St Richard, Haywards Heath 3rd Sunday of Year A 22.1.23

 

As we ponder the scriptures set for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Season we see an obvious link between the Isaiah 9 passage and the Gospel we just heard from Matthew Chapter 4 quoting that very passage. The emphasis, as when it was used at Midnight Mass, is on people seeing a great light from God in Jesus Christ, but the overlap of today’s passage with the Gospel centres more on the geography. Though St Matthew’s Gospel is slanted heavily to Jewish readers his description of Our Lord’s initial ministry underlines how that begins not in Jewish but Gentile territory, in the ‘land of Zebulun! Land of Naphthali! Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations’ (Matthew 4:15-16). The idea of a prophet coming from Galilee would not have rung true to Matthew’s Jewish readers because this was non-Jewish or Gentile land. Our Lord begins his ministry treading ground outside the Jewish community, treading the way to the revelation of God as universal Lord and Saviour on Mount Calvary. As the second reading puts it, the rejection and crucifixion of the Jewish Messiah lies beyond human philosophy or even theology. 

The astonishing force of Our Lord Jesus Christ is his revelation of God as not just the God of the Jews but the God of all people. As witnessed in the story of the wise men we followed two weeks ago, the God and Father of Jesus has universal significance. Isaiah promises light.  Our Psalm announces ‘The Lord is my light and my help’. The Gospel recounts how that light first shone on earth as Jesus ‘went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people’ (Matthew 4:23). This good news is relevant to body, mind and spirit and has transforming relevance to everyone in every age. Christianity was and is good news that, though rooted in Judaism and spoken about through prophets like Isaiah, cannot be contained in the Old Testament. As Deacon Rebecca explained last week Jesus Christ fulfils what we find in the Old Testament. We turn first every Sunday to the Jewish Scriptures to mark what is presented and prophesied about God and understanding of these scriptures help us to understand Jesus. This is exactly true of this morning where Isaiah 9 illuminates Matthew 4 and its great invitation as ‘Jesus began his preaching with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

The Greek word ‘metanoia’ which is translated ‘repent’ means to change direction. Our Lord changed his path into non-Jewish territory; he did so with an invitation to us and to all to change direction so as to welcome the mercy of God which reaches the parts of lives and communities no other power can access. As we hear the word of God this morning we do so mindful of its transformative power. Do you have confidence in that power which is at hand to you this morning as we gather to hear the word of God and be made part of Christ’s self offering at Mass? Such an engagement  has the power to change our lives for good if we welcome the Holy Spirit who is always at hand. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand’. As we turn afresh to God he makes his presence real to us ‘curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among us’. Disease and sickness is much among us this morning, be that of body, mind or spirit. By his death and resurrection Our Lord has countered the power of sin, sickness, bondage, death and the devil. These dark powers are real but their power is broken as we welcome the light of the Lord and see their darkness scatter. 

It may be you are struggling for the grace of acceptance as you face a new trial laid upon you. Or are deceiving yourself over a wrongdoing you need to seek forgiveness for. Maybe you need the assurance of God’s love to reach deeper into your soul. The word of God and the Blessed Sacrament are at hand for you this morning. Soften your heart. Open yourself fresh to the grace of the Holy Spirit who is God’s love ready to be poured into our hearts. Don’t be afraid to seek prayer for such healing outside Mass maybe by talking to one of our priests. We are always ready to be used in the ministry of prayer for individuals, for confession and absolution, for the sacrament of anointing. Our Lord changed direction to Galilee to bring healing and to welcome the kingdom of heaven we need ourselves at times to change our direction. 

Today’s second reading touches on the consequences of our going it alone - our sin - on the Christian community. ‘I am for Paul’, ‘I am for Apollos’, ‘I am for Cephas’, ‘I am for Christ’. I am St Richard’s. I am Methodist. I am Ruwach. I am Baptist. This week of prayer for Christian Unity is a reminder how groups of believers putting themselves above the faith of the church through the ages weaken Christian witness overall. Haywards Heath has eight Christian denominations - Anglican, Baptist, Christ Church, Grace Church, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Ruwach Pentecostal, United Reformed Church. The world has 40,000 Christian denominations. Lord, have mercy! What is the answer and how can you and I be part of that? It is about each denomination coming to the foot of Christ’s Cross and admitting it exists as a Christian community only by God’s grace and mercy poured out on Calvary. This would build from you and I doing the same and by our praying for and fraternising with the other churches in our town. Why not go to a weekday or Sunday evening service in another town Church this week to do your bit to counter the sin of Christian division which does so much to undermine the good news of God’s love?

‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand’. Indeed it is - the Holy Spirit is close at hand ready to bring healing to individuals, churches and communities. Healing starts here - in the heart of an individual - where we find ourselves and love ourselves sufficiently to give ourselves. You can’t give what you don’t possess! May 2023 be a year of growth here at St Richard’s as our members gain self knowledge, self love and fresh capacity to give out to others. Our new partnership with St Mary, Balcombe places us in a privileged position to challenge churches that live for themselves. Living for yourself either individually or as churches is a receipe for death. Let’s change direction to walk as if to Galilee with Our Lord in the life giving power of the Holy Spirit and be consciously part of God’s never ending family the holy catholic church.

St John, Burgess Hill 26th January 2020

Do you want a faith that stands on the authority of scripture and yet remains thoughtful?

Teaching that rings true to the faith of the Church through the ages?

Would you value worship that is awesome yet accessible?

A  Christian community with loose boundaries and a vision for caring within the community?

Here we are - the Church of England!

We do not look down on Catholic or Free Churches but hold hands out to both as 'the ancient church of this land, catholic and reformed' (Catechism definition).

Our worshippers are evangelical, catholic, charismatic and radical because the Church has to be all these things.

Yes, we have our problems, some of our own making, but many on account of the honesty with which we are facing up to a fast changing world.

The Church of England is part of the Church in England and has respect for those of other Faiths or no faith at all.

We welcome all who wish to engage with Jesus Christ through the Bible and the Sacraments and through Christian fellowship and service.

As they first said of Jesus, 'Come and see!'   

       

An advertisement I put in Horsted Keynes parish magazine some time back written out of concern about the bad press the Church of England was getting at the time.

It came to mind preparing this sermon based on part of the second lesson set for today from 1 Corinthians 1.10-12. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?

This call to unity coincides with the end of the annual week of prayer for Christian Unity held every year from 18-25th January. It seems to me that St Paul’s warning reaches us as a church at three levels, local, national and universal, so here’s a minute or two on each level.

First local. I see it as a privilege to be alongside St John’s for a few months. Obviously as a locum priest I barely have my feet under the table let alone the PCC table. Some churches without a parish priest can be headless-chicken-ish and that’s not my impression here. There is leadership - good interim oversight from the Churchwardens - which I call upon us all to respect. May the pastoral vacancy, with all its demands on them and us, serve for good as we work for our good and that of Burgess Hill. May we hand to the one to be appointed parish priest a high degree of unity and a sense of collaboration as we seek to promote Christianity and develop the life of St John’s with an eye to growth in faith, love and numbers. We should not be complacent but pray to God St John’s will continue as the coalition it is of catholic, evangelical, charismatic and liberal Christians that is outwardly focussed. The valuing of Christian unity here is evidenced by how long people stay on after the eucharist to talk with and encourage one another. 

Second, nationally the Church of England has reached under her Archbishops and the General Synod agreement to hold together despite divisions over the remarriage of divorcees, equal ordination and pressure for equal marriage. The latter is the major current threat to unity after truces on remarriage of the divorced, now left for parish priests to operate, and the ordination of women which has occurred respecting those who go with the wider Church’s opposition to this. In the English Reformation marriage and ordination were affirmed as sacraments – that is God-given -  but lesser sacraments and in that perspective groups that want the sacraments to better fit our western culture have taken the lead. Those who see the sacraments as being unchangeable without the agreement of the universal church are now in a minority. Changing sacraments is like changing the heating system in a church. There's upheaval and a chilling effect. The national church is still in the middle of this and our membership is in decline though that decline isn’t just related to our perceived inconsistencies given the UK’s increasingly militant secular culture. No easy answers on the issues of course, just patience. The Holy Spirit is saying one thing to part of the church and another thing to the rest. We must wait and see respecting our different views so as to maximise unity as a national church which believes its part of the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’.

Thirdly let’s look at that international level of the universal church. About this Christians should really be getting impatient. In first century Corinth there were Chloe’s and Apollos’ and Cephas’ groups. In the world of the 21st century there are not three but over 40,000 Christian denominations! Each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? He has. His purpose to bring all things together is being much frustrated. There’s a need for each Christian church to recognise afresh that they exist by God’s grace - and so do the other denominations! Only as the different churches come together to the foot of Christ’s Cross and admit our need of his forgiveness are we ever going to be made one, as Christ certainly desires. This is happening worldwide whenever Christians opt to maximise cooperation with their sister churches. I am not so familiar with Churches Together in Burgess Hill but sense as in Haywards Heath a tension between mainline Anglican and Roman Catholic cooperation and that between charismatic networks. It's a task in hand - even intra-Anglican collaboration - but surrounded by spiritual apathy and unbelief our local churches need one another probably more than they realise to help one another bear the torch for Christ in our town and its surrounds.

The last Papal visitor to England, Pope Benedict, was welcomed to Lambeth Palace by theologian Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams with these soul provoking words:  In 1845, when John Henry Newman finally decided that he must follow his conscience and seek his future in serving God in communion with the See of Rome, one of his most intimate Anglican friends and allies, the priest Edward Bouverie Pusey.. wrote a moving meditation on this "parting of friends" in which he said of the separation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics quote: "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart". Unquote. That should not surprise us continued Rowan Williams: holiness is at its simplest fellowship with Christ; and when that fellowship with Christ is brought to maturity, so is our fellowship with one another. As bishops, we are servants of the unity of Christ's people, Christ's one Body. And, meeting as we do as bishops of separated church communities, we must all feel that each of our own ministries is made less by the fact of our dividedness, a very real but imperfect communion. Perhaps we shall not quickly overcome the remaining obstacles to full, restored communion; but no obstacles stand in the way of our seeking, as a matter of joyful obedience to the Lord, more ways in which to build up one another in holiness by prayer and public celebration together, by closer friendship, and by growing together both in the challenging work of service for all whom Christ loves, and mission to all God has made.

Wise words. "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart".
Christian unity grows – locally, nationally or internationally as Christians grow together in both holiness and mission. Let’s make that our priority as much as we can in the coming year. 

To come back to that Horsted Keynes magazine advertisement: 

The Church of England is part of the Church in England and has respect for those of other Faiths or no faith at all. We welcome all who wish to engage with Jesus Christ through the Bible and the Sacraments and through Christian fellowship and service. As they first said of Jesus, 'Come and see!'   

As they come, especially to St John’s, may they find less low church, middle church or high church but deep church.  Come Holy Spirit!