You can’t see God but there are pointers and John the Baptist is one of them.
God’s unseen-ness is a major stumbling block to Christian belief in a materialistic world. People too often believe in, or rather value, only what they can see.
Ask a married blind person though if they believe in the love their spouse has for them. Not only can they not see their wife but they doubly can’t see intangible love. All the same in my experience of blind people they know the love their spouse has for them.
Similarly it’s possible to experience God’s presence and love without seeing him with our eyes. That’s what we’re about in Church this morning in fact. God making himself real to us through the words of a book, through bread and wine and human touch.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Jesus once said.
There are many unseen things in life that are really important. People who complain at God’s invisibility don’t complain they can’t see electricity or the air around them.
We see the effect of the wind even if we can’t see it directly. Similarly though God is unseen he can be experienced by faith.
I’ve strayed a little from John the Baptist. He is a historical pointer to God.
He pointed to Jesus. As one in the great succession of prophets he also pointed to injustice. Like Zephaniah in our first reading he shared God’s heart to save the lame and gather the outcast.
John pointed to human wrongs but first he pointed to divine goodness.
Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world he said, pointing to his cousin.
When God landed on the earth he came into a specific place and time and culture for which St John the Baptist was herald. He didn’t land out of the blue.
Christianity is well thought out. It’s well thought out because it’s from the mind of God no less! You can’t rubbish Christianity as a blind faith because it’s a faith that’s rooted in history. There are few faith traditions so rooted in unambiguous historical events.
Listen again to that very specific account that introduces the third chapter of St Luke’s gospel which is today’s gospel reading: In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip, ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
No wonder historians of all ages have applauded St Luke, whose gospel we’re reading in Year C of the Sunday Lectionary, as being one of them. You can check his historical facts. We can consequently be 95% certain John the Baptist and Jesus Christ met in the River Jordan where the first baptised the second. Because the ancient dating schemes slipped forward about 6 years we’re pretty certain that the baptism of Jesus in his 30th year by St John occurred in 24AD just as the first Christmas was probably 6BC.
When John baptised Jesus we read in several New Testament accounts that the Holy Spirit was seen to come down on him. There was also a voice from above, said to be from God the Father, saying You are my Son.
Jesus came into his own as Son of God at his baptism. He was conceived of the Spirit from Our Lady but the Spirit came upon him in power in a second anointing that occurred in the River Jordan at the hand of St John the Baptist. In today’s Gospel we read: As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. St John in a parallel to this passage in Luke Chapter 3 writes: He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God (1.33b-34).
You can’t see God but at one point in history you could because God became one of us. John the Baptist was sent as the pointer to this. More than that, a pointer to the one who’d help everyone who wanted to know God to know God and share God’s life for ever.
To be a Christian is to share the baptism or anointing of the Holy Spirit who makes the invisible God known as surely as the wind makes the air known.
It’s implied in the Bible that God is invisible to protect us from his glory. This invisibility serves our freedom to love without being manipulated. If he were visible that would dramatically affect our freedom to grow in pure love. By being invisible God can be with us without overwhelming us. He can stand at a distance to grant us freedom to make our own decisions including the decision to love him and our neighbour and ourselves.
A God we could see would actually be less wonderful than the God Christians believe in. We’d be able to contain him in our minds! Instead the Christian vision of God is one that expands continually from our limited dimensions to his unlimited ones. If you want a magnificent God the price you pay seems to be that of worshipping a God that’s invisible to mortal eyes.
The magnificence of God is shown to us by St John when he points to Jesus. The Jesus he points to goes on to demonstrate God’s magnificence by 3 years of teaching, a voluntary death, a glorious resurrection and Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon believers which is the way the Church finds God made real to her.
How can I believe in a God I can't see? I’m tempted to answer ‘you wouldn’t need to believe in someone if you could actually see them!’ Faith, as the letter to the Hebrews puts it, is conviction of things unseen (11:1).
The question ‘How can I believe in a God I can't see?’ is really the question ‘how can I find faith?’
A quick answer is ‘you should ask God for it, ask him to open your inner eyes to his all powerful yet invisible presence’.
I remember once my faith going right into the doldrums. It really burned low, so low I went back to the monastery at Mirfield where I trained as a priest and asked for help.
Maybe it’s not God who’s gone but your vision of him, the monks said. Pray for a vision of God more to his dimensions and less to your own they said. For three days I prayed a prayer rather like God, if you’re there, show yourself! He did – I survive to tell the tale – he spoke to me through a leaf on a tree.
I made you. He said. I love you. I want to fill you with my Spirit. That he did, though I’ve leaked since.
Asking God for a vision of himself more to his dimensions and less to your own seems always to bear fruit. Faith grows – it enlarges, especially if it is enriched by prayerful reading of the Bible and celebration of the sacraments.
You can’t expect great things of God if you don’t believe he’s capable of them. The wonder of Christmas is its magnification of the Lord. The very thought that he who contains all that is could come to Mary’s womb, could come to this altar in bread and wine – could come into this heart and that heart and that heart! It’s an astounding thought really.
It’s faith that opens up such a vision. Now let’s be clear, faith isn’t a feeling you can work up or enlarge. It’s our capacity to compass God through an ongoing decision to reach towards him and be energised by him.
Christian mystics write of faith as a practical commitment. In the medieval Cloud of Unknowing the anonymous medieval author describes faith as an ‘eager dart of longing love’ that reaches out to touch God and release his possibilities into our situation.
John the Baptist pointed to God so that we too could be drawn to reach out to God ourselves.
Faith always takes us out of ourselves towards God and neighbour.
When C.S.Lewis asked himself ‘Do I believe?’ he said his belief seemed to go - just like when he asked himself in the midst of pleasure, ‘am I enjoying myself’ his enjoyment seemed to go. Both actions, he said, are like taking one’s eyes out instead of keeping them in the right place and seeing with them. Faith like enjoyment has its focus outside of self.
How can I believe in a God I can't see? You need to make a decision. That’s what faith is – a decision to act as if God were there and to be energised by a power quite outside and beyond oneself.
To have faith is to go beyond and not against reason. As John Donne wrote Reason is our soul’s left hand, faith his right, by these we reach divinity.
Both faith and reason lift us to God and in Jesus God himself reaches down to us revealing himself to both our reason and our faith. In St Luke’s record of history of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ we should see a reasonable case for the Incarnation, the coming of God upon the earth.
Here, in the coming of Jesus that Advent centres upon, what we believe and what we see come together.
As St John writes No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known (John 1:18)
You can see him now with your mind and heart’s eye - in his word, in the breaking of bread, in our Christian fellowship.
St John the Baptist invites you again, for his words are true today as they were yesterday and will be tomorrow: Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
Look at Jesus with both your faith and your reason. Look at him! Look at him and welcome him this morning in word and sacrament!
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Advent evensong with conscience examination 6th December 2009
Isaiah 40.3 A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord’
I want this evening to say a few words about repentance building on teaching I gave last Sunday.
Repentance means turning, turning humbly to God and to my brother and sister in sorrow for sin.
Repentance is also a thoroughly practical business. It means coming humbly before God and then practically before my neighbour, both of whom are hurt by my sins. It is no good mouthing religious words in church to God without the practical back up of asking forgiveness from the people we have hurt.
Christians change their lives by amputation not by compromise. We go places – we go to heaven – by our decisiveness under God.
If only we could see what we’re missing through holding back from a deeper repentance!
A preacher was on his way to Church but had a row with his wife. Hard words were exchanged. As he closed the garden gate the Lord said, “Go and make peace with your wife.” “But Lord,” he protested, “I’m already late!” “O.K.”, the Lord replied, you go and preach your sermon but I’ll be staying here with your wife.” Because he was a man of God he went back to the kitchen. When he finally made it to Church he preached one of the most powerful sermons of his ministry.
Every decisive act of turning to Jesus is costly to pride - but it brings with it the gift of the Spirit and a fresh empowering for Christian life and ministry.
Advent challenges us to deeper repentance, for some of us through the use of the Sacrament of Confession. You may have notices there are set times in the news sheet and one of them is after this service.
It’s a subtle trick of Satan’s to make repentance look lurid and not as down to earth, boring and matter of fact as it really is for most Christians. If you read the newspapers you will see terms like repentance and sin most always associated with a lewd life-style. In a similar way we see the word love devalued by being equated with physical sex.
Anyone who thinks sin is just sexual sin has been brainwashed by the devil!
Take unforgiveness for example. Unforgiveness is probably just as destructive a sin as sexual misdemeanour though the red letter press tell us a lot about unforgiveness, don’t they?
Or self-sufficiency. Living as a self-made man worshipping your creator! Where will that lead you?
In Advent season the church calls us to deepen our own obedience and generosity towards God and neighbour.
A boy stole one of his father’s cigars. Hurrying off to a secluded place he carried his prized possession. Cautiously the lad lit the cigar. It didn’t make him feel too good but at least it made him feel grown up. That is, until he saw his father coming. Quickly hiding the cigar behind his back, the lad tried desperately to look casual. Hoping to divert his father’s attention the lad spotted a poster advertising a band coming to play in town. “Can I go, Dad? Can I go to hear that band when it comes to town? Please, Dad?”
The father’s quiet reply contains a vital lesson for all who want to have their prayers answered.
“Son,” the father replied, “one of the first lessons you need to learn about life is this: never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smouldering disobedience behind your back.”
How many of us are hiding a “smouldering disobedience” even as we beg the Lord to answer our prayers? Indeed, Advent could be a chance to evaluate just why some of our prayers are not being answered and to maybe trace back the cause to areas we are shown of unrecognised disobedience. This will deepen the repentance we are called to. Christians change their lives by amputation not by compromise.
Our decisive welcoming of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in church should focus the decisive welcoming of the Lord in every circumstance that comes our way – and our decisive casting aside of temptation to evil.
Jesus is as ready to meet us in the circumstances of our life as He is to meet us in the Sacrament of Bread and Wine. We need to repent – to turn away from evil to Jesus - again and again, hour by hour.
I believe we can only be glad at heart and overflowing with the life and joy of Jesus if we do so!
A person who is not resigned in a positive way to the will of God revealed to them in the circumstances of their daily living is someone who’s being worn away and destroyed. This is exactly why St. Paul encourages us to "give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" 1 Thess 5v16 18.
Advent is a call to decisiveness in preparing the way of the Lord deeper into our hearts. We need to be decisive with weeding out the things that have no place in a Christ filled life.
Let us keep silence for a moment.
I want this evening to say a few words about repentance building on teaching I gave last Sunday.
Repentance means turning, turning humbly to God and to my brother and sister in sorrow for sin.
Repentance is also a thoroughly practical business. It means coming humbly before God and then practically before my neighbour, both of whom are hurt by my sins. It is no good mouthing religious words in church to God without the practical back up of asking forgiveness from the people we have hurt.
Christians change their lives by amputation not by compromise. We go places – we go to heaven – by our decisiveness under God.
If only we could see what we’re missing through holding back from a deeper repentance!
A preacher was on his way to Church but had a row with his wife. Hard words were exchanged. As he closed the garden gate the Lord said, “Go and make peace with your wife.” “But Lord,” he protested, “I’m already late!” “O.K.”, the Lord replied, you go and preach your sermon but I’ll be staying here with your wife.” Because he was a man of God he went back to the kitchen. When he finally made it to Church he preached one of the most powerful sermons of his ministry.
Every decisive act of turning to Jesus is costly to pride - but it brings with it the gift of the Spirit and a fresh empowering for Christian life and ministry.
Advent challenges us to deeper repentance, for some of us through the use of the Sacrament of Confession. You may have notices there are set times in the news sheet and one of them is after this service.
It’s a subtle trick of Satan’s to make repentance look lurid and not as down to earth, boring and matter of fact as it really is for most Christians. If you read the newspapers you will see terms like repentance and sin most always associated with a lewd life-style. In a similar way we see the word love devalued by being equated with physical sex.
Anyone who thinks sin is just sexual sin has been brainwashed by the devil!
Take unforgiveness for example. Unforgiveness is probably just as destructive a sin as sexual misdemeanour though the red letter press tell us a lot about unforgiveness, don’t they?
Or self-sufficiency. Living as a self-made man worshipping your creator! Where will that lead you?
In Advent season the church calls us to deepen our own obedience and generosity towards God and neighbour.
A boy stole one of his father’s cigars. Hurrying off to a secluded place he carried his prized possession. Cautiously the lad lit the cigar. It didn’t make him feel too good but at least it made him feel grown up. That is, until he saw his father coming. Quickly hiding the cigar behind his back, the lad tried desperately to look casual. Hoping to divert his father’s attention the lad spotted a poster advertising a band coming to play in town. “Can I go, Dad? Can I go to hear that band when it comes to town? Please, Dad?”
The father’s quiet reply contains a vital lesson for all who want to have their prayers answered.
“Son,” the father replied, “one of the first lessons you need to learn about life is this: never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smouldering disobedience behind your back.”
How many of us are hiding a “smouldering disobedience” even as we beg the Lord to answer our prayers? Indeed, Advent could be a chance to evaluate just why some of our prayers are not being answered and to maybe trace back the cause to areas we are shown of unrecognised disobedience. This will deepen the repentance we are called to. Christians change their lives by amputation not by compromise.
Our decisive welcoming of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in church should focus the decisive welcoming of the Lord in every circumstance that comes our way – and our decisive casting aside of temptation to evil.
Jesus is as ready to meet us in the circumstances of our life as He is to meet us in the Sacrament of Bread and Wine. We need to repent – to turn away from evil to Jesus - again and again, hour by hour.
I believe we can only be glad at heart and overflowing with the life and joy of Jesus if we do so!
A person who is not resigned in a positive way to the will of God revealed to them in the circumstances of their daily living is someone who’s being worn away and destroyed. This is exactly why St. Paul encourages us to "give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" 1 Thess 5v16 18.
Advent is a call to decisiveness in preparing the way of the Lord deeper into our hearts. We need to be decisive with weeding out the things that have no place in a Christ filled life.
Let us keep silence for a moment.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Bluebell railway carol service short thought 5th December 2009
I’ll tell you what I like about steam trains. They’ve got soul.
Do you know what I mean?
They don’t run with diesel. They run from a burning furnace!
That’s a soul.
There’s soul in all we represent here at Bluebell railway. We even name our engines and talk about their personality.
Human beings have souls. It’s the bit inside of you that makes you you.
Some people have colder souls than others. Oh yes, you may be feeling the cold tonight in your body, but many of us feel warm in spirit. Cold hands, warm heart – you’ve heard the saying!
If human beings have souls it’s because we’re more than an assembly of molecules.
In some ways humans have become like giants.
Through jet engines we can fly faster than sound.
With radar and sat nav we’ve got giant eyes powerful enough to see through fog and darkness.
Electronics has given us giant ears to amplify the slightest whisper, turn it into a shout and hurl it round the world.
Our harnessing of nuclear energy has given us giant fists with which we can wipe out whole cities with a single blow.
God sees all of this.
He’s given us Christmas because he knows human beings with giant eyes, ears and fists won’t remain giants for long without giant souls.
God gave us life so we could have his life and have it in our souls.
A steam engine slows when the furnace burns low. Though God made us we soon run down. We all too easily grow cold and dark inside.
To use another image, human beings are like computers with infected hard drives. We’re the victims of forces that depress us and make us do damage to others.
The forces of sin work inside of us like a virulent computer bug, slowly and methodically reducing the order within us until, sometimes, all that’s left is a dark screen.
The Christmas gift of Jesus is given to light up our lives, just like a computer buff sees to lighting up a closed down computer.
That’s why we’ve come tonight to carol with Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds and kings!
Because God who gave us life gave it so we could have his life - and have it in our souls by the gift of his Son.
In a Channel 4 documentary last April there was a fascinating presentation of everything consumed, produced and to some extent experienced by the average British person in a lifetime.
We walk 15,464 miles. We speak 123,205,740 words. We earn £1,537,380. We drink 15,951 pints of milk. We dream 104,390 dreams. We’re drunk 0.7% of the time. We smoke 77,000 cigarettes. We make love 4,229 times. We eat 4 cows, 21 sheep, 15 pigs and 1,200 chickens in our life time.
Makes you think! Christmas is a time for reflection - hence this short thought, which has almost run its course.
As we reflect in a Christian country the figure of Jesus is rightly set before us at this season.
Tonight we read again of his birth and its foretelling by Isaiah who said this: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.
St John starts his story of Jesus with similar words: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.
When this station was built Sussex churches were packed compared to today. Yet in Africa, China and South America nowadays you’ve got to almost fight your way into many churches.
Over all the earth, down through twenty centuries the warm light of Jesus has continued to shine.
It’s given to lighten our minds, warm our hearts and energise our lives - if we will welcome it.
Just as the light of the coal and its heat energises the cylinders of our trains the Christ Child is given to energise our living, warm up our souls and to get them moving in worship and service.
Bluebell is a voluntary association with a corporate vision.
So’s the Church of England, so’s Christianity – and both visions link to a burning furnace!
Over Christmas there’ll be opportunities for many of us to stoke our inner furnace.
God has given us life – that’s a statement you can argue about, but, either way, you can’t alter the claim.
He wants to give us his life – here’s where Christianity helps break new ground in human living.
There’s a refuelling possible in life. There’s a warming of the heart. There’s a joy from outside of ourselves waiting to come in if we’ll but welcome its source.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; let ev’ry heart prepare him room.
Let’s sing again and warm our hearts as we do so!
Do you know what I mean?
They don’t run with diesel. They run from a burning furnace!
That’s a soul.
There’s soul in all we represent here at Bluebell railway. We even name our engines and talk about their personality.
Human beings have souls. It’s the bit inside of you that makes you you.
Some people have colder souls than others. Oh yes, you may be feeling the cold tonight in your body, but many of us feel warm in spirit. Cold hands, warm heart – you’ve heard the saying!
If human beings have souls it’s because we’re more than an assembly of molecules.
In some ways humans have become like giants.
Through jet engines we can fly faster than sound.
With radar and sat nav we’ve got giant eyes powerful enough to see through fog and darkness.
Electronics has given us giant ears to amplify the slightest whisper, turn it into a shout and hurl it round the world.
Our harnessing of nuclear energy has given us giant fists with which we can wipe out whole cities with a single blow.
God sees all of this.
He’s given us Christmas because he knows human beings with giant eyes, ears and fists won’t remain giants for long without giant souls.
God gave us life so we could have his life and have it in our souls.
A steam engine slows when the furnace burns low. Though God made us we soon run down. We all too easily grow cold and dark inside.
To use another image, human beings are like computers with infected hard drives. We’re the victims of forces that depress us and make us do damage to others.
The forces of sin work inside of us like a virulent computer bug, slowly and methodically reducing the order within us until, sometimes, all that’s left is a dark screen.
The Christmas gift of Jesus is given to light up our lives, just like a computer buff sees to lighting up a closed down computer.
That’s why we’ve come tonight to carol with Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds and kings!
Because God who gave us life gave it so we could have his life - and have it in our souls by the gift of his Son.
In a Channel 4 documentary last April there was a fascinating presentation of everything consumed, produced and to some extent experienced by the average British person in a lifetime.
We walk 15,464 miles. We speak 123,205,740 words. We earn £1,537,380. We drink 15,951 pints of milk. We dream 104,390 dreams. We’re drunk 0.7% of the time. We smoke 77,000 cigarettes. We make love 4,229 times. We eat 4 cows, 21 sheep, 15 pigs and 1,200 chickens in our life time.
Makes you think! Christmas is a time for reflection - hence this short thought, which has almost run its course.
As we reflect in a Christian country the figure of Jesus is rightly set before us at this season.
Tonight we read again of his birth and its foretelling by Isaiah who said this: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.
St John starts his story of Jesus with similar words: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.
When this station was built Sussex churches were packed compared to today. Yet in Africa, China and South America nowadays you’ve got to almost fight your way into many churches.
Over all the earth, down through twenty centuries the warm light of Jesus has continued to shine.
It’s given to lighten our minds, warm our hearts and energise our lives - if we will welcome it.
Just as the light of the coal and its heat energises the cylinders of our trains the Christ Child is given to energise our living, warm up our souls and to get them moving in worship and service.
Bluebell is a voluntary association with a corporate vision.
So’s the Church of England, so’s Christianity – and both visions link to a burning furnace!
Over Christmas there’ll be opportunities for many of us to stoke our inner furnace.
God has given us life – that’s a statement you can argue about, but, either way, you can’t alter the claim.
He wants to give us his life – here’s where Christianity helps break new ground in human living.
There’s a refuelling possible in life. There’s a warming of the heart. There’s a joy from outside of ourselves waiting to come in if we’ll but welcome its source.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; let ev’ry heart prepare him room.
Let’s sing again and warm our hearts as we do so!
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Advent Sunday Repentance 29th November 2009
I want to say something this morning about repentance.
To repent of something is to resolve to discontinue some sort of wrong doing so as to get even more upon the right track.
Our whole calling is one of repentance and twice a year the church dresses in purple, drops flowers and Gloria’s to give us a grand reminder of this.
The scripture readings chosen for Advent Sunday touch on our need for fulfilment at the Lord’s return. They are a reminder of our need to get more on the track that heads towards God.
Jeremiah’s warning from chapter 33 of his prophecy that days of fulfilment are coming relates to God’s promise to restore the house of David and called the Israelites who first heard it to a new expectancy. God’s restoration was nigh, that of ‘The Lord our righteousness’. The coming of Jesus is seen as the first stage of fulfilling this promise. The establishment of righteousness upon the earth and his second coming Christians believe to be the final stage that Advent season particularly underlines.
In today’s second reading from his first letter to Thessalonika Paul’s emphasis is on seeking the holiness without which we won’t be able to see God. May he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Advent season is a quest for holiness. We even have a Holy Hour on Wednesday evenings with this in mind. An hour of quiet in Church before the Lord, a simple introduction, some scriptures for people to read in the silence if they want and the invitation to strengthen hearts in holiness mindful of the Holy Communion we share week by week but often in a manner that is hurriedly prepared.
Christmas means Christ’s Mass and there is an Anglican tradition of careful preparation for Christmas Communion. The bible is very clear on the need for careful devotional preparation before receiving Communion – or, more bluntly, the need for true penitence. This is why St Paul writes to Corinth examine yourselves and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
One wonderful expression of repentance and aid to this struggle against sin is to celebrate with a priest the sacrament of reconciliation. People get confused about the Anglican use of confession. It isn’t mandatory as in the Roman Catholic Church but it’s on offer as a sacrament or means of God’s grace. It’s particularly recommended for use before the sacraments of healing, confirmation, marriage or ordination as well as a means of deepening the significance and holiness of the sacrament of the eucharist we receive week by week.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them Jesus said to the apostles. For twenty centuries this ministry of freeing from sin has continued in his church particularly through the ordained ministry. It’s a bible-based sign in which individuals are given a welcome home to God and his church through the minister.
This ministry complements the assurance of forgiveness given to all Christians through prayer and the promises of scripture. It is commended in the Prayer Book so I intend advertising the sacrament of reconciliation before great feasts.
A lot of us, preacher included, agree with repentance but need to know what specific sins we need to repent of. Only the Holy Spirit can tell you! It helps to regularly examine your conscience with an eye to the commandments and beatitudes of God. The blood of Jesus is like detergent but it needs access to our spiritual dirty clothing. We need to spot the dirt by coming into the light of the Holy Spirit in whose light we see light to quote the Psalmist.
Another advertisement: we have a special Evensong and Advent conscience examination next Sunday to build up the spirit of repentance at St Giles.
Yet another advertisement on sin is the mnemonic for the seven deadly sins: PALE GAS Pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth. I’ll repeat so you get the hang of them! Here are seven things to hate! Pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth They start with pride the sin of youth and end with sloth the sin of old age. Yes we can laugh but if sin, as it does in Greek, means falling short like an archer’s arrow, it is our negligences that are often most damning, along with our failure to live instrumentally.
Today’s gospel from St Luke ends with a call that I’ll make my parting shot. It comes a bit rich from a priest who blessed a pub this week – The Crown at its opening: Be on your guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life…be alert at all times praying that you may have the strength…to stand before the Son of Man.
Have a blessed and holy and joyful Advent. Repent and believe in the Gospel!
To repent of something is to resolve to discontinue some sort of wrong doing so as to get even more upon the right track.
Our whole calling is one of repentance and twice a year the church dresses in purple, drops flowers and Gloria’s to give us a grand reminder of this.
The scripture readings chosen for Advent Sunday touch on our need for fulfilment at the Lord’s return. They are a reminder of our need to get more on the track that heads towards God.
Jeremiah’s warning from chapter 33 of his prophecy that days of fulfilment are coming relates to God’s promise to restore the house of David and called the Israelites who first heard it to a new expectancy. God’s restoration was nigh, that of ‘The Lord our righteousness’. The coming of Jesus is seen as the first stage of fulfilling this promise. The establishment of righteousness upon the earth and his second coming Christians believe to be the final stage that Advent season particularly underlines.
In today’s second reading from his first letter to Thessalonika Paul’s emphasis is on seeking the holiness without which we won’t be able to see God. May he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Advent season is a quest for holiness. We even have a Holy Hour on Wednesday evenings with this in mind. An hour of quiet in Church before the Lord, a simple introduction, some scriptures for people to read in the silence if they want and the invitation to strengthen hearts in holiness mindful of the Holy Communion we share week by week but often in a manner that is hurriedly prepared.
Christmas means Christ’s Mass and there is an Anglican tradition of careful preparation for Christmas Communion. The bible is very clear on the need for careful devotional preparation before receiving Communion – or, more bluntly, the need for true penitence. This is why St Paul writes to Corinth examine yourselves and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
One wonderful expression of repentance and aid to this struggle against sin is to celebrate with a priest the sacrament of reconciliation. People get confused about the Anglican use of confession. It isn’t mandatory as in the Roman Catholic Church but it’s on offer as a sacrament or means of God’s grace. It’s particularly recommended for use before the sacraments of healing, confirmation, marriage or ordination as well as a means of deepening the significance and holiness of the sacrament of the eucharist we receive week by week.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them Jesus said to the apostles. For twenty centuries this ministry of freeing from sin has continued in his church particularly through the ordained ministry. It’s a bible-based sign in which individuals are given a welcome home to God and his church through the minister.
This ministry complements the assurance of forgiveness given to all Christians through prayer and the promises of scripture. It is commended in the Prayer Book so I intend advertising the sacrament of reconciliation before great feasts.
A lot of us, preacher included, agree with repentance but need to know what specific sins we need to repent of. Only the Holy Spirit can tell you! It helps to regularly examine your conscience with an eye to the commandments and beatitudes of God. The blood of Jesus is like detergent but it needs access to our spiritual dirty clothing. We need to spot the dirt by coming into the light of the Holy Spirit in whose light we see light to quote the Psalmist.
Another advertisement: we have a special Evensong and Advent conscience examination next Sunday to build up the spirit of repentance at St Giles.
Yet another advertisement on sin is the mnemonic for the seven deadly sins: PALE GAS Pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth. I’ll repeat so you get the hang of them! Here are seven things to hate! Pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth They start with pride the sin of youth and end with sloth the sin of old age. Yes we can laugh but if sin, as it does in Greek, means falling short like an archer’s arrow, it is our negligences that are often most damning, along with our failure to live instrumentally.
Today’s gospel from St Luke ends with a call that I’ll make my parting shot. It comes a bit rich from a priest who blessed a pub this week – The Crown at its opening: Be on your guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life…be alert at all times praying that you may have the strength…to stand before the Son of Man.
Have a blessed and holy and joyful Advent. Repent and believe in the Gospel!
Sunday, 15 November 2009
May Christ dwell in our hearts St. Swithun, East Grinstead Sunday 15th November 2009
Let us let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer of our faith. Hebrews 12:1
Our whole life as Christians is a looking to Jesus. Our life is this prayer and this prayer, this looking to Jesus is our life.
The Lord wants a deeper place in our life and that of our church because Christianity is always about getting more of Jesus Christ into our lives and shedding self-interest.
Our individual prayer time is foundational to this along with our gathering Sunday by Sunday on the Lord's Day, in the Lord's House, with the Lord's People. This is why we’ve all got an invitation to join our School of Prayer this week at St Swithun’s.
One of the most important things about our daily prayer is the time we give. Whatever we feel or don't feel at prayer it is the offering of 5, 10, 15 minutes daily that is pivotal. Time matters. It is also important to offer Our Lord what we might call ‘prime time’.
Time, and then secondly, place. There’s church of course, suitable for some of us. Most of us though have to find a prayer space at home. We need then to be quiet, but perhaps not too quiet so we keep our feet on the ground. We need perhaps to be comfortable, not so much that we fall asleep. Prayer invites attentiveness. Some people say a hard backed chair gives you that business like feeling. Myself I use a comfy chair, but try to kneel as well for some of the time.
Then what – as one definition puts it ‘prayer is a lifting of heart and mind to God’ and there are many different ‘airports’ for lift off. The aim of our course is to open some of these airports or ways of prayer up to you.
Wherever you lift off from you have to be ‘there’ to get a lift. Confession of sin before you pray is important – you want God to see the real you and nothing pretentious! The bottom line for prayer, for getting to a place of lift off, is honesty. To be there is also about getting down from your mind into your heart as well.
Tom Smail's baldness 'caused by the Lord banging on his head to get his religion from head to heart'- a vital 14".
I want this morning to address briefly six aspects of prayer, of looking to Jesus: listening, friendship, warfare, benevolence, recollection, and lastly empowerment.
1. Listening
Prayer, looking unto Jesus, is listening. You can’t look to Jesus unless you give ear to him, unless you attend to him.
Our whole life depends on right listening – to other people and to ourselves at times – but chiefly to Jesus. Through prayer we hear from God. We catch his inspirations for our life and for the world.
How do we look to Jesus in listening? A discipline of time offered to attend directly to God.
Michael Ramsey’s quote – he jokingly said he prayed only for 2 minutes but went on to admit it took him 30 minutes to get there.
Scripture is a means of looking to Jesus through listening to his Word. We read in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We’ll be looking during the week at the power of imaginative listening to scripture. A basic piece of advice on praying from scripture is to read through prayerfully until God touches your Spirit and then hold yourself at that point once such a prayerful impulse has been given to you.
2. Friendship
Looking to Jesus is about friendship. We seek our friends’ attention and he seeks ours. When friends meet they light up and so it is with Jesus and ourselves as we come before him in contemplation.
When did you last sit in quiet before the Lord? What is it that keeps you from doing so? Could you imagine Jesus your friend doing you any harm?
Contemplative prayer has been described as ‘spiritual radiotherapy’. St Augustine once said that the whole purpose of life is the healing of the heart’s eye through which God is seen.
Heart surgery of the Holy Spirit: the melting of coldness within is like a defrosting by the heavenly microwave!
One aid to contemplation is to read a set prayer slowly, open for God to speak to you as your friend.
A major barrier to contemplation is the way our minds get so distracted which hinders our hearts from contemplation. This is where the repeating of short phrases that engage and focus the mind can be helpful as in the Orthodox Jesus prayer. This involves repeating again and again the gospel prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner. The value of the Jesus Prayer is commended all through the Christian tradition as in the writings of St. John Chrysostom: Abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart and the two become one. Please don’t hesitate to talk to the prayer guides, to myself or your clergy if you want guidance on the Jesus Prayer or any other of the forms of prayer suggested in this booklet.
Looking to Jesus in prayer is about listening and building friendship, about lighting one another up so that in the words of Nehemiah (8v10) the joy of the Lord [becomes] our strength.
3. Warfare
Prayer, looking to Jesus, is thirdly warfare against the deadening spiritual impact of the world, the flesh and the devil. Prayer is warfare because Jesus calls us to a fullness of humanity that involves our shedding constraints, shaking off what Hebrews calls the weight and the sin that clings so closely (12:1b). He who is in you, St John says, is greater than he that is in the world. 1 John 5:4
In prayer we see ourselves in a true light and take action in the name of Jesus against the dark forces that impel us. Hesychius of Jerusalem writes: As it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed of the filth of wicked thoughts without prayer in the Name of Jesus…let us utter this Name as often as we breathe.
The battle that is prayer comes much into its own when we attempt self-examination. This has been described as like going under water. You experience an up thrust, an opposition. There is a power at work totally opposed to self-knowledge. Satan is fearful of both our knowing God and our knowing ourselves. He wants us to live in ignorance so that we can comply with his schemes! So we battle on – in the spiritual warfare that is prayer!
4. Benevolence
Looking to Jesus fourthly is benevolence, the capacity to enter the good will of God for all people, especially in intercessory prayer. This is a feature of prayer that the St Swithun’s exploration will major on in the coming week.
Christianity is not merely a doctrine or a system of beliefs Thomas Merton wrote, it is Christ living in us and uniting people to one another in His own life and unity. For Merton a hermit monk there is only one true flight from the world; it is not an escape from conflict, anguish and suffering, but … flight from disunity and separation to unity and peace in the love of other [people]. This benevolent spirit of intercession is captured in St. Paul’s invitation in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.
We look to Jesus to be with us as we intercede. He lifts us up into his perfect Offering, most especially in the Holy Eucharist. In intercession we come before the Lord with people and needs on our heart to entrust them to him with confidence.
My wife Anne’s prayer for Catherine that bore fruit after 11 years
Through intercessory prayer, in the words of Professor Hallesly we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness…the powers which can awaken those who sleep in sin and raise up the dead … that can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible.
5. Recollection
Looking to Jesus is prayer of recollection, prayer that takes stock of your life and celebrates what God has done and is doing and, looks forwards to what God is going to do in us and through us.
Another feature we will be majoring on in the fortnight ahead is the value of prayer journaling. This is the discipline of keeping a sort of written conversation with the Lord so that we can trace his working in our lives. 'Tis grace both led me safe thus far … and grace will lead me home.
Just an idea, even if you can’t make the sessions. Why not in the coming week attempt a review of your life? Look back over your years and recollect with Jesus the five biggest spiritual milestones along the way, your five most powerful desires, your five worst fears. Recollection is about such reminiscing or calling to mind. It is also about ‘collecting again’ or recovering control of oneself. Through looking to God we gain self-possession.
Attention to God, mindfulness of Jesus is at the heart of the Christian life. The recollected woman or man inhabits her or his words, is able to be present to Jesus at all times so that Jesus can be in them and show through them. As the orthodox spiritual writer Fr. Bulgakov puts it The Name of Jesus present in human heart, communicates to it the power of deification … shining through the heart, the light of the Name of Jesus illuminates all the universe.
6. Empowerment
Looking to Jesus lastly is empowerment. You will receive power he said, when the Holy Spirit comes Acts 1v8. Well he has come, at baptism and confirmation, the birth of our Christian commitment - and in the receiving of Holy Communion - but we need to invite him deeper into our lives by praying regularly for the Holy Spirit. Earlier in Luke 11 Jesus says with a great emphasis ask, and it will be given to you. If you being evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Looking to Jesus is an empowerment especially by the word of God and the gifting of the Holy Spirit. You do not have James warns in his letter (4:2) because you do not ask.
When we persist in asking we can from time to time feel God’s touch upon our heart, see some sort of vision or be led to some particular scripture verse as we look to Jesus. This is charismatic prayer, literally graced or given prayer in which our looking to Jesus and waiting before him is answered by a heavenly gift.
To summarise, prayer, looking to Jesus, brings some wonderful experiences. It’s also a matter of perseverance, as Michael Ramsey reminds us with his 2 minutes prayer within half an hour’s devotional time. We need spiritual determination if we’re going to get anywhere in prayer though prayer itself kindles such enthusiasm and determination. Let us run with perseverance then the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus through listening, friendship, warfare, benevolence, recollection and empowerment. May the Lord turn our eyes more and more upon himself in the coming week!
Our whole life as Christians is a looking to Jesus. Our life is this prayer and this prayer, this looking to Jesus is our life.
The Lord wants a deeper place in our life and that of our church because Christianity is always about getting more of Jesus Christ into our lives and shedding self-interest.
Our individual prayer time is foundational to this along with our gathering Sunday by Sunday on the Lord's Day, in the Lord's House, with the Lord's People. This is why we’ve all got an invitation to join our School of Prayer this week at St Swithun’s.
One of the most important things about our daily prayer is the time we give. Whatever we feel or don't feel at prayer it is the offering of 5, 10, 15 minutes daily that is pivotal. Time matters. It is also important to offer Our Lord what we might call ‘prime time’.
Time, and then secondly, place. There’s church of course, suitable for some of us. Most of us though have to find a prayer space at home. We need then to be quiet, but perhaps not too quiet so we keep our feet on the ground. We need perhaps to be comfortable, not so much that we fall asleep. Prayer invites attentiveness. Some people say a hard backed chair gives you that business like feeling. Myself I use a comfy chair, but try to kneel as well for some of the time.
Then what – as one definition puts it ‘prayer is a lifting of heart and mind to God’ and there are many different ‘airports’ for lift off. The aim of our course is to open some of these airports or ways of prayer up to you.
Wherever you lift off from you have to be ‘there’ to get a lift. Confession of sin before you pray is important – you want God to see the real you and nothing pretentious! The bottom line for prayer, for getting to a place of lift off, is honesty. To be there is also about getting down from your mind into your heart as well.
Tom Smail's baldness 'caused by the Lord banging on his head to get his religion from head to heart'- a vital 14".
I want this morning to address briefly six aspects of prayer, of looking to Jesus: listening, friendship, warfare, benevolence, recollection, and lastly empowerment.
1. Listening
Prayer, looking unto Jesus, is listening. You can’t look to Jesus unless you give ear to him, unless you attend to him.
Our whole life depends on right listening – to other people and to ourselves at times – but chiefly to Jesus. Through prayer we hear from God. We catch his inspirations for our life and for the world.
How do we look to Jesus in listening? A discipline of time offered to attend directly to God.
Michael Ramsey’s quote – he jokingly said he prayed only for 2 minutes but went on to admit it took him 30 minutes to get there.
Scripture is a means of looking to Jesus through listening to his Word. We read in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We’ll be looking during the week at the power of imaginative listening to scripture. A basic piece of advice on praying from scripture is to read through prayerfully until God touches your Spirit and then hold yourself at that point once such a prayerful impulse has been given to you.
2. Friendship
Looking to Jesus is about friendship. We seek our friends’ attention and he seeks ours. When friends meet they light up and so it is with Jesus and ourselves as we come before him in contemplation.
When did you last sit in quiet before the Lord? What is it that keeps you from doing so? Could you imagine Jesus your friend doing you any harm?
Contemplative prayer has been described as ‘spiritual radiotherapy’. St Augustine once said that the whole purpose of life is the healing of the heart’s eye through which God is seen.
Heart surgery of the Holy Spirit: the melting of coldness within is like a defrosting by the heavenly microwave!
One aid to contemplation is to read a set prayer slowly, open for God to speak to you as your friend.
A major barrier to contemplation is the way our minds get so distracted which hinders our hearts from contemplation. This is where the repeating of short phrases that engage and focus the mind can be helpful as in the Orthodox Jesus prayer. This involves repeating again and again the gospel prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner. The value of the Jesus Prayer is commended all through the Christian tradition as in the writings of St. John Chrysostom: Abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart and the two become one. Please don’t hesitate to talk to the prayer guides, to myself or your clergy if you want guidance on the Jesus Prayer or any other of the forms of prayer suggested in this booklet.
Looking to Jesus in prayer is about listening and building friendship, about lighting one another up so that in the words of Nehemiah (8v10) the joy of the Lord [becomes] our strength.
3. Warfare
Prayer, looking to Jesus, is thirdly warfare against the deadening spiritual impact of the world, the flesh and the devil. Prayer is warfare because Jesus calls us to a fullness of humanity that involves our shedding constraints, shaking off what Hebrews calls the weight and the sin that clings so closely (12:1b). He who is in you, St John says, is greater than he that is in the world. 1 John 5:4
In prayer we see ourselves in a true light and take action in the name of Jesus against the dark forces that impel us. Hesychius of Jerusalem writes: As it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed of the filth of wicked thoughts without prayer in the Name of Jesus…let us utter this Name as often as we breathe.
The battle that is prayer comes much into its own when we attempt self-examination. This has been described as like going under water. You experience an up thrust, an opposition. There is a power at work totally opposed to self-knowledge. Satan is fearful of both our knowing God and our knowing ourselves. He wants us to live in ignorance so that we can comply with his schemes! So we battle on – in the spiritual warfare that is prayer!
4. Benevolence
Looking to Jesus fourthly is benevolence, the capacity to enter the good will of God for all people, especially in intercessory prayer. This is a feature of prayer that the St Swithun’s exploration will major on in the coming week.
Christianity is not merely a doctrine or a system of beliefs Thomas Merton wrote, it is Christ living in us and uniting people to one another in His own life and unity. For Merton a hermit monk there is only one true flight from the world; it is not an escape from conflict, anguish and suffering, but … flight from disunity and separation to unity and peace in the love of other [people]. This benevolent spirit of intercession is captured in St. Paul’s invitation in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.
We look to Jesus to be with us as we intercede. He lifts us up into his perfect Offering, most especially in the Holy Eucharist. In intercession we come before the Lord with people and needs on our heart to entrust them to him with confidence.
My wife Anne’s prayer for Catherine that bore fruit after 11 years
Through intercessory prayer, in the words of Professor Hallesly we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness…the powers which can awaken those who sleep in sin and raise up the dead … that can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible.
5. Recollection
Looking to Jesus is prayer of recollection, prayer that takes stock of your life and celebrates what God has done and is doing and, looks forwards to what God is going to do in us and through us.
Another feature we will be majoring on in the fortnight ahead is the value of prayer journaling. This is the discipline of keeping a sort of written conversation with the Lord so that we can trace his working in our lives. 'Tis grace both led me safe thus far … and grace will lead me home.
Just an idea, even if you can’t make the sessions. Why not in the coming week attempt a review of your life? Look back over your years and recollect with Jesus the five biggest spiritual milestones along the way, your five most powerful desires, your five worst fears. Recollection is about such reminiscing or calling to mind. It is also about ‘collecting again’ or recovering control of oneself. Through looking to God we gain self-possession.
Attention to God, mindfulness of Jesus is at the heart of the Christian life. The recollected woman or man inhabits her or his words, is able to be present to Jesus at all times so that Jesus can be in them and show through them. As the orthodox spiritual writer Fr. Bulgakov puts it The Name of Jesus present in human heart, communicates to it the power of deification … shining through the heart, the light of the Name of Jesus illuminates all the universe.
6. Empowerment
Looking to Jesus lastly is empowerment. You will receive power he said, when the Holy Spirit comes Acts 1v8. Well he has come, at baptism and confirmation, the birth of our Christian commitment - and in the receiving of Holy Communion - but we need to invite him deeper into our lives by praying regularly for the Holy Spirit. Earlier in Luke 11 Jesus says with a great emphasis ask, and it will be given to you. If you being evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Looking to Jesus is an empowerment especially by the word of God and the gifting of the Holy Spirit. You do not have James warns in his letter (4:2) because you do not ask.
When we persist in asking we can from time to time feel God’s touch upon our heart, see some sort of vision or be led to some particular scripture verse as we look to Jesus. This is charismatic prayer, literally graced or given prayer in which our looking to Jesus and waiting before him is answered by a heavenly gift.
To summarise, prayer, looking to Jesus, brings some wonderful experiences. It’s also a matter of perseverance, as Michael Ramsey reminds us with his 2 minutes prayer within half an hour’s devotional time. We need spiritual determination if we’re going to get anywhere in prayer though prayer itself kindles such enthusiasm and determination. Let us run with perseverance then the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus through listening, friendship, warfare, benevolence, recollection and empowerment. May the Lord turn our eyes more and more upon himself in the coming week!
Sunday, 8 November 2009
British Legion Remembrance Service 8th November 2009
A few words to help the scripture readings inspire our act of penitence.
We heard from Saint John the text for Remembrance Sunday: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
All who die in war give for their country. They have given for us, as if we were their friends. For your tomorrow we gave our today.
Whether readily or unreadily our dear dead gave themselves. We have benefited from their offering. It is an offering that points us to the heart of Christianity in all that Jesus has given to us.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.
He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.”
The young man held out the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.”
The father hung the portrait over his mantelpiece. Every time visitors came to his home he showed them this portrait before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”
There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”
But the auctioneer persisted. “Will someone bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? £100, £200?”
Another voice shouted angrily. “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh’s and the Rembrandts, Get on with the real bids!”
But still the auctioneer continued. “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the long-time gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give £10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
“We have £10, who will bid £20?”
“Give it to him for £10. Let’s see the great masters.”
“£10 is the bid, won’t someone bid £20?”
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted to buy the more famous pictures for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, twice, sold for £10!”
A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!”
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry the auction is over.”
“What about the paintings?”
“I am sorry. When I was called to conduct the auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought this painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!”
It’s true – as the Bible says – whosoever takes the Son gets everything.
God gave his son for us as the father in the story saw his son given in combat for others.
Much like the auctioneer God’s message today is: “The son, the son, who’ll take the son?” And whoever takes the Son gets everything.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son so who ever believeth shall have eternal life.
We heard from Saint John the text for Remembrance Sunday: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
All who die in war give for their country. They have given for us, as if we were their friends. For your tomorrow we gave our today.
Whether readily or unreadily our dear dead gave themselves. We have benefited from their offering. It is an offering that points us to the heart of Christianity in all that Jesus has given to us.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.
He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.”
The young man held out the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.”
The father hung the portrait over his mantelpiece. Every time visitors came to his home he showed them this portrait before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”
There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”
But the auctioneer persisted. “Will someone bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? £100, £200?”
Another voice shouted angrily. “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh’s and the Rembrandts, Get on with the real bids!”
But still the auctioneer continued. “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the long-time gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give £10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
“We have £10, who will bid £20?”
“Give it to him for £10. Let’s see the great masters.”
“£10 is the bid, won’t someone bid £20?”
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted to buy the more famous pictures for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, twice, sold for £10!”
A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!”
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry the auction is over.”
“What about the paintings?”
“I am sorry. When I was called to conduct the auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought this painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!”
It’s true – as the Bible says – whosoever takes the Son gets everything.
God gave his son for us as the father in the story saw his son given in combat for others.
Much like the auctioneer God’s message today is: “The son, the son, who’ll take the son?” And whoever takes the Son gets everything.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son so who ever believeth shall have eternal life.
Remembrance Sunday 8am
It’s the intention that really matters.
Oh, yes, the road to hell is often paved with them, but the combination of good actions with good intentions is what the worship of God and the building of His Kingdom is all about.
This morning later on we will be standing before our Cenotaph with thousands of other congregations led by Her Majesty the Queen at Whitehall as we pay tribute to the war dead of this and every nation.
On Remembrance Sunday we recall the sacrifice of the few for the good of all.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. It is a good and sweet thing to die for one’s country.
But is it? Reading the poetry of Wilfrid Owen might lead us to question such a sentiment.
Once again it is the intention that really matters, the heart’s intent.
When we look at the names on a Cenotaph, under such an epitaph as I quoted, there are awkward considerations to be made.
Many of those men and women had no intention of laying down their lives at all.
At the same time, if we are talking about those who sacrifice in war time, there will be many whose names are not among the dead who had an intention to offer themselves for their country but whose sacrifice was incomplete.
But was it incomplete and non-sacrificial because they lived on?
Sacrifice is about love before it is about death.
It is the intention that counts.
Here at the Holy Eucharist we commemorate a sacrifice which is a death and very much more. Here day by day we recall the intention, the willing obedience of Our Blessed Lord offered in the garden secretly and on the Cross on high.
Our Lord gave Himself by intention at the Last Supper Table and in Gethsemane to interpret and fill with the richest meaning His agony the next day upon the Cross.
For us who celebrate the Eucharist Sunday by Sunday it is also our intention that matters. It is not the whole of the matter, of course, for we also receive grace, but what we put into this worship, not least our desire to offer ourselves, our time, talents and treasure to the praise and service of God, is pivotal.
The secret of renewal and mission in a parish is to be found at the altar in the sense both of what Jesus gives to us but also in the sense of what we have to offer from the heart with Jesus to the glory of God in the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
It is the intention that counts.
Among Mother Teresa’s most powerful sayings is one that surely gets to the heart of her many good works: it is not how much you do that matters but how much love you put into the action.
Sacrifice is about love and not about death. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3
For us the challenge of Remembrance Sunday is one of the purification of our intentions, the cleansing of the thoughts of our hearts.
As we offer this Eucharist of Requiem for the war dead is there a desire to consecrate your energies to God’s praise and service or are their whole realms within you that lie unconsecrated, broken off from the wholeness of your discipleship?
Our prayer today is one of dedication. Here am I, Lord we are saying, with all my mixed motives.
Here am I with my energies and with so many possibilities before me for good or ill.
Here am I, Lord ready to do your will, ready to be generous with you in this Eucharist and with those you lead me to serve in the week ahead.
It is the intention that really matters – at the Eucharist, in War, in Mission, in Life…
So pray my brothers and sisters brethren that this my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father. Amen.
Oh, yes, the road to hell is often paved with them, but the combination of good actions with good intentions is what the worship of God and the building of His Kingdom is all about.
This morning later on we will be standing before our Cenotaph with thousands of other congregations led by Her Majesty the Queen at Whitehall as we pay tribute to the war dead of this and every nation.
On Remembrance Sunday we recall the sacrifice of the few for the good of all.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. It is a good and sweet thing to die for one’s country.
But is it? Reading the poetry of Wilfrid Owen might lead us to question such a sentiment.
Once again it is the intention that really matters, the heart’s intent.
When we look at the names on a Cenotaph, under such an epitaph as I quoted, there are awkward considerations to be made.
Many of those men and women had no intention of laying down their lives at all.
At the same time, if we are talking about those who sacrifice in war time, there will be many whose names are not among the dead who had an intention to offer themselves for their country but whose sacrifice was incomplete.
But was it incomplete and non-sacrificial because they lived on?
Sacrifice is about love before it is about death.
It is the intention that counts.
Here at the Holy Eucharist we commemorate a sacrifice which is a death and very much more. Here day by day we recall the intention, the willing obedience of Our Blessed Lord offered in the garden secretly and on the Cross on high.
Our Lord gave Himself by intention at the Last Supper Table and in Gethsemane to interpret and fill with the richest meaning His agony the next day upon the Cross.
For us who celebrate the Eucharist Sunday by Sunday it is also our intention that matters. It is not the whole of the matter, of course, for we also receive grace, but what we put into this worship, not least our desire to offer ourselves, our time, talents and treasure to the praise and service of God, is pivotal.
The secret of renewal and mission in a parish is to be found at the altar in the sense both of what Jesus gives to us but also in the sense of what we have to offer from the heart with Jesus to the glory of God in the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
It is the intention that counts.
Among Mother Teresa’s most powerful sayings is one that surely gets to the heart of her many good works: it is not how much you do that matters but how much love you put into the action.
Sacrifice is about love and not about death. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3
For us the challenge of Remembrance Sunday is one of the purification of our intentions, the cleansing of the thoughts of our hearts.
As we offer this Eucharist of Requiem for the war dead is there a desire to consecrate your energies to God’s praise and service or are their whole realms within you that lie unconsecrated, broken off from the wholeness of your discipleship?
Our prayer today is one of dedication. Here am I, Lord we are saying, with all my mixed motives.
Here am I with my energies and with so many possibilities before me for good or ill.
Here am I, Lord ready to do your will, ready to be generous with you in this Eucharist and with those you lead me to serve in the week ahead.
It is the intention that really matters – at the Eucharist, in War, in Mission, in Life…
So pray my brothers and sisters brethren that this my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father. Amen.
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