Fr Derek Goodrich funeral homily & Canon Atma Budhu’s tribute 30.9.21

‘Hello John, it’s Derek here. I’m speaking from the Tanbury Ward at East Surrey Hospital.  I came in yesterday with what I thought was quite a minor bowel problem with some pain and sickness but I had a scan this morning and the consultant told me that I have a very complicated condition. I could have a very serious operation with doubtful results. So I said, “no,  thank you”. If they leave me I asked him ‘how long?’. He said it might be a matter of days. I did have communion from the hospital chaplain, but I’d like you to come along and talk about my funeral arrangements and probably hear my confession. I should probably like to write a message for the family and friends, so if you could bring some pen and paper with you if you’d like to help with that. Sorry about putting this upon you, but it all happened rather suddenly. Anyway, I have… no worries. I’m in good hands. I feel very very grateful. God bless!’

That was 3rd September. Fr Derek died three days later hours after making his confession. He hadn’t the energy to prepare the message he speaks of for family and friends so I thought the sentiments he expressed on my answering machine could act as that farewell. It captures his practical nature - what a wonderful mentor he was to so many - and his faith illustrated in his fearlessness in the face of death.

‘To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children’ Revelation 21:6 

Our first reading opens up the inheritance Derek thirsted for. Over his long life he built that thirst among thousands in the dear land of Guyana. He taught people about the God-shaped hole within them, the need to declutter it by repentance and to welcome the Holy Spirit. Living in divine mercy himself, this great priest infected you with the generosity that lives within and around us all. Even that abruptness, which cut you off in full flow to end the meeting or phone call, could be part of this when he spoke across negative or judgmental sentiments. Some things should never be voiced. Derek taught me to look on the best side of people and let their worst aspects be looked after by God who always treats us better than we deserve.

‘Breathe on me breath of God, until my heart is pure, until with thee I will one will, to do and to endure’. 

When I arrived in Guyana in 1986 Derek was Dean of St George’s Cathedral where he demonstrated fine stewardship of allegedly the largest wooden building in the world. I had come with Fr Allan Buik to exercise stewardship of a humbler edifice - the Church, Library and mud houses of Yupukari that made up the Alan Knight Training Centre for indigenous priests. Fr Derek was our support - confessor, spiritual director and mentor - along with that other great expatriate priest Canon John Dorman of blessed memory. Last time Derek and I were together here in College was at the Requiem and interment of ashes for Fr Buik. Derek’s ashes will lie fittingly here alongside Allan’s and be a place of pilgrimage for Guyanese. 

Earlier this year Fr Derek was an enormous help to me in steering us through the closure of the Guyana Diocesan Association of which he like me and Allan had been stalwarts. Ever practical Derek saw clearer than most when a venture had had its day, had courage to say so and help imagine the best practical way forward within the possibilities of God. 

As the oldest resident at the College he played a very full part in shaping arrangements here, especially pastoral care, serving as sub-Warden himself for a season. He was pleased to get to know, albeit briefly, our new Chaplain, Fr Derek, who is presiding priest at this eucharist.

‘Jesus said: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty… all who see the Son and believe in him… have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day” John 6:35, 40

Our Gospel passage captures the meaning and power of the eucharist Derek engaged in daily at College, until recently being regular celebrant here of the sacred mysteries. Seeing Jesus lifted up in word and sacrament was transformative for him. It filled any spiritual emptiness he felt with grace, setting his heart back into a forward looking aspiration also pulling forward those of us privileged to be in his circle. To paraphrase Pascal, there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every one which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ. This is the good news at the heart of Christianity hidden in the action we are invited into this morning - pleading Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, receiving the bread of his body to give life to our souls and through us to a hungry world. 

After his last confession, as Derek indicated gratitude to God for his long life and the gift of faith, among the last words he voiced were those of the Gloria in Excelsis - ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth’. That is our prayer this morning, giving glory to God for a life well lived, praying peace upon Derek in paradise and, with resurrection faith, invoking the Holy Spirit upon ourselves and upon this troubled world:

‘Breathe on me breath of God, so shall I never die but live with thee the perfect life fo thine eternity’.

TRIBUTE BY THE REV’D CANON ATMA BUDHU

Good morning my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am honoured to be delivering this tribute today, honouring the life and ministry of The Rev’d Fr. Dereck Goodrich, a good and faithful servant of God, someone I had known for the greater part of my life.

On behalf of my wife Lavinia, our children Stephen and Gail and their spouses, I extend sincere and heartfelt condolences to his family and to the residents and staff of the College of St. Barnabas, U.K., where Fr. Goodrich spent the final 20 years of his life. I also acknowledge, with gratitude, the presence of many of Fr. Goodrich’s former parishioners and friends from Guyana and across the globe, who have joined this service via zoom and other social media platforms. We give Almighty God thanks for his life and ministry which touched ours in amazing and transformative ways.

When I reflect on my nearly 40 years in the ordained ministry, I see the footprints of Fr. Goodrich at important stages of my journey. I was not always a Christian. I was born and raised in a Hindu family and at the age of 17, I was invited to and later that year became a baptized member of St. Joseph’s Church, Port Mourant in the County of Berbice, Guyana. Fr. Goodrich was the Vicar of St. Joseph’s Church between 1967-1971, immediately preceding Fr. Sydney Thomas,  now also in Blessed Memory, who was Vicar when I joined St. Joseph’s Church in 1975. Fr. Goodrich became Vicar of All Saints’, New Amsterdam after leaving St. Joseph’s Parish in 1971.

At the age of 17, on 29th November, 1975, Fr. Goodrich presented me for confirmation at All Saints Church on behalf of Fr. Sydney Thomas. Early 1980, he interviewed me on behalf of the Fellowship of Vocation and subsequently recommended that my application to test my vocation at Codrington Theological College, Barbados, be accepted. It was, and in September, 1980 I began theological studies at Codrington College. In June of 1984, having completed Theological education and was ordained Deacon in Barbados, I was appointed Assistant Curate of St. George’s Cathedral where Fr. Goodrich was Dean of Georgetown and Vicar. It was during my 2 year stint at St. George’s Cathedral, working with and observing Fr. Goodrich, that my priestly formation took place more meaningfully and permanently. I am the priest I am today because I encountered him in the vineyard of the Lord at St. George’s Cathedral. To this day I celebrate the Holy Eucharist the way he did and his insistence on careful prior preparation, punctuality and the maintenance of the holiness of the worship space, have become my passion.

At St. George’s we shared a ministry of consistent, parish-wide visitation of members in their homes, sick visitations at homes and hospitals and the faithful observance of the Church’s liturgical calendar. From Fr. Goodrich  I have learnt the importance of taking the Church to the community with out-door processions of witness, out-door stations of the cross during Lent and Christmas caroling in the inner-city communities. He also opened the doors of the Cathedral for the community to enjoy organ recitals and to listen to Lectures on topics of interest at lunchtime. Fr. Goodrich spent most of his 9 years at the Cathedral executing the most extensive and expensive renovations of the tallest wooden building in the world. The formation of the “Friends of St. George’s” proved to be the master stroke on his part, raising much needed funds to finance the project.

I don’t believe there was a part of the city of Georgetown that Fr. Goodrich did not know, even the most impoverished areas and parts considered dangerous, for example, Tiger Bay. He was known as the priest on two wheels. He rode a motorcycle for most of his ministry in Guyana. I began my ministry with him on a bicycle, then he got me a motorcycle, thanks to GDA, and together we crisscrossed Georgetown, visiting hundreds of homes while clocking in thousands of miles on our motorcycles. As we say in the West Indies, “those were the days”.

In 1985, while still his assistant, he prepared my wife and I for marriage and was present at the ceremony on the 30th November, 1985 at St. Patrick’s Church, Canje, Berbice. One year later he baptized our son Stephen and graciously agreed to be Stephen’s godfather. In March 1987, Bishop Randolph George, now also in Blessed Memory, appointed me Vicar of St. Sidwell’s Church, Lodge where Fr. Goodrich was Vicar from 1957 - 1967, a Church he built after the first building was destroyed by fire. He took great interest in my work at St. Sidwell and often, graciously offered words of encouragement. Working with Fr. Goodrich was like watching a master craftsman at work. We never had formal meeting times to discuss church polity and priest craft. I believe he wanted me to watch and learn. And that is what I did. I am the priest and the man I am today because I watched and keenly observed a humble parish priest doing the Lord’s work with so much love, commitment, and dedication that the fragrance of his life descended and remained on me.

St. Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ”. For me to have known Fr. Goodrich was to experience Christ-likeness that is so compelling and transformative. Fr. Goodrich, for many of us who knew him, put a face on Jesus. That to me will be his lasting legacy. I close with these words, the author unknown, spoken at a farewell service of a faithful pastor and priest who was leaving a particular parish: “For me, t’was not the things you taught, to you so clear, to me so dim. But when you came, you brought a sense of Him. And through your eyes He beckoned me, and through your heart His love was shed. Till I lost sight of you and saw the Christ instead.”  

Rest in peace Fr. Goodrich, my mentor, my father in God, my friend, my colleague, my brother. Thank you, good and faithful servant. May your rest this day, be in the paradise of God. Amen.

St Wilfrid, Haywards Heath Feast of St Michael & All Angels 29.9.21

 

On this day in 1969 I was heading on my Lambretta from Harwell up the A34 to my Oxford College when the front tyre burst and I went across the road to slide under a lorry. I was heading to keep this feast of St Michael & All Angels by serving the evening Mass at St Mary Magdalene, Oxford. 

The good news is I passed under the lorry though I missed that Mass and ended up in the Radcliffe Infirmary. I remain convinced St Michael and his angels were sent by God to protect my life for a purpose. 

Four years later that purpose was revealed. I left my work at Oxford University and the nuclear power station at Harwell to train as a priest.

The angels who shifted the lorry, or my scooter, helped shift my career their way. I say ‘their way’ because angels and priests have the same mission: to bring God’s love to people and people to God’s love. We are both in divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.

Both ministries are about serving God and the church so church members are made better servants of the message of salvation. We are all caught up with the angels in worship of the God we cannot see and in witnessing him to our neighbour in deed and word. The joy of the angels over sinners who turn to God is for us as well. 

Michaelmas day reminds us how God delights to work indirectly through his creatures, angels or men. The angels who watch over us do so as an expression of the love of a God who so many times prefers to do good through his willing servants, earthly or heavenly. 

In the Eucharist we are promised the support of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in lifting ourselves through, with and in Jesus Christ to the Father whose face the angels see and whose sight is promised to us on the day we ourselves will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1:51). 

St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Trinity 17 (26B) 26.9.21

‘Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them’ Numbers 11:29

I remember a cheeky church growth metaphor of a bottle with a cork on it. The cork is labelled ‘Vicar’ with the implication that priests keep the fizz down in churches and the importance for church growth of getting loosened from clericalism.

There’s always a fizz about St John’s but I don’t think it's because you’re Vicar-less! Maybe it's because the Holy Spirit is at work as described in today’s scripture. 

In the passage we heard from Numbers Chapter 11 Moses appointed seventy elders to help him lead God’s people in the wilderness and God gave them some of the Spirit put into Moses. There was a manifestation of prophecy demonstrating the Spirit coming on the seventy just like at Pentecost. This stopped and then two people, Eldad and Medad got the Spirit and prophesied though not members of the seventy Moses had chosen. An overzealous young man tried to get Moses to stop this ‘illegitimate’ manifestation of the Spirit. Moses refused saying what was prophetic in a wider sense, my text which points to Pentecost: ‘Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them’.

‘Does God confine the gift of his Spirit to authorised channels?’ is the question, and it comes up again in the Gospel - indeed the Numbers passage was chosen for today to illuminate Mark 9 verses 38. We read there how Our Lord’s disciples tried to stop someone casting out demons in his name because he was not an obvious, or should we say ‘legitimate’ follower of Jesus. ‘But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me’.

Both Our Lord in the Gospel and Moses in the first reading disown clerical arrogance which sees the Holy Spirit just flowing through the channels they have authorised. God is bigger than the institutions he sets up to help his people function right. God is bigger than the church and can make exceptions we should go along with, but - and it's a contentious ‘but’ - we are bound as a rule to expect the Holy Spirit to flow primarily through the channels he authorises. For us Anglicans the Holy Spirit is known as God’s grace and comes primarily through the church. ‘In what ways do you receive… God’s grace?’ Our Catechism asks and it gives this reply. ‘I receive… grace within the fellowship of the Church, when I worship and pray, when I read the Bible, when I receive the Sacraments, and as I live my daily life to his glory’.

Without bishops and priests we cannot have sacramental grace as the Churchwardens know to their cost, working against the odds sometimes to bring priests in to preach and celebrate the eucharist for us in our vacancy - God shorten that and bring us one after his own heart to serve here as our parish priest!

The second reading from James 5 is as ever independent of the other two readings. It provides us with the origin of the Sacraments of Anointing and Confession. Though described in the catechism as lesser sacraments the Church of England reserves these healing sacraments to those ordained in apostolic orders, namely bishops and priests. ‘Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed’ (James 5:13-16a). The confessing of sin to one another became historically confession to a priest, for practical reasons and linked also to Our Lord’s gift of authority to forgive sins to his apostles and by implication to their successors in John’s Gospel Chapter 20.

Returning to our thinking about the working of the Holy Spirit from the other two readings, we see in the instruction of the apostle James the sacramental role of the elder or priest in ministering healing to the sick: ‘call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord’. That we do - and even in a vacancy church members should know it can be made available after any eucharist - but this sacrament is allied to the prayer of church members. God authorises sacramental channels like the eucharist, confession and anointing which are available to all through bishops and priests. At the same time Our Lord commends intercessory prayer in his name by church members alone or in twos or threes as a powerful vehicle of the Holy Spirit as in John 16:23, ‘if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you’ or in Matthew 18:19, ‘if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven’. This morning we are agreeing together for God to heal those on our sick list and those on it are assembled by church members. As a priest I see people healed again and again when they receive the sacrament of anointing. Sometimes that healing is a death at peace with God. A couple of weeks ago I was called to a dying priest wanting to make his confession. Within hours of the sacrament being administered he passed peacefully to God. Yet I can relate as many of you can relate how God in his faithfulness answers prayers of both the ordained and non-ordained for their needs and for those in their circle. How important such prayer is in our lives!

Our Lord shares authority with the apostles and their successors, just as Moses shared with the Seventy, to bring God’s care further across the world. At the same time today’s scripture is a powerful reminder that, important as apostolic order is, it is inseparable from apostolic vitality in the sense of all Christians being open to being agents of the Holy Spirit through care and through prayer. ‘Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them.’ Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love! 

St Wilfrid & Presentation eucharist with thoughts on evangelism 22.9.21

‘To evangelise is so to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that men come to put their faith in God through him, to accept him as their Saviour and to serve him as their King in the fellowship of his Church.’ So wrote the great 20th century Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple. 

It’s our duty and joy as Christians to evangelise following the command of our Saviour who in today’s Gospel from Luke Chapter 9 ‘called the Twelve together and… sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to… so they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news’.

It’s my experience as a former parish priest that great blessings come upon a church if the majority of its membership is, in their own way, on the lookout for those near to God’s kingdom ready with an invitation to services. Fr Edward’s arrival could be a pretext for us to invite friends along as our Churches enter a new phase of life.

"Each one reach one" - that's a good motto - imagine, if each Christian in our churches were to reach another person every year or bring a lapsed communicant back to Jesus in his most holy sacrament? We’d double our members every year!

Could there be anything dearer to the heart of Jesus than souls won back from materialism and worldly pursuits to living faith in a living God? To a purpose for living and a reason for dying through the Christian faith?

There must be no end to evangelisation, to the sharing of the good news of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ and no weightier concern for a Christian fully formed in the faith. 

There can no more be an end to evangelising than there is an end or limit upon the love that flows from the Heart of Jesus.

I know that our church has many concerns – repairs, fund raising, children’s work and so on…but didn't Jesus say that if we sought first his kingdom and his righteousness then all other things would fall into place?

He did.

Do we? 

Later in Luke 9 Jesus says 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few' and that is still true. 

Few are the ones who would really put work in for Jesus' kingdom and the harvest of souls he is gathering for his return in glory. 

So often we raise money for church from our friends. We take and we do not give or share the most precious thing about the church - the knowledge we share as Christians of Jesus Christ as friend and saviour. 

Of course sharing about Jesus takes prudence as well as courage. Coming back to Archbishop Temple though he was asked by some lay members about the dangers of people unlearned in theology sharing with others about Christianity. This was his provocative reply which I hope speaks to both you and I:  

‘It does very little harm if an eager layman talks heresy, provided he shows and imparts a love for the Lord Jesus.  It does great harm if a priest talks orthodoxy so as to make men think the Gospel is dull or irrelevant’. 

Let’s put more heart this week into sharing about the Lord with those in our circle.

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Trinity 17 Mark 9.30-37 19.9.21

 

We’ve now reached the middle section of Mark’s gospel we’ve been following in Year B of the liturgical cycle since Advent. It’s a Gospel you can read in a hurry of a Jesus in a hurry – the shortest Gospel of a man with a mission! When you pick up Mark – here’s a copy – you see he’s no time for genealogies and birth narratives, angels, shepherds and wise men. For Mark on p1 its straight in – this is the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Repent and believe! It’s real and it matters.

Today engaging with that reality we’ve moved from p1 to p27, half way through the 52 pages of this paperback Mark’s Gospel, the ninth of the 16 Chapters and verse 30 which I will repeat:

After leaving the mountain 30 Jesus and his disciples went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;

• Move forwards with Jesus from the Transfiguration to Calvary: Jesus the great trail blazer making human beings a joyful path to God. 

• Crowd falls back to leave Jesus with disciples and the business of deepening their discipleship.

• Marcan secrecy: one commentator: humility to not wish a great fanfare about his obviously successful ministry. His directives to silence about his great accomplishments may be no more than an example to the faithful not to blow their own horns. It proves the reliability of the Gospel as it’s hard to imagine a made up story of Jesus with such emphasis.

31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

• First chapters show us who Jesus is. Now, moving into why God sent him and what it means to us as disciples we have a second prediction of the passion following last Sunday’s in Chapter 8.

• Paradoxes – things that contradict in logic to be held together in experience. Creation (out of nothing ), Trinity (Unity) founded on life (through death) = Son of Man (Son of God).

• Jesus not a physically compelling Messiah but a suffering servant and morally compelling Saviour. A sign of contradiction – I think of the courageous disabled people who speak out to counter attempts to introduce legislation for Assisted Dying which make shallow judgments about the quality and worthwhileness of life, implying disability is a grounds for killing yourself.

• 'Without God's Word as a lens, the world warps’ Ann Voskamp ‘I wear the lens of the Word and all the world transfigures into the beauty of Christ’.

       33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’

• Post-Transfiguration jealousies set disciples against one another

• Jesus sees into their and our hearts - can show up what’s needful, especially they sin of pride

• Alexander Schmemann - the signs of pride are: the absence of joy, complexity and fear. Signs of humility: joy, simplicity, trust

• Those who serve others have a joy about them, they are the greatest

• How do we get there? Quiet times. ‘Know yourself, love yourself, forget yourself’ (the discipline of Christian meditation which takes us out of ourselves in contemplation)

36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37 ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ 

• Paradox of child centred society cf ancient culture and many other cultures which gave or give children no legal rights. Christian legacy which is why child abuse in church circles is an especially dreadful betrayal.

• Striking act of Jesus to take the most powerless and exalt them

• Who are the powerless around us? Who are those most in need of our help? Those without money. Those who can’t leave room or home through age or disability. The young struggling for a job. Refugees. Those made vulnerable by the proposed Assisted Dying legislation.  About this Bishop Rowan Williams warns: “We have to be aware of the reality of pressure on seriously ill patients to take certain decisions … which may very understandably come from overstrained families as well as overstretched medical systems. We should note that fear of such pressure within the medical system may discourage seriously ill patients from seeking appropriate medical help; the issues of doctor-patient trust involved are real… This country currently has an enviable record of progress in and provision for palliative care. Will this survive in the world of overburdened budgets if there are less expensive options?”

• Last verse shows Jesus before us in the powerless: Whoever welcomes one such ....in my name welcomes me. Cf Matthew 25 Jesus ‘in the least ’

• To see this we need the insight, or spectacles of holy scripture: 'Without God's Word as a lens, the world warps’

• We need the sense of Jesus before us that the eucharist schools us in. 

• Blessed and praised be Jesus Christ upon his throne of glory, in the holy scriptures, in the most holy sacrament of the altar, in the hearts of the needy and in the hearts of all his faithful people.

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath St Mary at the Cross 15.9.21

We come this morning with Mary to the foot of the Cross. We come, at this eucharist, to plead with Mary her Son’s Sacrifice for a broken world.

We come to the eucharist this morning with all the sorrow and confusion of Holy Mary on Good Friday. Like her we’re looking at a crucifixion but ours is a crucifixion of the world by pandemic, yes, but also by terrorism, with the memory of 9-11 and the agony Afghanistan weighing upon us.

Like her we look beyond the foot of the Cross to the light of the resurrection - for whenever we look at a crucifix believers see their risen Lord standing behind.

The challenge of international crises puts a particular responsibility on Christian people to stand with St Mary by the Cross of her Son and pray with Jesus and Mary to the Father: Our Father - in this situation - hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done...deliver us from evil.

By his cross and resurrection Jesus has, in Paul’s words, disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in what he has done.

We Christians are salt and light because like Mary we can ask Jesus, by the sufferings he has borne uniquely, once and for all, to soak up the evil around us and turn the tables on it.

Our prayers and eucharists bring the potential of the Cross, which is like a mighty engine out of gear, into gear so the love of God floods into Afghanistan and the anguish felt through 9-11.

Paul says God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It was true of Mary at her Annunciation and it is equally true of us in our baptism and confirmation. That love is poured upon us so that, at our prayer, it may cascade extravagantly upon all whom we bring to the foot of the Cross.

With Mary we stand at the Cross on behalf of a troubled, hurting, godless nation and a troubled world this morning - but if we go out from this eucharist church fired up to pray all the more for our nation he who is in us will show himself more powerful than those troubles.

Jesus living in Mary live in us is our prayer in church at every eucharist. Jesus living in Mary live in them is our prayer of intercession as we encounter the needy in the media and closer to home. 

God sees what is in your heart. Keep lifting the pain you see on the TV to him. Stand with Mary by Jesus crucified. Treat those you see suffering as if they were Christ upon the Cross. Ask the Father to send them healing love and resurrection!

As you do so, pray in your own words. Use the slow recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Use  the Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Use the Hail Mary if you know it. 

Take up the weapon of prayer to come before the Lord with this aching nation upon your heart day by day, hour by hour in the coming week. Mary at the Cross, pray with us and for us!

St Gabriel, Pimlico Trinity 15 (24B) Mark’s Gospel 12.9.21

 

• This sermon builds from the Thursday Home Group Jack Dumonde convenes which digests in advance the Sunday Mass readings which are today from Isaiah, James and Mark

• In our discussions last week we centred on the Gospel reading from Mark 8.27-38 seen as the hinge of that Gospel book. 

• First 7 chapters show us who Jesus is. Now we move into why God sent him and what it means to us. Time on all three

• Why I like Mark:

• Short to read eg baptism and marriage couples given this

• Action packed – always picked up on & Holy Week change to passivity (Vanstone’s Stature of Waiting)

• Earliest Gospel 40 years after resurrection copied by Matthew and Luke. Only Paul’s letters are earlier. Papias 130 AD: Mark being the interpreter of Peter, whatsoever he recorded he wrote with great accuracy

• Mystery of uneven ending -  the original may have got lost from the end of the scroll to be replaced by other texts in Chapter 16

• Clear purpose set forth in Chapter 8 to show us who Jesus is, why God sent him and what it means to us.

Who Jesus is

27 Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi.  On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ 28 And they told him, ‘John the Baptist’. They said, ‘others, Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ 29  ‘But you,’ he asked, ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ 30 And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.

• A crucial paragraph. In Mark 1-7 we’ve followed how Jesus’ identity emerges through miracles, healings and teachings. Today has the hinge question: ‘Who do people say that I am?’ Variations in how people see Jesus – then and now

• ‘You are the Christ (Saviour).’ Peter’s role (Papias) of voicing what was the truly the case. Wisdom given Peter by God (Cf Matthew 16)

  
  

Why God sent him

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again. 32 and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him.  33 But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

• As Messiah Jesus didn’t and still doesn’t fulfil Jewish expectations

• A suffering Saviour sent to rescue us from sin.

• The world isn’t as it should be because we’re not as we should be. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.

• God’s Son was sent to earth to show us our sin and to show us his own heart and bring us, in Victor Hugo’s phrase, to ‘life’s greatest happiness’ which is ‘to be convinced we are loved’ 

• God made us for friendship. Sin made a barrier to this. Jesus died to destroy the barrier so restoring friendship with God.

What it means to us

34 He called the people and his disciples to him and said: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 

• A church member in hospital offering their pain for all who’re there is focussed outside of themselves with Jesus for all

• Faith is ongoing choice for God and his provision in Jesus

• In baptism Jesus’ principle of losing life to gain it is impressed on us

• The key we reckoned is losing John Twisleton, Jack Dumonde or whoever and gaining the Holy Spirit who keeps us capable of living and being and sharing the good news of God