St Mary, Balcombe Lent 3 Gaining the Holy Spirit 12th March 2023

A good question for Lent raised vividly by today’s scripture readings is ‘How can we gain more of the Holy Spirit?’

In the reading from Exodus Moses sorted the grumbling of the Israelites by asking God’s intervention, striking the rock to gain water, symbol of the Holy Spirit. Mid-Lent is a grumbly time I find, sticking at your resolutions, yet a time to seek more of the Spirit.

The Romans reading reminds us how the death of Our Lord reconciles us to God through the Holy Spirit poured into hearts once they open to him. That gift, like Lent, is a character builder linked to cheerful bearing of hardship and building hope. To quote Chapter 5 verses 4 to 6: ‘Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for us’.

The holy Gospel from Saint John Chapter 4 has several themes including: Our Lord’s declaration that he is the promised Messiah, the way Jesus exposes our sin as we get into relationship with him, the transcending of religious divides through Christ as between Jews and Samaritans and the nature of worship as something offered in spirit and truth. The major component of the Gospel though, which I am picking up on this morning, is Our Lord’s request for water leading into his own offer of the water of life, the Spirit of God, to believers.

My wife Anne is an artist and sometimes produces sermon illustrations for me. With the tighter spatial arrangement in St Mary’s I thought it worth bringing four of these to underline the invitation to gain the Holy Spirit. The first one represents Our Lord’s invitation in John 4 verses 13 and 14

 ‘Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”.

Our Lord repeats his invitation later on in his Gospel, John 7 verse 37: ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believers heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Now this he said about the Spirit’.

In Lent we get a grand reminder of the grace of God, how Jesus came ‘that we might have life and have it to the full’ John 10v10. 

How can we gain more of that life, more of the Holy Spirit? 

We can do so because it's God’s desire for us to have that life within us, immortal life, preserving us body and soul for everlasting life. God’s desire is plain but it needs complementing by our own. We can only gain more of the Holy Spirit by building thirst for God to come more fully into our lives. 

Which brings me to a second biblical image, that of spiritual thirst.

It depicts Psalm 42 verse 1: ‘As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God’.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord presents the satisfying of physical thirst as a pointer to his desire to satisfy our needs, top of which is to live not so much in our own power as in partnership with the loving power of the Holy Spirit.

As we heard in today’s second reading ‘God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’

How can we gain more of the Holy Spirit? In Lent many of us are taking time out to attend extra services, pray, study the Bible together, serve others and to reflect more profoundly upon the love of God for us and the shortfall in the way we love him back as individuals. Our priests, by the way, are always available to provide spiritual guidance and you can fix meetings with them to talk through your pursuit of spiritual empowerment in the run up to Easter.

I myself have benefited from listening to The Message paraphrase of the Bible on audio. It took me five months but was so worthwhile. Two weeks ago I went to Crawley Down monastery for three days pondering how to gain more of the Holy Spirit. I was praying, among other things, about the struggle we have at home with a family member diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. A remarkable insight came to me linked to the Holy Spirit which I thought I’d share. 

When memory fades you live more in the present moment. This means being left behind somewhat by family and friends with busy diaries and work and recreational commitments. Santa Montefiore has published a best seller entitled ‘Here and now’ telling the tale of a family impacted by dementia and the book title says it all. Are we not meant to attend to every moment of life as best we can, to be present here and now? And God - this was my thought on retreat - God too is found in the here and now. Not by pondering the past or the future. I know we have to do that for all sorts of reasons. The Holy Spirit though has been defined as God in the present moment. Living with dementia is potentially living with God and others close to you and the joy of living in God’s presence is often manifest in those suffering this ailment.

As we deepen our thirst for the Spirit may we be guided to inhabit the present moment with less regret about the past or anxiety about the future. This brings me to Anne’s last drawing:

A drinking trough which has water coming into it and out of it. Would the water be safe for your dog? Yes because it has both inlet and outlet.  Water pools go stagnant when they lack either an inlet or an outlet. So it is with our souls. They go stagnant unless they receive from God and give to God. 

To gain more of the Holy Spirit this Lent mean’s our worshipping, praying, studying, serving and reflecting more, yes, but may Lent’s fruit be a fresh capacity to live in the present moment with God and whoever he puts in front of us. 

‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believers heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Now this he said about the Spirit’. 

So let’s attend to God ‘Here and Now’ in the present moment, for a minute or two, before we profess our faith, as the choir sings.

St John, Burgess Hill The Bible Pre-Lent Sunday 23 Feb 2020

This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him. Matthew 17.5

There is no Word of God without power so that this place – the pulpit – and the book expounded here – this book (show) – are about energising. I want to use this sermon built from the Gospel’s invitation to listen to God to encourage us to read our Bibles in Lent.

Why is it so important we familiarise ourselves with the Bible?

Because the Bible speaks to those with open ears of God’s people, provision, promises and purpose. 

In reading the Bible we find...God’s people. The Bible is the family history of the Christian church. It is our life story. We are to see it as part of our own story since Christians see themselves in the sacred history it provides. When, for example, in the story of Cain and Abel we read God’s words to Cain, ‘where is your brother?’ they are words that remind us that God’s family find God again and again through love of other people. When we read the story of the Exodus we see ourselves going through the Red Sea – the waters of baptism – fed by manna – the heavenly bread of the eucharist – destined for Canaan – a glorious homeland. 

When we read and study Matthew’s Gospel we see a Sermon on a Mount from Jesus presented as the new Moses since Matthew’s Jewish readers knew it was Moses who first brought teaching down from Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments. When we read in the Acts about Pentecost we see a reversal of the Tower of Babel in Genesis so that people heard the same message in their different languages. The Holy Spirit who drives the Church forward from Pentecost is the same Lord working secretly throughout the biblical story of God’s people.

We read the Bible because it tells us who we are – God’s children made so by God’s provision. This provision, the gift of Jesus, is a second motivator for bible reading so that Saint Jerome could say that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ no less.

The bible reveals how God who created the world provided his Son, Jesus C hrist to redeem it from sin through a new creation. This is the year of Saint Matthew in the three year cycle of Sunday readings. When we open a Bible Matthew is on its hinge, the hinge between the Old and New Testaments.  The word Bible comes from the Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books" whose contents and order vary between denominations. The Old Testament has 39 books of Hebrew Scripture, though some denominations including our own give authority to a series of Jewish books called the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books. The New Testament contains 27 books the first four of which form the Canonical gospels, first Matthew’s, recounting the life of Christ and central to our faith.

There is no Word of God without power because scripture points us to Jesus. Saint Tikhon, an 18th century Russian writer, says whenever you read the Gospel, Christ Himself is speaking to you. And while you read, you are praying and talking to Him. This is why we read the Bible – to seek and find God’s provision. The Bible is an instrument of divine revelation, the word of God communicated in human words. As such it has unique authority and inspiration and cannot mislead anyone as it presents the salvation truth of God in Christ.

This is what the Bible says about itself through what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.15-17 where he reminds his assistant bishop, and through him, all of us, how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. 

In the bible we meet God’s people, see God’s provision for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Thirdly we find God’s promises. The bible contains what Saint Peter describes in 2 Peter 1.4 as God’s precious and very great promises for us to ‘read, mark and inwardly digest’. In his book on Matthew Lent for everyone (show) Tom Wright comments on the Gospel passage we shall hear read next Sunday about Our Lord’s temptations and how Jesus himself holds fast to God’s promises as he resists them. Once more, we are not simply spectators in this extraordinary drama. We too, are tempted to do the right things in the wrong way or for the wrong reason. Part of the discipline of Lent is about learning to recognize the flickering impulses, the whispering voices, for what they are, and to have the scripture fuelled courage to resist.

I like that phrase ‘scripture fuelled courage’. When I am tempted by anxiety it is the fuelling of my spiritual life by the biblical promises of God that defend me, such as those in today’s Gospel or these other texts. ‘My peace I give unto you’ (John 14.27) ‘You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you’ (Isaiah 26.3) ‘The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind’ (Philippians 4.7). The point is that unless I knew these verses, and had memorised them, the Bible would have no power to help me. I would lack what Tom Wright calls ‘scripture fuelled courage’.

There is no word of God without power! The bible itself points to the power of Holy Spirit who inspired it and will inspire its readers. In particular the discipline of bible study helps us get into ourselves some of the key promises of God by the inspiration they give to heart and mind, an inspiration that evidences itself in our lives.

Fourthly if the Bible brings us the family history of God’s people, God’s provision for us in Jesus and his promises to fuel our courage it brings us hope for the future. It outlines to us God’s purpose. The bible contains God’s plan. It sets human history in the perspective revealed by Christ’s resurrection, his gathering of God’s people, building of the kingdom and promised return. 

In his commentary on Matthew Chapter 13 Bishop Tom speaks on the importance of the bible in opening up God’s future to us and of the kingdom of God in Matthew’s Gospel:

Jesus is looking for people to sign on, people who are prepared to take his kingdom-movement forward in their own day. In telling us the old, old story the Bible invites us to sign up to having faith for the future. As its last book affirms the kingdom of the world (is to become) the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15) 

This is what we sign up to at every eucharist since this sacred meal anticipates the heavenly banquet. So too our pondering of the Word of God energises our thinking and acting. It builds our conviction that if this is the day the Lord has made so is tomorrow.

The Bible – a way into being God’s people, knowing his provision, his promises and his purpose for our lives and that of the cosmos. The Lord deepen our hunger for God’s Word as he makes us hungry now for the table of the eucharist.

St Bartholomew, Brighton Ash Wednesday 6 March 2019

I’m just back from my annual retreat at Mirfield, home from home for me with its beautiful plainchant, wise monks and memories of priestly formation there.

On retreat you refresh your sense of the Church tackling your ‘individualitis’, the bad ways you get into spiritually, engaging more with the church’s worship and discipline of prayer alongside self-examination helped by a companion retreat conductor.

We can’t all find time to go on retreat but we all have the invitation of Lent which is the church’s annual retreat, her invitation to tackle DIY Christianity and renew grasp of the church’s fellowship and teaching.  

On my travels around the Diocese covering vacancies I was given a book by Andrew and Rachel Wilson from Eastbourne about the experience of parenting not one but two autistic children. I’ve read philosophical defences of God in the face of suffering and much ecclesiology but ‘The Life You Never Expected’ surprised me with its deep insight on God and the Church. They compare their experience to emperor penguins huddling over their eggs through months of frozen darkness which explains the penguin cover. ‘This is almost unbearable, and it's almost worth quitting, but the sun is on its way. Hang in there’.

They gave me that word ‘individualitis’, a term for what’s plaguing our culture and parts of the church, especially their own Evangelical tradition with such prioritising of the individual’s one-to-one with God. Andrew and Rachel testify to discovering Christianity as a corporate entreprise, helped as they are in their struggle to survive as parents by the counsel and companionship of fellow Christians.  I quote them: ‘In God’s global mission, the role of extraordinary people doing exceptional things is probably far smaller than we imagine - and the role of ordinary people doing everyday things is probably far greater than we imagine.

If you think you’re exceptional, that will come as a nasty shock. But when you get mugged by life, and find out just how ordinary you are, it’s thoroughly liberating. Carl Trueman was right: ‘My special destiny as a believer is to be part of the church; and it is the church that is the big player in God’s wider plan, and not me’’.

That last quote touched my heart and mind by its admission of how Christians are in Christianity more effectively together and not just individually. Christ is head of a body we’re part of for ever, God’s never-ending family, ‘the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church’.

Lent’s ahead for us then as a body building operation not in the gym but in a spiritual gym, that deepening we seek of our individual sense of the body of the Church. We have plenty of choice to meet with others with Lent courses locally and elsewhere - I’m joining St Martin-in-the-Fields course on St Augustine’s Confessions - or online if you’re connected that way, as I know a good number of us are even when we’re in New Zealand!

Even if Lent reduces to recapturing the Friday fast, making our Confession, going to a weekday Mass or committing to Holy Week services we have set before us an invitation to check the ‘individualitis’ blinding our sense of the Church and hiding God and neighbour from us. As Pope Francis asks in his booklet on holiness, a Lent resource I commend in Faith in Sussex, ‘What endures, what has value in life, what riches do not disappear? Surely these two: the Lord and our neighbour. These two riches do not disappear’.

May Lent enrich us as the retreat it is, deepening our love for God and neighbour, turning us that bit more inside out as we prepare to renew our baptismal vows at the Easter Festival.

Lent 1 5 March 2017

The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story called The Two Pilgrims.

It tells of two Russians who set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem intent on being present at the solemn Easter festivities.

One had his mind so set on the journey’s end and object that he would stop for nothing and take thought for nothing but the journey.

The other, passing through, found people to be helped at every turn and actually spent so much time and money along the way that he never reached the Holy City.

Yet in the story he received a blessing from God the other failed to find in the great Easter celebration.

As we start Lent Tolstoy’s story reminds us true religion is more about generosity than proper ritual observance. Keeping short accounts with our neighbour is more important to our sanctification than freeing ourselves of all distractions.

What distracts is very often flesh and blood - which we sweep away at our spiritual peril!

It comes down to choices, as our first reading reminded us. The story of Adam and Eve warns against choosing things that conflict with the destiny we have under God. Its a poem full of truth about the human condition that’s picked up by St Paul who describes how Our Lord’s obedience counters human disobedience. That obedience is represented in our Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 4.

Bishop Tom Wright’s commentary on this passage in his Lent for Everyone commentary on Matthew’s gospel explains temptation as being about good things getting distorted. He writes: Bread is good. Jesus will later create a huge amount of it from a few loaves, to feed hungry people.

But should he do that just for himself?

Coming back to Tolstoy’s Lenten pilgrims it is good to be single-minded but it is also good to be sympathetic.

In the story the sympathetic guy is the hero.

Better slower together than faster alone.

In his book Future Minds Richard Watson prophesies the internet will one day rank with the alphabet and numbers as a mind-altering technology of universal significance. His book e goes on to expose and warn against the associated cult of the immediate and contemporary with all the unsympathetic impatience it carries with it.

Whilst it’s wonderful to see electronic networking bringing the world together our best future is challenged by the erosion of conversation and reflective thinking that it brings.

There is a need for some users at least to find space and time for these lest electronic technology saps their patience and, most significantly, the resilience essential to creativity.

Internet usage illustrates the creative tension there is in many an area of life between single-minded pursuits and relational obligations.

Both are encouraged in Christianity.

The seeking first of God’s kingdom is there in one text alongside a warning in another text that to do so, to go for loving God ignoring your brother or sister in need is serious sin.

If Lent is a call to single-mindedness it is so with the spiritual health warning that comes out of Tolstoy’s story.

The single-minded pilgrim so set on his object that he stopped for nothing was not commended as he lacked discernment and sympathy for his fellows. 

The second pilgrim who was so occupied helping people he got spent up and never reached Jerusalem was commended.

As part of the stocktaking of Lent we might examine where we are on the big life journey and how much our own preoccupations, even spiritual ones, help build authentic humanity in us and around us.

In a village like our own we’ve less excuse for not wasting time with people as the Spirit leads us. Love is in some respects wasting time. When I hear people say ‘time is money’ I feel slightly uncomfortable. There should be sufficient time for us to be ourselves and be ourselves with others, not least those nearest and dearest. The demands of the workplace are incessant upon many of us – I was struck by the TV interview with the burnt out Devon police officer this week. There are no easy fixes here, but government should help us work for a balance because stressed out mums and dads do no good to their families.

Lent’s the annual reminder to look to the main things in life and better keeping of them as the main things.

For Christians the main things are attention to God and neighbour but you’ve got to give attention to yourself to succeed in these.

Examining our stewardship of time, talents and money is part of this, as well as refocusing on the Lord, giving him the things that agitate. There’s the opportunity for prayer for individuals after the eucharist today

To quote another Russian writer, St Seraphim: Acquire inner peace and thousands around you will find salvation. In Tolstoy’s story the blest pilgrim was the one who let his peaceable heart be emptied on the journey in service of the human needs that presented themselves.

The other pilgrim achieved his personal target but was judged to have missed the mark through seeing the people on the journey as potential distractions.

How often do we get put into that position, treating people as less than they are because we’ve got ourselves set upon the next thing or the next person?

This gives me opportunity to warn us as a community to be always alert for Our Lord’s presence with us in the person of the occasional newcomer or visitor after service. St Giles is a place to catch up with our friends on a Sunday, but let’s make sure everyone in church is treated as a friend!

The moral is, whatever grand spiritual aspirations we make, the Holy Spirit is closest to us when we are about our neighbours, sorting out our destructive attitudes, putting love in where there is none, recognising the humanity of those who can seem to be somewhat blind to our own.

May Our Lord deepen such sympathy in us and among us as we prepare in this holy season for the Easter Feast.

May we see triumphs of his Spirit as we correct the balance of our lives in obedience to his call upon our lives to seek a richer humanity that is more in his likeness.

Lent 1 14th February 2016

In Lent we are called to discover afresh the power of Christ’s Cross.

This is why we started Lent with the signing of the cross on our foreheads and why the symbols of glory and resurrection are backstage for the next six weeks, so that the Cross shines forth.

Last month I was in Tenerife walking in the mountains.

I visited the small town of Santiago del Teide perched on the lower slopes of Mount Teide which towers almost 4000 metres above sea level, the highest point above sea level of any island in the Atlantic Ocean, and third highest volcano on any volcanic island in the world.

The volcano last erupted in 1909. When it did so the inhabitants of Santiago del Teide were faced with the prospect of their town’s obliteration.

It’s a deeply Christian place, Tenerife. When they saw the volcano erupt the villagers didn’t hesitate to act.

They took the cross from the altar and went up the hill to meet the lava. The flow stopped where they met and each year since there’s been a thanksgiving procession.

I walked to the place where the lava stopped and said a prayer by the Cross there and before the original cross that’s in the beautiful church there.

The people saw burning lava halt before the Cross and the victory of their Christian faith.

In my own experience the Cross is as sure a weapon against no less fiery assaults against my spirit.

To believe in the Cross is to believe in the risen Lord Jesus Christ who stands behind it and beside each one of us. His power in us, by his Spirit, is greater than the power of any enemy, however powerful.

For the next six weeks Christians are paying special attention to the Cross of our Saviour and how it engages with our personal struggle against sin.

You may struggle with lack of faith in yourself – the Cross says God loves you, turn from such disbelief.

You may struggle with lack of faith in other people – the Cross says God loves them as well as you and much more, so forgive those who upset you or who seem to be against you.

You may struggle with lack of faith in God – the Cross tells you God loves you enough to die for you.

Jesus said God loves us so much he numbers every hair on our head.

In Wednesday’s rite of ashing those who received the ashes of last year’s Palm branches on their foreheads heard the words Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ. These words can be paraphrased, as I did with the school children, as ‘God loves you. Turn from sin’.

‘God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ Saint Paul once wrote (Galatians 6:14) and he goes on to invite us to let the Cross bring God's grace into our lives.

In Lent we seek more than usual such grace for the empowerment of our loves, grace that comes from the foot of the Cross.

Let’s turn there now as we think in a quiet moment of the immense love shown to us by the God and Father of Jesus in sending his Son to die for us and pouring the Holy Spirit into our hearts to bring assurance of that love.

Pre-Lent Sunday 7th February 2016

We read in the Gospel a very beautiful incident from the account of the life of Our Lord.

Jesus ascends a high mountain with Peter, James and John. While praying up there the Lord’s face glows with the brightness of the sun and his garments became dazzling white.

The splendour of Christ’s divinity penetrates through his human body as the Son of God appears in his splendour and glory.

The glory that was to shine when he rose from the dead at Easter shone in this isolated incident through the person of the earthly Jesus.

The disciples were shown as much of God as they were ready for.

At the heart of Christianity there’s a yearning to see God as he is. This has sprung up from the days Jesus walked and shone on earth with the promise we would be able to see God.

Not with mortal eyes but in the resurrection.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord anticipates both his Resurrection and our own. As children of God we’re heading for the full, glorious sight of God.

Beloved we are God’s children now; what we will be has not been revealed Saint John writes. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

As Lent approaches we should be in the valley of decision about some action that can help us better head for the vision of God. It’s a time to refocus upon Our Lord, to turn our eyes upon Jesus.

Lent challenges us to look to the main things in Christian life and to keeping them the main things.

This season has about it a call to study God’s word. I do commend what I wrote in P&P suggesting we do some extra bible reading from Exodus, Isaiah, John’s gospel, Acts and so on.

As I’ve written in the news sheet from my Premier Radio broadcast on Friday, Lent’s a time we can use to let the power of the Cross take more hold of our lives.

Give out - write a letter or e mail of encouragement to a different friend or colleague each weekday; give time to help a neighbour; save money on food and give it away to charity.

Give something up. Christ bore the Cross for you and fasting can remind you of that love. Just have drinks before and after eating one meal in the afternoon if family arrangements allow; give up alcohol or chocolate on weekdays.

Give out, give up - and give to the Lord in prayer. Make a weekly self examination; attend an extra weekly church group like the Acts for Action on Tuesday evenings in the Martindale or Stations of the Cross which you can always do on your own or with others Saturdays 5.30pm.

The yearning to see God more fully is at the heart of Christianity, and to see God we need to purify our vision. Through giving out, giving up or giving to the Lord in prayer we’ve got 40 days to work especially at this.

Beloved we are God’s children now; what we will be has not been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

A happy and holy Lent to you!

Lent 1 22nd February 2015

Noah epic awash in flood of controversy for green agenda and taking liberties with Bible was a headline last Easter. Hollywood studio adds "artistic licence" warning for "the least biblical biblical film ever made" starring Russell Crowe as Noah.

Anne and I saw it. Great effects, especially the semi- angelic beings represented by six-armed rock-creatures who build the ark and fight off Cain’s descendants. It had little about it of the counter-cultural faith of Noah. Typically there’s a ban against the film in Muslim countries since Noah is a Koranic prophet and they don’t like faith being mocked. Russell Crowe even failed to get an audience with the Pope. He did get a picture with an uncomfortable looking Archbishop of Canterbury.

Noah’s appearance this morning is, more positively, the beginning of our spiritual preparation for Easter. He appears in both the Genesis 9 account and in the second lesson from 1 Peter 3 which is a baptism sermon from the early years of Christian faith.  It’s a sermon that quotes a hymn going back to the very earliest days. This hymn of faith can be reconstructed by joining up the first and last sentences of the second reading: Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit… [skipping to the end] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

That Christ died and rose is our good news. He died and rose so we can die and rise. In baptism we see our salvation is the gist of today’s readings. Remember you died to sin. Remember you’re raised with Christ. Seek God’s power, as he did in today’s Gospel, to overcome evil and temptation. As is written at the end of the Gospel in Mark 1:15 the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

Keep that in mind as we go back to examine today’s scripture more carefully, starting with the Genesis passage. Bible scholars have identified four sources known as the Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly, and Deuteronomist sources for the first five books of the Old Testament. A final editor which might have been Moses drew on these different traditions in assembling Genesis through to Deuteronomy. Today’s passage comes from the Priestly author’s account of God’s covenant through the flood and its aftermath. His account differs from the others. Whilst they stick to one basic covenant between God and Israel he or she recalls a number of different covenants and they’re not just made with Israel. The story of the flood and God raising up Noah and the ark of salvation heralds, for the first time in the Old Testament, a universal covenant between God and humanity.

Through Noah God says he’ll never again allow the world’s destruction and he signs his promise physically with a rainbow. The refraction of light was only understood quite recently so this awesome, God-given sign was to the Priestly writer of the 6^th century BC the explanation of an awesome phenomenon. It was two thousand years later that 13^th century Roger Bacon gave some sort of natural explanation and, 500 years after that, Isaac Newton demonstrated the refraction of white light through a prism into the colours of the rainbow.

When we see a rainbow, whether we’re 6^th century near easterners or 21^st century Sussex folk, we are awed. ’Come and see’, we cry to our peers. God’s word in Genesis resonates with that instinct – see this sign and think what he must be like who is its ultimate author, and know his desire for the good for the world. No God here like that of comedian Stephen Fry “utterly evil, capricious and monstrous”.

Here’s beauty, the beauty of a God who knows what he’s about and who he’s about in his love for all that he made including you and me.

It’s time to move on to the second reading which speaks of how God in Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring [us] to God. To bring Stephen Fry and all of us to himself. This hymn is quoted by the author of 1 Peter who leaps away from it to speak of a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water.  In the movie we saw the semi- angelic beings represented by six-armed rock-creatures as God’s instruments fighting off the wicked desperate to get into Noah’s ark. The author of 1 Peter is building from the flood an image of being saved through water which parallels the flood with the waters of baptism and Noah’s eight people with the immensity of the Church. Some medieval fonts were built like Noah’s ark with the church, the baptized, seen as ark of salvation.

In the early days of my priestly ministry I spent time on occasion dissuading superstitious folk, usually grandmas, from baptizing children for fear they ‘wouldn’t get on without it’. Whilst I’ve seen evidence galore of the power of the sacrament of baptism that power saves, as Peter makes clear, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience. I remain troubled by the hordes who gather round our font never to be seen again. Not much conscience there methinks!

The Church like Noah’s ark is a place of salvation, but, as with a life raft, you’ve got to lay hands on it, you’ve got to cling to Christ in word and sacrament and not just rely on the odd ceremony. Saint Augustine taught the whole purpose of earthly life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen. So many baptized people don’t know God, don’t see him, because they’ve never learned to seek and own the healing that’s been given them potentially at their baptism.

Lent is our preparation for the Easter festival and the renewal of our baptism vows. Last year we made that very physical by writing letters to God and burning them in the flame of the Easter Candle. This year we’ll do it in our own way but you’ll still be asked to say I turn to Christ, I repent of my sins, I renounce evil. Further reflection on Noah may help you. Do I see myself as in need of escape from the world, the flesh and the devil? How much do I value church membership? Do I see and know God? Is the blindness in the eye of my heart being seen to?

Our Gospel reading moves us on from Noah at the flood to Jesus at his baptism when we read in Mark 1:10 he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. That anointing, and the sense he gained of being God’s beloved Son, empowered him. So in Lent we take his words to our heart of hearts, the very last words of those set to be read on this first Sunday of Lent: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

Like Noah we need the bad news and the good news. We need reminding we’re sinners worthy of destruction. We need to know afresh that’s not God’s will for us or for anyone whatever Stephen Fry imagines. Christ died and rose to show us God’s great love and that we too can die and rise. In baptism we see the shape of our salvation.

Remember you died to sin - and live that way!

Remember you’re raised with Christ – seek his empowerment!

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

Sunday next before Lent 8am 2nd March 2014

It’s three days before the Lent challenge and it’s natural to think about that this morning at the eucharist.

Each year Lent’s given us to remind us, as the Bible says to run with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12.2).

We’re given the Lent challenge, forty days of training, to help us make a difference to the world, the church and to our spiritual lives. I put it that way round to keep our sights on the big picture. The training we accomplish will bring the power and direction of God more to bear upon the world through you and me.

As we go to his altar this morning we might have to face the truth before God – that we’re really out of training.

The bicycles before you isn’t the sort you find in the gym but it’s meant as a teaching aid for us all this morning

How does a bicycle work? How does it get its power and direction?  It receives its power and direction from the cyclist through its spokes to its wheels.

You and I are believers on the move. We travel empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit through the disciplines, spokes of the Christian life especially prayer, study and action.

Lent is an opportunity to refresh our discipleship by fresh attention to our spiritual discipline. You don't get disciples without discipline.

Our sisters and brothers of the Muslim faith have provided us in their keeping of Ramadan with an example of discipleship we should ponder. If only a handful of Christians took Lent as seriously as they take Ramadan there would be a spiritual revival in our land!

The Lent challenge is there from Wednesday. Forty days to get into training. 

Coming back to those spokes that bring power and direction to the wheels of a bike what are the spiritual spokes or disciplines you and I can attend to?

I'll give you three. Three spokes would be enough if they were broad spokes and I'm talking broad headings at this stage - prayer, study and action.

Spoke 1 - Prayer. I came back from Gran Canaria a month ago where I was reminded that prayer is like sunbathing. You need to book your lounger, strip off and lounge.

Several people have told me over the years how much they appreciate the silences in the Eucharist. Try a silence at home. You looking at God and God looking at you. Try stopping everything for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes a day from Wednesday. Book your space, strip off your preoccupations and lounge in God's presence. I can't promise you it'll be like Gran Canaria but it will make a difference to you and through you to the world.

Sunbathing can be a corporate activity. In Lent there's a 25 min extra Eucharist on Tuesday morning at 10.30am and Stations of the Cross on Saturdays at 5.30pm.

Spoke 2 - Study. One of the things that is really getting to many of us as Christians is the way Christian faith gets ridiculed and sidelined in the United Kingdom. We lose our confidence. Lent is an opportunity to build up that confidence and this year we’ve got the four week Premier Radio Talking Points listen again on Tuesday evenings and Thursday afternoons to help with that.

Maybe a weekly course is difficult for you.  Pick up your Bible. Read a Gospel - Mark only takes 90 minutes for an average reader. There’s a 100 minute catechism on our Church website called Firmly I Believe CD set – 40 3min talks on the creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer with mood music backing.

The last spoke - Action. We need to pray and to study but most of the difference we make to the world comes through unselfish Christian action. I hesitate to illustrate this but charity begins at home. Lent is a time to identify and address what and whom we're neglecting.

It may be a time to look at best use of our time and talents and see how these may be more fully woven into God’s work among us. I shared the other week about our need for help in administration and in the sacristy as well as for new PCC members, and a new Churchwarden for James’ term, alas, comes to an end next month. The words are shocking to me – next month! Rather than me knocking on doors may Jesus do some knocking on hearts so folk will knock on my door with offers of service and I’m not just talking the big ask of ‘Churchwarden’  – Christianity is after all a supernatural religion!

Prayer, study, action - alone or with the Church - these are disciplines we should ponder and refresh this Lent. These are spokes given to help God's power and direction flow more through us into a needy world.

God grant us all a happy and holy Lent! Jesus grant that fruits of his passion may grow in us! Come, Holy Spirit, and give us all fresh power and direction so the kingdom of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ!

Sunday before Lent 8am 10 February 2013

I looked in the mirror before I left the Sacristy to commence the eucharist.

I'm sure each one of you has already cast a glance at yourself in a mirror today.

Some of us spend longer before the mirror than others. As we age I somehow think we find it harder to dwell there

I want to think a little about mirrors this morning.

Mirrors of the soul.

Glass mirrors at one point replaced looking in water as an aid to seeing and brushing up our physical appearance.

How can we see and brush up our spiritual appearance?

Friendship is the answer. Friends are most precious in that they have access to our heart of heart as well as having our best interest on their own heart.

Without friends, without intimates, how unbearable we'd be! A soul never corrected and put in its place! A soul never affirmed or praised or loved!

Most human depth and awareness is attained through friendship and this extends to the spiritual life. We should value and seek out especially friends who can bring us closer to God.

Peter, James and John so valued their friend Jesus!

In today's Gospel of the Transfiguration these men literally became mirrors of his soul as he made to reflect his inner glory as God of God and Light of Light upon them.

As Lent approaches we friends of Jesus in this age have his invitation to the same intimacy granted Peter, James and John.

‘Look to me and be radiant’ he says in Psalm 34v5.

'All of you, with unveiled faces, seeing my glory' he says in 2 Corinthians 3v18 'as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into my image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from my Spirit'.

To land this divine invitation somewhat I invite you to make Lent a time to warm your soul by looking to Jesus and seeking his irradiation through the extra opportunities for worship and self examination as well as community events linked to corporate and self-improvement.

Seek him, when and where you can, as the true mirror of your soul - in the bible, in the eucharist, in spiritual reading, in nature's splendour, in a godly friend or spiritual director - seek the Lord -  look at him  - and see your disarray!

Look to Jesus, see yourself in his light, brush yourself up and shine all the more with his light!

'Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.'