Sermon
at RC Chapel, Whaddon, Salisbury – Evening Prayer - Sunday 25 January 2015
Psalm 33; Titus 2: 1-15
May
I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen
I love Psalm 33 – it is so full
of optimism and praise for God and reminds us that the most fastidious of plans
which we might have can be so easily thwarted and frustrate us - but those
which God has, whilst often confounding us, are the ones that prevail.
How often do we plan things
right down to the tiniest detail and yet something which we haven’t planned or
which we didn’t spot comes up and completely throws all our hard planning to
one side.
I have to confess to be being
rather an avid fan of the programme Air
Crash Investigation which examines in close detail what caused some of the
deadliest and notorious of airliner crashes.
I am not sure what that says about my personality! It never ceases to
amaze me, and worry me too, how the deadliest of disasters are often caused by
the simplest of errors and also that 95% of all air crashes have an element of
human error involved – like the pilot who switched off the wrong engine at
Kegworth, or the engineer who fitted the plane’s windscreen with screws too
short for the purpose or the air traffic controller who simply forget that
there was an aircraft on the runway when giving permission for another one to
land. We often say, “I’m only human” as
an excuse for things we’ve done wrong, mistakes we’ve made, but we would be well advised to think in those
terms too whenever we pray to the one who, whilst coming down in human form, is
also divine and who hears us when we pray in faith.
There are two phrases in tonight’s
Psalm which we said together which speak strongly to me: “Sing him a new song” and “The
Lord brings the counsel of the nations to naught, he frustrates the designs of
the peoples; but the counsel of the Lord shall endure forever, and the designs
of his heart from generation to generation.”
The psalmist is saying that we
need to repent – to turn away from our old ways – to turn to new ones – the
ones he wants for us – to sing him a new song.
And in the later quote he reminds us (and here he is talking principally
about the peoples of Israel) that unless we are working to the same agenda as
him, all our plans and energy will come to nought and we must always keep his
desires and grace in mind. As God’s servants we are here to serve him in
today’s world. By the way we worship and act we are witnesses to his love and
desires.
Paul takes up this theme in his
letter to Titus. Titus was a young church leader in Crete, the largest of the
Greek islands – and in the passage which was read to us tonight he is
addressing the church leadership through this letter to Titus – the essence of
which is that the leadership must teach sound Christian Doctrine to the
Christian community. The beginning of
the letter, Chapter 1, which was not read this evening, reminds those
Christians in Crete that they must remain pure in heart and demonstrate that
purity in the way they speak and behave and this is evening more so when
addressed in the second chapter to the leaders of the church. Titus is
specifically called upon to teach what is “consistent with sound doctrine…to be
temperate, serious, prudent and sound in faith, in love and in endurance”.
From what we know of historic
records, at this time Cretans were far from these ideals and Paul was anxious
that where people stated to be Christians, and in particular were visibly seen
as leaders of this new religious “order”, they should give no cause for
criticism that they did not adhere to what he calls doctrine.
When we read the list of
virtues which Paul asks Titus and his groups to display none of them should
come as anything of a surprise to us.
Indeed as Christians in the 21st Century, we should be
displaying all of these virtues in a world that sees so much disruption and
evil and where it is often hard to be able to show our Christian grace without
appearing as a doormat or being ridiculed.
I am not sure I quite agree
with Titus’s views on slavery in verse 9 and 10 – these verses actually being
removed from the Lectionary - but I have deliberately kept them in because at
the time Paul was writing this letter, slavery was just as much a part of
everyday life as owning a mobile phone today or car. In effect, Paul is telling the slaves to act
in a way expected of them – as he too is asking the church leaders also to act
in a way expected of them. As
Christians, to act in a way expected of you.
The role of us, as active
disciples of Christ in 2015, is also to act as expected. It is no good, for example, for me to stand
here and denounce Sunday trading and then, in the same breath, go into Tesco
straight afterwards or more unlikely still, denounce the evils of drink and
then go over the road and have a pint or two in the Three Crowns Inn. That is something which you would be quite
right not to expect me to do if I were to preach to you the doctrine of
abstinence. We are all expected to live
pious lives – that doesn’t mean, of course, boring - lives – Jesus’s own life
was very far from boring – but lives which honour the teachings and deeds of
Jesus Christ.
Over the years different
churches have taught different doctrines resulting in many ecumenical councils
to work out difference between churches and within churches – especially the
eradication of heresies and the forming of a common doctrinal view on who Jesus
actually was – Divine, Human or Both? And
also as to when he became Divine or was he always Divine? “Ecumenical” comes from the word “economy” –
which comes from the two Greek words “oikos”
meaning “household” and “nomos”
meaning “law” – in other words “the laws of the house”. I am currently undertaking a specific module
on Christian Doctrine and ever since Jesus’s time theologians have argued at great
length over doctrine – resulting in the Great Schism of 1054 and later the
forming of the Protestant Faith in 1519. Much blood has been spilled over
differences in Christian Doctrine – a virtual civil war between Christians. So
it is good to go back to read Paul’s letters when he was setting up and
ministering to the early Christian churches around the Mediterranean. And here, in Titus, as in his two books to
Timothy, his other great young progeny, he simply goes back to the basics of
Jesus’s teachings as a basis for Christian Doctrine.
As I pursue my studies as a
minister of this church I often think of how theologians have often complicated
our thinking. Yes, it is true that the
bible, all 66 different books (39 Old and 27 New Testament) need careful
analysis and interpretation - often to understand their historical background
and context – hermeneutics as
theologians call it, but the message is
often very clear and simple and this letter to Titus is no exception.
The final two paragraphs could
so easily have been written this weekend – rather than nearly 2,000 years ago
and I think it worth repeating them again:
“For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,
training us to renounce impiety and worldly
passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled,
upright, and godly, while we
wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God
and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. He it is
who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
If we follow that advice I
think we can do little wrong in living up to what is expected of us by he who
created us and in doing this we can live in peace with ourselves and God taking
whatever life may throw at us:
Let us pray:-
A prayer: by St. Therese of
Lisieux
Our
God,
We
ask for ourselves and for those dearest to us
The
grace to fulfil perfectly your holy will
And
to accept for love of you
The
joys and sorrows of this passing life
So
that one day we may be reunited in heaven for all eternity.
Amen
MFB/Sermon/53
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