Candlemas 8am 27.1.13

Today we anticipate for pastoral reasons, linked to Education Sunday, what the Prayer Book calls the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. This festival which we are allowed to transfer from its set day of 2^nd February, celebrates the baby Jesus being taken to the  Temple  in  Jerusalem forty days after his birth to complete Mary's ritual purification after childbirth, and to perform the redemption of the firstborn, in obedience to the Law of Moses which indicates this should take place forty days after birth for a male child, hence the Presentation is properly celebrated forty days after Christmas.

Upon bringing Jesus into the temple, the family encounter Simeon. The Gospel records Simeon had been promised "he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:26). Simeon prays the prayer we now use at evensong or compline that’s known as the Nunc Dimittis, or Canticle of Simeon, prophesying the redemption of the world by Jesus:

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people: to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of Thy people Israel (Luke 2:29-32).

In addition to being known as the Purification of Mary or Presentation of Christ another traditional name for today is Candlemas referring to the practice whereby later on this morning the priest blesses candles in a  place apart from Church – the school in our case - for a re-enactment of Christ’s entry into the Temple, symbolised by our Church building.

As we bless the candles we’ll be singing the Nunc Dimittis which contains Simeon’s prophecy that Christ’s salvations is to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of Thy people Israel.

All celebrations of the events which have brought us salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Christ are given so we may apply them to our lives.  Just as each eucharist recalls Christ’s death and resurrection so we die further to sin and rise more to the life of the Spirit so the church’s calendar of feasts is given us to engage with the historical events to find truth to imitate and fresh hope.

As one ancient prayer used in contemplating today’s mystery of the Presentation puts it grant that we may imitate what it contains and obtain what it promises.

What truth is there to imitate in this morning’s celebration? We find a well expressed truth to take to heart in the Collect which prayed: as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so (may we) be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts. In other words help us to be presentable. Just as on Friday night I searched out a bit of tartan to make me presentable at our Burns Night so our being presentable before God requires a discipline of self-examination to make sure we come to his altar with pure and clean hearts.

What promise is there for us to obtain in this celebration? I would say that the ceremonial entry into Church we’ll enact later on anticipates our entry through the gates of heaven into paradise, into the house of the Lord. Our Anglican funeral liturgy encourages the recitation of those words of the Nunc Dimittis in today’s Gospel: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.

Like Simeon we see in Jesus one who removes the fear of death and promises perpetual light to his family as they travel forward in his light to their fulfilment in the house of the Lord together and forever.

I end with a beautiful prayer of John Donne, sixteenth century Dean of St Paul’s some of you may know: Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening into the house and gate of heaven to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end. 

Opening heaven’s window 10am Sunday 20th January

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills Psalm 121:1

Well we’re here at last, before the window! May I on everyone’s behalf pay tribute to Marion Lott, David Jenkins, the Martindale Committee and all who have worked so hard, and will continue to work hard to complete the funding of this great improvement to our church hall. Very well done!

Opening windows – or in this case opening up windows - is a good image.   Less than three months after his election as Pope 51 years ago John XXIII gave notice of his intention to convene an Ecumenical Council. When asked why a Council was needed, he reportedly opened a window saying, "I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in." The Second Vatican Council brought changes that have affected all churches through the revision of the eucharist, new emphasis on the Holy Spirit, ecumenism, and a more positive approach by the church to the world .

I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in. Good Pope John’s words fit the spirit of making church accessible even if our new hall window should let no one see in – the Lord preserve us from more thieves up our walls!

If we’ve need of anything it’s of being a Christian community that attracts the attention of the next generation so they feel intrigued by what we’re about, look through the window and come through the door, maybe, initially, through the Martindale door.

As Christians we’re about Opening heaven’s window, making heaven – Jesus – visible through word, sacrament, fellowship and the way we live our lives. We need to communicate the Church as something OK, or rather more than OK. We’ll best do this as we gain cleansing and empowerment from the Holy Spirit.

Pope John also prayed for a new Pentecost and many saw the charismatic movement that got going in the late 1960s as answer to his and many prayers.

Which brings me to this morning’s second reading from 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s turn to p4 and look through this passage together.  Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. Paul says in verse 1 and goes on to explain in verses 2 and 3 that ministry in the Church is animated by supernatural empowerment through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. He outlines the glorious diversity of ministry gifts there are in Corinth, reminding those who have them that what they've been given is given not for them but for the building up of the body of Christ. In this passage Paul lists supernatural gifts – wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues and the gift to interpret that. We need to read this list alongside two other lists of ministries Paul gives in Romans 12, where he adds serving, teaching, exhortation, generosity and leadership and Ephesians 4, where he adds apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors.

Let’s look at verses 4 to 7 of today’s reading: 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

In his first letter to Corinth Paul’s chapter 12 and 14 are about supernatural gifts and their use for the common good. These two chapters – 14 is mainly about speaking in tongues – have the famous one on love, Chapter 13 in the midst. Paul lists the empowering gifts and goes on to say they’re all great but will go nowhere unless you use them lovingly, submitting to the body of Christ as a whole.

Let’s read on from verse 8 to 11: 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 

The gifts we read out are called charismatic gifts and many churches are recovering them nowadays. The first two in v8, wisdom and knowledge are the capacity to receive supernatural information about situations through which God can change things. What a difference these can make to a Church? When God gives you an insight and you follow it things flow relatively easily as you persevere in pressing forward. I’ve got a feeling some may be inspired by this occasion, by our window, to words of knowledge – we shall see!

When in verse 9 we read of the gift of faith that’s not the faith by which we believe but a special gift linked to believing God for something special. Today’s rescheduling is something special that wouldn’t have come about if we were a church that lacked supernatural vision and a special gift of faith. Lead thieves and officious electricians won’t deflect us from the faith we have to see that building a hub of mission. Even if we need more money we believe God has it up his sleeve waiting to be released for God’s work brings with it God’s supernatural provision.

The next two charismatic gifts are named healing and miracles in v9 and 10. One of the encouraging signs in our life together is the evidence of healing and miracles here at St Giles, even if they are manifested at times in the midst of great suffering.

Prophecy and discernment v10 are capacities to help the church see the way ahead. I was heartened two weeks ago by the convergence of the sermon and intercessions themes on the sense of Isaiah 60.2: For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. It was as if the Lord was speaking prophetically and saying even if we as a Church are surrounded by thick darkness of unbelief the light of faith is shining and will get through for his glory will appear over us. 

Tongues and interpretation are similarly gifts of empowerment some of us have received linked to deepening prayer and praise in individuals for the common good. Speaking in tongues isn’t ecstatic or hysterical but something you can do before breakfast. It’s a gift many Christians have received through the ages which helps believers pray as the Holy Spirit leads for what the Holy Spirit wants. It is a devotional aid that helps build more praise and intercession in the life of the Church. The gift of interpretation, rarely used in Anglican circles, comes into play when tongues are rather exceptionally used aloud at services.

Today’s scripture reminds us that if St Giles is going to deepen its life and grow new members we need a new Pentecost, in Pope John’s phrase, so the Holy Spirit’s gifting more fully animates our life together.

People need a window into the Church and we are that window, we believers, regularly to be polished up and animated! That’s why when I bless the building shortly you too will be blessed with holy water to wake you up to your baptism.

Through our prayer and Holy Spirit empowerment what God has in store for the use of the Martindale will manifest. God make this place a place of engagement between Christians and not-yet Christians that will open up windows by that very engagement to those seeking purpose and belonging in Horsted Keynes.

I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in.

Epiphany 6th January 2013

This morning I’m speaking to the third prong of our Mission Action Plan revised at October’s PCC after a series of meetings reflecting on the July vision day. The MAP’s on the notice board and its one line header is in the news sheet:  St Giles Church has a mission to grow in faith, love and numbers.

Our putting mission on the MAP has the three dimensions of growing in faith towards God, growing in the expression of love to the world and growing the numbers of our Christian fellowship here at St Giles.

On Christ the King at the end of November I explained action the PCC has got raised up to help us grow in faith in months ahead. I mentioned the Unbelievable? course that’s now started. I mentioned the electronic discipleship resource on the church website with Christian discipleship resources. Issue 2 is published today. Do sign up to receive it if you can. I’m grateful to Jan for what she’s written there.

On Advent Sunday I detailed action PCC has planned for us to grow in love encouraging ownership of the outreach we do as a church. In doing so I gave recognition to how individual exercise of loving service at home and in the workplace has priority and needs to be balanced with our involvement in church activities like running the website, choir, toddler group or village lunch. I reiterated the challenge Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, has issued to his growing diocese: are you consumers or citizens? Are you here to build God’s kingdom, to work for world transformation through the spread of faith beyond these walls, or are you settled in something of a consumerist mentality whereby going to St Giles fits alongside going to Sainsbury’s or to the Theatre?

I’d re-iterate that challenge on this Feast of the Epiphany. Only by getting more members active in mission can we hope to grow in numbers.

Deacon Gerard Irvin made a similar challenge to his folk at their St Stephen’s Day Mass last week. He asked all present to take some responsibility for church growth by identifying someone half their age and praying for them every day for a year.

This suggestion is like the first sentence on our MAP which lists these actions already attained over the last year: Prayer for numerical growth especially on Saturdays, door-to-door visiting by priest  to connect with lapsed worshippers, “Back to Church” Sunday 2011, re-light the candle baptism Eucharist 2011, putting up posters around village for All-Age Eucharist Sunday, Harvest, Holy Week, etc.

A more recent action listed on the MAP schedule took up a suggestion at the July vision day: Move Friday Eucharist to 10.30am to generate new church-community interface/socialising in post-assembly coffee putting church more on people’s map. I have to say we haven’t seen too many church members at that coffee session to meet parents.

The last achieved action under growing in numbers is Taking Advent day by day out to the parish for evangelistic benefit which was Chris Wheatley’s idea and again we might have seen more support for these events we credit Chris for putting so much energy into organising.

The purpose of this sermon is to encourage us to allow Epiphany to come alive in our hearts and in the hearts of those around us.

Epiphany – manifesting God - isn’t Fr John or Chris’s work but God’s work and ours – ours i.e. all of us. For St Giles to grow in numbers that include 12 to 50 year olds committing their lives to Our Lord, the Pied Pipers to lead them in isn’t me or Chris but all of us.

Each one reach one may be a good motto for 2013. Reaching out, cutting into spiritual apathy with the two scissor blades of prayer and invitation. I know there are a good number of folk who’d come to Church if someone would ask them. From March Birch Grove church members are kindly organising Sunday lifts to Westall residents and others may want to take a leaf out of their book. Who in your acquaintance, or down your street, may be open to an invitation to attend St Giles? Like next Sunday’s 50 min all age eucharist?

The MAP mentions under ‘growth in numbers’ the evangelism focus at Wednesday week’s 16th January St Giles night with Simon Allaby brainstorming on less scary evangelism.  You might like to attend this first ever training session on evangelism in my time as parish priest. On the MAP there’s also Developing evangelistic (alongside community/youth) use of Martindale from 19th January opening.

St Giles Church has a mission to grow in faith, love and numbers.

My two New Year wishes are for the Martindale to become an effective mission focus serving to bring new folk into the orbit of God’s love and for 2013 to see Christian leadership emerging from the 12 to 50 year age range. This would serve connecting across all age groups by St Giles core leadership which currently includes some remarkable seniors – like me!

In my July 2012 Rector’s Letter I paid tribute to Peggy Diss quoting Walter Wink: 'The future of the world lies with the intercessors and connectors.' In my years as Rector I’ve met few as loving and prayerful as Peggy. Her prayers – and Ursilla’s – are with us as we plan action to grow in numbers. Very many of us have got that gift of connecting – building friendships. We’ve also got potential to seek God and, from prayer, the best directing of our energies and those in our orbit. ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’ (Lord Tennyson). Our spire points up to a God whose possibilities, exceeding our imagining, are released on earth through prayer.

'The future of the world lies with the intercessors and connectors.' Will you help change the future of the world through St Giles by being the intercessors and connectors we so badly need to see the body of Christ built up in this place?

Each one reach one – by scissor blades of prayer and invitation – so Isaiah’s prophecy of light coming into spiritual darkness may be realised among us in Horsted Keynes: Darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. (Isaiah 60:2) So be it!

Feast of the Holy Family 30th December 2012

This morning the liturgy moves from Bethlehem via Jerusalem to Nazareth. On Tuesday we celebrated the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Today we celebrate his childhood in Nazareth. As we heard at the end of the holy gospel, following the incident in the Temple: Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and came to Nazareth.

I once went to Nazareth. I’ll never forget seeing two young boys at a well drawing water for their families. They could have been Jesus and his cousin John. The water was probably from the same source as that drawn on 2000 years ago, for wells do not move.

 This morning we are all going in heart and mind to Nazareth, to the household of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We’re going, with the scriptures and the holy liturgy to seek inspiration from the Holy Family for our own families and for the family we enjoy here at St. Giles’ as a local expression of God’s never-ending family, the holy, catholic church.

As we go to Nazareth we find welcome, challenge and empowerment.

We find firstly a welcome. The hearth of Mary and Joseph is an open hearth. How could it be otherwise? How could this couple who welcome God into their earthly home be guilty of turning any away?

In the Holy Family there is hospitality, the generous reception of friends and stranger alike.  We catch something of the extended life of the Holy Family in today’s Gospel story of Jesus getting lost in the Temple when the three of them travel in a large extended family. To enter the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is to find yourself welcomed into that great hospitable procession of the people of God into the heavenly Temple. Mary and Joseph remind us that we can never have Jesus to ourselves. To be a Christian is to be one with Mary and Joseph and Paul and Augustine and Francis and Giles – and the list goes on!

In the Holy Family we find the welcome that marks the church from its beginning, God’s people belonging to God and belonging together.

You and I haven’t chosen one another but God has chosen us together to be his family here in Horsted Keynes. Welcome one another says the Apostle as God in Christ has welcomed you.

In Nazareth we see also an image of Christian family, of mutual belonging. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are present to one another in a way we can only hope to imitate by the grace of God.

Our families need to go to Nazareth, so to speak, and to learn there how to be more present to one another.

As we go to Nazareth we find such a welcome – and also a challenge. It is the Feast of the Holy Family today.

There’s so much sentimentality surrounding Mary and Joseph we need to get back to scripture to see them as they are – two of God’s holy ones and holiness is nothing comfortable but rather something challenging. The infancy narratives in the Gospel give evidence of St. Joseph’s capacity to hear the voice of God and guide the Holy Family.

And Mary! If she had not been what we call ‘ascetic’, a woman set apart and well disciplined in the spiritual life, she would not have become the God-Bearer by whom God came down to live in your life and mine.

As someone wrote, it was as if the human race were a little dark house, without light or air, locked and latched. The wind of the spirit had beaten on the door, rattled the windows, tapped on the dark glass, trying to get in – and yet the Spirit was outside. But one day a woman opened the door, and the little house was swept pure and clean by the wind. Seas of light swept through it, and the light remained in it; and in that little house, a Child was born and the Child was God.

As we go to the home in Nazareth we encounter the challenge of holiness, what Pascal said was the most important influence in the world. We see a Holy Child formed by a Holy Mother and her Spouse. How can we enter such a home?

There are families I know where there is such a sense of the Holy Spirit that I am made to feel deeply challenged. Some households have about them a transcendent quality, a joy that is pointer to heaven our true home.

This is also true of churches. Just welcoming visitors is not enough. They need to be challenged, intrigued by what they see inside our buildings, both the worship of Jesus and the people of Jesus in their self-lessness and joy.

This morning we go to Nazareth to learn in the school of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of a welcoming love and a challenge to holiness. Lastly we will find at Nazareth a source of empowerment.

For 2000 years people have been empowered by the saving grace of Jesus Christ born of Mary. What a Saviour – a practical Saviour! As practical as his foster father, Joseph, in carpentry where Our Lord picks up his capacity to mend, yes, even families.

How many of us have had to bring our marriages and our families to be mended? To the Carpenter, the One who anoints and empowers and saves – and seen the difference Christian Faith makes.

How much we need to get back to Nazareth, to Jesus, Mary and Joseph and see there a work of intense spiritual transformation open to all. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour (Luke 2:52). He did so that we too might increase in the same fashion!

Either Jesus Christ makes a difference, either he is born ‘to raise the sons of earth’ or our religion is moralistic do-gooding. If Christianity is about ‘do gooding’ it is only in the sense that Christians have access to a power beyond this world that incidentally helps you do what is right.

For that empowerment, for the challenge and welcoming love the Holy Spirit brings we go in gratitude once more this morning to Nazareth!

Through modelling Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may our families and our church be places of welcome so that people may find a home with us and with the Lord!

May our families and our church be challenging places where people get intrigued by Jesus Christ living in the midst of his people!

Father grant that our families and our churches may become places of spiritual empowerment where we share in the anointing of your anointed Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, One God for ever and ever. Amen.

All age Christmas eucharist address 2012

Please could we have the children up front to the choir stalls, especially those with a present to show.

While they’re on the way let’s try a joke or two at the expense of our trumpeter.

How do you know you’ve got a trumpet player at your door?

The doorbell shrieks!

How do you get a trumpet player to play softly? 

Take away his instrument.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get away from the trumpet players.

Well, we’re no chickens - we really appreciate you Lawrence!

So, welcome young people. Let’s light our Christmas candle from one of the Advent candles.

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.

Please take your seats in the choir stalls for the rest of the talk.

Now I need a strong volunteer – Daisy!

It’s Christmas morning and your gifts have arrived.

Let’s have Santa’s elf.

I want you to have this and this and this

The server comes and loads the volunteer with presents.

So how lucky you are to have all of those presents.

Now. Here’s a present worth all of those presents put together and I want you to have it. I really want you to have it. The only thing is - you’ll only get it if you catch it because I’m going to throw it to you.

One, two, three – here you are…

Throw special present which has the Cross of Jesus in it. Daisy drops her other presents and catches it.

Would you like to open your present?

A Cross

If you want the most important thing in the world you need empty hands.

God can’t get to us unless we’re available to him.

Sometimes things happen in life that make us drop everything so we can catch one of God’s surprises.

This last year St Giles got a grant of £50,000 from the Verity Waterlow Trust. We had to drop everything and raise the extra £20,000 and lo and behold that’s almost completed. God-willing we’ll be thanking him over the 19^th -20^th January weekend for a hall with a new feel, a new glorious view and a new usefulness to the village. We still need to land the £5000 beyond our contingency caused by unexpectedly having to lay on 3 phase electricity to the Martindale.

The Christmas story would be no story if the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the shepherds and wise men hadn’t dropped everything to receive the immense gift of God coming among us. Neither would the Martindale story have come about if Marion Lott and her team had been otherwise preoccupied

How many things might I have done with profit this year but didn’t do because I was wrongly preoccupied?

Here’s an image of preoccupation I’m not a million miles from.

Adrian walks round church with their blackberry and I tap him on the shoulder.

The great thing about living in a village is we’ve got people around us we know who tap us on the shoulder at times. We’re drawn out of the mini-world world of the family and the mega-world of the internet into the flesh and blood world of the 2000 folk who live here.

Horsted Keynes is a world full of God’s surprises if only we had hands to grasp them. I’m not just thinking of the beauty around us but the inner beauty we glimpse in souls.  

I was visiting a very gracious elderly couple hard pressed by health problems that were grinding them down. Meanwhile another villager phoned me with an offer to help support folk under pressure. In one of God’s surprises the couple who were stressed said they’d much welcome a visit from this man and so it came to pass bringing encouragement all round.

People ready to be of service and people needing help are all around in the village and we need to be open to God’s surprises in bringing them together. With this in mind the Church Council has some sort of street warden scheme in mind we want the village on board with. This would serve, among other things, those put on the sharp end by the recession and bring support to them.

Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy

In the joy of this morning you will have many preoccupations in your life – regrets, fears and anxieties – but the good news of God and his love is once again presented to you to make you a better instrument of his love in the world.

God can’t get to you, though, unless you’re available to him.

As the act of receiving Christmas Communion outwardly demonstrates, to gain the most important thing in the world you need to empty and lift your hands to receive what he has for you.

Let’s reflect now as the organ plays.

Midnight Mass & First Eucharist of the Day 2012

If I were asked to put Christianity into a Tweet I’d quote Matthew 11.28:

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ ²⁹

It’s less than 140 characters and it gives the whole Gospel in one sentence.

Come to the Lord Jesus Christ who came tonight to be God present with us.

Offload on him, on his broad shoulders, and welcome what the world yearns for – inner peace.

Christianity shows itself in all who’ve got that peace - for there’s nothing more infectious!

As we come to the crib tonight/this morning Jesus wants no less for us than to lay down our burdens and come to him for rest so we can infect the world around us with his peace.

He’s here – Jesus is always here in St Giles in this Sacrament – he’s here and he’s waiting!

‘Two African women boarded a train. Each one carried an enormous basket of goods on her head. On being seated one woman laid her basket on the floor. The other woman continued to carry it on her head for the entire journey. The train journey ended. One woman, refreshed and rested, gladly lifted her burden and peacefully resumed her journey. The other woman, tired and disgruntled, wearily plodded along’  (Bible Alive notes 2 Dec 2012).

I wonder as you sit in your pew which woman you are tonight/this morning?

Are you sitting with the world on your head?

Put it down in Church! Lay it before the altar! Take it to the Crib!

This isn’t magic. Trusting Jesus is a practicality we have to work at hour by hour.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens’

The endless whirring of your mind can be stilled as you see his mind thinking beside you.

The physical aches and pains of life will feel different when you admit him to tend for them.

Friendship with him makes it easier to befriend those who’ve unfriended you, and I’m not just talking Facebook unfriending.

Coming to Jesus refreshes our hearts and makes them like his.

One lady on the train kept the burden on her head. We resolve to do the same when we trap ourselves in fear, resentment, anger or anxiety.

We’re living in what’s been called a ‘culture of contempt’ in which contempt and unforgiveness are at a premium. The Church isn’t immune as the women bishops and same sex blessing divides show.

A parish magazine had this amusing advertisement: “Churchyard maintenance is becoming increasingly difficult and it will be appreciated if parishioners will cut the grass around their own graves”.

There’s a laugh but one illustrating a very serious point. We all need a fair sized cemetery to bury the faults of our friends.

We need to bring our faults and theirs to Jesus because if we fail to forgive our neighbour we end up locking ourselves in the prison of our own unforgiveness.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ ²⁹

Is there a heavy burden of unforgiveness pressing you down tonight/this morning. As you kneel at the altar for Christmas Communion lay it down.

‘I will give you rest’ the Lord promises.

‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth’.

Christianity is no one line tweet or sound bite but a peaceful disposition.

'Acquire that spirit of peace’ wrote St Seraphim ‘and a thousand souls around you shall be saved'.

We acquire it by coming to Jesus, trusting he’s here, and opening our hearts to him day by day, hour by hour.

That pain in your heart – he knows all about it! That useless anxiety – he laments! That whirring mind that won’t settle into commitment – he sees, sympathises with and regrets!

Seek his healing presence tonight/this morning in the eucharist and he will satisfy the deepest hunger of your heart.

‘Come to me’, he says, ‘all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ ²⁹

Advent 4 23rd December 2012

Mary is there for us without getting in the way.

Do you know what I mean?

We should be there for people, especially at times of need, but without getting in the way.

This is the art of Mary – and it should be ours as well.

Sometimes people are so ready to help others that their desire to help becomes a hindrance.

By contrast Our Lady discerns where she’s actually needed. She accepts God’s appointments – at the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation, Cana in Galilee, Calvary, Ascension, Pentecost – we can trace her faithful appearances right through the New Testament.

Mary’s art - pretty well a perfect art - is first to be there and then second to put her Son and not herself centre stage. Do whatever he tells you she says at the marriage in Cana making herself the humble instrument of solving the wine crisis by pointing to Jesus.

I am the handmaid of the Lord she says the first time we meet her in scripture, when the Angel came to announce her divine motherhood: Let what you have said be done to me.

To love Jesus is to love his mother – and to take a leaf out of her book.

It’s the book of trust, obedience, humility, expectancy, persistence, and faithful love.

When Mary went to Elizabeth in today’s Gospel she listened to her cousin first and praised God second. The evening prayer of the church would be all the poorer if Mary hadn’t praised – we love her Magnificat. Its context though is telling. Mary’s Magnificat came out of a time of listening. Our Lady came from listening to God in her Annunciation to the hill country where she first listened to Elizabeth and to her story of her child leaping in the womb. Mary listened and affirmed Elizabeth, bringing the two of them to God in prayer.

Mary is there for people without getting in the way. To learn from Mary is to be a pupil in a school of listening because listening brings us close to people and to God.

The world cries out for people ready to listen! There’s so much around us telling us what to buy, who to trust or not trust, where to go on holiday, how to spend our time, improve our health, invest our money – there’s so much information coming at us day in and day out, so much that tells us, so little that will listen to us.

Who will make us their agenda so to speak?

Mary could forget herself and be there for people and for God because she knew herself as loved by God. Because she had an ear to God and to her own dignity she had an ear to the needy – to this day!

Holy Mary attends to your needs and mine right now interceding for us before the Lord!

We’re entering a celebration which will bring many of us close to relatives for longer times than we often spend with them. Can we see a missionary opportunity? We’re soon to be in a position where we can give something more of ourselves to our friends and family. How can we best do this?

How can we best give more of ourselves?

By listening to God and then secondly to ourselves with Mary. Mary encourages us to a positive self-regard. The Almighty has done great things for me. Take stock of all that Jesus is doing in your life and rejoice! Take stock also of the ingrained selfishness, the ‘dog in the manger’ bit so you can give it to God in confession.

With Mary let us see what God wants be done in and through us and in and through our church.

Listen to God, listen to yourself, sift and purify your agenda, then listen to those God puts your way who need your ears!

As we listen to others in these coming days with our outer ears let’s keep two inner ears listening to God and to our own reaction to what you hear lest it get in the way.

Like Mary let’s be there for people without getting in their way. Being surrendered ourselves, as at this Eucharist, to whatever God wants of us, to be made a Christ-bearer under the watchful care of the Mother of believers.

Jesus who was first carried by Mary at Bethlehem, who is carried to us in Bread and Wine this morning, waits to be carried by you and me to a waiting world!