SERMON 81 - SUNDAY 12 JUNE 2016

Sermon at Winterslow Baptist Church and Whiteparish Evensong  – Sunday 12 June 2016

Psalms 52/53; Genesis 13; Mark 4:21-41

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

Do you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? Everything you touch seems to go wrong?  From breakfast until bedtime you have one of those horrible days when you wish you had never got out of bed in the first place.  The toaster doesn’t work, there’s not enough milk for your cereal, the eggs are past their sell-by date, the car won’t start and when it does, eventually, and you get to work the day gets even worse.  Everyone is demanding your attention, the computer decides to upgrade its software just as you need to get a 4,000 word document out which you were working on yesterday for three hours, and you then can’t find it or worse still it’s been deleted by the phantom gremlin which seems to inhabit your laptop; the client you expected to see early doesn’t turn up and that “nightmare one” you didn’t expect to see does!

And so on and so on.  Or perhaps you have a day you can look back on when you made a wrong decision which had lasting consequences on your life and other people, who seem to you to be far less “worthy”, seem to sail through life without seeming to ever have any problem.

Well you are not alone.  The great thing about being part of a Christian community is that although we still have those types of days (and as Christians let me make the point that we are never immune from them) we can share our ups and downs with the one who truly loves us, God the Three in One, and often things are either never as bad as they seem or we can sometimes even find that God had a better plan for us all along.

Has anyone ever seen the Michael Douglas film “Falling Down”?  As I read the two Psalms for today, 52 and 53, this film came immediately into my mind:

	Psalm 52
1		Why do you glory in evil, you tyrant, •
		while the goodness of God endures continually?
2		You plot destruction, you deceiver; •
		your tongue is like a sharpened razor.
3		You love evil rather than good, •
		falsehood rather than the word of truth.
4		You love all words that hurt, •
		O you deceitful tongue.
5		Therefore God shall utterly bring you down; •
		he shall take you and pluck you out of your tent
		and root you out of the land of the living.
6		The righteous shall see this and tremble; •
		they shall laugh you to scorn, and say:
7		'This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, •
		but trusted in great riches and relied upon wickedness.'
8		But I am like a spreading olive tree in the house of God; •
		I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
9		I will always give thanks to you for what you have done; •
		I will hope in your name,
		for your faithful ones delight in it.

		Psalm 53
1		The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' •
		Corrupt are they, and abominable in their wickedness;
		there is no one that does good.
2		God has looked down from heaven upon the children of earth, •
		to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks after God.
3		They are all gone out of the way;
		all alike have become corrupt; •
		there is no one that does good, no not one.
4		Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, •
		who eat up my people as if they ate bread,
		and do not call upon God?
5		There shall they be in great fear,
		such fear as never was; •
		for God will scatter the bones of the ungodly.
6		They will be put to shame, •
		because God has rejected them.
7		O that Israel's salvation would come out of Zion! •
		When God restores the fortunes of his people
		then will Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

[Take time out to read them in the WBC service]

Michael Douglas’s character, Foster, has a truly horrendous day which can only be described as going from worse to worse.  Having lost his job and his family he is on his way to work for the final time and then on to celebrate his little daughter’s birthday at the home of his estranged wife when he gets stuck in a terrible traffic jam on the freeways of Los Angeles.  He totally loses it, getting out of his car and wandering off into the neighbourhood – his abandoned car contributing further to the mayhem on the freeway.  He must have felt very much like the Psalmist as his anger started to explode.  In trying to call his daughter on a public payphone he runs out of change and goes into a small grocery store where the owner will only give him the change he needs if he purchases a small item for an exorbitant price.  Taking a baseball bat in the shop he then proceeds to smash up all of the store’s over-priced stock. Walking into a fast food chain burger store he is refused to be served an item from the breakfast menu because it’s three minutes past 11 a.m.  After a further altercation he is served a burger from the after-breakfast menu and then throws a “wobbly” when the burger does not resemble its advertised picture.  In this case the wobbly involves shooting up the staff with a gun acquired from an army surplus store.  The character’s behaviour just then deteriorates further with him becoming a dangerous wanted serial murderer.

Now I am not suggesting that Foster’s behaviour is typical of somebody whose day goes wrong but I am sure we can all remember times when frustration and anger have overtaken our normal level-headed characters.  Tiredness, illness, fear, anxiety, loneliness, a feeling of injustice (as with Foster) can all be causes or contributing factors to our reaction when things just don’t go our way.

The Psalmist doesn’t rant and rave at God but lets off steam in the way in which he rebukes those around him who seem to triumph over him or who seem to have a better life through their evil ways.  Very often, like him, we simply cannot understand why some people seem to delight in doing evil things, lying and saying things which hurt us and others.  As Christians, we too should question how it is that this can be so; but neither should we ever lose sight of the fact that God is also hurt by the things which make us upset.  Vicky Beeching wrote a lovely song “Break our Heart with the things that break Yours” indicating a need to understand God better by having empathy with those things which grieve him.

The Psalmist continues to have faith that God will bring down those who disregard him “trusting”, as he says, “in the goodness of the God for ever and ever”. 

In my own life there have been many occasions when doors have been slammed shut in my face.  I didn’t go to the grammar school of my choice; I didn’t go to the university of my first choice; I wasn’t able to find a firm of solicitors in my local town who could train me after leaving university; I never got the top job within the companies in which I did work; finally I was made redundant and my marriage failed.  But, despite all that, when I look back I have much to be thankful for : the grammar school I did attend resulted in the making of very valued lifelong friendships; the university I went to was 130 miles away and not 22 miles away from my home and taught me independence sooner within a totally different culture and again I made lifetime friends; the failure to get a training position within my local community resulted in me applying for a job which opened the doors to a far better training contract with a top lawyer in London; moving to the south launched me on a political career; not getting the top job meant that I could concentrate on the work I really enjoyed as a litigator and advocate and not burdened by the administrative duties of the senior lawyer allowing me time to undertake civic duties as a councillor; my redundancy led to me re-training as a church minister and finally the failure of my marriage, I have since discovered, has led me to a strengthening of my Faith and greater discernment through finding a new partner with whom I can truly share my Christian beliefs and grow.  A lovely image which was once given to me was that of a beautiful embroidery. Stunning and perfect on the front but on the back a seeming tangle of wool of different colours in different directions. So is our life.  From day to day we see it from the back – God sees the wonderful picture emerging in the front.

Time and time again we will reach crossroads in our lives, many of which lack signposts. Do we carry straight on or do we deviate from our path and if so do we go left or right?  We often simply do not know;  but God does and often he will, if we listen carefully, point us in the right direction if only we have the courage and humility to ask him – through prayer – and the patience to listen.  I also believe that if we do make the wrong choice, he will at some later time put us back on course because he alone knows, at any time, what plans he has – as it says in Jeremiah 29:11 (although in this Jeremiah is talking more about the people of Israel as a nation than individuals) “I know the plans I have for you; plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future”.  To give you a “hope”. 

In our first reading today, Lot and Abram part company.  Lot was the nephew of Abram, his brother’s son, and the family had already travelled extensively around the Middle East following God’s command to Abram to leave Ur and go to Canaan via Harran.  Following a famine the family moved into Egypt and following an altercation with Pharaoh, they moved on to the Negev (an area in the south of Israel between Beersheba and the Gulf of Aqaba) where we picked up the story in the reading.  The extended Abramic family and the herds which accompanied it had grown to such a size that wherever they now settled together, the land was unable to support them.  The obvious solution was to split off into two separate groups - especially as we read that quarrelling had now also broken out between the different family units. 

Abram shows immense grace in this passage.  In order that there should be no prolonged quarrelling he tells Lot that he can make the choice whether he goes left or right, east or west, at this crossroads. Abram is clearly quite content to let Lot make the decision.  Looking around Lot decides to go east, after having come to the conclusion, following a quick “reccy”, that the plain of Jordan in that direction looks well-watered and a much better bet to take his family and herds.  He seems to make this choice without any Godly discernment or prayer but purely on his own thoughts and desires and a cursory investigation; and dare we say by more commercial considerations.  As agreed, Abram lets him take his choice and goes off in the opposite direction leaving Lot and his family to make their way towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the fate which awaits them there. Who is to say we might not have done the same thing. So often the route which is the more tempting, often because it appears to give more instant gratification, is the one which will lead us away from God and his real plans for us - as was the case here.

Abram, on the other hand, by giving the choice to Lot has left the decision entirely in God’s hands so that after the parting, God speaks to Abram and tells him that he will be given all the land around him – north, south, west and east.  By letting Lot make the decision to go for the apparent better choice, Abram will be rewarded with far more. What a wonderful promise God makes to him – to prosper him and his family and to make his offspring numerous.  At this time we are told Abram is around 140 years old.  So in this simple story of Lot and Abram we see that when we leave a decision in God’s hands very often the least appealing of choices can very often be the correct one – the one God wants us to make leading to fresh pastures.

Jesus extends this theme in the sermon on the mount when he says “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth” [Matthew 5:5]. Here meek does not mean timid but means those who will wait upon God’s word and not jump forward with their own plans.  Those who have hope in God’s favour.  Jesus was not a person who was timid but spoke plainly and at times not politically correctly!

We see this theme again in the Song of Mary, the Magnificat (Luke 1:47-53), when it says “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts … and lifted up the lowly”.

Indeed, in our Gospel reading, Jesus is very clear that Christians should not be timid but should put their Faith in God.  We are told that as well as these three well known parables – the lamp on the stand, the growing seed, the mustard seed and calming the storm miracle – he illustrated the concept of the kingdom of Heaven in many other parables – a simple way to explain not only to the people but also his own disciples the purpose of his ministry and its goal.

Each of these parables talks of waiting upon God.  In the lamp parable he is saying that we should be open in our Faith – not conceal it but share it so as to illuminate others; in the case of the growing seed he is reminding us of God’s wonderful mysteries.  That the farmer scatters the seed and waters it; but it grows through God’s hand until it is ready for harvesting; likewise, the mustard seed starts from the smallest of seeds yet grows into a substantial bush.  This is how our Faith should grow. Something as seemingly insignificant as a tiny seed can, by the hand of God, become an immense and striking thing.  So too, can something seemingly insignificant in our lives, or our seeming insignificant lives themselves grow into something immense for the glory of God.

I could speak at great length on each and every one of these parables but for today simply want to illustrate the point that it is often important just to have the Faith and courage to leave it entirely in God’s hands.

The story of Jesus calming the storm emphasises this all the more and also makes it clear that even if we consider ourselves to be disciples, committed followers of Christ, this is still not easy.  The disciples had already spent much time in the presence of Jesus, they had observed miracles and other signs that Jesus was a unique and holy person, sent from God, yet when the wind and waves start to rock the little fishing boat out on the open Sea of Tiberius (Galilee) they fear for their own lives whilst Jesus seems oblivious to the storm and their fears.

Last time I came to talk to you I mentioned the dangerous hardships which the trawlermen of Grimsby faced on each fishing trip – dangers experienced by all those who put out to sea from the shelter of the Humber Estuary and well known by all families on shore.  Likewise, it’s almost certain that both the disciple fishermen and their families would have known of the intense dangers for all those who put out to fish on this inland sea.  It might not be the North Sea or the Barents Sea but it similarly renowned for the sudden winds which come down the Jordan valley and can whip up a frenzy on the surface of the lake.  We can, therefore, assume that on the occasion spoken of in Mark 4 it must have been a truly terrifying experience for it is recorded that they thought that they were in real and imminent danger of drowning.

Jesus admonishes them for their lack of Faith – “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  Jesus must have really getting frustrated with them as I believe he often does with us today!

Time and again, Jesus tells his disciples to have faith; and that is the message he continues to give us.

God is with us and God appears to us continually if we have Faith.  We often feel that God has either abandoned us, isn’t listening to us or doesn’t understand the situation we find ourselves in.  This is clearly what the fishermen disciples thought.  But both our Old Testament reading and the story of the calming of the Sea of Galilee illustrate that this is not the case.  Likewise the hope and prayers of the psalmist indicate the correct attitude we should have as believers in God and followers in Christ.

You each have a piece of paper and on it I would like you first of all to write down two things – something which has happened in your life in the past which seemed bad at the time but which later turned out for the good and something today something which you are struggling with and want prayer for.  You can either share them with somebody in your church family, keep them and pray yourself or give them to me at the end of the service for later prayer.  Note the prayer down and in a year’s time see if and how they have been answered,

In the meantime, let’s pray a prayer of serenity:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 
enjoying one moment at a time; 
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will; 
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. 

Amen.

MFB/81/06.06.2016

SERMON 80 - SUNDAY 5 JUNE 2016

Sermon at All saints Parish Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 5 June 2016

1 Kings 17:17-24; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

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

No one hearing those readings this morning can escape the amazing similarity between our Old Testament reading and the gospel reading.  It’s as though Jesus is copying almost precisely what the Jewish scriptures had written about Elijah many hundreds of years previously – during the period of the kings of Israel and Judah.  In the first instance, Elijah is raising to life the son of a Phoenician widow – a non-Israelite – and this is the first instance in scripture of the raising to life of a dead person.  Jesus, we are told, raised three people from the dead – his friend Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter and the widow’s son.  In each of the first three instances (including Elijah’s raising) it is the Faith of the bereaved which brings about the miracle – the Phoenician widow recognises Elijah as a great prophet, a Man sent by God, Mary and Martha had great faith in Jesus to have saved their brother Lazarus, as did Jairus; but in the case of the son in the coffin, Jesus takes compassion on the widow and without being asked touches the coffin and raises the son.  It is after this miracle that the family and mourners believe in Jesus’s power as “a great prophet”, no doubt remembering their scripture and the recognition of Elijah as a great man of God in the Old Testament reading.  A man taken up into the Heavens and whom many believe will return to eat with them at their Passover supper table.

The importance, therefore, of Jesus’s miracle is to establish him, first and foremost as a great prophet – by emulating Elijah he can establish himself amongst the Jewish people as being sent from God, being a man of God.  It is another great step entirely for him to establish himself and his divinity as the Son of God and as we know the Jewish leaders could never accept this and crucified him, ironically, thereby establishing it themselves for him and us through the power of the Cross and his own Resurrection which lives with us today.

However, we need to look at our widow in the Old Testament reading in a bit more detail.

The period of time of which this was written was a terrible time for Israel.  They were ruled by King Ahab who “did more evil in the sight of the Lord than those who went before him” (1 Kings 16:30).  We read that he married Jezebel and worshipped Baal.  Elijah then told Ahab that there would be “neither dew nor rain fall on the land for the next few years” unless Elijah commanded it at the word of the Lord.  Elijah was then told by God to flee and hide in the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan where he would find a brook to drink from and would be fed by ravens. Eventually the brook dried up and Elijah, at God’s bidding, went to Zarephath where he met the widow whom he asked for a drink of water and some bread.  Because of the drought which Elijah himself had summoned up, she had very little water and no bread, only a small amount of flour and oil – enough just to feed herself and her son for one meal. Elijah commanded her to first make a small cake for him to eat with what little she had and told her that in so doing her jars of flour and oil would not dry up. She did as commanded and indeed both flour and oil were replenished miraculously day after day.

Later, despite the ever restored ingredients for making bread, her son fell ill and gradually got worse until he stopped breathing. The widow’s immediate response was “What do you have against me, you man of God?  Did you come to remind me of my sins and kill my son?”  This response immediately tells us two things about the woman, first of all she recognised and acknowledged that Elijah was indeed a man of God – the miracle of the ever filling jars was tangible proof of this, but also, as with many Jewish believers, God’s wrath was punishment for sins committed.  Clearly, she had in mind sins which she herself knew of but which are not stated in the scripture or, presumably, apparent to Elijah.

As we read, Elijah performed some ritualistic kiss of life on the boy and his life was restored.  At this the woman again declares – “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is truth”; and this is precisely the response Jesus was seeking when he chose (not asked but chose) to restore the life of widow’s son in the coffin.  To get an acknowledgement that he was sent from God, that by the resurrection of the boy he could show not only his power through the miracle but also that, in Jewish terms, the resurrection also wiped away any sins of the deceased or his family.

Paul in his letter to the Galatians is writing to a bunch of Christians who are having doubts about Paul’s authority and authenticity.  As with many of Paul’s letters, this letter to the church in Galatia is in response to one written to him by Judaisers (or by those influenced by them). These were newly converted Jews to Christianity who believed that the old rituals and laws of the Jewish Faith in the Old Testament should continue including the practice of circumcision. Paul was of the view that the New Testament teachings of Christ, the New Covenant, overruled this and that new converts to Christianity did not have to adopt the old Jewish customs and practices. They therefore needed to know whether Paul’s teaching were right or whether they were being led along by a false prophet.

The letter is somewhat of a rant and in particular Paul needs to assert his authority and authenticity in a situation where it is known that he was never an apostle or disciple of Christ before the Ascension. He appears to be in direct conflict with Peter, Jesus’s right hand man during the years of his ministry on Earth.  Paul, therefore, like Elijah and Jesus, has to somehow prove himself as a true man of God.  In this he speaks of his amazing transformation from bigot and Jewish zealot to an apostle of Christ.  In effect, his experience on the road to Damascus is like a resurrection or re-birth.  Another miracle to show that he is indeed a man of God and that he should be listened to and followed seriously.

The language adopted by Paul in describing his conversion carries an ironic reference to Elijah – this time to 1 Kings 19 when Elijah has once more fled from Ahab and said “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me”. You will also remember that God’s response to Elijah was heard not in the wind nor the earthquake nor the fire but in a gentle whisper. And where was Elijah asked to go – the Desert of Damascus!

People often say to me “Why is it, in this day and age of so much evil we never see any miracles like those described in the Bible?”  Well my answer to this is that day in, day out there are indeed miracles.  I constantly hear of people coming to Christ, repenting and giving their lives over.  I read of the marvellous Christian revivals in Africa, Asia, especially China and other parts of the world and even in my own life some wonderful miracles have happened in recent times.  Yet, so often, miracles are not recognised as such. We often brush aside events as co-incidences, yet they can often be signs from God.  I tend to call them God-incidences when I cannot explain something yet it leads to a strengthening of my Faith.  Sometimes they seem to be a miracle but in many cases simply answers to prayers.

The bottom line is the courage to have Faith, to accept that God, when called upon can do great things in our lives and in the lives of others.  The important thing is that we continue to strengthen our Faith, continue to connect with God through his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit so that we can say, like the widow and the bereaved at the funeral and indeed the Galatians “I know that the words of the Lord and the prophets are truth”.

Amen

MFB/80/01062016

SERMON 79 - SUNDAY 28 MAY 2016

Homily – Sunday 29 May 2016 – West Dean Parish Church –

Team Service to Celebrate 150 Years of Reader Ministry

My colleague Debbie has already spoken to you about the history of Reader ministry, how it started, how it developed and how it impacts on church life today.  I would like to continue that theme with saying just a little about other areas of ministry and in particular those outside of the parish church environment – and in particular pastoral work and chaplaincy.

As well as being licensed as a Lay Minister in the Salisbury Diocese, I have also put my skills to use as an employment lawyer for that wonderful Christian charity, Alabare Christian Care and Support, by serving on one of their management committees.  Having been so impressed by the work of the charity at the top level I felt a call to become more involved at the “coal face” using the skills and training received as a lay minister and so offered myself as a chaplain at Alabare Place in the centre of Salisbury, which houses some 33 homeless people and runs a drop-in centre for those still on the streets or those who have moved on but still need the love and support of a community.  It is immensely rewarding and has made me realise that many who become homeless very often find themselves in difficulty through circumstances which are not necessarily of their own making. Addiction and mental illness, for example, can devastate people and their families.

Jesus said that he had come for the poor and sick (Mark 2:17); that the healthy do not need a physician. We read in the New Testament how he healed many both physically and spiritually and gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples (which includes us) to carry on this work after his Ascension.  It is my strong belief that the church has an immense role to play in the community at large and it is so pleasing to see that places such as here in West Dean, are engaging so well with the community.  The role of ministers of all types, not only ordained, and I include all lay workers, lay pastoral assistants and lay worship leaders, is to spread the gospel of our Lord by being as much like Jesus as our gifts can support.  James said “But someone will say ‘You have faith and I have works’. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Chaplaincy is one of the richest of ministries.  It doesn’t require ordination or lengthy theological training but it does require people who are steeped in their Faith and who are good listeners.  In a recent survey conducted by Alabare amongst its service users one of the most popular answers to the question “What makes for a fulfilling life” was “To be listened to and respected”.  It wasn’t about having lots of material things, although a few said it might help! It was simply to be treated as though the person mattered, important enough to be listened to and given an opportunity to be understood. 

I chose to be a chaplain amongst the homeless and the veterans – working within a charity local to us here in Salisbury and which I admire greatly and for whom I already worked. But there are many further opportunities to provide pastoral care within our communities. Chaplains will be found in schools, factories, prisons, hospitals, hospices, courts, football clubs and many other places associated beyond church. As Christians we are all called upon to minister to the people.  The church (with a small “c” – not the building but the community of Christian believers) can be a place where transformation can begin.  Lay pastoral assistants, for example, are to be greatly admired.  They quietly go around the community doing God’s work by helping, supporting and sometimes just listening to others in need or lonely.  In this busy world, made even busier by lots of new technology, it cannot be denied that there are vast numbers of people, especially the elderly who are very lonely.  A visit, a chat, can make an immense difference to their lives.

A great example of chaplaincy within the community is an organisation called Anna Chaplaincy for Older People providing pastoral care to the elderly.

An Anna Chaplain to Older People offers hope of transformation through a blend of friendship and intensive listening, and by sharing the gospel when appropriate. By hearing and reflecting back to people the stories of their life, and their memories, individuals can be helped to make sense of their identity - past, present and future.

A bereavement counsellor has said :

“It is such a privilege to be trusted, and you are trusted. People will tell you things, trust you with things; pearls of wisdom which stay with you, and you think about them. You get so much love from people. You get so much love back. So it's not all altruistic. Not by any means.”

This statement can be replicated for all forms of lay ministry – whether it’s preaching as a Reader or welcoming people at the door of the church or serving coffee on Sunday mornings. 

St. Francis of Assisi is credited as having said

“Preach the gospel always and only if necessary use words”. 

As Christians we are called upon to love our neighbours as ourselves – the Second Great Commandment left to us by Jesus.  We can do this no better than by serving others, listening to others, supporting others and preaching the gospel by the way we live our lives and show our love for those around us in our community.  Then our church will become the great transforming body God wants it to be.

Amen

MFB/79/26052016

SERMON 78 - SUNDAY 22 MAY 2016

Sermon at Whaddon Roman Catholic Chapel – Sunday 22 May 2016

Exodus 3:1-15; John 3:1-17

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

I have an immense empathy for Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem and therefore, we can assume, was a very learned and well respected individual within the hierarchy of the Jewish religious order.  A man well versed in the Scriptures with a great knowledge of the Law as handed down by Moses.  We might almost say an “enlightened” man – a man like those who later challenged the word of God from a scientific point of view – requiring tested proof of what was being asserted in Scripture.

I have to say again that I have a great empathy with Nicodemus because like him, I once could never get my head around the term “born again”. 

I was brought up on a diet of Anglican tradition, doctrine and dogma.  Baptised at the age of 2 months and later confirmed by the Bishop of Lincoln at the tender age of 13, having the Bishop lay his hands on my head I believed that it was him, and no other, who could impart (a good Charismatic word) the Holy Spirit on a young believer like myself.  I went through stringent confirmation classes with the local priest before that special day, oddly the date being 6^th June 1966 (66/66!!), and thought that now, as a fully-fledged member of the Church of England, I’d done all that was necessary for my salvation.  I’d now “bought the teeshirt”, so to speak!

Having left my home town in Lincolnshire, I later found myself studying law in Liverpool and was enticed by one of my fellow law students to join the University’s Students’ Christian Union where I first encountered more evangelical and charismatic Christianity.  A question everybody seemed to ask me when I first arrived at their meeting was “When were you born again?” and, like Nicodemus, I really didn’t understand what they meant by that term.  I had only been born once I told them.  “No”, they responded, “when did you accept Jesus as your Saviour and receive the Holy Spirit?”

“Well, I guess that was when I was baptised (I think I used the word ‘christened’) and I received the Holy Spirit from the Bishop of Lincoln” I replied.

It seemed to satisfy them for the moment although they said that I might not have been properly “born again” in the way they meant.  I was distrustful of these so-called “born again Christians” and although I continued to be a member of the Christian Union (with a good friend who is now a Baptist minister encouraging me to stay) I still felt a bit of an outsider because I hadn’t been “born again” as many of them who, like Charles Wesley, could give a date and a time for their second birth.  Was I missing something here?  My Christianity had grown over a long period of time not a sudden conversion with the seeming obligatory requirement to speak in tongues!  My family, my mother in particular, although not a regular church goer, had instilled good Christian values and she had held herself out as a Christian. So what was all this nonsense about being “born again”?

When I first read the passage in John concerning Nicodemus’s questioning of Jesus, I felt reassured that here was another lawyer seeking to understand what this was all about.  Jesus’s answer confused me even more but confirmed to me that because I had been splashed with water at my christening and had the Bishop lay his hands upon me at my confirmation I had been baptised by both the water and the spirit – so I was okay.  However, during a service given by the Christian Union in a Baptist church in the Toxteth area of Liverpool I did remember feeling, for the very first time, something rather odd and much deeper and spiritual than I had ever felt before which, in itself, affirmed to me that the Holy Spirit really did exist. But was it truly within me?

It is interesting to read that Nicodemus does not doubt the authenticity of Jesus as a teacher.  He addresses him as “Rabbi” – a mark of respect for a Jewish teacher; but it is also clear that Nicodemus feels that his position and own authority could be challenged by such a visit in that he seeks to come to Jesus by night – interestingly in subsequent mentions of Nicodemus in scripture he is always referred to as “…he who came to Jesus by night”. Nicodemus asks all the questions we would have asked I am sure.  “How can a man already born of a woman be born again? Can he go back into his mother’s womb?”

I felt the same, I felt that my own authenticity as an Anglican was being compromised in some way because I hadn’t felt the same degree of spirituality as these others had. Did that make me any less a Christian.  Indeed, I probably felt slightly superior because, unlike many of them, I had been properly baptised and confirmed in the established church – not dunked in some river or swimming pool by a non-Anglican pastor!

I continued to read my bible – the one great thing was that through the Christian Union I acquired a translation of the bible which I could, at long last, understand – and I tried to figure out this whole thing about the Holy Spirit.  Jesus I understood, God, his father, the Creator, I understood, but the Holy Spirit was quite mysterious.

It was to be many years later that although believing and accepting the concept of God, Three in One, the Trinity, I again felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in a big way. It was whilst undertaking a spiritual awareness exercise, a visionary prayer session at Spring Harvest that I felt the Holy Spirit really come upon me for the first time.  A real feeling of serenity and joy and a clearing of many doubts and misunderstandings from previous scriptural readings.  What Jesus said to Nicodemus suddenly made a great deal of sense.  I was born again in the form of having such a better understanding of what Jesus meant when he talked about the Kingdom of Heaven; something which is here and now and not somewhere else at a different time.  The Holy Spirit had moved me but in a quiet and gentle way. 

We so often think of scripture in terms of historic events, or in the context of the Book of Revelation, future predictions or prophesies, but the great thing I found after my experience at Spring Harvest and subsequent call to ministry, was the wonderful discovery of the relevance of scripture to today’s world.  I felt a strong call to preach the gospel today for today’s people.  Hence this and all my sermons are published on line for others to read electronically.

Jesus says this to Nicodemus.  He is telling him that he is here for today.  He explains to Nicodemus that despite all his knowledge and profession as a teacher, he can’t begin to fully understand the heavenly (or spiritual) side without believing that Jesus has come from Heaven to Earth and will die (“be lifted up”) so that all may have eternal life.

In our first reading, Moses also doesn’t quite understand what he is seeing – a bush burning but not being consumed.   

Just as Nicodemus challenges what he is hearing, Moses challenges God to understand what is being asked of him.  He needs to know the name of the living God so that if he is to try and free his people in Egypt he wants the name of the authority by which he seeks to do this. The answer is equivocal “I AM WHO I AM” you must say that say that “I AM” has sent me to you.”  As we know, I AM has been translated as YAHWEH or JEHOVAH.  Moses is now expected to go back to a country where he is wanted as a murderer and appeal to Pharaoh to set free all the Hebrew slaves. His only authority – “I AM has sent me”.  What a challenge is that!

I am sometimes asked why it is that I believe what I do.  I can only say that I have the faith I have because I have felt God’s presence in my life so many times now and more recently during a bad patch in my life.  We are all called to be Trinitarian Christians; to believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  I think that the Holy Spirit gets a bad deal being left out too much yet, only last Sunday, we celebrated Pentecost.  Last Sunday churches throughout the world celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles and all believers. Up until that point the Spirit had been bestowed upon single individuals for specific purposes.

Following Jesus’s ministry on Earth, he left us with the Holy Spirit which is here and now; a freely available gift for us all.  It costs nothing yet gives us everything.  I was in Winchester Cathedral last Sunday evening at a multi-cathedral event called “Your Kingdom Come”.  The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a homily simultaneously to the congregations of five English cathedrals.  In Winchester there were 2,000 people inside the building and another 2,000 outside on the green.  During the course of the 2-hour session thirteen people were baptised and confirmed.  The place was thick with the Holy Spirit.  A warmth and love which if replicated would heal many of this sick world’s woes overnight.

Jesus spoke wisely to Nicodemus.  Be born again!  That means repenting, quietly if like me that’s your style, turning to God through Jesus and embracing the Holy Spirit who is here to give us the power to break through the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth for ourselves and future generations.

There is a lovely chorus to the hymn “There is a Redeemer” which frequently comes into my head when I think of the Holy Spirit. It scans as follows:

Thank you O my Father

For giving us Your Son

And leaving your Spirit

Till the work on Earth be done

There is still much work to be done but by embracing the Spirit which he left us, we can carry it out.

Amen

MFB/78/19052016

SERMON 77 - SUNDAY 24 APRIL 2016

Sermon at Winterslow Baptist Church   – Sunday 24 April 2016

John 21:1-25

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be ever acceptable to you O God.   Amen.

First of all I want to thank you so much for inviting me to return to the village where I lived for more than 16 years to come to you this morning and preach on this most wonderful of pieces of Scripture – John’s final chapter of his Gospel. For me it is full of such richness and I find myself easily identifying with Peter.  There is so much we can unpick from these words – so many lessons for us to learn from and, above all, that wonderful feeling that the resurrected Jesus gave us the gift of forgiveness – for me the main lesson here is that however much we fail Jesus, he will always restore us if we truly love Him and others.

I love any stories in the bible concerning fish. My life seems to go in 16-18 year cycles.  The first 18 years of my life I lived in the great fishing port of Grimsby on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, the second and third periods of 16-18 years or so being in Brighton and then here in Winterslow.

I frequently return to Grimsby where my 87-year old mother continues to live in the same house I was brought up in as a child and my son now lives in Hull (that unmentionable city on the north bank of Humber Estuary in that foreign county of Yorkshire) – for us Grimbarians the north bank of the Humber Estuary was as foreign as the far side of the English Channel.  They spoke in a strange language and seemed to have a culture far different from ours. Great rivalries abounded not least the arguments as to the differing qualities of the fish landed in each fishing port.  Although the fishing has totally disappeared from Hull and has declined substantially in Grimsby, the heritage remains and even the supporters of Grimsby Town Football Club attend games armed with inflatable haddocks called Harry!  For the town, fish and fishing were and still remain the important cultural background for many customs and views.  Fish became a form of currency in the town (when my father did any small electrical jobs for family or friends he would often be paid in haddock fillets) and we seemed to live constantly on a diet of fish or home-made fishcakes. Even my first full time job was working for a food manufacturing and processing company in the town.  For your own preservation, please never ask me to describe what goes into a manufacture of frozen fish cakes!

The Deep Sea Mission became an important centre in the town and the Fishing Community Chaplain a very important member of the town’s community.  There used to stand a lovely steepled church close to the fishing docks named after Andrew, the brother of Peter, where special services and often prayer sessions would be held for those fisherman lost at sea.  The strains of that hymn, Eternal Father Strong to Save – the fisherman’s hymn – could often be heard wafting across Freeman Street.  The loss of a trawler up in the icy reaches of the fishing grounds of the Barents Sea and north of Iceland being a far too common occurrence and inevitably bringing grief to whole families and streets in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.  The life of a trawlerman was indeed hard, being apart from his family for several weeks at a time and living in cramped accommodation on board ship facing immense hardships and the freezing cold icy climate of the northern fishing grounds – often working in that environment non-stop for 20 hours or more.  It was particularly difficult for them when, having suffered all these deprivations, they returned to port with a poor catch or to find that the price of fish had slumped and the profit they hoped to share amongst the crew, had dissolved.

I was, therefore, always delighted to be brought up with the knowledge that the first persons to be called to follow Jesus were fishermen!  It seemed so natural to me that if Jesus wanted tough ordinary blokes as followers who could weather the storms of uncertainty, the life of a nomad and being away from home for long periods of time, then fishermen were ideal.  I also have always loved the phrase “fishers of men” (see Matthew 4:19) and can well relate that to my formative years living in a fishing town.

Here in this reading today, we learn that the fishermen disciples, having seen their leader crucified, resurrected but not having ascended were in a kind of limbo. The whole events of Passion Week and the sudden re-appearance of Jesus had bemused and confused them.  What could they do? What were they expected to do?  Peter must have thought long and hard about his denial of Jesus and felt totally wretched.  For a brief moment he had put his own preservation before all else – he had denied knowledge of Jesus on Maundy Thursday just after having had that last supper with him.  He had been the first disciple to be called to be a “fisher of men”. Jesus had called him, Peter, the rock upon which Christianity was to be founded, his right hand man but also prophesying not what he was but what he would become (see John 1:42).  His inescapable rashness had often brought about Jesus’s admonishment of him but throughout their ministry together Jesus had always extended his love and forgiveness.  Jesus had told him that he would deny him.  Peter could never believe that he would ever do such a thing but there on that evening he had.  Was there anything Jesus didn’t know about him? What was it all for?  Where had it led him?  What was his future?

Like the people of Grimsby, he decided that in all the circumstances he should return to what he knew best – fishing. And so we read that he announces to the other disciples that he is going to return to this occupation.  “I am going out to fish”.  To get back onto the water away from the events of the previous few weeks.

This is not uncommon.  Back in Grimsby again, deckhands were taken on just for the duration of an individual fishing trip.  Once that trip was concluded, and they had received their share of any profit they were released and would have to tout around the trawler skippers for get a new berth.  If they had proved themselves especially capable and hardworking they might be taken on again but if not they could spend quite a few weeks or even months on shore and very often the frustrations of not being at sea, earning, could land them in serious trouble with their families or, in extreme cases, the local constabulary!  Once the bug of fishing and the sea had bitten it was difficult for a mariner to live on land.

So it’s no wonder that Peter, who had spent a lifetime on the Sea of Galilee before meeting Jesus, should want to get back on board a boat and back to his beloved fishing.

The dangers of fishing and the uncertainty of the catch had been spoken of in Scripture earlier. Indeed, fishing is regarded as the single most dangerous occupation in this country – ahead of coal mining even.  At the height of the industry, hundreds and hundreds of trawlermen lost their lives at sea. The Sea of Galilee was also notorious for the sudden winds which could rush down the Jordan Valley and whip up the surface of that large inland lake.   You will recall the storm on the Sea of Galilee when the disciples had admonished Jesus for remaining asleep in the boat whilst they feared for their lives (see Mark 4:35-41) and again when they had caught nothing and, on a previous occasion he had commanded them to cast their nets again (see Luke 5:4-7).  That was the occasion when, according to Luke, the Disciples were first called to follow Jesus. The net was so full on that occasion that other boats had to come and help them land all the fish.  The fishermen of Grimsby use echo-sounding devices to find the shoals of fish, not so Jesus. Again and again the disciples were shown miracles yet had found it so hard to believe the true nature and identity of Jesus.

This last chapter of John’s gospel is so very important to us.  We, like Peter, can allow our everyday situations to govern our faith instead of listening and watching out for signs from God.

Peter has returned to his secular occupation.  He probably feels very much at home back on the water.  It’s familiar and comforting, even if not exactly comfortable.  But we read that it isn’t very successful.  Perhaps after three years of following Jesus and ministering to the people on the land he has lost his maritime touch. Fishermen will tell you that even with all the modern technology at their disposal they still often have to rely upon an instinct as to where the best fishing grounds are to be found and will sail there before resorting to echo-sounding.  But I think the truth of the matter is that in this passage Peter needs a history lesson.  He needs to be reminded of where he has come from and what was expected of him as Jesus’s rock.  Hence, just as at the beginning of his ministry, he is to be found bobbing around on the lake with the fish, once again, eluding him. 

Nothing, generally annoys a fisherman or angler more than somebody coming up and asking you if you’ve caught anything when clearly you haven’t.  I know! As a youth I went fishing in the Lincolnshire rivers quite frequently and just as frequently came home with nothing – usually an eel had consumed all my tackle!  So imagine Peter’s mood when somebody shouts out from the shore “Haven’t you any fish?” No he hadn’t despite having been out on the lake all night. Just what he needs to hear. Then the history lesson begins.

“Cast your net on the right side of the boat” he commands.  An echo of that first time when Jesus had called Peter to ministry “Put out to deep water and let down your nets”.  It must have struck a chord with Peter but still the disciples don’t recognise the instructor.  But just as in the first instance, they were unable to land the fish unaided because of the large number caught.  We are told that the number was 153.  Theologians have mused for centuries on the significance of this number without any conclusion other than it signified a very large number. For me it does have a great significance.  I came to accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour when I was at University in Liverpool.  I joined the University’s Christian Union and had my very first taste of Evangelical and Charismatic forms of worship – being at that time a Church of England chorister before going off to Liverpool. I left a fishing town and ended up being caught  by the Holy Spirit in Liverpool. My room number at the Halls of Residence at that time was 153!  Something I’ve remembered ever since.

Suddenly John himself (described throughout as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) recognised Jesus and exclaims “”It is the Lord”.  I suspect a great lump came into Peter’s throat at this time – of joy and perhaps a little apprehension too but, as impetuous as ever, he jumps into the water before the boat reaches land – some 100 yards or so - perhaps he thought he could walk on water again but clearly this is not the case this time.  Jesus has clearly already been up early and has caught fish himself – some of which he is broiling on a fire.

The history lesson continues here too.  Jesus is standing by the fire on the beach – probably a charcoal fire to barbecue the fish.  Peter must have had a terrible flashback to Maundy Thursday; for probably the last time he had stood around a charcoal fire was when he was warming himself in the Chief Priest’s Courtyard denying his connection with this same Jesus. But not only is there fish on it but also bread – another historic reminder of that last supper he had had with Jesus immediately before he was betrayed and denied. “Remember me whenever you eat this bread” they had been told.

Peter, at Jesus’s command brings more fish and the disciples are invited to have breakfast. Note that Jesus distributes the fish and the bread just in the same way he had broken bread at the Last Supper and again on the road to Emmaus when he is finally recognised by the disciples accompanying him. (see Luke 24:30-31)

.   

I think Peter must have been feeling pretty guilty at this point – too many reminders of his failures and weaknesses.  We too can often feel weak and guilty when we know that we fail to live up to what the outside world expects of Christians and our own views of what we sometimes think God expects of us.  But we are tempted, we are weak like any other person and Peter’s story is a great inspiration to us all when we feel like that.  The disciples must have been overwhelmed.  Jesus was back with them from the dead and doing an everyday thing with them – eating breakfast.  Peter must be happy but also ashamed all at the same time.  Like the time when we have a guilty secret which we hope our parents won’t ask about.

But Peter isn’t off the hook – to use a fishing term again.  He still needs to be redeemed. Jesus isn’t about to let him go without a final lesson.

As soon as they finish eating, we read that Jesus asks Peter an amazing and direct question, the question which Peter was probably dreading  – “Simon, son of John”, note that Jesus uses the name “Simon” and not “Peter” – this must have been significant to Peter.  No longer is he being referred to as the rock – his denials have struck home – or at least that is what Peter must have thought. “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”.  Peter immediately responds with “Yes Lord, you know that I love you”

Jesus responds “Feed my lambs”

A second time, “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?”

“Yes Lord you know I love you”

“Take care of my sheep”

And a third time “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter is being described as being hurt at this stage by being asked so many times to affirm his love of Jesus; but this is an extremely redemptive moment and one where Jesus is showing his compassion.  Three times, around a brazier of charcoal Simon Peter had denied his association with Jesus – not the action expected of a loving loyal disciple, so three times, around a blazing charcoal barbecue fire where fish have been broiled, Peter is made to acknowledge his love.  This is not an act of humiliation for Peter but an action to put the matter straight, to redress the balance, and for the relationship between Jesus and Peter to be restored.

“Feed my sheep” again Christ responds. 

My studies tell me that on the first two occasions that Jesus asks Peter if he loves him he uses a different Greek word for love from the third one.  In our NIV bibles the words “truly love” are used for the first two and just “love” the third time. “Truly love” in the first two instances means a love in which the entire person, including their will is involved.  A full and thoughtful love.  “Love” in the last question means “a spontaneous natural affection of fondness for which emotion plays a more prominent role”.  In other words, Jesus is trying to say to Peter that his love for Jesus must be full in every aspect, thought and emotion.  Whatever interpretation we adopt, the bottom line is that in such an important matter as the re-instatement of Peter, the great question is whether he really loved Jesus.

Jesus then tells Peter that in being restored, he will pay a great price: Martyrdom for the sake of his Faith by which God will be glorified.

John ends his gospel quite abruptly, telling the reader that many other things occurred but too numerous to be contained in a single book.  As we know the story continues within our own lives and we see the glorification of God through answer to prayer and the presence of the Holy Spirit working within us.

In this modern day and age of increasing secularisation and apparent moving away from traditional Church attendance, we are, nevertheless seeing an increase in the desire for the spiritual.  A yearning for a knowledge as to what life is all about. You only have to see the number of books on spirituality and self help manuals on the bookshelves of Waterstones and there are clearly Christian revivals going on in Africa where the Holy Spirit is being manifested daily by miracles and healings. 

 Unfortunately, Like Peter, we are human and can be distracted and seek to return to the normal secular way of life or be drawn into it by others and by circumstances.  But as Christians, we are called by God, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit to feed His sheep, look after His lambs, and spread the good news of his coming.

Above all, as Christians, we should show compassion and tolerance for others so like Jesus, when somebody wrongs us, we can and should forgive them and, if they truly love us and want to make amends, return to us and restore the relationship. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Compassion, as shown by Jesus towards Peter around that brazier, is the root of Christian love shown to us and which we should show others.

In recent times, those of you who know me, will know that I have been through a very difficult and unexpected patch of rough water in my life.  It could have been so easy to shake my fist and reject God, turn my back on my faith and seek vengeance for the way I was treated.  But if I am to be a true Christian, a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, then I should not reject God but pray to him to see me through the bad times and seek restoration according to his will.  That is precisely what I did – although it was not easy.  As a result, my Faith was strengthened, relationships restored and fresh ones begun, and by the grace of God, today I find myself in a much better place than before knowing that full love required of Peter.  I felt the love and compassion of Christ enfold itself around me and accompany me through that long dark tunnel or as the Psalmist called it “the valley of the shadow of death”. (see Psalm 23:4).

Peter, from those dark moments of his denial, his return to fishing and then his restoration, went on to found Christ’s church and bring many Jews to the Christian Faith. Indeed he was martyred for his Faith; but as we read in Acts and his Epistles, he grew into a Christian giant, a great evangelist and lover of Christ.

May we follow that example.  May we continue to feel that love which Jesus has for us and we have for Jesus. 

In a moment of silence let us individually ask Jesus to be with us now as we reflect upon these few words and ask him to strengthen our Faith, support us in our busy lives and ask him for any redemption or restoration we feel we may need – perhaps simply to ask him to help us to pray more, reflect more, glorify him more and share our concerns and feelings with him; then I will end in a short prayer for us all.

Let us pray together:

Almighty God

We thank you that you sent your only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us;

We thank you that you sent your Holy Spirit into the world to continue his work;

Let your true love continue to enfold us and may we love you and be ever faithful to you throughout our lives

Give us the courage never to be afraid in speaking out your name and our love for you to others

Help us to share your love for us to the whole world and never deny you.

In the name of your Son, Our Saviour Jesus Christ,

Amen                                                                                                       

MFB/77/21042016

SERMON 76 - SUNDAY 10 APRIL 2016

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish   -  Evening Prayer  – Sunday 10 April 2016

Isaiah 38:9-20; John 11:17-44

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

Martha said to Jesus “Lord, if you had been here, my brother [Lazarus] would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of Him”. Jesus said to her “Your brother will rise again”. Martha said to him “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”.  Jesus said to her “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they will die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

This is the same Martha that complained to Jesus in an earlier visit to Lazarus’s house when her sister Mary had sat down in the parlour to listen to Jesus’s teachings whilst she, Martha had been rushed off her feet in the kitchen preparing supper for their host.  It had been Mary who had broken open the jar of expensive nard perfume to anoint Jesus’s feet and wipe them with her hair, whilst Martha had again been busying herself on domestic chores – again we see Martha is complaining again that Jesus should have come earlier and prevented the death of her beloved brother, Lazarus.  We could call her “Martha the Moaner” but in this passage the truth is that she receives a massive revelation – a massive faith that Jesus is all whom he says he is after he explains to her his true mission on earth.

A long dark shadow had fallen over that small house in Bethany where Jesus had, on numerous occasions, enjoyed a good meal, drink and the company of his friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  Martha is incredibly angry.  When Lazarus had first become ill they had sent for Jesus knowing that he was a great healer but, as we can read earlier in John 11:4, Jesus, upon hearing that his good friend was seriously ill delayed going to him for a full two days and there followed a debate with his disciples as to whether or not they should go back to Judea where the elders and scribes had sought to kill Jesus. Jesus, knew that Lazarus would die if he didn’t go straight away but explains to his disciples that “I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Martha is therefore quite indignant – “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” She moans. I am sure we have all had those thoughts – “if only I had been there” or “if only I hadn’t done that” and especially in tragedies when we hear stories like those which were published after the 9-11 horror – stories of people who were killed or were saved through good or bad timing. Here, though, Jesus acts beyond our earthly view of timing.  For him, the delay is of no consequence other than as a means of showing to his disciples, many of whom still cannot quite grasp who Jesus actually is, and to the world of disbelievers that he is the long awaited Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the World.

We can also hear and feel Martha’s pain at the loss of a brother.  Most of us here, probably all of us, have felt that pain of losing a loved one.  When we see somebody whom we love so dearly carried away by death it can be easy to want to blame God for taking them away from us. The grieving process can be long and complex consisting of seven recognised stages – shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and, hopefully eventual acceptance.  We see all of these in Martha but she has massive Faith that Jesus could have saved Lazarus; but a deeper healing than Martha has in mind is on offer.  Even Jesus weeps at the death of his friend – a tangible piece of evidence from scripture that Jesus understood and experienced human grief and, even with the knowledge of what he was about to do, it’s perfectly okay to shed a tear of sorrow – indeed, it is often positively helpful. 

When Jesus says “Your brother will rise again”, Martha interprets this as a widespread Jewish belief in a future resurrection of all the dead whose names are in the Book of Life on the “Day of the Lord” (see Daniel 12.2).

But Jesus corrects her: the promise of resurrection and eternal life is not lodged in some future event at the end of time – “on the last day” - but is available already in the person of Jesus. Jesus, as Tim Heaton puts is, identifies himself as the present fulfilment of future expectations, and asserts his rule and power over our present and future lives. Physical death has no power over those who believe in his name.  Martha’s response, “I believe”, is an affirmation of belief not in Jesus’s statement or its logic but in the person of Jesus himself and it is this belief that brings power to his name.

Jesus then demonstrates this “present fulfilment” by calling the dead Lazarus out of his tomb.  We read how the stone was rolled away and Lazarus came out unaided, still wrapped in his funeral clothing.  By this one act Jesus demonstrates not only the power he shares with God the Father – this one showpiece miracle as Heaton calls it – but also foretells his own death and resurrection from a similar tomb.  A sign, we could say, before he himself becomes the sign of God’s power and love.

Jesus’s death and resurrection will be the beginning of a brand new age in which God’s hope for the world becomes a reality. We are living in that new age; an age when the glory of God has been revealed to us.

We read later on that Martha’s sister, Mary, met with many of the Jewish Faith who came to believe in Jesus and it was this increasing belief and adoration that led to Jesus being seen less and less in public until that final week of the Passiontide.

During the long period of my theological study for this ministry, I have had to consider and understand the various differing views of numerous eminent theologians over how atonement is attained through the Cross.  I prefer to keep it as simple as possible.  God revealed his love for us, his willingness to forgive us by sending his Son, a perfect human yet also divine to act as a go-between.  To be human himself, to experience the same emotions as any one of us, love, anger, grief, frustrations yet pure and unsullied to be the perfect unblemished sacrifice for us.  Above all, he is relevant for us here today – not at some future time. He is timeless – the alpha and the omega – beginning and the end. 

Lazarus, we must assume, eventually did die, unlike Jesus.  The miracle of his resurrection was for that time and place to show the love and power of Jesus as the Messiah.  The wonder of Jesus’s resurrection was to show the love and power of God the Father – a love not just for his Son at that time and place but for all of us and future generation for all time.

Amen  

 MFB/76/10042016

SERMON 75 - SUNDAY 3 APRIL 2016

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish   -  Morning Praise  – Sunday 3 April 2016

Acts 5:27-32; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

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

Quite a number of years ago, (2007) when my eldest son, Thom, was still at Primary School, we had a family holiday out in The Bahamas where we had friends.  Because of the restrictions imposed by schools we had to go during the school holidays and chose the Autumn half-term.  In fact we did get special permission to take Thom out of school for an extra week but still we had to pay the usual premium for flying during the school holidays.  Anyone who knows the Caribbean will also know that September/October is hurricane season and whilst we were out there the islands were lashed by a tropical storm (which had started as the devastating Hurricane Noel) and for several days we could not enjoy the water parks and other outdoor attractions on New Providence Island.  Our resort sought to entertain us in other ways including, one evening, the famous Hollywood actor, Kevin Costner, arriving to perform an evening’s concert with his music band “Modern West” which played country and western and American style music.

We managed to get seats right at the front and towards the end of the concert, Thom was invited to go up on stage with the great actor for a short performance. At the end Kevin called Thom “buddy” which thrilled him.

On our return to the UK, and Thom’s return to school, each of the members of his class were asked to say something about their Half-term Holiday and Thom, of course, very excitedly told the class about being in a hurricane and meeting and going on stage with Kevin Costner who had called him “his buddy”.  The teacher, quite wrongly in my view, told Thom not to make up such stories and to tell the truth (presumably the other children didn’t have anything  quite so unusual or exciting to tell).  Thom was extremely upset (as were his parents) and we dug out a photo of Thom with Kevin Costner to take to school to show the disbelieving teacher. Unfortunately she still did not believe it as the photo showed a rather sweat-glistening Costner (through his exertions as a band leader) and she said that this was obviously a wax model of the famous actor in some museum.

We heard this morning of another Thom, (Thomas the Twin, or Doubting Thomas) who would not believe his companions when told that Jesus had risen from the grave saying, like the teacher, that he wanted tangible proof of Jesus’s resurrection.  However, unlike the teacher in my story, Thomas fell at his feet and acknowledged Jesus to have risen.  Jesus famously said:

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (verse 29).

Our Faith is based on that same belief.  In this day and age of increasingly secular “enlightened” views it is often hard to explain our beliefs and Faith to ever more doubting and suspicious people.  As I found out with my brush with the teacher in my story, very often people just do not, or do not want to believe something if it seems fantastic or cannot be explained or there is no actual tangible proof.  It is for this reason that books like Richard Dawkins’ “God Delusion” become popular – allowing people to feel good that it is alright to disbelieve and encouraging people not to step out in belief beyond tangible explanations.

In the film “The Way” which we recently studied as part of the Lent Course, the disillusioned Jack, the Irishman from Northern Ireland, will not enter a church – describing churches as “Temples of Tears” from where he comes from. For him people’s religious beliefs have torn his country asunder.  But the reality is that the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, the beliefs which we will later recite in the Creed, should be so embedded in all our denominational churches that any differences of style or ritual should not detract from the Christian principles of a love of God and a love for each other.

Before Thomas’s arrival in the room on the second occasion, Jesus tells the disciples that he is sending out the disciples to proclaim the Gospel in the same way in which God the Father had sent him – that they would receive the Holy Spirit and that they too would have authority, amongst other things,  to forgive sins.  Jesus was telling them, in effect, that with the Holy Spirit within them, they had direct access to God the Father just as he had and that the same powers were available to all who believed; something which the Jewish leaders would find unacceptable as a challenge to their own power and authority.

Peter, in our reading from Acts confronts this when challenged by the High Priest who thought that only he had such authority.  Indeed, Jesus was considered a blasphemer for the claims he had made.  Peter emphasises that the Holy Spirit is the witness to the power and authority of Christ for the repentance of Christ and forgiveness of sins.

Again, in our reading from Revelation, an elder John, writing to the churches in Asia confirms the authority by which Jesus acted and that only through him comes true repentance and salvation – emphasising that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were with God the Father from the beginning and will be with him until the end.  Authority through them is the only and proper way to salvation.

As we continue through the Easter season we approach two further significant events in our Christian Calendar – the Ascension – when Jesus left us on earth to return to his Father and Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended to become available to one and all.

Pentecost is a most wonderful time – when a wonderful gift was bestowed upon all Humankind who truly believed.  Like those early apostles we ourselves are recipients of those gifts and fruits which come with the Spirit. We sometimes cannot discern them ourselves and need others to help us but each and every one of us who has been blessed with the Spirit has gifts which can and should be used for God’s greater glory in proclaiming the Gospel; that we act and speak in ways which can show others the true meaning of Christian love and Faith. Above all that we believe even when others might test that Faith and even ridicule it just as that teacher ridiculed my own son.

As a reminder, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit have been defined as:

Wisdom – Let is judge things in the way God does

Understanding – The gift that helps us to understanding all that God has told us

Courage/Fortitude – This gives us the strength to do what is right no matter how hard

Knowledge – This lets us see the world as it really is

Right Judgement/Counsel  – This gift helps us to know what to do especially when faced with really difficult situations

Reverence/Piety – This gift gives us the power to love God and our neighbour as we should

Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence/Fear – This gives us the power to remember the greatness of God and consequently gives us a horror of offending God who has loved us so much

Paul in 1 Corinthians 12  tells us that these gifts can be manifested by showing wisdom, showing knowledge, healing, performing miracles, prophesying, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different tongues and interpreting tongues.

This morning and in the days ahead, let’s use the time between now and Pentecost to pray and contemplate the gifts which the Holy Spirit has bestowed on each and every one of us.  Let’s ask that even before Pentecost the Holy Spirit will be renewed within us – just as it was breathed upon those first apostles. Perhaps in the weeks ahead try and discern what gifts may have been particularly bestowed upon your neighbour here in church this morning, or in your partner, friend or child.  In my own home group we shall be doing this over the next few weeks.  This is a good example of that age-old Christian fellowship which was first described in the Book of Acts – supporting each other so that each day they grew in number.  Let us never be frightened to proclaim the Gospel – just as our last hymn this morning encourages us to do.  

Amen  

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