St Philip Neri 26.5.21

 

‘We were meant to live in joy. This does not mean that life will be easy or painless. It means that we can turn our faces to the wind and accept that this is the storm we must pass through. We cannot succeed by denying what exists. The acceptance of reality is the only place from which change can begin.’ Words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his bestselling ‘Book of Joy’ co-authored by the Dalai Lama.

In every age God raises up saints in stormy times with a special gift of joy and today’s Saint is such a man. Philip Neri was a priest in the 16th century known for his humour, compassion and joy. Hoping to go to India, Philip was guided instead to re-evangelize a corrupt and decadent Rome. He is remembered as the "Apostle of Rome" and for his teaching that ‘a joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one’. Philip Neri was born in Florence in 1515. At the age of eighteen he went to Rome, and earned his living as a tutor. He undertook much-needed charitable work among the young men of the city, and started a brotherhood to help the sick poor and pilgrims out of which came the Oratorian foundations spread across the world up to this day.

People flocked to Philip Neri for advice. Fearing hero worship, he went out of his way to do ridiculous things as a reminder that any help he could give came from beyond him. On occasion, when he was a speaker somewhere, he shaved half his beard off to look a fool and remind his hearers not to respect someone who was no wiser – and no less sinful – than they were. The point of his many pranks was to combat pride, or melancholy, as well as that hero-worship which he never fully overcame as we keep his feast today! Very many of the saints, not just St Philip, have a terror of being looked up to. They know their imperfections better than anyone else, and being revered by other people is doubly bad. It is bad for the others, who should be revering God instead, and for themselves, because they might be tempted to believe their own image and believe themselves to be worthy. 

Philip gave this advice: ‘First let a little love find entrance into their hearts, and the rest will follow. To preserve our cheerfulness amid sicknesses and troubles, is a sign of a right and good spirit’. He lived in joy and is known as the Saint of joy in the spirit of Psalm 16 verse 11: ‘in God’s presence there is joy for evermore’. Living in joy is a sign of living close to God. It is said that when some of his more pompous penitents made their confession to him Philip imposed deflating penances on them, such as walking through the streets of Rome carrying his cat. When a novice showed signs of excessive seriousness, Philip stood on his head in front of him, to make him laugh. 

How do we emulate St Philip? We should not be afraid to make fools of ourselves so as to make plain we live as much in need of mercy as the next man or woman. 

We can’t all stand on our heads or carry cats but we can experience the love of God through prayer, scripture and sacrament. 

In that way we can live with an outward, joyous focus turned away from inner melancholy.

‘Two men looked through prison bars. One saw mud and one saw stars’. 

At the prayer of St Philip may we look more to the Lord, welcome his radiance, love and joy and become more and help cheer up the world.

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Discernment Acts 12:24-13:5a

 

The Holy Spirit is evident again in this morning’s eucharistic reading from Acts Chapter 12 as the guiding light and force of the early Church. So much is he the agent that the Acts of the Apostles might be better named the Acts of the Holy Spirit. In today’s reading we hear about the gift of discernment granted from the Spirit as a group of leading Christians were offering worship to the Lord and keeping a fast. We read how the Holy Spirit said, ‘I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them’. After prayer and laying on of hands the two were, we read, ‘sent on their mission by the Holy Spirit… to Cyprus’.

God has not changed 2000 years on. Our faith and expectation of God is something of the variation from the apostolic era. To give an example of how the Spirit’s gift of discernment remains in operation among Christians here is the story of how a significant community ministry was born in a south London parish. A young man was going to Church Sunday by Sunday and stepping over the tramps that slept in the Churchyard. It was a part of London with a good number of street folk who'd come to see the Churchyard as a safe haven. As this Church member passed these men and women week by week God eventually gave him a burden of prayer for them, which he carried into Church and offered up at the Eucharist. One Sunday he had the idea of running a lunch club for the vagrants and he persuaded his fellow worshippers.  This ran for some months.  Then the organisers advertised for helpers in the local community and received hundreds of enquiries. One man's vision discerned from God got accepted by his Church and became the instrument for Christians and non-Christians working together in the service of a local need.  Many of the non-Church folk got drawn into the life of the Church in the process. It all started from one man's discernment - isn't that encouraging?

How often we sense the Holy Spirit ourselves when we go out of our way to help others, joy in the midst of empathising with and maybe alleviating hardship being endured by others. Such joy provides evidence of the presence of God in the midst for, as the Psalmist writes, in God’s presence there is the fullness of joy. (Psalm 16:11) It’s not how much we do that matters so much as how much love we put into the action. To live in the love of God is the clue to discerning the best form of service to others. Each day I look back at what I’ve done or failed to do and confess to God. Very often the sins I confess are opportunities I’ve lost because my attention’s been elsewhere and very often on myself. Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit whom we welcome day by day, hour by hour - God’s love pouring into our hearts - but do we? Or do we get so filled with a self-serving agenda that God’s love gets blocked out?

A practical suggestion. Start making a morning offering to the Holy Spirit. Sit on your bed and say ‘God I thank you for the gift of this new day and give myself to you. Send your Holy Spirit to use my gifts to God’s praise and service’. 

I find that such a prayer sweeps the day up into God’s hands so that, as I keep my attention on him, I discern what’s important and get on with it. Living with Holy Spirit discernment and empowerment is actually very simple if we set our hearts upon the Lord. 

We live in one place and time relatively ignorant of where and when to serve. God sees all space and time and the needs that cry out. 

The Holy Spirit rejoices to enlist those who give themselves day by day to his service and helps them discern where they can make a significant difference. 

Give yourself to God and he will give you to others!

St Bartholomew, Brighton Candlemas 3.2.19

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. Last month 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’d just been bereaved of a friend - 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 may be travelling through a storm in your life. 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 our 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 Mass 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.

Trinity 17 Mark 9.30-37 Church of Ascension, Haywards Heath 23 September 2018

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? ‘Know yourself, love yourself, forget yourself’ (the discipline of Christian meditation which takes us out of ourselves in contemplation – encouragement of last week’s Week of Guided Prayer)

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.
• 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 – FSW summer holiday scheme run by workers, 7 to 11 this autumn. Those who can’t leave room or home through age or disability. Refugees. The young struggling for a job….
• 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.

Easter vigil and 8am eucharist 27th March 2016

Joy isn’t just a component of Christianity it’s the key.

How can you believe in God without sensing joy?

Today/tonight we see God writ large, God to the dimensions of God and not to ours, showing his grandeur as taking human form he breaks through death and reveals eternal life to us and for us.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.

We gain joy as we gain God and that’s in the present moment. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24

What the resurrection effects is twofold. It delivers us from the prison of our mental constructs of past and future.

To know Christ is risen is to know God’s unalterable newness, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow – to know it and live in it is joy.

This is eternal life, to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. John 17:3

In that knowledge of what God in Christ has done for us we gain two benefits.

First we’re freed by forgiving both wrongs we've suffered from others and by welcoming forgiveness for the wrongs we ourselves have done.

Second we’re relieved of fear for the future. Tomorrow also is God’s and his love is stronger than the worst power we’ll ever encounter – and that includes death.

You will be with me always, he says, nothing can separate us, enter my joy, as the Psalmist writes: You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

Absence of joy links to self-sufficiency and pride, imprisonment in past regrets, future anxiety all of which cut us off from the living God.

Today/tonight we affirm God for who he is, and his opening to our intuition of death’s diminishment.

The only meaningful thing in life is what conquers death, not what but who, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.

Since April 33AD, or maybe 27AD with a six year slippage, humanity has the full picture of God in his grandeur and humans in their immense potential as those in his image destined for the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21).

The hope of this glory is cause of our joy.

Our intellects balk at death and wrestle with its reality 20 centuries on from Easter. How has the world changed, we ask, with the reality of evil this week in Brussels and the genocide committed by Radovan Karadzic?

There are no rational knockdown arguments here but when your heart is touched by the risen Christ its enough.

We are joyful in spirit today/tonight and always as Christians for we know deep down God is God and he always will be God and we have fellowship with him that’ll never end.

Joy isn’t just a component of Christianity it’s the key.

We can’t believe in God as he truly is without sensing joy and today/tonight we see him as he really is, God writ large, God to the dimensions of God, showing his grandeur, taking human form, breaking through death and revealing eternal life to us and for us.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  

May the unalterable newness of Jesus be our joy today, tomorrow, to the last syllable of recorded time, and beyond that to eternal ages! Alleluia!

Advent 3 Finding joy 13th December 2015

How do we best find joy?

That seems a topical question linking the scripture of mid-Advent Gaudete Sunday, the Premier Radio series from the village and some of our experience in Horsted Keynes over the last week.

The Tree Festival pulled people into St Giles and in so doing pulled the village together though its 29 contributors. Last weekend was for many of us a series of joyous encounters picking up with people some of whom we’d not seen in Church before.

The Parish Council meeting we so dreaded, which was for me a time of prayer, ended up being a time of relief for many, touching on joy, with a sense that some of the suffering we’re going through as a village over the plan has meaning and purpose after all.

The Premier Christian Radio series for Advent from the village is about how people are finding joy in Jesus Christ through the church’s ministry. Advent’s about the Lord’s coming near to us and us to him and the Bible says ‘in God’s presence is the fullness of joy’ (Psalm 16:11)

‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice…. The Lord is near’ (Philippians 4:5, 4) writes Paul to the Philippians in a passage we read this morning. Helping people find joy in God is what the Church is about in its several ministries and the programmes build from stories of transformation linked to social action, spiritual direction, confession, evangelism and healing ministry.

You can hear some of these stories by going online to the listen again site noted in the eucharist booklet, but here’s a clip from one of the programmes on how we can get joy from physical healing.

My name’s Jan Goodenough and I want to share about the joy of physical healing received through Christian ministry. My first thought is that the real joy is not so much in the physical healing, although that is amazing and life changing, but the joy that Jesus, by his spirit, is blessing me, yes me, that for some mysterious reason he has decided to manifest himself to me in this way.  We all know he makes himself known in myriad ways, and I, like all those that love Jesus experience this but the joy of healing , well that was special. I was suffering from a very painful back condition which restricted me in lots of ways. I worked for an Orthapaedic Surgeon at the time and he and a colleague who was a neurosurgeon, decided, after I  consulted them professionally, that a spinal fusion was the best way forward.  I trusted them, and was inclined to go for the operation.  In the 80’s this meant a very long operation and very long recovery time laying on your back.  I was 40 and had a husband and three boys, so the prospect was daunting, but so was the thought of carrying on with the pain and restrictions this condition caused me. 

But first, before agreeing to the operation, I decided to seek out the vicar and the elders of my local Anglican church and ask for laying on of hands for healing. They came round with oil as well, anointed me and  prayed. I felt a tremendous sense of peace and they left.  That was Thursday, on Sunday morning I awoke and new immediately I was healed. I jumped out of bed, literally, did a somersault to the astonishment of my husband and went to church full of joy and rejoicing. I am now 73 and am still rejoicing, if not somersaulting.

Listening again to Jan – and I recently played her clip with profit to someone in our congregation with a painful back condition – I am connected afresh with the first reading this morning. Zephaniah prophesied in the reign of King Josiah which dates to 640 to 630 BC. Overall Zephaniah has a message like that of Amos of God bringing darkness on his people on account of their sins. In Chapter 3 however there’s a remarkable picture which the Hebrew text indicates as a somersaulting for joy like Jan’s – only it’s God jumping for joy over his repentant people. Here it is half way through the passage from Zephaniah 3v17 on p2:  The Lord, your God, is in your midst, … he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.

How do we best find joy?

By looking to God ‘in whose presence is the fullness of joy’ (Ps 16:11) Joy, to use three s’s, is supernatural and social and often linked to suffering. It’s not an emotion like happiness, though it’s linked to happiness, it’s something from beyond our emotions that’s given from above. It can be kept to ourselves as little as we can keep God’s presence to ourselves!

We find God’s joy through repentance and faith, as John the Baptist reminds us in the Gospel reading from Luke Chapter 3.

One of the most joyful places I find myself put in as a priest is that of hearing confessions. You can’t lose out when you’re witness to people blaming themselves before God with the simple task of providing assurance of God’s forgiveness.  There is indeed joy from heaven! The discipline of self examination and meeting up with a prayer partner or spiritual director challenges our core selfishness. Loss of joy is a classic indicator that in the core of our being we’re travelling alone, the joy of the Lord is distant from us, and our attention has switched to be more on the problems than on his provision to sort them.

Here’s a final clip from the Premier series to be broadcast this afternoon. After I’ve played it we’ll have some time to reflect:

Hello, my name is David Harper. Religion is a central part of my life - I regularly attend church, I pray for help, give thanks and feel a connection to God. I drifted from regular confession without realising, presumably as someone didn't tap me on the shoulder remind me to do it.  Following the birth of my first child I went through preparation for his baptism, and acknowledged the guilt I felt, with this lapse. My priest took me through some steps to returning to confession helping bust some myths, breaking down the key barrier of how I could go back after so long. The joy was instant, it was so cathartic and healing.  It was special too - the feeling was more real than I recall as a youth.  On reflection, I was flooded with relief of facing the areas in life as an individual, a husband, a parent, a colleague, a friend - where I fall short. Confession was a part of my life I had neglected but started putting right. Sensing complete forgiveness has spurred me on. In my life I've sensed a closeness, kindness and presence of God. What I hadn't expected but did receive through confession was a very REAL feeling beyond the thoughtful and other worldly, when you can sometimes feel distance from our Lord. Sharing the experience with my wife had such richness in our early parenthood but also in our married and Christian lives.  When I look back at my path, I recall people who are present or appear/pop up in my life - like super heroes- to help at moments in time.   I am grateful.  The greater gift, however, is the permanence of His capacity to forgive and, no matter how many times I go back, He is always there, we only have to ask for forgiveness. There are so many offers in life that are quick fixes - but this is longer lasting and somewhat more fulfilling.

www.premier.org.uk/advent/joy-to-the-world

Easter 2 (B) 12 April 2015

Last week I attended Easter Mass in a suburb of Dieppe, a joyous occasion with drinks after showing Easter week retains its religious significance among the French.

Highlight was a conversation with Martin a young man just setting out on a three month walk to Santiago de Compostela. Having given up his job in IT he is set for the priesthood. His joy was part of the joy that overflowed from the Mass led by his mentor Père Geoffroy, the Curé of Dieppe, a remarkable priest I also met and to whom I suggested a visit to Saint Giles.

What impacted me in that brief encounter with the French Church was - I ticked this box myself - a priest enjoying Christianity pointing people at Mass to the joy of faith, and, secondly seeds of faith sprouting into vocation and counter-cultural self-sacrifice.

Martin the mid 20s computer guy shared how the last two years have meant his turning tables on how the world sees poverty, celibacy and obedience. What he shared built on impressions I gained in conversation from 15 young people we hosted here in Holy Week and with my own sons that I want to build from this morning.

I tend to see the young as nothing like poor, chaste and obedient but they - some of them - are rejecting the counsel that money, sex and power are all it’s about and, unless you get loads you'll be a loser.

These conversations came back to me as I read that first lesson from Acts which I'd like us to read again as a mighty reminder of the counter-cultural consequences of the resurrection of Jesus: 

The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

What a counter to worldly ways of thinking be they 1st or 21st century! 

I think of how first of all the passage counters the fashion of individualism by which each of us does our own thing as something of a default, often with the ready permission of family members - like my trip across the ocean to France which Anne blessed. 

To think of individuals and families so impacted by the truth this world is to be lived in the light of future resurrection they became of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions! Young Martin is losing all to have the church for his family. I of course do live in a church house - but I have my own down the road for later. 

Just landing the thought of sharing life as Christians one lovely feature of St Giles like Sacré Couer is the capacity to share our life together after l'heure de Jesu. As in Dieppe the priest here says a one hour Mass but stays for two hours. 

Back to that passage. It has countercultural obedience as well as poverty. As many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to each as any had need. 

Martin has wrestled with what it means to surrender your life to those over you in the Lord. He is part of an authoritative local church, under a charismatic pastor but he himself is under no illusions. Christianity is ideally authoritative but practically it's a matter of putting yourself under authority. He won't always have a charismatic over him but he is set to obey whoever will be over him for the next 40 years.

It made me think of 14 Bishops of different hues I've had over my years, three of Bradford, one of Oxford who selected me for training, two of Sheffield, two of Guyana, one of Coventry, two of London and three of Chichester including Bishop Eric who appointed me to the diocese. 

To live as a Christian, let alone as a priest, is to live submissive to the risen Christ and, in bible based ecclesiology, obedient to those over you in the Lord so that, though at times I balk at it, I, we, remain happy to lay our tithe at the apostles’ feet i.e. that of the Bishop and Diocese of Chichester who have oversight of Saint Gilles. 

When I ask you to accept my authority it's that the Bishop shares with me and it's in the context both of Christian obedience and of my own and indeed the Bishop's fallibility. The apostolic office calls forth obedience but, as I was sharing the other week, the office bearing person is as much in need of mercy as the next Christian.

These sorts of question were probably little in the minds of the believers described in Acts 4 whose whole lives had been turned upside down by what God did to death through Jesus as we read in the passage. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
The Easter season is an opportunity to refresh ourselves as Easter Christians. As such we are or we should be determined to face up to death and other inescapable things in life with an ongoing challenge of the things that deceive us both internal and external. As I listened to Martin I recalled recent conversations with my sons about mortality following their grandmother's death which illustrate one such deceit, namely the one that we'll never die, or that our life in this world should be our only concern.

We have many world views in play and it is the loud voice of so-called relativism that we can believe what we choose. We must answer though for what we choose to believe and a materialistic world view has no answer to a holy God. 

John Henry Newman who's now made Saint in France and England said To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. He also said  Fear not your life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning. Meeting, sharing with young people recently who have seen that spiritual beginning. I have been heartened by openness to the only creed which both addresses mortality directly and puts humanity right. As Newman again said - I read him on my break - The name of Jesus can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living. 

So may this Easter Octave Day eucharist be imbued with great power, grace and freedom as we exalt in the resurrection of Our Lord who transfigures and beautifies us as part of his counter cultural joyous purpose for the world, for France, for the United Kingdom, mid Sussex and Horsted Keynes Saint Giles!

Advent 1 The Lord is Near – Repentance 8am

We’re starting Advent on a day St Giles is being made much of internationally through two broadcasts on London-based Premier Christian Radio. Today’s the start of a four part Advent series I produced which we will draw into both eucharists today.

‘The Lord is near’ is a four part series engaging through scripture, song and story in the wonder of Advent season. It’s about the journey to Christmas in Horsted Keynes as we go through Advent this year seeking to come close to the Lord.

Advent is about the coming of the Lord, first to Bethlehem at Christmas and second on the last day as Judge of the world. It’s about his coming near to us and our coming near to him.

‘The Lord is near’ the apostle Paul says to the Philippians. If we want to experience that nearness the Bible makes plain four things we need to do – repent, believe, ask, receive.

As we have a look with Premier Radio at what Advent represents we’ll be weaving our thoughts round those four headings using the four programmes, starting today with the call to repent.

Let’s listen now to a clip from the programme that catches the end of an Advent hymn that centres on St John the Baptist and his message to make way for Christ through repentance:

Hymn: On Jordan’s bank

Fr John:  Advent’s a call to repentance.

This is expressed by the look of church interiors.

I want to take you with me in mind and spirit to the beautiful village of Horsted Keynes where I’m parish priest. There from the village green I want you to walk down Church Lane and then up towards tour Norman Church with its noble spire. Come with me through the ancient porch to pass with me, in your mind, through the glazed doors to a further ascent in mind and heart through sight of its high Norman arches that lift your eyes to the altar.St Giles is no ordinary village church for its proportions are lavish. As William the Conqueror's retinue swept up from Hastings they made a mark on Sussex visible a thousand years on. The Church in Horsted Keynes has kept the Advent season for half the Christian era.  

This doesn’t just happen. It’s the achievement of the sacristans who prepare our beautiful church for worship day by day.

Peter Vince speaks about the penitential season of Advent, about repentance, preparing the crib from around 2min 44sec to 5min 268 on Recorder

Fr John: Let’s listen now to a bible passage we read in Advent that speaks of what it means to repent.

Female voice from Premier staff.

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans, Chapter 13

Brothers and sisters, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Here ends the reading.

Fr John: If you’ve ever heard of Horsted Keynes before it’s probably for one of three reasons – it’s Grade 1 Norman Church, it’s being where former prime minister Harold MacMillan’s buried or lastly because it’s there you find the Bluebell Railway.

Sound of steam engine.  

Fr John: Every year in Advent I preach, or as Bluebell Railway Chaplain depute a visiting preacher to speak, standing on the front of a steam engine on Horsted Keynes station.

It’s a great evening and the biggest evangelistic service in Advent attended by over 500 people who cram the three platforms to hear the good news of Jesus.

Caroline Collins describes something of the Bluebell railway, what a great year it’s been for us, and describes the atmosphere of the Bluebell carol service with the steel band playing on the platform . 270 on recorder or iPhone Cc Bluebell file

Fr John: It’s time for another Advent song, one that speaks of the joy of the Lord’s coming:

Song: Joy to the world

Do you know why Advent’s my favourite church season? It’s because of the JOY it invites.

And where does that joy come from, save repentance?

Repent, believe, ask, receive – and the Lord comes to be with you and, as the Psalmist writes, ‘in his presence is the fullness of joy’ (Psalm 16:11).

‘The Lord is near’ is true for all of us since he made us and upholds us. He’s the very source of life, yours and mine, but he wants to be more than that! He wants to come and dwell within us to give us a share in his life. That’s why Jesus came – the Son of God became Son of man so we children of men could become children of God.

When we repent, when we turn to the Lord, he anoints us with his Spirit and we receive infectious joy. It’s the best receipe for a joyous Advent - to turn afresh in the coming month towards our Saviour  the Lord Jesus Christ ‘in whose presence is the fullness of joy’.

Baptism of Phoebe Betts Gaudete (Joy) Sunday 16th December 2012

Words Ed read from Philippians 4 verse 4: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

Where do people find joy?

We seek happiness and it often eludes us - but joy, joy is something quite apart from, above and beyond happiness.  

As a child I remember the great joy of watching the Coronation with the whole street on my father's new TV.  Today we flip restlessly through the TV channels with a dulled sensation.

The options for pleasure are multiplied but they often fail to give joy.

We may live comfortably at a material level yet boredom and depression remain the lot of many. 

Even the multitude of choices we have before us steal away our happiness at having a choice.  We feel bereaved of the other 99 options when we choose the one! There’s only joy if you keep your mind on what you’ve decided and forget the 99 you’ve forsaken.

Perhaps those who prefer a ‘keeping your options open’ cohabitation to marriage are in risk of losing the joy that lies in permanent commitment to one path and one person?

This morning it’s a great pleasure to have Ed and Charlotte back in front of the altar where we celebrated their marriage three years ago. On that occasion I voiced how they see themselves as a team and how teamwork requires trust and clarity of purpose. Such agreed clarity of purpose has brought them once again to the Christian Church with their families and friends for they’ve been team building! We rejoice with you both on the birth last year of Phoebe Isla Betts and her baptism this morning.

She is, like any infant, a joy- giver.

How is it that children give us such joy?

They are humble, simple and trustful.

I was reflecting on this during the week and went back to the journal of one of my favourite Christian writers, Alexander Schmemann, an Orthodox priest who lived and taught in New York in the late 20^th century. Something he wrote about the ‘I’ passion of pride rang a bell. It’s reproduced on the back of the service booklet:

‘Anything, one way or the other, even in microscopic dose, connected with pride, is connected with the devil and with the diabolical. Religion also is a ready-made field of action for the devil’s forces. Everything, absolutely everything in religion is ambiguous, and this ambiguity can be cleared only by humility, so that the whole spiritual life is or must be directed to seeking humility.

‘The signs of humility: joy! Pride excludes joy. Then: simplicity, i.e., the absence of any turn into one’s self. Finally, trust, as the main directive in life, applied to everything (purity of heart, when man can see God). The signs of pride are: the absence of joy; complexity and fear. All this can be verified every day, every hour, by watching one’s self and contemplating life around.

‘It is frightening to think that in some sense, the Church also lives with pride – ‘the rights of the churches’…and a flood of joyless complicated and fearful spirituality’. It is a continuous self-destruction. We try to protect the “Truth”, we fight with something and for something without understanding that Truth appears and conquers only when it is alive: “humble yourself, be like a slave”, and you will have a liberating joy and simplicity, where humility is radiant in its divine beauty; where God is revealed in creation and salvation. How can I live by this? How can I convince others?’

How indeed! These are rich, dense words but in them I saw an underlining of three qualities in Phoebe and all children that are the cause of their and our joy – humility, simplicity and trust.

Where do people find joy?

Through deepening those childlike qualities of humility, simplicity and trust. We don’t want to stay childish but we do need to stay child-like if the Christian thing is to mean anything at all. Indeed, As Schmemann says many of the Church’s troubles are in a loss of joy through making things over complicated – and God forgive me if bringing this passage to you has had that effect! It’s not simple, but I love the challenge of it:

‘“Humble yourself, be like a slave”, and you will have a liberating joy and simplicity, where humility is radiant in its divine beauty.’

Joy is something beyond us.  It’s the radiant, beautiful infectious presence of God alongside us and within us.

To live a life close to God is what baptism is all about.  As we come close to God he comes close to us and in his presence is the fullness of joy.  This is our prayer for Phoebe and her family this mid-Advent Gaudete (Joy) Sunday – that they live continually in joy, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit obtained by coming to God in repentance and faith.

Phoebe’s parents and godparents will shortly express this coming to God by saying I turn to Christ, I repent of my sins, I renounce evil.

To remain joyful they will have to hold themselves close to God by continual repentance. 

 God may hold our lives but we also have to hold ourselves close to Him.  The will is all-important here.

When we come to Church week by week we show a determination towards God. We affirm to ourselves that it is the invisible and inner realities of life that transcend our outer and peripheral concerns.

Joy is the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon those who seek God with their whole heart.

May this holy season of Advent renew our spiritual determination so that St. Giles can be made a beacon of joy, its building and its people, overflowing with the Spirit of God!

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.