Sermon
139 – “Charity – It’s in a Freemason’s
DNA”;
preached
at the Parish Church St. Mary the Virgin, Calne, Wiltshire for the Wiltshire
Freemasons’ Annual Church Service
2
Chronicles 6:12-34; 1 Corinthians 13
May
I speak in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may my
words be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen
Once more it is a great privilege to stand up here again
in the pulpit of this magnificent church of St. Mary the Virgin in Calne and
address a few words to you at the Annual Church Service for the Freemasons in
Wiltshire; especially, for the first time, as your new Provincial Grand
Chaplain. It is so lovely to see so many of you here this afternoon and in such
fine voice too.
Last year I spoke to you about how easy it is to have
preconceived ideas about people before really knowing them and how this is
certainly true in the context of Freemasonry where people outside of our
organisation have become very suspicious of our Order and, thereby, its members
and have often judged us through lack of any real knowledge and understanding.
I have been delighted therefore to
observe how, over this last year we, in this particular Province, have opened
up our doors and displayed ourselves at so many summer events throughout the
county and had charity fairs inviting many of the charitable organisations in
the county to come and meet with our Provincial Executive and Charity
Steward. Let us hope this continues for
many years to come.
You may have noticed that our hymns and readings this
afternoon have very much majored on the theme of charity and this is no
co-incidence. They were carefully chosen
with this in mind. One of our recent
strap-lines has been “Wiltshire
Freemasons – proud supporters of charity; it’s in a freemason’s DNA”. I guess for many those words conjure up
collecting tins, alms pouches and the giving of monies to worthy causes and
that is certainly part of it. Over the years we have supported the local
hospitals in Swindon and Salisbury with teddy bears for sick and traumatised
children; monies to the Air Ambulance; to the homeless through Alabare;
therapeutic items to Victims Support and many other fantastic gifts and
monetary donations to a wide variety of good causes – not to mention looking
after our own widows and less fortunate brethren. Indeed at each and every one of our meetings
sums of money are donated through our alms and raffles to be placed in our
benevolent funds for such charitable purposes.
When a new candidate for freemasonry is initiated it is an important part
of the ceremony to remind him of the wants of others by divesting him of every
item of wealth on his person so that he can experience what it feels like to be
without money or wealth and need the support of others - but charity is more
than just that - as I would like to discuss with you today.
Today we chose two very well-known pieces of
scripture. Our first Old Testament
reading this afternoon, given by our Grand Superintendent, was taken from the
very lengthy prayer of dedication of the First Temple at Jerusalem by King
Solomon – yes it was only an extract – I did spare you the full prayer which
would have greatly exceeded the length of this sermon! Those of you who are familiar with this
reading will know that it comes after a great description of the construction
of the Temple upon which a great deal of our ritual is founded. For example Chapter 2 contains a description
of the preparations for its building including entering into an alliance with
King Hiram of Tyre for the provision of materials – especially timber; Chapter
3 contains a detailed description of the construction works themselves and
Chapter 4 the internal furnishings of the Temple and finally in Chapter 5 the
Ark of the Covenant is brought into the newly constructed Holy of Holies.
Indeed those first chapters are primarily concerned with the materialistic
aspects of the building of God’s House – the fabric and the contents.
We now turn to Chapter 6, part of which was read today,
which is a description of the dedication of the Temple to God without which it
would still, for all its finery and expensive furnishings simply be a beautiful
building. The dedication is to
consecrate and remind the people of Israel that the first and foremost purpose
of the Temple is not as a memorial or icon to King Solomon himself and the vastness
and splendour of his Kingdom (he had also had built a splendid palace for that
purpose) but to honour Jahweh, or Jehovah, the God of Israel. The prayer is also a sort of “code of
conduct” for the people placing God at the centre of their lives and that by
observing and obeying his commandments we should live in harmony with each
other. This is even extended in
Solomon’s prayer towards foreigners. This then is why the Temple at Jerusalem
became such an intrinsic part of the daily devotions of the Jewish people to
God and why its destruction and there Exile was such a catastrophe. It was “in their DNA”.
Our second reading, so beautifully read by our Provincial
Grand Master is incredibly well known and is probably the most popular reading
at a church wedding. It was whilst listening to our former Provincial Grand
Master giving an explanation of the Certificate for the Ancient and Accepted
Rite in his role as Inspector General of that Order that it came to me that
although this reading is so well known I wonder do we actually understand what
St. Paul is saying?
I purposefully asked our Provincial Grand Master to give
this scripture reading in the words of the old Authorised Version or King James
Bible Version – indeed those of you in possession of a Masonic Bible will find
that it is written in this old style. The reason I did this was because it uses
the word “charity” which St. Paul describes as being the greatest of three
Christian attributes – the other two being Faith and Hope. Those of us who are Christians are asked by
Paul to pursue these three – Faith, Hope and Charity – they should all be in
our “DNA”. Paul tells us that without
these we remain spiritually immature even if we display the gifts of the Holy
Spirit – even if we speak in tongues, even if we can prophesy, we can have much
faith and hope but without charity we are nothing.
I rarely use the King James Version today – indeed the
Bishop of Salisbury prefers that the New Revised Standard Version is used by
the ministers. My preferred version is
in fact the New International Version.
If you open this passage in either of those versions you will not find
the word “charity” anywhere on the page however hard you might look. It has
been replaced by another word. That word is “love”. “Faith” and “Hope” remain
but “Charity”, described in the King James Version as the greatest of the three
has gone – replaced by “Love”.
The reason for this is that the original word used was
the Greek “agape”. So what is the difference between the translation into charity
or into love? Generally when agape was
used to describe the vertical relationship between Human and God it is the word
“love” which was used (our love of God and God’s love of us) but in a more
horizontal relationship between Humans (manor woman towards their neighbour)
agape was translated as “charity”. Unfortunately the English language uses just
one word “love” to describe four different Greek words for love having entirely
different meanings – for example we can we say “we love ice cream” (storge), we
can say “we love our family or our fellow brethren” (phileo); we can say we
love our partner (eros) or we can say we love God (agape); but as explained,
agape can also mean that same unconditional love that gives us which we should
extend to our fellow brothers and sisters.
This is because Christ teaches us to love ourselves as he loves us – in
other words that love of agape; and to be charitable or have a love which is
selflessly committed to the well-being of others. For a further explanation of these different
loves C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled simply “The Four Loves”.
This agape is something which I recently saw well
illustrated recently in one of our own Masonic Lodge. A member had been able to attend his lodge
for some years due to personal difficult family circumstances but things had
improved a little to enable him be present at his lodge’s installation meeting
and take a small office. His words, during a toast to the visitors I think said
it all – despite his absence his return was greeted by a love and fellowship
such as he felt he had never been away and he felt an overwhelming feeling of
warmth which such unconditional love brings. That is true agape and that is
exactly as God loves us – whatever we have done and wherever we have been – and
which he expects us to display. For another example from scripture we can read
the story of the prodigal son. At some
time or other we all become prodigals but it is how we treat those who return
which shows our true agape.
I want to end, finally, with just a short thought for the
future. When I agreed to take on the
role of Provincial Grand Chaplain I informed the Provincial Grand Master that I
wanted to ensure that all lodge chaplains understood the importance of their
role – after all in rank it comes immediately after the wardens. That is because United Grand Lodge recognised
the importance of maintaining the good spiritual welfare of its members. I
therefore want those of you who are chaplains to know just how incredibly
important your role is – it is not just about saying the opening and closing
prayers or grace at the supper table – it is also to work in conjunction with
the almoner and charity steward in ensuring the spiritual well-being of the
brethren - just as chaplains in hospitals, in the workplace and other
institutions are there to support others within their secular
environments. Brethren may often
struggle with their physical and mental health or with their finances and these
struggles can put those brethren in a dark place. Here the chaplain can be on
hand for a friendly word, a comforter and a true friend assisting the almoner
in his more practical help. I therefore intend that there should be a series of
sessions for all chaplains to listen to others in that role and obtain the resources
necessary to fulfil this important task.
So in conclusion, let us constantly remind ourselves that
charity is more than just giving money – it is loving others unconditionally as
God loves us. May “charity” continue to
be in our DNA.
Amen
MFB/26102019
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