St Bartholomew, Brighton Feast of Curé d’Ars 4.8.22

‘If you are afraid of other people's opinion, you should not have become a Christian’. So warned today’s Saint. As a child John Vianney went with his family to Mass in a barn because the French Revolution had banned worship. A shepherd boy of firm faith he struggled to get ordained. Though his faith was clear and his prayer was deep he had little learning. This he acquired through saintly sponsors and became not only a priest but after his death in 1859 the patron saint of parish priests.

What I like about today’s saint is his fearlessness and humility. He lived at a time not unlike our own when Christianity was despised but made no apologies for God and would encourage us to be fearless in championing our faith in the face of opponents. ‘The sun never hides his light for fear of inconveniencing the owls’ he said. Most of his life was spent in the village of Ars in the south of France near Lyon where he raised the banner for God in the wake of the French Revolution not using arguments but by holy living. He became an attractive figure because like his patron John the Baptist he ‘constantly spoke the truth, boldly rebuked vice and patiently suffered for the truth’s sake’ (Collect for the Birth of St John the Baptist). That truth telling came from a priest who lived close to his people in humility and simplicity. ‘Remain humble, remain simple; the more you are so, the more good you will do’ he used to say.

When people came to him, and they came in tens of thousands, he exercised the Holy Spirit’s gifts of knowledge and discernment cutting to the chase. Henri Gheon writes of his encounter with an intellectual approaching him in Church and how Fr Vianney pointed him mistakenly to the confessional stool. ‘Monsieur le Curé, I have not come to make my confession but to discuss things with you’. ‘Oh, my friend, you have come to the wrong place; I have no skill at discussion. But if it is consolation that you want, kneel there and believe that many another has knelt there before you and has not regretted it’ said the Saint. ‘I have not the faith. I do not believe in confession any more than the rest of your doctrine’ complained the man. ‘Very well, kneel there. I shall hear your confession, and afterwards you will have the faith, just as I have’… the persuasiveness, the sweetness, the tone of authority tempered by grace with which these words were spoken, brought the man to his knees almost without knowing it, certainly with much reluctance…. He arose, not only comforted, but a firm believer’.

The Curé d’Ars was a powerful apologist. This unlearned priest gave forceful reason for belief by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who showed him again and again the emptiness of souls like this man awaiting the planting of faith. In Gheon’s story there is emphasis on the Curé’s humility as the clue to the atheist’s surrender. St John Vianney tried to live humbly as well as fearlessly once comparing humility to the chain that holds a rosary together: ‘Humility is to the various virtues what the chain is to the Rosary; take away the chain and the beads are scattered, remove Humility and all virtues vanish.’

John Vianney read hearts like a book and brought healing to many. He experienced visits from the Blessed Virgin as well as from the devil who did his best to annoy the Saint by waking him in the night by loud knockings on the clergy house door! Thousands flocked to him and he was made a Canon and given the Legion of Honour none of which he could make out by all accounts attributing the miracles around him to God and the prayers of the Saints. This misunderstanding of the way he got famous is the best proof of his deserving his place today in the Calendar of Saints.

St John Vianney pray for us, for priests especially, that we may be fearless yet humble instruments of God.

Intercessions

We thank you, God our Father, for those who have responded to your call to priestly ministry. Accept this prayer we offer on their behalf: Fill them with the sure knowledge of your love. Open their hearts to the power and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Lead them to greater union with your Son. Increase their faith in the Sacraments they celebrate as they nourish, strengthen and heal us. 

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ, at the prayer of St. Jean Vianney, grant that your priests will be inspired to strive for holiness by the power of his example. As people of prayer, may they ponder your word, follow your will and faithfully lead the flocks you have entrusted to their care. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

We pray, Lord, for Martin our Bishop and for our Diocese, for vocations to the sacred priesthood. May many more faithful people hear your call, and respond with courage and generosity. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

Recalling the fearlessness and humility of today’s Saint we confess the fear and pride that hamper our Christian witness. Come, Holy Spirit, and work a new work in us so we may constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

We commend to you, Lord, those in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness or any other adversity, especially those who have asked our prayers. 

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

Joining with Our Lady, St Bartholomew, St John Vianney and all the saints we commend to you those who have died and all whose anniversaries fall at this time. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.   

Merciful Father, hear, accept and answer these prayers we make in the glorious name of your Son, our Saviour Christ the Lord. Amen

St Wilfrid, Haywards Heath & Holy Trinity, Cuckfield Feast of Curé d’Ars 4.8.21

‘If you are afraid of other people's opinion, you should not have become a Christian’. So warned today’s Saint. As a child John Vianney went with his family to Mass in a barn because the French Revolution had banned worship. A shepherd boy of firm faith he struggled to get ordained. Though his faith was clear and his prayer was deep he had little learning. This he acquired through saintly sponsors and became not only a priest but after his death in 1859 the patron saint of parish priests.

What I like about today’s saint is his fearlessness and humility. He lived at a time not unlike our own when Christianity was despised but made no apologies for God and would encourage us to be fearless in championing our faith in the face of opponents. ‘The sun never hides his light for fear of inconveniencing the owls’ he said. Most of his life was spent in the village of Ars in the south of France near Lyon where he raised the banner for God in the wake of the French Revolution not using arguments but by holy living. He became an attractive figure because like his patron John the Baptist he ‘constantly spoke the truth, boldly rebuked vice and patiently suffered for the truth’s sake’ (Collect for the Birth of St John the Baptist). That truth telling came from a priest who lived close to his people in humility and simplicity. ‘Remain humble, remain simple; the more you are so, the more good you will do’ he used to say.

When people came to him, and they came in tens of thousands, he exercised the Holy Spirit’s gifts of knowledge and discernment cutting to the chase. Henri Gheon writes of his encounter with an intellectual approaching him in Church and how Fr Vianney pointed him mistakenly to the confessional stool. ‘Monsieur le Curé, I have not come to make my confession but to discuss things with you’. ‘Oh, my friend, you have come to the wrong place; I have no skill at discussion. But if it is consolation that you want, kneel there and believe that many another has knelt there before you and has not regretted it’ said the Saint. ‘I have not the faith. I do not believe in confession any more than the rest of your doctrine’ complained the man. ‘Very well, kneel there. I shall hear your confession, and afterwards you will have the faith, just as I have’… the persuasiveness, the sweetness, the tone of authority tempered by grace with which these words were spoken, brought the man to his knees almost without knowing it, certainly with much reluctance…. He arose, not only comforted, but a firm believer’.

The Curé d’Ars was a powerful apologist. This unlearned priest gave forceful reason for belief by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who showed him again and again the emptiness of souls like this man awaiting the planting of faith. In Gheon’s story there is emphasis on the Curé’s humility as the clue to the atheist’s surrender. St John Vianney tried to live humbly as well as fearlessly once comparing humility to the chain that holds a rosary together: ‘Humility is to the various virtues what the chain is to the Rosary; take away the chain and the beads are scattered, remove Humility and all virtues vanish.’

John Vianney read hearts like a book and brought healing to many. He experienced visits from the Blessed Virgin as well as from the devil who did his best to annoy the Saint by waking him in the night by loud knockings on the clergy house door! Thousands flocked to him and he was made a Canon and given the Legion of Honour none of which he could make out by all accounts attributing the miracles around him to God and the prayers of the Saints. This misunderstanding of the way he got famous is the best proof of his deserving his place today in the Calendar of Saints.

St John Vianney pray for us, for priests especially, that we may be fearless yet humble instruments of God.

We thank you, God our Father, for those who have responded to your call to priestly ministry. Accept this prayer we offer on their behalf: Fill them with the sure knowledge of your love. Open their hearts to the power and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Lead them to greater union with your Son. Increase their faith in the Sacraments they celebrate as they nourish, strengthen and heal us. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ, at the prayer of St. Jean Vianney, grant that your priests will be inspired to strive for holiness by the power of his example. As people of prayer, may they ponder your word, follow your will and faithfully lead the flocks you have entrusted to their care. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

We pray, Lord, for Martin our Bishop and for our Diocese, for vocations to the sacred priesthood. May many more faithful people hear your call, and respond with courage and generosity. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

Recalling the fearlessness and humility of today’s Saint we confess the fear and pride that hamper our Christian witness. Come, Holy Spirit, and work a new work in us so we may constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

We commend to you, Lord, those in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness or any other adversity, especially those who have asked our prayers. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.

Joining with Our Lady, St Wilfrid, St John Vianney and all the saints we commend to you those who have died and all whose anniversaries fall at this time. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.   

Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Easter 5 2nd May 2021

In the Holy Eucharist we offer ourselves as Christ offers himself.

We consecrate ourselves for whatever God wants in the coming week and the rest of our lives.

We also seek his guidance so that we’ll not only be there for God but not get in the way of what God’s doing.

Just look back at that first reading from Acts Chapter 8. It’s the story of how one man, Philip, having offered himself to God, finds himself in just the right place at the right time. The conversion of Ethiopia to Christ traces back to a court official reading the bible who needed an interpreter and the fact deacon Philip was there to help him.

Who knows how many of your friends and mine are awaiting an interpreter of Christian faith? What are you and I doing to get skilled in this?

Philip was led by an angel to encounter the Ethiopian eunuch. He did his bit and passed on, ‘the Spirit of the Lord snatched him’ away we’re told intriguingly.

A stitch in time saves nine. A word in time saves nine.

 Sometimes people are stuck in their lives like a beached boat. They’re surrounded by just enough tide to be released to sail ahead – but they need a word of advice or encouragement to be launched off the beach.

By saying our prayers, reading and digesting the bible and offering our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice in the Eucharist we make ourselves available for God’s possibilities to be realised not only in our lives but in the lives of those around us.

As I’ve been helping out in the parish I’ve a sense of being used in that way – to be there for you and God trying my best not to get in his way.

The second reading builds to my thinking on the first because it reminds us that Christianity spreads through loving communities. We have an individual role, like Philip, to engage with people and be there for them and for God but ultimately the best witness for Christ is a loving, intriguing community. People are brought to the Lord by a team in effect.

No one has ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us. People see God in communities of the self forgetful. Actually the Blessed Trinity is himself a community of the self forgetful: the Father forgets himself for the Son, the Son for the Father and the Spirit is their self forgetful go between.

Capturing this thought 14th century Catherine of Siena, whose feast we kept on Thursday, prayed ‘Eternal Trinity… mystery deep as the sea, you could give me no greater gift than the gift of yourself. For you are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being’.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.

Perhaps God made the world to make himself a halo. You know that sort of crowning halo which can surround the moon at night caused by the dispersion of moon light through ice particles in earth’s atmosphere. Could we see the love of the saints as like such a halo reflecting the giving and receiving of love from Jesus by his holy ones?

When churches on earth get that sort of intriguing, holy love they can draw people.

The occasional kindnesses of church members are the best draw for non members towards Christianity. Just as Philip responded to a request in the first reading from Acts, the second reading from the first letter of Saint John is a call to more active loving kindness in which we don’t just respond to requests but actively seek to give people what they need.

Those who say ‘I love God’ and hate their brothers and sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

If you’ve got a heart for other people you’ll recognise their needs. With occasional God given imagination you’ll be able to show them acts of kindness that touch them deeply as if from God. 

The first reading calls us to be interpreters of Christian faith. We need better skills here, in so called Christian apologetics. This means offering an ‘apologia’ or reasoned defence of our faith. We might well look for ways we can build such skills, not least by reading a book. In the wake of the success of my walk book - I have copies this morning - I am shortly publishing a book called ‘Elucidations - light on Christian controversies’ with a Foreword by the Bishop of Lewes. I hope it will draw some of those who have bought Fifty Walks’. This second book attempts to clear misconceptions of the truth that is in Jesus, the authority of the Bible and the trustworthiness of the Church in a society with increased religious illiteracy. In it I attempt to condense down thinking on controversial topics ranging from self-love to unanswered prayer, Mary to antisemitism, suffering to same sex unions, charismatic experience to the ordination of women, hell to ecology and trusting the Church, a total of twenty five essays. End of advert - forgive me - but giving answers or at least clarifications on issues such as these is an urgent necessity. You and I are on the front line as interpreters of Christian faith. Finding words, as Philip did when asked in the first reading, is helped by intellectual formation in the faith. Such words may not go very far without the loving kindness recommended in the second reading.

The gospel tells us how we get motivated to do both of these – to share best words and best deeds.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.

As a vine branch gets life from the sap of the vine so Christians gain life from Christ. 

It’s not a matter of working up our faith but of resting in what Jesus has done for us.

‘Abide in me, as I abide in you’ (John 15:4). To abide in Christ is to rest on the rock of Christ in the sunlight of the Father and the energising of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer has been compared by Bishop Rowan Williams to such sunbathing, a matter of receiving from above - but getting there to pray, to abide in Christ, is in practice a disciplined struggle. Take mental distractions! 

One great aid to overcoming such distractions in minds that get overheated at times is the inward repetition of the Jesus Prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner. This prayer expresses the good news of Christianity. It affirms both the coming of the Saviour and our need for his salvation. Based on incidents in the life of Our Lord the Jesus Prayer combines Peter’s act of faith in Jesus – You are the Son of God (cf Matthew 16v16) – with the cry of the Publican – have mercy upon me a sinner (Luke 18v13b). The Jesus Prayer is a wonderful servant of the aspiration of today’s gospel: abide in me and I in you. It exalts the name which is above every name (Philippians 2v10b). You can’t repeat that name, the name of Jesus with a good intention without touching his person, God’s person. It’s really a form of Holy Communion without bread and wine and it effects an extension of our sacramental communion week by week. 

To pray the Jesus Prayer is to centre your life upon the good news of Jesus with the faith and prayer of the church through the ages. It’s a way of settling your life repeatedly back on the rock of Christ since the recollected repetition of the holy name of Jesus is found eventually to convey his close presence.

In the Eucharist we offer ourselves as Christ offers himself and we receive Christ afresh to carry him out to share him in word and deed.

We consecrate ourselves for whatever God wants of us in the future, including elucidating our faith to others. This consecration continues inasmuch as we continually abide in Christ by saying our prayers, maybe using the Jesus Prayer, reading and digesting the bible, confessing our shortcomings and preparing the regular offering of our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice in the Eucharist.

God’s possibilities are waiting to be realised in our lives, just as they were waiting in the Ethiopian court official. God’s love is waiting to be poured out from us, through us as we read today in John’s first letter.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.

May the Lord settle us into a fresh, deeper abiding as we celebrate this Holy Eucharist.

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Epiphany 2020

 

God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b)

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and energises the will.

Just as dynamite contains within itself potential energy that can be released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so it is with Jesus Our Lord.

Epiphany is the origin of this forward movement in the church calendar which today commemorates the first manifestation of Christ to the nations in the person of the Gentile kings.

Christianity goes forward today by radiant energy as we come again and again before Jesus in word and sacrament and in the hearts of his faithful to see minds and hearts and wills irradiated.

As Fr. Bull, one of the great Mirfield Fathers put it, the glad tidings of Christianity are in what Jesus Christ did for men and in the abiding energy of that work.

We gather at the eucharist this morning to be caught up afresh into the radiant energy of Jesus which so shines from today’s scripture. Arise, shine for your light has come says Isaiah you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice. 

As we start a New Year this great Feast of the Epiphany invites us to seek a fresh illumination from the truth that is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21), a fresh warming of our hearts by the Sacred Heart and a fresh energising for active service from the working of his great power (Ephesians 1:19b).

All of this will flow from the radiance of Jesus, what the Apostle calls the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b). 

As dynamite is ignited to release its potential energy into light, heat and momentum so our faith ignites the radiance of Jesus to light up our lives and through us light up a world desperately in need of that irradiation.

I want to suggest that this ignition process has three dimensions – intellectual, devotional and practical. 

As we start a New Year there is an intellectual challenge to lay hold afresh on Christian basics so we better answer for our faith. I wonder when you last read a book about the Christian Faith.  Or even the Bible itself? If someone asked you why you thought Christianity was true would you be able to argue for the truth of the resurrection? 

Just a few questions to get us thinking about what’s called apologetics - not apologising but working at thinking through our faith so as to be able to give a better ‘apologia’ or reasonable defence for believing as Christians.

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind. It also warms the heart to an overflow of love.

A radiant Christian is more than someone buzzing with ideas about Christ. There’s something out of this world streaming through them. To gain the radiance of Jesus we need to be exposed to his radiant love. Christian friends, holy priests all of these help – but nothing can replace our own individual business with God. Welcoming the radiance of Jesus into our hearts is a life-long struggle because of our fallen nature. We need a regular time of prayer, a discipline of self-examination and confession, a resolve to intercede for others, to give a proportion of our income to God’s work and so on. You have a chance to review and renew your devotion as a New Year unfolds. Going on a retreat once the COVID restrictions lift – ask one of our priests if you want to know how you can arrange one. 

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and then, lastly, it energises the will.

Where would our study and prayer be if it never led us into action, to be part of what Fr. Bull called the abiding energy of the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ?  We are here at the eucharist to gain that energy. 

To go back to the physics analogy, just as the potential energy in an explosive is released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so all Jesus attained through his life, death and resurrection is given to be celebrated and released so as to give power and direction to our lives. Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise.

How have we acted to transform our environment to be more as Christ would want it since last we met at the altar? How have we acted in recent weeks to change the world around us for Christ? Inasmuch as the radiant energy of Jesus is in us, we find ourselves raiding the kingdom of fear with love, encouraging those who are down, forgiving those who come against us harshly and providing for those in need from our own resources. This energy carries our lives forward to work for the kingdom of this world (to) become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Rev 11:15). 

For such energising of will, warming of heart and illumination of mind we lift our hearts to the Father in this Epiphany Eucharist. 

St Bartholomew, Brighton. Family Mass. 20th August 2017

Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” Matthew 15v28

How do we get thinking people to believe and believing people to think?

Our Lord praised the Canaanite woman for her thoughtful faith.

She got a hard run for her money. Few people in the Gospel get as hard a time as this lady. Think about the passage - at first Jesus doesn’t answer her request for her daughter at all. Then his disciples want him to send her away. Jesus goes so far as to tease her for being a Canaanite, thinking probably about his Jewish audience who in those days would have indeed wanted her sent away. They’d forgotten God’s promise we heard in that reading from Isaiah about his love for foreigners.

The woman argues on for attention for her daughter with a word play on the term ‘dog’ which was and is an abusive term for outsiders. ‘Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table’ she says, imploring Jesus.

The Lord gives in and heals her daughter, exceptionally giving the reason for answering this woman’s request: it was on account of her great faith; her great confidence that Jesus would grant her request.

There are a lot of questions you could raise about this Gospel passage but I want to look at the one I raised at the beginning which is really important in this day and age.

How do we get thinking people to believe and believing people to think?

The woman was both educated and a believer.  Often we don’t see the two together. A lot of education in our society seems to lack a spiritual component and a lot of religious people can have closed minds.

When Richard Dawkins wrote The God Delusion it divided Christians in my acquaintance. Some read it to engage with his criticism of religion. Others wrote it off without engagement. Most derided his arrogant tone forgetful that Christianity can come across as arrogant.

That goes against advice in the New Testament in 1 Peter 3v16 to give clear answer for our faith to anyone who asks us about it ‘with gentleness and reverence’.

Reason and faith are two wings of the Holy Spirit lifting us up to God for God gave us a mind and a heart.

This morning let’s seek for ourselves the great faith of the Canaanite woman, an educated faith, one that holds to the reasoned faith of the church through the ages. This is expressed in the words of the Creed, the worship of the Sacraments, behaviour trained by the Commandments and prayer modelled on the Lord's Prayer.

As priest, writer and broadcaster I’ve been engaged over the years in promoting thoughtful mainstream Christian belief. I want to leave you with the challenge to do something, read something, join a study group, talk to a priest, so as to help build a great faith true to a great God whose readiness to answer prayer exceeds our imagining.

How do we get thinking people to believe and believing people to think - we start with ourselves!

Annual parochial church meeting eucharist 27th April 2014

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Those words from 1 Peter capture the solidity of faith that’s built on the sure foundation of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. That new birth which is ours in baptism and confirmation leads us in the apostle’s words into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Heady words – and a good tonic for APCM Sunday when the parish priest uses his sermon as a status check. As I read them I thought both of the joy of Easter and of the joy of admitting eleven new members to Holy Communion over the last year, a major encouragement to the life of the Christian community here at St Giles and very much an answer to specific prayer.

The testimonies they give to faith have been an encouragement to one and all, not least Lesley Whiting’s on Premier Radio following her July confirmation and those offered on Easter Sunday by those confirmed last month. Their Christian formation in creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer is having a ripple effect on us all and beyond these walls in the village. The lunch James Nicholson organized for the recently confirmed on Palm Sunday was a great welcome to them. It was also typical of James’ thoughtful leadership as Churchwarden which has been a great encouragement to me and to many over the last 5 years.

Another sign of resurrection faith that’s evident me is “5 o’clock at the Martindale” that’s brought together Christians across denominations over the last seven months in more participative worship and teaching, building on last year’s achievement in renovating the Martindale. Besides “5 o’clock” we have seen the Martindale well used for days of reflection and, at a more prosaic level, bookings are well up so there’s been good return on the investment of funds we made in our Church Centre.

In this [we] rejoice, even if now for a little while [we] have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of [our ]faith - being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

When the apostle speaks of resurrection faith he does so in the context of hardship. For us that is focused on the struggle it remains to engage children and families with St Giles’s despite having 130 children at the school. We’re grateful for all the ways we engage with our School, not least the Friday assemblies led by St Giles’ lay leaders, school’s involvement in the October Prayer exploration and the two pupils confirmed recently. At the same time I continually entrust to God our difficulty in gaining commitment to Sunday worship. It’s also true of the baptism families that regularly pass through our doors, and it isn’t a problem unique to St Giles.  Nor does it reflect on all the energy Chris Wheatley and the team put into Sunday Club, First Steps and so on. People, young people especially, are missing spiritual vision capital S, by which I mean the sort of all consuming vision which has brought many of us in St Giles this morning to give our all to the service of God.

Faith – [is] more precious than gold [and will] result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Looking to that revelation, that cause which will outlast us all, is what St Giles is about if it’s about anything – not a social club or building appreciation club but part of God’s never-ending family we know as the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’.  Over the last year several individuals have had to suffer various trials some of which have taken them away from us but not from the Church overall. We sent off Stephen & Dawn Hitchen with their children to Jordan and John and Hilary Thraves to the West Country. Bob Pelling’s final illness and passing has been a great loss to the church and the village and most of all to Jean. I think of other individuals whose difficult journeys we accompany in prayer and care represented on our sick list as well as the pastoral ministry exercised towards bereaved families that is facilitated by having a resident parish priest. Another trial is financial, again one we’ve been surrounding with prayer, linked to our current incapacity to raise the share the diocese expects from a community with a full time priest.

In April’s P&P I addressed the state of St Giles in these words which seem worth repeating from the pulpit as they quickly  us where we’re at as a Church:

60 folk gather on an average Sunday, 10 at 8am and 50 at 10am including on average 8 children. These figures have been constant over my 5 years as Rector so we’re drawing in new members sufficient to balance loss through illness, death or moves away from the village. Our Mission aim is ‘to be a church growing in faith, love and numbers’.

The leadership of the parish priest is allied to that of the Churchwardens ..and another 8 members of the Parochial Church Council who coordinate the life and work of St Giles. PCC oversees four energetic groups serving Churchyard, Fabric, Finance and the Martindale and it liaises with School Governors, Five o’clock service, Friends of Horsted Keynes Church, Deanery Synod and our Parish Safeguarding Co-ordinator Kath Brooke-Webb and Webmaster David Ollington.

In recent months PCC agenda included planning and reflection afterwards on outreach services, dealing with carpet beetle in Church, sharing our faith, the new memorial path for cremated remains, renewing Prayerline, funding the work of the Church, inviting church members to write a Letter to God at Easter and working towards a church toilet – St Giles Church has an interesting and varied agenda.

We are your Church, I am your Rector and we welcome your support!

As a community-oriented Church we must beware any tendency to become a fortress over against the world around us even if some of recent changes in society push us that way.  Increasingly Christians in the UK are having to learn to speak two languages, that of their faith and that of their allegiance to the common life of Britain. Faith - being more precious than gold is tested by fire and one test is that of rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s to quote our Lord and Saviour in Mark 12.17.

As a Church we seek to give God what is due to God in the sacrificial worship of the eucharist. Part of that offering, some would say a part that is eloquent of the level of our allegiance, is the money put on the collection plate or transferred monthly by banker’s order to St Giles.  Along with the financial  gifts we make are those voluntary gifts of time and talents pledged in service we see exercised in the many and varied ministries here at St Giles. For these on everyone’s behalf, and on behalf of God, I say thank you this morning as we invite new commitments to service as in the PCC and other elections.

We are a community Church but we’re first of all the Church of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead welcoming him in word and sacrament, prayer and Christian fellowship. The last sentence of our first reading says it all in its invitation to keep that faith pure and untarnished by materialism.

Although you have not seen [Christ], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Such is the gift that best animates us here at St Giles, the gift from beyond this world that our spire invites us towards. The gift of Jesus Christ with whom we engage as we open ourselves to the meaning and power of both the scriptures and the eucharist. Here within these walls week by week is found a purpose for living and a reason for dying through an unquenchable hope stretching down from the miracle of Easter.

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Trinity 8 (17th of Year B) 29th July 2012

The Olympics are here and the whole world is coming to London.

They’re coming either by plane or London’s going to them by satellite.

International travel has its moments as many of us will know.

Pity the Japanese tourist who took the train to Heathrow for a flight to Reading.  She asked in broken English for Turkey and they put her on the night train to Torquay. The police found her wandering along the sea front of Torquay in the early morning looking for the Church of Santa Sophia on the Bosphorus. She thought she’d gone through the Channel Tunnel to Turkey!

We should never minimise the implications of miscommunication. Just one mistaken word for this lady took her dramatically off course.

How about communicating what we stand for as Christians?

I think the two main things we need to get across are these: God is good and the Church is OK.

Let’s take God’s goodness first.

Deep down people want to believe there’s a good God. It’s when they encounter horrid things and horrid people that faith crumbles. To use my story as an analogy, they get misled from Christianity and head for Torquay not Turkey – apologies to the West Country!

I have regular conversations with people in the village who question God’s goodness in the face of evil. They run, say on the Oregon cinema shootings, ‘what a waste of life – how can God allow it?’

No full answer can be given but, given chance, I would say I saw God’s goodness in the young man who gave himself for his girl friend by throwing himself over her to die in a hail of bullets.

If you condemn the Creator for the wickedness in the world you’re mainly condemning him for granting human beings the freedom to make their own choices.

70% of all website ‘hits’ worldwide are to pornographic sites. Would you use that as an excuse to condemn the internet when it hosts so many valuable social networks?

When it generates so much creativity through the sharing of ideas?

You have to take the rough with the smooth and that’s a truth that goes right into the heart of God. The Cross of Jesus shows what wickedness does to God (1 Peter 2:24). Can you look at the Cross and say he doesn’t care about it? In Christian faith we have a God who suffers along with us, and comforts us in our weakness. God uses our suffering, as he did even in that Oregon cinema, to help us support one another in the face of evil.

As Christians we’ll always struggle to communicate to non-believers that God is good. We can argue as I’ve just done but our arguments are often undermined by our lifestyle. Our living a good life counts most in getting God’s goodness over to others. We need ‘to walk the talk’. For that we need God’s help, which is one reason we’re here on a Sunday.

God is good and the Church is OK. Do you believe it? Unless you do you’ll never be an evangelist.

There’s a widespread perception that Christians are hypocrites.

A hypocrite is someone who pretends. I don’t pretend Jesus has the truth or is the truth – I know it - but I try also not to pretend I fall short of him.

It’s hard!

If someone says they believe in Jesus, but his followers are hypocrites, they’re partly right. They’ll need advising that if they follow Jesus they too will get called hypocrites. It goes with the calling.

Jesus gives us a vision. We try to live up to it - and we fail.

Where would we be though without the vision Jesus gives? We’d be heading for Torquay not Turkey! We’d have a wrong aim in life.

Having his standards is like having your alarm clock set half an hour ahead to make sure you’re never late!

Jesus taught things that would keep us on our toes, pressing forwards towards his perfect standard.

Forgive your brother or sister from your heart he says (Matthew 18:35). Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 6:28). Do not worry about your life (Matthew 6:25).

I regularly confess I fall short. Jesus teaches we should confess. Every church service includes confessing our failings.  Jesus never said his followers would live up to him, but he did say they should strive to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

In the Bible we read how people who cheated other people came to Jesus and were forgiven - people who’d stolen - who’d sold their bodies for sex – all came to Jesus and were welcomed.

Ephesians Chapter 2 verse 4 says God is rich in mercy. If someone tells me they believe in Jesus but Christians are hypocrites I’ll tell them how the mercy of God covers my sins.

I’ll tell them of the God and Father of Jesus who loves sinners and gives them not what they most deserve but what they most need.

If the church falls short of Jesus it’s also true that Christians need the church.

When people complain about the non-Ok-ness of the Church I ask them how I can better get close to Jesus than through the church?

Where else can I hear God’s word expounded? Or encounter the Lord by praying with other believers? Or welcome the promised Holy Spirit?

Where but in the fellowship of the Christian church can I receive the spiritual food of the precious body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion?

A great evangelist had a fireside chat with a young man who insisted you could believe in Jesus without going to church.

Having reminded him that faith in Jesus grows up in a community, the evangelist reached down for the fire tongs and took hold of a brightly burning coal.

As he held it aloft the two men saw it change from red to orange to black. The young man was in church the next Sunday!

Even if there is hypocrisy in the church Jesus is there also, among his people, waiting to warm their souls.

That’s the best answer we can give. It’s Jesus’ own answer. Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them (Matthew 18:20)

Here we are - gathered before a good God in a church that’s being made OK by him through what he is to give us this morning in word and sacrament.