In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus teaches us to identify and serve people’s needs where they are, to make a difference to them and to keep on the case.
The Samaritan, unlike the priest and Levite, had his eyes on the world around him and the call of that beaten up man. The priest and Levite were strict legalists. Like the community police man who let a boy drown because he had not done health and safety training they went by their ritual law book which said you’d be made unclean if you touched a corpse. They left the man for dead.
The Samaritan, a religious outsider, obeyed a higher law than religion, the law of God and of common humanity. He met the man’s needs. He made a difference, He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Furthermore the hero of the tale kept on his case. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”
The parable speaks about our mission calling as followers of Jesus.
We are called to identify people’s needs and go serve them. Serve them not on our terms but theirs. Serve them without getting in the way of what’s best for them. Serve them also with a view to their ongoing welfare.
A year ago forty of us met one Sunday after service in the Martindale to seek vision for the future and to begin to set priorities for St Giles for 2010 to 2015.
Four groups of us identified independently the same three priorities: renewing our worship, engaging with youth and families and enhancing our buildings.
Over the last year the PCC has been overseeing progress on this vision. Last month we submitted an updated parish MAP to the bishop and this is copied for you in this week’s news sheet.
How are things going a year on? What have we done to accomplish these priorities? What needs to be done? How can we as church members better serve this planned action?
Our MAP is about perceived needs and serving them in an ongoing way.
We have a big vision as a church – God’s glory and the salvation of the world – but we have a tight focus: renewing our worship, engaging with youth and families and enhancing our buildings.
What must I do to inherit eternal life? …You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.
In today’s Gospel Jesus gives us the big vision and illustrates it in a focussed example.
This morning we are reminded of St Giles’ aspiration to serve that same vision with its own particular focus. Like the Good Samaritan we are keeping on the case.
A year on how are we delivering on our three priorities?
First renewing worship. Over the last year we have offered the Holy Eucharist Sunday by Sunday with a monthly variant of all age eucharist at 10am and Book of Common Prayer at 8am. The meaning and significance of word and sacrament has been unpacked for us by a good variety of preachers including some church members.
Outside of Sunday eucharist our worship has included services of reconciliation, healing ministry, Taize, hours of contemplation, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, lay led evening prayer and the Saturday prayer group. Individuals have been discovering the sacraments of confession and anointing.
A major thrust in preaching has been the call to adopt a rule of daily prayer and bible reading and better preparation for the self offering called for by participation in the eucharist.
This autumn we will be running a prayer exploration fortnight on three Thursday evenings starting 21st October. These will involve receiving 20 minutes teaching on an aspect of prayer, 20 minutes praying together and 20 minutes reflecting in threes on the prayer experience.
Brother Roger of Taizé once said ‘when the church becomes a house of prayer the people will come running’. Renewing worship is about renewing the prayerfulness of its participants more than it is about changing service formats important as they are.
Our second mission action priority has been to engage with youth and families.
Over the last year Sunday Club has had something of a revival thanks to an increase in volunteer leaders and excellent connection with Wednesday’s First Steps in the Martindale. At the same time we have seen the hopefully temporary suspension of the Junior Choir though I am aware of musically gifted children who would like to join up and of some individuals who might offer their services to get things going again. On other fronts I have been getting alongside village youth activities alongside my regular commitment to visit the elderly and housebound. The MAP mentions an aspiration to run a parenting course which we would like church members to help lead.
Our third mission action priority has been to enhance buildings for better witness. Over the last year we have seen quite a lot of work on church culminating in the south transept renewal which is accomplishing at this time the long overdue refurbishment of the sacristy and vestry areas. The completion of the repairs recommended at the last five yearly inspection is also in hand, primarily the painting of our porch and sections of the Lady Chapel and sanctuary walling now dried out after water penetration.
On the MAP you will see that we are working towards better Christian witness through the Martindale Centre and towards creating amenities including toilets at St Giles.
At the vision day last year we recognized that any church to grow requires, beyond awesome yet accessible worship, parking, heating and toilets. The PCC is working through its fabric committee to engage with our architect on the best plan for amenities. These are the lowest, longest term priority. Above them stands the Martindale.
Last year at the vision day people felt that St Giles needs the Martindale to engage with Hosted Keynes and go half-way from the church site to where most people live. Over the year we have held special worship and social events there. Church members are involved in the Wednesday First Steps and Thursday coffee morning as well as, less up front, in the youth club, gym and scouting activities. Over the last year work has gone into clearing out the basement rooms and spaces in the Martindale. Numerous possibilities exist for developing Christian work there but their development and the improvement of what goes on there from the point of view of connecting with St Giles is up to church members.
This is the main challenge for us as we plan our mission action. Are there church members who could work with the Martindale Committee to be link people for the activities listed in the news sheet? Or members who would like to run their own evangelistic or other events that would help people in Horsted Keynes to meet up for a good cause or for Christian formation?
In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus taught us to identify and serve people’s needs where they are, to make a difference to them and to keep on the case. When it comes to the action we’re planning in the coming year for prayer, youth or buildings we need like the Good Samaritan to see from God what’s needed and be generous in providing for it with an ongoing commitment.
The Lord bless us through this eucharist as we express our love for him!
The Lord guide us, individually in the coming week and corporately in the coming year, as we seek better expression of the love for our neighbours that he is calling us to.
In particular may he bring such life to the Martindale Centre that it earns a coat of paint!
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Trinity 5 4th July 2010 8am
As you know I spent some time as a priest working in the interior of Guyana, South America and we have the Bishop here with us later on this morning.
There was actually a place called ‘El Dorado’ in my parish, that of the Rupununi.
Goldminers regularly passed through the village from the ‘Gold Shouts’.
My wedding ring has Guyana gold in it from a ‘Gold Shout’.
A ‘Gold Shout’ happens when a miner finds some gold worth shouting about. The only thing is, he doesn’t actually shout. He hides the information about a seam of gold as long as he can.
‘Jesus Christ’ writes the apostle Paul, ‘is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge’
To discover Christ is like a ‘Gold Shout’. It can be a first discovery – what we call evangelism – in which folk speak dramatically of being found after being lost.
It can also be an ongoing discovery as more of Christ’s riches dawn upon us. Either way there’s something about Jesus worth making a noise about.
In a Guyanese ‘Gold Shout’ there is a loss to the discoverer if he shouts too soon.
When we spread our news about Jesus it causes us further gain and not loss.
Love is something that if you give it away, you end up having more…just like a Magic Penny runs the children’s song.
As the seventy appointed in the Gospel went out for Jesus they returned shouting for joy at the blessings that accompanied there evangelistic outing. As we in turn take courage to give out in deed and word for Jesus’ sake we get richer in spirit.
Gold is magic but it can’t rival the magic of Jesus.
A ‘Gold Shout’ is actually quite a dangerous place where the miners readily fight for their coveted discovery.
When we find Jesus we have found something, or rather, someone, we fight not to keep but to give away, to draw people’s attention to, to share or even shout about.
In this Holy Eucharist we welcome afresh the treasure which is Jesus.
With all our heart we should affirm in a moment our Christian faith.
Lord, you are more precious than silver. Lord you are more costly than gold – and nothing I desire compares with you
There was actually a place called ‘El Dorado’ in my parish, that of the Rupununi.
Goldminers regularly passed through the village from the ‘Gold Shouts’.
My wedding ring has Guyana gold in it from a ‘Gold Shout’.
A ‘Gold Shout’ happens when a miner finds some gold worth shouting about. The only thing is, he doesn’t actually shout. He hides the information about a seam of gold as long as he can.
‘Jesus Christ’ writes the apostle Paul, ‘is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge’
To discover Christ is like a ‘Gold Shout’. It can be a first discovery – what we call evangelism – in which folk speak dramatically of being found after being lost.
It can also be an ongoing discovery as more of Christ’s riches dawn upon us. Either way there’s something about Jesus worth making a noise about.
In a Guyanese ‘Gold Shout’ there is a loss to the discoverer if he shouts too soon.
When we spread our news about Jesus it causes us further gain and not loss.
Love is something that if you give it away, you end up having more…just like a Magic Penny runs the children’s song.
As the seventy appointed in the Gospel went out for Jesus they returned shouting for joy at the blessings that accompanied there evangelistic outing. As we in turn take courage to give out in deed and word for Jesus’ sake we get richer in spirit.
Gold is magic but it can’t rival the magic of Jesus.
A ‘Gold Shout’ is actually quite a dangerous place where the miners readily fight for their coveted discovery.
When we find Jesus we have found something, or rather, someone, we fight not to keep but to give away, to draw people’s attention to, to share or even shout about.
In this Holy Eucharist we welcome afresh the treasure which is Jesus.
With all our heart we should affirm in a moment our Christian faith.
Lord, you are more precious than silver. Lord you are more costly than gold – and nothing I desire compares with you
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Trinity 4 BCP Luke 6.36f 27th June 2010
Give and it shall be given unto you.
Besides football we’ve been thinking a lot about the economy this week.
You could see our gospel reading as topical in its call for generosity – topical or countercultural!
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
Give - in this word and action lies success in life although it flies in many ways against the spirit of the world.
We could think of our home economy and how it is best served by Christian principles but I will choose something more basic to many households.
Think of the meaning of marriage. In it we give ourselves. We take, yes. People don’t get married unless they got something out of one another, so to speak, but unless there is giving there is little blessing.
Giving of time one to another, giving of patience, giving the benefit of the doubt, giving care to one another.
This is not a natural action. It is so far, but when our human capacity to give seems exhausted, be it in marriage or in other realms, we need our Christianity which is the open line to heaven Jesus gives us.
Christianity is about grace, about help from above. Blessed are those who have discovered that grace and help as a reality to aid daily living and loving!
In Jesus, God's unbounded love is given to all who will welcome his Holy Spirit. We receive from his Spirit to give more than we can humanly give to others.
In the sacrament of marriage couples receive a special anointing in that Spirit. In this, the sacrament of the altar we receive the same Spirit.
With that gift, in Holy Communion or marriage, comes the call to love as the Lord loves you, to give as the Lord has given to you.
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
Our lives, our marriages, our churches, to be most fruitful need to be open to God, who is able, by his spirit, to melt our meanheartedness and make us ever more generous.
Through this Holy Communion Jesus gives himself to us under the veil of bread and wine.
Let us respond to his word to us this morning by a resolve to be generous and make space for others and for him in our hearts. Amen.
Besides football we’ve been thinking a lot about the economy this week.
You could see our gospel reading as topical in its call for generosity – topical or countercultural!
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
Give - in this word and action lies success in life although it flies in many ways against the spirit of the world.
We could think of our home economy and how it is best served by Christian principles but I will choose something more basic to many households.
Think of the meaning of marriage. In it we give ourselves. We take, yes. People don’t get married unless they got something out of one another, so to speak, but unless there is giving there is little blessing.
Giving of time one to another, giving of patience, giving the benefit of the doubt, giving care to one another.
This is not a natural action. It is so far, but when our human capacity to give seems exhausted, be it in marriage or in other realms, we need our Christianity which is the open line to heaven Jesus gives us.
Christianity is about grace, about help from above. Blessed are those who have discovered that grace and help as a reality to aid daily living and loving!
In Jesus, God's unbounded love is given to all who will welcome his Holy Spirit. We receive from his Spirit to give more than we can humanly give to others.
In the sacrament of marriage couples receive a special anointing in that Spirit. In this, the sacrament of the altar we receive the same Spirit.
With that gift, in Holy Communion or marriage, comes the call to love as the Lord loves you, to give as the Lord has given to you.
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
Our lives, our marriages, our churches, to be most fruitful need to be open to God, who is able, by his spirit, to melt our meanheartedness and make us ever more generous.
Through this Holy Communion Jesus gives himself to us under the veil of bread and wine.
Let us respond to his word to us this morning by a resolve to be generous and make space for others and for him in our hearts. Amen.
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Baptismal eucharist 13th June 2010
If you had to argue with someone for the existence of God you could try a number of lines.
You could say that physics accepts the universe had a beginning 14 thousand million years ago in the Big Bang. The idea of someone who gave it that beginning makes more sense therefore than it did 50 years ago when there was a steady state theory that gave the universe no beginning.
A second argument for God is from the ordered nature of the universe and the fine tuning it seems to have which has allowed life and consciousness. As Einstein said once, ‘The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.’ Does matter really come before mind or is it the other way round? We’re given minds not only to explore the world we inhabit but to understand the Mind that put us here.
A third argument for God is to ask people to think about themselves. You and I are evidence for God. There’s something about us and our ability to shelve our own interests for others that points beyond the animal kingdom. When we show love we’re showing something beyond this world, what has been called the image of God in us.
Today we baptise Rupert Harris. The birth of a baby always gets people thinking about God and love. In Rupert’s case he brings joy as the least of a family of six with mum and dad, John and Caroline, brothers Alexander, Cameron and sister Anushka. The children were telling me the other day how much happiness Rupert’s birth has brought them. They think that having him has built even more love in their family.
We’re thinking about love this morning. The collect for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity spoke of ‘that most excellent gift of love... without which whoever lives is counted dead before God’. The epistle reminded us ‘love bears all things and...never ends’. In the second Gospel reading we had that mysterious saying of Jesus about the sinful woman, ‘her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much’.
I read the other day a story of how a mentally impaired youngster was in the chemist’s. Seated on the floor he began to play with some bottles he’d taken from the shelves. The chemist ordered him to stop and then scolded him with an even sharper tone. Just then the boy’s sister came up, put her arms around him and whispered something in his ear. Right away, he put the bottles back in place. ‘You see,’ his sister explained to the chemist, ‘he doesn’t understand when you talk to him like that. I just love it into him.’
People respond negatively to being scolded and harassed. Those six words, ‘I just love it into him’ are another clue to God and indeed to life.
Perhaps the greatest distortion of Christianity in our age is that it’s a scolding, harassing creed that targets those who fall short. It’s actually the very opposite of that false perception. We hold to a Saviour who wants the best fro us and gives us that best by loving it into us and not forcing it in.
‘Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way’.
‘Jesus is patient; Jesus is kind; Jesus is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on his own way’.
The great thing about the Christianity into which we baptise Rupert this morning is this – there is Someone over us who is love. God treats us as better than we are so we get inspiration to do the same. Look how Jesus dealt with the sinful woman in the gospel. Her love for him came out of his love for her, his readiness to treat her not as the sinner she was but as the beloved daughter of God she was called to be.
So it is with us. We are sinners but love covers a multitude of sins.
A former inmate of a Nazi concentration camp was visiting a friend who had shared the ordeal with him. ‘Have you forgiven the Nazis?’ he asked his friend. ‘Yes.’. ‘Well I haven’t. I’m still consumed with hatred for them.’ ‘In that case’ said the friend gently, ‘they still have you in prison’.
Our enemies are not so much those who hate us but those whom we hate. Once we refuse to treat people as better than they are we fall short of Jesus Christ who actually died for people who were pretty worthless and I am thinking about myself primarily.
‘Without love – which means forgiveness many a time - whoever lives is counted dead before God’.
God has blessed the Harris family with love in Rupert’s birth. May he continue to bless them as their family is linked once more to God’s family at his baptism.
May God’s love be poured afresh into our hearts through this eucharist for the world is thirsty for love.
There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less – that is the riddle of Jesus Christ.
We want to turn to him now, repent of our sins and renounce evil
You could say that physics accepts the universe had a beginning 14 thousand million years ago in the Big Bang. The idea of someone who gave it that beginning makes more sense therefore than it did 50 years ago when there was a steady state theory that gave the universe no beginning.
A second argument for God is from the ordered nature of the universe and the fine tuning it seems to have which has allowed life and consciousness. As Einstein said once, ‘The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.’ Does matter really come before mind or is it the other way round? We’re given minds not only to explore the world we inhabit but to understand the Mind that put us here.
A third argument for God is to ask people to think about themselves. You and I are evidence for God. There’s something about us and our ability to shelve our own interests for others that points beyond the animal kingdom. When we show love we’re showing something beyond this world, what has been called the image of God in us.
Today we baptise Rupert Harris. The birth of a baby always gets people thinking about God and love. In Rupert’s case he brings joy as the least of a family of six with mum and dad, John and Caroline, brothers Alexander, Cameron and sister Anushka. The children were telling me the other day how much happiness Rupert’s birth has brought them. They think that having him has built even more love in their family.
We’re thinking about love this morning. The collect for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity spoke of ‘that most excellent gift of love... without which whoever lives is counted dead before God’. The epistle reminded us ‘love bears all things and...never ends’. In the second Gospel reading we had that mysterious saying of Jesus about the sinful woman, ‘her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much’.
I read the other day a story of how a mentally impaired youngster was in the chemist’s. Seated on the floor he began to play with some bottles he’d taken from the shelves. The chemist ordered him to stop and then scolded him with an even sharper tone. Just then the boy’s sister came up, put her arms around him and whispered something in his ear. Right away, he put the bottles back in place. ‘You see,’ his sister explained to the chemist, ‘he doesn’t understand when you talk to him like that. I just love it into him.’
People respond negatively to being scolded and harassed. Those six words, ‘I just love it into him’ are another clue to God and indeed to life.
Perhaps the greatest distortion of Christianity in our age is that it’s a scolding, harassing creed that targets those who fall short. It’s actually the very opposite of that false perception. We hold to a Saviour who wants the best fro us and gives us that best by loving it into us and not forcing it in.
‘Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way’.
‘Jesus is patient; Jesus is kind; Jesus is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on his own way’.
The great thing about the Christianity into which we baptise Rupert this morning is this – there is Someone over us who is love. God treats us as better than we are so we get inspiration to do the same. Look how Jesus dealt with the sinful woman in the gospel. Her love for him came out of his love for her, his readiness to treat her not as the sinner she was but as the beloved daughter of God she was called to be.
So it is with us. We are sinners but love covers a multitude of sins.
A former inmate of a Nazi concentration camp was visiting a friend who had shared the ordeal with him. ‘Have you forgiven the Nazis?’ he asked his friend. ‘Yes.’. ‘Well I haven’t. I’m still consumed with hatred for them.’ ‘In that case’ said the friend gently, ‘they still have you in prison’.
Our enemies are not so much those who hate us but those whom we hate. Once we refuse to treat people as better than they are we fall short of Jesus Christ who actually died for people who were pretty worthless and I am thinking about myself primarily.
‘Without love – which means forgiveness many a time - whoever lives is counted dead before God’.
God has blessed the Harris family with love in Rupert’s birth. May he continue to bless them as their family is linked once more to God’s family at his baptism.
May God’s love be poured afresh into our hearts through this eucharist for the world is thirsty for love.
There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less – that is the riddle of Jesus Christ.
We want to turn to him now, repent of our sins and renounce evil
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Trinity 1 in Corpus Christi-tide 6th June 2010
I want to do some interactive thinking this morning about the meaning and power of the eucharist. Since this is at the heart of our life together as Christians it makes sense once in a while to consider what we receive and what we put into Sunday worship.
The Eucharist is the HOUR OF JESUS. We come as the Lord's people to the Lord's house on the Lord's day around the Lord's table - to be impressed by Jesus!
The Eucharist is Jesus' embrace - like a mother consoling a hurting child...
It is the place that builds the COMMUNION which is the church.
The Eucharist is Christ's SACRIFICE and ours. It is the memorial of his once for all redemption.
The Eucharist is Christ's PRESENCE at the table of his word and the altar of the sacrament.
The Eucharist is a great PROMISE, the pledge of glory, like the cinema advertisement, a preview of forthcoming attractions.
I’ve got those four headings for us to look at and hopefully to engage your thinking aloud including any questions you might have:
COMMUNION - SACRIFICE - PRESENCE - PROMISE
We could go for these one by one but since they are stated poetically in the refrain for Corpus Christi on the pew sheet let’s start by looking at and reading the refrain together and see what thinking emerges.
Have a look through the antiphon. It was written by St Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century from a scripture base and has a noble simplicity.
You might recognise the four themes of COMMUNION - SACRIFICE - PRESENCE – PROMISE
Have a think about the phrase that most speaks to you. Or of what’s missing from your understanding of the eucharist?
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ, his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace, and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours.
Let’s look more closely under the four headings I spoke of.
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ...
The Eucharist is the place that builds the COMMUNION which is the church.
What makes us one?
We are made one not by having the same feelings but by sharing one bread in penitence, not trusting in our own righteousness but in God's manifold and great mercies.
We become what we are - the body of Christ - more fully.
We are made one with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ...His sufferings are remembered...
The Eucharist is Christ's SACRIFICE and ours. It is the memorial of his once for all redemption.
When you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11.26).
We stand at the Cross.
How do you understand the link between what Jesus did for us on Calvary and what you’re doing every Sunday at this service?
We recall Jesus - to use a law court analogy, not just as a witness recalls what he saw but in the sense of the recalling of the witness.
We see the gift of Jesus to the Father and to us.
Taking, blessing, breaking, sharing. This is our grand invitation to enter into the movement of his self-offering.
Paschal Lamb thine offering finished once for all when thou wast slain in its fullness undiminished shall forever more remain cleansing souls from every stain.
The eucharist has a strong intercessory aspect: coming before the Lord with people on our hearts.
Let's share any experience of the eucharist as a privileged place of prayer.
Our minds are filled with his grace...
The Eucharist is Christ's PRESENCE at the table of his word and the altar of the sacrament.
How do you see Christ’s presence in the eucharist?
How else can people come close to Jesus in this world other than through word and sacrament?
The Eucharist is a place of empowerment. People who recive Holy Communion receive power.
We receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours...
The Eucharist is a great PROMISE, the pledge of glory, like the cinema advertisement, a preview of forthcoming attractions.
The use of material objects reminds us that God is transforming the whole universe.
What difference do you think what we do here makes to the world?
The Eucharist serves the building up of a new creation in which the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.(Revelation 11.15)
To summarise the Eucharist is: THE HOUR OF JESUS - COMMUNION - SACRIFICE - PRESENCE -PROMISE
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ, his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace, and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours.
The Eucharist is the HOUR OF JESUS. We come as the Lord's people to the Lord's house on the Lord's day around the Lord's table - to be impressed by Jesus!
The Eucharist is Jesus' embrace - like a mother consoling a hurting child...
It is the place that builds the COMMUNION which is the church.
The Eucharist is Christ's SACRIFICE and ours. It is the memorial of his once for all redemption.
The Eucharist is Christ's PRESENCE at the table of his word and the altar of the sacrament.
The Eucharist is a great PROMISE, the pledge of glory, like the cinema advertisement, a preview of forthcoming attractions.
I’ve got those four headings for us to look at and hopefully to engage your thinking aloud including any questions you might have:
COMMUNION - SACRIFICE - PRESENCE - PROMISE
We could go for these one by one but since they are stated poetically in the refrain for Corpus Christi on the pew sheet let’s start by looking at and reading the refrain together and see what thinking emerges.
Have a look through the antiphon. It was written by St Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century from a scripture base and has a noble simplicity.
You might recognise the four themes of COMMUNION - SACRIFICE - PRESENCE – PROMISE
Have a think about the phrase that most speaks to you. Or of what’s missing from your understanding of the eucharist?
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ, his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace, and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours.
Let’s look more closely under the four headings I spoke of.
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ...
The Eucharist is the place that builds the COMMUNION which is the church.
What makes us one?
We are made one not by having the same feelings but by sharing one bread in penitence, not trusting in our own righteousness but in God's manifold and great mercies.
We become what we are - the body of Christ - more fully.
We are made one with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ...His sufferings are remembered...
The Eucharist is Christ's SACRIFICE and ours. It is the memorial of his once for all redemption.
When you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11.26).
We stand at the Cross.
How do you understand the link between what Jesus did for us on Calvary and what you’re doing every Sunday at this service?
We recall Jesus - to use a law court analogy, not just as a witness recalls what he saw but in the sense of the recalling of the witness.
We see the gift of Jesus to the Father and to us.
Taking, blessing, breaking, sharing. This is our grand invitation to enter into the movement of his self-offering.
Paschal Lamb thine offering finished once for all when thou wast slain in its fullness undiminished shall forever more remain cleansing souls from every stain.
The eucharist has a strong intercessory aspect: coming before the Lord with people on our hearts.
Let's share any experience of the eucharist as a privileged place of prayer.
Our minds are filled with his grace...
The Eucharist is Christ's PRESENCE at the table of his word and the altar of the sacrament.
How do you see Christ’s presence in the eucharist?
How else can people come close to Jesus in this world other than through word and sacrament?
The Eucharist is a place of empowerment. People who recive Holy Communion receive power.
We receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours...
The Eucharist is a great PROMISE, the pledge of glory, like the cinema advertisement, a preview of forthcoming attractions.
The use of material objects reminds us that God is transforming the whole universe.
What difference do you think what we do here makes to the world?
The Eucharist serves the building up of a new creation in which the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.(Revelation 11.15)
To summarise the Eucharist is: THE HOUR OF JESUS - COMMUNION - SACRIFICE - PRESENCE -PROMISE
O Sacred feast in which we partake of Christ, his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace, and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Pentecost Sunday 23rd May 2010
Introduction
Welcome to the triumphant end of Easter season when we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost also called Whitsunday.
We’ve just sung about becoming the place wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.
How can we understand this?
I’ve got an illustration.
Each one of us human beings is like a coffee pot.
We’re filled with so much goodness, love and patience to give out to others.
We give out and out and out - until we get empty. Then we find the difference between Christians and others.
What do you think that difference is?
Believers have found there's a lid on our coffee pot and a God willing to refill us, through it, with love, power and praise exactly when we’re empty and needy.
The 'lid' is faith and what gets poured in by the Spirit's power is 'grace'.
Our sin is linked to our self sufficiency, to our attempts to live in our own strength without the help of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s read through the confession before we say it together and ask God’s forgiveness.
Homily
So what were the signs when the Holy Spirit first came down?
Rush of wind, tongues of fire, sense of filling, speaking in other languages.
Remember the coffee pot getting filled, opening up for a refill of love and empowerment when the going gets tough in life? It had been tough for the first disciples, but they prayed for the Spirit and the Spirit came.
We believe he comes in every act of Christian prayer but especially at the eucharist where he speaks through the bible and makes bread and wine our heavenly food.
The first Pentecost must have been quite a wild occasion, all that wind and fire and speaking in tongues. Elsewhere in the bible the Holy Spirit speaks more quietly. He is also a still, small voice.
In 1985 a Canon John Dorman I hardly knew wrote to me with to share how the Holy Spirit had laid on him to write from Guyana to ask me to consider running a theological college for Amerindian priests. It was a job for two single priests and married priests were not under consideration.
The problem was that though I was then in the Company of Mission Priests who take annual promises to stay single I had been praying about marriage! So it was with some reluctance that I came to see John Dorman’s letter as the voice of the Holy Spirit.
How could you see the hinterland of Guyana deprived of the sacraments because I wouldn’t leave my comfort zone! I needed to go. I went and as I went, in God’s loving kindness, I met Anne. She was at the USPG College of Ascension where Fr Allan Buik and I went to train before going to Guyana.
Though Anne was going to Argentina to serve in the diocesan office both the Bishop of Argentina and the then Bishop of Guyana agreed to our marriage which was celebrated on Pentecost Sunday 1988.
It was a great Pentecost Day. The whole village came to the celebration which began with the slaughter of a cow at dawn and cost me a bag of rice, sugar and flour! A Hindu business man I played squash with provided a plane to fly in our parents. The Holy Spirit was there working to smooth the logistics of marriage in the jungle!
I’m telling you all this because I know the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. He is all powerful. He also writes straight through crooked lines as Anne and I have discovered.
You know that our charitable giving is for our new Guyana link this Sunday and next – we use the orange envelopes for this. This is why I want to underline Pentecost as a Sunday which sets our eyes on the mission field. The fact that the Bishop of Guyana is visiting us in six weeks time is also relevant. We want to give him our collection personally. You can read about the new bishop and the mission of the church in Guyana by taking away a free copy of El Dorado from the back of church
Meanwhile the Holy Spirit is also filling lives around us here in Horsted Keynes. I wish more of us could have been here last Sunday night with Fr Martin when two teams ministered prayer and anointing to a group of folk who seemed to gain a real lift!
God is at work here – here and now. Let’s stand to acclaim him as we welcome the holy gospel.
Welcome to the triumphant end of Easter season when we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost also called Whitsunday.
We’ve just sung about becoming the place wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.
How can we understand this?
I’ve got an illustration.
Each one of us human beings is like a coffee pot.
We’re filled with so much goodness, love and patience to give out to others.
We give out and out and out - until we get empty. Then we find the difference between Christians and others.
What do you think that difference is?
Believers have found there's a lid on our coffee pot and a God willing to refill us, through it, with love, power and praise exactly when we’re empty and needy.
The 'lid' is faith and what gets poured in by the Spirit's power is 'grace'.
Our sin is linked to our self sufficiency, to our attempts to live in our own strength without the help of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s read through the confession before we say it together and ask God’s forgiveness.
Homily
So what were the signs when the Holy Spirit first came down?
Rush of wind, tongues of fire, sense of filling, speaking in other languages.
Remember the coffee pot getting filled, opening up for a refill of love and empowerment when the going gets tough in life? It had been tough for the first disciples, but they prayed for the Spirit and the Spirit came.
We believe he comes in every act of Christian prayer but especially at the eucharist where he speaks through the bible and makes bread and wine our heavenly food.
The first Pentecost must have been quite a wild occasion, all that wind and fire and speaking in tongues. Elsewhere in the bible the Holy Spirit speaks more quietly. He is also a still, small voice.
In 1985 a Canon John Dorman I hardly knew wrote to me with to share how the Holy Spirit had laid on him to write from Guyana to ask me to consider running a theological college for Amerindian priests. It was a job for two single priests and married priests were not under consideration.
The problem was that though I was then in the Company of Mission Priests who take annual promises to stay single I had been praying about marriage! So it was with some reluctance that I came to see John Dorman’s letter as the voice of the Holy Spirit.
How could you see the hinterland of Guyana deprived of the sacraments because I wouldn’t leave my comfort zone! I needed to go. I went and as I went, in God’s loving kindness, I met Anne. She was at the USPG College of Ascension where Fr Allan Buik and I went to train before going to Guyana.
Though Anne was going to Argentina to serve in the diocesan office both the Bishop of Argentina and the then Bishop of Guyana agreed to our marriage which was celebrated on Pentecost Sunday 1988.
It was a great Pentecost Day. The whole village came to the celebration which began with the slaughter of a cow at dawn and cost me a bag of rice, sugar and flour! A Hindu business man I played squash with provided a plane to fly in our parents. The Holy Spirit was there working to smooth the logistics of marriage in the jungle!
I’m telling you all this because I know the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. He is all powerful. He also writes straight through crooked lines as Anne and I have discovered.
You know that our charitable giving is for our new Guyana link this Sunday and next – we use the orange envelopes for this. This is why I want to underline Pentecost as a Sunday which sets our eyes on the mission field. The fact that the Bishop of Guyana is visiting us in six weeks time is also relevant. We want to give him our collection personally. You can read about the new bishop and the mission of the church in Guyana by taking away a free copy of El Dorado from the back of church
Meanwhile the Holy Spirit is also filling lives around us here in Horsted Keynes. I wish more of us could have been here last Sunday night with Fr Martin when two teams ministered prayer and anointing to a group of folk who seemed to gain a real lift!
God is at work here – here and now. Let’s stand to acclaim him as we welcome the holy gospel.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Easter 7 The road to salvation Sunday 16 May 2010
It’s been a momentous week in British politics.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg deserve our prayers as they lead a new coalition in the national interest.
They are building a way out of the deficit and we will all pay the price. Last week I was privileged to travel to Bavaria on behalf of the Diocese and gather with 40 participants from 16 nations across Europe to study Biblical ethics. As I learned we had a new government during the week my new Romanian friend Peter learned his wages had been cut by 25% and his mother’s pension by 15% by government order in Romania. I was impressed by his humility in the face of such a financial blow.
From David and Nick to Paul and Luke in our first reading. You may remember that St Luke is author of the Acts and he travelled with St Paul. Hence today’s passage begins One day, as we were going to the place of prayer. It goes on say we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.' She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.‘ And it came out that very hour.
‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.' That’s the phrase from that leapt out at me as I was reflecting on the scripture fresh from my Bavarian study leave with the new coalition in mind.
In Acts 16:17 we read how the psychic slave girl embarrasses Paul and Luke by shouting out: ‘These men are working for the Most High God. They’re laying out the road of salvation for you.’
What a great image! - ‘laying out the road of salvation’. It sounds like laying out the red carpet!
Just as in the days of his flesh it was the evil spirits who seemed to know the truth of Jesus more than his human hearers so with the first believers. The devil knows a trick or two they rightly say.
As the days of Eastertide move to a close, we’re reminded today of the ongoing consequences of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the world. Jesus has opened up, laid out a road of salvation.
It’s the road that leads up to St Giles or to all we stand for, a road that goes up and down to a place of joyful freedom. I noticed that in my absence Church Road, though still up and down, has been smoothed out at the top. No holes left to trip our members!
Anyway we stand on a road to salvation, Church Road! Ups and downs, holes, yet a place for people going somewhere. St Giles isn’t really a cul de sac, did you know?
So what does it mean to be saved?
Last week I was sharing with men and women from all over Europe one in their admission of the truth of scripture and the Christian creeds. With me they were engaged in paving the road to salvation for people living in places as far apart as Iceland and Ukraine, England and Finland. To be saved, I think we all agreed, is to be drawn to God through Jesus and come onto the road of salvation destined for the Trinity.
As Paul writes to another of his companions, Timothy This is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all. (1 Timothy 2.3-6)
If God desires salvation for all he still requires our consent if we’re to move forward onto that road.
What is that road? Five thoughts.
It is a road into belonging. Our Lord prays his Father in today’s Gospel I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Salvation is a pathway into belonging to Jesus and his Father through their go-between, the Holy Spirit who seals our union in baptism, confirmation and eucharist. The road of salvation is a path through which isolated people can find belonging with us in the holy, catholic Church that can be renamed God’s never-ending family.
It is secondly a road into truth. To be saved is nothing less than to come to the knowledge of the truth. The wonderful, inclusive truth that is ours in Jesus our Saviour! At our conference in Josefstal, Bavaria we looked at the truth of scripture. A Lutheran professor, Karl Foitzik, gave us a helpful analogy. Biblical truth is communicated more in analogue than digital form. You know how precisely digital radios operate compared to the fuzziness of analogue sets. Expecting the bible to provide precise, literal truth, he said, was problematic. In our discussions we recognized the church as interpreter of scripture and our need to set issues such as homosexuality in a fuller context than literal prohibitions. The truth at stake in sexual ethics links to an age old understanding of the truth of marriage and sexual intercourse as the union of life-giving love by male and female. If the road to salvation is open to both homosexual and heterosexual it is arguable whether there can be a third state of life besides marriage and celibacy.
Back to the road. Salvation’s a road to belonging, truth and thirdly a way of compassion. Christianity got famous over love. ‘See how these Christians love one another’ they said at first. May people say it of us today!
Humanity and compassion are strongly linked and most often seen hand in hand where there is suffering. I find Buddhist teaching on spiritual detachment helpful. I do not find the image of the Buddha helpful. There is something that doesn’t resonate in a religious symbol of smiling contentment. For us this is the symbol – point to the Crucifix – and it is one with suffering humanity in every age. The salvation Christ offers is one that’s lit up the bed of suffering, the inner turmoil and psychological anguish of billions through the ages. The God shown us in Christ’s a God of compassion, which means literally one who suffers with you. Who indeed expects nothing of us that he’s not prepared to go through himself as he did on Calvary. Our altar stands by Calvary, our worship is Eucharistic, giving thanks for the Cross and determined to stay on the royal road of the Cross, the red carpet of salvation, til resurrection day of which every Sunday is anticipation.
What’s distinctive about Christian salvation is its capacity to go not against but beyond the grain of human nature into what seem to be impossible realms through empowerment by the grace of the Spirit.
So salvation is fourthly a road to empowerment. When the heart of God touches our heart it lifts the stones that lie over the springs of renewing grace. As we heard in today’s second reading from the book of Revelation chapter 22 verse 17: The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.The Spirit of God refreshes and empowers those on the Christian road. He can also break up the stoniness in our hearts like a heavenly microwave. The work of salvation takes us on a road the world so needs today, a road that builds mercy in the soul! The heart of God makes what is impossible for us possible through the possibilities of God – which makes it, lastly, is a road to holiness.
As we studied the bible for 8 days in Germany we recognized how its interpretation is not just about rational understanding. The best interpreters are the saints, the holy men and women who speak to us still from the faith of the church through the ages.
When we read the bible it’s got authority over us. If we’re submitted to the bible as God’s Word it will be his instrument. This doesn’t necessarily mean a literal understanding but a critical loyalty served by knowledge of the creed, engagement in Christian worship and obedience to God’s commandments.
Holiness is a quality of life that lights up the road of salvation to all who stand around enticing them to step on to it. Such holiness derives from trust in God’s promises in the bible as well as in God’s Spirit who comes upon us in prayer and worship.
We started with David and Nick laying out a road for economic recovery and moved to Paul and Luke.
Their road, our road is also a road for Britain today but it is more than that. It is the way we are charged with commending as Christians, a way into the heart of God no less and everlasting salvation.
It’s a laying out the red carpet towards belonging and truth, compassion, empowerment and holiness.
Thousands are living and dying without Christ and we want them to discover a purpose for living and a reason for dying - the very purpose and reason we have as Christians.
May the eucharist we celebrate make us better servants of sisters and brothers lost in life! May this morning’s worship hour lend us courage to lay out the red carpet for them by our words and deeds and by what God is making us in Christ. Amen.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg deserve our prayers as they lead a new coalition in the national interest.
They are building a way out of the deficit and we will all pay the price. Last week I was privileged to travel to Bavaria on behalf of the Diocese and gather with 40 participants from 16 nations across Europe to study Biblical ethics. As I learned we had a new government during the week my new Romanian friend Peter learned his wages had been cut by 25% and his mother’s pension by 15% by government order in Romania. I was impressed by his humility in the face of such a financial blow.
From David and Nick to Paul and Luke in our first reading. You may remember that St Luke is author of the Acts and he travelled with St Paul. Hence today’s passage begins One day, as we were going to the place of prayer. It goes on say we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.' She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.‘ And it came out that very hour.
‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.' That’s the phrase from that leapt out at me as I was reflecting on the scripture fresh from my Bavarian study leave with the new coalition in mind.
In Acts 16:17 we read how the psychic slave girl embarrasses Paul and Luke by shouting out: ‘These men are working for the Most High God. They’re laying out the road of salvation for you.’
What a great image! - ‘laying out the road of salvation’. It sounds like laying out the red carpet!
Just as in the days of his flesh it was the evil spirits who seemed to know the truth of Jesus more than his human hearers so with the first believers. The devil knows a trick or two they rightly say.
As the days of Eastertide move to a close, we’re reminded today of the ongoing consequences of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the world. Jesus has opened up, laid out a road of salvation.
It’s the road that leads up to St Giles or to all we stand for, a road that goes up and down to a place of joyful freedom. I noticed that in my absence Church Road, though still up and down, has been smoothed out at the top. No holes left to trip our members!
Anyway we stand on a road to salvation, Church Road! Ups and downs, holes, yet a place for people going somewhere. St Giles isn’t really a cul de sac, did you know?
So what does it mean to be saved?
Last week I was sharing with men and women from all over Europe one in their admission of the truth of scripture and the Christian creeds. With me they were engaged in paving the road to salvation for people living in places as far apart as Iceland and Ukraine, England and Finland. To be saved, I think we all agreed, is to be drawn to God through Jesus and come onto the road of salvation destined for the Trinity.
As Paul writes to another of his companions, Timothy This is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all. (1 Timothy 2.3-6)
If God desires salvation for all he still requires our consent if we’re to move forward onto that road.
What is that road? Five thoughts.
It is a road into belonging. Our Lord prays his Father in today’s Gospel I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Salvation is a pathway into belonging to Jesus and his Father through their go-between, the Holy Spirit who seals our union in baptism, confirmation and eucharist. The road of salvation is a path through which isolated people can find belonging with us in the holy, catholic Church that can be renamed God’s never-ending family.
It is secondly a road into truth. To be saved is nothing less than to come to the knowledge of the truth. The wonderful, inclusive truth that is ours in Jesus our Saviour! At our conference in Josefstal, Bavaria we looked at the truth of scripture. A Lutheran professor, Karl Foitzik, gave us a helpful analogy. Biblical truth is communicated more in analogue than digital form. You know how precisely digital radios operate compared to the fuzziness of analogue sets. Expecting the bible to provide precise, literal truth, he said, was problematic. In our discussions we recognized the church as interpreter of scripture and our need to set issues such as homosexuality in a fuller context than literal prohibitions. The truth at stake in sexual ethics links to an age old understanding of the truth of marriage and sexual intercourse as the union of life-giving love by male and female. If the road to salvation is open to both homosexual and heterosexual it is arguable whether there can be a third state of life besides marriage and celibacy.
Back to the road. Salvation’s a road to belonging, truth and thirdly a way of compassion. Christianity got famous over love. ‘See how these Christians love one another’ they said at first. May people say it of us today!
Humanity and compassion are strongly linked and most often seen hand in hand where there is suffering. I find Buddhist teaching on spiritual detachment helpful. I do not find the image of the Buddha helpful. There is something that doesn’t resonate in a religious symbol of smiling contentment. For us this is the symbol – point to the Crucifix – and it is one with suffering humanity in every age. The salvation Christ offers is one that’s lit up the bed of suffering, the inner turmoil and psychological anguish of billions through the ages. The God shown us in Christ’s a God of compassion, which means literally one who suffers with you. Who indeed expects nothing of us that he’s not prepared to go through himself as he did on Calvary. Our altar stands by Calvary, our worship is Eucharistic, giving thanks for the Cross and determined to stay on the royal road of the Cross, the red carpet of salvation, til resurrection day of which every Sunday is anticipation.
What’s distinctive about Christian salvation is its capacity to go not against but beyond the grain of human nature into what seem to be impossible realms through empowerment by the grace of the Spirit.
So salvation is fourthly a road to empowerment. When the heart of God touches our heart it lifts the stones that lie over the springs of renewing grace. As we heard in today’s second reading from the book of Revelation chapter 22 verse 17: The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.The Spirit of God refreshes and empowers those on the Christian road. He can also break up the stoniness in our hearts like a heavenly microwave. The work of salvation takes us on a road the world so needs today, a road that builds mercy in the soul! The heart of God makes what is impossible for us possible through the possibilities of God – which makes it, lastly, is a road to holiness.
As we studied the bible for 8 days in Germany we recognized how its interpretation is not just about rational understanding. The best interpreters are the saints, the holy men and women who speak to us still from the faith of the church through the ages.
When we read the bible it’s got authority over us. If we’re submitted to the bible as God’s Word it will be his instrument. This doesn’t necessarily mean a literal understanding but a critical loyalty served by knowledge of the creed, engagement in Christian worship and obedience to God’s commandments.
Holiness is a quality of life that lights up the road of salvation to all who stand around enticing them to step on to it. Such holiness derives from trust in God’s promises in the bible as well as in God’s Spirit who comes upon us in prayer and worship.
We started with David and Nick laying out a road for economic recovery and moved to Paul and Luke.
Their road, our road is also a road for Britain today but it is more than that. It is the way we are charged with commending as Christians, a way into the heart of God no less and everlasting salvation.
It’s a laying out the red carpet towards belonging and truth, compassion, empowerment and holiness.
Thousands are living and dying without Christ and we want them to discover a purpose for living and a reason for dying - the very purpose and reason we have as Christians.
May the eucharist we celebrate make us better servants of sisters and brothers lost in life! May this morning’s worship hour lend us courage to lay out the red carpet for them by our words and deeds and by what God is making us in Christ. Amen.
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