SERMON 121 - SUNDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2018

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Parish Church, Winterslow, Wiltshire on Sunday 9 September 2018

James 2:1-10; 14-17; Mark 7:24-end

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

I love the Book of James in the New Testament.  It appeals to me as a pragmatic learner – someone who likes to be taught in a way which has clear practical value; something which I can understand in the context of the world in which I live and something which I can use, teach or share with others.  We cannot be certain of whom the author is but general consensus amongst theologians is that it was written by James, the brother of Jesus. 

James’s Epistle is full of clear practical advice written in a no-nonsense way.  Although regarded as one of the seven “general” letters – so called because they are addressed to several groups of Christians in the Greco-Roman world – it is more in the form of an address than a letter and I think should be read as such.  It is a short book and one I strongly recommend you read in full.

In the passage read out to us this morning, James is at great pains to point out the need to respect the poor and less well off. James recognises that there is a natural human tendency to defer to social superiors and despise those who are below us on the social scale.  Whether we like it or not, this really does exist and you will recall the story I told in my last sermon of the new rector who arrived a week early at his new church dressed as a tramp and the natural tendency to shun him.  There is nothing Christian about this – the right thing is to treat everyone with equal respect – to love our neighbour as ourselves as God’s Commandment teaches us.    

               

In this country, the divide between the “haves” and the “have nots” seems to be widening and through Alabare I am seeing more and more people on the streets. James’s words are as relevant today as they ever were when he wrote them. James talks of the law that gives freedom in Verse 12 (which was not read out) reminding us that God’s law or judgment is merciful.  Mercy will always triumph over judgment. To be judgmental without mercy is not to be like Christ.

Our reading moves on to the second of James’ pragmatic messages – and a particularly favourite of mine – faith and deeds.  Over the centuries this piece of scripture has been used by the Church as a means of justifying faith by deeds or works alone which is not what James’ is saying.  In the middle ages the church taught that by giving to the church, by observing certain rules and regulations, by building magnificent holy shines and buildings we could be saved. The scripture of James was often used upon which to base this doctrine.

Paul clearly tells us that we are saved through Faith alone – not deeds alone – and that is theologically correct.  What James is actually saying though is that if we are saved, if we have true faith then we should demonstrate that faith by acting in accordance with the laws of God and teachings of Christ.  That is a practical and demonstrable way of showing our faith.  Faith which simply stops at words is not faith at all. It is not sufficient just to say “I believe in God” as we do in reciting the Creed – although that is important; it is more than a belief in God – even the Devil and demons believe in God. Therefore, in simple terms, what James is saying is that if what you believe does not affect the way you live, in what you do, in how you treat others it is a dead faith.

Jesus, in our Gospel reading meets a woman from another culture.  Jesus is in Gentile territory – away from the culture in which he has been brought up. It seems from our reading that Jesus has gone out of his way to come into this area and entering the house of this Greek woman, born in Syro-Phoenica, that is in the area of Syria and Lebanon today which to the north of present day Israel, he wants to keep this a secret. The woman’s daughter is possessed of demons we read yet she had heard of Jesus’s power of healing and driving out demons and comes to him professing faith.  Jesus tests her faith – he says that first the children should be fed before any spare bread is tossed to the dogs. He is alluding here to that human tendency of a hierarchy – determining who should be fed first.  The woman sees this as a response to the need to feed those who profess belief – the Jews, above herself and her kind for she says “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”. In other words everyone should receive something of the bread available.

At this Jesus sees in this woman a person who has shown her faith by a true belief that Jesus has come for everybody – to share the living bread – himself – with everybody irrespective of race, creed, colour provided they show faith in Him.

This is a very important piece of the gospel for it clearly shows that Jesus came for all.  That all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Likewise, in the same passage, Jesus returns to his home territory of Galilee where he heals a deaf and mute man. There is a distinct contrast between the way in which he heals this man’s afflictions and those of the Greek woman’s daughter. In the latter we read that Jesus didn’t even see the daughter.  It wasn’t until her mother returned home that she discovered that the demons had left her little girl. In the case of the deaf and mute man, Jesus actually touches the man on those parts of his body requiring healing – fingers in the ears and, disgusting as it sounds, spitting on the man’s tongue. Jesus needed to demonstrate an actual act in order to perform healing – but not so with the Greek woman’s daughter.

I think this tells us that if our faith is strong enough and we pray enough, nothing is impossible and that the word of God can reach all through the power of the Spirit.

The Greek woman said that even the crumbs of bread under the table are available for the dogs – meaning the lowest in our society.  In a world where there are “haves” and “have-nots” we seated here in church this morning cannot deny that in a global context we are the “haves”.  We pray every day for God to give us our daily bread – and we do indeed receive it.  I invite us today, to think about with whom we will share not the crumbs but a slice of our daily loaf.  As you came in this morning you were given a small picture of a sliced loaf. 

Between the end of this talk and the end of the Intercessions I would like you to think about how and with whom you will share your loaf this week.  It can take many forms – perhaps buy a coffee for a friend at work or perhaps a random stranger in the coffee shop, visit a friend you’ve been meaning to see for some time, ring or email a relative you’ve been meaning to do, invite somebody to church next week, perhaps to pray for somebody who hasn’t been very nice to you. Anything at all to remind yourself that being a Christian is more than just saying the right things, it is doing and acting in the Spirit of God.

At the end of the Intercessions please come up if you wish and place your bread in the bread basket. At the end of the service you can retrieve them and take them home to remind you of your pledge.

Let us pray

PAUSE FOR SILENCE

Lord God,

You sent your only Son into the world not to condemn it but that we may have everlasting life

Help us to always do the right thing so that by our actions we may show the world that we are your children and may bring others to salvation by showing our faith through our good works.

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/06092018

SERMON 120 - SUNDAY 22 JULY - SUNDAY 19 AUGUST 2018

Sermon 120 – “Being There”

Delivered in each parish of the Clarendon Team between Sunday 22nd July and Sunday 19th August 2018

2 Kings 5:1-14; Matthew 9:9-13

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

This is the last in a series of nine sermons which are being delivered to each and every one of the churches of the Clarendon Team under the banner of Pray, Serve, Grow – The last 3 are on the topic of Grow being delivered by each member of the Clarendon Staff Team and I have entitled this sermon “Being There” after the title of a lesser known American comedy film of 1979 starring Peter Sellers, for reasons I shall explain later as this talk develops

The first sermon in this series which I preached during June and the first half of July was entitled “Going Ape with Prayer”. In it we looked at three aspects of prayer A-Attentiveness, P – Persistence and E – Expectancy. A-P-E, and you may recall that I said that whenever we pray we can often be surprised at the results, but we should always expect our prayers to be answered – even if not quite in the way we expected.  I gave the examples of Eli and Jonah. I left you with the thought that in prayer we should be prepared to expect the unexpected and that this was often the exciting outcome.

This leads us on to our final topic today – Grow and in this we must again be prepared to expect the unexpected – just as those around Jesus did – time and time again.  A growing church is one where its members welcome the unexpected and embrace the changes which having faith sometimes necessitates. Bishop Nick has been at great pains to point out that when we talk about growth we are not merely talking about growth in numbers but more importantly growth in terms of the depth of our faith.  This is something which is very dear to my heart too.

As I prepared this sermon and read again the two passages of scripture which we heard today – and specifically chosen for this topic – it became very clear to me the importance of being prepared to embrace the unusual – to understand that nothing at all limits God’s power to be everywhere - omnipresent, all powerful  – omnipotent and all knowing – omniscient at the same time.  We can too often be tempted to put God in a box.  As any horticulturalist will tell you, and I’m no expert, if you confine a growing plant to the same small pot it will not usually thrive – it needs space to grow and thrive. So does our faith.  It needs to be deep rooted and ever thirsty for more nutrients.  To be nourished and there is nothing better to nourish our faith than the one great fertiliser left to us by Jesus – the Holy Spirit.

Recently I heard a story which I had been told before many years ago. It might be apocryphal but it is still a good one. Just like us in the Clarendon Team, a church was waiting for a new pastor or rector; somebody to lead it following the departure of the previous incumbent. Only a few people (the selection committee) had met him before.

Just before the service began a dirty dishevelled tramp arrived at the church and sat himself at the back of the building all on his own.  Not one person welcomed him or would sit near him. He was, in fact, totally shunned by the congregation such that he felt unable to come up and receive Holy Communion. At the end of the service the officiant stood up and announced to the congregation that the following week the new incumbent would be attending the church for the first time and he hoped for a full church to warmly welcome him and to show the depth of their love and support for him.  At the end of this short notice the tramp at the back stood up and walked slowly and purposefully up to the front of the church to stand next to the officiant and calmly announce to the congregation that he was indeed the new incumbent who had come a week early to quietly observe his new congregation and from what he had just witnessed there was much work needed to be done if it was to be the welcoming and loving church the officiant had suggested it was. 

Archbishop Temple once said “the Church of England is one organisation which exists primarily for its non-members.”  If any church is to grow then it needs to extend its arms out to everybody and be that welcoming body where anyone can feel a part of it.  The church has been described as the bride of Christ and as such needs to be as supportive and welcoming as Christ himself.

Our two readings this morning give us great scriptural examples of this unexpected welcoming.

In our first reading we hear of Naaman, a great general to the king of Aram who is suffering from an horrific skin disorder. During one of his campaigns he captures a Jewish girl who becomes his wife’s mistress. She knows of Elisha the Prophet in her former homeland whom she tells Naaman’s wife has the power for her God to heal her husband.  Telling the King of Aram of this, the king writes a letter of safe passage and introduction to the King of Israel together with many expensive gifts of persuasion. The King of Aram assumes that it’s through the King of Israel’s good offices that Naaman might be healed misunderstanding that it is a deep belief and faith in the God of Israel, Yahwe, which can provide the power of healing.

Eventually Naaman finds Elisha who tells him to wash seven times in the River Jordan in order to be cleansed of his illness.  Naaman, knowing the geography of the area, simply does not believe him and refers to the two great rivers of Damascus (Syria) being cleaner and therefore more likely to induce healing than the dirty Jordan.  Naaman’s own knowledge and expectations are such that he cannot comprehend why he should be asked to undertake such a demeaning task as stripping off and plunging into the dirtier Jordan. Naaman had believed that as he was such an important person, a senior officer in the King of Aram’s army, it would be sufficient for Elisha to come out to him, say a few words of healing and he would be restored to health. No, the unexpected occurred. He was now expected to do something he never thought he would be asked to do; to provide evidence of his faith in God’s healing power by doing exactly as Elisha had commanded him. The result, eventually, as we read, is that what he wanted happened.  He was entirely cured of his horrible skin condition. As a result Naaman’s faith in God’s power was established; it was deeply rooted.

In our second reading once again the disciples of Christ, together with many others, witnessed the unexpected.  Jesus sought out the lowest of the low in Jewish life – a tax collector.  Under Roman jurisdiction, the Romans recruited people of their conquered lands to collaborate with them – especially over the collection of taxes for Roman use.  The incentive was that the local tax collectors could cream off some of the money collected for themselves. Thus they were considered thieves, collaborators and much worse. They were hated, detested by the ordinary Jewish people. In common parlance they were sinners. 

The Message puts the story in really graphic easy language.  It describes Jesus eating supper with “disreputable characters” and the Pharisees saying to the disciples “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cosy with crooks and riffraff!”

Jesus’s answer is one of the classic pieces of scripture which we would all do well to remember – “Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick”?

The story is also told of a new incumbent who placed a large poster at the front of his new church in an affluent part of a large city announcing that “All sinners Welcome”. The PCC appealed to his bishop that the poster should be removed because it was likely to attract “crooks and riffraff”. It is sad to report that not only was poster duly removed but so was the new incumbent.  I wonder how many members of that congregation had ever understood Matthew 9:9-13.

We should all remember that God loves us always just the way we are but also loves us so much that he also wants us to grow too and not always stay that way. He wants us to be ready to change our ideas and thinking. 

Recently, as part of my training to be a spiritual director, we, the students, have been looking at how we grow our faith and the stages which we all go through.

James W Fowler was an American theologian and professor of theology.  He recognised seven stages we all go through in our faith journey from “0” to “6”. From a primal understanding at an early age through to enlightment.  Not everybody reaches Stage 6 and many only ever reach 3 or 4. We pass from one to another as we engage with our spiritual selves.  It is not a gnostic principle of somebody at stage 3 being better than somebody at stage 4 or 5; but as we grow in our faith through experience and scriptural understanding – wisdom – so our faith, just as for Naaman, is challenged and our ability to accept the unknowing, incomprehensible, all embracing love of God and put aside our pre-conceived ideas and prejudices will make us grow in our faith.

Many of you will know that I am an amateur astronomer – that I used to write a column in the Winterslow magazine for many years on the subject of the night sky. There is so much we have learned about our universe in recent years as technology has advanced but as we have learned more so we have discovered more and more how much we don’t know. That is the same with God.  When I look up in the night sky I am continually amazed at the awesomeness of God’s creation and stare in wonder at the infinity of space and time.

Pre-conceived ideas and a lack of willingness to allow ourselves to be subject to change can stunt our growth – just lack the pot-bound plant. 

I mentioned the film “Being There”.  In this film simple-minded Chance (Peter Sellers), a gardener who has resided in the Washington, D.C., townhouse of his wealthy employer for his entire life and been educated only by television, is forced to vacate his home when his boss dies. While wandering the streets, dressed smartly in his former employer’s best suit and bowler hat, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman. Soon Chance is ushered into high society, as Mr. Chauncey Gardiner (really Chance the Gardener) and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town including a post as adviser to the President of the United States when Chance's remarks about how the garden changes with the seasons are interpreted by the President as economic and political advice, relating to his concerns about the mid-term unpopularity that many administrations face while in office. If you haven’t seen the film then a similar plot occurs when in an episode of Father Ted, the character of Father Jack, the drunken old priest, is taught to repeat the phrase “that would be an ecumenical matter” whenever a bishop asks him a difficult theological question.

The illustration here is that it is so easy to be taken in by our own pre-conceptions about people and their positions in society.  Jesus had no such illusions. He came for everybody – rich, poor, sick, healthy, religious, non-religious and so on. Once we dispense with those pre-conceptions we are really ready to grow.

Our church, as the bride of Christ can only grow if we, its members, grow – grow deeper in our faith and aim to be like Christ; giving time for others but also allowing ourselves time to be ourselves and put aside our own egos; being there for God, Son and Holy Spirit, being there for others, being there for ourselves and being our true selves – the person God always wanted us to be. Open to change and challenge.

We should start always with prayer, serve others, be prepared for change and challenge and then we shall truly grow both as individuals and as the whole body of Christ.

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/01062018

SERMON 119 - SUNDAY 3 JUNE - SUNDAY 8 JULY 2018

Sermon 119 – “Go APE (Attentive, Persistent, Expectant) with Prayer”

Delivered at each of the Clarendon Team Parishes between 3/6/2018 and 8/7/2018

1 Samuel 3:1-10; Luke 10:38-42

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

This is the first of a series of nine sermons which are being delivered to each and every one of the churches of the Clarendon Team under the banner of Pray, Serve, Grow – 3 on the topic of Pray, 3 under the topic of Serve and 3 under the topic of Grow.  They are being delivered by each member of the Clarendon Staff Team and I have been asked to preach one on the topic of Pray and one on the topic of Grow.  This is the first of the three on Pray and is entitled “Go APE with Prayer”.

Why such an odd title with its association with Adult Adventure Playgrounds where we are encouraged to go back to nature and the survival of the fittest?  Well, in this case the word APE is an abbreviation for Attentiveness, Persistence and Expectancy and today will shall be looking at each of these as a guide to our everyday prayer with some biblical examples.

Why do you pray?  A question I am occasionally asked by non-Christians and when I pray what am I saying or doing?  Why do we need to pray when we believe God already knows what is in our heart and finally what it is we are wanting or needing? 

Well, in short, prayer is or ought to be a two-way process in which we not only seek God’s guidance or help or intervention but also try to listen to what he is saying to us personally.  His response may not come immediately or as loudly and clearly as it did to Samuel in our first reading.  Indeed, we read that God spoke out aloud Samuel’s name on more than one occasion but he did not recognise it was God speaking to him – Samuel assuming it was the earthly voice of his mentor, the old priest Eli. How often might we hear the voice of God and mistake it for the voice of another human or simply be heating our own thoughts?

The week before my licensing as a lay minister I, and my fellow candidates for licensing by the bishop, went on a Quiet Day Retreat at a lovely remote location in the Dorset countryside.  We were given the day to wander around the grounds of   an old farmhouse (several acres of lovely garden with a large lake and labrynth) and I found myself sitting on a bench by the lake with moorhens swimming by at my feet.  My thoughts came immediately to the passage we read this morning and I reflected on why and how I had received a call to ministry; something which I had never expected. Three times I had felt (I can’t say called or heard in the sense of Samuel’s calling) a strong call to ministry and like Samuel it took three attempts for me to be convinced that I was indeed hearing or feeling God’s call. I had prayed about these feelings and had in fact asked God, in a simple prayer of supplication, to give me a sign as I couldn’t understand how a person in my current occupation – a busy company lawyer – could undertake such a commitment as in licensed or ordained ministry.  A few weeks later my prayer was answered when my company was taken over and I was offered a severance payment on early retirement which I couldn’t possibly refuse.  I then felt God smiling down at me saying – “There you are, is that enough to convince you?”

Samuel, also, did not recognise that he was being called – indeed he was actually being called by God for a specific purpose - to give his mentor, Eli, some very bad news.  Nevertheless, we must be attentive to God, to listen and to obey him when he calls us even if there is a very difficult task he has chosen for us.  Jonah tried to run away from the dreadful task which he had been given but God sought him out – even in the belly of the fish; which leads us on the second element of APE, - Persistence. 

Our own persistence in our continued dialogue with God – and I emphasise dialogue rather than monologue.  Jesus himself tells his disciples, and us – “do not heap up empty phrases for they [the Gentiles] think that they may be heard because of their many words” [Matthew 6:6] but he does call upon us to be persistent in our prayers. He cites the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18 where Jesus explains that persistency in prayer will be rewarded in circumstances where the petition is itself a seeking of justice – something laudable, praiseworthy. As Jesus himself puts it “Will God not grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?” [Luke 18:7].

I expect most people (even those who would not profess to being active Christians) will tell you that at times of extreme difficulty or danger they utter words of prayer.  I doubt that there are few servicemen or servicewomen who do not pray for a safe return to their barracks when on operations in those dangerous areas of the world we hear about so many times.  As Christians, it is our duty to pray daily - not just for ourselves but also for the others.  Our intercessions are specially structured so that we pray first for the Church – the bride of Christ; then the World at large; then our ourselves and our local communities, then the sick and then finally for the dead and dying and those who mourn.  Christ also taught us how to pray and left us with his prayer for us – the Lord’s Prayer – of which Debbie McIsaac will be giving a specific sermon on as part of our series.  Suffice it to say at this time that another mnemonic can be applied to the structure of our own individual prayers – ACTS which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thankgiving and then finally, and only finally, Supplication.  In other words whenever we pray we should first of all acknowledge and venerate God – hence “hallowed be your name”, confess our sins - “forgive us our trespasses” , give thanks and be humble  - “yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory”, and finally Supplication – “give us this day our daily bread”. 

I was recently asked by one of our homeless service users at Alabare, where I act as chaplain, to pray for him.  My prayer was short but contained all the elements which I have just mentioned.  His response was “Is that it?” to which I replied – yes!  We have covered, in a very short prayer all those issues which you wish to bring to God. Think, the Lord’s Prayer is not a long rambling shopping list but contains within it all that we need to say in acknowledging and asking God for his help.

Prayer can take many forms – it is not necessarily intercessory prayer where we bring before God, in words, all those things on our heart.  In recent times I have found contemplative prayer or silent prayer also of great help.  That is not prayer where we say the words silently in our head but where we actually let go of our false self – the persona we put on in our daily lives – and sit quietly and try and listen and understand our inner real self. There are a number of different techniques which can be applied and the monks, Thomas Keating and Thomas Merton were much influenced by the eastern practices of the Buddhists. I could spend much time in describing their method – known as Centring Prayer - but will leave you to investigate that further or talk to me later about it. Suffice it to say, it is a practice whereby by knowing our inner selves better we can understand and get closer to God – we being God’s creation and knowing that above all else God loves us.

In our second reading – another very well-known reading which has inspired a number of famous paintings including my favourite one by Diego Velazquez – Jesus, in a way, is comparing the true self with the false self.

Our false self is very much concerned with outward appearances, it is our ego – that part of us which motivates us and puts us in our place in society.  It is how most of us see each other and it is important for structure and motivation; but there is also that deeper inner self – the person God created us to be but which all too often we do not give ourselves the time and opportunity to find.  Martha represents that false self – pre-occupied with making sure that everything in the house is just right for their important visitor. “Martha was distracted by many tasks” – just as we are distracted in our daily lives by so many tasks.  Each time I visit my spiritual director I am acutely aware that I have let too many tasks squeeze out my prayer time and the time when my true self can emerge.  My false self, my ego has overtaken the simple yet important task of spending time with God.

Jesus tells Martha that Mary “has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her” meaning that Mary, unlike Martha has deliberately set aside time to come and listen to Jesus – to be attentive and to be persistent and not let other more routine tasks distract her.

We are now left with the third of our A-P-E – E – Expectancy.  Can we expect God to answer our prayers?

The answer is a most emphatic “yes” – but with a caveat – the answer is not always the one you might have expected!  My children, throughout their lives have asked me, Dad, for things – anything from an ice cream to more recently a motor car!  Sometimes my answer has been “yes” – to the ice cream, and sometimes “no” to the car! They have always had an answer but not always the one they wanted.  That’s because I have considered carefully their petition and decided one way or another depending upon what I thought their need was at the time.  Sometimes they’ve asked for something which it was clearly not good for them to have!

God works in a similar way. What you ask for now may not be what God feels you need right now.  Sometimes he will make you wait – as for the car or holiday – sometimes he might substitute your request with something else.  Throughout my life I can look back on many occasions when I thought that God had not answered my prayers.  Doors which I prayed to be opened have closed – yet on every occasion when that has happened a new door somewhere else has opened.

I am reminded of that movie “Sliding Doors”  starring Gwyneth Paltrow where the catching of an underground  tube or not sets off a different train (sorry for the pun) of events in the heroin’s life.

Yes be expectant – yes Jesus says open the door and it will be opened, ask and you shall be given – but it might be a different door and it might be something else he gives you.

Eli, not Samuel, knew that it was God speaking.  Eli was a man of God, a priest and he knew that God was addressing Samuel.  The message Samuel received, however, was not one which Eli had expected.

We must be prepared to expect the unexpected – but in our prayers, however we might pray them – by reciting them, praying the words silently, by contemplation or by communal or open prayer for each other, God is listening.  We can be confident about “Going APE” – we should be attentive (listening out for God’s word); persistent (praying continually – unceasingly as Paul puts it); and expectant – knowing that God will answer although we must discern what God wills for us and expecting the unexpected. That’s the exciting bit!

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/03062018

SERMON 118 - SUNDAY 27 MAY 2018

Sermon delivered at the Roman Catholic Chapel, Whaddon, Wiltshire on Sunday 27 May 2018

Psalm 104: 1-10; Ezekiel 1; Revelation 4

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

Today is Trinity Sunday, the day, characteristically, when many priests hand over the preaching of the sermon to newer members of the clergy or lay ministers – like a baptism of fire!  Never an easy task to preach the Trinity and especially this evening when the two main readings we had, one from Ezekiel and one from Revelation, are so full of allegory and symbolism which most of us find hard to understand let alone follow. My immediate instinct was to grab the nearest summary or concordance I could find and draft my sermon around it – then I thought again and decided before doing so I should first of all try and understand its meaning from my own reading and interpretation of the descriptions used in the passages.

Ezekiel itself is very descriptive with its whirring wheels and flying angels and description of what can only be described as God in all his glory – which is really something quite indescribable.  I think that is why we have such trouble in interpreting Ezekiel’s vision in terms we can understand today.

I have even heard the vision described in more modern literature as an illustration or narrative of aliens coming down from another planet in their spaceship – works of fiction themselves such as “Chariot of the Gods” by Erich von Daniken.  To us, visitations from aliens is something which most of us cannot believe in but there again, who is to say that such visions of the glory of God cannot arise today.

Revelation 4 gives us a description of a similar event – the Heavens opening up to reveal God in all his glory seated on his throne of gold in Heaven.  The two narratives are quite similar and the whole of the book of Revelation is concerned with the vision or dream which the aged John had whilst exiled on the Greek island of Patmos.

Modern day visions such as this are, however, not so uncommon as we might think and there are numerous examples of people experiencing the glory of God in dreams and visions. 

We have just finished that glorious period of the church’s calendar which celebrates Jesus’s Resurrection, Ascension and then Pentecost when the gift of the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon all of Jesus’s disciples and gift brought with it its own gifts and fruits so that everyone, yes everyone including you and me, who follows Jesus would have the Holy Spirit freely available to carry on Jesus’s works and ministry when he was on Earth in human form.  As Teresa of Avila says “we are now the hands, feet and eyes of Christ” – through us, with and by and through the Holy Spirit alone can healing and ministry continue here.

But the Holy Spirit was not a new creation out of the New Testament.  The Spirit, like Jesus the Son has existed for all time.  We read in the very first few sentences of our bible – Genesis 1 – that the Spirit moved across the face of the yet to be formed Earth; we read numerous examples of where the Holy Spirit has been given to specific individuals to carry out God’s work – Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Saul, David, Jonah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and so on and in some cases where it has been removed – Saul for example.  Specific people to do specific tasks to bring god’s people back in line with God’s vision and hope for his people.

Finally he had to send his only son, Jesus, but unlike the prophets of the Old Testament, as we know Jesus left us the Holy Spirit for ourselves with a means of direct communication with the God for forgiveness without priestly intervention and the  gifts and fruits revealed at Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit is truly a mystical and supernatural phenomena.  It is God’s direct power handed down to us for his greater love and glory.

On Pentecost Sunday I, together with 1,500 other people, was in the cathedral for an amazing service of celebration.  Suspended from the roof were hundreds of white paper folded doves – symbols of the Holy Spirit as it descended upon Christ at his baptism and of peace.  Similar folded paper doves I am sure you have noticed have appeared in the windows of many shops in the centre of the city – as though they have flown out of the cathedral (sent by God) and settled amongst those secular symbols of commerce – into the every day world outside of the church.  Symbols of Hope, Peace and Love – a stirring of the Holy Spirit I am sure – a feeling of Spiritual Healing for a city that has suffered much in these last few weeks. We should never under-estimate the power of God’s healing through this wonderful Spirit. 

God speaks to us continually – through visions and words which we hear in our inner self (and very occasionally externally) ; through the products of his creation – the trees and shrubs, flowers and plants, the birds singing their song – singing as they were created to do; through other people.  When we pray we need also to spend time listening for God’s word to us.

In a moment of silence I ask you to think of a time when you have received a vision or word from God – perhaps you can’t directly recall any clear time – and that is okay – but I am sure there is a time when you felt amazingly happy and alive.  Perhaps at the birth of a child, that moment you first fell in love, the most beautiful sunset you have ever seen, a clear starlit night and so on. That will almost certainly have been a time when God was active in your life and almost certainly had a hand in what made you happy. 

Iraneus wrote “The Glory of God is a human being fully alive”. When you are feeling fully alive then that is a time when God’s glory is being revealed to you.  Perhaps not through whirring wheels and flashes of light as for Ezekiel, or the Heavens opening up as for John, but simply in the wonders of his creation.

May the Peace and Glory of the living God, Father , Son and Holy Spirit be revealed to you each and every day.

Amen          

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SERMON 117 - SUNDAY 13 MAY 2018

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish, Wiltshire on Sunday 13 May 2018

Psalm 147; Isaiah 61; Luke 4:14-21

If I had been given a pound for every time somebody has said to me:

 “I don’t get the Old Testament with its God of wrath and smiting.  It has no relevance to my belief in the God of Love of the New Testament - so I don’t bother to read it”,

then I would be extremely wealthy and could probably fund the replacement of the bells here in Whiteparish!   It is a well-known fact that preachers generally tend to use, as the subject for their sermons, either the Gospels or the Letters of Paul. Even then there can be confusion between the Gospels – especially between John’s Gospel and the three synoptic ones; but this evening, the importance of having a knowledge of both the Old and New Testament has been highlighted in hearing the words of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah spoken again by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel and we are again reminded of Jesus’s own words in Matthew 5:17 where he says

"Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.”

We sometimes overlook the fact that during the time of Jesus’s ministry with us here on Earth there was no New Testament. The Gospel’s themselves were not written until many decades after Jesus’s death and indeed did not come into being until after the Pauline letters.  That is why we hear our readings in the chronological order we do – Old Testament reading, Epistle reading and finally Gospel reading even though the Gospel’s precede the Epistles in the bible itself.  Jesus was a great reader of the scriptures even from an early age and used the Psalms frequently as prayers.  Indeed, the psalter was the early Christians’ prayer book and even today, as we have sung this evening, form an important part of the church’s liturgy throughout the world. Did you know, for instance, that Verse 1 of Psalm 110 appears 25 times and Verse 4 appears five times?  The most quoted Psalm in the New Testament.

The Psalms play another important part in our modern day liturgy. The lectionary, you will find,  places each psalm as a comment on or as complementary to the first reading – which this evening was Isaiah 61.  Psalm 147 which we sang together has the words, in modern day English –

“Praise the LORD!  How good it is to sing the praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting it is to praise him!  The LORD builds up Jerusalem, he gathers the exiles of Israel, he heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wound” (Psalm 147:1-3)

which echoes the very beginning of Isaiah 61 – “He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted” (Isaiah 61:1).

Such is the power of the connectivity of scripture throughout the Old Testament and into the New.

Isaiah 61, which Christians throughout the world believe is a direct prophesy of the coming of Jesus, is probably one of the most beautiful passages in the whole bible in the way in which it proclaims the Good News, the Gospel and is a wonderful message of hope in a time of despair.  As may be gathered by the reference in Psalm 147, Isaiah is writing during the period of the Exile when many Jews were in complete and utter despair having been involuntarily removed from their homeland and their sacred temple.   Isaiah tells them that their deliverance is at hand and that they can look forward to a time of great rejoicing just as Psalm 147, written some 400 years earlier declares:

“The LORD strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses the people within you; He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest wheat.”(Psalm 147:13-14)

It’s an amazing piece of liberation theology of the type which caught on so well in South America in the 1960s.  It reads poetically but it also has a stinging political message too – it is a call to action which we can read into our modern day world with its oppressive regimes and poverty. It is a call to us Christians to proclaim God’s love and compassion to those who believe and follow Christ.

It is a well-known passage to us today and it would have been extremely well known to Jews back at the time of their Roman occupation; promises of liberty to the captives, good news to the oppressed, oil of gladness instead of ashes, the building up of ruins – a reference to the restoration of the Temple – and above all a declaration that the LORD GOD – YAHWEH – will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations.

In our reading from Luke we find Jesus back in his home town of Nazareth – in the local synagogue – the Jewish place of learnin;  (synagogues then, as today, are as much places of learning through scripture as places for worship).  I think I know how he probably felt – all eyes were upon him, the local carpenter’s son  - because this morning I was back in my old church in Winterslow, amongst former fellow members of the congregation, taking a full service there for the first time since I was licensed wondering what sort of reaction I would get after such a long absence and conscious that I was preaching to former fellow congregants.

A wonderful portrayal of the moment Jesus steps up to take the reading is seen in the epic film series “Jesus of Nazareth” which whether you like it or not is a wonderful moment in the film, when Jesus, after reading this particular passage from Isaiah declares that in the hearing of all present the prophesy of Isaiah had been fulfilled. In effect Jesus is saying the time of healing, the time of binding up of wounds, the time for rejoicing is at hand as foretold by both the psalms and the prophets for Jesus, the Messiah has come.

Little wonder then the local people thought him to be either mad or bad – either out of his mind or a blasphemer.  I wonder how we would feel if somebody well known in this church suddenly declared that they were the returned Christ!  

The great thing is that looking retrospectively through the lens of the New Testament, following Jesus’s Resurrection and Ascension, we know the wonderful truth of that statement. In a few days’ time we will celebrate Pentecost when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus.

As disciples of Christ and with the aid and power of the Holy Spirit we are expected to continue the work of Jesus as foretold by Isaiah – “bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim freedom for the captives – and that includes captives to addiction and other other habits which keep people away from God; comfort those who mourn, preach the good news to the poor”.  The Kingdom of God is here if we recognise it through the Spirit.  We are its ambassadors, we are Jesus’s disciples. In the words of Teresa of Avila (1515-1582):

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

I think we ignore the Old Testament at our peril. It is so full of rich prophesies and stories many of which confirm and affirm the faith we profess as Christians. Let us profess that faith not just in reciting the Creed but in our daily life and actions.

Amen

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SERMON 116 - SUNDAY 13 MAY 2018

Talk delivered at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow, Wiltshire on Sunday 13 May 2018

Luke 15:11-32 (The Parable of the Lost Son)

“He looked around him.  The rooms were dark and dingy.  The smell of sweaty bodies hung in the air. Young women came and went – some older and well worn, others as young as twelve.  Here in the depths of Bangkok sex tourists arrived and departed having had their entertainment.  The sex industry was booming and he had been very much part of it.  He had left his small village on the Malaysian border to come here to seek his fortune after leaving his Christian family.  His father had brought him up in a Christian environment yet he found it all boring and decided to head for the fleshpots of the capital to seek excitement and fortune. Things had gone very well to start with. He had run a lucrative prostitution establishment, a go-go bar, but had become further embroiled in the crime of dealing in opium which had, at first, brought him more riches but he had later run foul of the bigger dealers and in particular the Chinese Triads as time went on and things went very sour. He had found himself getting involved in the trafficking of girls as young as nine. His enemies, in an attempt to get rid of him, had labelled him a police informer and he had had to hide away.  Things went from bad to worse and he found himself having to live in squalor right in the heart of the seediest part of Bangkok where he now found himself.

“Looking back he longed to be back with his family in his little boring village on the Malaysian border. He remembered his father’s words as he had left for Bangkok, ‘there is always a place here for you’; but surely that invitation was a thing of the past. Word of his notoriety in Bangkok had seeped back to the village – he knew this. He was a disgrace to the village, to his family and to his father in particular. He was a pariah – a sad failure who had deserted his family, done and been involved in all sorts of sinful activities and turned his back on his father’s religion, and thereby his own Christian upbringing.

With trepidation he wrote to his father along these lines –

Dear Father, I have disgraced you, the family and our village.  I remember well the words you said to me when I first left for Bangkok – “there is always a place for you here”.  I completely understand and accept if that is no longer the case but I realise now the mistakes I’ve made and would like to return.  I completely understand it if you never want to see me again and so I suggest the following.  On Saturday I will catch the train from Bangkok which passes through our village at around 6 pm. If you will accept me back then please tie a piece of cloth around the family’s po tree which backs on to the railway line just before the station and I will know that you will accept me back and will get off.  If I don’t see a piece of cloth I will stay on the train and never bother you ever again.

Saturday arrived and he boarded the train.  He felt very nervous, not quite sure what he would do if there was no piece of cloth on the tree.  Where would he go? What would he do if he stayed on the train? As the train got closer to his village his heart beat fast and the adrenalin was flowing.  He was scared, anxious.  He was feeling desperate.  His last hope.  A passenger sitting opposite him noticed his anxiety and asked him what was the problem.  He poured out his story and his fears about the po tree.  In the end he said to his fellow passenger ‘I just can’t look out.  I am so afraid? You can’t miss it – it’s the only po tree in the village by the railway.’  With that he buried his head in his hands.  His fellow travelling companion promised to look out for him. 

They nearer his village.  ‘What do you see?’, he asked, fearfully.  ‘Do you see a piece of cloth?’

His new companion responded – I see the tree but there is not a single piece of cloth on it – I can’t miss it though it’s covered from top to bottom with pieces of cloth.

At the station his father was there and embraced him.  “Whatever you do, wherever you are, you are my son and this is your home”

This story, which I have paraphrased here, appears in Floyd McClung’s book “Father Heart of God” and tells a true modern day version of the reading we had this morning – The Parable of the Lost Son.  I have to confess that every time I hear that story my eyes fill with tears.  The compassion and grace shown by the Father reminds us that we as the children of the Father God are always the subject of God’s compassion and grace. 

This morning as you came into church you should each have been given a small reproduction of Rembrandt’s famous painting of the Prodigal Son, the original of which currently hangs in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.  Please do take it away and use it as a bookmark in your bible – perhaps at the page containing Luke 15:11-32, as a reminder that whatever you’ve done, wherever you are, God will welcome you home with both arms.

Rembrandt’s painting is extremely interesting for a number of points.  We see the prodigal son without a robe, partially barefoot the other foot wearing a worn out sandal, bare-headed.  Looking on, in a red cloak is the elder brother – of whom more at a later date.  Something which I did not notice immediately, but which was pointed out to me when I read Henri Nouwen’s wonderful book “The Prodigal Son” (which I thoroughly recommend) is the fact that each of the father’s hands is different.  His left hand is firm and masculine – the fingers spread – a firm embrace welcoming him back whilst his right hand is more feminine with closed fingers – the embrace of compassion and love. We can speculate who the other figures in the painting represent and I leave it to you to study the painting at your leisure.

The story of the Lost Son has many different facets.  I wonder which character you associate with yourself?  Do you feel like the prodigal son – wanting to return to God’s loving embrace?  Do you feel like the elder brother – festering resentment because you have never left the father’s side yet this wayward brother of yours who seems to getting all the better treatment despite his wanderings?  Or do you feel like the father?  - feeling love and compassion even for those who might have treated you with contempt in the past.

Henri Nouwen, in his book recognised that throughout our lives we may find ourselves at any time identifying with any one of these three characters but in his view our Christian journey is to take us as closely as we can to the father figure; to be an encourager, a compassionate person whose life and actions are built on true love for our fellow humans.  This is the message of the bible.  This is the Christian message.

The Prodigal Son has an especial poignancy for me today.  I do feel back home here in Winterslow thanks to the love and compassion many of you have shown to me today and over the years since I moved away from this village. It is good to be back with you this morning.  I have worn the clothing of all three characters over the last four years and now my own prayer is to be as much like the father as God wishes me to be.  This morning, in a moment, we shall have a time of prayer.   As we do pray, think which character you might feel you are at this present moment – son, brother or father – and ask God to guide you as you grapple with the issues which surround you in that role at this present time.  Father God will hear your prayer just as the father in our story heard and understood his son’s plea to return home.

Amen

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