We’re thinking again this week about Body building as we continue through 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. Body building changes flab to muscle, weakness to strength. So it is with the body of Christ.
We looked last week at how the ministry gifts of individuals are given to strengthen the church for the common good. To best use these gifts God’s given us we need to be organised and not freelance. Otherwise we’ll see body breaking and not body building! This truth is taken up in verse 28 and following at the end of this week’s section when Paul speaks of the special authority of apostles, prophets and teachers and so on.
On Saturday we launch our stewardship renewal at a special supper. In coming weeks we’ll be inviting church members to consider what God has given them and how they can put their gifts to the best use. I believe this scripture passage is God’s gift to us at this time.
Let’s turn to the passage then and read together verses 12 to 14: 12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
You and I are one with Christ. When they say Jim and Sue are an item we know what they mean. Paul is saying you and I and Christ are an item, a unit.
Saint Teresa of Avila’s made a famous commentary on this passage Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours, yours are the eyes with which he looks in compassion on this world, yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours, yours are the eyes with which he looks in compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
It’s a rich passage but there’s a problem with this interpretation of 1 Corinthians 12. We are sinners but Christ is sinless. Yet the Church is Christ’s body of which he’s head and he needs our gifts to do his work. Last week I was listing some of the ministry gifts we exercise here at St Giles. Richard Harrison is to share about the ministries that keep our buildings in order at the end of the service.
Some would question how the body of a man who lived and died in poverty could live on associated through his members with the splendour of St Giles. Richard will have an answer!
More profoundly when you read through Paul’s laboured description of different body parts working together its uncomfortable to recall there are now 39,000 Christian denominations. At least tonight the three or so local variants of Christ’s body will be coming together. This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – but if Christians really were one with Christ there wouldn’t be need of such a week and we’d be one body and not 39,000!
Do we see what Paul is saying about the church as Christ’s body as just an image? Or is the body of Christ to be seen as an organic reality? I believe the second myself and lament the visible disunity of Christians. Would that nothing we do as Christians worked against the maximising of Christian unity!
One illumination of the word and concept is found in the Hebrew understanding Paul would share. Hebraic thought is different to Greek thought which is interested in the meaning of things in themselves. The Hebrew and biblical understanding sees things by contrast in relation to what they’re called to be. The meaning of an object doesn’t come from analysing it but in its purpose.
Just to illustrate this, the consecration of the Eucharist is an event that’s linked to biblical Hebrew thinking. When Jesus says, or I as his priest say for him over bread, ‘This is my Body’ that bread does not cease to be bread but becomes what it is not. By the biblical promise it becomes the instrument and bearer of God’s presence.
In the same way when we say we’re Christ’s body – or Christ has no body here on earth but ours – we’re talking not of what we are – gifted but sinful beings – but of what God’s calling us to be – sharers of the divine nature!
If you read through Paul’s letters, again and again he tells you Christ is in us. Again and again he tells us that sin is in us. The church is sinful yet Christ-filled. As such it’s a place of hope. As the French theologian Péguy once wrote, a Christian is a sad man saved from despair by the Cross of Christ.
St Paul says he’s ‘a Hebrew of the Hebrews’ and he also regards the Church as the organ of Christ’s presence uniting his members to himself and to one another. He’s talking though more of what we’re to be than what we are now. Our calling is like the consecration of the bread of the eucharist which becomes his body despite its ordinariness. Jesus gives it new purpose.
For us the obstacle to being used by God – our sin - is more than our ordinariness. It’s the destructive virus of sin. Christ by his death has the antidote to sin. Christ by his resurrection life has the empowerment we need to hallow God’s name, build his kingdom and effect his will.
As we read earlier we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body. Our unity as a church within the universal church is given us by our baptism and the associated determination to drown our sin and drink of the one Spirit to use the imagery of baptism. Christ’s body is a body of death – a body that’s discovered how to do away with sin – and a body of life – a body that’s got within it a fluorescent stream of life that shines out from all who bear the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look back one last time at our passage, skipping over the large repetitive section and read verses 26 and 27: 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. 27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
We’ve just come out of a time of hardship weather-wise that confirms this sort of thinking for us as a village. We’ve seen people baking for one another, sweeping snow and giving lifts to one another. This is the very sort of solidarity Paul speaks of when he writes of how in the church If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. Isn’t this also true of the international response to Haiti? It has also been impressive to see Christian priests and nuns in the vanguard of caring for the distressed in that troubled situation. People ask where God is in this tragedy but all the evidence is that God’s people and priests are there getting there hands dirty.
The solidarity we know in Christ’s body is built both on human fragility and divine purpose.
Just as human beings gain solidarity from severe weather or an earthquake so we members of Christ’s body find unity in our need for the forgiveness and healing God gives us in Christ.
Just as human beings gain solidarity to serve a purpose such as earthquake relief so we as members of Christ’s body find unity in our desire to hallow God’s name, build his kingdom and effect his will.
To live as Christ’s body is to live united both by our need of grace and by a common cause, the cause that’s been served 800 years on this hill and that will outlast all of us. The coming weeks are a time to consider the investment of our lives and to commit ourselves more fully to this cause which is Christ’s cause no less.
If Jesus Christ be God, and died for us, then no sacrifice can be too great for us to make for Him. His sacrifice is being recalled now at this altar. Will you be more fully part of his body, his cause and his sacrifice?
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Epiphany 2 Body building (1) 17th January 2009
A little boy came home from a school trip to a local gym. He told his mother that it was the strangest experience he'd ever had, everyone in there was swollen and screaming.
Body building is a strange phenomenon. There’s a special weights room at the gym I attend in Haywards Heath where the swollen and screaming hang out but I stick to the tread mill!
The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. It’s well documented that for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. That’ll mean that when I’m 85 I’ll be able to spend an additional 5 months in my nursing home!
We’ve got a two part mini sermon series starting this morning on 1 Corinthians 12 which I’m calling Body building. You’ll gather from the green in Church that we’ve passed back to the ordinary season of the Church’s year which is twice interrupted for the Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter cycles. Outside of those two seasons the Church takes us systematically through scripture on Sundays and these next two weeks we’re reading the 12th Chapter of the first letter of St Paul to Corinth.
It contains teaching about the use of the gifts of Christians within the body of Christ All these gifts he says are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. Over the coming two months at the sending-out end of the Eucharist we’ll be hearing of how some of us exercise their gifts to build up Christ’s body. The renewal of our Christian stewardship is an occasion to communicate what ministries we exercise at St Giles and hopefully help more of us identify their gifts and exercise them to build the body. Last week in the Martindale Caroline Rich shared about the lift scheme. Today Chris Wheatley will share about the Life and Faith group.
Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. Paul says in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 12. He goes on to explain in verses 2 and 3 that ministry in the Church is animated by the Holy Spirit under the name of Jesus. He then outlines the glorious diversity of ministry gifts there are in Corinth, reminding those who have them that what they’ve been given is given not for them but for body building. In this passage Paul lists supernatural gifts – wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues and the gift to interpret that. We need to read this list alongside two other lists of ministries Paul gives in Romans 12, where he adds serving, teaching, exhortation, generosity and leadership and Ephesians 4, where he adds apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors.
The Ephesians ministry gift list ends with him saying they’re given to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. This corresponds to the section of 1 Corinthians 12 we’ll be reading next Sunday where Paul develops how we Christians should see ourselves as the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Body building makes muscles out of flab. Church building makes individuals lose selfish agendas for a common agenda. Let’s read together verses 4 to 7 of today’s reading: 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
At St Giles there are administrators, churchyard maintainers, speakers, Sunday Club leaders, brass polishers, people who lift others by car, offer Christ’s forgiveness, lead evensong at Westall House, read, administer the chalice, offer people prayer, help train confirmation candidates, consecrate the eucharist, Family Support and Faith in Action ministries, intercessors, church cleaners – I could go on!
Notice the priestly functions of absolution and consecration are in the varieties of services. I need to say again and again, ministerial priesthood is one among many gifted ministries in the body of Christ. It has a wider significance in uniting us through the bishops and their predecessors to the apostles and across the world, today, with the universal church, but as a priest I am part of the team of ministers.
Last Saturday morning those who exercised gifts of prayer in the Lady Chapel told me they thought we should move the main Sunday eucharist to the Martindale and we did. That involved a whole team of folk, some of you ministering as evangelists bringing others to a church service which was made uniquely accessible in last Sunday’s dreadful weather.
In his first letter to Corinth Paul’s chapter 12 and 14 are about supernatural gifts and their best use. These two chapters – 14 is mainly about speaking in tongues – have the famous one on love, Chapter 13 in the midst. He lists the gifts and goes on to say they’re all great but they’ll go nowhere unless you use them lovingly, submitting to the body of Christ as a whole. He says elsewhere that no Christian can be right with God unless they’re right with those over them in the Lord. To best use what God has given us we need to use it in an authorised way and not freelance. Otherwise we see body breaking and not body building!
Let’s read on together, verses 8 to 11: 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
A few brief points. The Greek word for gifts is charismata. The gifts we read out are called charismatic gifts and many churches are recovering them nowadays. The first two, wisdom and knowledge are the capacity to receive supernatural information about situations through which God can change things. Faith is not the gift of faith by which we all believe but a special gift linked to believing God for the next two gifts healing and miracles. Prophecy and discernment are capacities to help the church see the way ahead. Tongues and interpretation are similar gifts but linked to deepening prayer and praise in individuals for the common good.
Body building changes flab to muscle, weakness to strength. So it is in the body of Christ. The ministry gifts of individuals are given for the common good. This is true whether they’re the supernatural gifts of healing and so on just listed or the more natural gifts of helpfulness and leadership I pointed to in the parallel Romans and Ephesians passages.
If St Giles is going to deepen its life and grow new members we need to make space for the exercise of both natural and supernatural ministry gifts. We need to recognise that these gifts are to be exercised under authority, ultimately that of the bishop. We need a safe structure, just like our natural bodies need our skeletons. We also need the Holy Spirit’s giftings to clothe the skeleton, so to speak, of holy church. We don’t want to be the dry bones mentioned in the book of Ezekiel.
A last Body building image. The bible many times compares believers to trees that bear fruit. It says we’ll be judged ultimately by the fruit of the Spirit we bear – love, joy, peace and so on. In this passage Paul is speaking not of fruitfulness but of empowerment. It’s not a fruit tree image for the church but a Christmas tree image! You know, we’ve been carrying the old Christmas trees to the rec this week. Presents hung on a Christmas tree can be taken off by people but they don’t grow from the Christmas tree as fruit grows from an apple tree. You and I are called to bear fruit, the church is called to bear fruit, but we also get gifts given us by God that don’t come from us but are given to empower others when they receive them. People given gifts of healing are given them by the one Spirit not from out of themselves but from God above. What they’re given is given to bring blessing to others, not for their own benefit but to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
More on this next week.
Body building is a strange phenomenon. There’s a special weights room at the gym I attend in Haywards Heath where the swollen and screaming hang out but I stick to the tread mill!
The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. It’s well documented that for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. That’ll mean that when I’m 85 I’ll be able to spend an additional 5 months in my nursing home!
We’ve got a two part mini sermon series starting this morning on 1 Corinthians 12 which I’m calling Body building. You’ll gather from the green in Church that we’ve passed back to the ordinary season of the Church’s year which is twice interrupted for the Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter cycles. Outside of those two seasons the Church takes us systematically through scripture on Sundays and these next two weeks we’re reading the 12th Chapter of the first letter of St Paul to Corinth.
It contains teaching about the use of the gifts of Christians within the body of Christ All these gifts he says are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. Over the coming two months at the sending-out end of the Eucharist we’ll be hearing of how some of us exercise their gifts to build up Christ’s body. The renewal of our Christian stewardship is an occasion to communicate what ministries we exercise at St Giles and hopefully help more of us identify their gifts and exercise them to build the body. Last week in the Martindale Caroline Rich shared about the lift scheme. Today Chris Wheatley will share about the Life and Faith group.
Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. Paul says in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 12. He goes on to explain in verses 2 and 3 that ministry in the Church is animated by the Holy Spirit under the name of Jesus. He then outlines the glorious diversity of ministry gifts there are in Corinth, reminding those who have them that what they’ve been given is given not for them but for body building. In this passage Paul lists supernatural gifts – wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues and the gift to interpret that. We need to read this list alongside two other lists of ministries Paul gives in Romans 12, where he adds serving, teaching, exhortation, generosity and leadership and Ephesians 4, where he adds apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors.
The Ephesians ministry gift list ends with him saying they’re given to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. This corresponds to the section of 1 Corinthians 12 we’ll be reading next Sunday where Paul develops how we Christians should see ourselves as the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Body building makes muscles out of flab. Church building makes individuals lose selfish agendas for a common agenda. Let’s read together verses 4 to 7 of today’s reading: 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
At St Giles there are administrators, churchyard maintainers, speakers, Sunday Club leaders, brass polishers, people who lift others by car, offer Christ’s forgiveness, lead evensong at Westall House, read, administer the chalice, offer people prayer, help train confirmation candidates, consecrate the eucharist, Family Support and Faith in Action ministries, intercessors, church cleaners – I could go on!
Notice the priestly functions of absolution and consecration are in the varieties of services. I need to say again and again, ministerial priesthood is one among many gifted ministries in the body of Christ. It has a wider significance in uniting us through the bishops and their predecessors to the apostles and across the world, today, with the universal church, but as a priest I am part of the team of ministers.
Last Saturday morning those who exercised gifts of prayer in the Lady Chapel told me they thought we should move the main Sunday eucharist to the Martindale and we did. That involved a whole team of folk, some of you ministering as evangelists bringing others to a church service which was made uniquely accessible in last Sunday’s dreadful weather.
In his first letter to Corinth Paul’s chapter 12 and 14 are about supernatural gifts and their best use. These two chapters – 14 is mainly about speaking in tongues – have the famous one on love, Chapter 13 in the midst. He lists the gifts and goes on to say they’re all great but they’ll go nowhere unless you use them lovingly, submitting to the body of Christ as a whole. He says elsewhere that no Christian can be right with God unless they’re right with those over them in the Lord. To best use what God has given us we need to use it in an authorised way and not freelance. Otherwise we see body breaking and not body building!
Let’s read on together, verses 8 to 11: 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
A few brief points. The Greek word for gifts is charismata. The gifts we read out are called charismatic gifts and many churches are recovering them nowadays. The first two, wisdom and knowledge are the capacity to receive supernatural information about situations through which God can change things. Faith is not the gift of faith by which we all believe but a special gift linked to believing God for the next two gifts healing and miracles. Prophecy and discernment are capacities to help the church see the way ahead. Tongues and interpretation are similar gifts but linked to deepening prayer and praise in individuals for the common good.
Body building changes flab to muscle, weakness to strength. So it is in the body of Christ. The ministry gifts of individuals are given for the common good. This is true whether they’re the supernatural gifts of healing and so on just listed or the more natural gifts of helpfulness and leadership I pointed to in the parallel Romans and Ephesians passages.
If St Giles is going to deepen its life and grow new members we need to make space for the exercise of both natural and supernatural ministry gifts. We need to recognise that these gifts are to be exercised under authority, ultimately that of the bishop. We need a safe structure, just like our natural bodies need our skeletons. We also need the Holy Spirit’s giftings to clothe the skeleton, so to speak, of holy church. We don’t want to be the dry bones mentioned in the book of Ezekiel.
A last Body building image. The bible many times compares believers to trees that bear fruit. It says we’ll be judged ultimately by the fruit of the Spirit we bear – love, joy, peace and so on. In this passage Paul is speaking not of fruitfulness but of empowerment. It’s not a fruit tree image for the church but a Christmas tree image! You know, we’ve been carrying the old Christmas trees to the rec this week. Presents hung on a Christmas tree can be taken off by people but they don’t grow from the Christmas tree as fruit grows from an apple tree. You and I are called to bear fruit, the church is called to bear fruit, but we also get gifts given us by God that don’t come from us but are given to empower others when they receive them. People given gifts of healing are given them by the one Spirit not from out of themselves but from God above. What they’re given is given to bring blessing to others, not for their own benefit but to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
More on this next week.
Epiphany 6th & 10th January 2010
As I reflected on today’s celebration of the Epiphany two words came to my mind – spiritual journey.
Firstly the spiritual journey of humankind as we enter a new decade.
Then, secondly, there’s the spiritual journey of the wise men to Our Lord and their offering at journey’s end.
Linked to this there is the Church’s spiritual journey through her Seasons. This year my own journey through Advent and Christmas into Epiphany has something novel about it, my first as your parish priest.
This brought me to the final thought of another much simpler spiritual journey.
It is of but a few inches - fifteen inches…
The story goes there was once a rabbi in Cracow, Isaac son of Yekel, who dreamed one night that there was a great treasure under the bridge at Prague.
He set off at once for Prague, but when he got there found that there was a heavy guard on the bridge. The rabbi had no choice but to explain his dream to one of the guards.
When the guard heard the story he burst into laughter. ‘How crazy can you get? Suppose everyone went off after their dreams? Why I once dreamed that there was a treasure hidden in a house in Cracow. It was in the house of a man called Isaac, son of Yekel, but do you think I was going off to Cracow because of that dream?
So the Rabbi Isaac returned to Cracow.
The rabbi had treasure at home. He did not need to go to Prague.
So it is with the spiritual journey. If we want spiritual riches we’re more likely to find them by opening our eyes to what we have already than by journeying the world over.
The truth of Christmas is about God coming down to our level to dwell in human hearts.
If people want to journey to God today they need move inches and not miles.
Fifteen inches, to be precise, down from the head to the heart. That is where we find God.
These days when many of us are housebound can be a precious gift.
Too often our capacity for doing things and going places works against what’s most important – the short journey, always possible, to rest in God, to contemplate the one who made us and offers himself to us continually.
Our restless minds distract us. They move us away from the treasure to be found in the stillness of the heart. When the mind can be stilled, and lowered, into the heart - there is salvation.
The Kingdom of Christ is within us.
Accomplishing this short journey within means taking time day by day to reflect, to sit or kneel in God’s presence and indeed our own presence.
There we find hunger and longing, hurt and inadequacy, pride and fearfulness.
None of these melt away on the spiritual journey but they can be owned and offered to the Lord who meets us just as we are.
Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine.
The journey within takes courage. There’s so much that would keep us on the surface, even the so-called mission task of the Church, not to mention the multitude of recreational options available to us, the manifold activities we can choose to fill up our lives!
The inner journey takes courage and it takes time, time to be.
The famous writer Pascal said most of mankind’s problems derive from our inability to sit still in a room.
How have you been managing these last few days? As you’ve had to stay put? Will you manage better after this eucharist? Please God you will!
Just maybe 15 minutes a day - 5 minutes with the Scriptures, 5 minutes in quiet worship and 5 minutes in intercession, prayer for others, including our parish - what a difference if we made that the flavour of our spiritual journey in the coming year!
‘Jesus loves us as we are’ it’s said.
As we own that love day by day we own ourselves, our souls and bodies and make them more and more fully a living sacrifice to be united with his perfect Offering in the eucharist.
Speaking of this sort of spiritual journey T.S.Eliot wrote these great lines: And the end of all our exploring – will be to arrive where we started – and to know the place for the first time.
The Kingdom of Christ is within us.
Wise men still journey to Jesus but they don’t move anywhere.
Whatever we do in 2010 as individuals or as a Church may we be the Church better by being Christians better so that the depths of Christ may resonate from our prayers and our eucharist’s and our lives here in Horsted Keynes!
Be still and know that I am God!
Firstly the spiritual journey of humankind as we enter a new decade.
Then, secondly, there’s the spiritual journey of the wise men to Our Lord and their offering at journey’s end.
Linked to this there is the Church’s spiritual journey through her Seasons. This year my own journey through Advent and Christmas into Epiphany has something novel about it, my first as your parish priest.
This brought me to the final thought of another much simpler spiritual journey.
It is of but a few inches - fifteen inches…
The story goes there was once a rabbi in Cracow, Isaac son of Yekel, who dreamed one night that there was a great treasure under the bridge at Prague.
He set off at once for Prague, but when he got there found that there was a heavy guard on the bridge. The rabbi had no choice but to explain his dream to one of the guards.
When the guard heard the story he burst into laughter. ‘How crazy can you get? Suppose everyone went off after their dreams? Why I once dreamed that there was a treasure hidden in a house in Cracow. It was in the house of a man called Isaac, son of Yekel, but do you think I was going off to Cracow because of that dream?
So the Rabbi Isaac returned to Cracow.
The rabbi had treasure at home. He did not need to go to Prague.
So it is with the spiritual journey. If we want spiritual riches we’re more likely to find them by opening our eyes to what we have already than by journeying the world over.
The truth of Christmas is about God coming down to our level to dwell in human hearts.
If people want to journey to God today they need move inches and not miles.
Fifteen inches, to be precise, down from the head to the heart. That is where we find God.
These days when many of us are housebound can be a precious gift.
Too often our capacity for doing things and going places works against what’s most important – the short journey, always possible, to rest in God, to contemplate the one who made us and offers himself to us continually.
Our restless minds distract us. They move us away from the treasure to be found in the stillness of the heart. When the mind can be stilled, and lowered, into the heart - there is salvation.
The Kingdom of Christ is within us.
Accomplishing this short journey within means taking time day by day to reflect, to sit or kneel in God’s presence and indeed our own presence.
There we find hunger and longing, hurt and inadequacy, pride and fearfulness.
None of these melt away on the spiritual journey but they can be owned and offered to the Lord who meets us just as we are.
Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine.
The journey within takes courage. There’s so much that would keep us on the surface, even the so-called mission task of the Church, not to mention the multitude of recreational options available to us, the manifold activities we can choose to fill up our lives!
The inner journey takes courage and it takes time, time to be.
The famous writer Pascal said most of mankind’s problems derive from our inability to sit still in a room.
How have you been managing these last few days? As you’ve had to stay put? Will you manage better after this eucharist? Please God you will!
Just maybe 15 minutes a day - 5 minutes with the Scriptures, 5 minutes in quiet worship and 5 minutes in intercession, prayer for others, including our parish - what a difference if we made that the flavour of our spiritual journey in the coming year!
‘Jesus loves us as we are’ it’s said.
As we own that love day by day we own ourselves, our souls and bodies and make them more and more fully a living sacrifice to be united with his perfect Offering in the eucharist.
Speaking of this sort of spiritual journey T.S.Eliot wrote these great lines: And the end of all our exploring – will be to arrive where we started – and to know the place for the first time.
The Kingdom of Christ is within us.
Wise men still journey to Jesus but they don’t move anywhere.
Whatever we do in 2010 as individuals or as a Church may we be the Church better by being Christians better so that the depths of Christ may resonate from our prayers and our eucharist’s and our lives here in Horsted Keynes!
Be still and know that I am God!
Friday, 1 January 2010
New Year’s Day 2009
Today Christmas thoughts of eternity entering time in Jesus Christ give way to thoughts about time itself.
It’s New Year’s Day and with this particular new day the calendar turns to 2010.
We’re in the 10’s now moving towards the teenage years of the 21st century. It’s a new Decade.
The bible says in the book of Psalms that we’re made for seven decades, maybe eight. I’m well through and have lived more than half my life by that reckoning.
How about you? How many New Year’s Days lie ahead for you?
Time like a never ending stream bears all its sons away. They fly forgotten like a dream dies at the opening day.
This morning we’re reminded that our time is running out and will one day carry us out as mortality wears us away. This last week has seen the last days of two of our parishioners, Elsie Day and Robin Deacon. Our prayers this morning are with them and with Beth Kemp, Connie Deacon and their families
We’re frail mortals. We should approach a New Year with humility because we’re from the earth and will return to the earth.
We’ve also grounds for confidence though. God loves mortals and desires to plant immortal life within them in Jesus Christ whose naming we mark today.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, says Paul he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
What’s most important as I live my life in the days and years ahead is to possess the Spirit who gives life to mortal bodies in this world and the next.
Every Eucharist is a calling down of the same Spirit, upon the gifts and upon the people, making holy gifts and holy people.
Let’s welcome the holy and life giving Spirit as 2010 begins. He’ll be our main asset, the grounds of Christian confidence to face the uncertainties ahead. Let’s pray for him now in a moment of silence before we profess our faith together.
It’s New Year’s Day and with this particular new day the calendar turns to 2010.
We’re in the 10’s now moving towards the teenage years of the 21st century. It’s a new Decade.
The bible says in the book of Psalms that we’re made for seven decades, maybe eight. I’m well through and have lived more than half my life by that reckoning.
How about you? How many New Year’s Days lie ahead for you?
Time like a never ending stream bears all its sons away. They fly forgotten like a dream dies at the opening day.
This morning we’re reminded that our time is running out and will one day carry us out as mortality wears us away. This last week has seen the last days of two of our parishioners, Elsie Day and Robin Deacon. Our prayers this morning are with them and with Beth Kemp, Connie Deacon and their families
We’re frail mortals. We should approach a New Year with humility because we’re from the earth and will return to the earth.
We’ve also grounds for confidence though. God loves mortals and desires to plant immortal life within them in Jesus Christ whose naming we mark today.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, says Paul he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
What’s most important as I live my life in the days and years ahead is to possess the Spirit who gives life to mortal bodies in this world and the next.
Every Eucharist is a calling down of the same Spirit, upon the gifts and upon the people, making holy gifts and holy people.
Let’s welcome the holy and life giving Spirit as 2010 begins. He’ll be our main asset, the grounds of Christian confidence to face the uncertainties ahead. Let’s pray for him now in a moment of silence before we profess our faith together.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Feast of the Holy Family 27 December 2009
A seemingly devout couple who spent hours bowed before a statue of the Virgin Mary were actually waiting for their mobile to charge. The priests in a Milan Church found the pair had been plugging the phone into a socket used to light up the statue!
Well this morning we also bow before Jesus, Mary and Joseph but to draw a greater power into service. I mean the power of love at the centre of the Holy Family.
This morning the liturgy moves from Bethlehem via Jerusalem to Nazareth. On Friday we celebrated the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Today we celebrate his childhood in Nazareth. As we heard at the end of the holy gospel, following the incident in the Temple: Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and came to Nazareth. Or in Matthew’s account of his infancy his home (was) in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazarene’
I once went to Nazareth. I’ll never forget seeing two young boys at a well drawing water for their families. They could have been Jesus and his cousin John. The water was probably from the same source as that drawn on 2000 years ago, for wells do not move.
This morning we are all going in heart and mind to Nazareth, to the household of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We’re going, with the scriptures and the holy liturgy to seek inspiration from the Holy Family for our own families and for the family we enjoy here at St. Giles’ as a local expression of God’s never-ending family, the holy, catholic church.
As we go to Nazareth we find welcome, challenge and empowerment.
We find firstly a welcome. The hearth of Mary and Joseph is an open hearth. How could it be otherwise? How could this couple who welcome God into their earthly home be guilty of turning any away?
In the Holy Family there is hospitality, the generous reception of friends and stranger alike. We catch something of the extended life of the Holy Family in today’s Gospel story of Jesus getting lost in the Temple when the three of them travel in a large extended family. To enter the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is to find yourself welcomed into that great hospitable procession of the people of God into the heavenly Temple. Mary and Joseph remind us that we can never have Jesus to ourselves. To be a Christian is to be one with Mary and Joseph and Paul and Augustine and Francis and Giles – and the list goes on!
In the Holy Family we find the welcome that marks the church from its beginning, God’s people belonging to God and belonging together.
You and I haven’t chosen one another but God has chosen us together to be his family here in Horsted Keynes. Welcome one another says the Apostle as God in Christ has welcomed you.
In Nazareth we see also an image of Christian family, of mutual belonging. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are present to one another in a way we can only hope to imitate by the grace of God.
Our families need to go to Nazareth, so to speak, and to learn there how to be more present to one another.
This quality of mutual presence and attention is part of the welcome families are all about, the welcome of open ears and hearts, of people putting aside their own agenda in loving service of one another. What greater gift can you give to anyone than total, undivided attention?
As we go to Nazareth we find such a welcome – and also a challenge. It is the Feast of the Holy Family today.
There’s so much sentimentality surrounding Mary and Joseph we need to get back to scripture to see them as they are – two of God’s holy ones and holiness is nothing comfortable but rather something challenging. The infancy narratives in the Gospel give evidence of St. Joseph’s capacity to hear the voice of God and guide the Holy Family.
And Mary! If she had not been what we call ‘ascetic’, a woman set apart and well disciplined in the spiritual life, she would not have become the God-Bearer by whom God came down to live in your life and mine.
As someone wrote, it was as if the human race were a little dark house, without light or air, locked and latched. The wind of the spirit had beaten on the door, rattled the windows, tapped on the dark glass, trying to get in – and yet the Spirit was outside. But one day a woman opened the door, and the little house was swept pure and clean by the wind. Seas of light swept through it, and the light remained in it; and in that little house, a Child was born and the Child was God.
As we go to the home in Nazareth we encounter the challenge of holiness, what Pascal said was the most important influence in the world. We see a Holy Child formed by a Holy Mother and her Spouse. How can we enter such a home?
There are families I know where there is such a sense of the Holy Spirit that I am made to feel deeply challenged. Some households have about them a transcendent quality, a joy that is pointer to heaven our true home. This is also true of churches. Just welcoming visitors is not enough. They need to be challenged, intrigued by what they see inside our buildings, both the worship of Jesus and the people of Jesus in their self-lessness and joy.
I wouldn’t be here this morning if I hadn’t been bowled over by the awesome rites of a church I visited in Oxford over 35 years ago, a saint of a priest and many apparently humble, holy and humorous folk who gathered day by day to go unto the altar of God, the God of their joy and gladness.
This morning we go to Nazareth to learn in the school of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of a welcoming love and a challenge to holiness. Lastly we will find at Nazareth a source of empowerment.
For 2000 years people have been empowered by the saving grace of Jesus Christ born of Mary.
What a Saviour – a practical Saviour! As practical as his foster father, Joseph, in carpentry where Our Lord picks up his capacity to mend, yes, even families.
How many of us have had to bring our marriages and our families to be mended? To the Carpenter, the One who anoints and empowers and saves – and seen the difference Christian Faith makes.
How much we need to get back to Nazareth, to Jesus, Mary and Joseph and see there a work of intense spiritual transformation open to all. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour (Luke 2:52). He did so that we too might increase in the same fashion!
Either Jesus Christ makes a difference, either he is born ‘to raise the sons of earth’ or our religion is moralistic do-gooding. If Christianity is about ‘do gooding’ it is only in the sense that Christians have access to a power beyond this world that incidentally helps you do what is right.
For that empowerment, for the challenge and welcoming love the Holy Spirit brings we go in gratitude once more this morning to Nazareth!
Through modelling Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may our families and our church be places of welcome so that people may find a home with us and with the Lord!
May our families and our church be challenging places where people get intrigued by Jesus Christ living in the midst of his people!
Father grant that our families and our churches may become places of spiritual empowerment where we share in the anointing of your anointed Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, One God for ever and ever. Amen.
Well this morning we also bow before Jesus, Mary and Joseph but to draw a greater power into service. I mean the power of love at the centre of the Holy Family.
This morning the liturgy moves from Bethlehem via Jerusalem to Nazareth. On Friday we celebrated the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Today we celebrate his childhood in Nazareth. As we heard at the end of the holy gospel, following the incident in the Temple: Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and came to Nazareth. Or in Matthew’s account of his infancy his home (was) in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazarene’
I once went to Nazareth. I’ll never forget seeing two young boys at a well drawing water for their families. They could have been Jesus and his cousin John. The water was probably from the same source as that drawn on 2000 years ago, for wells do not move.
This morning we are all going in heart and mind to Nazareth, to the household of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We’re going, with the scriptures and the holy liturgy to seek inspiration from the Holy Family for our own families and for the family we enjoy here at St. Giles’ as a local expression of God’s never-ending family, the holy, catholic church.
As we go to Nazareth we find welcome, challenge and empowerment.
We find firstly a welcome. The hearth of Mary and Joseph is an open hearth. How could it be otherwise? How could this couple who welcome God into their earthly home be guilty of turning any away?
In the Holy Family there is hospitality, the generous reception of friends and stranger alike. We catch something of the extended life of the Holy Family in today’s Gospel story of Jesus getting lost in the Temple when the three of them travel in a large extended family. To enter the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is to find yourself welcomed into that great hospitable procession of the people of God into the heavenly Temple. Mary and Joseph remind us that we can never have Jesus to ourselves. To be a Christian is to be one with Mary and Joseph and Paul and Augustine and Francis and Giles – and the list goes on!
In the Holy Family we find the welcome that marks the church from its beginning, God’s people belonging to God and belonging together.
You and I haven’t chosen one another but God has chosen us together to be his family here in Horsted Keynes. Welcome one another says the Apostle as God in Christ has welcomed you.
In Nazareth we see also an image of Christian family, of mutual belonging. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are present to one another in a way we can only hope to imitate by the grace of God.
Our families need to go to Nazareth, so to speak, and to learn there how to be more present to one another.
This quality of mutual presence and attention is part of the welcome families are all about, the welcome of open ears and hearts, of people putting aside their own agenda in loving service of one another. What greater gift can you give to anyone than total, undivided attention?
As we go to Nazareth we find such a welcome – and also a challenge. It is the Feast of the Holy Family today.
There’s so much sentimentality surrounding Mary and Joseph we need to get back to scripture to see them as they are – two of God’s holy ones and holiness is nothing comfortable but rather something challenging. The infancy narratives in the Gospel give evidence of St. Joseph’s capacity to hear the voice of God and guide the Holy Family.
And Mary! If she had not been what we call ‘ascetic’, a woman set apart and well disciplined in the spiritual life, she would not have become the God-Bearer by whom God came down to live in your life and mine.
As someone wrote, it was as if the human race were a little dark house, without light or air, locked and latched. The wind of the spirit had beaten on the door, rattled the windows, tapped on the dark glass, trying to get in – and yet the Spirit was outside. But one day a woman opened the door, and the little house was swept pure and clean by the wind. Seas of light swept through it, and the light remained in it; and in that little house, a Child was born and the Child was God.
As we go to the home in Nazareth we encounter the challenge of holiness, what Pascal said was the most important influence in the world. We see a Holy Child formed by a Holy Mother and her Spouse. How can we enter such a home?
There are families I know where there is such a sense of the Holy Spirit that I am made to feel deeply challenged. Some households have about them a transcendent quality, a joy that is pointer to heaven our true home. This is also true of churches. Just welcoming visitors is not enough. They need to be challenged, intrigued by what they see inside our buildings, both the worship of Jesus and the people of Jesus in their self-lessness and joy.
I wouldn’t be here this morning if I hadn’t been bowled over by the awesome rites of a church I visited in Oxford over 35 years ago, a saint of a priest and many apparently humble, holy and humorous folk who gathered day by day to go unto the altar of God, the God of their joy and gladness.
This morning we go to Nazareth to learn in the school of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of a welcoming love and a challenge to holiness. Lastly we will find at Nazareth a source of empowerment.
For 2000 years people have been empowered by the saving grace of Jesus Christ born of Mary.
What a Saviour – a practical Saviour! As practical as his foster father, Joseph, in carpentry where Our Lord picks up his capacity to mend, yes, even families.
How many of us have had to bring our marriages and our families to be mended? To the Carpenter, the One who anoints and empowers and saves – and seen the difference Christian Faith makes.
How much we need to get back to Nazareth, to Jesus, Mary and Joseph and see there a work of intense spiritual transformation open to all. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour (Luke 2:52). He did so that we too might increase in the same fashion!
Either Jesus Christ makes a difference, either he is born ‘to raise the sons of earth’ or our religion is moralistic do-gooding. If Christianity is about ‘do gooding’ it is only in the sense that Christians have access to a power beyond this world that incidentally helps you do what is right.
For that empowerment, for the challenge and welcoming love the Holy Spirit brings we go in gratitude once more this morning to Nazareth!
Through modelling Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may our families and our church be places of welcome so that people may find a home with us and with the Lord!
May our families and our church be challenging places where people get intrigued by Jesus Christ living in the midst of his people!
Father grant that our families and our churches may become places of spiritual empowerment where we share in the anointing of your anointed Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, One God for ever and ever. Amen.
Friday, 25 December 2009
Christmas all age eucharist 2009
A lady’s looking for work and sees a sign on a house: “PAINTER WANTED.” So she goes to the house and knocks on the door, telling the owner, “I’m here for the paint job.”
“OK.” The guy hands her a couple cans. “Here’s the paint. I want you to paint the porch.” She says, “No problem,” gets the paint and sets off to work.
It’s not very long until she knocks on the door again. “All finished.”
Handing over the money, the owner exclaims, “That didn’t take very long!”
“I even gave it two coats,” she says, pocketing the money. “And oh, by the way, it’s not a Porch, it’s a Ferrari.”
So what did we get for Christmas? A Porsche, a Ferrari – I need a new car. No, I got a battery charger – and…. anyone do better than that?
Come on children, cheer me up! Who got a Spiderman action toy, an electric scooter, a Twister video game, a Batmobile
Children share the presents they’ve received.
There’s a couple of young ladies who got an early Christmas present. Grace and Sadie Hitchen. Grace, what did you get for Christmas at Hooters across the road?
Baby John Barnabas Hitchen – baby Barnie.
Let’s have a look at Barnie because we’re going to bless him during the prayers today.
Applaud Barnie
Who else got a baby as Christmas present?
Mary and Joseph
At Christmas we get some great presents but we also have a reminder of the greatest present human beings have ever been given, the gift of Jesus.
Each year we remember the wonderful thing that happened in Bethlehem 2009 years ago.
God became a human being and began life in the household of Mary and Joseph as a little baby.
We welcome afresh God’s gift, the gift of Jesus.
What difference does the coming of Jesus make?
I’ll tell you but first let’s see if we remember a memory line I gave you a few months back.
The Son of God (hands up) became the son of Man (touch heart) so that children of men (touch shoulders) could become children of God (hands up).
What do I mean?
The other week I was walking under some power lines. You know, really high power cables that were carrying electricity from one place to another.
As I walked under the power lines I looked up and saw loads of birds on the lines.
I thought to myself, because I could hear the humming, how can those birds sit on the cables without getting frazzled?
Can any adult tell me why birds can sit safely on power lines whereas if the cables fell on us they’d kill us?
For electricity to flow you need to complete the circuit. If a bird could touch the cables and the earth power would flow through them.
God carries power. It’s the power that upholds the universe. Among the creatures in the universe one creature was specially designed in his image. Anyone know which creature on the earth is made specially like that?
A human being
Now God wanted to bring his power to play in the lives of human beings. Not so they’d get frazzled but so they’d be strong enough to do great things for him on earth.
What happened? He came down to earth and completed the circuit by becoming a man in Jesus. The Son of God descended from the power lines. He didn’t get frazzled but he did go through some stuff. Jesus, the Son of God became Son of Man. He died, rose and gave the Holy Spirit so all who received him could be part of God’s powerful circuit.
St John says at the start of his Gospel (1.12) to all who received Jesus and believed in his name Jesus gives power to become children of God.
Christmas is about getting God’s power into your life. We sang at the start of the Eucharist about Jesus being born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. It’s true he does raise us and empower us.
Let’s try the memory line: The Son of God (hands up) became the son of Man (touch heart) so that children of men (touch shoulders) could become children of God (hands up).
Last thought, especially for grown ups.
It may be Christmas finds you a little overwhelmed. You may even identify with the jobless lady I told you who messed up the Porch, sorry Ferrari. Maybe you’re fighting regrets about the past, anxieties about the future, whatever.
In that case you’re like a bird on a power line – you’re sitting on your answer. Complete the circuit. Let God empower you for a new flight by welcoming Jesus today. Here’s part of your answer: the truth we’re here to celebrate at Christmas. Christ’s Mass is, simply stated, the bread and wine God ordained to keep the circuit operating after Jesus came down to Bethlehem in Palestine.
God was man in Palestine and lives today in bread and wine. Here is power for living and the best present God gives at this time – Christmas Communion, here for the taking and receiving, and available not just at Christmas but all the year through.
“OK.” The guy hands her a couple cans. “Here’s the paint. I want you to paint the porch.” She says, “No problem,” gets the paint and sets off to work.
It’s not very long until she knocks on the door again. “All finished.”
Handing over the money, the owner exclaims, “That didn’t take very long!”
“I even gave it two coats,” she says, pocketing the money. “And oh, by the way, it’s not a Porch, it’s a Ferrari.”
So what did we get for Christmas? A Porsche, a Ferrari – I need a new car. No, I got a battery charger – and…. anyone do better than that?
Come on children, cheer me up! Who got a Spiderman action toy, an electric scooter, a Twister video game, a Batmobile
Children share the presents they’ve received.
There’s a couple of young ladies who got an early Christmas present. Grace and Sadie Hitchen. Grace, what did you get for Christmas at Hooters across the road?
Baby John Barnabas Hitchen – baby Barnie.
Let’s have a look at Barnie because we’re going to bless him during the prayers today.
Applaud Barnie
Who else got a baby as Christmas present?
Mary and Joseph
At Christmas we get some great presents but we also have a reminder of the greatest present human beings have ever been given, the gift of Jesus.
Each year we remember the wonderful thing that happened in Bethlehem 2009 years ago.
God became a human being and began life in the household of Mary and Joseph as a little baby.
We welcome afresh God’s gift, the gift of Jesus.
What difference does the coming of Jesus make?
I’ll tell you but first let’s see if we remember a memory line I gave you a few months back.
The Son of God (hands up) became the son of Man (touch heart) so that children of men (touch shoulders) could become children of God (hands up).
What do I mean?
The other week I was walking under some power lines. You know, really high power cables that were carrying electricity from one place to another.
As I walked under the power lines I looked up and saw loads of birds on the lines.
I thought to myself, because I could hear the humming, how can those birds sit on the cables without getting frazzled?
Can any adult tell me why birds can sit safely on power lines whereas if the cables fell on us they’d kill us?
For electricity to flow you need to complete the circuit. If a bird could touch the cables and the earth power would flow through them.
God carries power. It’s the power that upholds the universe. Among the creatures in the universe one creature was specially designed in his image. Anyone know which creature on the earth is made specially like that?
A human being
Now God wanted to bring his power to play in the lives of human beings. Not so they’d get frazzled but so they’d be strong enough to do great things for him on earth.
What happened? He came down to earth and completed the circuit by becoming a man in Jesus. The Son of God descended from the power lines. He didn’t get frazzled but he did go through some stuff. Jesus, the Son of God became Son of Man. He died, rose and gave the Holy Spirit so all who received him could be part of God’s powerful circuit.
St John says at the start of his Gospel (1.12) to all who received Jesus and believed in his name Jesus gives power to become children of God.
Christmas is about getting God’s power into your life. We sang at the start of the Eucharist about Jesus being born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. It’s true he does raise us and empower us.
Let’s try the memory line: The Son of God (hands up) became the son of Man (touch heart) so that children of men (touch shoulders) could become children of God (hands up).
Last thought, especially for grown ups.
It may be Christmas finds you a little overwhelmed. You may even identify with the jobless lady I told you who messed up the Porch, sorry Ferrari. Maybe you’re fighting regrets about the past, anxieties about the future, whatever.
In that case you’re like a bird on a power line – you’re sitting on your answer. Complete the circuit. Let God empower you for a new flight by welcoming Jesus today. Here’s part of your answer: the truth we’re here to celebrate at Christmas. Christ’s Mass is, simply stated, the bread and wine God ordained to keep the circuit operating after Jesus came down to Bethlehem in Palestine.
God was man in Palestine and lives today in bread and wine. Here is power for living and the best present God gives at this time – Christmas Communion, here for the taking and receiving, and available not just at Christmas but all the year through.
Midnight Mass 2009
The battle to save the world is one between expanders and restrainers.
The Copenhagen climate summit set those wanting economic expansion with rising consumption against those who want to restrain growth to save the planet.
George Monbiot, an avowed restrainer, sees this conflict as a battle to redefine humanity. Some want us to become more greedy. Others want us to become more philanthropic.
The expanders want our western economies to grow much as in the past with a trickle down to the needy. The restrainers want us to change so we can live mindful of the human race as a whole.
It’s hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers to accept that our survival depends on our living within limits.
This is a good illustration of what Christmas is all about.
We’re finding through a rather long and painful way round what God has been trying to tell us since the coming of Jesus we celebrate tonight.
God is into restraint as the basis for right expansion.
Isn’t the coming of God to earth the biggest illustration ever upon the earth of restraint?
His coming to Bethlehem restrains him, as clearly as the child Jesus was restrained in swaddling bands.
Jesus is restrained so the world can expand into new freedom.
Just as Jesus was bound to set us free we must be bound, the human race, the world, must be bound to enter the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The clue to following up the Copenhagen summit is accommodation between restrainers and expanders. Accommodation is also what tonight is all about, what Christianity is all about.
In Christ God can accommodate to human circumstances and we can accommodate to God.
This is a wonderful night because it shows extravagant love to be at the heart of reality. Extravagant love that bears restraint, because true love does just that for the one it loves.
My love for someone, my children for example, is demonstrated more by the pain I suffer on their behalf than by the gifts I shower on them. So it is with the Lord our God.
The nations of the world will serve the human race not by expanding unbridled self interest but by adopting costly restraint. So it is with the Lord our God.
In coming to live as one of us God did not express unbridled self interest but costly restraint.
By coming to live in a stable with the poorest of the poor he says to us, ‘I’ll accommodate to you. I’ll change for you. I’ll serve you and help your life expand - though it costs me’.
Jesus came and died for us. God accommodated to our nature and brought it into his. When we ponder all the restraints Our Lord endured we know God expects nothing of us he’s not prepared to go through himself and we recognise the invitation he gives us to share his divinity.
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining; it is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
Jesus died in our place to live in our place and show us our worth.
He accepted the ultimate restraint of death so we could expand into the divine nature. That’s the Christian good news.
As we heard in the Christmas gospel from Saint John: The Word became flesh and lived among us…to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God
Or as we read in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.
Christmas is a grand commemoration of the love that accepts restraint and teaches us to do likewise in the service of one another.
It’s costly to adjust your life to others. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t feel some cost in becoming your servant and parish priest. All those endless expectations to be served, yet balanced by much loving support and appreciation, not least the many Christmas cards for which our thanks.
A last thought. Some people see Christianity as a sort of straitjacket.
They mock our commitment to forgiveness, faithful marriage, giving to God’s work and so on.
They think we’re bound and want to free us to be happy pagans!
But we have freedom. Don’t we? To know you’re loved as extravagantly as we’re loved by Jesus is something tremendously freeing. Human beings are most free and alive in loving relationships.
We become ourselves in love - but loving relationships always involve restraint and a loss of independence.
‘Is it easy to love God?’ ‘It is easy to those who do it.’ From the outside it looks like a strait jacket but from the inside it feels like heaven.
Think of a world class singer and the hours she puts in training for her performance. How she adjusts her use of time to the cause she loves! Is she in a strait jacket?
When we gain a heart for the great cause that will outlast us all – the cause of hallowing God’s name, building his kingdom and accomplishing his will - we lose lesser concerns. Christmas and New Year is a time for taking up training, like the vocalist, to improve our Christian performance.
God help us and the world to restrain ourselves and keep close to Jesus giving him our devotion, so his kingdom advances in Horsted Keynes as more of us see our lives expanding into the glorious liberty of the children of God!
The Copenhagen climate summit set those wanting economic expansion with rising consumption against those who want to restrain growth to save the planet.
George Monbiot, an avowed restrainer, sees this conflict as a battle to redefine humanity. Some want us to become more greedy. Others want us to become more philanthropic.
The expanders want our western economies to grow much as in the past with a trickle down to the needy. The restrainers want us to change so we can live mindful of the human race as a whole.
It’s hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers to accept that our survival depends on our living within limits.
This is a good illustration of what Christmas is all about.
We’re finding through a rather long and painful way round what God has been trying to tell us since the coming of Jesus we celebrate tonight.
God is into restraint as the basis for right expansion.
Isn’t the coming of God to earth the biggest illustration ever upon the earth of restraint?
His coming to Bethlehem restrains him, as clearly as the child Jesus was restrained in swaddling bands.
Jesus is restrained so the world can expand into new freedom.
Just as Jesus was bound to set us free we must be bound, the human race, the world, must be bound to enter the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The clue to following up the Copenhagen summit is accommodation between restrainers and expanders. Accommodation is also what tonight is all about, what Christianity is all about.
In Christ God can accommodate to human circumstances and we can accommodate to God.
This is a wonderful night because it shows extravagant love to be at the heart of reality. Extravagant love that bears restraint, because true love does just that for the one it loves.
My love for someone, my children for example, is demonstrated more by the pain I suffer on their behalf than by the gifts I shower on them. So it is with the Lord our God.
The nations of the world will serve the human race not by expanding unbridled self interest but by adopting costly restraint. So it is with the Lord our God.
In coming to live as one of us God did not express unbridled self interest but costly restraint.
By coming to live in a stable with the poorest of the poor he says to us, ‘I’ll accommodate to you. I’ll change for you. I’ll serve you and help your life expand - though it costs me’.
Jesus came and died for us. God accommodated to our nature and brought it into his. When we ponder all the restraints Our Lord endured we know God expects nothing of us he’s not prepared to go through himself and we recognise the invitation he gives us to share his divinity.
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining; it is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
Jesus died in our place to live in our place and show us our worth.
He accepted the ultimate restraint of death so we could expand into the divine nature. That’s the Christian good news.
As we heard in the Christmas gospel from Saint John: The Word became flesh and lived among us…to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God
Or as we read in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.
Christmas is a grand commemoration of the love that accepts restraint and teaches us to do likewise in the service of one another.
It’s costly to adjust your life to others. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t feel some cost in becoming your servant and parish priest. All those endless expectations to be served, yet balanced by much loving support and appreciation, not least the many Christmas cards for which our thanks.
A last thought. Some people see Christianity as a sort of straitjacket.
They mock our commitment to forgiveness, faithful marriage, giving to God’s work and so on.
They think we’re bound and want to free us to be happy pagans!
But we have freedom. Don’t we? To know you’re loved as extravagantly as we’re loved by Jesus is something tremendously freeing. Human beings are most free and alive in loving relationships.
We become ourselves in love - but loving relationships always involve restraint and a loss of independence.
‘Is it easy to love God?’ ‘It is easy to those who do it.’ From the outside it looks like a strait jacket but from the inside it feels like heaven.
Think of a world class singer and the hours she puts in training for her performance. How she adjusts her use of time to the cause she loves! Is she in a strait jacket?
When we gain a heart for the great cause that will outlast us all – the cause of hallowing God’s name, building his kingdom and accomplishing his will - we lose lesser concerns. Christmas and New Year is a time for taking up training, like the vocalist, to improve our Christian performance.
God help us and the world to restrain ourselves and keep close to Jesus giving him our devotion, so his kingdom advances in Horsted Keynes as more of us see our lives expanding into the glorious liberty of the children of God!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
