St David, Barbados Feast of Christ the King 26.11.23

After a ceremony in the British Houses of Parliament in London the splendidly robed Lord Hailsham entered a corridor crowded with tourists and spotted his friend the Member of Parliament Neil Marten. ‘Neil’ he shouted and every tourist in the corridor dropped to their knees!

The story captures how intimacy and awe can come together with amusing consequences. 

A couple of years ago I solemnly consecrated a vessel containing altar bread that turned out to be empty. Under the old COVID rules in the UK priests were not allowed to breathe over vessels containing the host so they stayed covered until Communion. I wrongly assumed the covered ciborium placed on the altar by the warden was filled. What a surprise when I genuflected before it, took off the lid ready to distribute Holy Communion and found it empty. I had to say Jesus’ words ‘This is my body’ again over the bread box so we could share Communion.

Merriment is a hallmark of Christ’s kingdom. Archbishop Ramsey described a characteristic of hell as being the absence of laughter. Where there’s laughter there’s lack of self-importance. One imagines hell as being an array of tragically disconnected self important beings unable to reach out to God or one another.

We kneel to no British Lord Chancellor this morning - and Barbados kneels no longer to a British Monarch - but we kneel today to the Blessed Sacrament, to Our Lord on this great Feast of Jesus Christ the Universal King. 

The Lord Chancellor incidentally is the one who still walks backwards before the King having presented him with the text of his Speech at the opening of our Parliament. We saw that ancient ceremony only a fortnight ago. As you may know the King’s Speech is read but not written by him. You could almost see his teeth gritted as he read that his Government ‘will support the future licensing of new oil and gas fields’. Like your Prime Minister Mia Mottley, King Charles has an international reputation as an environmental spokesperson.

Outward ceremonies can lose their meaning and eventually fall out of use. My stories about kneeling recall a controversial diocesan news in my Diocese in which an assistant Bishop berated the lack of kneeling in Church nowadays questioning whether Chichester Diocese was going Methodist in that the only time many kneel is for Communion! He forgot that as we get older kneeling has to be more from the heart.

This morning we kneel in our hearts before Christ the King. As a beautiful eucharistic preface used today within the Church of England affirms: ‘As king [Christ] claims dominion over all your creatures, that he may bring before your infinite majesty a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace’. Truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace, all these are fully found in God. Through his Son and his Spirit our almighty Father is establishing those qualities upon earth so that ‘the kingdom of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ’ Revelation 11:15. Our Gospel reading reminds us how care for the hungry and thirsty, the sick and those in prison extends Christ’s rule towards the day when, in the words of the Collect, ‘the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under [Christ’s] most gracious rule’.

In the last fortnight the Church of England General Synod made a move, to my mind unfortunate, towards blessing same sex unions paving the way to changing age-old belief in marriage as heterosexual. G.K.Chesterton remarked that only belonging to the Church sets one free from the slavery of being a child of one’s time. As Christians we kneel before God in Christ and not before majority opinion in a post-Christian culture. It isn’t easy for Christians in the west though we are still far from the reality in the east where Crosses are being taken from church roofs. 

The Feast of Christ the King is no feast of an idea. It is the feast of a reality we kneel before, the reality of Christ’s kingship - that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord – three words sum up our Creed.  

Jesus is Lord.  The carpenter born in Nazareth who shows the world the love, truth and power of God – he is Lord. It is his name that brings heaven to earth and earth to heaven. 

Secondly Jesus is Lord.  A human life of 33 years lived at the start of our era continues the same yesterday, today and for ever through the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7v16b).  

Thirdly Jesus is Lord which means he is right above all that is or has been or will be.  Jesus is God’s final word to humankind. He is also to be the very last word over all each one of us as we shall contemplate next week on Advent Sunday.   

In Jesus a human being lives over all things in God.  Nothing gives us more hope for the human race than this. Here is the place heaven and earth come together. As Pascal said Jesus Christ is the centre of all, and the goal to which all tends. 

So we kneel before him this morning. 

This Sunday Mass is the hour of Jesus, a time given to him by us together that reminds us all our time belongs to him. 

Our daily prayer is submission to him as Lord of our life, as is the private confession to him of ours sins. 

Our reading of the Bible teaches us to put faith in the constancy of God’s word and not in the multitude of human words that make up public opinion. 

Our service given to other people is a submission to Christ present in all people and things. 

Worship, prayer, bible study, service - these are our kneeling before Christ the King as individual members of his body to be underlined and refreshed this morning. 

Christ is King, Jesus is Lord - and he is our king, our Lord, with the Father and the Holy Spirit to whom be all might, majesty, dominion and power henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

 

St Bartholomew, Brighton 21C Paradoxes 21.8.22

Today’s scripture seems full of contradictions. 

The Isaiah and Luke readings speak of God’s plan to include everyone in his kingdom: ‘The Lord says: I am coming to gather the nations of every language…  those from east and west, from north and south will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God’. 

Then the Gospel reading starts: ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed’.

Does God really want all to come to him?

Then the letter to the Hebrews spoke of ‘the Lord… punishing all those that he acknowledges as his sons’.

Does God really love us?

35 years ago I worked in Guyana, South America which is where Anne and I were married. Besides Cricket and Anglicanism there is a third binder between England and its former colonies - did you know?  Gilbert and Sullivan - yes it still goes on in Guyana and across the Commonwealth though a bit incorrect nowadays. As a youth I acted in the Pirates of Penzance where Frederick, apprenticed to the Pirates, prepares for freedom on his 21st birthday. Then Ruth, his fierce protectress breaks the news that he is not 21 but only 5 and 'a little bit over' since he was born on 29 February.  

They sing the great 'Paradox' duet, which marks the necessity for Frederick to remain a pirate until he is 84.  The chorus runs:

‘How quaint the ways of paradox, at common sense she gaily mocks…’

Paradoxes are amusing mentally.  They 'mock common sense' by provoking us to look at things two ways at once and get different answers.

Christianity is famous for its paradoxes - God is Three yet One, Jesus is God yet Man, Christ has died, Christ is risen…  

When God comes among us into the world he wants to be the same as us - so he plumbs our human depths. He suffers.

Yet in coming to us as God, so very different to us, he is able to open up our humanity to generous, endless vistas in the revelation of resurrection glory!

Christianity is about the bursting out of resurrection glory from the Risen Christ as shafts of light so often diffract from the sun through dark clouds.

What a picture - darkness and light together showing each other off!

So God shows himself off to us in Christ crucified and risen! God shows himself off in full splendour and lifts our poor humanity in the process, making it a vehicle and instrument of divine glory.

I love paradox. The dictionary states that a paradox occurs when two statements that are contradictory in logic must be held together in experience.

Back to the contradictions I noted earlier in today’s scripture linked to mission and discipleship. ‘The Lord says: I am coming to gather the nations of every language… to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God’ yet he also says: ‘enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed’.

I love GK Chesterton’s reflection upon the narrow door. The church’s door looks narrow, yes, he wrote, but when you lose something of self to squeeze into church you will find plenty of space inside. The physical image doesn’t quite fit St Bartholomew’s because we have both a large door and a lot of space inside. The big Church in Bethlehem by contrast has a door so small everyone has to bow to enter throughit. This recalls how Christians bow or kneel in the Creed at the words associated with Christ’s birth.

God’s mission is to bring all people into relationship with him but this isn’t automatic on account of the gift of free will. Heaven is a gift to be sought through the narrow gate, dovetailing with the other paradox, as we volunteer to be trained up in holiness. That training is about looking away from self to God in worship, prayer, study of the Bible and the Saints, service to others and regular reflection to keep those main things the main things. 

Does God really want all to come to him? He does and he wants us to play our part in welcoming them here at St Bartholomew’s from the good foot fall through our large door. We have an opportunity to draw people into our building and into worship thanks to the church watch team which always welcomes new members.

Does God really love us? Our circumstances are a training ground for children of God. ‘My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training’. 

Joy and Sorrow are our inseparable bedfellows in this paradoxical Christianity of ours. When you struggle with your faith imagine a world without this mystery you struggle with. It's not very hard to imagine it because such a world is all around us! 

Misery or mystery is the choice, really. Take away one side of the paradox and where does it leave you - the mystery of life is reduced to a bare contradiction. Our Lord brings mystery instead of misery - he fills out the picture of life for us - and he can fill out the picture of life for others as we share the good news. 

Let us enter that mystery now in the sacrifice of the Mass for Christ is risen!  God is coming here, shrouded in mystery, to make a difference to us and to the whole world!

St Mary, Balcombe Trinity 4 (15C) 10.7.22

 

No other religion puts such a store on love. We are clear in principle - the Beatles put it right: ‘All you need is love’. Unfortunately Christianity as a movement over 20 centuries has fallen short of that principle. Though we’ve built hospitals and schools, framed laws to protect human rights and raised up saints through those centuries, Christianity has also seen crusades, cruelty and a degree of abuse in the name of Christ. As GK Chesterton wrote, defending our Faith, ‘The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried’. It's important we take that point as Christians whilst not being deterred in aspiring to live our faith as best we can with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. 

There are few bible passages that spell out practical love as clearly as the one we just heard, Luke 10:25-37, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In the story we need to know that in age old Jewish tradition, linked to hygiene, touching a corpse led to ritual defilement so the Priest and Levite were actually doing right by their law. The Samaritan who wasn’t a Jew followed a higher law, that of love. His action illustrates love as not so much an ideal but a task. It’s not just benevolence let alone tolerance but doing concrete acts for people in concrete need. Our Lord turns the lawyer’s question who is my neighbour? back on him by the question which of these three was a neighbour, or in another translation, proved neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? 

Loving your neighbour in Jesus’s book doesn’t mean loving some but not loving others. It means loving all, good and bad. This teaching was acted out when Jesus died outside the walls of Jerusalem. 

The Christian vision of love links to a God of love who acts concretely to serve and save outsiders so that Jesus Christ’s last conversation was with the thieves crucified with him outside Jerusalem. To the generous one he said words in Luke 23:43 believers will joyfully accept on our deathbeds: Today you will be with me in paradise. 

I must leave you to work out for yourself the relevance of today’s scripture to the elements of xenophobia sweeping through the world, Britain included. Can there ever be outsiders so far as God’s concerned? Can we trust a nationalism that falls short of the deep British sense of fair play and inclusion, itself built from 1500 years of Christianity? 

We want a society that doesn’t just tolerate difference but which respects those who’re different. Building respect is costly in time and trouble. It refuses to pass by on the other side especially when it comes to the disadvantaged. The Samaritan exemplifies this in the concrete tasks he took on. When he saw him, he was moved with pity. Then, from the heart’s motivation, followed these concrete tasks. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”  The hospitality offered in Balcombe to Ukrainian refugees is a vivid example of where many villagers are coming from in their readiness to give practical service to people at the sharpest end of the war in Europe. 

We come to Church to join the angels, as the Glory to God and Holy, holy, holy chants affirm, in looking forward to the certainty of heaven. Our Sunday celebrations lift us up beyond the changes and chances of life, the hardships we bear in love, to the certain, all embracing love of God that will be ours in heaven with the angels and saints. ‘All you need is love’.

We come to Church to worship God and bathe in his love through word and sacrament, prayer and fellowship which builds us up. Church is a temple more than a preaching house but it is both. When we hear the word, offer ourselves in Christ’s Sacrifice and receive his body and blood we are the better equipped to love. The Holy Spirit comes again and again in prayer and worship. Through reading the Bible we’re further strengthened since there’s no word of God without power. 

It’s hard to love – in our own strength. It’s hard to persevere through tribulations small or great. The story of the Good Samaritan awakens us to God’s vision of what it is to love, a vision to be written on our hearts. The word of God this morning has reminded us of the task of love and how respect triumphs over mere tolerance in a Christian culture. The worship ahead brings love’s supply to help that, through Holy Communion, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

It’s my prayer for all assembled that we experience that love more fully through daily prayer, Sunday worship, reading the Bible, serving others and regular reflection upon our need for God and for one another as God’s people. ‘All you need is love’. 

Holy Trinity, Cuckfield eucharist ‘Narrow Door’ Luke 13:24, Romans 8

 

We’ve got a hard saying of Jesus in today’s Gospel from St Luke Chapter 13 verse 24: ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed’.

I find the image of Christian commitment as a narrow door challenging. It seems to go against thinking in church circles that’s generous to outsiders. Whilst God’s love is immense and reaches out to everyone our response to that love has to be focused. 

Putting God’s kingdom first means a narrowing down, or cutting away of what’s superfluous in our lives. Speaking of a rich young man who declined to follow him Jesus spoke of something even narrower: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:25).

We need our desire for God enhanced and purified by the Holy Spirit so we can ‘enter by the narrow door’. Being a Christian is a discipline. Like a concert pianist devoted to improving her playing, believers are called to narrow down superfluous activities to prioritise worship, prayer, bible study, service and reflection.

G.K.Chesterton used Christ’s narrow door to explain to a non-Churchgoer how from outside the Church looks like an imposition that narrows our lives. 

Only when you pluck up faith to go through that narrow door do you find how spacious Christianity as you find ‘the freedom of the glory of the children of God’ spoken of in the eighth chapter of the letter to the Romans from where our first reading was taken.

If we are feeling something of a constraint in our lives that may be a sign of a God-given imposition we need to squeeze ourselves through for which he needs us to leave some unnecessary luggage behind.

Picture of Brydges Place off St Martin’s Lane, London’s narrowest alley coming down to 15 inches

Talk on St Wilfrid, Haywards Heath Facebook page Wed 18 Nov 2020 930am

 

‘Quick’s dead and Hurry’s in its grave' my Grandma used to say.



I can’t remember the things that caused me to hurry in Grandma’s day, but I know how hurried I am now as I work through e-mails, texts, social media and the demands of work and family.

Like a traffic sign inviting reduction of speed, Grandma’s saying flashes into mind - ‘Quick’s dead and Hurry’s in its grave' - as I maintain the struggle to satisfy the demands before me. Putting brakes on ‘Hurry’ is partly putting brakes on commitments taken on thoughtlessly.

Strategic thinking is one way to slow a hurried lifestyle, but there is a deeper perspective. Grandma's saying is actually against greed. When hurrying, we can be attempting to pack into life – or get out of life – more than we actually need. It may be an unconscious recognition of our mortality. We have greed to seize opportunities and cram them into our finite lifespan.

I write as an opportunist who has been learning to qualify this tendency over the years since I sat at Grandma’s feet. I understand now that people in a hurry are not the flavour of the month when compared to the swan-like, tranquil folk who never give a hint of what is paddling away under the surface of their lives. By just being there, unhurried, they draw attention, as well as friends, as they invite us to waste the time we see as so precious.

If I want to be more calm like them, I have to recognise that seizing creative opportunities needs balancing with the capacity to connect with the unhurried - Better slower together, than faster alone.

The world we live in gives us unprecedented choice that, welcome as that is, brings serious dangers. We access people, leisure or work options at the touch of a screen. Our time gets filled with desirable alternatives we seize upon, hurrying crazily from one activity to another, driven by messages coming in to us at the speed of light.

Human beings are set up to travel much more slowly. It helps that we are becoming more aware of the wiles of the electronic media we are exposed to, with its abundant welcome or unwelcome demands, but there are wider issues. 

The writer G.K.Chesterton mused that ‘One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time’. Chesterton’s witty saying hits the nail on the head about Hurry’s relentless grip once he gets a hold on us.

If one brake to ‘Hurry’ is setting apart a regular peaceable time to recall life goals and prioritise a to-do list – quite a small period – another is to appreciate serendipity.

You can have a strategy to slow down your life, going for quality before quantity in engagement, but serendipity is a better brake. By being open to reining back activities, we are drawn into life’s happy chances, its hour-by-hour surprises. ‘What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare’ wrote the poet.

I am a ‘human being’ not a ‘human doing’.  ‘Just being’ seems alien to part of me, even with those I love. For Grandma there was no ‘just’, her influence was simply that of a warm, personal presence. Encountering her was naturally unhurried, the best sort of serendipity.

Being available to others, without demands, to give your time and ear will always be attractive. Putting the brakes on ‘Hurry’, so our minds appreciate the present moment is a great aspiration, even if it remains in tension with ‘making time’ to fulfil the demands ahead.

The French military have a saying ‘reculer pour mieux sauter’ – ‘coil up to better spring forth’ – which captures the rebalancing involved in braking ‘Hurry’, so life can best speed ahead.

St Bartholomew, Brighton Advent 2 Election 8 Dec 2019

We stand at an important junction in national life so let’s take guidance from the word of God as we prepare to play our part in the events of the coming week.

So far as Thursday goes all I can tell you to do from the pulpit is vote! How you vote is a matter of conscience, but informed conscience of course and sermons are meant to be about the education of conscience. 

With that in mind, let's look again at the lectionary readings, set in place long before the choice of Election Day, starting with the Romans passage. ‘Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God’. That text touches on the sort of inclusion Christians hold to which for centuries has been the moral basis of countering discrimination against ‘second class citizens’ of any kind in the UK and across the world especially those who live in hunger. 

It’s a reminder to further policies that work with the voluntary sector including churches for practical action to serve our neighbour, not least the million Britons now having to queue at food banks, that reflect the love of God in Christ. Where do we find policies that will help bring hope to the dispirited true to ‘the God of hope [who fills us] with all joy and peace in believing’ to quote the first reading?

Then that uncomfortable Gospel - John the Baptist’s no punches pulled manifesto for preparing the way for God’s kingdom! It’s not a good example of the toned down rhetoric rightly called for concerning Brexit. We can take from it nevertheless, with its direct attack on the religious and civic leaders of John’s day, the need in voting to consider beyond the policies to vote on the virtues of the local candidates asking for our votes. 

T.S. Eliot wrote of the futility of dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. Politics stands or falls on personnel as much as policy. Our prayers for the election process, for respect going beyond mere tolerance of those we disagree with, are an important contribution, not least for people we know prepared to stick their heads above the parapet and serve in public life. They suffer ‘slings and arrows’ indeed, not least from social media. I have been distressed to see candidates holding to Christian ethics on abortion and marriage deselected - its rough territory, not least for those belonging to UK faith communities.

On Thursday we have opportunity to elect MPs and we should have particular sympathy for candidates who are church members taking courage to enter the fray with determination to serve the common good of Brighton and its surrounds. We want the best folk to serve, those who know the city, gifted with a strong moral compass who’ll be their own men and women.

This morning we’re singing G.K.Chesterton’s hymn O God of earth and altar, with its lovely Vaughan Williams harmonisation. Gilbert Chesterton was one of the brightest Christian minds of the last century. I like this story about him. When a newspaper asked several writers to answer the question “What is wrong with the world?” Chesterton answered: Dear Sirs, I am.  Sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton.

That underlines the point made earlier about right government coming best from right people, or people as right as they can be given the sinfulness of the human condition. The moments in any election campaign that make most impact on me are those rare ones where there’s been humility exhibited, something very difficult with the power and pride of 24-7 mass media. 

Chesterton’s 1906 hymn starts with the sentiment of human frailty:  O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry, our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die; the walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide, take not thy thunder from us, but take away our pride.

His reference to entombing walls of gold link to my mind with the issue of debt. Debt, individual and national, entombs us, the latter souring relations between generations. It’s important to vote in a government that’s not profligate, that has some sort of eye towards decreasing it. Chesterton’s hymn reference to entombing walls of gold also voices the materialism of our age, much heightened I guess a century on from his, so that day by day we’re suffering something of a bribe campaign vis a vis where our bank balances might head after Thursday.

The major challenge in our society has been described as the transformation of consumers into citizens. People resist the call to public service through a self interest unconcerned about the common good beyond making sure they have the consumables they want and the neighbourhood watch functions in case others want to take these from them. The lack of readiness among people to take responsibility for civic life and the common good is alarming. So many of us live in the mini world of our household and the mega world of social media Facebook, Twitter etc leaving out the midi world of the local community including the parish church.

We salute those prepared to be candidates for election. There is a lot at stake nationally and internationally from our visits to the polling booths on Thursday! Those visits and votes are our taking responsibility for our nation as the citizens we are. Further than that our voting takes responsibility for a world in crisis through abuse of the environment.  

Climate change is linked to human abuse of the environment. It’s good we have grapes now growing in Sussex but further south there are deserts growing, unfriendly to human habitation, which will do nothing to arrest the northward flow of migrants. Tackling those migrants is a vast, complicated issue for any government balancing our capacity to be hospitable against the capacity of each national infrastructure. 

‘Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God’. Linking migration and the associated environmental challenge to this teaching on inclusion is poetic licence to a degree. The right interpretation of the text is in its call to intimate union with Jesus Christ.  In this eucharist, though many we’re welcomed together by participating in one holy Bread as we abide in Christ and he in us. Together we stand like branches coming forth from Jesus Christ the true vine and our aspirations for the world at election-tide can’t be separated from that vision for unity. 

Our scripture readings this morning remind us of how the Holy Spirit can raise world leaders, build justice for the poor, create wealth and a better stewardship of the environment. To find the Holy Spirit, as a rule, though, we need to find Jesus, and to find Jesus and to dwell in him we need his body and blood, his word and the fellowship of his Church which is the vanguard of God’s kingdom.

May the kingdom of this world advance a little towards becoming the kingdom of God through this eucharist, through our prayer, through our voting on Thursday and through a new wave of the Holy Spirit pouring his love upon our town, nation and world. Amen.

Easter 5 Election 3rd May 2015

We stand at an important junction in national life so let’s take guidance from the word of God as we prepare to play our part in the events of the coming week.

Today’s scripture was in place before they set Election Day five years ago for 7^th May. What do the lectionary readings have to say to us?

The first reading from Acts has significance for a nation that’s had Christianity in its fabric as long as any other. A court official of Candace, queen of Ethiopia is on a journey that takes him onto another one at the hand of St Philip. Through the operation of the Holy Spirit he enters the journey of faith and is first to take the good news of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ to Africa where it can still be found today.

How Queen Candace’s Chancellor of the Exchequer fared on his return to Ethiopia we’re not told but he’s a timely reminder of how much the good of any nation rests on the goodness of its rulers and whether they have the Holy Spirit. In my election leader in May’s parish magazine I quote T.S. Eliot who wrote of the futility of dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. Politics stands or falls on personnel as much as policy. I went on to salute stalwart village Councillors standing down this month, Rory Clarke after 45 years and Jim Brimfield after 25 years, whose contributions we have greatly valued. On Thursday we have opportunity to elect new councillors, some of the candidates being church members entering the fray with  determination to serve the good of our village. We want the best folk to serve, those who know the ground and, hopefully, those gifted with a strong moral compass who’ll be their own men and women.

All I can tell you to do from the pulpit is vote! How you vote is a matter of conscience, but informed conscience of course and sermons are meant to be about the education of conscience, which is why I outlined in the magazine three vital moral considerations at this time, starting with the need to counter discrimination against ‘second class citizens’ of the UK and the world especially those who live in hunger.

Our second reading touches on this with its reminder that practical action to serve our neighbour, not least the million Britons now having to queue at food banks, is proof of faith in a loving God. Please read with me the last two sentences of the second lesson this morning from the first letter of St John Chapter 4 verses 20 and 21:  Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

This morning we’ll be singing at the offertory G.K.Chesterton’s hymn O God of earth and altar, number 481 in our hymnbook with its lovely Vaughan Williams harmonisation. Gilbert Chesterton was one of the brightest Christian minds of the last century. I like this story about him. When a newspaper asked several writers to answer the question “What is wrong with the world?” Chesterton answered: Dear Sirs, I am.  Sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton

That underlines the point made earlier about right government coming best from right people, or people as right as they can be given the sinfulness of the human condition. The moments in the election campaign that have had most impact on me have been those rare ones where there’s been humility exhibited, something very difficult with the power and pride of 24-7 mass media.

Chesterton’s 1906 hymn starts with the sentiment of human frailty:

O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry, our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die; the walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide, take not thy thunder from us, but take away our pride.

His reference to entombing walls of gold link to my mind with the second moral consideration I voiced in the magazine on how our national debt entombs us souring relations between generations and how it’s important to vote in a government with a sound strategy for decreasing it. Chesterton’s hymn reference to entombing walls of gold also voices the materialism of our age, much heightened I guess a century on from his, so that day by day we’re suffering a bribe campaign vis a vis where our bank balances might head after Thursday.

The major challenge in our society has been described as the transformation of consumers into citizens. People resist the call to public service through a self interest unconcerned about the common good beyond making sure they have the consumables they want and the neighbourhood watch functions in case others want to take these from them. The lack of readiness among people to take responsibility for civic life and the common good is alarming. So many of us live in the mini world of our household and the mega world of social media Facebook, Twitter etc leaving out the midi world of the local community including the parish church . We salute those prepared to be candidates for election to Horsted Keynes parish council. As retiring chairman Jim Brimfield writes in the magazine: The new council will have the difficult task of completing the Neighbourhood Plan. I wish them well. This matter can be divisive. I very much hope that any differences which arise, will be overcome by calm discussion and compromise, so that no long term ill feelings will result.

There is a lot at stake locally, nationally and internationally from our visits to the Village Hall on Thursday! Those visits and votes are our taking responsibility for our village, county and nation as the citizens we are.

Let’s move on to the last reading from the holy Gospel, St John Chapter 15. It is an agricultural image of connectedness. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit

I can’t resist using it to illustrate my third moral consideration for you this Sunday before the election which is the Green agenda, namely looking to voting in a government with evident determination to address the crisis impacting the world through abuse of the environment.  Climate change is linked to human abuse of the environment. It’s good we have grapes now growing in our parish but further south there are deserts growing, unfriendly to human habitation, which will do nothing to arrest the northward flow of migrants. Tackling those migrants is a vast, complicated issue for any government balancing our capacity to be hospitable against the capacity of each national infrastructure.

Linking the environmental issue to Our Lord’s teaching on Christian solidarity is poetic licence though. The right explanation of the gospel is elsewhere of course in its call to intimate union with Jesus Christ.  Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.  John 15:4-5a

In this eucharist we take the fruit of the vine and the work of human hands to become our spiritual food and drink. Though many we’re made one by that Food as we abide in Christ and he in us. Together we stand like branches coming forth from Jesus Christ the true vine and our aspirations for the world at election-tide can’t be separated from that vision for unity. Our scripture readings this morning remind us of how the Holy Spirit can raise world leaders, build justice for the poor, create wealth and a better stewardship of the environment. To find the Holy Spirit, as a rule, though, we need to find Jesus, and to find Jesus and to dwell in him we need his body and blood, his word and the fellowship of his Church which is the vanguard of God’s kingdom.

May the kingdom of this world advance a little towards becoming the kingdom of God through this eucharist, through our prayer, through our voting on Thursday and through a new wave of the Holy Spirit pouring his love upon our village, county, nation and world. Amen.