St John, Burgess Hill & St Richard, Haywards Heath Feast of St Luke 18.10.23

The evangelist St Luke is one up on Matthew, Mark and John - literally because he wrote not one but two books in the New Testament. His two volumes set forth the mission of Jesus starting with his acts in the flesh recorded in his Gospel and then continuing after his death and resurrection by the Holy Spirit through his apostles and disciples in his Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s two volumes make up about a third of the New Testament and are compelling reading.

They engage with the love, truth and empowerment of Jesus Christ presented by Doctor Luke, an affectionate title that builds from Colossians 4:14 where Paul describes his companion as 'Luke, the beloved physician'. Luke was neither apostle nor eye witness of the earthly life of Jesus but is famed both by his being companion to Paul and by association with the third Gospel and Acts. His close companionship with St. Paul is noted in the epistle chosen for his feast we just heard. There Paul mentions Demas deserting him, Crescens and Titus going off so that ‘only Luke is with me’ (2 Timothy 4).

Today’s Gospel from Luke Chapter 10 ends with Our Lord’s command to heal: ‘Cure those in the town who are sick, and say, ‘The kingdom of God is very near to you’. It is to Doctor Luke among all four Gospel writers we owe a clear statement that the good news of Jesus extends not just to mind and heart but to our bodies as well. The healing ministry then and now is part of the good news of Jesus as it breaks through bonds of sin, sickness, bondage, death and the devil to bring us more fully into what we were made to be in God's praise and service. Luke's story of Jesus chronicles not just physical healing but the healing from exclusion of lepers and the way Jesus includes social outcasts and ministers to women, counter to the culture of his day.

On this Feast of St Luke we welcome the power of God's word through his words into our varied situations. This day is an invitation to pick up a copy of Luke’s Gospel - here’s one - or find it in your Bible - and spend a morning reading it - and maybe another morning or afternoon reading his sequel the Acts of the Apostle. Such an exercise would refresh for you where Christian faith flows from and how it flows on and through us as we open our own lives to the Holy Spirit as the apostles did.

There is no word of God without power and it is power to heal. As with Simon's mother-in-law in Luke 4 healing for us can be into helpfulness. The paralytic lowered to Jesus through the ceiling in Luke 5 is a call to take trouble over healing prayer for sick friends. The good news of Christianity recorded by Doctor Luke in his inspired writings breathes joy and carries a forward momentum, the very mission of Jesus carried forward by the Holy Spirit bringing healing of body, mind and spirit so people say as they did in today’s Gospel: ‘The kingdom of God is very near to us’ (Luke 10:9) 

St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Trinity 19 (28A) 15.10.23

The 22nd Chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel and the second verse: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. God is the king, Jesus is the son and we and the cosmos are part of the preparing of the bride for that banquet. The whole of history is headed towards a wedding banquet where Jesus is Bridegroom and the Church is Bride.

All we’re about this morning at Mass, set within the tumult of the world including Israel-Palestine, is preparation for the end of all things when God will be everything to everyone at his wedding banquet. Blessed are those who are called to his supper!

Out of the puzzle of today’s Gospel we can distil such joy and hope!

Matthew 22 IS a puzzle. You need bible scholarship to make sense of it. Things like invited guests killing servants who bring their invitations, a man hauled unexpectedly from the streets expected to have a wedding garment! Fortunately we have four Gospels we can look at side by side, as well as knowledge of the circumstances in which St Matthew wrote his edition, especially the Jewish War with Rome that ended with the Jerusalem’s destruction in 70AD. If you look at the parallel version in Luke Chapter 14 you see a more life-like parable of people making excuses after being invited to a great dinner. Matthew, writing primarily for Jews who’d rejected and put to death Christian evangelists, shades Our Lord’s original story with an allegory that presents Jerusalem’s loss as judging their rejection of Christ. That expansion explains the un-Jesus-like sound of today’s Gospel. As for the man without a wedding garment, it's a separate parable about the need to be ready for the Lord’s invitations Matthew’s  stitched onto the banquet parable. Also, whereas Luke’s banquet is given by a private person Matthew’s is given by a king for his son, the element I’m picking up on, and that’s an interpretation of Jesus’s original parable in the light of his death and resurrection.

Like St Matthew we read the teaching of Jesus Christ in the light of what followed. Most religions centre on their founder’s teaching but Christianity has a different focus. 

The Buddha gave his teaching but Christ gave his life as well. When you enter St John’s you see no Buddha but a Crucifix above an altar. Here Sunday by Sunday, day by day we recall Christ’s parables whilst going on to plead his sacrificial gift revealed upon the Cross. I often point out in sermons here the permanent sermon in our two small west windows of the Cross and the altar. They explain that St John’s was built for the pleading of Christ’s sacrifice by a priest with bread and wine upon this altar.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. God is the king, Jesus is the son given on Calvary who, by the Holy Spirit, is gathering through history the scattered children of God to his banquet. History is about the purification of God’s children in anticipation of full union with the Blessed Trinity when we shall see God as he is and become like him. In the gift of the eucharist we eat and drink of Christ veiled in the sacrament to anticipate his unveiling when God will be all in all.

In his book Corpus Christi (show) Anglican theologian Eric Mascall writes ‘there is only one Mass, offered by the great high priest, Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, on Calvary and in heaven… ultimately we do not celebrate masses or attend mass; we celebrate mass and attend mass. For every earthly mass is simply the Church’s participation in the one heavenly Mass… the Eucharist makes accessible to us (human beings), at our different points of space and moments of time, the one extra-spatial and supra-temporal redemptive activity of Christ, ‘who ever lives to make intercession for us’.

As we sing in Bourne’s great hymn: ‘Paschal Lamb, thine Offering finished once for all when thou wast slain, in its fullness undiminished shall for evermore remain, cleansing souls from every stain’. Sacrifice is about love and not death, Christ’s once for all death is part of his perpetual love offering seen at Mass. As Thomas Aquinas wrote 900 years in a lovely summary of the meaning 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’.

My family have been to the cinema in Burgess Hill a time or two over our 22 years living in the area as its the nearest one to us. Do you know those clips we see in the cinema before the main film to give us a preview of forthcoming attractions? What we’re about this morning is like a cinema trailer - the Eucharistic meal is a forward looking taster of the full thing, the heavenly banquet no less, ‘a pledge of the glory that is to be ours’.

‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to his supper’ - in this meal we see the sacrificial gift of Jesus opening heaven to us under the veil of bread and wine. We eat and drink expressing our hope and our joy, in anticipation of heaven which scripture and sacrament depict as a supper. 

The whole of history is headed towards this banquet at which Jesus is Bridegroom and the Church is Bride. And, yes, we will indeed need garments for the wedding, the garments of humility and confidence in God, both qualities to be expressed in the beautiful and challenging prayer we shall make in a minute or two: ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed’.

Picture from Shanghai Museum visited 2017.

St Mary, Balcombe Trinity 18(27A) Suffering and the Supernatural 8 October 2023

There are two main ways God manifests himself. 

These are through the supernatural and through suffering.

These two ways are the trademark of Jesus Christ who both suffered and rose again.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord speaks of both, coupling his retelling of Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard we heard as the Old Testament reading to predict his sufferings, to a quote from Psalm 118:22 to predict the supernatural intervention of God which would effect his resurrection: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'?’

As Christians we have the same dual trademark so St Paul writes in our second lesson from Philippians in Chapter 3 verse 10: ‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings’.

When we were baptised we gained that trademark with the cross on our forehead and the promise of resurrection - Holy Spirit - empowerment. For us, bearing suffering makes sense on account of Jesus as he again and again opens up a forward vision in our lives.  

Christianity is less a moral code than supernatural empowerment through faith in Jesus Christ, ‘the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings’. Once our faith gets woken up - and that happens repeatedly - we find ourselves loosened from the pains of life into achieving wondrous things through the supernatural working within us of the God who raises the dead.

There’s a lot of pain involved for any family afflicted by Alzheimer’s. You are dealing with relentless frustrations as domestic routines falter through increasing forgetfulness. These hardships bring people down. I observe, though, that where there is faith in Christ the sufferings that bring you down bend you like grass in the wind which is capable of springing up again. The truth of Easter comes real in life through sufferings born in faith, through spiritual perseverance. Christians are Jesus-shaped, J shaped irrepressible folk – you know if you press an I down it becomes a J - and a springy, irrepressible J springs back again. To be J-shaped, to be Christian, is to be on the winning side of life through the inner spring of perseverance.

‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings’.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord spoke of his suffering and resurrection in the parable of the wicked vineyard workers who killed the owner’s son. That great poet and priest, Fr. Raneiro Cantalamessa writes of the Cross in these words: ‘In the Alps in summer, when a mass of cold air from the North clashes with hot air from the South, frightful storms break out disturbing the atmosphere; dark clouds move around, the wind whistles, lightning rends the sky from one end to the other and the thunder makes the mountains tremble. Something similar took place in the Redeemer’s soul where the extreme evil of sin clashed with the supreme holiness of God disturbing it to the point that it caused Him to sweat blood and forced the cry from Him, ‘My soul is sorrowful to the point of death...nevertheless Father, not My will but Yours be done’

‘O generous love!’ wrote John Henry Newman, ‘That he who smote in man for man the foe, the double agony in man (that is of body and soul) for man should undergo, and that he should do this, ‘in the garden secretly, and on the Cross on high.  Praise to the holiest in the height!’

Suffering is close to the supernatural action of God - this is Christ’s experience and ours. 

I remember my parish priest when I was an Oxford student evoking the victory of the Redemption in these sorts of words. Imagine, he would say, the immense pressure on a point in space which had the whole force and weight of the universe upon it.  Then imagine the moral universe and the weight of sin from the creation of the world up to now and beyond to the completion of things.  Then imagine that moral weight pressed to one point upon the heart of Jesus in Gethsemane.  Then see the value of the sweated blood and the victory it attains through a disposition of one human heart totally transparent to the love and power of God. It attains the resurrection.

I was once a Missionary in Guyana, South America where I worked among the native Amerindians. These indigenous people believe in many evil spirits, above all what they call ‘kenaima’. A youth around 18 was fishing one day and felt kenaima attack him from behind. The evil spirit is said to go up the rectum. Whether it was a physical attack by the demon or psychological I do not know. What I can tell you is that when I came to his hammock the life was literally ebbing away from him and his family were planning where his grave should be. To be attacked by kenaima was a death sentence without respite in the old village religion.

Praise God for the new religion and for the Cross of Jesus and his Sacraments that take their force from him! 

We encouraged the youth as we prepared him for Anointing and Holy Communion in words from St. John’s first letter: ‘Jesus in you is greater than kenaima’. Most of the village gathered into Church  for a prayer vigil for the boy during which a priest took Holy Communion to him. A vigil of prayer and praise to God continued all night as the boy’s strength returned. The next Sunday he was with the Music group playing the guitar at Mass.

I am convinced his right understanding of Holy Communion as bringing the power and presence of Jesus right into him saved his life. We saw a remarkable testimony to the victory of Our Lord over evil powers. Those words from St. John’s first letter chapter 4 verse 4 have never lost their power over me: ‘He who is in us - Jesus - is greater than he who is in the world - the devil’.

‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings’.

Do you want that - to know Jesus? His resurrection power is here among us as the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day gathered around the Lord’s table - and - here’s the rub - in your individual life and mine, in our sufferings, not resented but born cheerfully with the Holy Spirit’s assistance. 

As you share the joys and griefs of your circle and carry their sufferings to Our Lord in prayer you will bear the irrepressible trademark of Jesus, J-shaped and on the winning side of life through him who ‘was sorrowful unto death’ and rose to make this day ‘the day of resurrection’. Alleluia!

 

Wivelsfield & St Richard, Haywards Heath St Francis 4.10.23

I have always been fascinated by today’s Saint - here he is in a picture that makes a 13th century face and life immediately real to us. It's from around 1278 and it's by the great early Renaissance Italian artist Cimabue who is thought to have best represented the Saint. 

As Cimabue’s portrait brings Francis alive to us so Francis himself brings Christ alive to us. One of the prayers that captures to my mind the power of today’s Saint begins ‘Lord Jesus Christ, when the world was growing cold, you renewed the sacred marks of your passion in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, to inflame our hearts with the fire of your love’. 

The centre of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is Our Lord’s suffering for us upon the Cross. We represent that suffering day by day at the altar and try to understand our own sufferings with a eye to his which are life-giving through Our Lord’s resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Just as his words ‘This is my body which is given for you… my blood which is shed for you’ are at the centre of the eucharist, whenever Christianity is refreshed in people or in cultures it is through the appreciation of just what God did in letting his Son bear the suffering of the Cross for each and for all. Though God’s love extends back to creation and forward to heaven it has found its focus in the wounds it bore on Mount Calvary almost 2000 years ago. 2033 will be a big year for Christianity across the world.

So was the 13th century and the early 1220s when one man was privileged to be made a fresh focus of the love of God shown in the crucifixion of Our Lord by receiving the wound prints of Christ’s passion on Mount La Verna. Show Pietro Lorenzetti’s fresco Francis, close to the end of his life, told of seeing an angel or seraph with six wings hovering above him, whose outstretched hands and closed feet were fixed to the Cross. Suddenly, he relates, traces of wound prints, so-called ‘stigmata’ began to be visible on his hands and feet as he had seen them shortly before on the crucified image above him, an extraordinary gift which continued to the end of his life about which Francis spoke little but which are well attested from the 13th century.

One of the mysteries of Christianity is its timespan. Over 2000 years Christian faith has waxed and waned across the world. Wherever faith has grown and spread you can always trace it back to the preaching of the Cross in some way and Francis, as you can see from what I am sharing, has become to us a very great visual aid if I dare say that. 

St John Henry Newman admitted that, though regular contemplation of the sufferings of Christ was essential to living in God’s love, it was for him more a discipline and less a joy for him to dwell upon them. The life of St Francis is an encouragement here, and an invitation to have cold hearts rekindled in love towards God, through pondering regularly the wounds of Christ borne on our behalf and to invoke the prayers of a great lover of God.

There is a coldness towards Jesus Christ in post-Christian culture. May the prayer and example of St Francis, who received the sacred marks of his passion in his flesh 800 years ago, inflame our hearts with the fire of God’s love shown to us in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

St Richard, Haywards Heath Feast of St Vincent de Paul 27.9.23

‘The question which divides people today is whether Society will be merely an immense exploitation for the benefit of the strongest or a consecration of everyone for the service of all’. So wrote Frederick Ozanam the 19th century founder of the Society of St Vincent de Paul which is a key agency in the Church across the world, including a number of branches in the Church of England, serving the poor. 

The aspiration to get people gifts directed to God’s praise and service and not just to their own benefit is basic to Christianity. Generation after generation needs reminding of this and Ozanam’s reminder was today’s Saint.  

St. Vincent de Paul was born in Aquitaine and became a priest. He devoted his whole life to the service of the poor. He founded a congregation of priests for missionary work which the Society of the Holy Cross emulates. Vincent organised groups of laymen to help paupers and galley-slaves which led to the worldwide Society bearing his name.

Where did he get the vision and the energy to accomplish all he did? Can we find a message of spiritual encouragement relevant to our own lives in Vincent’s story. 

His call came to him through the experience of a false accusation.  

As a young man he was accused of theft and had to bear a lot of shame, though utterly blameless of the charge.

Vincent came to find in his own misrepresentation a closeness to Christ.

‘For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly’ wrote St. Peter, ‘for…Christ also suffered for you…who committed no sin’.  1 Peter 2:19,21

Vincent’s biographer suggests that he became a great representative of Christ precisely on account of that bearing of misrepresentation in his youth.

Instead of becoming embittered, his spirit had in fact been sweetened by the experience of humiliation.

Who knows what trials await us in the coming days, weeks and years?  In our disappointments, if there are any, will we make an appointment with Our Lord as Vincent did?

Christ is well able to turn suffering and humiliation to good if we allow him space to do so.  As ever, the choice is ours.

We know that in everything God works for good, wrote Paul, adding this qualification, with those who love him.

Lord, we love you.  Out of love for you may we accept all that comes our way as part of our preparation for heaven.  We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

St Richard, Haywards Heath 24th Sunday (A) 17 September 2023

‘As the heavens are high above the earth so strong is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins.’ Psalm 103:11

The words of today’s Psalm jumped out at me as I pondered one of life’s by-products, dimethyl sulfide likely present in a planet 120 million light-years from our solar system. The observation came from NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope and it got me thinking of the immensity of space and God.

How big is your God? That his choicest gift of life might be widespread is humbling. 

Humbling also this week, though, has been the loss of thousands of precious lives in the Moroccan earthquake and Libyan floods. 

How can human life, so precious it images God, be treated so casually by the universe? As a student I hitch hiked with a friend on ox carts in the Atlas Mountains staying in houses like those shown sunk into the ground with immense loss of life. ‘God - what are you about?’ has been my prayer, and no doubt yours, at the dreadful scenes of the recovery operation.

‘As the heavens are high above the earth so strong is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins.’ 

Our Christian faith provides a perspective on life, on the universe, on evil including unforgiveness and, supremely, upon the life of the world to come. The readings today hardly need a sermon to explain them. Our Lord's parable of the unforgiving servant demonstrates how paltry is the human grasp upon the miracle of forgiveness which is rooted in the resurrection. We go like children ‘tit for tat’ and our minds and hearts need expanding to cope with our sins being written off.

Have you ever thought - it's as astonishing as God allowing life at the other end of the universe - that when you give your sins to God they fly away as far as the east is from the west? The writer of Ecclesiasticus had his heart expanded into the truth Our Lord Jesus reveals when he wrote the words we just heard read: ‘If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord?

Showing no pity for a man like himself, can he then plead for his own sins?

Mere creature of flesh, he cherishes resentment; who will forgive him his sins?

Remember the last things, and stop hating, remember dissolution and death, and live by the commandments’ (Ecclesiasticus 28).

‘I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me’ the Lord says in the Gospel from Matthew 18. ‘Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” 

How big is your God? The Christian religion is a revelation of ‘the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting’ (Apostles’ Creed). It is primarily a supernatural religion which is why the flame of Christian faith is burning less in materialistic Europe and more in Africa, Asia and South America. When Anne, John and I were in Guyana we hardly met an atheist. People looked to the all-powerful and ever-living God revealed in Jesus Christ as our be-all and end-all. The God who puts your sins away when you ask forgiveness is the same God who lifts the pall of death to reveal the resurrection and gather us into the communion of saints in his never-ending family.

This world with all its great and beautiful gifts cannot offer what today’s Gospel celebrates - the supernatural grace of Christianity - forgiveness and resurrection. The two are linked - unforgiveness imprisons people’s souls just as death will one day imprison their bodies. One of my greatest privileges as a priest is to pronounce words of absolution to penitent sinners, as from Christ's Cross, by his authority vested in me - and to hear those words for myself in confession. Another privilege is the invitation to attend death beds and see Christian souls loosening themselves from worldly attachments in preparation for the life of the world to come. How often in my ministry I’ve seen long delays in that process through the dying person loosening from unforgiveness or more often awaiting reconciliation with unforgiving children. ‘If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord?’ 

Welcoming the forgiveness of Our Lord is preparation for heaven. It is central to Mass where it is conveyed to us in the Lord’s body broken for us and his blood shed for that forgiveness. When we receive the body and blood of the Lord his forgiveness enters us in the Bread and Wine. That forgiveness and acceptance expands our hearts, if we will but let it, with his Sacred Heart, to others especially those in the prison of unforgiveness or living in the shadow of death as many are today in Morocco and Libya who await our prayer and giving.

‘As the heavens are high above the earth so strong is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins.’ 

That is our good news and where on earth or heaven or across the universe could it be found other than in God’s gracious action revealed to us in the bearing of sin upon Calvary and the relief it brings us at Mass, the supernatural resurrection of our soul and the promise of supernatural resurrection of our body with all the saints in ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4:6) 

‘The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for you and his blood which was shed for you preserve your body and soul unto everlasting life. Amen’.

Picture: Anne Twisleton

Trinity 14 (23rd of Year A) St Mary, Balcombe 10th September 2023

At my ordination as a priest the Bishop asked me this question in Sheffield Cathedral: Will you give your faithful diligence … to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded?

I replied with the others: I will so do, by the help of the Lord.

This commitment came back to me as I looked through our readings for Trinity 14 with their focus on church discipline.  The reading from Ezekiel Chapter 33 reminds the prophet of his watchman role which connects with the gospel passage from Matthew 18 that provides instruction about correcting Church members.

The Anglican tradition emphasizes discipline alongside word and sacrament as foundational to church life. At their ordination, therefore, priests and bishops commit to teach, lead worship and pastor the flocks committed to them.

Among other words from the ordination service that stick with me – I read them every year before the renewal of priestly vows at the Chrism eucharist with the Bishop in Holy Week – are these: Have always… printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For they are the sheep of Christ, which he bought with his death, and for whom he shed his blood. The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse, and his Body. And if it shall happen the same Church, or any Member thereof, to take any hurt or hindrance by reason of your negligence, ye know the greatness of the fault, and also the horrible punishment that will ensue.

As we heard warning in the first reading to the sentinel priest Ezekiel, their blood I will require at your hand. Neglect of Christ’s flock purchased at the price of his own blood is as serious a thing as you can imagine. It has made me as a priest more concerned to feed the sheep than entertain the goats! By that I mean this: we priests very easily get lost among non-churchgoers in our parishes to the exclusion of care for those who actually attend church and developing their gifts of praise and service. 

It’s never been easy to live and teach Christianity, let alone to minister the discipline of Christ. I’ve done my best as a parish priest and continue to do as locum here and through writing, broadcasting and in offering spiritual accompaniment. What I have to say in the rest of the sermon owes a lot to my book on Christian discipleship still available from Bible Reading Fellowship in paperback or on kindle show, ‘Experiencing Christ’s Love - establishing a life of worship, prayer, study, service and reflection

What is the discipline of Christ? How do I teach it?

Attend eucharist every Sunday wherever you are unless very seriously hindered. Pray every day. Read your bible. Serve the needy which includes giving your money to serve God’s work. Confess your sins. 

These five Christian duties - worship, prayer, study, service and reflection - are the basic disciplines Christians are under. We need these disciplines. They’re paralleled by our Muslim sisters and brothers whose Five Pillars consist of knowing their creed,  praying five times each day, giving to the poor and needy, fasting during the month of Ramadan and making pilgrimage to Mecca.

Oh that you and I had the fervour and discipline of Islam!

Back to the scriptures! The Gospel reading makes clear that discipline in the Church isn’t just from the church pastor but fraternal, that is, carried out by church members to the benefit of each other

If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. We are all involved in church discipline and not just the priest. He of course is under a special discipline himself being accountable to God through the Bishop. At St Mary’s and St Richard’s we also have individuals sharing leadership and oversight of our congregation with our parish priest. Whilst Fr David was on holiday the Churchwarden at St Richard’s called me in to minister to a member of the congregation seriously ill in hospital.

If there are sick needing visiting, grieved needing counsel, church members who’ve fallen away or whatever we all share responsibility for them, according to the Gospel. However, according to the first reading and the ordination service, there is a special responsibility that lies with our priests and to a lesser extent lay leadership teams. 

At my ordination the Bishop said these words from St John’s Gospel Chapter 20 echoed at the end of today’s Gospel from Matthew 18: Receive the holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy Sacraments; In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Awesome words – what dignity, what responsibility! Also behind my preference to be called Father John, since to imagine John Twisleton could do what a priest does is fanciful and irreverent - I can change no bread and wine or penitent heart. 

Please pray for us priests, for all who minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ. Pray that we may carry our office courageously, believe in our priesthood and love our people. May we truly believe Christ’s doctrine, enter more fully into the awe of the sacraments and live more fully under the discipline of Christ so we priests who minister in God’s temple…may say and sing with our lips [what] we believe in our hearts, and show [that faith] forth in our lives.

Today’s Gospel ends with a promise to all Christians which has echoes of the ordination rite. Our Lord says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

Where Christians are united, where they accept a mutual discipline of worship, prayer, study, sacrificial service and confession of sin, the Holy Spirit can come in power among them. Part of that unity is obedience to our leaders in all things lawful and honest, you to me and my fellow priests, we priests to the bishop and the bishop to God. As St Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labour among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 

Indeed may peace be with us, respect for one another, priests and people, and agreement together in a common discipline so that where two or three are gathered in Christ’s name, he may be among us. We have heard his word and approach the sacrament but let’s now take a moment to think of and renew commitment to the five Christian  disciplines I mentioned:  Sunday worship, daily prayer, bible study, sacrificial service including giving our money to God’s work and reflection including confession of sin. Let’s pause for a minute and welcome any reminder the Lord has for us as individuals.

John Twisleton Experiencing Christ’s Love BRF 2017 £6.99 ISBN 978 0857 465177 available on Kindle