Salvation - Gift, Promise, Choice John 6 Trinity10 (19B) Salvation 9th Aug 15

Has anyone ever asked you if you were saved? How would you answer?

I was visiting the other day. Someone was sharing problems but he set them against what he called ‘the happy go lucky attitude’ he had because he knew, in the end, everything would work out. He knew he was saved.

This came back to me as I looked at this morning's Gospel which has a lot to say about salvation and what it is to be saved. These last few weeks we've been reading through the sixth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, a chapter that ends with Peter's famous summary: Lord, to whom shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.

Salvation, eternal life, is a gift, a promise and a choice - three headings gathering up the teaching of St John Chapter 6 - so we'll take them one by one!

1.                  The Gift

Looking over the whole Chapter we see a tremendous emphasis on the wonder and mystery of the gift of Jesus.

The chapter starts with a tale of miraculous feeding. Five thousand are fed - an image of overflowing, wondrous grace.

Then Jesus begins to make many points about this sign, bringing out not just the meaning of that lunch in Tiberias but the ultimate meaning of all things - and how we can enter into that.

The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world he says in the passage we read last week, v33.

The multiplication of the loaves represents the abundance of life-giving grace that has come to the earth.

Who is the bread of God? He answers at the start and end of today’s gospel v35: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty and the end sentence v51: Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. .

What a gift! To live for ever! Always we are longing, we human beings. We long for security, for love, for identity, for purpose and reason for life - and here it is, all of that for which we long, offered at last - through the great mystery of Jesus, God come to earth, lifting earthbound beings to live with him for ever!

To be saved is to welcome the gift of Jesus, the Bread of Heaven. The passage on the Heavenly Bread interprets and brings out the full meaning of the gift we welcome in this service week by week.

Can there be a passage in the Bible which speaks more strongly about the need to participate in the Eucharist than verse 53 of St. John Chapter 6 just after today’s section: Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Salvation is about welcoming Jesus - and what he has done by the separating of his body and blood in sacrifice. It is a gift given for us in the coming to earth, dying and rising of Jesus. You can't be saved, says Jesus, by contemplating your navel, by the vague religiosity of crystals and New Age, or even by our efforts for justice and peace, admirable as they are - but by welcoming the gift of Christ into our souls

Salvation is presented here as a gift - and also, secondly as a promise.

2.                  The Promise

You have the words of eternal life says Peter at the end of the chapter. He is confirming his understanding of the earlier teaching where Jesus makes it clear that when we welcome him we also inherit a promise, the promise of eternal life: Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my

blood has eternal life

When someone asks you if you are saved they are really touching on whether you feel sure that your life will not be lost when you die.

Are you sure?  Do you know that you have eternal life?

St Cyril of Jerusalem speaking to those preparing for Christian initiation in the 4^th century said we have no modest aim, but the gaining of eternal life… we endure everything that we may gain that life from the Lord… the Father is life really and truly. Through the Son he pours forth upon all in the Holy Spirit the gifts of heaven as from a fountain. The experience of salvation is to be playfully ‘happy go lucky’ under that fountain. It’s taking God at his word when he promises you something.

I remember someone rather surprisingly asking a holy and thoughtful priest whether he believed in God.  There was a long pause.  Finally the wise old man replied - I'm not sure, but I'm sure of this - that God believes in me. Those humble, thoughtful words back away from arrogant certainty and they reach powerfully into our spirits.

We may lack belief but that doesn't stop God believing in us. We may be unworthy of salvation - but that does not stop God promising it! If I know I am saved it is because God has promised it to believers and I believe God - I trust God to keep his word to me - the key is knowing the promise.

Evangelism is about spreading good news, which means letting people know about the gift and the promises of God so that they can choose for themselves to believe - which brings us onto the last heading.

3.                  The Choice

At the end of this sixth chapter of St John’s Gospel we read in v60 that many of the followers of Jesus said, "This is intolerable language.  How could anyone accept it? And they choose to leave Jesus. He then says to the Twelve later in the passage: What about you, do you want to go away too?

When we contemplate the mystery of Christ we should be profoundly moved, awed by the generosity of God in sending his Son to save us and then giving us the choice of whether we accept him or not.

This is awesome - for us to be given a choice.  Awesome, but also perilous for us to be so honoured with freedom to choose in a matter affecting our eternal welfare.

There is a further mystery of how God himself seems to make a hidden choice of those who do respond positively to him, so that our choice of God is almost pre-empted by his choice of us.

What a wonder and a mystery - the choices of God! We are saved by choice not by chance. No one has a right to heaven.  You may think you're as good as the next person - but what does that matter when we are talking about having eternal life with God? Who are we, so full of deceit and inadequacy, made of the dust of the earth, full of frailty, to be worthy of God in his holiness?

Only by God's gift and his promise - and our choice of him.

Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

To whom can we go?  There is one giver of salvation who gives us today his flesh and blood as life to our spirit!

You have the words of eternal life. You, Jesus, Bread of Life, promise us through our communion with you a quality of life that is in its nature unending. 

And we believe Given such a gift and such a promise the choice is ours, to live not by chance but by a definite choice, a choice for Jesus our Saviour, to whom be glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

Transfiguration thought from Anastasius of Sinai

What greater happiness or higher honour could we have than to be with God, to be made like him and to live in his light?

    

Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy: It is good for us to be here – here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. 

For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as he enters: 'Today salvation has come to this house'. With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings, and there where they are stored up for us in him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the first fruits and the whole of the world to come.   

Anastasius of Sinai on the Transfiguration

Trinity 8 Romans 8 BCP 8am 26th July 2015

Little James and his parents were in church and there was a baptism.

The boy was taken in by all of this. He observed the priest saying something whilst pouring water over the infant’s head.

With a quizzical look on his face, he turned to his father and asked with all the innocence of a five year old ‘Daddy, why is he brainwashing that baby?’

Out of the mouth of babes!

At the baptism later this morning we’ll be reminded of what it is to be a Christian.

We will say we turn to Christ, repent of our sins, renounce evil and profess faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As we say it we will all be a little more brainwashed into Christianity.

At no other place does the Church of England make it so clear what it is to be a Christian than in the baptism service.

We will be brainwashed that bit more into the truth Paul announces in our epistle that the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God and, if children, heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

As we say what we believe, as we just did in the creed, our words enter our ears and descend to our hearts so that we believe it all the more.

Little James had a point.

In our or our parents choice for us of baptism there is a choice to be placed within the influence of Jesus Christ and his Spirit.

We are influenced by all sorts of worldly things but as Christians our greatest concern is to possessed by the spiritual focus that Jesus offers. 

It doesn't matter how much we do or have but it does matter how much love we put into it and the use of it and to possess what Saint Paul writes of in Ephesians, namely to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, to… be filled with all the fullness of God.

Such an aspiration is a long haul. Baptism is a long haul. It costs a lot but it’s worth a lot as the promises of God make clear, and the pivotal promise is that we just affirmed of the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

We do baptisms on Sunday morning when Jesus rose as a reminder of the call to the baptised to honour  Sunday as the Day of Resurrection.

One of the things we get brainwashed or disciplined into as Christians is coming to church on a Sunday.

Sunday’s the day life triumphed over death in the resurrection of Jesus and there’s no more meaningful thing in life than what conquers death.

Earthly life’s a prologue. The book of life proper starts beyond the grave with Christianity’s Founder who is the life, the truth and the way.

Life is what Jesus is all about. God who gives us life wants to give us his life in his Son who said I came to bring them life and have it to the full (John 10 verse 10).

For a Christian the glass is never half empty it’s half full at the least and it gets to overflowing.

Another scripture, again from John, makes this plain. Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. Jesus says Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.

When we choose Jesus there’s a fruitful overflowing. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit… wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

As someone said God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

Religion can get a bit nutty, yes. It’s God-given but it does get man-handled.

We seek the spiritual fruitfulness that flows from the long haul of baptism, trust in God’s promises and the hope of the resurrection.

May the Holy Spirit who anoints us with the bread and wine and words of the eucharist bring us energy this morning as we offer ourselves our souls and bodies in union with Jesus Christ to God our almighty Father. 

Trinity 6 8am Eucharist 19th July 2015

Today’s gospel shows us a heart and mind expanding vision of God shown in the glorious transforming ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wherever he went…they laid the sick in the market places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.  Mark 6:56

The main issue for the church today is – how much of a vision of God do we have?

How magnificent is God to us, or more exactly to you or I?

How big is your God? How real?

You can be sure of this – however magnificent and real he is to you today there’ll be a greater magnificence and reality in store for you!

On a few occasions in my ministry I have been on the scene when the glory of Jesus evidently illuminated someone.

I think of Bernard who came stumbling around to the Clergy House of my Curacy beaming all over his face.  Was he drunk? I thought. No. Jesus had come real to him. The Holy Spirit had opened his inner eyes. 

I think of an older man to whose troubled deathbed I’d been summoned. As I read the 23^rd Psalm deep peace descended upon him.  It was as if Jesus appeared and just took him away. He died joyfully as I prayed.

Or some time back when a young man called James described to me how for several months he had helped his wife cope with a spiritual problem, Jesus made himself known. James started a confirmation course. A short meeting opened my eyes with his to God’s wonder and magnificence

Here at St Giles over my six years I have seen eyes opening to the heart and mind expanding vision of God that’s at the heart of this eucharist, people testifying to transformation of their lives in some degree or other.

What a difference it makes to someone when they see Jesus!  They see glory – glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

To see Jesus is to catch hold of a radiant beauty quite out of this world, a beauty that is compelling and extraordinary in its attractiveness.

Could we wish anything more wonderful for anyone than a personal revelation of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

It can be ours this morning at the Eucharist. With St John we are to call out: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; he was, he is and he is to come.

In this celebration earth is joined to heaven. There steals on the ear the distant triumph song as our words of praise find echo and amplification from angels and archangels, St Giles and all the company of heaven. 

God grant us a vision of himself more to his dimension and less to ours as we come before him this morning to thank him for his joyful goodness!

Trinity 6 8am Sunday 12th July 2015

Let’s start with Amos. Scripture calls him a prophet but he himself denies it if you look at the end of the first reading. I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

In scripture prophets and priests are linked respectively to challenging and maintaining the status quo. In our passage Amaziah, the priest of Bethel is a sort of Dean of Westminster Abbey of his day as an appointee of the King of Israel. Even the band of prophets were King’s men in those days. This is why Amos says he’s no prophet’s son.  Though a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, God took him saying “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

In the Diocesan vision our status quo as a religious community is somewhat challenged. God sets a plumb line or marker against us. We are reminded that we need more church members and all of us need to take more responsibility for bringing them in.

I would go further: sheep produce sheep, not shepherds. If the Diocesan challenge raises more fervour for each one to reach one that will prove its worth.

Then our second reading from Ephesians. It counts God’s blessings, speaking of our adoption as God’s children, our redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, ...the obtain(ing of) an inheritance...and the seal of the... Holy Spirit.

God who’s given us his dear Son Jesus Christ has given us all things in him. Our endeavours to grow in faith, love and numbers as a congregation are set within God’s plan for Horsted Keynes that’s part of his plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

One of the challenges we have is to build relationships between the church and the village, especially through the Martindale, so all that we know to be precious, the things Paul lists in the reading, may be made evident to those around us.

Through the various enterprises in the Martindale church members and non-church members engage. Through our prayers, and the good stewardship of the Martindale committee we look to engaging St Giles more fruitfully with young and old in Horsted Keynes for their good.

Ephesians 1.3-14 is one of the earliest eucharistic prayers – eucharistic meaning thanksgiving. The passage lists God’s mighty work among us in Jesus Christ. Three years ago Fr Keith McRae helped facilitate our last vision day when he spoke of critical mass and the mass as critical. Of St Giles need to build a critical mass eg of youth and families for outreach and also to see the mass or eucharist as critical since it has in it the wherewithal to help us do what God wants us to do.

The more thankful we are, the more we live Ephesians 1 and the eucharist, the less inhibited we’ll be by pride and foolish self reliance as a Christian community. Self reliance is the major obstacle to hearts opening and being enthused by Jesus Christ who calls us as a church into greater dependence upon him.

In the Gospel account from Mark 6 of John’s beheading we might observe how the Baptist got beheaded for his forthrightness. He also won respect from his hearers for it, and a place in the church calendar. People, young people especially, feel they can engage with folk who’ve a definite and not a shifting world view. It’s the people prepared at times to tell us it as it is that are end up being most formative in our lives.

I have conversations with many an atheist nowadays who drag me over the coals about faith in God’s goodness given the dreadful evils in the world. I’m glad to so engage seeing their engagement with me evidencing serious pursuit of the truth I am about. So with King Herod and St John the Baptist. When Herod heard John, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.

Truth speaks to power. Christianity is true. There is a God who both made us and loves us. As we witness to that, something inside of people is stirred.

For 1000 years the Christian community here at St Giles has been a generation away from extinction. The truth of what we stand for is a counter to the powerful apathy and unbelief around us. We shouldn’t lose heart but take courage to be forthright at time about the truth we share - even if it costs. You won’t lose your head in Horsted Keynes!

If there is a theme through today it is prophetic in that way. Amos and John the Baptist encourage us to speak the truth God lays on our hearts with courage and prudence. Paul in our second reading calls us to fresh awareness of all God has given us in Christ which will energise our faith.

In seeking a critical Mass for growth here we shall indeed do well to see the Mass as critical. Let’s then be open now in a quiet moment to what God is giving us this morning in the table of the word and the altar of communion so we can gratefully seize upon his leading.

SS Peter & Paul 28 June 2015

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.   

2 Timothy 4:7-8

In these words of Paul handed down by his followers - the style of the letters to Timothy differs from his early letters - we have the last thoughts of a Christian.

How can they speak to our thoughts and deeds today?

I was present last week in St George's Cathedral with 1400 people including 10 bishops, 85 priests and 23 servers for the Solemn Eucharist of the Resurrection for Cornell Jerome Moss, Bishop of Guyana. One of the themes picked up was another phrase from Paul of Cornell's labour not being in vain with much evidence of achievement. 

His work is done, they said. Paul's work is done. One day my work will be done and so will yours. This morning with gratitude and sorrow we recall how Fr Michael’s work is done, rest his soul.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith would to God that may be true of us as we approach our death.  From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day and ....to all who have longed for his appearing.

That eager longing for the Lord in Paul challenges us this morning as a searching question from God.

How can such words from God speak to our situation today?
When the tide of death washes over the sandcastle of our life all that will remain will be such eager longing love. A solid crown will be placed on that solid longing of love for God and neighbour, so how can we build such longing?

Spending ten days in a so-called underdeveloped nation has made me see development in a new light. We in England have our tight efficient schedules but they in Guyana still have time and they still have God. I have only ever met one Guyanese atheist.

I was reminded of some words of the Jewish martyr Anne Frank on how natural beauty which is so immediate in both Guyana and Horsted Keynes can build faith and longing for God. She writes: The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.

Taking time outside, walking the dog and so on, can help build sense of God's presence and longing for him and his appearing to us at Christ's return or at our death. Living among beautiful surroundings is such a privilege, and in the tropics beautiful warm surroundings where people meet all the more. 

St Paul's longing for the Lord was nourished by a personal encounter with Jesus that continued through scripture and sacrament. He is the apostle who hands on so clearly the Eucharist, calling us to faith in Christ's presence there announced so powerfully in the apostolic writings of St John.

That longing we have for Jesus, expressed in a moment as we ascend to the altar for Holy Communion, is fostered at St Giles by the perpetual reservation of the Blessed Sacrament.

Since the sacred elements persist all times at the altar whenever we're in church we can sit and kneel as if at that moment of receiving Communion. When I come into Church I genuflect both to express my faith in that presence and my longing for that to be my be all and end all. We kneel or bow down in Church because we believe and so that we believe.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Faith is a subjective intuition making sense of things but like the Blessed Sacrament it’s not just subjective but objective. The Christian faith is expressed as our confirmation candidates well know in the creed, the seven sacraments, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. It is a holding to and a grateful longing for Jesus Christ as divine Son of God and Saviour. On account of that longing Christians are being put to death across the world this very day.

Would that God’s love so permeated us that it would be unthinkable to deny that there is nothing in creation that can separate us from Jesus Christ, even death, even a martyr's death?

Bishop Cornell served but 5 years in Guyana. He died at 55. Over his short ministry his warmth and compassion greatly uplifted the Diocese showing how one man can make a very great difference in a demanding situation through his keeping close to God. Everyone told me he'd left the Diocese a happier place than it had been when he'd arrived.

Ministering in Horsted Keynes has its real demands and difficulties especially the task of drawing the next generation into this congregation and you and I and Deacon David now have a mighty challenge. What we do with our limited energies is important but our inner joy and longing for the Lord matters more than anything we do. Having something of a break this last two weeks has shown me this personally. Something inside of me has been able to expand, even if I've been following parish admin at a distance through e mail. 

To build longing for the Lord and his appearing we need to build and then protect space for prayer and reading the Bible, for attendance at weekday worship, for service to others and for times of reflection to keep all of this in order. I don't need to list the mighty distractions to building hunger for God in the form of the ‘junk’ food life throws at us. 

Fighting off such spiritual distractions is what’s behind our reading’s call to fight 'the good fight' of the faith. It's about resolving under God that your energies won't be dissipated in lesser things and your strengths will be taken up in what God has for you day by day.

It’s the Lord's Day. New every morning his love rises upon us, but particularly on the day of Resurrection. This morning in company with Peter and Paul we arise afresh in Christ whose light would scatter our inner darkness, the demons that trouble us, our worries and grievances. 

This is the day that the Lord has made says the Psalmist. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Glad with eager longing for the Lord who gives us this new day and week and ministry in our new Deacon.

We look together to the righteous judge, (who) will give (his crown) to us and.... all who have longed for his appearing. 

Peter and Paul pray for us and for all in whom that longing falters, especially our sisters and brothers under persecution for the name of Our Lord and Saviour, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed might majesty dominion and power henceforth and for ever more. Amen.

Trinity 1 (10th of Year) 8am 7th June 2015

We’re thinking later on this morning with our Deacon designate about his ministry to come and how it links to ours and doing so in connection with the scripture for Trinity 1 that is from Genesis, 2 Corinthians and Mark.

We’ll start this conversation with the first reading, a few words of exposition and then some thoughts about the teaching ministry.

We have the story from Genesis Chapter 3 of the garden of Eden - where we see Adam and Eve trying to hide from God - trying to hide their sin and shame behind the trees and bushes - hoping God won’t notice them. A lot of people do not believe in this story, either because they think it’s meant to be seen as history, or because they don’t believe what it teaches about the power of evil, nor what it has to say about pain and suffering being the result of sin.

As one to be ordained David is coming among us to teach the faith. He will carry the Gospel Book down Church, proclaim the words of Jesus and with me explain the scriptures through his preaching. This passage reminds us at different levels of the challenge we have in teaching Christianity today. As Bishop John said when he started me off here as parish priest my calling and that of any priest or deacon is to hand on the Catholic Faith, that is the Christian faith in its fullness and not just run a debate on what may or may not be true.

We’ll move our conversation on to our second reading from 2 Corinthians 4. In it we have a strong affirmation of things which are unseen - the things that are eternal. Paul writes of how when we come to believe in Jesus Christ and in his message an awesome thing happens - we are remade as new creatures - day by day, bit by bit, so that we share more and more in the victory of Christ over sin, death and the devil inheriting an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure. Look not simply at the things that are seen, he says, but look at the things which are unseen - the things that are eternal and give your heart to the Lord of both realms.

As one ordained David comes to lead us in worship. He will prepare the altar of God, help God’s people prepare their hearts to offer themselves more fully in union with Jesus Christ to God the Father and as a deacon he will distribute the Blessed Sacrament. This passage reminds us in one aspect of the awesome yet accessible business of the eucharist in which the Lord’s people gather on the Lord’s day in the Lord’s house around the Lord’s table. This has been at the centre of his Christian life up to now and now he himself is to lead worship with me, in Paul’s words, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  

It will be for him to answer later on how he sees his forthcoming role among us in worship. For me it is the greatest, most awesome privilege to be the hands of Jesus taking, blessing, breaking and sharing as we do day by day at the eucharist he commanded. We are to be conformed to Jesus not just in the action of the eucharist but in who we are, just as every believer is called to be what they are in Jesus Christ.

Now the third reading and our conversation will move on. Today's Gospel reading from Mark Chapter 3 touches to a degree on the pastoral ministry of Jesus. It’s something rather different from how we often do things pastorally. Far too much so called pastoral ministry is affirmative of folk where they are without the invitation to move towards where God wants them to be. The beauty of the church's ministry of healing is the way it leads to change in individuals and through them whole communities. It's part of what Paul describes in Romans 1v16 as 'the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith'. When Jesus talks about ‘tying up the strong man’ he’s speaking about salvation as something transformative. As someone said God loves us where we are but loves us too much to want us to stay there!

David will come among us as pastor so it’s natural to ask him how he sees that ministry which is of transformation as well as affirmation. We are mindful this morning of the Diocesan Director of Ordinands Lu Gales’s words written up by my wife Anne in this month’s P&P. She talked of how our deacon to be will be coming ready to minister to us, with service, prayer, and with his own calling, and how she encouraged us to expect that he will enhance our faith and give us a great deal.  But, she said, we as a congregation are not to be passive receivers only, we have a part in enabling him in his diaconal role, with our gifts, ministry and experience – which might entail smiles when things are hard, encouragement and thanks. 

We are to see our deacon’s arrival, she wrote, as an invitation to get more involved in what God is waiting to create here in this place. 

Like a piece of fruit, we must be broken and what is inside us shared, not least the seed, to produce a harvest.  God will allow us to flourish and see much fruit if we break and share what is inside us with others.

In teaching, worship and pastoral ministries may he bless David and through David each of us and through us all many in this community.