The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Matthew 13.44
One Sunday allegedly in January 1927 this passage from Matthew 13 was the subject of a sermon by my predecessor The Revd Frank Stenton-Eardley. It was an exceptionally profitable sermon. One of the congregation from Broadhurst Manor went home, dug in a field there and unearthed a hoard of sixty-four gold nobles. This gold, deposited 500 years before, is now in the British Museum.
How profitable will this sermon be? Indeed how profitable is any sermon? Did you know you can engage with the sermon not only by grabbing the preacher over coffee but also by going on his blog linked to the church website which, thanks to David Ollington, has each week’s teaching displayed for further digestion.
There is no word of God without power. The preacher’s role is to read and study it and read and study his people and their context and make connections in a 10-15 minute talk that will help such an engagement with Our Lord that it will echo on in their lives in the coming week.
The guy who found the treasure at Broadhurst remembered the Rector’s sermon when his spade clinked the treasure. What does today’s Rector suggest you might find memorable about the same Scripture?
I don’t know enough about the circumstances of the finding of the sixty-four gold nobles to say whether the finder gained, though I guess he did, or was it the then owner of Broadhurst Manor?
What I think you and I can gain 84 years on is the reminder to renew our spiritual alertness and determination. These are the clue to an ongoing welcome of treasure that’ll never be shipped off from us to the British Museum!
The two parables of the treasure and the pearl remind Christians of the need to put supreme value on building our longing for God and his kingdom.
It is not what you are or have been that God looks at with his merciful eyes but what you would be wrote the mystic author of that Medieval classic, The Cloud of Unknowing.
What would you be? Where’s your heart set?
In our first reading from the book of Kings we heard of Solomon’s being approached by God in a dream with a similar question: Ask what I should give you. He answers with a prayer for wisdom and is praised accordingly. God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.
God wants his aspirations to be of supreme value to his children and we can’t attain these without alertness and determination, two virtues that come out of the parables of the treasure and the pearl in our gospel reading from the end of Matthew Chapter 13. Like the Broadhurst Manor labourer if we proceed about our lives with wise mindfulness we don’t have to go far to find God and his riches. The purpose of scripture, of sermons and bible study, is to school us to be alert to the possibilities of God breaking into our situation, as the clink of the spade on the gold alerted the farm worker schooled by the Sunday sermon preached from this pulpit in January 1927.
Speaking personally I always find the number of God-incidences in a day linked to the fervor or length of my morning prayer. The more something of God’s eternal wisdom has touched my heart the more alert I am to the need to give ear to that villager I meet on the road or to visit, phone or e mail this person or that. Treasured encounters come to me inasmuch as my heart is set to evaluate everyone I meet as if they were Christ, to see my diary as containing what’s ultimately important as well as what’s merely pressing upon me.
The treasure parable of God’s kingdom is a reminder to recognize the treasure that’s already there in our lives and the joy its discovery brings. Over the summer vacation we’ve got great opportunities to rediscover the joy of marriage and family as the demands of work lift from many of us.
If this parable is a reminder to be alert to God’s moments the parable of the merchant is a reminder to be spiritually determined. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Jesus emphasises in this parable how being his follower takes you on a determined spiritual search. The cost of this will be eclipsed by the outcome but there is a cost.
To be better disciples of Jesus we need opportunities to discipline ourselves so our personal agendas give way more and more to his. This cannot occur, Jesus cannot reach into our lives, without prayer, scripture and the eucharist.
In the coming year we’re going to have a monthly Tuesday evening with a discipleship theme at which we’ll be sharing with one another some of the ways that help build up our spiritual determination.
It is not what you are or have been or are that God looks at with his merciful eyes but what you would be. Saint Seraphim, a great Russian spiritual teacher, was asked what was the secret that lay behind people who appear to have more of the Holy Spirit than others. Just their determination was his reply.
May the Lord build that determination for him as well as the day by day, hour by hour alertness to the treasure we don’t need to go on holiday to find since it lies buried and awaiting us in Horsted Keynes.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Baptism of Charlotte Hord 17th July 2011
The parable of the wheat and the weeds is a reminder that the world we inhabit has good and bad in it which God has allowed but that good will triumph in the end.
God like any good parent has forbearance. He’s patient with us, taking a long term view, knowing that harvest day is coming. On that day of judgement he will see a good harvest from the moral struggles of his children. The weeds, the bad they’ve live alongside, will finally be discarded.
To let us off trials and temptations in the here and now would make us lesser people in the hereafter.
At present Horsted Keynes has 16 babies under a year old. This remarkable surge in the birth rate has bred close fellowship within a large group of parents which include John and Helen. In celebrating the birth of these children there are a variety of rites being considered in the group from civil naming ceremonies to a blessing in church and last but not least, as today, infant baptism.
The difference between these rites has a story to tell. To name a baby without religious ceremony can have integrity about it. If people don’t go to Church why should they make hypocrites of themselves? To bless or dedicate a baby is a good thing. It’s asking God to be with the child whilst refraining from making a commitment to the church. This has integrity for folk who believe in some sort of God but aren’t sure about committing their child to a religion they themselves aren’t committed to. No point in buying the Brownie outfit if she’ll never be taken to Brownies.
To baptise a child is to make clear to them and to yourselves as parents that there’s a moral, spiritual and communal framework with definite boundaries that you believe to be essential to their well being.
The argument for baptising a child can run like this. British society has evolved to a point where the old Christian boundaries are no longer upheld by law so unless parents uphold these standards themselves their children will grow up confused. To baptise a child and keep the promises you make is to place that child within a safe framework for their moral and spiritual nurture.
The default for moral standards is no longer the law of the land. If parents want their children to do what’s right by any historic standard they will have to make a commitment to that standard or else their children will be deceived into wrong doing by the fashion of the day.
Let me explain. Because the Law gives people the right to do immoral things doesn’t mean it’s right to do them.
When the Law changes on anything it represents a shift in the social consensus, usually on behalf of people who feel hard done by if they can’t do what they want to do. Yet many of the things we might want to do aren’t right to do – and here is where the revealed and tested teachings of Christianity come in.
Many young people are of the mindset that if the Law gives you the right to do something it must be right to do it. Poppycock!
We have a right to have sexual intercourse from the age of sixteen but all religions affirm the value of abstaining until you find and marry a life partner. We have a right to divorce after two years but the rightness of divorce is contested especially by Christianity and all people who have experience of the damage done to children by the break up of a family. I know there are divorced people in Church this morning but most of them have a tale to tell which shows they didn’t quit their marriage as lightly as many are quitting their obligations today. Soon we will have a right to kill ourselves, especially if we think people don’t want to pay for our upkeep in our old age, but that won’t make it right that we should do so.
When you go up to the altar this morning look up when you get up and turn from the kneeler and you will see the ten commandments on the arch above your heads including Thou shalt not kill. The language and the script may be old fashioned but the words are just as true in 2011 as they were when those words were hung up four centuries ago.
Just because people have a right to kill doesn’t make it right to do so in most circumstances! We read on the wall Thou shalt not bear false witness in a month that has shown gross deceitfulness taken for granted in public life through News International.
If parents want the best for their children it’s going to cost them. Wise parents know a good bank balance, though desirable of course, is no receipe for well being. For their children to live well they need to uphold and be upheld by standards that are true even if the whole world denies them or that bank balance will be emptied in destructive living.
To baptise a child and keep the promises you make is to place the child under those standards in a safe framework for their moral and spiritual nurture.For Christians those standards are set out in a covenant relationship with God so that the Ten Commandments affirm before they condemn. Thou shalt not – you shall not – not you shall not. Why? Because as one of the baptised you’ve got the mark of God on your head. You’re precious and he loves you. He grieves when you act against the dignity he’s given you as his beloved child.
As today’s gospel of the wheat and weeds indicates God is our loving parent who’s infinitely patient with us, taking the long term view knowing that the end day is coming. On that day we’ll see that the moral struggles we have endured have been infinitely worthwhile!
God like any good parent has forbearance. He’s patient with us, taking a long term view, knowing that harvest day is coming. On that day of judgement he will see a good harvest from the moral struggles of his children. The weeds, the bad they’ve live alongside, will finally be discarded.
To let us off trials and temptations in the here and now would make us lesser people in the hereafter.
At present Horsted Keynes has 16 babies under a year old. This remarkable surge in the birth rate has bred close fellowship within a large group of parents which include John and Helen. In celebrating the birth of these children there are a variety of rites being considered in the group from civil naming ceremonies to a blessing in church and last but not least, as today, infant baptism.
The difference between these rites has a story to tell. To name a baby without religious ceremony can have integrity about it. If people don’t go to Church why should they make hypocrites of themselves? To bless or dedicate a baby is a good thing. It’s asking God to be with the child whilst refraining from making a commitment to the church. This has integrity for folk who believe in some sort of God but aren’t sure about committing their child to a religion they themselves aren’t committed to. No point in buying the Brownie outfit if she’ll never be taken to Brownies.
To baptise a child is to make clear to them and to yourselves as parents that there’s a moral, spiritual and communal framework with definite boundaries that you believe to be essential to their well being.
The argument for baptising a child can run like this. British society has evolved to a point where the old Christian boundaries are no longer upheld by law so unless parents uphold these standards themselves their children will grow up confused. To baptise a child and keep the promises you make is to place that child within a safe framework for their moral and spiritual nurture.
The default for moral standards is no longer the law of the land. If parents want their children to do what’s right by any historic standard they will have to make a commitment to that standard or else their children will be deceived into wrong doing by the fashion of the day.
Let me explain. Because the Law gives people the right to do immoral things doesn’t mean it’s right to do them.
When the Law changes on anything it represents a shift in the social consensus, usually on behalf of people who feel hard done by if they can’t do what they want to do. Yet many of the things we might want to do aren’t right to do – and here is where the revealed and tested teachings of Christianity come in.
Many young people are of the mindset that if the Law gives you the right to do something it must be right to do it. Poppycock!
We have a right to have sexual intercourse from the age of sixteen but all religions affirm the value of abstaining until you find and marry a life partner. We have a right to divorce after two years but the rightness of divorce is contested especially by Christianity and all people who have experience of the damage done to children by the break up of a family. I know there are divorced people in Church this morning but most of them have a tale to tell which shows they didn’t quit their marriage as lightly as many are quitting their obligations today. Soon we will have a right to kill ourselves, especially if we think people don’t want to pay for our upkeep in our old age, but that won’t make it right that we should do so.
When you go up to the altar this morning look up when you get up and turn from the kneeler and you will see the ten commandments on the arch above your heads including Thou shalt not kill. The language and the script may be old fashioned but the words are just as true in 2011 as they were when those words were hung up four centuries ago.
Just because people have a right to kill doesn’t make it right to do so in most circumstances! We read on the wall Thou shalt not bear false witness in a month that has shown gross deceitfulness taken for granted in public life through News International.
If parents want the best for their children it’s going to cost them. Wise parents know a good bank balance, though desirable of course, is no receipe for well being. For their children to live well they need to uphold and be upheld by standards that are true even if the whole world denies them or that bank balance will be emptied in destructive living.
To baptise a child and keep the promises you make is to place the child under those standards in a safe framework for their moral and spiritual nurture.For Christians those standards are set out in a covenant relationship with God so that the Ten Commandments affirm before they condemn. Thou shalt not – you shall not – not you shall not. Why? Because as one of the baptised you’ve got the mark of God on your head. You’re precious and he loves you. He grieves when you act against the dignity he’s given you as his beloved child.
As today’s gospel of the wheat and weeds indicates God is our loving parent who’s infinitely patient with us, taking the long term view knowing that the end day is coming. On that day we’ll see that the moral struggles we have endured have been infinitely worthwhile!
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Trinity 3 8am 10th July 2011
I dropped in on the Christadelphians bible study at the Village Hall on Wednesday evening. Though we differ from them in our Trinitarian faith for them as for us the scriptures are of vital significance. I read some verses as they went round the table reading through Matthew Chapter Five. I gave them a greeting from St Giles and some of them expressed interest in our planned evening on the King James Bible in September.
There is no word of God without power. Christadelphians see the words of scripture as literally words of God. We as Anglicans look rather to the interpretation of that word and to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to help our reading scripture.
In today’s first and last readings we have an underlining of the importance of scripture. Isaiah speaks prophetically for God:
My word that goes out from my mouth.. shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55.10-13
The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 concludes but as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
The seed sown represents the word of God. Our Lord firstly expects us to believe when we hear the Bible read that we are in some profound sense hearing God.
Then we need to prepare the very ground of our being to welcome that word. The seed that fell on rocky ground failed to produce fruit because it lacked moisture and withered away in the heat of the sun. To hear God’s word is to receive it actively into our heart and mind. If it remains just on the surface of our minds it will not yield fruit.
Receiving it deep within us requires the discipline of studying and pondering it. It is an admirable discipline to take away the pew sheet and do just that, using whatever thinking has been kindled by the Sunday sermon. If we feel touched in our spirit at Sunday worship it is good in the days that follow to fan the flame of whatever touched us.
To return to the images used in today’s Gospel we need to break up the stony ground of our heart to be made capable of receiving what God has to say to us. There is no word of God without power but the word within us fades away and loses power unless watered by the Holy Spirit who comes to us through prayer, fellowship and Holy Communion.
The Holy Spirit – and here we rather differ from Christadelphians – the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is ready to grant inspiration to all who read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them a practical understanding.
There is no word of God without power. We should expect our engagement with scripture to be transformative. The key to that is to hold onto all God says to us in it rather than getting overwhelmed by the cares of the world and the lure of wealth that choke the word (so) it yields nothing.
The key to seeing scripture transforming us is to make it possible for the seed to fall on good soil which comes about when we keep the word alive within us by the Spirit and obey it. This produces the abundant harvest the Gospel speaks of.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts produce such a harvest this morning as we take the word of God to heart by the Holy Spirit. God make us good soil bearing an abundant harvest in his praise and service, to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be all might, majesty, dominion and power now and forever. Amen.
There is no word of God without power. Christadelphians see the words of scripture as literally words of God. We as Anglicans look rather to the interpretation of that word and to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to help our reading scripture.
In today’s first and last readings we have an underlining of the importance of scripture. Isaiah speaks prophetically for God:
My word that goes out from my mouth.. shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55.10-13
The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 concludes but as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
The seed sown represents the word of God. Our Lord firstly expects us to believe when we hear the Bible read that we are in some profound sense hearing God.
Then we need to prepare the very ground of our being to welcome that word. The seed that fell on rocky ground failed to produce fruit because it lacked moisture and withered away in the heat of the sun. To hear God’s word is to receive it actively into our heart and mind. If it remains just on the surface of our minds it will not yield fruit.
Receiving it deep within us requires the discipline of studying and pondering it. It is an admirable discipline to take away the pew sheet and do just that, using whatever thinking has been kindled by the Sunday sermon. If we feel touched in our spirit at Sunday worship it is good in the days that follow to fan the flame of whatever touched us.
To return to the images used in today’s Gospel we need to break up the stony ground of our heart to be made capable of receiving what God has to say to us. There is no word of God without power but the word within us fades away and loses power unless watered by the Holy Spirit who comes to us through prayer, fellowship and Holy Communion.
The Holy Spirit – and here we rather differ from Christadelphians – the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is ready to grant inspiration to all who read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them a practical understanding.
There is no word of God without power. We should expect our engagement with scripture to be transformative. The key to that is to hold onto all God says to us in it rather than getting overwhelmed by the cares of the world and the lure of wealth that choke the word (so) it yields nothing.
The key to seeing scripture transforming us is to make it possible for the seed to fall on good soil which comes about when we keep the word alive within us by the Spirit and obey it. This produces the abundant harvest the Gospel speaks of.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts produce such a harvest this morning as we take the word of God to heart by the Holy Spirit. God make us good soil bearing an abundant harvest in his praise and service, to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be all might, majesty, dominion and power now and forever. Amen.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Trinity Sunday Mary Benson 19th June 2011
The doctrine of the Trinity, of three persons in one God, holds a creative tension between enthusiasm and sympathy that should infect us all.
We just read Our Lord’s enthusiastic call to Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Belief in the Trinity isn’t something to be kept to yourself but something missionary, to be carried to others. Too often we fall short on this task, identifying with those who would condemn religious enthusiasts as lacking human sympathy.
Christian mission is enthusiastic and sympathetic. It reflects the sympathy God has within himself as Father, Son and Spirit as St Paul reminds us in the second reading where he uses Trinitarian doctrine to appeal for more sympathy among the Corinthian believers . Agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. He says. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
The creative tension between enthusiasm and sympathy, between love and truth is hidden in the mystery of God himself. As we draw closer to God we find enthusiasm, sympathy - and in that tension creativity.
All of this I found powerfully illuminated in a book just off the press of interest to all who live in Horsted Keynes and especially to members of St Giles in particular. This book - Rodney Bolt’s As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil - The Impossible Life of Mary Benson.
The book gives sight of religious enthusiasm, Victorian and Edwardian England, same sex friendship, country life in Sussex and leaves you wiser about the wellsprings of creativity.
Mary Benson was born in 1841 and lived at Tremans from 1900 to her death in 1918. She was wife then widow of Archbishop Edward Benson, and this book tells the tale of her loves, trials and family. Mrs Benson worshipped here, her family gave the nativity window in her memory and her son Arthur wrote the fulsome memorial tablet in the porch.
Though religious enthusiasts are notorious for their failure to sympathise where sympathetic gifts are allied to a force of conviction there is a true reflection of the God one in three and a creative dynamic emerges. This appears to have been the case in the extraordinary marriage of Edward and Mary though the force of conviction was at Edward’s end and the pastoral sympathy at Mary’s. Headstrong Edward, loving yet exacting, proposes to Mary when she is only twelve. His helpmate eagerly sympathises with him, his family and many others with such humour and wisdom as to make her a great subject for Rodney Bolt’s biography covering her life, loves and faith pilgrimage.
Edward’s career, founded in the muscular Christianity of Rugby and Wellington College, takes him to Lincoln Cathedral, then onward to be first Bishop of Truro and, as climax, to be Archbishop of Canterbury. His pioneering at Truro earns recognition for gifts of leadership that he carries, with a psychological downside, so that, 12 years older though he was than her, it was Mary who was destined to carry him through many a dark mood. Her support came from a series of same sex friendships compensating for the emotional shallowness of their marriage and helping her recover from the eventual loss of both Edward and the high social standing that fell from her at his death in 1896.
Mary’s same sex friendships, especially the one with Edward Benson’s predecessor, Archbishop Tait’s daughter, Lucy, that continued after Edward’s death, have been controversial. The biographer draws from Mary’s diaries the distinction she made between the love she held in mind and heart for these friends and the physical expression of that love which she fought off. Her underlining of certain passages in her copy of Thomas à Kempis The Imitation of Christ illustrates the struggle she had with, to quote, ‘carnal affection’. Her counsel against physical sex outside marriage to her children is recorded in the book. Rodney Bolt is careful to honour her stated faithfulness to traditional Christian ethics. This is somewhat unintelligible through the sexualising of friendship in post-Christian society.
Is this understatement? St Giles is a haven for all of us, straight or gay, married or single since God’s sympathetic love is utterly inclusive. At the same time, I myself counsel, when asked, marriage and celibacy as the two Christian vocations, with sexual activity outside of marriage as a shortcoming to be repented of.
Others say the Holy Spirit is at work opening up new institutions, including same sex unions. A century on from Mary Benson the Church of England is divided here. As in the matter of women’s ordination the jury is out. All of which means we need to hold in tension a sympathy for individuals, especially those cohabiting, gay or straight, and those who are pushing for a revised Christian ethic, a sympathy, as I say, that doesn’t avoid acknowledgement of the well trodden path of the faith of the church through the ages. Our Christian faith covers our shortcomings, if we repent of them, and challenges us to keep a distinctive standard in terms of sexual morality. It’s a standard that, given Our Lord’s teaching that looking at someone lustfully is already to commit adultery, puts us all on the bottom step!
Back to the Bensons who set us on this thinking. If Edward was head, Mary was heart of an extraordinarily creative family. Arthur wrote the words for Land of Hope and Glory and edited Queen Victoria’s papers. Fred became a highly successful author and ice skating champion and Maggie a famous Egyptologist. Roman Catholic convert, Hugh gained fame as preacher and writer. All made their mark and all suffered great frustrations which, as writers, they document both indirectly and directly. Some of them blame their mental instability on their extraordinary parents. It seems that their living with unfulfilled longings – none married – became a crucible for creative expression. In one of Arthur’s inspirational images life can feel as two lady birds might feel on the inside and outside of a window signalling to one another yet unable to find intimacy.
Arthur’s last word on his mother on her memorial in the porch speaks of Mary’s eager sympathy, wise counsel, abundant humour and far seeing love. These qualities are captured in Bolt’s very readable book that follows her life story whilst opening up the story of England past through many delightful anecdotes. I loved the absent-minded Truro priest whose sister had to secure him to the altar rail with a dog chain and padlock to prevent him wandering off before the service was over. Mary’s attempts to get Arthur to St Giles brings from him a similar image of the liturgy as people penned in rows like sheep intermittently crying out together like ducks in a pool. The book, like its subject, easily catches the imagination.
Let the Bensons be reminders of the creative tension between enthusiasm and sympathy that should infect us all as Trinitarian believers.
God who is three in one enfolds us in his enthusiastic love. The Lord God enfolds us, as in this eucharist, meeting us just where we are.
In his enthusiasm he can’t bear to leave us there. He challenges us, not least in our human relationships, to move forward, with his help, to be ever more perfect reflectors of him, to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be praise now and forever. Amen.
We just read Our Lord’s enthusiastic call to Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Belief in the Trinity isn’t something to be kept to yourself but something missionary, to be carried to others. Too often we fall short on this task, identifying with those who would condemn religious enthusiasts as lacking human sympathy.
Christian mission is enthusiastic and sympathetic. It reflects the sympathy God has within himself as Father, Son and Spirit as St Paul reminds us in the second reading where he uses Trinitarian doctrine to appeal for more sympathy among the Corinthian believers . Agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. He says. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
The creative tension between enthusiasm and sympathy, between love and truth is hidden in the mystery of God himself. As we draw closer to God we find enthusiasm, sympathy - and in that tension creativity.
All of this I found powerfully illuminated in a book just off the press of interest to all who live in Horsted Keynes and especially to members of St Giles in particular. This book - Rodney Bolt’s As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil - The Impossible Life of Mary Benson.
The book gives sight of religious enthusiasm, Victorian and Edwardian England, same sex friendship, country life in Sussex and leaves you wiser about the wellsprings of creativity.
Mary Benson was born in 1841 and lived at Tremans from 1900 to her death in 1918. She was wife then widow of Archbishop Edward Benson, and this book tells the tale of her loves, trials and family. Mrs Benson worshipped here, her family gave the nativity window in her memory and her son Arthur wrote the fulsome memorial tablet in the porch.
Though religious enthusiasts are notorious for their failure to sympathise where sympathetic gifts are allied to a force of conviction there is a true reflection of the God one in three and a creative dynamic emerges. This appears to have been the case in the extraordinary marriage of Edward and Mary though the force of conviction was at Edward’s end and the pastoral sympathy at Mary’s. Headstrong Edward, loving yet exacting, proposes to Mary when she is only twelve. His helpmate eagerly sympathises with him, his family and many others with such humour and wisdom as to make her a great subject for Rodney Bolt’s biography covering her life, loves and faith pilgrimage.
Edward’s career, founded in the muscular Christianity of Rugby and Wellington College, takes him to Lincoln Cathedral, then onward to be first Bishop of Truro and, as climax, to be Archbishop of Canterbury. His pioneering at Truro earns recognition for gifts of leadership that he carries, with a psychological downside, so that, 12 years older though he was than her, it was Mary who was destined to carry him through many a dark mood. Her support came from a series of same sex friendships compensating for the emotional shallowness of their marriage and helping her recover from the eventual loss of both Edward and the high social standing that fell from her at his death in 1896.
Mary’s same sex friendships, especially the one with Edward Benson’s predecessor, Archbishop Tait’s daughter, Lucy, that continued after Edward’s death, have been controversial. The biographer draws from Mary’s diaries the distinction she made between the love she held in mind and heart for these friends and the physical expression of that love which she fought off. Her underlining of certain passages in her copy of Thomas à Kempis The Imitation of Christ illustrates the struggle she had with, to quote, ‘carnal affection’. Her counsel against physical sex outside marriage to her children is recorded in the book. Rodney Bolt is careful to honour her stated faithfulness to traditional Christian ethics. This is somewhat unintelligible through the sexualising of friendship in post-Christian society.
Is this understatement? St Giles is a haven for all of us, straight or gay, married or single since God’s sympathetic love is utterly inclusive. At the same time, I myself counsel, when asked, marriage and celibacy as the two Christian vocations, with sexual activity outside of marriage as a shortcoming to be repented of.
Others say the Holy Spirit is at work opening up new institutions, including same sex unions. A century on from Mary Benson the Church of England is divided here. As in the matter of women’s ordination the jury is out. All of which means we need to hold in tension a sympathy for individuals, especially those cohabiting, gay or straight, and those who are pushing for a revised Christian ethic, a sympathy, as I say, that doesn’t avoid acknowledgement of the well trodden path of the faith of the church through the ages. Our Christian faith covers our shortcomings, if we repent of them, and challenges us to keep a distinctive standard in terms of sexual morality. It’s a standard that, given Our Lord’s teaching that looking at someone lustfully is already to commit adultery, puts us all on the bottom step!
Back to the Bensons who set us on this thinking. If Edward was head, Mary was heart of an extraordinarily creative family. Arthur wrote the words for Land of Hope and Glory and edited Queen Victoria’s papers. Fred became a highly successful author and ice skating champion and Maggie a famous Egyptologist. Roman Catholic convert, Hugh gained fame as preacher and writer. All made their mark and all suffered great frustrations which, as writers, they document both indirectly and directly. Some of them blame their mental instability on their extraordinary parents. It seems that their living with unfulfilled longings – none married – became a crucible for creative expression. In one of Arthur’s inspirational images life can feel as two lady birds might feel on the inside and outside of a window signalling to one another yet unable to find intimacy.
Arthur’s last word on his mother on her memorial in the porch speaks of Mary’s eager sympathy, wise counsel, abundant humour and far seeing love. These qualities are captured in Bolt’s very readable book that follows her life story whilst opening up the story of England past through many delightful anecdotes. I loved the absent-minded Truro priest whose sister had to secure him to the altar rail with a dog chain and padlock to prevent him wandering off before the service was over. Mary’s attempts to get Arthur to St Giles brings from him a similar image of the liturgy as people penned in rows like sheep intermittently crying out together like ducks in a pool. The book, like its subject, easily catches the imagination.
Let the Bensons be reminders of the creative tension between enthusiasm and sympathy that should infect us all as Trinitarian believers.
God who is three in one enfolds us in his enthusiastic love. The Lord God enfolds us, as in this eucharist, meeting us just where we are.
In his enthusiasm he can’t bear to leave us there. He challenges us, not least in our human relationships, to move forward, with his help, to be ever more perfect reflectors of him, to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be praise now and forever. Amen.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Pentecost all age eucharist 12th June 2011 Birthday of the Church
Is it anyone's birthday today? This week? This month?
Tell us.... who you are, how old you’ll be and what you expect will happen on your birthday.
Well, whilst I’m very happy that your birthday coming up, today's eucharist is to celebrate another birthday.
It's not really the birthday of another person (although some people do talk about 'her') and it doesn't seem right to call it a thing.
Can the children think whose birthday they might be celebrating today?
Ask one of the children to open the present with the Spanish dictionary in it.Are they any clearer?
Ask another child to open the card and read out the greeting: 'Happy Birthday, The Church'.
How can the Church have a birthday?
When Christians talk about the Church, they aren't just talking about a building – they’re talking about all the people in the world who follow Jesus.
Nowadays there are about 2,000 million Christians in the world but roughly 2,000 years ago there were only about 120. Not 120 million, but just 120.
On the day that the Church was born, a day which Christians call Pentecost, these 120 people were hiding in a house in Jerusalem.
It must have been rather squashed in that house.
Rather like a baby ready to be born is a bit squashed inside its mother's tummy.
These 120 people were all together because they were very anxious. In the previous month they had been through a lot. First, they had seen Jesus die on a cross. That had made them very sad.
Then they had seen Jesus alive again. That had made them very happy.
Then, before their very eyes, Jesus had gone up to Heaven.
Now they were very confused and concerned.
What was going to happen next?
So the 120 people went back to Jerusalem and waited.
Ten days later, something amazing happened. There was a great wind from Heaven...
Let’s blow very hard as if we were the wind
Along with the wind there was something that looked like flames. These flames fell on the heads of Jesus' 120 followers and, like a baby being born, they came out of their hiding place and into the big wide world.
Now children who can tell me the first thing they did when they were born?
No doubt you cried. Babies cry because they want people to take notice of them. The first followers of Jesus didn't cry when they emerged out of their hiding place, but they did get the attention of other people in the city by using their voices.
They told everyone in the city about Jesus. But they all spoke in different languages - languages that were different from their own and which they had never learned. This was one of the many birthday presents that God gave the Church.
That’s behind the dictionary. At Pentecost God gave people the capacity to share about Jesus in every language and nation and send them out to just that.
Church members read out one of the different translations of 'Happy Birthday'.
At that time in Jerusalem, there were many people from different parts of the world. They were so amazed to hear their own languages being spoken that they gathered around to hear what the followers of Jesus were saying.
After Peter, one of Jesus' followers, had spoken to the crowd, 3,000 of them became Christians. Like a newborn baby, the Church had started to grow bigger.
Well no birthday would be complete without a cake.
Server lights the candles.
While this is being done the candles can be a reminder to us of the flames that fell at Pentecost on the heads of the first Christians.
Invite children to blow out candles.
When the candles are blown out, remember the great wind from Heaven that blew the disciples out of their house and into the street.
That’s what Pentecost means today, it’s a reminder that the Holy Spirit who came on this day is still with us and is waiting to inspire us to share with others about Jesus.
Just as the first Christians shared their love of Jesus with people, the cake will be shared amongst everyone after the eucharist.
Tell us.... who you are, how old you’ll be and what you expect will happen on your birthday.
Well, whilst I’m very happy that your birthday coming up, today's eucharist is to celebrate another birthday.
It's not really the birthday of another person (although some people do talk about 'her') and it doesn't seem right to call it a thing.
Can the children think whose birthday they might be celebrating today?
Ask one of the children to open the present with the Spanish dictionary in it.Are they any clearer?
Ask another child to open the card and read out the greeting: 'Happy Birthday, The Church'.
How can the Church have a birthday?
When Christians talk about the Church, they aren't just talking about a building – they’re talking about all the people in the world who follow Jesus.
Nowadays there are about 2,000 million Christians in the world but roughly 2,000 years ago there were only about 120. Not 120 million, but just 120.
On the day that the Church was born, a day which Christians call Pentecost, these 120 people were hiding in a house in Jerusalem.
It must have been rather squashed in that house.
Rather like a baby ready to be born is a bit squashed inside its mother's tummy.
These 120 people were all together because they were very anxious. In the previous month they had been through a lot. First, they had seen Jesus die on a cross. That had made them very sad.
Then they had seen Jesus alive again. That had made them very happy.
Then, before their very eyes, Jesus had gone up to Heaven.
Now they were very confused and concerned.
What was going to happen next?
So the 120 people went back to Jerusalem and waited.
Ten days later, something amazing happened. There was a great wind from Heaven...
Let’s blow very hard as if we were the wind
Along with the wind there was something that looked like flames. These flames fell on the heads of Jesus' 120 followers and, like a baby being born, they came out of their hiding place and into the big wide world.
Now children who can tell me the first thing they did when they were born?
No doubt you cried. Babies cry because they want people to take notice of them. The first followers of Jesus didn't cry when they emerged out of their hiding place, but they did get the attention of other people in the city by using their voices.
They told everyone in the city about Jesus. But they all spoke in different languages - languages that were different from their own and which they had never learned. This was one of the many birthday presents that God gave the Church.
That’s behind the dictionary. At Pentecost God gave people the capacity to share about Jesus in every language and nation and send them out to just that.
Church members read out one of the different translations of 'Happy Birthday'.
At that time in Jerusalem, there were many people from different parts of the world. They were so amazed to hear their own languages being spoken that they gathered around to hear what the followers of Jesus were saying.
After Peter, one of Jesus' followers, had spoken to the crowd, 3,000 of them became Christians. Like a newborn baby, the Church had started to grow bigger.
Well no birthday would be complete without a cake.
Server lights the candles.
While this is being done the candles can be a reminder to us of the flames that fell at Pentecost on the heads of the first Christians.
Invite children to blow out candles.
When the candles are blown out, remember the great wind from Heaven that blew the disciples out of their house and into the street.
That’s what Pentecost means today, it’s a reminder that the Holy Spirit who came on this day is still with us and is waiting to inspire us to share with others about Jesus.
Just as the first Christians shared their love of Jesus with people, the cake will be shared amongst everyone after the eucharist.
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Easter 7 Healing ministry 5th June 2011
In the news sheet you can see some of the means by which the church’s ministry of healing is made available at St Giles, places where Our Lord ministers to people at their point of need through his church:
• through the sacraments – eucharist, confession and anointing
• through laying on of hands - now available first Wednesdays 6.30pm starting 6th July.
• through the last Thursday of the month visit to Burrswood
• Through people’s names being placed on the sick list or submitted to the telephone Prayerline
I put this list in the news sheet following a series of PCC discussions triggered by a visit in April from the deanery healing ministry consultant Penny Sullens which had one outcome in a promise I gave to speak one Sunday about the church’s ministry of healing.
I thought this Sunday would suit well as it is set in those great days before Pentecost when the church is reminded of her dependence on God the Holy Spirit and of how the Spirit glorifies Jesus.
The church’s ministry of healing is a gift of the Spirit which brings God glory through Jesus Christ.
11 years ago the Church of England published a best seller. This book, A Time to Heal, has provided a vital contribution to the ministry of healing which it describes on the back as visionary, prophetic and dynamic.
This morning I have 6 brief observations, 2 under each of those three headings in A Time to Heal – visionary, prophetic and dynamic.
1. Visionary – what we’re about in the healing ministry is part of a recapturing of the power of the gospel
a) as some thing that is good and practical. Not just a theory but the power of God for salvation Romans 1:16. It’s practical in that it’s linked to people’s demands. Our response to these demands is set within a wider vision eg. social and ecological besides a vision for body, mind and spirit but it is essentially based on a vision of Jesus as practical Saviour
b) as the grounds of a new confident engagement of the church with the local community. Confidence rooted in the promises of God cf. +Rowan: What do I pray for in the Church of the future? Confidence; courage; an imagination set on fire by the vision of God the Holy Trinity; thankfulness. Confidence linked to humility – note the concerns for the safety of those we serve in ministry in ATH guidelines.
This morning as I lift up the vision for healing a question we might ask ourselves is: how can we help bring more people in our community to catch sight of the healing power of God?
2. Prophetic – what we are about in the healing ministry is being channels for God to speak prophetically to individuals and to the church herself.
a) Of redemption – the Saviour is a practical provider for body, mind and spirit and one who roots our life in his community and fellowship. The healing ministry is redemptive in that it fills what is needful in people’s lives. It is also redemptive in its transformation of suffering and sorrow as set out in Paul Bilheimer's Don’t Waste your Sorrows. People are stopped from wasting their sorrows by a prophetic word that opens them up afresh to a vision of God. Above all the prophetic element of the ministry of healing helps people relate faith to the nitty gritty of life cf. The Woman at the Well John 4
b) A call for fuller collaboration of laity and the ordained ATH stresses sacramental,pastoral and charismatic aspects. Prophetic renewal of healing ministry broadens from anointing (apostle) to charisms (prophets) since we are members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone Ephesians 2:19,20
A second pair of questions we might ask ourselves as a Christian community: How do we see the prophetic impact of what we do in the Lord’s name – where are the changed lives? Then secondly when it comes to raising up the ministry of healing how can we improve the partnership between priest and people to make better provision?
3. Dynamic
a)Explain cyclical/dynamic strands in church life – Zechariah 8:23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you”. Simon Magus, Leatha
b) Linked to spiritual transformation 2 Cor 3:18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit - wholeness/holiness – spiritual direction.
A last summary pair of questions to provoke more thought might be: What brakes are there here at St Giles on the dynamic we are talking about? What’s stopping the church as a whole and individuals from moving forwards to become more fully what God wants them to be?
I leave you with those thoughts as we take time to reflect on God’s word to us this morning.
• through the sacraments – eucharist, confession and anointing
• through laying on of hands - now available first Wednesdays 6.30pm starting 6th July.
• through the last Thursday of the month visit to Burrswood
• Through people’s names being placed on the sick list or submitted to the telephone Prayerline
I put this list in the news sheet following a series of PCC discussions triggered by a visit in April from the deanery healing ministry consultant Penny Sullens which had one outcome in a promise I gave to speak one Sunday about the church’s ministry of healing.
I thought this Sunday would suit well as it is set in those great days before Pentecost when the church is reminded of her dependence on God the Holy Spirit and of how the Spirit glorifies Jesus.
The church’s ministry of healing is a gift of the Spirit which brings God glory through Jesus Christ.
11 years ago the Church of England published a best seller. This book, A Time to Heal, has provided a vital contribution to the ministry of healing which it describes on the back as visionary, prophetic and dynamic.
This morning I have 6 brief observations, 2 under each of those three headings in A Time to Heal – visionary, prophetic and dynamic.
1. Visionary – what we’re about in the healing ministry is part of a recapturing of the power of the gospel
a) as some thing that is good and practical. Not just a theory but the power of God for salvation Romans 1:16. It’s practical in that it’s linked to people’s demands. Our response to these demands is set within a wider vision eg. social and ecological besides a vision for body, mind and spirit but it is essentially based on a vision of Jesus as practical Saviour
b) as the grounds of a new confident engagement of the church with the local community. Confidence rooted in the promises of God cf. +Rowan: What do I pray for in the Church of the future? Confidence; courage; an imagination set on fire by the vision of God the Holy Trinity; thankfulness. Confidence linked to humility – note the concerns for the safety of those we serve in ministry in ATH guidelines.
This morning as I lift up the vision for healing a question we might ask ourselves is: how can we help bring more people in our community to catch sight of the healing power of God?
2. Prophetic – what we are about in the healing ministry is being channels for God to speak prophetically to individuals and to the church herself.
a) Of redemption – the Saviour is a practical provider for body, mind and spirit and one who roots our life in his community and fellowship. The healing ministry is redemptive in that it fills what is needful in people’s lives. It is also redemptive in its transformation of suffering and sorrow as set out in Paul Bilheimer's Don’t Waste your Sorrows. People are stopped from wasting their sorrows by a prophetic word that opens them up afresh to a vision of God. Above all the prophetic element of the ministry of healing helps people relate faith to the nitty gritty of life cf. The Woman at the Well John 4
b) A call for fuller collaboration of laity and the ordained ATH stresses sacramental,pastoral and charismatic aspects. Prophetic renewal of healing ministry broadens from anointing (apostle) to charisms (prophets) since we are members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone Ephesians 2:19,20
A second pair of questions we might ask ourselves as a Christian community: How do we see the prophetic impact of what we do in the Lord’s name – where are the changed lives? Then secondly when it comes to raising up the ministry of healing how can we improve the partnership between priest and people to make better provision?
3. Dynamic
a)Explain cyclical/dynamic strands in church life – Zechariah 8:23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you”. Simon Magus, Leatha
b) Linked to spiritual transformation 2 Cor 3:18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit - wholeness/holiness – spiritual direction.
A last summary pair of questions to provoke more thought might be: What brakes are there here at St Giles on the dynamic we are talking about? What’s stopping the church as a whole and individuals from moving forwards to become more fully what God wants them to be?
I leave you with those thoughts as we take time to reflect on God’s word to us this morning.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Baptismal eucharist for Arthur Beesley and Thomas Kerby 29th May 2011
I will love them and reveal myself to them Jesus says and we take this as a promise for Arthur, Thomas and all of us.
How do we see this love?
It’s a gravitational field that lifts us up to become what we’re meant to be.
The gravitational pull of the love of God competes with the gravitational field of the evil in the world and that, in our souls, we call sin.
When the astronauts trod on the moon they found themselves able to leap and jump with ease because gravity on the moon is a sixth that on earth.
If they had been able to visit Jupiter they would have crawled on the surface so strong is the downward gravity.
You and I get pulled down all the time. Our bodies, thankfully, get pulled down to stay on earth in Horsted Keynes. But our spirits – they get pulled down too. They can feel very heavy - as heavy as what we call depression.
I will love them and reveal myself to them says Jesus and in doing so he invites us to look up and find the gravity of God’s love which lifts us out of ourselves to head where we’re meant to head.
In baptism this morning Arthur and Thomas are being set off in the direction they were made to go with the support of their family. The love they’re being drawn up into is already real to Gordon and Penny and has been proved so through the trials they so cheerfully bear on behalf of their children.
There is one gravitational field of the spirit drawing us into God’s love and there’s another spirit dragging us down.
Human beings, you and I, are caught! We’re caught in the gravitational field of evil: of pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth – remember – PALE GAS – P-A-L-E-G-A-S - the seven deadly sins.
For some of us this heaviness is sloth, laziness - especially as we get older. For others it’s the weight of indulgence through gluttony. Or it’s the dead weight of pride that sinks so many of our relationships. Then we have avarice – greed - which, as I describe in the news sheet, weighs down the world around you.
So we can picture and imagine the downward gravity of sin that affects us all.
When we try to rise above it by our own efforts we feel like the man in the gym trying to lift weights that are beyond his capacity.
The more we try to lift ourselves the heavier life feels.
The gravitational field of God’s love that lifts our lives can’t be felt through our own efforts. It reaches down to offer us a hand up in Jesus and all he has done for us by his life, death and resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As we struggle with our relationships, insecurities and spiritual emptiness we find ourselves caught by the gravitational lure of sin as if in a quicksand.
The more we struggle in our own strength to release ourselves the deeper we go down. I remember someone driving his father’s land rover onto a beach south of Morecambe Bay where it sank hopelessly into a quick sand there before they could get a purchase on it. He had some answering to do to his dad!
It is a sad truth of life that so many of our attempts to better ourselves prove counter-productive. People caught in quicksand sink faster through gravity the more they struggle to get out of it.
They need an upward pull from outside themselves.
Jesus does that for us.
I will love them and reveal myself to them.
Every Sunday is a day of resurrection, but particularly a Sunday in Easter Season.
Through resurrection from cruel death the gravitational pull of God’s love has been proved more powerful than the quicksands of sin, death and the devil.
You can prove that’s true - if you accept it!
You won’t escape the quicksands of pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth on your own. You need an upwards pull from outside.
There’s a Man outside of you who can. Jesus. He’s alive. He loves you and wants to give you that lift so you can become what you’re meant to be!
That’s why, in a moment, we’ll rightly say I turn to Christ. I repent of my sins. I renounce evil.
As we baptise Arthur and Thomas we are reminded of the two gravitational fields of the spirit we’re all caught up with and the need to welcome God’s rescue provision daily.
We can’t become godlike. We can’t elevate ourselves beyond the quicksand that drags us down however hard we try.
Jesus can, though - he can make us godlike.
He will - if we will let him - provide us with the upward pulls we need hour by hour to rise above the heaviness of our human condition into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
I will love them and reveal myself to them so be it, for Arthur, Thomas and all of us in St Giles this morning.
How do we see this love?
It’s a gravitational field that lifts us up to become what we’re meant to be.
The gravitational pull of the love of God competes with the gravitational field of the evil in the world and that, in our souls, we call sin.
When the astronauts trod on the moon they found themselves able to leap and jump with ease because gravity on the moon is a sixth that on earth.
If they had been able to visit Jupiter they would have crawled on the surface so strong is the downward gravity.
You and I get pulled down all the time. Our bodies, thankfully, get pulled down to stay on earth in Horsted Keynes. But our spirits – they get pulled down too. They can feel very heavy - as heavy as what we call depression.
I will love them and reveal myself to them says Jesus and in doing so he invites us to look up and find the gravity of God’s love which lifts us out of ourselves to head where we’re meant to head.
In baptism this morning Arthur and Thomas are being set off in the direction they were made to go with the support of their family. The love they’re being drawn up into is already real to Gordon and Penny and has been proved so through the trials they so cheerfully bear on behalf of their children.
There is one gravitational field of the spirit drawing us into God’s love and there’s another spirit dragging us down.
Human beings, you and I, are caught! We’re caught in the gravitational field of evil: of pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth – remember – PALE GAS – P-A-L-E-G-A-S - the seven deadly sins.
For some of us this heaviness is sloth, laziness - especially as we get older. For others it’s the weight of indulgence through gluttony. Or it’s the dead weight of pride that sinks so many of our relationships. Then we have avarice – greed - which, as I describe in the news sheet, weighs down the world around you.
So we can picture and imagine the downward gravity of sin that affects us all.
When we try to rise above it by our own efforts we feel like the man in the gym trying to lift weights that are beyond his capacity.
The more we try to lift ourselves the heavier life feels.
The gravitational field of God’s love that lifts our lives can’t be felt through our own efforts. It reaches down to offer us a hand up in Jesus and all he has done for us by his life, death and resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As we struggle with our relationships, insecurities and spiritual emptiness we find ourselves caught by the gravitational lure of sin as if in a quicksand.
The more we struggle in our own strength to release ourselves the deeper we go down. I remember someone driving his father’s land rover onto a beach south of Morecambe Bay where it sank hopelessly into a quick sand there before they could get a purchase on it. He had some answering to do to his dad!
It is a sad truth of life that so many of our attempts to better ourselves prove counter-productive. People caught in quicksand sink faster through gravity the more they struggle to get out of it.
They need an upward pull from outside themselves.
Jesus does that for us.
I will love them and reveal myself to them.
Every Sunday is a day of resurrection, but particularly a Sunday in Easter Season.
Through resurrection from cruel death the gravitational pull of God’s love has been proved more powerful than the quicksands of sin, death and the devil.
You can prove that’s true - if you accept it!
You won’t escape the quicksands of pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice and sloth on your own. You need an upwards pull from outside.
There’s a Man outside of you who can. Jesus. He’s alive. He loves you and wants to give you that lift so you can become what you’re meant to be!
That’s why, in a moment, we’ll rightly say I turn to Christ. I repent of my sins. I renounce evil.
As we baptise Arthur and Thomas we are reminded of the two gravitational fields of the spirit we’re all caught up with and the need to welcome God’s rescue provision daily.
We can’t become godlike. We can’t elevate ourselves beyond the quicksand that drags us down however hard we try.
Jesus can, though - he can make us godlike.
He will - if we will let him - provide us with the upward pulls we need hour by hour to rise above the heaviness of our human condition into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
I will love them and reveal myself to them so be it, for Arthur, Thomas and all of us in St Giles this morning.
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