There is no Word of God without power so that this place – the pulpit – and the book expounded here – this book – are about energising.
Four hundred years ago the translation of the Bible into the language of the people energised the church and I want to use this sermon to encourage us to study God’s Word today and to welcome it afresh.
I am mindful as I speak that we have some copies available of the equivalent of the King James Bible for the 21st century – the New Revised Standard Version – as well as our Lent book, Bishop Tom Wright’s commentary on St Matthew’s Gospel – and also a newly produced children’s Bible that can be ordered - so this sermon can have practical consequences in a resolve to get into the Bible and seek the empowering of the Holy Spirit with one tool or another.
Why is it so important we familiarise ourselves with the Bible?
Because the Bible speaks to those with open ears of God’s people, provision, promises and purpose.
In reading the Bible we find...God’s people
The Bible is the family history of the Christian church. It is our life story. We are to see it as part of our own story since Christians see themselves in the sacred history it provides. When, for example, in the story of Cain and Abel we read God’s words to Cain, ‘where is your brother?’ they are words that remind us that God’s family find God again and again through love of other people. When we read the story of the Exodus we see ourselves going through the Red Sea – the waters of baptism – fed by manna – the heavenly bread of the eucharist – destined for Canaan – a glorious homeland.
When we read and study Matthew’s Gospel as we shall do in Lent, we see a Sermon on a Mount from Jesus presented by Matthew as the new Moses since his Jewish readers knew it was Moses who first brought teaching down from Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments. When we read in the Acts about Pentecost we see a reversal of the Tower of Babel in Genesis so that people heard the same message in their different languages. The Holy Spirit who drives the Church forward from Pentecost is the same Lord working secretly throughout the biblical story of God’s people.
We read the Bible because it tells us who we are – God’s children made so by God’s provision.
This provision, the gift of Jesus, is a second motivator for bible reading so that Saint Jerome could say that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ no less.
The Bible reveals how God who created the world provided his Son, Jesus Christ to redeem it from sin through a new creation.
This is the year of Saint Matthew in the three year cycle of Sunday readings and we have a chance to dig deep into this Gospel during Lent with Bishop Tom Wright’s Lent book.
When we open a Bible Matthew is on its hinge, the hinge between the Old and New Testaments. The word Bible comes from the Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books" whose contents and order vary between denominations. The Old Testament has 39 books of Hebrew Scripture, though some denominations including our own give authority to a series of Jewish books called the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books. The New Testament contains 27 books the first four of which form the Canonical gospels, first Matthew’s, recounting the life of Christ and central to our faith.
There is no Word of God without power because scripture points us to Jesus. Saint Tikhon, an 18th century Russian writer, says ‘whenever you read the Gospel, Christ Himself is speaking to you. And while you read, you are praying and talking to Him’.
This is why we read the Bible – to seek and find God’s provision. The Bible is an instrument of divine revelation, the word of God communicated in human words. As such it has unique authority and inspiration and cannot mislead anyone as it presents the salvation truth of God in Christ.
This is what the Bible says about itself through what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.15-17 where he reminds his assistant bishop, and through him, all of us, how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
In the Bible we meet God’s people, see God’s provision for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Thirdly we find God’s promises.
The Bible contains what Saint Peter describes in 2 Peter 1.4 as God’s precious and very great promises for us to ‘read, mark and inwardly digest’.
In his book on Matthew Lent for everyone Tom Wright comments on Our Lord’s temptations and how Jesus himself holds fast to God’s promises as he resists them.
Once more, we are not simply spectators in this extraordinary drama. We too, are tempted to do the right things in the wrong way or for the wrong reason. Part of the discipline of Lent is about learning to recognize the flickering impulses, the whispering voices, for what they are, and to have the scripture fuelled courage to resist.
I like that phrase ‘scripture fuelled courage’. When I am tempted by anxiety it is the fuelling of my spiritual life by the biblical promises of God that defend me, such as those in today’s Gospel or these other texts. ‘My peace I give unto you’ (John 14.27) ‘You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you’ (Isaiah 26.3) ‘The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind’ (Philippians 4.7). The point is that unless I knew these verses, and had memorised them, the Bible would have no power to help me. I would lack what Tom Wright calls ‘scripture fuelled courage’.
There is no word of God without power! The bible itself points to the power of Holy Spirit who inspired it and will inspire its readers. In particular the discipline of Bible study helps us get into ourselves some of the key promises of God by the inspiration they give to heart and mind, an inspiration that evidences itself in our lives.
Fourthly if the Bible brings us the family history of God’s people, God’s provision for us in Jesus and his promises to fuel our courage it brings us hope for the future - God’s purpose.
The Bible contains God’s plan. It sets human history in the perspective revealed by Christ’s resurrection, his gathering of God’s people, building of the kingdom and promised return. In his commentary on Matthew Chapter 13 Bishop Tom speaks on the importance of the bible in opening up God’s future to us and of the kingdom of God in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus is looking for people to sign on, people who are prepared to take his kingdom-movement forward in their own day. In telling us the old, old story the Bible invites us to sign up to having faith for the future. As its last book affirms ‘the kingdom of the world (is to become) the kingdom of our God and of his Christ’ (Revelation 11:15)
This is what we sign up to at every eucharist since this sacred meal anticipates the heavenly banquet. So too our pondering of the Word of God energises our thinking and acting. It builds our conviction that if this is the day the Lord has made so is tomorrow.
The Bible – a way into being God’s people, knowing his provision, his promises and his purpose for our lives and that of the cosmos. The Lord deepen our hunger for God’s Word as he makes us hungry now for the table of the eucharist.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Epiphany 5 6 February 2011
'Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven' (Matthew 5:16)
I could sit down now really couldn't I?
There's the message to take home this morning - Matthew 5 verse 16!
The historian and satirist Thomas Carlyle used to complain at long sermons. Over Sunday lunch he suggested to his mother that the preacher that morning would have done better to say: 'Good people you know what to do just go and do it'.
But Thomas, his mother replied, gently. 'Wouldn't you tell them how!'
I won't sit down yet.
How do we let our light shine to God's glory?
We have to get lit up and we have to shine in the right place.
First then: How do we get lit up as Christians?
Jesus kindles his light in our hearts by scripture, eucharist and prayer.
'Your word is a lantern to my feet and a light to my path' writes the Psalmist (Psalm 119.105). Tell me - can you get close to Jesus, can his light be lit in your heart, without ever opening a Bible? Oh yes, you need a guide, you need to select, but may it be for us, day by day, what those first disciples said after meeting Jesus on the Emmaus Road: 'Did not our hearts burn as he opened the Scriptures to us?' (Luke 24.32). This will also be the best fruit if this year's 400th anniversary celebration of the first authorised English Bible. If you want to act on this morning's sermon pick up and take away for £5 a modern language bible from the back of church and/or sign up for the Lent Course next month which is on the Bible.
Jesus kindles his light in our hearts by scripture -and the eucharist. Show me a better way of getting more of Jesus into your life than the regular receiving of his body and blood? With scripture comes the eucharist because words are not enough for Jesus. His love is shown sacramentally because his love, like ours, needs practical expression. 'This is my body which is given for you...my blood which is shed for you’.
How do we get lit up as Christians?
The bible, the eucharist - and prayer. Day by day we seek irradiation as we come before the Lord. It’s a discipline that some, like the preacher, neglect at times. You sense when your prayer discipline fails that you're not glowing and warm – and you remember you've not been in front of the fire!
Some of us heard Leslie Whiting speak two weeks ago about her spiritual healing. Her story is a story that moves us from the first to the second half of the question.
How do we let our light shine to God's glory?
A year ago during the - or should I say during a freeze up Leslie was recipient of the helpfulness of John and Caroline Rich who took her for vitally needed chemotherapy. This village scheme is in itself a 'good work that gives glory to God'. In the case of the lift given to Leslie it served a process in which she invited first these helpers, and then Jesus himself to come alongside her.
As she put it the other week, though the cancer was now in her skull she didn’t presume to ask for healing but rather for the Lord to be with her on her forward journey. Leslie received the sacrament of anointing. Afterwards she was led by God to identify a surgeon who was making trials with a cyber knife that could destroy the tumours in her skull without damaging her brain. She had successful treatment and has gone on to bring light to others in need through the campaign she’s spearheading for the cyber knife facility to be made more available. Do sign her petition detailed in this week's news sheet.
'Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.'
To welcome this light we seek Jesus through scripture, eucharist and prayer.
To let our light shine we need discernment as to the dark places Jesus has for us, where he wants us to be placed.
Someone said to me recently, when I tried to console them after an accident, that they were confident that the circumstances they had been placed in would be a receipe for their spiritual benefit. What faith, I thought! Just as I thought when I heard Lesley's testimony, which seemed so unselfish. Not all cancer sufferers are so - there but for the grace of God go I...
How do we best shine? With an openness to Jesus and a readiness to be used by him wherever he wants us day by day. May this Eucharist be our pledge to offer our souls and bodies to be where he wants us this week and nowhere else.
‘Jesus bids us shine with a pure, clear light, like a little candle buring in the night. In this world of darkness: so we must shine, you in your small corner and I in mine!’
'Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven'
You are invited to sign Leslie's petition at
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/42313.html
I could sit down now really couldn't I?
There's the message to take home this morning - Matthew 5 verse 16!
The historian and satirist Thomas Carlyle used to complain at long sermons. Over Sunday lunch he suggested to his mother that the preacher that morning would have done better to say: 'Good people you know what to do just go and do it'.
But Thomas, his mother replied, gently. 'Wouldn't you tell them how!'
I won't sit down yet.
How do we let our light shine to God's glory?
We have to get lit up and we have to shine in the right place.
First then: How do we get lit up as Christians?
Jesus kindles his light in our hearts by scripture, eucharist and prayer.
'Your word is a lantern to my feet and a light to my path' writes the Psalmist (Psalm 119.105). Tell me - can you get close to Jesus, can his light be lit in your heart, without ever opening a Bible? Oh yes, you need a guide, you need to select, but may it be for us, day by day, what those first disciples said after meeting Jesus on the Emmaus Road: 'Did not our hearts burn as he opened the Scriptures to us?' (Luke 24.32). This will also be the best fruit if this year's 400th anniversary celebration of the first authorised English Bible. If you want to act on this morning's sermon pick up and take away for £5 a modern language bible from the back of church and/or sign up for the Lent Course next month which is on the Bible.
Jesus kindles his light in our hearts by scripture -and the eucharist. Show me a better way of getting more of Jesus into your life than the regular receiving of his body and blood? With scripture comes the eucharist because words are not enough for Jesus. His love is shown sacramentally because his love, like ours, needs practical expression. 'This is my body which is given for you...my blood which is shed for you’.
How do we get lit up as Christians?
The bible, the eucharist - and prayer. Day by day we seek irradiation as we come before the Lord. It’s a discipline that some, like the preacher, neglect at times. You sense when your prayer discipline fails that you're not glowing and warm – and you remember you've not been in front of the fire!
Some of us heard Leslie Whiting speak two weeks ago about her spiritual healing. Her story is a story that moves us from the first to the second half of the question.
How do we let our light shine to God's glory?
A year ago during the - or should I say during a freeze up Leslie was recipient of the helpfulness of John and Caroline Rich who took her for vitally needed chemotherapy. This village scheme is in itself a 'good work that gives glory to God'. In the case of the lift given to Leslie it served a process in which she invited first these helpers, and then Jesus himself to come alongside her.
As she put it the other week, though the cancer was now in her skull she didn’t presume to ask for healing but rather for the Lord to be with her on her forward journey. Leslie received the sacrament of anointing. Afterwards she was led by God to identify a surgeon who was making trials with a cyber knife that could destroy the tumours in her skull without damaging her brain. She had successful treatment and has gone on to bring light to others in need through the campaign she’s spearheading for the cyber knife facility to be made more available. Do sign her petition detailed in this week's news sheet.
'Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.'
To welcome this light we seek Jesus through scripture, eucharist and prayer.
To let our light shine we need discernment as to the dark places Jesus has for us, where he wants us to be placed.
Someone said to me recently, when I tried to console them after an accident, that they were confident that the circumstances they had been placed in would be a receipe for their spiritual benefit. What faith, I thought! Just as I thought when I heard Lesley's testimony, which seemed so unselfish. Not all cancer sufferers are so - there but for the grace of God go I...
How do we best shine? With an openness to Jesus and a readiness to be used by him wherever he wants us day by day. May this Eucharist be our pledge to offer our souls and bodies to be where he wants us this week and nowhere else.
‘Jesus bids us shine with a pure, clear light, like a little candle buring in the night. In this world of darkness: so we must shine, you in your small corner and I in mine!’
'Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven'
You are invited to sign Leslie's petition at
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/42313.html
Saturday, 22 January 2011
A Time to Heal Sunday 23rd January 2011
I was listening on the radio to the book programme last week.
Now so many books are online it has been possible to survey the use of words and phrases over a couple of hundred years.
Inevitably the word internet appears only in the last twenty years. The words ‘I must’ occur an awful lot until the 1960s. The word ‘I want’ rarely occurs before the 1950s.
Do you see where I am leading?
Where there is .... selfish ambition, writes James in our reading from Chapter 3 of his epistle – where ‘I want’ reigns - there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
Healing and wholeness link to inner peace and inner peace is very often countered by our selfish craving.
I want it, and I want it now is more of a destructive impulse than we dare to own, so much are we carried along by the flow of electronic media, including advertising, that indulges our selfishness.
Christian healing has been defined as meeting Jesus Christ at your point of need - and restlessness of spirit is a very common need.
Those who take themselves to shopping malls for retail therapy get less return than we will gain tonight through the church’s ministry of healing.
He will quiet you by his love we read in Zephaniah Chapter 3 verse 17.
We cannot escape our desires, and not all our wants are selfish. Yet the quietening of useless desires can be, if we allow it, the gift of the Lord whose love covers the multitude of our sins, negligences and offences against him, against our neighbour and against ourselves.
Saint Seraphim of Sarov lived in Russia from 1759 to his death in 1833. He’s one of the most renowned Russian monks and mystics in the Orthodox Church and is remembered for extending the monastic teachings of contemplation, self-denial and the acquiring of the Holy Spirit to the layperson.
Perhaps Seraphim's most popular quotation amongst Orthodox believers is: Acquire inner peace, and thousands around you will find salvation.
How closely this advice echoes that of Saint James in tonight’s reading: The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
If we want wholeness we need the peace of Spirit that comes with the wisdom from above.
God loves us and wants us to experience peace and life-abundant and eternal.
As we read in the Magnificat refrain from Isaiah 26.3-4:You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Saint Paul says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
This peace is given as we ask the Lord to come alongside us.
This action means an act of faith in him preceded by an act of repentance.
Repentance means turning, in this case turning from all that distracts and consumes our inner energies.
As was found written in the Breviary of 16th century Spanish mystic Saint Teresa of Avila:
Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
This evening is A Time to Heal. As we seek the Lord we have an opportunity to bring to him our needs of body and mind, soul and spirit and our relational needs. The ministry of healing is automatically holistic.
If your body is hurting it affects your mind and spirit. If your spirit is disturbed it has physical implications. If you are living with unforgiveness in your relationships you will pay a price for that all over. If your sense of what you must do is eclipsed by what you merely want to do, again you will lack wholeness and peace.
At this point it is my privilege to introduce Leslie who received the sacrament of anointing some months back for a serious physical condition and has a message for us about how God can come aside us in our needs bringing peace and healing.
Now so many books are online it has been possible to survey the use of words and phrases over a couple of hundred years.
Inevitably the word internet appears only in the last twenty years. The words ‘I must’ occur an awful lot until the 1960s. The word ‘I want’ rarely occurs before the 1950s.
Do you see where I am leading?
Where there is .... selfish ambition, writes James in our reading from Chapter 3 of his epistle – where ‘I want’ reigns - there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
Healing and wholeness link to inner peace and inner peace is very often countered by our selfish craving.
I want it, and I want it now is more of a destructive impulse than we dare to own, so much are we carried along by the flow of electronic media, including advertising, that indulges our selfishness.
Christian healing has been defined as meeting Jesus Christ at your point of need - and restlessness of spirit is a very common need.
Those who take themselves to shopping malls for retail therapy get less return than we will gain tonight through the church’s ministry of healing.
He will quiet you by his love we read in Zephaniah Chapter 3 verse 17.
We cannot escape our desires, and not all our wants are selfish. Yet the quietening of useless desires can be, if we allow it, the gift of the Lord whose love covers the multitude of our sins, negligences and offences against him, against our neighbour and against ourselves.
Saint Seraphim of Sarov lived in Russia from 1759 to his death in 1833. He’s one of the most renowned Russian monks and mystics in the Orthodox Church and is remembered for extending the monastic teachings of contemplation, self-denial and the acquiring of the Holy Spirit to the layperson.
Perhaps Seraphim's most popular quotation amongst Orthodox believers is: Acquire inner peace, and thousands around you will find salvation.
How closely this advice echoes that of Saint James in tonight’s reading: The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
If we want wholeness we need the peace of Spirit that comes with the wisdom from above.
God loves us and wants us to experience peace and life-abundant and eternal.
As we read in the Magnificat refrain from Isaiah 26.3-4:You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Saint Paul says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
This peace is given as we ask the Lord to come alongside us.
This action means an act of faith in him preceded by an act of repentance.
Repentance means turning, in this case turning from all that distracts and consumes our inner energies.
As was found written in the Breviary of 16th century Spanish mystic Saint Teresa of Avila:
Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
This evening is A Time to Heal. As we seek the Lord we have an opportunity to bring to him our needs of body and mind, soul and spirit and our relational needs. The ministry of healing is automatically holistic.
If your body is hurting it affects your mind and spirit. If your spirit is disturbed it has physical implications. If you are living with unforgiveness in your relationships you will pay a price for that all over. If your sense of what you must do is eclipsed by what you merely want to do, again you will lack wholeness and peace.
At this point it is my privilege to introduce Leslie who received the sacrament of anointing some months back for a serious physical condition and has a message for us about how God can come aside us in our needs bringing peace and healing.
Epiphany 3 23rd January 2011
Let me start by reading an advertisement.
Do you want a faith that stands on the authority of scripture and yet remains thoughtful?
Teaching that rings true to the faith of the Church through the ages?
Would you value worship that is awesome yet accessible?
A Christian community with loose boundaries and a vision for caring within the community?
Here we are - the Church of England!
We do not look down on Roman Catholic or Free Churches but hold hands out to both as 'the ancient church of this land, catholic and reformed' (Catechism definition).
Our worshippers are evangelical, catholic, charismatic and radical because the Church has to be all these things.
Yes, we have our problems, some of our own making, but many on account of the honesty with which we are facing up to a fast changing world.
The Church of England is part of the Church in England and has respect for those of other Faiths or no faith at all.
We welcome all who wish to engage with Jesus Christ through the Bible and the Sacraments and through Christian fellowship and service.
As they first said of Jesus, 'Come and see!'
Horsted Keynes will be reading this advertisement in P&P next week. I wrote it out of concern about the bad press the Church of England seems to be getting at the moment.
It was also prompted by preparing this sermon based on part of the second lesson set for today from 1 Corinthians 1.10-12. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?
This call to unity coincides with the annual week of prayer for Christian Unity held every year from 18-25th January.
It seems to me that St Paul’s warning reaches us as a church at three levels, local, national and universal, so here’s a minute or two on each level.
First local. I have to say, I sense I inherited from Father Timothy, a high degree of unity and a great sense of collaboration as we seek to promote Christianity and develop the life of St Giles with an eye to renewing worship, engaging youth and families and enhancing buildings for better Christian use. We should not be complacent, but St Giles is a coalition of catholic, evangelical, charismatic and liberal Christians that is outwardly focussed, praise God.
Second, nationally the Church of England is suffering bad press. Why? Because the majority decision to ordain women has failed to take the minority along with it. There’s a high majority but no consensus. Those of us who cherish the Church of England’s catholic inheritance can’t see a clear way ahead, with some taking up the Pope’s offer of the Anglican Ordinariate. Those impatient for a church with no prejudice against women are getting very impatient with Anglocatholics. There seems no easy way forward in terms of structures since women bishops seem inevitable. This will be a slow burner and we need even more patience to bear with one another’s views of the ordained ministry.
It isn’t sexist to hold to the Bible and the practice of the worldwide church, Catholic and Orthodox over 20 centuries. Neither is it a betrayal of Christian principle to seek the ordination of women.
It’s just that changing holy orders, one of the seven sacraments, is like changing the heating system in a church. There’s an upheaval and a chilling effect – and the national church is in the middle of it! No easy answers here, just patience. The Holy Spirit is saying one thing to part of the church and another thing to the rest. We must wait and see and avoid knee jerk reactions, seeking to maximise unity as a national church which believes its part of the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’.
Thirdly let’s look at that international level of the universal church. About this Christians should really be getting impatient. In first century Corinth there were Chloe’s and Apollos’ and Cephas’ groups. In the world of the 21st century there are not three but 39,000 Christian denominations!
Each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?
He has. His purpose to bring all things together is being much frustrated. There’s a need for each Christian church to recognise afresh that they exist by God’s grace - and so do the other denominations! Only as the different churches come together to the foot of Christ’s Cross and admit our need of his forgiveness are we ever going to be made one, as Christ certainly desires. This is happening worldwide whenever Christians opt to maximise cooperation with their sister churches. We should congratulate ourselves, for example, that the Martindale tonight will be a place of healing prayer uniting Catholic, Reformed and Anglican churches.
I was at Westminster Abbey for evensong last Sunday. There I was reminded of the shared evensong of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope in September that was preceded by Pope Benedict’s visit to the Archbishop at Lambeth Palace. There Rowan Williams said these wise words: In 1845, when John Henry Newman finally decided that he must follow his conscience and seek his future in serving God in communion with the See of Rome, one of his most intimate Anglican friends and allies, the priest Edward Bouverie Pusey.. wrote a moving meditation on this "parting of friends" in which he said of the separation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics: "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart".
That should not surprise us: holiness is at its simplest fellowship with Christ; and when that fellowship with Christ is brought to maturity, so is our fellowship with one another. As bishops, we are servants of the unity of Christ's people, Christ's one Body. And, meeting as we do as bishops of separated church communities, we must all feel that each of our own ministries is made less by the fact of our dividedness, a very real but imperfect communion. Perhaps we shall not quickly overcome the remaining obstacles to full, restored communion; but no obstacles stand in the way of our seeking, as a matter of joyful obedience to the Lord, more ways in which to build up one another in holiness by prayer and public celebration together, by closer friendship, and by growing together both in the challenging work of service for all whom Christ loves, and mission to all God has made.
Wise words. "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart". Christian unity grows – locally, nationally or internationally as Christians grow together in both holiness and mission. Let’s make that our priority as much as we can in the coming years.
Do you want a faith that stands on the authority of scripture and yet remains thoughtful?
Teaching that rings true to the faith of the Church through the ages?
Would you value worship that is awesome yet accessible?
A Christian community with loose boundaries and a vision for caring within the community?
Here we are - the Church of England!
We do not look down on Roman Catholic or Free Churches but hold hands out to both as 'the ancient church of this land, catholic and reformed' (Catechism definition).
Our worshippers are evangelical, catholic, charismatic and radical because the Church has to be all these things.
Yes, we have our problems, some of our own making, but many on account of the honesty with which we are facing up to a fast changing world.
The Church of England is part of the Church in England and has respect for those of other Faiths or no faith at all.
We welcome all who wish to engage with Jesus Christ through the Bible and the Sacraments and through Christian fellowship and service.
As they first said of Jesus, 'Come and see!'
Horsted Keynes will be reading this advertisement in P&P next week. I wrote it out of concern about the bad press the Church of England seems to be getting at the moment.
It was also prompted by preparing this sermon based on part of the second lesson set for today from 1 Corinthians 1.10-12. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?
This call to unity coincides with the annual week of prayer for Christian Unity held every year from 18-25th January.
It seems to me that St Paul’s warning reaches us as a church at three levels, local, national and universal, so here’s a minute or two on each level.
First local. I have to say, I sense I inherited from Father Timothy, a high degree of unity and a great sense of collaboration as we seek to promote Christianity and develop the life of St Giles with an eye to renewing worship, engaging youth and families and enhancing buildings for better Christian use. We should not be complacent, but St Giles is a coalition of catholic, evangelical, charismatic and liberal Christians that is outwardly focussed, praise God.
Second, nationally the Church of England is suffering bad press. Why? Because the majority decision to ordain women has failed to take the minority along with it. There’s a high majority but no consensus. Those of us who cherish the Church of England’s catholic inheritance can’t see a clear way ahead, with some taking up the Pope’s offer of the Anglican Ordinariate. Those impatient for a church with no prejudice against women are getting very impatient with Anglocatholics. There seems no easy way forward in terms of structures since women bishops seem inevitable. This will be a slow burner and we need even more patience to bear with one another’s views of the ordained ministry.
It isn’t sexist to hold to the Bible and the practice of the worldwide church, Catholic and Orthodox over 20 centuries. Neither is it a betrayal of Christian principle to seek the ordination of women.
It’s just that changing holy orders, one of the seven sacraments, is like changing the heating system in a church. There’s an upheaval and a chilling effect – and the national church is in the middle of it! No easy answers here, just patience. The Holy Spirit is saying one thing to part of the church and another thing to the rest. We must wait and see and avoid knee jerk reactions, seeking to maximise unity as a national church which believes its part of the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’.
Thirdly let’s look at that international level of the universal church. About this Christians should really be getting impatient. In first century Corinth there were Chloe’s and Apollos’ and Cephas’ groups. In the world of the 21st century there are not three but 39,000 Christian denominations!
Each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?
He has. His purpose to bring all things together is being much frustrated. There’s a need for each Christian church to recognise afresh that they exist by God’s grace - and so do the other denominations! Only as the different churches come together to the foot of Christ’s Cross and admit our need of his forgiveness are we ever going to be made one, as Christ certainly desires. This is happening worldwide whenever Christians opt to maximise cooperation with their sister churches. We should congratulate ourselves, for example, that the Martindale tonight will be a place of healing prayer uniting Catholic, Reformed and Anglican churches.
I was at Westminster Abbey for evensong last Sunday. There I was reminded of the shared evensong of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope in September that was preceded by Pope Benedict’s visit to the Archbishop at Lambeth Palace. There Rowan Williams said these wise words: In 1845, when John Henry Newman finally decided that he must follow his conscience and seek his future in serving God in communion with the See of Rome, one of his most intimate Anglican friends and allies, the priest Edward Bouverie Pusey.. wrote a moving meditation on this "parting of friends" in which he said of the separation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics: "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart".
That should not surprise us: holiness is at its simplest fellowship with Christ; and when that fellowship with Christ is brought to maturity, so is our fellowship with one another. As bishops, we are servants of the unity of Christ's people, Christ's one Body. And, meeting as we do as bishops of separated church communities, we must all feel that each of our own ministries is made less by the fact of our dividedness, a very real but imperfect communion. Perhaps we shall not quickly overcome the remaining obstacles to full, restored communion; but no obstacles stand in the way of our seeking, as a matter of joyful obedience to the Lord, more ways in which to build up one another in holiness by prayer and public celebration together, by closer friendship, and by growing together both in the challenging work of service for all whom Christ loves, and mission to all God has made.
Wise words. "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart". Christian unity grows – locally, nationally or internationally as Christians grow together in both holiness and mission. Let’s make that our priority as much as we can in the coming years.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Epiphany 2nd January 2011
Today the church enters a glory-filled season, that of Epiphany. The coming of the wise men to Jesus brings the first showing of God’s glory to the nations in the face of Jesus Christ.
Epiphany means the revealing of glory.
This morning is an occasion for celebrating with you some occasions in my ministry I have been on the scene when the glory of Jesus illuminated someone.
Starting with myself!
Jesus first deeply impacted me in Oxford around 1970 through an extraordinary priest and an extraordinary Church.
I say extraordinary because the whole show was unconcerned about something our age is obsessed with and even the Church at times – I mean image.
There was no magazine or newsletter, hardly a noticeboard let alone an Internet Homepage or Church Logo. But there was presence!
There was something very deep and awesome about the worship at Mary Mags, the sure, unselfconscious majesty of the Sung Eucharist, of Sunday worship in the great tradition of the Church, evoked for me an awe before the mystery of God - something that many of our modern services, constructed out of ten minute sound-bites rarely attain!
Then there was charismatic presence in the old, richer sense of that word.
I recall being invited to tea by the Vicar and being strangely moved in my spirit at the encounter. Within weeks I had made a deeper surrender to Christ through making my First Confession.
I remember Epiphany in those days because it was at that time that the practice of genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament became my own.
In Mary Mags there was a safe on the altar, like our Aumbry in the wall on the right of the old high altar containing bread consecrated bread kept over from the eucharist with a perpetual light burning alongside it. I noticed that when people came into or left church they went down on one knee or did a low bow towards it.
I had been brought up to believe scraping your knees before things was Roman Catholic. Mary Mags challenged my thinking so that one day kneeling at the Christmas Crib I realised that as the Kings fell down before the glory of Jesus there was nothing wrong with my doing so.
It was an Epiphany moment, a manifestation of Christ to me, seeing the glory of Jesus hidden behind the Aumbry veil as he lay hidden in the stable. 40 years on I still genuflect to the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed I would not have come here as parish priest had the sacrament not been reserved here because Jesus showed me that time that the bread is his glorious body and I should treat it as such. He has taught me since that he’s in people as well as in that bread, and in the bible and creation and everywhere – but I remain eternally grateful for that Epiphany experience in Oxford long ago.
The Christian faith spreads by Epiphany, by the manifestation of the glory of Jesus in word and sacrament to and through people. Evangelism has always been rooted in being more than doing. It is a process of spiritual awakening to the Real Presence of God alongside us and within us, inviting us forward on our spiritual journey.
For the faith to spread and the church to grow we need priests and people whose baptism is fully owned, who have presence, presence and conviction to challenge others to become more irradiated, more luminous with Christ’s glory. This Jesus, who walks besides us, would display himself, his Real Presence, in sacrament and word and, most tellingly, in lives lived surrendered to him.
I said I would share occasions in my ministry when I have been on the scene when the glory of Jesus illuminated someone. I’ve time for two more examples
I think of Bernard, a young man in my first mining parish who had been on our life in the Spirit course, a precursor of the Alpha Course. Bernard and Anne were stalwarts of SS Philip & James where I was Curate. Bernard had prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon him as we encouraged people to pray. One morning he stumbled round to the Clergy House beaming all over his face. Was he drunk? I thought. No. Jesus had come real to him. The Holy Spirit had opened his inner eyes. He never looked back and possessed a great gift of joy and encouragement to us all.
Then I think of an older man to whose troubled deathbed I’d been summoned. The relatives were very concerned at his fearfulness and agitation as he moved towards his death. I came to his hospital bed myself with apprehension. Who was I to help a man faced with death? What on earth could I do to help? Shortly after I arrived I read the 23rd Psalm and as I read a deep peace descended upon him. It was as if Jesus manifested himself, appeared and just took him away. This man died joyfully as I read the words of assurance from Deuteronomy 33.27 The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.
What a difference it makes to someone when they see Jesus! They see glory – glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
To see Jesus is to catch hold of a radiant beauty quite out of this world, a beauty that is compelling and extraordinary in its attractiveness.
Could we wish anything more wonderful for anyone than a personal epiphany, a personal revelation of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
I believe the Lord seeks always to manifest himself, chiefly through the bible and the eucharist, and that we need to make space for that to happen.
This season of the Epiphany is a season for looking to Jesus and his manifestation to us and through us to our village. Since it coincides with New Year it’s a time to refresh our daily discipline or prayer, to open our bibles, to seek Jesus in his Sweet Sacrament divine, especially at the quiet midweek celebrations.
In our eucharist we make space for such Epiphany in the silences of the word and sacrament. God bless us now as we ponder the gift of Jesus and help us mark and inwardly digest the divine words we need to hear deep into our hearts from the human speech I have been uttering.
Epiphany means the revealing of glory.
This morning is an occasion for celebrating with you some occasions in my ministry I have been on the scene when the glory of Jesus illuminated someone.
Starting with myself!
Jesus first deeply impacted me in Oxford around 1970 through an extraordinary priest and an extraordinary Church.
I say extraordinary because the whole show was unconcerned about something our age is obsessed with and even the Church at times – I mean image.
There was no magazine or newsletter, hardly a noticeboard let alone an Internet Homepage or Church Logo. But there was presence!
There was something very deep and awesome about the worship at Mary Mags, the sure, unselfconscious majesty of the Sung Eucharist, of Sunday worship in the great tradition of the Church, evoked for me an awe before the mystery of God - something that many of our modern services, constructed out of ten minute sound-bites rarely attain!
Then there was charismatic presence in the old, richer sense of that word.
I recall being invited to tea by the Vicar and being strangely moved in my spirit at the encounter. Within weeks I had made a deeper surrender to Christ through making my First Confession.
I remember Epiphany in those days because it was at that time that the practice of genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament became my own.
In Mary Mags there was a safe on the altar, like our Aumbry in the wall on the right of the old high altar containing bread consecrated bread kept over from the eucharist with a perpetual light burning alongside it. I noticed that when people came into or left church they went down on one knee or did a low bow towards it.
I had been brought up to believe scraping your knees before things was Roman Catholic. Mary Mags challenged my thinking so that one day kneeling at the Christmas Crib I realised that as the Kings fell down before the glory of Jesus there was nothing wrong with my doing so.
It was an Epiphany moment, a manifestation of Christ to me, seeing the glory of Jesus hidden behind the Aumbry veil as he lay hidden in the stable. 40 years on I still genuflect to the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed I would not have come here as parish priest had the sacrament not been reserved here because Jesus showed me that time that the bread is his glorious body and I should treat it as such. He has taught me since that he’s in people as well as in that bread, and in the bible and creation and everywhere – but I remain eternally grateful for that Epiphany experience in Oxford long ago.
The Christian faith spreads by Epiphany, by the manifestation of the glory of Jesus in word and sacrament to and through people. Evangelism has always been rooted in being more than doing. It is a process of spiritual awakening to the Real Presence of God alongside us and within us, inviting us forward on our spiritual journey.
For the faith to spread and the church to grow we need priests and people whose baptism is fully owned, who have presence, presence and conviction to challenge others to become more irradiated, more luminous with Christ’s glory. This Jesus, who walks besides us, would display himself, his Real Presence, in sacrament and word and, most tellingly, in lives lived surrendered to him.
I said I would share occasions in my ministry when I have been on the scene when the glory of Jesus illuminated someone. I’ve time for two more examples
I think of Bernard, a young man in my first mining parish who had been on our life in the Spirit course, a precursor of the Alpha Course. Bernard and Anne were stalwarts of SS Philip & James where I was Curate. Bernard had prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon him as we encouraged people to pray. One morning he stumbled round to the Clergy House beaming all over his face. Was he drunk? I thought. No. Jesus had come real to him. The Holy Spirit had opened his inner eyes. He never looked back and possessed a great gift of joy and encouragement to us all.
Then I think of an older man to whose troubled deathbed I’d been summoned. The relatives were very concerned at his fearfulness and agitation as he moved towards his death. I came to his hospital bed myself with apprehension. Who was I to help a man faced with death? What on earth could I do to help? Shortly after I arrived I read the 23rd Psalm and as I read a deep peace descended upon him. It was as if Jesus manifested himself, appeared and just took him away. This man died joyfully as I read the words of assurance from Deuteronomy 33.27 The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.
What a difference it makes to someone when they see Jesus! They see glory – glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
To see Jesus is to catch hold of a radiant beauty quite out of this world, a beauty that is compelling and extraordinary in its attractiveness.
Could we wish anything more wonderful for anyone than a personal epiphany, a personal revelation of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
I believe the Lord seeks always to manifest himself, chiefly through the bible and the eucharist, and that we need to make space for that to happen.
This season of the Epiphany is a season for looking to Jesus and his manifestation to us and through us to our village. Since it coincides with New Year it’s a time to refresh our daily discipline or prayer, to open our bibles, to seek Jesus in his Sweet Sacrament divine, especially at the quiet midweek celebrations.
In our eucharist we make space for such Epiphany in the silences of the word and sacrament. God bless us now as we ponder the gift of Jesus and help us mark and inwardly digest the divine words we need to hear deep into our hearts from the human speech I have been uttering.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Christmas 1 26th December 2010
Noblesse oblige!
One must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position, and with the reputation that one has earned.
The unfashionable nature of this truth fuels our mass media from the irresponsible expenses claims of our MPs to the goings on among minor royalty.
Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.
This morning we ourselves have such a reminder as Christians.
The Prayer Book collect for the eight days of the Christmas Octave states the truth behind Christmas from God’s point of view:
Almighty God, you have given us your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
The prayer goes on to tell how this has consequences from our own point of view:
grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
The Son of God took our whole nature upon him, our total manhood, not just our body but our mind and will and emotional makeup so that our mortal nature might be capable of the divine nature.
Something happened yesterday on Christmas Day that affects us profoundly and affects the whole world through us.
Why did God become man? In order that we might become God, be made God’s children by adoption and grace and be daily renewed by God’s Holy Spirit.
To pray as our Christmas collect prays is to ask to be re-born in Jesus and become a partaker of the divine nature. In other words to ask that we may ourselves obtain the full benefit of the Christmas gift of Jesus.
Just as everyone is born of natural parents, if they wish to be regarded as God’s children, they need to be born again in a spiritual fashion, by water and the Spirit, by baptism, through which we share God’s essential nature and are joined to him.
Through the coming of God in Christ there is a new creation. From the incarnation – which means the making flesh of God – the whole world is divinised working from the souls of women and men out into the whole cosmos.
Noblesse oblige – we who are made children of God by the Son of God becoming Son of Man have obligations with such an awesome nobility.
Saint Leo the Great preaching in Rome at Christmas around 450AD had this appeal to his hearers which I hand on to you:
This is the day our Saviour was born: what a joy for us, my beloved! This is no season for sadness, this, the birthday of Life – the Life which annihilates the fear of death, and engenders joy, promising, as it does, immortality...
My beloved, let us offer thanksgiving to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. In the great mercy with which he loved us, he had pity on us, and in giving life to Christ, gave life to us too, when we were dead through sin’, so that in him we might be a new creation, a new work of his hands.
Let us then be quit of the old self and the habits that went with it. Sharers now in the birth of Christ, let us break with the deeds of the flesh.
O Christian, be aware of your nobility – it is God’s own nature that you share: do not then, by an ignoble life, fall back into your former baseness. Think of the Head, think of the Body of which you are a member...you have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit; do not, by evil deeds, drive so great an indweller away from you.
Those words are as true in 2010 as they were in 450. Praise God for the faith of the church through the ages carried down to us by the liturgy of Christmas.
We are God’s children made so by the gift of his only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Christians, be aware of your nobility!
Born again and made God’s children by adoption and grace, may we daily be renewed by the Holy Spirit;
Noblesse oblige! Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.
So are we made noble, so should we conduct ourselves!
One must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position, and with the reputation that one has earned.
The unfashionable nature of this truth fuels our mass media from the irresponsible expenses claims of our MPs to the goings on among minor royalty.
Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.
This morning we ourselves have such a reminder as Christians.
The Prayer Book collect for the eight days of the Christmas Octave states the truth behind Christmas from God’s point of view:
Almighty God, you have given us your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
The prayer goes on to tell how this has consequences from our own point of view:
grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
The Son of God took our whole nature upon him, our total manhood, not just our body but our mind and will and emotional makeup so that our mortal nature might be capable of the divine nature.
Something happened yesterday on Christmas Day that affects us profoundly and affects the whole world through us.
Why did God become man? In order that we might become God, be made God’s children by adoption and grace and be daily renewed by God’s Holy Spirit.
To pray as our Christmas collect prays is to ask to be re-born in Jesus and become a partaker of the divine nature. In other words to ask that we may ourselves obtain the full benefit of the Christmas gift of Jesus.
Just as everyone is born of natural parents, if they wish to be regarded as God’s children, they need to be born again in a spiritual fashion, by water and the Spirit, by baptism, through which we share God’s essential nature and are joined to him.
Through the coming of God in Christ there is a new creation. From the incarnation – which means the making flesh of God – the whole world is divinised working from the souls of women and men out into the whole cosmos.
Noblesse oblige – we who are made children of God by the Son of God becoming Son of Man have obligations with such an awesome nobility.
Saint Leo the Great preaching in Rome at Christmas around 450AD had this appeal to his hearers which I hand on to you:
This is the day our Saviour was born: what a joy for us, my beloved! This is no season for sadness, this, the birthday of Life – the Life which annihilates the fear of death, and engenders joy, promising, as it does, immortality...
My beloved, let us offer thanksgiving to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. In the great mercy with which he loved us, he had pity on us, and in giving life to Christ, gave life to us too, when we were dead through sin’, so that in him we might be a new creation, a new work of his hands.
Let us then be quit of the old self and the habits that went with it. Sharers now in the birth of Christ, let us break with the deeds of the flesh.
O Christian, be aware of your nobility – it is God’s own nature that you share: do not then, by an ignoble life, fall back into your former baseness. Think of the Head, think of the Body of which you are a member...you have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit; do not, by evil deeds, drive so great an indweller away from you.
Those words are as true in 2010 as they were in 450. Praise God for the faith of the church through the ages carried down to us by the liturgy of Christmas.
We are God’s children made so by the gift of his only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Christians, be aware of your nobility!
Born again and made God’s children by adoption and grace, may we daily be renewed by the Holy Spirit;
Noblesse oblige! Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.
So are we made noble, so should we conduct ourselves!
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Christmas day all age eucharist 2010
What did the snow man order at Macdonalds?
Iceburgers with chilli sauce!
What do you get if you cross an apple with a Christmas tree?
A pineapple!
Well, Christmas is here so we’re going to light the Christmas candle from one of the Advent candles. Which reminds me - what did the big candle say to the little candle?
I'm going out tonight!
Well this one isn’t going out, it’s coming on – who shall we choose?
Sunday Club member to light candle.
Christmas is here and it’s time to be thankful for Jesus.
All the gifts we’ve been given this morning are given to honour the greatest Gift from the greatest Giver!
So what gifts have we been given?
Time for children to share.
All of these gifts were given us because of what the angel told those shepherds in our bible reading.
Let’s read it our loud together. It’s the fifth paragraph of this morning’s gospel reading from Luke chapter 2:
What did the angel say to them?
'Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’
Good news of great joy! God has come to earth to give himself a human face, the face of Jesus!
What does it say the child was wrapped in?
Bands of cloth or what were called swaddling bands. Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants snugly in blankets or cloth strips so that movement of their limbs is tightly restricted. People believed that swaddling bands helped an infant to develop proper posture.
Swaddling fell out of favor in the seventeenth century. It has become popular again as modern medical studies indicate that swaddling assists babies to sleep, and to remain asleep.
Come back to Jesus though, the baby tightly bound lying in a manger.
We believe this infant Jesus was bound up so that we could be free!
Can anyone point me to an image of Jesus in church outside of the crib that shows him once again bound up?
When Jesus was bound up in the manger it pointed towards his being bound to a cruel cross 33 years later.
Mary and Joseph were told to call their son Jesus, which means Saviour. We know about Jesus more because of how he died and rose than on account of his birth. We keep Christmas because of Easter.
This Christmas eucharist is Christ’s Mass in which we see the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. The eucharist is about the gift of Jesus who’s always alive and with us and loving us – that’s the truth of Christmas.
Jesus was bound so we could be free!
In recent weeks I have seen people released from the power of guilt by the power of Jesus’ forgiveness, people released from the power of cancer by his healing power, worried people released from their anxieties. I have come across people who’ve died freed from fear of death by their faith in the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy.
In the joy of this morning you may know many constraints in your life. There is the constraint of a guilty conscience. There is the constraint of regret, of anxiety, of the fear of death, of loneliness.
Today the Son of God was bound in swaddling cloths to free you! We know as Christians, as lovers of Jesus, what we call salvation, a new dimension of freedom in our lives that is the best gift of Christmas.
God who made each one of us in love loves us so much he wants each one of us to be one with him. The Son of God became man so all who open their hearts to him could know the liberty of the children of God!
Let’s pause for a quiet moment to reflect on that great thought
Our service moves on now to centre on a new born baby, Arthur Beesley, whom we are to bless on the day God showed himself in the Babe of Bethlehem.
Iceburgers with chilli sauce!
What do you get if you cross an apple with a Christmas tree?
A pineapple!
Well, Christmas is here so we’re going to light the Christmas candle from one of the Advent candles. Which reminds me - what did the big candle say to the little candle?
I'm going out tonight!
Well this one isn’t going out, it’s coming on – who shall we choose?
Sunday Club member to light candle.
Christmas is here and it’s time to be thankful for Jesus.
All the gifts we’ve been given this morning are given to honour the greatest Gift from the greatest Giver!
So what gifts have we been given?
Time for children to share.
All of these gifts were given us because of what the angel told those shepherds in our bible reading.
Let’s read it our loud together. It’s the fifth paragraph of this morning’s gospel reading from Luke chapter 2:
What did the angel say to them?
'Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’
Good news of great joy! God has come to earth to give himself a human face, the face of Jesus!
What does it say the child was wrapped in?
Bands of cloth or what were called swaddling bands. Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants snugly in blankets or cloth strips so that movement of their limbs is tightly restricted. People believed that swaddling bands helped an infant to develop proper posture.
Swaddling fell out of favor in the seventeenth century. It has become popular again as modern medical studies indicate that swaddling assists babies to sleep, and to remain asleep.
Come back to Jesus though, the baby tightly bound lying in a manger.
We believe this infant Jesus was bound up so that we could be free!
Can anyone point me to an image of Jesus in church outside of the crib that shows him once again bound up?
When Jesus was bound up in the manger it pointed towards his being bound to a cruel cross 33 years later.
Mary and Joseph were told to call their son Jesus, which means Saviour. We know about Jesus more because of how he died and rose than on account of his birth. We keep Christmas because of Easter.
This Christmas eucharist is Christ’s Mass in which we see the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. The eucharist is about the gift of Jesus who’s always alive and with us and loving us – that’s the truth of Christmas.
Jesus was bound so we could be free!
In recent weeks I have seen people released from the power of guilt by the power of Jesus’ forgiveness, people released from the power of cancer by his healing power, worried people released from their anxieties. I have come across people who’ve died freed from fear of death by their faith in the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy.
In the joy of this morning you may know many constraints in your life. There is the constraint of a guilty conscience. There is the constraint of regret, of anxiety, of the fear of death, of loneliness.
Today the Son of God was bound in swaddling cloths to free you! We know as Christians, as lovers of Jesus, what we call salvation, a new dimension of freedom in our lives that is the best gift of Christmas.
God who made each one of us in love loves us so much he wants each one of us to be one with him. The Son of God became man so all who open their hearts to him could know the liberty of the children of God!
Let’s pause for a quiet moment to reflect on that great thought
Our service moves on now to centre on a new born baby, Arthur Beesley, whom we are to bless on the day God showed himself in the Babe of Bethlehem.
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