SERMON 147 - SUNDAY 8 MARCH 2020

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley  -  Morning Worship During Lent  – Sunday 8^th  March 2020

Genesis 12:1-4a;  Romans 4:1-5,13-17;  John 3:1-17

May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of all our hearts, be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord.  Amen

This morning we have three quite distinct and difficult pieces of scripture to consider and reflect upon. The first describes Abram’s or Abraham’s (as he was later to become known) commission from God to leave his country of birth and nurture, his family home, and go to another entirely new and unknown place (to Abram) chosen by God.

In our second reading, in his letter to the Christian community in Rome, Paul is making a distinction between those things we do for reward (working for our wages for instance) and those things we do simply by faith – the latter Paul describing as those things which can be considered righteous.

Jesus in his discourse with Nicodemus, a learned Jewish elder and a member of the Sanhedrin discusses the need to be “born again” in order to see the Kingdom of Heaven.  Nicodemus for all his learning and knowledge of Hebrew scripture takes Jesus’s words literally and completely misses the point of what Jesus is actually trying to convey. By being “born again” – a greatly overused term in my opinion when I was a member of my student’s Christian Union in Liverpool – Jesus is really saying that we need to repent of our old ways and then by accepting the Holy Spirit we will be more open to what God has in store for us – we should let the Holy Spirit, like the wind, blow where it chooses and we ourselves will then see the world and our own calling through the eyes of God.

All three passages seem, at first, to set impossible tasks or very difficult tasks for us, In the first, Abram is being asked to uproot himself and his family, leaving everything he has been brought up with behind to go where he knows not, God knows where in fact! This is an example of blind faith – putting his whole life at the disposal of God.  At times we ourselves may be asked to do this – to take a gigantic leap of faith for God with seeming no immediate reward. Abram is told that the only reward he will receive will be for him and in particular his future generations to be blessed – something in the future not in the here and now; not in the immediate.  As his wife was well past child bearing age his faith must have been exceedingly strong indeed to be presented with what appeared to be a strong impossibility.

Our second reading reminds me of that great film Schindler’s List. At the beginning of that great epic we see this great Czech pro-Nazi industrialist making money for himself on the backs of forced Jewish labour.  His motivation is purely financial; taking advantage of the Nazi occupation of Poland and the availability of cheap labour to operate an enamel ware factory in Krakow to make money for himself and live a hedonistic lifestyle. As the film develops he begins to see and understand the horrors and injustices and death which this same Nazi regime, with which he hitherto conspired, has brought upon so many innocent lives. We see the moment of this revelation and indeed repentance as Schindler looks on in the scene where we follow the little girl in the red coat during the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto – the only colour we see in an otherwise black and white film. It never fails to move me to tears. 

Towards the very end of the film we see Oscar Schindler himself, played so brilliantly by Liam Neeson, moved to tears as he reflects upon how much more he might have done had he sacrificed his earlier greed and hedonistic life style sooner. For the Jewish people his remorse and repentance is a true mark of doing something without expecting monetary reward but doing it out of faith and seeing things as God sees them. Feeling God’s grief for the treatment of those Jews and doing something about it without seeking wages. That, Paul tells us is acting righteously. Today, Oscar Schindler is still honoured by the Jewish Nation as being “Righteous Amongst Nations” – an award for all those non-Jews who selflessly and often at great risk to themselves, helped Jews escape the Holocaust.

So, what are the lessons and reflections which we can take from these three readings?

Well, first of all, I think that like Abram, where we feel or hear God’s call we should take serious notice of it, even if it is something which might seem difficult or impossible for us. God will never call us to do something which he feels us incapable of if it is a true calling. The difficulty can often be in discerning it as a true calling and not just some idea in our own head. It is often useful, in those circumstances, to talk to a spiritual director or accompanier as we prefer to call them, to examine closely that calling.  Is it really a request from God.

Secondly, we should never expect any immediate reward from anyone for the things we do outside of our paid occupations. As Paul tells us, when we work and expect wages we are simply receiving what is our due. If we do things without expecting or receiving a reward then what we are doing may indeed be considered a righteous act especially if, like Oscar Schindler, we are also taking a great risk at the same time.

Finally, we need to be born again of the Holy Spirit; that is to receive the Holy Spirit through which we can discern the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth as God does. Each Sunday, if not at many other times, we pray the Lord’s prayer part of which reads “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth it is in Heaven”. “Thy Kingdom come”. We pray this continuously but what do we do to help bring it about?  Well first of all we need to see God’s will for ourselves – to see the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus’s eyes. To see what is wrong and then do something about it. That was what Oscar Schindler saw from his horse overlooking the Krakow Ghetto in the film; the girl in the red coat – the discernment that this was wrong. What a wonderful piece of cinematography to show repentance through the realisation of the effects upon the little girl in red. It is the moment for us all when we turn away from those ways which separate us from our love of God and dedicate our lives to his will.

One of our roles then, as Christians, is to continue to pray that prayer – “Thy Will be Done” and act and speak out in ways which can truly help bring that about.

A favourite prayer of mine, which reminds us that Jesus Christ left us the Holy Spirit so we could continue his work toward establishing the Kingdom of Heaven here is the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila

Let us pray :

Christ has no body now but ours

No hands, no feet on earth but ours

Ours are the eyes through which Christ looks with compassion into the world

Ours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good

Ours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world.

Amen

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SERMON 146 - SUNDAY 1 MARCH 2020

Sermon at St Peter’s Church, Pitton  -  Morning Worship  – Sunday 1st March 2020

(Adaptation of Sermon 92)

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19;  Matthew 4:1-11

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.  Amen

We are all familiar, I hope with the words of the Lord’s Prayer – that prayer which Jesus gave to his disciples and followers and which we recite every week and contains the well know lines:

“Forgive give us our sins (or trespasses as the old version has it) as we forgive others and lead us not into temptation”.

I emphasise the “and” because despite what many may think, temptation and sin are two different sides of the same coin.

As we now enter into that great period of reflection in the Christian calendar, Lent, we may hear a lot about sin and temptation.  Many of us may have decided to give up something for Lent as a way of expressing our commitment to our Faith – following Jesus into the wilderness before he began his earthly ministry leading to his eventual death of the Cross.  As Jesus himself says, if you want to follow me you must take up your own Cross – and that, to some extent, is what we do during these six weeks of Lent – contemplate upon our own life’s commitment to Christ and the nature of the Cross we have to bear to truly follow him.

To be tempted, is not in itself a sin, only if we accept that temptation, which is to disobey God, is the sin committed. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask not to be tempted for if temptation does not come our way then, ergo, we cannot be led to sin.  A removal of the temptation is an act of prevention which is always the best outcome –  ask any doctor, police officer or fire officer - yet we are very fortunate as Christians because we know that if we are tempted and we do sin there is still a cure.  In the words of the same prayer, we can ask for forgiveness but, in the same breath, only if we forgive others too.  That is, what Desmond Tutu, calls the cycle of forgiveness.

This morning, in our readings, we are dealing with some extremely deep theological issues – issues which have taxed and been debated by eminent theologians for centuries. 

Our first reading, from Genesis, is well known to us as well as many outside of the church.  Having created the world and populated it with animals and humans, and having seen that all was good, God rested on the seventh day we are told; but it wasn’t long before things started to go wrong (as they always seem to do when humans are involved) and the first great temptation appears – that wonderful tree bearing such tempting fruit – made even more tempting by the Serpent, appealing to the curiosity of Eve by saying that eating the fruit will make Eve as knowledgeable as God.  What a great temptation and humans, being what they are, who wouldn’t be tempted.  How many of you, when confronted with a sign chalked on the pavement by a street lamp standard, or close to a doorway or fence with the words “Wet Paint” or “Wet Cement” haven’t been tempted to just test the truthfulness of that statement with a finger?  I know I have and invariably I have discovered the accuracy of the statement by acquiring horribly sticky fingers or hands. The sign is there to warn with an implied request not to touch.  By touching we may have discovered the truth but we have also been disobedient.  Our temptation has turned to sin.  The serpent or snake represents all those who would seek to deceive us – in our modern language to seek to mirepresent a situation through “fake news”.  “You will not die”, says the serpent, “go on eat”. We must all pray for the gift of discernment to know what is true and what is false to prevent us falling into sin.

Adam and Eve were given very strict instructions, we read, not to touch or eat the fruit of this tree yet in doing just this they were being disobedient to God and therefore sinned – resulting in the punishment meted out by the Fall.  They fell for the snake’s trick.

In our epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, the apostle is comparing the sin of one man, Adam, “his trespass” to use words familiar to many in the Lord’s Prayer, to the action of one man, Jesus, in his “act of righteousness” as Paul calls it, leading to justification (salvation) for all through our belief that Jesus died on the Cross to save us from our sins.  In other words, the situation is put right, the Fall is reversed and humans, through Faith, can be restored in God’s grace to being what God always intended them to be. But it is important that they do have Faith – something beyond simple belief but a commitment to the teachings of Christ and to follow him unreserved and unconditionally.

Romans 5 is not easy to read in isolation from the whole Letter to the Romans and Paul’s way of speaking or writing can, at times, be quite difficult to follow and it does require some study beyond just listening to snippets being read out on a Sunday morning.  The twelve earlier verses of Romans 5 set the scene for us a little better in that Paul reminds his reader that it was only through the suffering of Jesus upon the Cross, an act of the deepest humiliation for a human being to suffer at that time, can we share in the glory of God together with a belief that Jesus died for our salvation. That is the fundamental cornerstone of our Faith. 

Paul says “we know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. (Romans 5:4-5)

Wow, what a wonderful explanation of our Faith. God’s glory, God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  I particularly love the passage “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”  If you get nothing further from this sermon this morning please do take away that one line – “hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit”.

But, as Christians, that does not mean that we are now immune from temptation, from fake news in fact, why else would we need continually to pray that we should not be led into that very thing we seek to avoid. I am a great believer in spiritual warfare – good versus evil – the subject of so many books and films – even the Harry Potter series has this as its main overriding theme.  I believe in this context, the greatest and most disobedient temptation is therefore a moving away from God by indulging in our own fantasies and ambitions as opposed to those plans and desires which God has for us and by worshipping other gods – today they might be money, cars, a hedonistic life without thought or empathy for others, a forgetfulness and lack of appreciation of God.   We have no greater example of the spiritual warfare which we can be up against than the account of Christ himself being tempted by the Devil in the wilderness which formed the text of our gospel Reading today.

Here the Devil is testing God through the temptations of Jesus.  Three things Jesus is tempted with – things which any of us could probably equate to temptations which we have faced or have to face – first, tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread.  We know, from the first miracle that Jesus can do such things – he turned water into wine at a wedding – but the difference here is that the Devil is asking him to prove that he is the Son of God by this action not, as previously, as an act of love for his mother and the hosts at the wedding; second, by again proving he is the Son of God by testing God himself to save him from a fatal death by jumping from the temple roof – this would be not only putting God to the test but disobeying his Father who would, in due course, see his Son die of the Cross when similar jibes were exclaimed and finally, an attempt to make Jesus fall down and worship the Devil – a direct disobedience to God’s First Commandment which Jesus himself later proclaimed to be the first of two of the greatest Commandments.

So, we can take comfort and courage that though we may be tempted, so too was Christ.  It is how we deal with those temptations which will make us stronger and able, more closely, to follow Christ and the will of God.  We have the Holy Spirit to guide us and it is ever more important that we continue to have a strong dialogue with God through prayer and reflection.

In front of you there are some small pieces of paper and hopefully a pen.  If you wish to, and there is absolutely no compulsion to do so, I invite you to write down, anonymously, any temptations which you feel you need to avoid, especially during this period of Lent, it might be eating chocolate, drinking wine, having that second helping of bread and butter pudding, gossiping, not reading your bible, watching Love Island or Naked Attraction, anything at all and place the folded paper in the basket here at the front.  After the services we will take them away and destroy them after we have prayed the Lord’s Prayer over them.

As you do that let us pray:

Father we thank you that you gave your Son, Jesus Christ

To die on the Cross to save us from our sins

We ask you to lead us not into temptation so that we are not tempted to sin against the Holy Spirit and be led away from your saving grace.

Knowing that faith leads to salvation and hope will not disappoint us, we ask that we may always live our lives founded on the three great principles of Faith, Hope and Love.

Amen

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SERMON 145 - SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2020

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow and St. Mary’s and Holy Trinity,  – Sunday 9 February 2020 – Morning Praise and Morning Eucharist

Isaiah 58:1-9(a)(b-12); 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16); Matthew 5:13-20

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may the light of Christ shine through those words to all who hear them.

Last week, our Gospel Reading told the story of Christ’s presentation in the Temple in accordance with Jewish rites and customs and you will recall the words of both Simeon and Anna, that elderly couple who spent much of their time in pray and meditation the Temple. You will also, no doubt, recall the words of Simeon as we so often hear them in the Nunc Dimittis – Jesus is to be “a light to be a light for the Gentiles and to be the glory of the people of Israel.”

When preparing for today’s service and after reading the gospel reading in Matthew, it seemed a good idea to continue the candle theme and a little later on I shall be inviting you to come up and place a candle here on the chancel steps.  

The importance of Jesus’s words, spoken at the Sermon on the Mount are an invitation to all his followers that they/we should not merely sit back and bask in his glorious light but are expected to go out ourselves spreading that light to all nations and in this dark world which we seem to inhabit today these words, I believe, have never had a greater relevance.

Isaiah, in our first reading, is giving the Jewish exiles a stinging rebuke which, as Tom Wright puts it, sows the seeds for what Jesus was later to preach on the Mount. True godliness, true piety must be to share your blessings with the world and not keep them to yourself. Fasting and religious observance is absolutely useless, Isaiah says, whilst injustice goes unchecked, if darkness continues to dominate. It is a call to the Jewish people, just as Jesus’s sermon is, not to refuse to carry out God’s chosen vocation for them. At that time there were many Jews who were focused on bringing God’s swift judgment on those pagan nations which did not hold to the Jewish faith, especially in that brutal area of the Middle East, rather than bringing God’s light to them.  Just as Jonah was upset when the people of Ninevah turned to God and weren’t wiped out by him.

God, through Isaiah is condemning his people for forgetting and ignoring their calling but the passage ends on a positive note – that water will spring up from the parched places and ancient ruins will be rebuilt – if only God’s people remember and follow their vocation.  It is when they feed the hungry, when they welcome the homeless into their homes, that his light shall break through.

They are told that they are this light of the world. It is, as Angela Ritchie tells us, not about what the church should be but about what it must be. That great sacrificial German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it like this “any community which wants to be invisible is no longer a community that follows Christ”.  We are to be a community of faithful witnesses.

We often hear the term “to hide your light under a bushel” in the context of not showing off about yourself – not being boastful and likewise when we say “he certainly doesn’t hide his light under a bushel” we are often talking in derogatory terms about a person’s fondness for himself; but Jesus wants us not to hide our light, for when we do that we are hiding his light too.  As he says, we must be visible like that city on the hill. Let others see how you live for him, not forsaking all those good deeds and attitudes which Isaiah mentions are important if we are to be true to God and letting people see the love and light of God through us.

St. Teresa of Avila warns us, though, that there is also a spiritual danger in being that community of faithful witnesses. We can become focused on “manifesting the appearance of virtue” because we want our “goodness” to be noticed by others and not simply to give the glory to God. I know I can easily fall into this trap because it feels good when somebody affirms your goodness.

From the outside, too, it can be difficult to distinguish between someone whose good deeds are done from love of praise and someone whose unselfish goodness is offered solely to glorify God.  Outwardly they will appear very similar but inwardly they are an entirely different matter. If we truly are truly transmitting the light of Christ within us to another then it will be a matter of total indifference to us whether our part in this transmission is evident to others.  Our sole aim will be the transmission to the recipient filling them with God’s grace and mercy so they too might carry the light on – a bit like the Olympic Torch.  It is the transmission of the light to its final destination that is important not the individual who carries it.

Paul, in our second reading, touches on this when he challenges his readers who, while professing faith in Christ, still cling to the values of the world – in particular the desire for glory and status. He talks of the difference between wisdom learned in this world compared to true and secret wisdom learned from God and this through experiencing the Holy Spirit.  Paul ends the passage by a rhetorical question – “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We as Christians have not received the Spirit of this World but the Spirit from God and acknowledge that this is freely given to us so we might spread it to others.

As we light our candles later on in this service, let us remember that as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ and blessed with the Holy Spirit we carry that light within us all the time – sometimes it is only a little pilot light flickering away almost undetected, but at other times it whooshes up and fires us to do great things in his name.  If you come here this morning and don’t yet feel that you have Christ’s light within you, still leave your candle here at the front and pray that the Holy Spirit will enter your life and turn on that inner flame.

We must, like Simeon last week, have the faith to recognise God at work in this world; have the faith to trust that God has a plan for his world; we must, like Anna, be able to look to the dawning of a new age however dark the dawn may be for some today.  Look again into the face of the person or persons sitting next to – you are looking into the face of God’s created image – a glimpse of God himself who loves you and say to that person “God loves you today and always”.

Above all, we must go out from this church today shining our light, given to us by Christ, into the dark places of the world. St. Teresa reminded us, in a prayer, that aided by the Holy Spirit, we are here to continue Jesus’s work on earth. To bring the glory and grace of God to those we meet.  To pass on the flame of salvation to all.

Let us pray the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through 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 on earth but yours.”

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/08022020

SERMON 144 - SUNDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2020

Sermon delivered at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 2 February 2020 – Candlemas

Luke 2:22-40

“Master, you are now dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples; a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel”

I think everyone here is very familiar with this passage – it has been sung over the centuries in its King James Version under its Latin heading “Nunc Dimittis” meaning “now you are dismissed” and this morning, later in our service, the choir will sing a version set to the music of Charles Wood.

We call this Sunday “Candlemas” and earlier this week I was asked to explain why the presentation of Jesus in the Temple had been given this name.  I think I explained it last year, thanks to Alec Knight, when I took this service, but it is worth repeating again here this morning, the early church leaders recognised and spoke of Jesus’s presentation as being the presentation of the light of the world – as we have just read “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel” and services, especially in the Orthodox Church, still use a great many candles in their services at this time – hence Candlemas.  

Last year I concentrated on those two elderly dwellers in the Temple – Simeon and Anna and their importance in this story, and you will have an opportunity to hear more about Simeon this afternoon if you attend Alderbury Village Hall for the musical of that title, but this morning I want to talk more about bringing the light of of Jesus into the world and concentrate more on the future rather than the past.

On Friday night something massively significant occurred – and we woke up yesterday morning no longer part of that European Family in which we have been an important part for some 47 years if my maths is right. For some this is a new light shining, for others darkness has descended upon us.  Whichever side you might be   on, we face years of change and challenge as we adjust to our new place in the world.

But there is a greater light amongst any darkness and that is the light of Jesus who, as God incarnate, came upon this earth some 2,000 years ago and died on the cross for us.  God, we are told in the bible came for heal the sick and to bind the wounds of many. 

I often reflect on how it must have been for Mary, the mother of Jesus to present her little bundle of joy in the Temple as was the custom.  A small helpless baby swaddled up close to his mother’s breast.  Possibly his little hands were opening and closing, clenching and unclenching as I have seen so often in my little grandchildren; a precious bundle of love. And then I think of those same hands, 33 years later being stretched out by brutish foreign soldiers for massive nails to be driven through the palms as that same little child is prepared for the cruellest of executions;  his crime – being the light of the world.  That story will be told again in April when we remember and celebrate the events in Jerusalem during that Passion Week.

For now, though, let us dwell on Simeon’s praise.  Let us remember that God so loved the world that he came down and was made flesh amongst us.  That he became wholly human as well as wholly divine. He cried like any child and gazed into his mother’s eyes like any child does in its mother’s arms.  He came for all of us, not just the Jews, but for the non-Jews as well; all of humankind – whatever our race, colour or political persuasion.  We are all children of the same God.  We were all innocent babes at one time and we are all created in God’s image.

Last year I quoted James Finley and I think it appropriate to do so again :

“When God eases us out of God’s heart into the earthly plane, God searches for the place that is most like paradise, and it’s the mother’s gaze. In the mother’s gaze, she transparently sacramentalises God’s infinite gaze of love, looking into the eyes of the infant. And when the infant looks into her eyes it is looking into God’s eyes, incarnate as her loving eyes.”

Simeon was able to prophesy the future for Mary. A sword will pierce your very soul too. Sadness and despair would descend upon Mary some 33 years later but; also, so would joy and gladness at the resurrection.

That is the promise for us all.  Whatever our lives might be like now, how ever we might feel about ourselves or our situation by trusting in God’s light, the living Christ and the Holy Spirit we can get through all the darkness and shine his light in the world.

We are told that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon. The Holy Spirit leads us today, as then, into the future with hope, because the future is God's and God will always give us hope. The challenge for each of us is to put our trust in God in the same complete way that Simeon and Anna did when they glimpsed the divine face of that small baby in the Temple.  Simeon knew that this small child would be tested and eventually die a cruel death – but he also knew that he had seen a great light and that he could now die himself a peaceful fulfilled death.  

As we light our candles later on in this service, let us remember that as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ and blessed with the Holy Spirit we carry that light within us all the time – sometimes it is only a little pilot light flickering away almost undetected, but at other times it whooshes up and fires us to do great things in his name.  If you come here this morning and don’t yet feel that you have Christ’s light within you, still leave your candle here at the front and pray that the Holy Spirit will enter your life and turn on that inner flame.

We must, like Simeon, have the faith to recognise God at work in this world; have the faith to trust that God has a plan for his world; we must, like Anna, be able to look to the dawning of a new age however dark the dawn may be for some today.  Look again into the face of the person or persons sitting next to – you are looking into the face of God’s created image – a glimpse of God himself who loves you and say to that person “God loves you today and always”.

Let us pray:

O Lord Jesus Christ, as a child you were presented in the Temple and received with joy by Simeon and Anna as Redeemer of Israel and a Light to all Nations: we ask that we, like them, may be guided by the Holy Spirit to acknowledge and love you until the end of our lives.

Amen                                                                                                    MFB/010220

SERMON 143 - SUNDAY 26 JANUARY 2020

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, Alderbury and  St. Mary’s Church, East Grimstead – 3^rd Sunday in Epiphany - Sunday 26 January 2020

Isaiah 9:1-4;  1 Corinthians 1:10-18;  Matthew 4:12-23

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O Lord.  Amen

I have always liked this morning’s gospel passage because it constantly reminds me that, in choosing those he wished to closely follow him, Jesus chose everyday folk – fishermen.  Having been brought up in the then largest fishing port in the world, Grimsby, I saw at first hand the ordinariness and gruffness of those men who risked their lives in the cold waters of Barents Sea and the northerly reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, above Iceland, where one simple error could cost them their lives and the lives of their companions.  They were a hard folk who lived hard and played hard too.  Their livelihood, and that of thousands of other people on the land in and around the town depended on these men going out again and again in the cruellest of weathers to harvest the seas. It was very fitting, then, that the church closest to the fish docks was dedicated to St. Andrew.  Alas, like the fishermen themselves, the church has gone and the town a shadow of its former self.

It is interesting that, after 30 years on the Earth, Jesus should choose this moment to start his ministry.  John the Baptist, the great evangelist and baptiser of Jesus himself, his cousin, has been arrested on the orders of Herod Antipas and Jesus had withdrawn to his home area on the side of Lake Galilee – but not his home town of Nazareth but to the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali – mentioned in Isaiah’s prophesy which we heard earlier and which is then repeated in the gospel account. This is so very important as it is placed there to remind us that our Faith is not just founded on scripture contained within the New Testament but also we need to be aware of everything that went on before as recorded in the Old and that Christ’s life is indeed a fulfilment of those scriptures – “I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfil it” he tells his followers in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:17).

Jesus clearly saw that following John’s arrest the land had been plunged into that darkness which Isaiah described and prophesised and that he had been brought into the world by his Father to be that Great Light to shine in that darkness.

So, Jesus begins his ministry, we read in verse 17 by proclaiming “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near”; echoing those same words of repentance as shouted out by John himself.

The Greek word for repentance, I dare say you will remember, is metanoia meaning a transformative change of heart – something deep and meaningful – a real turning round from a past life to a new one – wholehearted and transforming.  That is what Jesus was requiring of those whom he wished to be followers – a real, deep change of heart for the better putting God before everything else.

In the context of these biblical times Jesus is looking for people to turn away from their selfish, self-centred ways and look further towards what is selfless and sustaining.  To bring the Kingdom of Heaven down here to Earth.

Our account of Jesus’s encounter with the first two fishermen, Peter and Andrew, on the shores of Galilee is very understated in Matthew’s Gospel.  We are told that he simply saw them engaged in their profession – casting a net into the lake to catch the fish. There appears to be no massive proselytising or a big outdoor sermon being preached; just a quiet word – “Follow me and I will make you fish for people”. 

I have often wondered how the hardened fisherman of Grimsby would have reacted if Christ had appeared to them in Riby Square with the same invitation.  I can imagine a few choice words being exchanged.  Here on the shores of Galiliee his presence, his charisma must have been something so remarkable that these fisherman, and Peter does indeed epitomise the rough and ready fisher folk I encountered in my younger days, we are told, simply that they immediately left their nets and followed him. Likewise, a little further on two other brothers, James and John left their father and their boat and joined Andrew and Peter without further discussion.  Matthew ends the passage with these few extra lines “[They] went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people”.

Wow, if there ever was an example of metanoia this is surely it – forsaking everything of familiarity and comfort to follow an itinerant preacher and healer.  Jesus himself tells us, time and time again, that following him will never be easy but what we have here is the beginning of a community;  A community of Christians, of a family who will share the ups and downs of Jesus’s ministry.  It starts with the five – Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John - and as of 2015 numbered some 2.4 billion worldwide.  Now that is some family.

As with those original five, we are, each and every one of us, called upon to be “Kingdom People” – to proclaim the good news of the kingdom and to heal the sick.  This morning we have (had) at Alderbury a healing service. All our ministry must always begin and end in prayer but we have a great precedent in those first followers of Christ who took a great leap of faith in immediately leaving their boats and nets and following Jesus.  Let us never lose sight of the fact that we are indeed all one big community, a family.

Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians has this very much in mind as he writes his epistle. He is concerned about the fragmentation of his church into factions claiming to follow different leaders. He reminds his readers or listeners that there should be no divisions amongst the Christian family. We have seen this so much in the number of different denominations within the Church.

I am reminded of a joke told one evening by Jeff Lucas at Spring Harvest:

A church minister was walking across a bridge one day, and saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. He ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."

"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.

"Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?"

"Are you religious?"

He said: "Yes."

The minister said: "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"

"Christian."

"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

"Protestant."

"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

"Baptist."

"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"

"Baptist Church of God."

"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"

"Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"

He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."

With that the minister said: "Die, heretic," and pushed him off.

This simply goes to show that what concerned Paul then is still with us today – divisions based on church dogma rather than a universal understanding of the simplest of things which Christ wants us to remember – a knowledge that we are all the children of God and are chosen by him irrespective of which doctrine and rituals we follow. 

Paul insists in his letter that his role is simply one of herald - announcing Jesus, the crucified king to the world.  A great family is created from nothing but a huge family of which you and I today are members and whose role, like that of Paul, whether or not we had a great Damascus road experience or not, is to preserve unity and to shine God’s great light into the dark culture which we find all around us.

As Tom Wright asks, in his devotional for today “As we prepare to celebrate Paul’s own conversion, and to keep the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 1 Corinthians provides a salutary lesson. So what are we waiting for? Is the world not dark enough yet? Let’s get to work.

Let us pray:-

Lord God,

the source of our unity,

faith and love:

bless your churches here on Earth,

in all their denominations,

that sharing our gifts as Christ’s chosen disciples

we may proclaim the gospel

and reveal your glory,

in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen                                                                                      MFB/23012020/143

SERMON 142 - SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 2019

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish - Advent Sunday - Sunday 2 December 2019

Isaiah 2:1-5;  Romans 13:11-14;  Matthew 24:36-44

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O Lord.  Amen

At the beginning of our service this morning we lit the first of the five candles which make up our Advent Wreath – the  Patriarch’s Candle or the Prophecy Candle or the Candle of Hope – and it is therefore not surprising that each of our readings today, the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, the Epistle of Paul to the Romans and the extract I read from Matthew’s Gospel reminds us to be ever ready from Jesus’s return as nobody but god himself knows the day and time of that return.

I know I have told this story before but it is true that as a child I waited impatiently for the visit of Santa Claus, or Father Christmas as we preferred to call him back then, and I was repeatedly told that this wonderful mythical character would only visit our house if I went to bed early and was asleep by the time he made his visit.  So worried was I that I might still be awake when he arrived that on one occasion, when I had gone to bed early as requested, but full of Christmas Eve goodies, I was feeling decidedly queasy and was violently sick in my bed rather than reveal my wakefulness and sickness to my parents.  “Be asleep or he will not come” had been drummed into me; but the message which we heard from the Gospel reading this morning, when we look not at the mythical person of Father Christmas, but the true reason for our forthcoming festivities, Jesus Christ, is that we must keep awake whilst we wait for him to arrive – even when sometimes our patience and wakefulness is challenged by the worries and troubles of our busy lives and the events of the world which surround us.

Our passages from Isaiah and Paul’s letter to the Romans remind us that we are in the dark times until he returns.  The reading from Isaiah was written at the time of the Exile, when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon pondering on why their Temple and city at Jerusalem had been destroyed and they were now in exile and captivity in a foreign land.  They had cried out to God for an explanation and concluded that through their sins God had forsaken them.

The Book of Isaiah is believed, by biblical theologians to be the work of possibly three different people over a period of 70 years.  It is certainly one of the longest books in the bible consisting of 66 chapters – the same number as books as contained in the whole bible – and today our reading was from Chapter 2 – towards the beginning of the book. Isaiah is describing that the Temple will be re-established and that it will be God’s mountain – not only a high place of safety and sanctuary but also one to look up to metaphorically as a place where the word of God will pronounce to all nations the right way to behave – and here we have the famous words well known to many of us – that we should beat our swords into ploughshares – our warlike implements into implements of peace; that nations shall not go to war any more nor lift swords against each other.

In our second hymn this morning the words of G K Chesterton, the creator of Father Brown reminds us that we should ask God to save us from what he calls the sword of scorn and the sword of profanation but pick up a single sword in defence of God’s salvation.

Paul in his letter to the Romans is writing at a time beyond Isaiah’s prophesy of the coming of Jesus and is speaking on how Christians should behave now and in the future – prophesies like those in Isaiah 2 have already been brought into fruition. Paul therefore saw his own mission to the Gentiles as the fulfilment of Isaiah’s promise – the nations were already coming in to God’s people to hear the message of salvation that the creator God had entrusted to the Jews already and so Isaiah’s call for universal peace must be read as our own personal call to holiness – it must be our present agenda.

This week the Archbishop of Canterbury was interviewed on Radio 5 Live and listeners were able and encouraged to question him – especially in the context of the current political situation and pending General Election.  A recurrent theme promoted by the radio host was whether religious leaders should engage in political discussion or public opinions.  This of course followed the comments of the Chief Rabbi and the leadership of the Labour Party. Justin Welby sits on the House of Lords and as such is at the centre of the political life of our nation but even if he were not it is my honest opinion that we in the church should indeed voice our opinions about the political life of our nation.

It is not easy to do, but whoever said that being a Christian is an easy life. I am constantly reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who ultimately gave his life for his involvement in trying to advocate the bringing down of an evil regime.  

At present much darkness seems to surround us.  Liz and I recently had a two-week break in sunny warm climes. We expected to return back here refreshed but both of us remarked upon the cold darkness of our own country.  Now, of course, returning from the Caribbean to England in mid-October is always going to seem dark and miserable by comparison but this year it seemed much darker than normal – and the clocks hadn’t yet been put back either!  No, it seemed that there was a darkness of spirit which pervaded our whole nation.  Only in the last week have we heard about the satanic symbols and slaughter of animals just down the road in one of our neighbouring parishes and just on Friday another attack on London Bridge. Paul re-assures us that the night is nearly over but he also reminds us to wake from our slumber, put away any deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.

In our cathedral this weekend we celebrate “Darkness into Light” and I believe that is of such importance to us as Christians.  We are told by Jesus himself to be salt and light to the world.  We must uphold those values which God has instilled in all of us.  As we celebrated Christ the the King only last week we need to remember that our principal allegiance is always to Jesus as our Saviour and King and not our earthy rulers. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, indeed, but also give to God what is his too.

Let us let Jesus have the last word. In our gospel reading, Jesus reminds us to be ever ready and recalls that it was only Noah who had listened to God’s word and had been prepared for the Great Flood. So too must we be ever vigilant. This is a call to us today not to be complacent, not to just let things ride because either we feel too tired or simply just cannot be bothered.  You will recall that Jesus in another place tells his disciples of the signs of the end times – I think I preached on this at our service here on Advent 1 some two years ago. The number of Christians in this country is dropping all the time yet people need and are seeking some spiritual understanding to their lives.  Yet, Christianity is actually on the increase in the world – there are great revivals going on as I speak in Africa and Asia.  Thousands and thousands of people are coming to Christ each week. Muslims are even being converted to Christianity after having seen Jesus appearing in their dreams and I also see a great yearning for spiritual understanding, direction and growth here in our own country.  Never before have the teachings of Christ been more important on such a global scale.  We are called to be the instruments of spreading that light and dispelling the darkness.

That means being alive and awake to what is happening around us and being ready, not sleeping. I believe that Jesus was talking directly to each and every generation. The words are current because a generation will be born which will observe the end times. It could be us or a future generation – we do not know the day or the hour – just as the exiles in Babylon did not know the hour of their release from captivity; but we do know that God does honour his promises and in his time.  We must wait and be patient but always with the greatest of hope in our hearts. 

Let this Adventide be a time for us all to reflect upon this and ask ourselves how we will keep awake and keep the light burning in all this darkness which surrounds us.  My own answer is that we must always start and end in prayer and if you can do nothing else you can always pray from wherever you find yourselves.

Let us end with that famous prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:-

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.

Amen

MFB/30112019/142