St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Our Lady’s Birthday 8.9.21

 

WHY MAGNIFY MARY? We do so firstly because GOD HONOURS HER. How sad to see Christian disagreement about Mary! That despite Luke’s Gospel saying ‘all generations will call [Mary] blessed’ Luke 1:48. It's biblical to magnify Mary because God himself honoured her in making her Mother of his only Son Jesus Christ, God with us. Honour though is less than worship.

Secondly we magnify Mary because JESUS LOVES HER. You can’t love Jesus without loving his Mother. The idea that magnifying Mary diminishes Jesus misses the point. Jesus and Mary aren’t in competition. Jesus is our Saviour. Mary’s love and prayer draws attention to our Saviour as it did especially on Good Friday when Jesus said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” John 19:26-27.  She can be our Mother too! ‘Shall we not love thee, Mother dear, whom Jesus loved so well?’

Thirdly THE SPIRIT FILLS HER. Art over the centuries has attempted to capture the radiance of God-bearer Mary. As the Archangel promised; ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God’ Luke 1:35. It is a widely held view, expressed in the Church of England Prayer Book, that the Holy Spirit kept Mary ‘a pure Virgin’ freeing her from sin to be fitting instrument of bringing our Saviour to birth. There’s no better reason for magnifying Mary! 

Fourthly we magnify Mary because THE CREED ACCLAIMS HER. Week by week we honour Mary as we profess ‘the only Son of God… for us and for our salvation… came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man’. Salvation came into the world through the unique partnership of God and Mary. Though the choice of Mary is God’s and her cooperation is inspired by God it remains an astonishing truth that without that cooperation the cosmos would not be redeemed! ‘Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women!’.

A fifth quality of Mary is: HER PERFECT OBEDIENCE. In her ‘Yes’ to God given to Gabriel and confirmed in the hardships she bore Mary models to us an unselfish obedience. Simeon prophesied her heart would be ‘pierced with a sword’ in Luke 2:35 and we see this fulfilled in Mary’s presence at the foot of the Cross, obediently following her Son in his sufferings. She is model Christian, one with us, exemplifying obedience to God in sorrow and in joy. At Cana she gives advice to the servants we take for ourselves: ‘Do whatever [Jesus] tells you!’ John 2:5. 

Why magnify Mary? Sixthly, in my scheme, for HER PERFECT PRAYER. Who on earth or in heaven pleads for us as effectively as the Mother of Jesus? She above all knows what Jesus wants. ‘There is one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus’ we read in 1 Timothy 2:5. Jesus made clear Christians gain a share in that unique mediation so that ‘anything we ask in his name he will give to us’ John 14:13. The only qualification we have as his intercessors is close abiding in him, a quality few would question when it comes to Mary. Invoking her prayer undoubtedly furthers God’s will. 

We magnify Mary seventhly on account of HER PROPHETIC ROLE.  Over the Christian centuries apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been welcomed including the one at Walsingham to Richeldis in 1061. These apparitions have come with prophetic messages calling for repentance and deeper trust in God in the face of hardship and persecution as well as indifference towards him. Miracles associated with these apparitions amplify Mary’s thanksgiving to God recorded in our Gospel: ‘the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.’ Luke 1:49 On this commemoration of her birth Mary is our prophet inviting the Lord to do such great things among as we look forward with Fr Edward Pritchett to a new partnership of priests and people in our churches.

My last reason for magnifying Mary is SHE’S NORMAL.  It’s you and I who’re not as we’re meant to be, not Mary! If trust, obedience and Holy Spirit empowerment flow from Mary’s purity our own distrust, disobedience and spiritual apathy flow from our impurity. Visions of the Virgin Mary show her normality in an infectious display of warmth, joy and radiance. Such displays as at Walsingham draw pilgrims in their thousands to humble themselves before God whose norm is humility, as stated by Mary in today’s Gospel: ‘He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly’. Luke 1:52 

May such God-given humility, warmth, joy and radiance be ours on this feast of Mary, Mother of the Lord, and flow out from our Churches to the community we serve! 

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Easter Sunday 4.4.21

 

‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ (Mark 16:3)

The question of the women chimes deep into lockdown experience. When will we get out of this trial? It's a weight upon us with so many dimensions: physical, emotional, spiritual and social. The economic consequences have been dreadful through loss of employment and income. The loss of close friends through COVID and a wave of depression deadening those we love has been harsh. Though I rejoice to stand with you in St Wilfrid’s for the first time in months to celebrate Easter my joy is qualified.

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to complete the burial rite for Our Lord.  Sabbath restrictions had ended so they were free to do so. The stone was lifted for them - not only the stone but the legalism of Sabbath and the Sabbath itself. Within a short time this gave way to gatherings like this ‘early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen’. The Lord’s people now gather on the Lord’s day - Sunday - on account of what those women experienced. The Lord’s people gather on the Lord’s day around the Lord’s table and, yes, today, most joyfully in the Lord’s house. Well done all who worked hard with Arthur, Derek and this morning, Fr Mike, to get us back in style! ‘This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it… this is the day Jesus Christ vanquished hell, broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave’.

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

For those with a weight of intellectual questioning we can offer no proof of Christ’s resurrection, only strong evidence. That is the case for any past event. Belief in the resurrection of Jesus stems from the faith of the church and an accumulation of evidence. Christianity stands or falls on the event which has a documented history captured by the impressive list in our second reading: ‘I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-7).

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

The women approached the tomb with a question expressing outwardly the weight inside of them, upon their hearts, through the loss of the one they loved. 

In lockdown we share aspects of bereavement with them this morning, asking where is God in all of this. Our annual Holy Week celebration is grand reminder that God expects nothing of us that he is not prepared to go through himself. Christianity is inseparable from suffering and, this morning, the supernatural working through it.

On Easter Sunday we are gathered to One uniquely qualified to lift hearts from despair. ‘A Christian is a sad man saved from despair by the Cross of Christ’ wrote Charles Peguy. The pandemic is a tremendous weight. We and many in our circle are in bereavement, frustration, depression, loneliness, anxiety and confusion. By allowing the Cross into this darkness, by welcoming afresh the mystery of Christ’s love at Easter, there can be transformation. Burdens lifted. Intercession gaining a spring in its step. Discernment coming afresh. Grace to accept things we cannot change. Courage to make changes we ought to make. All is grace - this is made clear to us on Easter Sunday - all is grace! The gracious God and Father of Jesus does what we could never do or earn or even imagine. God brings all that is out of nothing, Jesus from a Virgin womb and life out of death!

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

One weight I feel upon my own heart is the fact this feast of feasts is being celebrated around seven altars or tables in Haywards Heath this morning. Yet I have suggested to me an image of uplift in this scenario. The three women approaching the tomb represent three church sisters, Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal. On Wednesday morning fifty faces were on zoom convened by St Wilfrid’s to an ecumenical stations of the Cross offered for Haywards Heath. They came from our two Churches, our fellow Churches of The Ascension and St Richard’s and from the Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Ruwach Pentecostal Churches. We went around the fourteen stations of the Cross hearing thoughts and prayers in turn from the three great traditions, Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal. The Holy Spirit seemed to be upon us as seven Haywards Heath churches came to kneel at the foot of the Cross. This morning we stand up again recognising afresh that we live best as Churches knowing our individual need of mercy. Whether we are Catholic, Anglican, Protestant or Pentecostal we stand in the same place when it comes to Holy Week.

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

It is you, Jesus, you who have done this, are doing it and will do it for us as individuals and churches! There is no knock down proof of a past event but that of Christ’s resurrection invites three questions. Is the evidence for it trustworthy or is it not? Is Jesus the Son of God or is he not? Are you and I destined for eternal splendour or not? As Alexander Schmemann affirms: ‘The only meaningful thing in life is what conquers death, and not “what” but “who” - Christ. There is undoubtedly only one joy: to know him and share him with each other’. May such joy, qualified by the pain we share, lift us so lockdown eases in both its inward and outward aspects.  ‘This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!

St Wilfrid, Haywards Heath Candlemas 31.1.21

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people; a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Luke 2.29-32

The Nunc Dimittis or Song of Simeon is a Gospel Canticle used daily at Evensong or Compline, at funerals and each year at Candlemas in the Gospel and again at the blessing of candles. 

It breathes fulfilment, peace and joy. Inspired by the Spirit the elderly Simeon comes to the Temple, takes the infant Jesus in his arms and joyfully breaks into the canticle which signals fulfilment of God’s redemptive plan and the peace and joy of salvation.

The Church puts it on our lips at the evening of each day to remind us darkness is no darkness to the Lord who is Light of the world, who fulfils believers, lending us peace after the day’s strife and anticipates unending joy beyond death’s night.

A few thoughts on such good news - the Christian good news of fulfilment, peace and joy.

The elderly Simeon was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. The same Spirit brought him to the Temple coincident with the Holy Family and used Simeon to announce the arrival of fulfilment, peace and joy in the person of Our Lord.

Like many I haven’t got a particular moment of fulfilment, of seeing salvation. It’s been a process in which faith has lit up my life and made increasing sense of it. Before lockdown on a stormy sea journey to Dieppe at one point on our crossing of the Channel the sun broke through the storm clouds. Light streamed on the turbulent sea reflected forwards in a scene of extraordinary beauty. You couldn’t look at the sun but you could feast on a remarkable display of light reflected from the moving waters. Their threatening look was changed into a scene of immense beauty. The traumas of my personal life - I had just been bereaved - were put into a new perspective. Like Simeon approaching death I felt, like the sunlight on the stormy sea, the light of faith transfiguring life’s dark circumstances showing me God in the midst of them.

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people; a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Christianity fulfils us because God’s word is true to life. Then, as Simeon proclaims, we live in peace. The good news of Christ settles our rough waves as the stabilisers on that ferry settled the impact of the storm on the passengers. 

Like me you are travelling through this storm of coronavirus. Put faith in Jesus Christ as your stabiliser and keep fellowship with others in the ferry which is his Church. You’ll one day reach harbour and be part of the rejoicing felt after a stormy voyage! Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis breathes the peace of God passing human understanding as the old man sees salvation in the young child, a sight that fulfils and settles him as he looks with gratitude to his own end. St Seraphim spoke of this peace in these telling words: ‘find peace in your soul and thousands round you will find salvation’.

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people; a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Fulfilment, peace - then joy! Our good news first announced by Simeon, Zechariah and Our Lady in their canticles at Christ’s infancy thrill with joy. The Nunc Dimittis, Benedictus and Magnificat express the church’s joy in our daily offices and all are rooted in joyous encounters. As Simeon’s face lit up at the sight of the Christ Child so this morning’s liturgy lights our faces both outwardly through candles and inwardly through the Holy Spirit. To meet up with a friend is cheering. Our eyes light up! So it is as Christians meet the Lord in his word, in prayer, in the breaking of bread and in fellowship with one another. My own eyes have seen your salvation and there’s joy in that, joy that by joy’s very nature can’t be contained in Israel - I mean the church - but has to flow out from us to our circle and, indeed, to the nations. 

Simeon’s smile and those of the Holy Family reach down to us this morning through 80 generations brightening our lives on the Feast of the Presentation. As we present ourselves with Christ to the Father in his Sacrifice at this eucharist may the joy of the Lord be our strength, joy triumphing over the hardships we bear bringing peace and fulfilment.

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people; a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. 

St Wilfrid, Haywards Heath Trinity 10 25.8.19

St Wilfrid’s was built on this hill to crown the development of Haywards Heath. 

As Town Team puts together over the next year the 2020 Haywards Heath history celebration the parish Church will fittingly have pride of place. There’ll be a Light Show here day by day complementing an exhibition in the Town Hall and culminating in the expanded version of September’s Town Day that occurs every few years. 

We rightly take pride in the Churches role and Fr Ray has been working as ever on our behalf to help tell our story at St Wilfrid’s as part of the bigger narrative. This narrative began at a crossroads east of Cuckfield. There the Roman Road heading north from Hassocks met and crossed the well drained high ground we know as the Weald, later the pilgrim way to Canterbury. From the Hayworth animal enclosure on the Weald near that cross roads Haywards Heath was born when the railway was laid parallel to the Roman Road in 1841.

Haywards Heath grew from an ancient cross roads to become the heart of Sussex. Getting trains to Brighton, now known as London-by-the sea was the motivator. Our town’s strategic worth is captured in the title of the town’s authoritative 1981 history, Ford and Gabe’s ‘Metropolis of Mid Sussex’. Due to railway phobia in Cuckfield and Lindfield we were a new build in 1841 after 5000 men and 50 horses made the tunnel we stand on. As Sussex metropolis we draw life from the County, at first through the arrival of thousands of so-called lunatics at the County Asylum and cattle for the market once so famed as to be in the top 12 in the country. The Asylum and market have gone but the strategic role and growth of our town has continued. The 2020 celebration is geared to affirm and direct our Sussex-wide role. Haywards Heath draws economic life from those who commute to London but it's also in the Greater Brighton City Deal. Such was the success of the railway to Brighton that brought this town to birth some are calling London ‘Brighton inland’!

Our family moved to Haywards Heath from London in 2001 so I could serve the mission and renewal of Chichester Diocese. Bishop Eric who appointed me expected me to work from the centre of the Diocese, the centre of Sussex. We took residence in Gatesmead and on our first Sunday we joined the Palm Sunday procession here at St Wilfrid’s. My licensing was to St Richard’s but I’ve continued close to St Wilfrid’s, through friendship especially with Fr Ray, and literally close to the Presentation from 2017 when Anne and I retired next door to Marylands after 8 years as parish priest of Horsted Keynes. My former diocesan role reminds me how Haywards Heath isn’t just the heart of Sussex but at the heart of a great Diocese stretching from Crawley to Brighton and Rye across to Chichester. 

Before I change gear from town history to engage with today’s scripture might I invite your participation in our 7 September 2019 town day Festival of Hope here in St Wilfrid’s and, beyond that, with me in preparing the 9-13 September 2020 History Celebration? We’ve written as Town Team, under the oversight of Councillor Ruth De Mierre, to schools inviting them to lead a project countering an amnesia destructive to the health of our community. The idea is to encourage pupils to interview parents, grandparents and elderly neighbours to gather stories of Haywards Heath, recording them and presenting them suitably at the 2020 Celebration not least at next year’s planned night by night Light Show in St Wilfrid’s.

From today’s second reading: ‘Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe’. In his great commentary on the letter to the Hebrews Bishop Lightfoot makes this note on verse 28 of Chapter 11, and I quote, ‘though at first sight there is something strange in the idea that thankfulness is the means whereby we may serve God, we are perhaps inclined to forget the weight which is attached in Scripture to gratitude and praise. It is the perception and acknowledgement of the divine glory which is the strength of man. The sense of love is the motive for proclaiming love’.

We gather at the eucharist primarily to give thanks - the word means thanksgiving - and in so doing to build ourselves more into what we’re called to be. St Wilfrid’s was built on this hill by Bodley its great architect precisely for that purpose: a temple for divine worship, for giving thanks and praise to God, more than a preaching house for human edification. When we look back over the history of our town there’s so much to give thanks to God for, not least the Wyatt’s, father and son. Our role, as ongoing part of the Church in Haywards Heath, is to secure that worship for generations to come in response to the unshakeable security of God’s love.

We were born as, and we continue as, a community Church. Our gift paraphrasing Mark 12:17 is to render to the community what is owed by love and to God the things we owe to him. We’re bi-lingual, speaking the language of our community and the language of faith. This sets us apart as both a community group and as a Christian church. Unlike other community groups - the Golf Club, U3A or Air Cadets - we have an other-worldly reference. Unlike the other 17 Churches - Roman Catholic, Methodist, New Church and so on - far from being a gathered separate community we’re one with a commitment beyond our Christian faith to Haywards Heath. ‘You are the light of the world’ Our Lord says in Matthew 5:14. ‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’ and those words make me think of St Wilfrid’s so visible to our town. The Lord continues: ‘let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ and here we think of our membership, the 7 generations that have maintained this beacon of faith on Church Road.

We have a calling to gracious dialogue with this town and to come thankfully ‘in reverence and awe’ before God with the people and the needs of Haywards Heath on our hearts. The parish eucharist brings both aspirations together. 

Getting more members to have a heart for drawing people into the life of the church is pivotal. Reaching out, cutting through spiritual apathy, by prayer and invitation is the strategy, picking up on a saying of Walter Wink: 'The future of the world lies with the intercessors and connectors.' 

Very many of us have that gift of connecting – building friendships which season the community life of our town and its surrounds. Some of us like myself are very active on Haywards Heath’s social media groups which are coming into their own through the history project. To complement such ‘connecting’ I find myself and would encourage each one of you in turn to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in prayer so we attain the best directing of our energies and those in our orbit. ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of’ wrote the poet Tennyson. 

Our splendid tower with its pyramidal cap affirms this, pointing modestly to a God whose possibilities exceed our imagining and who listens to and answers prayer.'The future of the world lies with the intercessors and connectors.' 

‘Since [then] we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks [in this eucharist], by which we offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe’.