St John, Burgess Hill 26th January 2020

Do you want a faith that stands on the authority of scripture and yet remains thoughtful?

Teaching that rings true to the faith of the Church through the ages?

Would you value worship that is awesome yet accessible?

A  Christian community with loose boundaries and a vision for caring within the community?

Here we are - the Church of England!

We do not look down on Catholic or Free Churches but hold hands out to both as 'the ancient church of this land, catholic and reformed' (Catechism definition).

Our worshippers are evangelical, catholic, charismatic and radical because the Church has to be all these things.

Yes, we have our problems, some of our own making, but many on account of the honesty with which we are facing up to a fast changing world.

The Church of England is part of the Church in England and has respect for those of other Faiths or no faith at all.

We welcome all who wish to engage with Jesus Christ through the Bible and the Sacraments and through Christian fellowship and service.

As they first said of Jesus, 'Come and see!'   

       

An advertisement I put in Horsted Keynes parish magazine some time back written out of concern about the bad press the Church of England was getting at the time.

It came to mind preparing this sermon based on part of the second lesson set for today from 1 Corinthians 1.10-12. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?

This call to unity coincides with the end of the annual week of prayer for Christian Unity held every year from 18-25th January. It seems to me that St Paul’s warning reaches us as a church at three levels, local, national and universal, so here’s a minute or two on each level.

First local. I see it as a privilege to be alongside St John’s for a few months. Obviously as a locum priest I barely have my feet under the table let alone the PCC table. Some churches without a parish priest can be headless-chicken-ish and that’s not my impression here. There is leadership - good interim oversight from the Churchwardens - which I call upon us all to respect. May the pastoral vacancy, with all its demands on them and us, serve for good as we work for our good and that of Burgess Hill. May we hand to the one to be appointed parish priest a high degree of unity and a sense of collaboration as we seek to promote Christianity and develop the life of St John’s with an eye to growth in faith, love and numbers. We should not be complacent but pray to God St John’s will continue as the coalition it is of catholic, evangelical, charismatic and liberal Christians that is outwardly focussed. The valuing of Christian unity here is evidenced by how long people stay on after the eucharist to talk with and encourage one another. 

Second, nationally the Church of England has reached under her Archbishops and the General Synod agreement to hold together despite divisions over the remarriage of divorcees, equal ordination and pressure for equal marriage. The latter is the major current threat to unity after truces on remarriage of the divorced, now left for parish priests to operate, and the ordination of women which has occurred respecting those who go with the wider Church’s opposition to this. In the English Reformation marriage and ordination were affirmed as sacraments – that is God-given -  but lesser sacraments and in that perspective groups that want the sacraments to better fit our western culture have taken the lead. Those who see the sacraments as being unchangeable without the agreement of the universal church are now in a minority. Changing sacraments is like changing the heating system in a church. There's upheaval and a chilling effect. The national church is still in the middle of this and our membership is in decline though that decline isn’t just related to our perceived inconsistencies given the UK’s increasingly militant secular culture. No easy answers on the issues of course, just patience. The Holy Spirit is saying one thing to part of the church and another thing to the rest. We must wait and see respecting our different views so as to maximise unity as a national church which believes its part of the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’.

Thirdly let’s look at that international level of the universal church. About this Christians should really be getting impatient. In first century Corinth there were Chloe’s and Apollos’ and Cephas’ groups. In the world of the 21st century there are not three but over 40,000 Christian denominations! Each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? He has. His purpose to bring all things together is being much frustrated. There’s a need for each Christian church to recognise afresh that they exist by God’s grace - and so do the other denominations! Only as the different churches come together to the foot of Christ’s Cross and admit our need of his forgiveness are we ever going to be made one, as Christ certainly desires. This is happening worldwide whenever Christians opt to maximise cooperation with their sister churches. I am not so familiar with Churches Together in Burgess Hill but sense as in Haywards Heath a tension between mainline Anglican and Roman Catholic cooperation and that between charismatic networks. It's a task in hand - even intra-Anglican collaboration - but surrounded by spiritual apathy and unbelief our local churches need one another probably more than they realise to help one another bear the torch for Christ in our town and its surrounds.

The last Papal visitor to England, Pope Benedict, was welcomed to Lambeth Palace by theologian Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams with these soul provoking words:  In 1845, when John Henry Newman finally decided that he must follow his conscience and seek his future in serving God in communion with the See of Rome, one of his most intimate Anglican friends and allies, the priest Edward Bouverie Pusey.. wrote a moving meditation on this "parting of friends" in which he said of the separation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics quote: "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart". Unquote. That should not surprise us continued Rowan Williams: holiness is at its simplest fellowship with Christ; and when that fellowship with Christ is brought to maturity, so is our fellowship with one another. As bishops, we are servants of the unity of Christ's people, Christ's one Body. And, meeting as we do as bishops of separated church communities, we must all feel that each of our own ministries is made less by the fact of our dividedness, a very real but imperfect communion. Perhaps we shall not quickly overcome the remaining obstacles to full, restored communion; but no obstacles stand in the way of our seeking, as a matter of joyful obedience to the Lord, more ways in which to build up one another in holiness by prayer and public celebration together, by closer friendship, and by growing together both in the challenging work of service for all whom Christ loves, and mission to all God has made.

Wise words. "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart".
Christian unity grows – locally, nationally or internationally as Christians grow together in both holiness and mission. Let’s make that our priority as much as we can in the coming year. 

To come back to that Horsted Keynes magazine advertisement: 

The Church of England is part of the Church in England and has respect for those of other Faiths or no faith at all. We welcome all who wish to engage with Jesus Christ through the Bible and the Sacraments and through Christian fellowship and service. As they first said of Jesus, 'Come and see!'   

As they come, especially to St John’s, may they find less low church, middle church or high church but deep church.  Come Holy Spirit!

St Mary, Balcombe Epiphany 2 Lamb of God 19th January 2020

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1.29

Our scripture this morning follows on from last Sunday’s continuing to centre on the mission of Jesus. The Old Testament reading from Isaiah 49 prophesies that the mission of God’s servant will extend beyond Israel to all the nations: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ 

This passage was chosen to illuminate the holy gospel which is from John, exceptionally in this year of Matthew. This passage draws out how this mission is a sacrificial mission, that of the Lamb of God.

I’d like to dwell a little on this sacrificial image which appears week by week and day by day in the sacrificial text of the eucharist which recalls the Old Testament Passover Lamb. When we say Lamb of God, or the priest says ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ we go on ‘who takes away the sins of the world’. These words accompany the breaking of the Eucharistic bread which recalls in turn the breaking of Christ’s body on the Cross

This gathering in the parish church is part of an eternal offering of worship stretching back to the foundation of the world and stretching forward to the consummation of all things.

Our Lord is truly the lamb slain from the foundation of the world whose sacrifice on Calvary, as Revelation 13 verse 8 envisions, draws forth in heaven blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever. 

This morning we are touching reality - we are drawn to the event represented here that reveals a love touching every human concern upon the earth. 

At the beginning of a challenging year for our nation and for many peoples the world over there is no more powerful action we can take on behalf of humankind than to plead Christ’s Sacrifice, offering God what is his own…on behalf of all.

To the outward eye we are a small gathering of religious people doing their own thing upon their weekly holy day.

To the eye of faith we are Christians, caught up once more, on behalf of the whole creation, into the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ, through whom, and with whom and in whom in the unity of the Holy Spirit, we give glory to our Father in heaven.

Here, as on Calvary, we see his body and blood separated in death and then transformed by power from heaven. In every Eucharist we witness the separate consecration of Christ’s body and blood. We pause twice in the Eucharistic prayer and the bells ring to recall the sacrificial sundering of the Son of God - this is my body...this is my blood...of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins

Some of us may remember the ‘Seeing Salvation’ exhibition twenty years ago at the National Gallery. One of the many images of Christ was this  (above) - ‘The Bound Lamb’ by Francisco de Zurbarin who lived in the 17th century.  It is an image that often appears on Nativity scenes, the Shepherds’ offering which anticipates Christ’s sacrifice.  

As Jeremy Paxman wrote in the Church Times then of this painting: ‘no image I know so perfectly captures the astonishing force of the Christian story’.

It was given greater force at the time as a symbol through the images of sheep and lambs slaughtered so uselessly in the foot and mouth epidemic. The image of the bound lamb is one of innocent suffering but, for Christians, never one of useless suffering.

There is a Church in Norway, I’m told, which has the image of a sheep sculpted half way up its tower.  

Only when people enter that Church and hear something of its history do they discover the full Christian significance of the sculpted sheep.

Years before the sculpture was erected some renovation work was occurring on the Church steeple in this rural community.  One day a workman slipped from the steeple to almost certain death. At the same time by a remarkable twist of providence a flock of sheep was being driven past the Church.  

The steeplejack fell on a sheep and his fall was cushioned. The sheep died to save him - an awesome happening! The workers expressed their gratitude to God by adorning that Church tower with a sculpted sheep. It was welcomed as a powerful symbol of Christian Faith.

Jesus is the Lamb of God whose voluntary sacrifice takes away our sin.  Our Lord on Calvary takes the full impact of sin and death for us at the cost of his life.

I do not understand why God sent his Son to do just that for me. It is love beyond logic.

I cannot though deny the evil in the world and in my own heart. 

I will not deny that it threatens my fulfilment - not just my sin, but my fear and doubt and sickness as well as the self-serving use of my gifts. 

Neither will I as a Christian deny, though it goes quite beyond my reasoning powers, that Jesus, Christ the Son of God has taken the full impact of those evil powers for me. Our Lord has soaked up all the evil that would defeat me and offered me life to the full - life that cancels sin with forgiveness, sickness with healing, bondage with deliverance and even doubt with the gift of faith through the mighty Redemption he has won.  

All of this is powerfully present to me in every celebration of the Eucharist.

I cannot understand it but I will accept it. I cannot understand the way electricity works but that does not stop me switching on the lights. I take both on authority and it works to do so.

Jesus died in my place so that he might live in my place. 

Jesus died in my place to carry off the impact of evil upon me, particularly through the gift of the Eucharist. 

Jesus lives in my place, cooperating with my will by his Spirit, as I welcome him again and again into my heart in this Sacrament!

This morning we make the memorial of the Offering of Jesus and enter into that Self-Offering!

It is through the sacrificial Lamb of God that we can make a perfect offering to the Father, our sinful bodies made clean by his body..our souls washed through his most precious blood.

How much God needs the offering of our lives for his work here in Balcombe and its surrounds! 

Let’s pause for a minute or two to reflect on God’s word this morning as we prepare to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

St Bartholomew, Brighton Baptism of the Lord 12.1.20

You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3.17

Today the church throughout the world keeps the feast that completes the naming of Our Lord. Christmastide started with the birth of Jesus but it moves to a close with today’s Feast of his Baptism as the Christ, we heard about in the Gospel:

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. Matthew 3.16

Who is Jesus Christ?  He is Jesus, the Anointed One, the One on whom the Spirit rests – that is the meaning of ‘Christ’.

Our Lord was born to live in obscurity for 30 years. Then in his 30th year he comes for baptism.  The heavens open, the Spirit descends. Jesus, conceived and born of the Spirit is filled with the Spirit. The Scriptures tell us he then returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spreads through the whole countryside

Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.  He says this of himself – and of us!

His anointing as Christ and Messiah is not just for him - it is to be shared with us.  

Our Lord is anointed by the Holy Spirit as Christ so that we might share in his anointing!

A Christian is one who shares in the anointing of the Anointed One.  We can only do what the Church must do if we welcome and own that anointing in the Holy Spirit which is our own through baptism.

I believe that the church in this land has not failed so much as shrunk back from its task and that we need to get back to basics. That is why we need what Our Lord received and offered at his baptism – we need the Holy Spirit to come in power upon us. 

Almost his last words to his first disciples at the hour of his ascension were a promise that takes up these first words about him at the start of his ministry: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses he said, as recorded in Acts 1.8

How’s your enthusiasm for sharing your faith? As one who shares in the Spirit’s anointing could today’s Holy Communion be for you a rekindling of passion through a fresh anointing in that Spirit on the Feast of Our Lord’s own anointing?

Sometimes we have an anointing from above or beyond ourselves.  Other times – and I think this is very important – it is more a matter of experiencing an unblocking of the streams within.

In the story of Lourdes the key figure is the peasant girl, Bernadette, the shepherdess who in 1854 received a number of visions, allegedly of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In one of these visions Our Lady asked her to lift up some stones so that a spring was uncovered, a spring that flows to this day, a healing stream visited by millions every year.

How important discernment is! What healing streams can flow from one little insight!

We have a mission at St Bartholomew’s. Our Lord needs more enthusiasm in his people but where shall we get it from?  

The word ‘enthusiasm’ means literally ‘in God’. It comes from an ever-fresh welcoming of the anointing of the Anointed One, a readiness to be shown where the flow of the Holy Spirit is getting blocked within us. It might be unforgiveness or unbelief, a quiet cynicism or readiness to speak ill of others, seek where it is, lift the stone and you will see how the Spirit flows again in your life, through you and around you, into your circle, into St Bartholomew’s!

Our Lord says:  Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.  As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’  Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive John 7:37-9

How the Church needs to take this invitation to heart! How else can we hope to generate new enthusiasm about Christian Faith other than through some heart-searching for the things that weigh down and block the Spirit in our lives and in our Christian community? 

As we do so – and let Our Blessed Lord lift those stones, the weight of sin – we will recover a sense of God’s goodness and become his effective instruments – real good news people!.

As baptised, confirmed - and some of us - ordained Christians we possess the Holy Spirit! We possess the Spirit - but does he possess us? That is the key to a spiritual vitality! The late Dom Ian Petit of Ampleforth wrote these words in his book You Will Receive Power: Baptism and Confirmation confer a supernatural gift, but ignorance or lack of understanding of the gift, can block its full effect. In other words, while the sacrament is valid and has been given, the effect has been blocked. When the block is removed then the full effect floods in...(a) baptism in the Holy Spirit… an opportunity for awakening in (people) their sacraments of initiation..

The New Year and Decade begin with a liturgical reminder about our ongoing need for this unblocking and awakening to the power of the Holy Spirit who visits us at every Eucharist. An awakening to the Spirit, a releasing of the Spirit, an unblocking of his flow – this is the invitation and challenge of today’s Feast!  

There is one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and it confers the Holy Spirit. A gift though is given that needs to be received. For Christians to seek the renewing power of the Spirit – as we do as we receive Holy Communion every Sunday - is a matter of seeking to be more fully what we are in Christ and nothing more or less than that! 

We want to be a people that live knowing their need of grace!

The Spirit is waiting to confirm to us the same words that were spoken to Our Lord at his baptism: You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. 

Christians share in the anointing of the Anointed One – Jesus is the Christ or Anointed One so he can share his anointing with us and speak into our hearts those words of adoption: You are my son, my daughter; with you I am well pleased.

I have baptised you with water; John the Baptist said but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit. This baptism or gift of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing reality for those who will commit themselves. The Gift is not so much a once for all thing or commodity but rather something dynamic and ongoing. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a process in which the relationship that opens up at Baptism becomes an ongoing flow of love, praise and power leading into ongoing consecration in the Truth.

It is worth recalling that though Our Lord himself was conceived by the Holy Spirit he waited 30 years for his Baptism in Jordan. So it can be – as it was for me and can be for you - that though I had received the Spirit through Infant Baptism, Confirmation and Ordination the first deep experience came many years later.

For me this came through, of all things, a crisis of faith – and a recommitment! Shortly after my ordination and First Mass I began to have serious questioning in my journey of faith. I went on a retreat and prayed ‘God if you’re there show yourself, give me a vision of yourself more to your dimensions and less to mine’ – and he did – and keeps on doing - and what he does for me he can do for you - believe me!

Another way to look at it is like this: if the Christian life is like a rose bush there are great spurts of growth from time to time that push out new branches with new flowers. One such branch  and its some branch in its fruitfulness – is, if you like, a new opening up to God’s Spirit. Yet, like the life of the rose bush, its the same Christian life before and after such a new spurt of growth.

We possess the Spirit - but does he possess us? That is the question we are being asked on this feast of Our Lord’s Baptism.  There is a commitment issue here we need to address. As we come to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion are we really committed and open to his empowering?  Are we ready to hear and to believe those wonderful words: You are my son, my daughter; with you I am well pleased.  

After the sermon we sing the Creed together. May the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life strengthen us in both the practice of our Faith and in enthusiasm to share it with others in the coming Decade!

Ardingly College Epiphany Mass 8th January 2020

As we think about Epiphany this evening two words come to mind – spiritual journey.

The spiritual journey of humankind as we enter a new decade. The spiritual journey of the wise men to Jesus and their offering at journey’s end. Linked to this the Church’s spiritual journey through her Seasons as Advent and Christmas give way to Epiphany and head towards Lent and Easter.

This brings me on to share about another spiritual journey. It’s just a few inches - fifteen inches…

There was a Rabbi in Cracow, Isaac son of Yekel, who dreamed one night there was a great treasure under the bridge at Prague. He set off at once for Prague, but when he got there found a heavy guard on the bridge. The Rabbi had no choice but to explain his dream to one of the guards. 

When the guard heard the story he burst into laughter. ‘How crazy can you get? Suppose everyone went off after their dreams? Why I once dreamed there was a treasure hidden in a house in Cracow. It was in the house of a man called Isaac, son of Yekel, but do you think I was going off to Cracow because of my dream? 

Rabbi Isaac returned to Cracow. He had treasure at home and didn’t need to go to Prague.

So it is with the spiritual journey. If we want spiritual riches we’ll better find them by opening our eyes to what we’ve got already than by journeying the world over.

The truth of Christmas is about God coming down to our level to dwell in human hearts. If people want to journey to God today they need move inches and not miles. Fifteen inches, to be precise, down from the head to the heart, where we find God. 

Too often our capacity for doing things and going places works against what’s most important – a short journey, always possible, to rest in God, to contemplate the one who made us and offers himself to us continually. The mindfulness exercises we’re encouraged in at College take us some of the way to this, but mindfulness isn’t thoughtfulness, and generating thoughtfulness is what Chapel is all about.

Once we recognise God’s thoughtfulness, his love towards us, something reaches that 15 inches down from our heads into our hearts to motivate them into overflow showing consideration towards him and our neighbour.

How can I best speak of this key spiritual journey because, though its 15 inches, I’ve spent years travelling it and I’m not fully there!

With a doctorate in Chemistry and diploma in Theology my learning comes out of my ears, or rather flows endlessly between my ears in a restless mind. Thoughts can be like monkeys, for ever jumping from branch to branch, distracting us from the treasure found in the stillness of the heart. When the mind can be stilled, and lowered, into the heart - there is salvation. The Kingdom of God is within us.

Accomplishing this short journey within means taking time day by day to reflect, to sit in God’s presence and indeed our own presence. There we find hunger and longing, hurt and inadequacy, pride and fearfulness. None of these melt away on the spiritual journey but they can be owned and offered to the Lord who meets us just as we are. 

‘Drop thy still dews of quietness till all our strivings cease, take from our souls the strain and stress’ we shall sing later on.

The journey within takes courage. There’s so much that would keep us on the surface, so much to literally plug into with the recreational options available to us, manifold apps and activities we can choose to fill up our lives! 

The inner journey takes courage and it takes time, time to be. The writer Pascal said most of humanity’s problems derive from our inability to sit still in a room. 

How do you rank here? As you stay put somewhere on your own? Will you manage better after this eucharist? Please God you will! To spend 5 or 10 minutes a day with God  - 2 to 3 minutes with the Scriptures, 2 to 3 minutes in heartfelt worship and prayer for others, including our College - what a difference if we made that the flavour of our spiritual journey in the coming decade!

The wise men recognised God’s love sent to the world in Jesus. As we own that love day by day we own ourselves to be made thoughtful in the depths of our heart. Speaking of the Epiphany journey T.S.Eliot wrote: ‘And the end of all our exploring – will be to arrive where we started – and to know the place for the first time.

Wise men and women still journey to God but they don’t move anywhere. Let’s have a moment of quiet stillness now to practice what’s been preached.