Moses and so decides to have a showdown with the elders, the heads
and the judges of the various tribes and puts a direct question to them – Whom
are they following? Is it the God who led them out of captivity or those other
gods who might have influenced them either when they were in Egypt or during
their journey?
In order to persuade them of the
correct answer he answers the question for himself – “… as for me and my
household, we will serve the LORD [Yahweh]” The god of the Hebrews.
I remember back in the days with
Nils and Linda Carter, here in this church and at “Food for Thought” in the
Village Hall, we would often sing the popular song “As for me and my
house, as for me and my family, as for me and my children, we will serve the
Lord” very enthusiastically. It was a catchy little number and the tune was
still ringing in my ears as I was writing this sermon.
It is a direct and very important
question – not just for those ancient leaders of the Hebrew tribes but also for
us today when there are so many false gods whom we could be tempted or
persuaded to serve – and I don’t just mean within other faiths but as the
author of our second reading put it – “rulers, authorities and spiritual and
cosmic forces of evil which surround us.
Whom do you serve? The answer, if we are committed Christians should
always be the one which Joshua himself gave.
In recent times I have become more
and more concerned and disappointed at the way the world seems to be going and
especially the way in which false Christian teaching and secular thought has
become so focussed on material wealth and worshipping the icons of self and
wealth that we forget the true message of the gospel.
For “entertainment”, I often watch
the blatant trickery adopted by preachers of the “Word of Faith” movement who
would part vulnerable people from what little money they have after promising
them a miracle. Jesus never once
performed any miracle for money or financial gain; yet people continue to line
their pockets with vast sums of money for their “ministry”. These people are
being led astray.
Never before, in my view, has it
been more important to lead people along the right path – the narrow path as
Jesus described it. It is incumbent upon
each and every one of us to act as shepherds to support each other in
continuing our faith along this tricky, narrow, winding road.
Paul in his letter to the
Ephesians gives this precise warning – that we need to guard ourselves and others “against the cosmic and spiritual powers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. Paul was
addressing the Christians in Ephesus, a dark and unholy place where immorality
and hedonism was rife. Paul was anxious
that the Christian church he had founded there should not be subsumed into this
dark culture which surrounded it. That
was in the first century AD. Has much
changed when we look at the United Kingdom in the second millenium AD?
Christians today are facing
confusion and conflicting theologies. In
recent times I have, myself, found it difficult sometimes to reconcile the
loving word of God with some of the elements of ecclesiastical doctrine and
dogma. Often we come across ministers
and theologians using scripture simply to prove their own prejudices and dogma
– what is termed eisegesis – putting into scripture one’s own ideas, as opposed
to exegesis – taking out of scripture what it is truly meant to say.
During my years of training for
this ministry we were repeatedly taught the importance of the difference. Essentially, the correct way to approach it
is to ask four questions – Who wrote it? To whom is it written? When was it
written? Why was it written? For example, in the passage from Paul, he, as we
have already discussed, was writing to the church leaders in Ephesus in the
first century at a time when that city was spiritually dark and the church
needed encouragement and support with its Christian faith. When we understand the context of scriptural
passages we can better understand what it is that they are trying to
convey. The Psalms are especially good
for this as they portray the triumph and tragedies of the psalmist’s life –
expressions of feelings and experiences we all have from time to time.
Jesus, as we learn from our gospel
reading this morning, was not exempt from being questioned by the leaders and
elders of the Hebrews and his own disciples about his status. The context of
this morning’s passage is that the Jews were arguing amongst themselves
following Jesus’s difficult statement that he is the “bread of life” and that
unless you eat his flesh and drink his blood you cannot have eternal life. They thought, of course, that he was talking
about some form of cannibalism – literally eating his flesh and drinking his
blood – but of course he is not.
The disciples find the whole
concept of his statement too difficult to comprehend and Jesus has to explain
that he is talking about spirit and life – a belief that he has come from
heaven to be the way to eternal life if you believe in him and in his teachings.
For some of his disciples this is
too much to bear and they desert him but, as we read not Peter although later
on he would deny Christ on the eve of the Passion.
When I get bogged down with
conflicting dogma and doctrine and hear the dangerous words of false preachers
and those who would falsely declare themselves prophets I like to get “back to
basics”, as Prime Minister John Major once said. What did Jesus say? What would
Jesus do? I once wore a bracelet I was given at Spring Harvest on which were
inscribed the letter WWJD? It was a
wonderful reminder to keep reading the gospels and go back to basics. There
many of the conflicts can be resolved if you simply put your trust and faith in
Jesus Christ. That is why we call ourselves Christians and if we cannot do that
then perhaps we are not titling ourselves correctly!
Non-Christians have often come up
to me and said either they don’t believe Christ ever existed or if he did exist
he was, at best, just another teacher/prophet and not who he claimed to be –
the Son of God.
The respected theologian and
Christian apologist C S Lewis had this to say in response, and I can think of
no better response. It’s called the Lewis Trilemma –
“Christ
either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and
self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It
is inexorable”.
If we accept
the latter, which Lewis did himself after much soul searching and research,
then we must accept all that he said and did, and live by those Christian
values and principles he left us and preached by Paul. Values and principles
which we are to practice as a means of telling the world, just as the church in
Ephesus was meant to and those who followed Joshua, of the need to put God
first in our lives, to follow and worship the Trinity and not false idols and
gods which surround us both physically and spiritually.
Let us pray:
Father God, we
pray for the growth of your kingdom in every country around the world. Even in
the midst of persecution, ridicule and danger, give people the strength and
courage to continue sharing your good news with those around them. Work in the
hearts of non-believers and draw them to yourself, and to the existing church
communities. Help churches to continue to grow, and to thrive both in numbers
and in faith especially in those places where materialism, hedonism,
immorality, evil and violence are rife. Help them to trust in you and to
continue to work to know you better making your son, Jesus Christ, known.
We pray this pray
through that same Jesus Christ whom we acknowledge to be our Lord and Saviour,
Amen
MFB/204/22082024
Tuesday 13 August 2024
SERMON 203 - SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2024 - TRINITY 11
Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley - Trinity 11 – Sunday 11 August 2024
1 Kings
19:4-8; Ephesians 4:25–5:2; John 6:35,41-51
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Each of the three readings this morning speak strongly of our
Christian doctrine and values – that the fountain of all life lies with God
through Jesus. That’s what makes us able to call ourselves Christians – the
belief in a Supreme Being, the God of Israel, that Jesus was his Son and divine
and that God’s mercy and grace given to us is something which we, in turn
should show to others. Indeed, I could end this sermon here and now with those
words; but, in today’s commercial and material word, I think it is very easy to
lose sight of the simple messages which are to be found in scripture.
Let’s look at each passage carefully, and reflect upon what it is
telling us in this modern day and age:
First Reading – 1 Kings 19:4-8
Elijah, the great prophet from the Old Testament is tired, worn out by
his prophesying to King Ahab which has fallen largely on deaf ears. In fact, he was fleeing from the wrath of
King Ahab’s wife Jezebel who, having heard of how the priests of Baal had been
massacred, threatened to deal with Elijah likewise. He took himself off into
the wilderness and rested under a broom tree and there was lamenting what he
had done and wishing that his own life would end there and then. He fell asleep
and we then read how an angel came and provided him with bread and water to
revitalise him. Twice he had this holy visitation such that he was strengthened
to carry out his good work.
Jesus, later on in Matthew 11:28-30, promised that all those who are
weary can come to him and that he will take their burden. A promise direct from
God that in doing God’s work He will give you strength and take on any burden
too heavy for us to bear ourselves by our own efforts. Jesus also uses the
analogy of bread in our Gospel reading today which we will look at shortly.
Elijah was persecuted by King Ahab, through his wife Jezebel, because
he continued to preach and prophesying about the God of Israel and not pay
homage to the pagan gods supported by Jezebel at that time. Today, as Christians, we too can find
ourselves persecuted by not following some of the profanities of modern culture
and can be ridiculed for our Christian belief. We too can have moments like
Elijah when it all seems too much and we just want to go and hide away. At times like these, we need to put our faith
in our Saviour, Jesus Christ, pray to God through him and ask him to shar ethe
burden which we are carrying.
Second Reading – Ephesians 4:25-5:2
In our second reading, Paul is writing to the Church in Ephesus. At
that time the city was largely an ungodly place. He describes the
non-Christians (Gentiles) there as “living in the futility of their
thinking; darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is due to the hardening of their hearts. Having
lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity and a continual lust for more”.
These words of Paul precede the scripture reading in our Second
Reading and therefore we see that Paul is discouraging the Church there from
those practices which he considers impure and list those virtues which having
been taught by Jesus himself should be practised by those who call themselves
Christians. It is worth repeating them again here as I believe they form a
wonderful Code of Conduct for Christian living and which are encapsulated in
the two Great Commandments as left by Jesus with his disciples –
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind". Jesus also says in this verse that this is the first and greatest commandment. The verse continues, "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself. ' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37) -
“Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Let’s pause for a moment and reflect upon those two passages of scripture – one from the mouth of Jesus himself and one in a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Church in Ephesus – and think how relevant it is today in Great Britain and Northern Ireland where we are seeing intolerance, racism, greed, envy, crime, violence and the general dilution of these Christ-like (Christian) values.
Gospel Reading – John
6:35,41-51
Finally we
heard, this morning, from Jesus himself in our third, Gospel Reading.
Here, Jesus
is addressing a crowd of people after crossing the Lake of Galilee; but the
Jews started to complain about his preaching when he had said that he was the
“Bread of Life” – something of a flashback to the Old Testament stories of
manna during the great wanderings in the wilderness following the exodus from
Egypt and, indeed, the story of Elijah’s cake which we have just been
considering. For them it was blasphemy,
false teaching and an arrogance of somebody they had known as the son of a
humble woodworker and young wife. Now
they are being told by him that he is the Son of God, sent by God, known by God
– the bread of life. The bread, he says, will sustain them for all eternity
unlike the manna which sustained those fleeing Egypt who would all die
eventually.
Of course,
Jesus is not talking about actual baked bread, like Elijah’s cake, but himself
– his body sacrificed for all on the Cross. Later on, we read that the Jews had
taken Jesus’s words literally arguing, again, amongst themselves, how could
this man give his flesh for [them] to eat? (v 52).
Jesus is
saying that by believing in him and obeying his words, the words of God, we
shall be saved and be given the blessing of eternal life.
But, as we
have seen, in these readings and in others of the recent weeks, being a
Christian is not easy and, I don’t know about you but I find people today
either don’t want to believe in Christ or are frightened to believe – perhaps
because they think of the Ten Commandments and think that being a Christian is
all about negativity – not doing the things they want to do rather than
understanding that it is a way that leads through love of God and the Trinity
to a global love of all God’s creation and all people.
Sometimes, I
am sure those of our friends and family who are non-Christians challenge us in
many ways not least by trying to convince us that we are following a
fantasy. The great writer and theologian
C S Lewis put it like this – what is known as the Lewis Trilemma:
“Christ
either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and
self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It
is inexorable”.
If we accept
the latter then we must accept all that he said and did, and live by those
Christian values and principles he left us and preached by Paul.
Let us pray.
Dear God, we pray
for the growth of your kingdom in every country around the world. Even in the
midst of persecution and danger, give people the strength and courage to
continue sharing your good news with those around them. Work in the hearts of
non-believers and draw them to yourself, and to the existing secret church
communities. Help churches to continue to grow, and to thrive both in numbers
and in faith especially in those places where evil and violence are rife. Help
them to trust in you and to continue to work to know you better.
Amen MFB/203/08082024
Saturday 20 July 2024
SERMON 202 - SUNDAY 14 JULY 2024 - TRINITY 7
Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church West Grimstead - Trinity 7 – Sunday 14 July 2024
Amos
7:7-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-26
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
This morning
I would like to share something of my past history with you which has something
in common with each of our readings – especially the Old Testament and the
Gospel readings.
Last week we
had a General Election and as is my usual habit I stayed up half the night into
the early hours of the morning watching as the results came in and seeing quite
a few people, who I have known over the years, ousted from their erstwhile safe
constituency seats in the Labour Party landslide which followed.
It is not my
intention or wish to preach politics from the pulpit here this morning but to
relate a story which happened to me.
In 1987, I
was one of those candidates we saw the other week standing on the platform
seeing somebody else win the seat. I was
a young up and coming politician, a councillor on Brighton Borough Council and
Parliamentary candidate for the party which recently lost the election. Following on from that defeat in 1987 I was
tipped to replace a well-known politician in a safe seat at a later election. I
was nominated and accepted the role of Leader of the Opposition on Brighton
Council and short-listed for a number of seats in 1991. Alas, I was not selected for any of those due
to there being a surplus of former MPs looking for new safe seats.
As time went
by I continued to support my party, becoming local Party Chairman and held
other offices within the party. Then the day arose when the opposition party
tabled a motion on the Council Chamber criticising my Party in Government over
railway privatisation – something which I had already voiced my concern and
wavering support. My ward contained many
commuters to London for whom the uncertainty of private rail networks was
worrying. In support of those constituents, I abstained from the Labour Party
motion in accordance with our own Party’s procedure when something seriously
affects our constituents. The Labour
Party motion condemning rail privatisation was duly passed. The result for me was subsequent de-selection
as a Council candidate and my forced resignation from the local party.
Literally overnight my fortunes had changed due to a simple following of
conscience. Who knows, had I voted against my conscience to support railway
privatisation I might have ultimately realised my dream of a place in
Westminster; but it wasn’t to be. Later,
I put away my dreams of a political career and, instead, felt a calling to
ministry which is why I am here today (more of that in a moment).
So, what is
the purpose of this short testimony? Well, in any lifetime there will always
be, in my experience, times when we have to make choices between following the
popular herd and following our conscience.
To quote not from the bible but Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio “Let your
conscience be your guide” – just as an aside I was once asked where in the
bible somebody could find that quote – was it in the gospels? – took me a while
to realise that it was from Walt Disney’s Pinocchio! I always have believed that when our natural
instincts and conscience pricks us that is God through the Holy Spirit leading
us in the right path.
In our
readings this morning, Amos, who is regarded as one of the “minor prophets of
the Old Testament, describes himself as merely a humble shepherd but, in
reality he has been called by God to reveal the truth about God’s plan for the
people of Israel – to put them back on the straight and narrow using the
illustration of a builder’s tool – the plumb rule. To pull down the old and
build the new nation. In prophesying this truth, Amos finds himself falling
foul of the Israelite king, Jeroboam and is exiled. Amos replies that his words
are genuine because he is not an educated protester but a simple man with a
simple job who has been unexpectedly chosen by God to preach an unpopular
message.
In his
letter greeting to the Christian community in Ephesus, Paul in our second
reading reminds his readers that they are in a special place for by their
knowledge of Jesus they have come to understand that God has a special place
for all those who believe. That they are chosen to fulfil God’s plan for them.
In our final
reading it is Herod who finds himself being comprised and not following his
conscience and this story is perhaps the most telling of all. It is a
well-known story so I will not dwell on it in detail but even as a child, when
I heard it I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Herod even though he was,
ultimately, the executioner of John the Baptist.
Herod became the victim of his own vanity and peer
pressure. Despite the teachings of John
against some of his unlawful behaviour, especially marrying his brother’s
widow, Herod had simply had John arrested and imprisoned and not executed for
treason because he realised that there was something special and unique about
John’s preaching as well as his popularity with the people. It was only because
of his vanity at a banquet and seduction by his wife and step daughter that he
did something which pained him greatly – the one thing he did not want to do –
take the life of John. He was swayed by those around him who had evil intent
and who had their own agendas.
I recently
attended a weekend course on how we should best be disciples – especially in
the modern world and we were reminded of Jesus’s words in Matthew 7 – part of
the Sermon on the Mount. In verses 13 and 14 Jesus addressed the crowd saying: “Enter
through the narrow gate, for wide is the road that leads to destruction and
many enter through it; but small is the gate and narrow the road which leads to
life and only a few find it” (NIV). In
the ensuing few verses Jesus then tells us to watch out for false teachers and
prophets – those who would lead us as a majority through that wide gate to
destruction. Jesus tells us to be discerning and not simply follow the herd or
popular culture and to guide others through the correct narrow way.
For me, it cost me my political career which I now see as a blessing.
For Amos, it resulted in exile, and for John the Baptist and Paul, it cost them
their lives as it has done so many others throughout history. Being a true disciple of Christ was never
meant to be an easy option.
The question we need to ask ourselves and reflect upon is “how good
are we as disciples?”; as good Christians?
Are we prepared to stand up or swim against the flow of those elements
of popular culture which we see as herding us through the wide gate to
destruction? Or are we prepared to stand up against falsehood and lies? Are we prepared to go against our consciences
for the sake of a quiet life or try and lead others to that narrower gate and
path of righteousness?
It all really starts with discernment and the knowledge of God’s true
will through the words and actions of Jesus.
Once we have that special relationship with Jesus through the Holy
Spirit and using the power of prayer, then discerning truth from fiction
becomes so much easier.
Let us pray.
Lord, I ask you to
give me a discerning heart, so that I may understand your ways. Open the eyes
of my heart to see situations and people as you do. Sensitize me to your gentle
whispers, convicting and guiding me. Teach me to lean wholly on your wisdom, not
my own.
Amen
MFB/202/08072024
Monday 15 April 2024
SERMON 201 - SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2024 - EASTER 3
Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church West Grimstead and All Saints’ Parish Church, Farley - Easter 3 – Sunday 14 April 2024
Acts
3:12-19; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
On Wednesday evening this week I attended a meeting, over a light supper
at Sarum College, where Bishop Stephen met with a large number of lay people
from five of the deaneries, including our own, which make up the Sarum
Archdeaconry. The purpose of this
meeting was for him to tell us of his vision for mission – “Making Jesus Known”
and finding out what the laity felt it needed to assistant them to carry this
out – or rather what members of the laity felt they were lacking as a
resource. As you can imagine there was a
great deal of discussion and many questions but out of this, one thing spoke to
me louder than any other and this is reflected in our gospel reading this
morning.
Bishop Stephen told us a story about when he had first been appointed as
the Dean of Gloucester Cathedral. At his
first service, he had witnessed the departure of a long-standing director of
music and at the end of the service a presentation was made and he asked the
congregation to give a round of applause. Afterwards, a leading member of the
congregation pointed out to him that people do not give applause in cathedral
services and also, whilst on the topic, they also object to being referred to
in his sermon as “disciples” – that is far too evangelical. They prefer to be
called churchgoers. Quite a number of
the people at our meeting laughed or gasped but I think some others sympathised
with the Gloucester member of the congregation.
It got me thinking - how do we in our rural churches see our ourselves?
Churchgoers or disciples? Well certainly we are the former, if we regularly
attend church, but what does that mean?
Are we going simply in the hope of doing the right thing by God or are
we really following the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ?
So, what is it to be a disciple? Webster's definition of a disciple is "a
pupil or follower of any teacher or school.”
A true disciple is therefore not just a student or a learner, but a
follower: one who applies what he has learned.
This was the assumption or hope which Bishop Stephen was expressing to
his cathedral congregation in Gloucester and this is the assumption and hope
which he is expressing today in his new diocese of Salisbury – to us all! That we know Jesus – hence “Making Jesus
Known” not simply “knowing about Him”.
In
our first two readings this morning, first from Acts written by Luke and
secondly from John’s First Epistle, we reflect upon the mistakes of the past in
not fully knowing Jesus. Luke in our first reading reminds us that Jesus was
put to death on the Cross by people who were ignorant of who he was and also
the reason why it was necessary for him to die. John in our second reading
reminds us that now we know him we can be truly called God’s children and, when
Jesus is revealed to us, we can be like Him.
That explains why properly knowing and following Jesus is to be a
disciple - a true follower and that is why, if we are to call ourselves
Christians, we have to acknowledge and realise that we are true disciples and
that in everything we do and say we do so in the spirit and grace of Jesus.
Our
gospel reading reminds us of the disarray in which those first disciples found
themselves after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It occurs after the resurrection and they are
all together in one place talking about what they had heard; rumours, as they
would have been, of Jesus having risen from the dead. It must have been an awesome experience for
them to have the risen Christ suddenly appearing in front of them. Even after he had shown them the scars of
Crucifixion they were still disbelieving – no doubt thinking that he was some
sort of ghost. It is for that reason that he demonstrated that he was really
still flesh and blood and alive by asking them to give him some food – a piece
of grilled fish. He then reminds them that all this was foretold in the Old
Testament and that having known him and having witnessed his resurrection they
can be true witnesses of all that has happened, witnesses of God’s love to the
people of the world and that those who truly repent are forgiven their sins
without the need for the Temple ritual previously required.
It would take a long session to consider all the arguments about the
meaning of the Cross and its significance but I think we can be well satisfied
that God sent Jesus into a broken world, a religiously corrupt world so that
Humankind could be reconciled with God and that through the death and
resurrection of his Divine Son, Jesus, we could seek direct forgiveness through
repentance and prayer – hence the tearing of the Temple Veil to signify that
every believer and follower has direct access to God without the need of
complicated rituals and hierarchy.
Today, this service is being led by me, a Licensed Lay Minister, not a
Priest. My role is to teach and preach in a pastoral context. Yes, I may have gone through four years of
theological and ministerial training and wear these robes of church authority,
but, like all of us here today, I am simply, at best, a follower of Christ and,
hopefully a reasonably good disciple although, like many of those original
disciples, I often get it hopelessly wrong!
So how can we be good disciples and how can we undertake the role we are
being asked of making Christ known if we don’t know Christ ourselves? In my
view only by studying and following the example of Christ – first by studying
the gospels and secondly by “walking the talk” just as Jesus requested of those
first disciples in Matthew 28 – the Great Commission – which I think useful to
set out again here -
Then the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When
they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.”
So ends Matthew’s Gospel as well as the
TV production of “Jesus of Nazareth” but do note that even here, at the end,
some disciples still doubted, even after all this time and experience.
In his talk last Wednesday night, Bishop
Stephen ended with another story. As many of you will realise, the Bibby
Stockholm barge, housing a number of asylum seekers at Portland, is within
the Diocese of Salisbury. Bishop Stephen, together with a local priest, went
there on Maundy Thursday after the Chrism Service in the cathedral and washed
the feet of some of those asylum seekers.
As he did so to one particular man, the asylum seeker said “Surely,
we should be doing that for you”!
Bishop Stephen used this story to
illustrate that this is an example of where we can “evangelise” our faith to others
– doing as Christ did to his disciples.
Serving and not being served and teaching others by the way we
demonstrate our good discipleship and knowledge of Jesus to those who have yet
to know him.
As we shall say, once again at the end of
the service, let us depart in peace to be sent out to love and serve the Lord.
Amen MFB/201/11042024