SERMON 136 - SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2019

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Parish Church, Winterslow  – Sunday 11^th August 2019 – Morning Worship

Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16; Luke 12:32-40

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and may my words be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen

“So where your treasure is, then there is your heart also”  

    

so says Jesus, in our Gospel reading from Luke this morning and it continues from our gospel reading last week when we looked at the parable of the rich fool who having amassed an immense wealth of goods and grain decided to store them up for his future comfort and security only to find that he did not, in fact, have any future at all.  Death ultimately makes fools of us all for we cannot avoid it however much wealth and financial security we have – or as my wonderfully lovely yet simple grandfather often said in his almost incomprehensible East Anglian accent (he was an undertaker’s assistant in a Norfolk village) in this more direct way – “all the time I’ve been doing this job I’ve never seen pockets in a shroud”; simple wisdom from a wise simple man who lived a simple life – and a happy one too at that, for he loved his countryside and saw God’s beauty and wealth in creation all around him and not in bank balances.

Collecting and hoarding is something that we often do to feel good about ourselves and to provide comfort in having things around us.  It makes us feel that we have achieved something and that we matter in society. In my case my hoarding comes largely, I think, because I procrastinate in getting down to the de-cluttering that I need to do.

Jesus is telling us that there is much more to life than materialistic things.  Our passage comes immediately after the section in my bible labelled “Do not worry” where, you will no doubt remember, Jesus tells his disciples that they should not worry about their life – what they will eat, where they will sleep, or what they will wear – God provides for all feeding the birds who neither sow nor reap and so if God provides for the smallest of creatures he will certainly provide for the disciples.

That may be a simplistic message you may say – try saying that to the homeless man on the street or the woman hurrying on her way to the foodbank – but the true meaning of Jesus’s words is that we spend far too much time worrying about our own physical and material comfort and not enough of it on our spiritual well-being and the well-being of others.  We become distracted by those things which take us away from the important things – loving God and ourselves - for those are the things which Jesus tells us are the most important ones – the things from which everything else stems and flourishes; and that love of God from which all things flow is based on a strong Faith as the writer of Hebrews tells his audience in the reading which Dawn gave us earlier.  

Our scripture reading from Hebrews was written to remind the Christian Jews of their ancestry and of the many miracles and covenants or promises which God has made with his people and the fulfilment of the prophesies.  In particular he reminds us of the covenant with Abram, which Bill read out for us in the First Reading, that Abram’s descendants from his aged wife Sarah will be more numerous than the stars.

Many of you will know of my passion for astronomy and many people have often asked me how I can reconcile that scientific interest with my Christian Faith. Well the answer is easy – as we enter late summer, just look up at the night sky and in particular the billions of stars which make up the Milky Way through a pair of modest binoculars. The awesome spectacle of all those stars, so many incomprehensible light years away, just reinforces the vastness and the greatness of God’s universe and the importance and love he places upon us here on this tiny world. My Faith in such a context is not diminished but enlarged. So must Abram have been overwhelmed with the message he received; certainly Sarah found it all incomprehensible but the impossible became possible through Abram’s Faith.

As I was writing this sermon on Friday morning I received a phone call from one of the service users of Alabare Place where I am the chaplain.  Normally I would be on duty there but this Friday I was working at home.  He had recently returned to Salisbury to visit his ailing father but had gone through a dark period of his life which I described as his “dark night of the soul”. Without going into any details he had suffered many blows in his 35 years of life but he was at great pains to tell me that through all these difficulties he had kept his Faith and was now anxious to find a church where he could give thanks and grow it further and volunteer his services. For him, and he described this in these words himself, the important thing in life “was to steer his way through life using a good steady moral compass and by loving and helping others in the process.”

Jesus was very much an advocate for the poor.  If ever he had a bad word to say about anyone you will find that it was more often about those who thought they were in a comfortable position both spiritually and financially; those for whom status and wealth were more important.  People like the rich young ruler which provoked the phrase about the camel and the eye of the needle. The people that Jesus ministered to the most tended to be the poor and humble.

Being unwise with our money and wealth can lead to stresses and untold unhappiness.  Our man in the parable thought that by hoarding it for the future  he would be happy and secure – but no, his life came to a sudden end.  Christ repeats to his disciples in our Gospel Reading this morning that “where your treasure is, there is your heart also.”

I was recently listening to a sermon by a minister outside of the Clarendon Team who suggested that one of the best ways to know and serve God is through our hobbies or passions.  What is it that we are individually passionate about?  God created us, each and every one of us unique and individual and instilled into our heart interests and passions which he wants us to use for his greater praise and glory – not hoard or keep to ourselves.

In a moment Anita will be leading us in our Prayers of Intercession and afterwards I am going to invite you to come up and give away some of your treasure to God.

When you came in this morning you may have been surprised that the church gave you some money – normally we are taking it from you!  I want you to look carefully at the coin you were given and think of it as a bit of that treasure which you might be tempted to hoard – as representing something which you might find it hard to give away.

At the front here is a small treasure box, courtesy of Bill, and at the end of the Intercessions before we say the Lord’s Prayer together I invite you to come up and place your coin in the box to represent your own prayer or thought or promise to God to let go of something which is getting in the way of having a full relationship with him through Jesus Christ – a treasure which you might be keeping for yourself and not sharing with others or a talent or passion which you have which you are not using fully for God’s greater glory.  As Jesus puts it – “make purses for yourself that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” If we place our trust entirely in the hands of God, we will indeed enrich our Faith.

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/02082019

SERMON 135 - SUNDAY 4 AUGUST 2019

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 4^th August 2019 – Morning Worship

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

 “Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanities”

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and may my words be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen

“Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanities” so begins the Book of Ecclesiastes – that book of “Wisdom” attributed to King Solomon of Israel who was renowned for his wisdom throughout the then known world. These opening words are hardly ones of encouragement though, telling the reader that life seems to be pointless – people come and go – the cycles of nature and history are constantly repeating themselves – there is nothing new.  Our highest goal, he tells us, is wisdom and even that is futile - for the more one has the more one has to suffer he says.  However much wealth or status we have – life is still empty.  Wisdom is better than folly but in the end death makes fools of us all is the conclusion which he reaches.

These are depressing thoughts on such a lovely sunny Sunday morning and not an easy topic on which to preach. Yet the more I reflect on Solomon’s words and then reconsider them in the light of our second and third readings the more they make sense and the more they concentrate my mind, and hopefully yours, on the important things that matter in this life; the things we often overlook too.

Solomon was also renowned for his wise judgments – remember the story of the two women who had a dispute over the parenthood of the baby.  Likewise we read in our Gospel reading of someone in the crowd approaching Jesus to ask him to arbitrate over a family inheritance.  Jesus’s answer to him is that it is not his role to act as judge or arbitrator but uses the opportunity to give a moral warning with his parable of the rich man and his barns.

We all know that parable very well, I am sure, but how often do we, ourselves, take heed of its meaning and spend so much of our lives collecting and hoarding things – I am probably more guilty than many here as a quick chat with Liz over coffee will bear testimony or better still a quick visit to view the inside of our garage. I, like many others am often guilty of procrastination too – I recall early on in my school life a teacher scrawling on the front of a late essay in red ink “Procrastination is the thief of time”. I know that is true but I still procrastinate – hence the numbers of boxes still to be sorted into save, donate or bin.

Collecting and hoarding is something that we often do to feel good about ourselves and to provide comfort in having things around us.  It makes us feel that we have achieved something and that we matter. In my case I think it is often because I procrastinate in getting down to the de-cluttering that I need to do.

Solomon is telling us that “at the end of the day”, to use that horrible expression, what we have on this earth when we die is no more than we had when we entered it – or as my grandfather often said in his almost incomprehensible East Anglian accent accent (he was an undertaker’s assistant in a Norfolk village) – “all the time I’ve been doing this job I’ve never seen pockets in a shroud”; simple wisdom from a wise simple man who lived a simple life – and a happy one too.

Paul, in his letter to the Colossians sets out in very clear and unambiguous language that those of us who have been raised with Christ, in other words those who have come to believe and follow him should set their hearts and minds not on the transient things of this world, not on earthly pleasures and vices which he lists in some detail, but should get rid of those things, should de-clutter ourselves of them and concentrate on renewing ourselves in those things which God wanted us to have and to be. As all children of God, Paul tells us that we are all equal in God’s eyes – as he puts it no longer Greeks or Jews, circumcised or uncircumcised but Christ in all and all in Christ.  This is a message, also, which Jesus gives to his disciples when he sends them out ahead of him.

 I think some of our modern politicians would do well to heed the sentiments of Solomon, Jesus and Paul.  Too many times today we see examples of a world where the poor seem to get poorer and the rich get richer. Small barns are being pulled down to make way for larger barns – and this is not necessarily metaphorically; money is hoarded and often we seem to strive to make more of it in ways which destroy our natural world.  Solomon is correct – the cycles of nature and history do repeat themselves and, increasingly, it seems, despite having knowledge of these things we are not wise enough to learn from them and adjust our behaviour. I think this is an area where we as Christians should be actively engaged.

The first module of learning I undertook at Sarum College when I trained for church ministry was the art of theological reflection.  Taught as an academic topic I found it quite difficult at first to grasp in the context of theories by differing theologians but in essence it is quite simple when explained in the context of something called the Pastoral Cycle as simplified by one of our lecturers, Dr. Andrew Todd. This technique has also been used by investigators of near miss incidents involving aircraft and goes something like this – An Incident/Experience Occurs – We Analyse that Incident/Experience (i.e. We ask ourselves what actually happened?); We then reflect upon this and bring into the equation similar examples from similar cases or from our own previous experiences – after this we make a decision on what could or should be done to avoid it happening again  in the future and then finally execute that plan of action. In theological reflection we add in, at the reflective stage, examples from the Christian tradition – often examples of scripture from the bible to reach a conclusion and an action which conforms with our Christian beliefs and Faith.  We may be required to go round the cycle again modifying it as we do so that it becomes more of an upward spiral than going round in circles.

Jesus was very much an advocate for the poor.  If ever he had a bad word to say about anyone you will find that it was more often about those who thought they were in a comfortable position both spiritually and financially; those for which status and wealth was more important.  People like the rich young ruler which provked the phrase about the camel and the eye of the needle. The people that Jesus ministered to the most tended to be the poor and humble.

Decades ago many Christian missionaries went out into Africa and Asia to convert the heathen natives as they put it.  They did much good work it has to be said but sometimes their aims were double edged – wanting the local inhabitants to adopt Western ways and values – some of which were not exactly helpful to their own cultures and countries. Now it is interesting to observe that missionaries are now being sent out to the western world from such places as China, South Korea and many countries in Africa where Christianity is growing immensely. Christianity is growing rapidly in many of these countries and we are seeing miracles occurring not least examples of Muslims meeting Christ in visions and experiences. 

The decline of the Christian Faith is very much a myth.  For 2,000 years it has flourished and will continue to do so, so long as we take on board the teachings of Christ from scripture.

Let me add, finally, that I am not criticising those who are wealthy – neither did Christ. It is how you choose to treat it. Rob Parson’s in his book “The Money Secret” writes “The secret is as old as time itself, and no amount of money can replace its power. The poor who find it can find financial security, the wealthy who despise it can end their life as paupers”.

Being unwise with our money and wealth can lead to stresses and untold unhappiness.  Our man in the parable thought that by hoarding it for the future  he would be happy and secure – but no, his life came to a sudden end.

In my experience the answer is most often prayer – if God wishes us to do something and we do it, as Paul says, with God in us, then it can happen regardless of the cost.  That was the message of Jesus in the sending out of the disciples.

So today, as we go out, let us theologically reflect on our lives and our priorities.  Do we put God in us as a priority.  Who knows, I might even go home from here today and empty another box!

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/02082019

SERMON 134 - SUNDAY 7 JULY 2019

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 7^th July 2019 – Morning Worship

Isaiah 66:10-14 “I will extend prosperity to her like a river”

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and may my words be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen

When I was 12 I had two great passions and one great dislike – the thing which I disliked  most was sport in any form and I can still hear the cries of my fellow pupils to the sadistic PT teacher during the picking of football teams on a wet, muddy Wednesday morning – “Please sir, it’s not fair sir, we had to have Barratt last week”!

I also hated having to endure horse racing on the TV when we went to visit my grandfather (a failed jockey) in Norfolk – what-ever was the point of watching horse run from one end of a track to another and seeing my grandfather getting upset whenever his horse didn’t finish in the first three!

My passions, back then, however were astronomy and fishing.  It is interesting though how our passions might change as we mature – today I love horse-racing and thoroughly enjoy a good day out at Salisbury or Goodwood or wherever and I enjoy watching football and cricket being a member of both Hampshire County Cricket Club and Southampton Football Club.  I still do still pursue my passion as an amateur astronomer and only the other evening I recalled, as I looked through my telescope at the planets Jupiter and Saturn how it had been on a very similar summer’s night that I had first observed these planets through my school friends small telescope at age 12 and how unchanged they appeared after all these years. I think one of the reasons for this passion remaining so strong is because once seen, never forgotten, and the sheer beauty and mystery and seemingly, from a distance, unchanging appearance of the heavenly bodies reminds us of the unchanging love and beauty of the creative God.

What about my love of fishing then?  Well that ended rather abruptly one late morning on the banks of the River Witham in Lincolnshire when the river bank gave way very suddenly plunging my father into the water but not before he had managed to deposit the contents of the open bait box, our maggots, into the equally open picnic basket containing my mother’s lovingly baked apple and blackberry pie!  On top of that I never seemed to catch anything other than eels which destroyed my tackle.  The passion soon waned.

Rivers, by comparison to many cosmic bodies, do change.  The only river I know which doesn’t is the river in the sky, the constellation of Eridanus.  All other rivers change their nature in accordance with the seasons and as they flow from source to the sea.  I think rivers are a really good metaphor for life and we will find many biblical examples of where rivers have been used in this way and as a source of life and cleansing.   In our choice of hymns today you will find references to rivers and the sea and I would like to take you on a short journey of reflection on how rivers do indeed mirror our own lives.

For a start, without water there would be no life.  I am extremely lucky to live in Downton very close to the River Avon and on any day a short five-minute walk will take me to its banks where I can observe a myriad of different types and species of wildlife and flora.  On most days the river appears peaceful and beautiful but we also know of its power of destruction when it floods and Downton now has in place a sophisticated anti-flooding systems of banks and gullies along its water meadows.

I was brought up along the banks of a mighty river, an estuary in fact, the Humber.  At its widest it is seven miles across as it enters the sea. In fact the Humber is not a river at all – it is actually made up of three great tributary rivers – the Ouse, the Aire and the Trent the latter being the third longest river in the UK. 

Let’s just think of that river for a moment. It starts as a number of small springs of cool clear water on the Staffordshire moorlands passing through Stoke- on-Trent and the Six Pottery Towns then on through Burton-on-Trent – the great brewing town, and then through Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to pass alongside the city of Nottingham by the famous Trent Bridge cricket ground and two Nottingham football grounds and on passed Newark and into Lincolnshire joining the Ouse to form the Humber.

Likewise, we can trace our own lives like that river.  We are born pure and innocent just like the Trent and as infants we are like that babbling brook which passes over the Staffordshire uplands.  As we grow so we widen and mature - influencing and being influenced by those around us – indeed, the word influence means to be subjected to flowing and hence we also get the word “confluence” or flowing together.  Our life, as the river, starts to become polluted by its environment around it but at the same time its usefulness increases – it becomes navigable, people will use us and dare I say it also abuse us too.  Our life, like the river can bring life to others or it can be destructive.  By our constant connectiveness to God, through prayer, and an awareness of how we affect others we can, unlike the river, have some control of our lives.

At some point, just as the Trent is joined by the Ouse to form the Humber Estuary, so our lives will be joined by those of others – most commonly in a marriage or long time partnership and together we become one - strong, wide and something powerful as we journey ever forward to the vastness of the unknown sea – to the place beyond.

I will let you ponder how much like a river your life has been and what stage in your life you have reached.  Sometimes to navigate a river you need to build locks and canals to get you round those rough rapids and weirs which are encountered.  It is the same with our river of life – God is our great pilot who steers us through those difficult places.  He knows them so is able to build those locks and canals if we ask him.

In our Old Testament Reading, Isaiah is using the analogy of a river in explaining to the Jewish Exiles that God will extend prosperity to the Jewish Nation “like a river”. So too will God prosper us and our lives in the same way.

We are told, in Revelation 22:1, that God showed John:

“a pure River of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb” – a vision very similar to that shown to Ezekiel (Chapter 47)

I would like to end with a short extract from a poem by Robert Wadsworth Lowry called Beautiful River based on the vision in Revelation 22:

Shall we gather at the river

 Where bright angel feet have trod;

 With its crystal tide forever

 Flowing by the throne of God?

 Yes, we'll gather at the river,

 The beautiful, the beautiful river --

 Gather with the saints at the river

 That flows by the throne of God.

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/06072019

SERMON 133 - SUNDAY 2 JUNE 2019

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 2nd June 2019 – Morning Worship

Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14,16,17, 20-end, John 17:20-end

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and may my words be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen

Today is the first Sunday after Ascension Day which we celebrated here at Whiteparish at our Team Service on Thursday morning when Simon preached on the topic of waiting; and here we are, indeed, in that period of our Church Year once more waiting.  It seems that much of our church year is taken up with waiting of one sort or another – Advent that period when we wait for the coming of Christ at Christmastide; Lent, as we wait for the Holy Period of Easter – the Crucifixion and the Resurrection and now that period of waiting between Christ leaving Earth and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  We are in that period which is being celebrated by the Anglican Church in the form of “Thy Kingdom Come” – waiting for God’s Kingdom to come down to Earth.  We are in those most important nine days after Ascension Day until Pentecost which we are expected to observe as days of prayer and preparation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

I have always felt greatly inspired by the story told in our first reading from Acts and often wondered how I would have behaved had been in the position of Paul and Silas or indeed in a similar position in later years as many have been imprisoned for their Faith.

We read that Paul and his assistant, Silas are in Philippi – which we are told is a leading city in the Roman Colony of Macedonia (in modern day Greece) where they remained for some days.  Earlier in the chapter we learn that they converted and baptized a woman called Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth and she and all her household were baptized and Paul and Silas stayed on in her house.  During their stay they continued to go to a place of prayer (we are not told precisely what format this took – whether it was some temple or other or whether it was simply a spot chosen by Christians to meet and pray).  On their way, one day they meet a slave girl – which indicates that she was owned by someone who made his money from her spirit (an evil spirit we surmise) of divination or fortune-telling.  However, the spirit, whatever it was, made her follow the two men and proclaim to all and sundry that they were “slaves of the Most High God who themselves proclaim the way of salvation”. We are told that she followed them around doing this for many days until Paul became thoroughly cheesed off with it and using the power of the Holy Spirit which had come upon him and Pentecost turned to her and ordered the evil spirit to come out of her, which it duly did.  What this shows is that the Holy Spirit was more powerful than any other form of spirit which the poor girl possessed.

However, what then happened was that the girl’s owner, no longer having the girl’s fortune powers available to sell, was most aggrieved and had Paul and Silas dragged before the local magistrates by declaring that Paul’s actions were contrary to the laws and customs of Rome and in this attack many in the crowd joined in and eventually after being beaten they were placed in a dark innermost cell with their feet shackled to stocks so that escape was almost impossible.  We read that rather than simply licking their wounds and feeling sorry for themselves they spent the night praying and singing hymns to God which itself inspired the other prisoners who heard them.

This part of the story has an almost direct similarity with the story of Maximilian Kolbe, a priest imprisoned in Auschwitz during the Second World War who took the place of a condemned prisoner in that death camp.  He was placed in a dark solitary confined cell in Auschwitz I Camp together with a group of other prisoners condemned to die through starvation. Kolbe induced the prisoners to join with him in praising God and singing and reciting psalms such that the Kolbe himself and others lived for much longer than expected and Kolbe had to be shot by his guards in the end.

In the case of Paul and Silas, the area was subjected that night to a huge earthquake which resulted in the prison’s foundations being so undermined that the cells became opened and their chains fell free.  The jailer thinking that all his charges had escaped and he himself would be brutally punished by the authorities was prepared to commit suicide which Paul prevented by assuring the poor man that all his charges were still in place and none had used this seeming stroke of good fortune to escape.  So grateful was the jailer that he bathed their wounds and he and his whole household, just like Lydia, were baptized, we are told, “without delay”.  They all rejoiced that they had become believers in God.  So too, figuratively , we can say that Paul and Silas created an “earthquake” wherever they went – upsetting the status quo of a society where secular customs and practices and rules and not Christian love as taught by Jesus were the root of life - by showing that Christian love is far greater and more powerful. 

So in the space of a single chapter in Acts we read of two amazing examples of people becoming Christians by the power of the Holy Spirit, and being Gentiles too.  What a wonderful gift it is which awaits all who believe and ask for it. Perhaps too, the celebratory feast which followed in the jailer’s house is a precursor to that wonderful joyful banquet which awaits us when all Christians realise that they belong to the same table.

In our Gospel Reading, Jesus emphasises this need for great unity – he says “I ask not only on behalf of these [the disciples] but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me that they may be completely one”

In other words, acknowledging that God is the Father and the Son and that the two are one and that through the Holy Spirit, which was received at Pentecost and by whose power Paul and Silas and the rest of the disciples did those great miracles as related in Acts, we are ourselves part of that oneness in Christ.  We are today’s modern disciples with the power and ability to bring others into the great fold of Christian love.  We can create earthquakes, and face up to and show that great unity of love which Jesus asks of us. What can we do ourselves this coming week to show that Christian love, that oneness with Christ as we await the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost?  Remember, it is a celebration of that first Pentecost back in the First Century.  The Holy Spirit is actually here now and we can ask for it at any time.  Just like the tyres on our car, though, we need to be pumped up with that Spirit and especially at times of great anxiety or sadness. 

At our Ecumenical Services which we hold once a month we celebrate our Christian oneness in the words of the Unity Prayer which I adapted from the Clarendon Team Prayer and which I would like to say now:

Lord God, the source of our unity, faith and love

Bless your churches here on Earth

In all their denominations

That sharing the gifts of the Holy Spirit as Christ’s Disciples

We may proclaim the gospel

And reveal your glory

In Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/010062019

SERMON 132 - SUNDAY 12 MAY 2019

Sermon delivered at St. John’s Parish Church, West Grimstead  – Sunday 12 May 2019 – Morning Worship in Eastertide

Acts 9:36-end; John 10:22-30

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

Good morning.  We are now in that period of the church’s year between the Resurrection on Easter Day and Ascension leading towards Pentecost and it is a good time for us all to reflect on all that happened in that period and its significance for us as believers in the Christian Faith going forward.

Our first reading, from Acts takes us forward from the Gospel days to a time in the future when we see the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the hands of Peter – and this should be a great reminder to us all that the work of Jesus Christ continues in and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit as evidenced here in the miraculous resurrection of Tabitha through Peter.  The context of that reading is that it appears immediately before the conversion of the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his family in which it is made quite plain to Peter that Jesus came for everybody’s salvation not just the Jews, but the Gentiles as well and that conversion is through faith and not strict adherence to Jewish customs, especially food customs.

By regularly reading the gospel we become quite used to the miraculous healings of Jesus and in particular today’s story of Tabitha reminds us, I am sure, of the raising of Lazarus – Jesus’s deceased friend - but we can easily forget that such miracles can and still did and do occur after Jesus’s Ascension.  In today’s modern age of technical medical assistance and scientific enlightenment it can be so easy to dismiss the idea of miraculous healings as pure co-incidences but time and time again we do indeed hear of such miracles occurring today – often in places of Christian Revival such as Africa and China.  We should also remember that in his final words to the apostles before he ascended back to his Father, Jesus sets out his great commission for them and, through them, us today:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the Earth”. (Matthew 28:18-20).

“I am with you always” – a promise so great that we can only be humble and obey as he commanded us.  Peter must certainly have had this in mind as he went about doing Jesus’s work on Tabitha – a clear example of the promised Holy Spirit at work - and by the fact that two disciples were specially sent from Lydda, where Tabitha was living, to Joppa where Peter was staying. This indicates the great reliance and trust these disciples must have had that Peter’s gifts could and would be used; an example of great Faith in Jesus’s earlier command. Not only that, this act also, we read, became widely known throughout Joppa such that there occurred many Christian converts – “many believed in the Lord”.

So too today, we can read of many people coming to Faith through the miraculous works of Christians in Africa – through the ministries of such people as Heidi and Rolland Baker in Mozambique who have written of their experiences of great healings there – especially sight being restored to blind people in their book aptly titled “Expecting Miracles”.  So too do we read of miracles occurring in Hong Kong in Jackie Pullinger’s book “Chasing the Dragon” with her ministry with drug addicts and dealers and also on mainland China in examples given by Liu Zhenying more commonly known as Brother Yun in his book “The Heavenly Man” in which he describes many miracles occurring despite the heavy persecution experienced by Christians in that vast country. 

The resurrection of Tabitha is then a clear indication of the Jesus’s continued presence and power through the Holy Spirit after the Ascension.  Indeed, even during his time of ministry on Earth Jesus sent out 12 of his disciples to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8) so we really should express no surprise at supernatural healings when they do genuinely occur in the name of Jesus Christ.

Recently, I attended a Men’s Ministry Meeting in Salisbury at which one participant told the rest of us present that he was suffering from a particularly unpleasant illness which the doctors had expressed as being incurable.  He asked for prayer which he duly received from all those present.  One week later he reported that whilst not cured the doctors had observed a 33% improvement in his condition – something which they could not explain.  Those of us present that day did think that we did have an explanation

Of course, that is not to say that in every case healing prayers will work – and we really cannot say why some do and some do not or why some take much longer than others.  That is part of God’s amazing yet inexplicable mystery but genuine prayer, in whatever form it takes, is a dialogue we have with God and is as important an exercise to the Christian believer as is taking a breath.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus explains further.  He is a “mystery man” to many who surround him – what or who is he?  A prophet or is he the Messiah?  The Anointed One? The Jews surrounding him wanted a plain and simple answer to this question, just as so many do today.  The answer which he gave unnerved them and we read, immediately after the piece of scripture read out to us today, how the people took up stones to stone him to death.

The scene for this event takes place, we read, at Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication commemorating the victory of Judas Maccabeus over the Syrians, his cleansing and re-dedication of the Temple after it had been used for unclean purposes such as for keeping pigs in, in fact, in the “Portico of Solomon” at the Temple in Jerusalem itself – a very holy shrine and a place where the Jews believed that God, Yahweh or Jehovah to give him the name by which he was referred, resided – in the Holy of Holies.

With the word “shepherd” being a regular image for a “king” Jesus’s use of this word to describe himself in this context as the “true shepherd” would suggest that he is styling himself in the role of God’s anointed.  But what Jesus says is so different from the warlike Judas Maccabeus as to seem incomprehensible to the Jewish elders.

The Jews believing that a Messiah, somebody they expected to be a great warrior who would clear Judea of all Gentiles, just as Josiah had cleared out the indigenous tribes of the Promised Land, would come soon they wanted to know whether this great influential man, Jesus, was indeed that Messiah of their imagination.  Jesus does not give a straight and clear answer but says “I have already told you so yet you do not believe” (John 10:25) – in other words, can’t you see this for yourself?  Can’t you accept what I am saying, can you not see God’s power at work through my hands?  That I am indeed God’s anointed one!

He then makes a very provocative remark – “You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep” (John 10:26).

What Jesus is trying to convey here is that his kingdom is not like the one which the Jews are looking for.  It is the kingdom of heaven not an earthly kingdom here on Earth. Jesus’s sheep are, therefore, those who do hear and do understand his message.  Jesus was offering “eternal life”.

Very often that phrase is perhaps, as Tom Wright suggests, mis-interpreted and we think of it as something less Jewish, more Platonic – meaning a life of everlasting post mortem bliss. As children we had images of floating around on clouds playing harp music for all eternity.  In first century Jewish culture the word “eternal life” meant primarily the life of the coming age – a new age when wrongs would be righted, sins forgiven and God would be all and in all.  This is what Jesus was claiming was on offer.  He is saying that despite the pressure amongst his contemporaries to seek a Maccabean-style solution to the wrongs which the people saw and felt, i.e. an earthly revolution, God had ensured that some, at least, would follow him and find the narrow way that would lead to that life they were seeking.  In this, Jesus and the Father were one working together.

Doesn’t this resonate in our world today?  All around us I often feel a pressing desire for that new age; politics and political solutions throughout the world seem to fail us again and again.  Maybe that is why there is such a hunger for the Christian Way in places such as the nations of Africa and Asia where they have had enough of political oppression and instability. Perhaps that’s why, too, they are persecuted because they appear as a threat to the political world. 

Doesn’t it make sense to seek that eternal life as promised by Jesus? :  Jesus, the shepherd, who became the lamb and then our eternal shepherd again.  An example to us all. “Thou art the truth the way the life” as the hymn goes.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus

You came into our world, the Son of God, not to condemn the world

But to bring us eternal life

We ask that your Spirit comes upon us now so that we may inspire others

With this message of good news

We ask that you protect all those who serve you in your ministry in those parts of the world where Christians and persecuted and ridiculed

And that they may shine the light of truth and justice to those in power.

We ask this in your name, now and for ever

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/08032019

SERMON 131 - SUNDAY 10 MARCH 2019

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Farley  – Sunday 10 March 2019 – Morning Worship in Lent

Genesis 2 & 3; Luke 1:46-55

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

“In the Beginning”

Today we begin our sermon series on the subject of prayer which will continue through the Sunday’s of Lent until we reach Palm Sunday on 14^th April and appropriately enough the title of the first sermons today is “In the Beginning” recognising that right back to Genesis, God was anxious to communicate with Humans and for us to hear and feel His presence with us here on Earth. Likewise, Jesus’s life on Earth was announced at the very beginning in the form of Mary’s Prayer of Thanksgiving at the Annunciation – the Magnificat which was read out this morning as our Gospel Reading.

So what is prayer? Is there any particular formula we should use or should not use in praying to God – and as God is “Three Persons in One”, to whom should we address our prayers?  These are some of the questions we shall be considering over the next five weeks which the Staff Team hopes will encourage you to go deeper with your faith and, if it is not already so, encouraging  you to make prayer a daily activity.  Our readings this morning have been specially chosen to illustrate the natural and fundamental nature of prayer – conversations and/or connection with God.

Surveys actually show that we pray more than we are likely to admit.  It seems that we may very well be more aware of our spiritual nature today than ever – looking for something above and beyond our daily grind – a realisation that there is indeed something much more to the busy earthly life we lead.  Recently, some evangelical Christians set themselves up in a vacant shop in a Canadian city and advertised that they were there to give “Spiritual Readings”.  In no time at all a massive queue had formed outside – in fact their spiritual readings were a short discussion followed by some prayer ministry.  The word “spiritual” had caught the public’s interest whereas the word “prayer” would not have.

G.K. Chesterton, the creator of that detective sleuthing priest Father Brown once wrote “At the back of our brains there is a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence. The object of our artistic or spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder”.  In other words deep down in our subconscious is an overwhelming desire to connect with our creator whether we attend church or other religious institution or not.

For example we often hear people, non-Christians especially, using such phrases as “I pray that our team wins tonight”, or “I pray that Tommy passes his Eleven Plus” or “I pray Janey arrives safely back from her long trip” and I doubt there is one serviceman or woman who, on active service under fire, has not muttered a prayer under their breath.  Indeed, I can recall vividly, before I was what one would call a practising Christian, a time when I took a small dingy out on the sea close to the two piers at Brighton.  I was an inexperienced sailor and, to tell the truth, I was rather foolhardy to go out alone.  The dingy capsized tossing me into the water and I started to get carried out to sea on the current.  I have never prayed so hard in my life and with the help of prayer and sheer physical determination I was eventually able to right the boat, after several attempts, pull myself on board and sail back to the beach. It is such a natural and instinctive thing to do – pray.

As we will discover, as we go through our sermon series there are many varied ways of praying.  Many have the classic view of praying on bended knee with hands together offering up prays of supplication.  That is one way and perhaps the way we were taught as children – bedtime prayers after brushing our teeth at night. However, we can also pray silently (as in saying our words or prayer aloud in our head);  silently as in a form of meditative or contemplative prayer (in this we seek to connect with God in our innermost soul by being still and quiet); we can pray aloud with others in forms of open (or extemporary prayer) but the essence of each form of prayer is to connect with and communicate with God – by not only talking to God but also listening for his response.

Prayer can also take the form of worship – singing praises or reciting or writing poetry.  This is what Mary is doing in the words of the Magnificat – she is reflecting on all that has recently happened to her – a young girl visited by an Angel to be told she is going to bear a child out of wedlock, told the name she is to give to the child - that he will be “the Son of God”.  How awesome that must have been – the moment captured so well in the painting by Fra Angelico which is to be found in St. Marco’s in Florence.

Mary’s instinct after this visit is to sing a song of praise – to praise God for these wonderful things which are to come to pass and her especial place in it all – remembering God’s past mercies. To see things in the light of what has gone on before in the history of her nation – The Fall, Exodus, United Nation, Exile and Rebuilding. So she recites:

“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour ” – an instinctive feeling within her that compels her to acknowledge the importance of God with much inner rejoicing

“He has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servants. Surely from now on all generations shall be blessed” – God has blessed a simple humble girl like Mary with such an importance that will be recognised for all time

“For the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name” – Mary has been asked to do something amazing by Yahweh, the God who has chosen people in the past to do his ministry and now chooses her for this great task

“His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation” – those that believe in Him now and in the future and honour him will receive his mercy, his forgiveness

“He has shown strength with his arm and has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” – by this act God has demonstrated the need for Humankind to need and understand and acknowledge his power and not think they can rely on their own their own thoughts and desires

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich empty away” – a prophesy for Jesus’s ministry.  God has placed his reliance on a simple lowly girl as an example of how he uses and will use ordinary people.  The people of Israel were expecting a Messiah who would be a great kingly leader on a horse but in fact Jesus came as a humble carpenter’s son who was to enter Jerusalem in triumph on a young colt.  Likewise Jesus told the Pharisees that he had come to help the poor and needy - the rich would receive their rewards on Earth but the poor believers would receive theirs in Heaven.

“He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy according to the promises he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever” - this is a reference back to Old Testament prophesy, especially Isaiah, that God would not, in the long run, forsake his chosen people of Israel and is remembering the covenant made that the descendants of Abraham would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach.  He will not abandon them and by sending his only Son through Mary he is fulfilling those prophesies.

Mary’s song brings together an acknowledgement of everything prophesised and promised in the books of the Old Testament – that is why it remains important to have an understanding of the stories and history contained in the 37 books of the Old Testament if we are to make complete sense of the Gospels and other 25 books of the New.

Like the conversation which Adam and Eve had with God at the first Creation in the Garden of Eden so Mary’s conversation, her prayer of thanksgiving and praise, heralds in the New Creation.

Jesus taught his disciples the importance of prayer and even gave them and us a template based on the mnemonic “ACTS” – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication”. These are the four elements of prayer – glorifying God, confessing our sins, giving praise and thanksgiving for the good things he gives us and finally our requests.  He taught us to pray with sincerity.

In my short piece in this month’s parish magazines I talk about the importance of prayer at this time of uncertainty and upheaval in our nation’s history. We are on the brink, possibly, of a new era outside of the Union with our European neighbours.  This time coincides with Lent – a time for fasting, reflection and prayer. I invite you now to join me in a short prayer for our nation remembering that in so doing we are in a two way communication with God.  He does hear us and he always wants to hear from us

Let us pray:

God of hope,

As you led your people through the wilderness,

Guide us through the political confusion of these days,

that together we may live in harmony

and work for the good of all

for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/08032019