Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred) 18th August 2013

I used to smoke thirty cigarettes a day.

When I was ordained priest thirty six years ago I struggled to stop knowing it was a bad example to the kids in my youth group.

The parish had an annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. That was a great time of growth in fellowship with God and one another as we exchanged for a weekend our grimy mining village for the Norfolk countryside.

I know people from St Giles have been on pilgrimage to Walsingham and I wouldn’t hesitate to encourage anyone of you in that venture.

I will always remember kneeling in the Shrine before the statue of Our Lady and saying ‘You have Jesus ear more than I – I’m going to stop the cigarettes - will you ask him to take away the withdrawal symptoms? 

She did. He did and I’ve not smoked cigarettes even since.

It’s the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary and I want you to be more aware of the power of her intercession, which is why I tell my tale.

I need to go deeper for you. Why did I pray to Mary and not directly to Jesus, you might ask?

It’s all a matter of obedience.

What do I mean? I mean that I try and live by obedience as Christianity is about obedience, Jesus and Mary are both about obedience, and so is the Church.

I pray because I’ve been taught to pray, by my parents and by the Church. In that sense I don’t make up my own religion but go with the flow of things. At one point I came to recognise from holy people I knew that in praying as a Christian I never prayed alone and that the Mother of Jesus joins my prayers with all the Saints in heaven. I came to see the dead are not dead in Christianity but alive and present.

If a Christian believer is, as the letter to the Ephesians puts it, seated with Christ in the heavenly places we don’t sit alone. The saints are also seated with Christ and when we pray we take a seat with them – and right next to Christ in my mind’s eye, in the eye of the church through the centuries, is his Mother.

As the seventeenth century Anglican Bishop Thomas Ken wrote in his hymn on Mary’s entry to heaven:

Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced,

next to his throne her Son his Mother placed;

and here below, now she’s of heaven possess,

all generations are to call her blest.

This is a poetic image of what some call the Assumption, Mary lifted up, following Jesus, to share his throne. The image is true to the destiny of every believer which is, as St Paul teaches, to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)

I believe there’s going to be plenty of space on that throne but if anyone gets to sit closest to Jesus it’ll be Mary.

When we love Jesus we’re drawn to love those who love him and his Mother is chief of them.

The Bible portrays her as humble yet confident in God, persevering in prayer, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. Her Feast today is a reminder of the glory to come for all believers, of which she has privileged foretaste.

Mary herself prophesies her glory and ours in the passage we just sang and read called the Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord…for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed…he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.

Christianity’s all a matter of obedience which we see both from Jesus and from his Mother, who did not fail to obey the invitation sent through Gabriel, the incident depicted in our Lady Chapel window.

Why did I pray to Mary and not directly to Jesus?

The answer is: its not either-or but both-and, although in my case its heavily weighted towards Jesus. It’s a bit like why do I ask people to pray for me, or why do we invite a group to pray for St Giles on a Saturday morning. Our prayer as individual Christians is interwoven both with earthly and heavenly collaborators. There are times, most times, when we pray directly to God and other times when we know we need to ask others to pray with us.

Why? So that we achieve an agreement in prayer that God has promised especially to honour. ‘Where two or three are agreed in my name it will be done for them’ Our Lord says in Matthew 18v19.

Incidentally I see my call to St Giles as linked to a post card Bishop Lindsay Urwin sent me 5 years ago from Walsingham where he is now Shrine Administrator. The card asked me to consider offering myself for service here. As I was thinking about this sermon Bishop Martin sent me a similar card with encouraging words after last month’s confirmation – here it is – and it of the same statue I knelt before 35 years ago when I stopped smoking.

The Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham is as old as this Church.

In 1054 the Lady Richeldis was invited by a vision of Mary to build a representation of the Holy House of Nazareth and invite pilgrims to  come and seek healing, as I did from my addiction. To go with that flow of pilgrims through the ages has always been part of my Christian obedience, as Walsingham is the main shrine to Mary in this land.  

Why are Shrines like Walsingham so important? Because God has caused them through his Saints and because they uphold the validity of prayer and are evidenced by the formation of holy people. Walsingham to me is associated with holiness and fun. My memories are of parishioners finding courage to making their first confession or to seek healing as well as of great evenings in the Bull pub by the Shrine.

Pilgrimage is about getting away from it all to find yourself, and any one of us here is free to make a pilgrimage, to book a few days at the Shrine where we all have a friend who’ll book us in, namely Bishop Lindsay Urwin formerly of Horsham. I was thinking about him when I noted that it is 10 years since he as our Bishop blessed our Aumbry to effect perpetual Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in 2003 since when that flame of presence has burned day and night in St Giles.

Mary said he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. Yes the cult of the Virgin Mary has needed reformation at times but in love for Jesus we’ll always be drawn, however we express it to love those who love him of whom his Mother is chief.

Obedient, humble yet confident in God, persevering in prayer, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit she is, and her Feast today is, a reminder of the glory to come for all believers, of which she has privileged foretaste.

Shall we not love thee, Mother dear, whom Jesus loves so well? And to his glory year by year thy joy and honour tell? 

Trinity 11 11th August 2013

During Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s eight years in Russian prison camps, his parents died and his wife divorced him. Upon his release from prison he was dying of a cancer that was growing in him so rapidly that he could feel the difference in a span of twelve hours. It was at that point that he abandoned himself to God and wrote this beautiful prayer: ‘Oh God, how easy it is for me to believe in You. You created a path for me through despair…Oh God, you have used me, and where you cannot use me, you have appointed others. Thank you.

There’s an image of faith if ever there was one!

People say they find faith hard but it’s simply a matter of opening your inner eye as suggested in today’s second reading from the letter to the Hebrews: Faith is the conviction of things not seen. 

When we possess faith, that conviction is practical wisdom. Solzhenitsyn’s faith was something very practical that gave him purpose even as he faced death. It was a wisdom nurtured by Scripture and the worship of the Church.

Faith is practical in that it counters our fears, which is why Jesus says to his disciples in today’s Gospel Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Faith sets your sights on the big picture of things, as we read in the letter to the Hebrews, it is to desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. As for Abraham in the first and second readings faith is taking God at his word when he promises you something good ahead of you. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.  By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God…  because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’   

We, people of God, are the descendants of Abraham who is our father in faith!

So this morning let’s be reminded of our mission action plan here at St Giles Church, which is to grow in faith, love and numbers.

How can we grow in faith?

We need to commit to God in Jesus Christ. God, give me a vision of yourself more to your dimensions and less to mine. Open my inner eyes! If we really prayed that prayer day by day we’d have an awareness of God in the present moment that wouldn't just satisfy inner restlessness but make our faith a blessing to those around us.

I take the Blessed Sacrament to a number of housebound folk. Last week I was sitting with one home communicant looking out, as one can do in many a home in Horsted Keynes, on a terrific view. The lady said to me she was astonished her children and grandchildren failed to see God behind that beauty. For her and for me the view stirred up the thought, what must he be like who made such beauty? For them the beauty was just there as a backcloth to busy lives and no eye opener to God.

To grow in faith, as our Hebrews passage said, we need the conviction of things not seen…By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Thomas Aquinas wrote wisely that to one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. The wisdom of this saying is brought out in the story of the acrobat who wheeled his son in a wheelbarrow as part of his high wire act. When they asked his son how he felt about the exercise his only comment was I trust my dad.

Here is faith defined as the extra sense it is, quite beyond the natural senses, but nevertheless based on experience. The boy needed no explanation for the faith he had in his father though few others would rise to it. By analogy Christian faith in God is the certain conviction you will be carried forward in all the perils of life by one who loves you beyond reason. The strength of Christianity lies in this revelation of God as the Father of Jesus who acts by his Spirit to carry us forward through all the pitfalls in our life to resurrection glory.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom Jesus says.

How can we grow in faith?

Commit yourself to God – and see yourself more fully as he sees you. This means more prayer, more space to ponder God in his creation.

It also means a certain biblical literacy, that is, getting into scripture, where there are so many promises addressed to believers. Those praised in today’s purple passage from Hebrews are praised like Abraham for taking God at his word. Only when you experience a passage of scripture being underlined to you by God and the consequences of that, can you see the powerful implications of taking God at his word.

To grow in faith we need a fuller sense of who we are as God’s children, filled with his Spirit, promised his provision and destined for his glory.

Seeing yourself more fully as God sees you is a real eye opener. It comes though from a readiness to allow the opening up of those inner eyes that are the Spirit’s gift to every human being, even if, mysteriously, so few seem graced to see them opened.

As something God-given, faith is inevitably mysterious. Believers hold things together in their experience that live in tension from a rational perspective. Hence faith is seen as both a virtue and a gift, a human act yet one prompted by God, a personal act yet inseparable from the corporate faith of the church. The paradox of faith is captured in the famous definition of Thomas Aquinas: Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.  

Though seen as a human virtue, faith is seen as something moved by God through grace.

So here we are this morning open to grace, seeking those inner eyes to operate more fully in an unbelieving culture. Here we are encountering God in word and sacrament, coming close to God who embraces us in the eucharist, as a mother embraces her children, to assure them they are loved.

May the love of the Lord be upon us as we put our faith in him!

Trinity 10 4th August 2013

Congratulations to the Archbishop of Canterbury for taking on Wonga loans even if I've already been stopped and asked when St Giles is starting to give villagers credit!

A one line letter to the Guardian letter on Monday read: ‘The Archbishop is in danger of giving the church a good name.’

Is it possible that the world's Christian leaders are managing to counter that weapon of mass distraction, homosexuality and the Church, to address something which finds common cause with many?

That the largest Eucharist in history should bring 3 million to Copacabana beach last Sunday is again connected with the visits of Pope Francis to Rio's favelas to engage with the poor.

Well done both leaders. As some of you know I have recently been privileged to receive a favourable message from the Pope following an open letter I read to him on Premier Christian Radio.

Keeping the big picture before those being led is the role of any leader in or outside of Christianity. I know the Archbishop and Pope have a joint Anglican Communion - Roman Catholic scheme to be launched this autumn which harnesses Christian energies to alleviate world poverty which is big picture stuff.

Today's Gospel is one of many passages in the Bible concerned with misuse of wealth which remind us that Our Lord had much more to say about the misuse of wealth than the misuse of sex. No doubt sexual sin can separate you from God but, as our reading from Luke indicates, so can the greedy use of wealth. St Luke's Gospel is famous for its highlighting Our Lord's engagement with material poverty and criticism of the rich.

The parable of the Rich Fool in Luke Chapter 12 needs little explanation. It speaks of self centredness expressed in material terms with a warning that 'one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions'. Pulling down barns to build larger barns the rich man congratulates himself. 'Soul, you have ample goods...eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you....so it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God'.

What does it mean to be rich towards God?

It means seeing a loss of self interest that equips you to see the big picture - God's picture - whereby your gifts are consecrated for the good of all and most notably those on the sharp end of things.

In the Old Testament Joseph build barns for Pharaoh not to serve himself but to serve lean years ahead in Egypt. In building those barns he also profited, if you read Genesis, through a family reconciliation as the world's hungry came to Joseph.

Material goods are given by the creator primarily to bless those in his image and to fit them for his glory. This is what the priest affirms when he takes bread and wine on our behalf this morning. 'Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, through your goodness we have this bread and wine to offer which earth has given and human hands have prepared. They will become our spiritual food and drink.' In the Eucharist we protest against the selfish use of material things and direct our whole life, including our bank accounts, to God's praise and service. Our standing orders to St Giles, or the money we put in the envelopes, is evidence of true worship and God centredness.

Being rich towards God is about using our time, talents and possessions to build relationship with God and neighbour. Of course our immediate family is a main priority - the rich man in the Gospel may have had them in mind - but that priority isn't to the detriment of the people around us awaiting a material blessing from us at home or abroad. The charitable giving we provide to Guyana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Romania as well as Family Support, Children's Society and so on as a Church also balances what we give directly to God's work through Christian stewardship at St Giles.

Christian work in this place will be eroded unless we pay for a priest.

This morning's Gospel has a challenge far more profound than to our use of money though. It draws attention to our mortality in a vivid wake up call to put people and relationships before the pursuit of material things

I want to end by reading a brief meditation from Fr Anthony De Mello which is a last word in more sense than one.

Imagine your funeral. See your body in its coffin…in a church for the funeral rites.

Now look at all the people who have come to your funeral …go slowly from one pew to another looking at the faces of these people …to see what they are thinking, what they are feeling.

Now listen to the sermon that is being preached. Who is the preacher? ....What are they saying about you? Can you accept all the good things they are saying about you?

Look again at the faces of your friends who have come to attend your funeral …..Imagine all the good things they will be saying about you when they return home from your funeral …what do you feel now?

Is there something you would like to say to each of them before they go home? .....Some final farewell in response to what they are thinking or feeling about you, a response, which, alas, they will never hear now?  ….Say it all the same, and see what this does to you…

Imagine that the funeral rites are now over. You stand in imagination above the grave in which your body lies, watching your friends leave the cemetery. What are your feelings now? ....As you stand here now, look back on your life and your experiences ….Was it all worthwhile?

Now become aware of your existence here in church and realise that you are still alive and still have some time at your disposal …Think of these same friends now from your present point of view. Do you see them differently as a result of this exercise?

Think of yourself now …Do you see yourself differently or feel differently about yourself as a result of this exercise?

Anthony De Mellow Sadhana p97-98

The Letters of Saint Paul (4) Paul’s view of the future Last of four sermons – Sunday 28th July 2013

There’s a quiet cynicism abroad, a loss of hope about the future of the world and of human beings beyond the grave. That cynicism flows from our being brain-washed by advertising, with the deceits of materialism, to disbelieve the teaching of the Bible.

New awareness of other religions has confused our approach to the Bible, as has the publicity given to hypocrisy in the Church. It’s time for us Christians to get ourselves better rooted in our faith, and that’s why I’ve been doing a course on Paul’s letters this summer, hoping it may inspire you to read them for yourself.

What better antidote to cynicism and truth decay than to read one whose writings, next only to those of the Founder of Christianity, teach us to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13b)?

This morning I want to share about that hope as it is presented by the Apostle Paul as the last of my series giving a taster of his letters geared to encourage you to pick up your Bible and read them for yourself.

They run as follows: After Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts we’ve got Paul’s letter to Rome, his greatest work on God. Then we have the first and second letters to Corinth where Paul founded a church situated on the very bridge between Asia and Europe. The next four I remember using the vowel alphabet – a, e, i, o – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. These are short compared to Romans and Corinthians, especially Colossians which we’ve been following this month in the Sunday lectionary and the reading of which could be good follow up to today’s sermon.

Two letters to Thessalonica in Greece follow, then two to Paul’s assistant Timothy, one to his assistant Titus and then a very short one to someone called Philemon about a runaway slave. The letter to the Hebrews was once thought to be from Paul but that is now disputed.

As we look through these letters we see Christ’s resurrection as their overarching theme and it’s impossible to separate the objective fact of Christ’s being raised from Paul’s subjective experience of it, as you can tell from today’s section of Colossians: when you were buried with him in baptism, Paul writes, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead… God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses.

The God who raised Jesus raises us and the force of Paul’s teaching is enhanced by the well documented change in his own life from persecuting Christians to being Christianity’s greatest evangelist. As I said last month Paul had humble awareness that for God to touch his life in any way at all was an exceptional miracle. I received mercy he writes in 1 Timothy 1:16 so that in me, as the foremost Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience. He saw himself as the least of believers because he’d previously been a leading opponent of Christian faith.

That the resurrection was central to Paul’s teaching is evidenced outside of Paul’s writings in St Luke’s comment in Acts 17:18 that Paul told the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians Chapter 15:21 continuing,  as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death… When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

In these awesome words Paul maps out the future. It starts with Christ’s being raised which is described as first fruits. Christ’s resurrection impacts believers as it did Paul so we are the harvest as we get made alive in Christ by a spiritual resurrection. Then, either through death, or at the return of Christ, there is to be universal resurrection: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. This moves the cosmos to its own resurrection fulfilment as Jesus Christ, risen Son of God overcomes every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Paul’s graphic picture ends as Christ on his return with the church presents the redeemed cosmos to his Father. The Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

What wonderful words about the future – God all in all. In Greek panta en pasin literally everything to everyone.

Christianity in Paul’s belief - and it should be in our belief – is the most forward looking creed on the earth. Why? Because it accepts God has invested in the human race and when God invests in anything there will be awesome consequences out of this world.

When you and I look at the future we must put the fulfilment of God’s promises centre stage. That fulfilment may come before or after our death but Paul in either case makes plain the death of a Christian doesn’t take them out of the Church but places them in the privileged place as those who belong to Christ of awaiting Christ’s coming.

When Paul speaks of the future he speaks of it as fulfilling faith, hope and love but also as something not just with a human but with a cosmic aspect. He is inspired to write in Romans Chapter 8 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. 

Indeed! So – to summarise - what are the main points for us to bear in mind, to savour in the teaching of Paul about the future.

1     The resurrection of Jesus Christ turned his and can turn our world upside down as it brings a vision of God’s future into our lives right here and now.

2     Baptism is about a spiritual resurrection, a death to cynicism and birth of the positive attitude of faith which acclaims God’s desire to be everything to everyone

3     To live for the return of Jesus Christ is part of that positive attitude we call hope, which is faith looking with expectancy to its fulfilment in Jesus Christ.

4     In looking to the world’s future our lives gain significance because even if we die before Christ’s return we hold faith that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

5     Lastly, looking towards God being everything to everyone makes for a change in our own individual future since like Paul you’ll best witness this when God is everything to you

As I finish this four part taster of Paul’s letters I hope it has given you some appetite for Scripture and for filling your mind with God breathed thoughts to counter the negativity of our age.

Meanwhile, looking to the future we celebrate as we always do in Church, a preview of forthcoming attractions for, in Paul’s words, as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you show the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Trinity 7 14th July 2013

In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus teaches us to identify and serve people’s needs where they are, to make a difference to them and to keep on the case.

The Samaritan, unlike the priest and Levite, had his eyes on the world around him and the call of that beaten up man. The priest and Levite were strict legalists. Like that community police man who let a boy drown because he had not done health and safety training they went by their ritual law book which said you’d be made unclean if you touched a corpse. They left the man for dead.

The Samaritan, a religious outsider, obeyed a higher law than religion, the law of God and of common humanity. He met the man’s needs. He made a difference, He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Furthermore the hero of the tale kept on his case. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”

The parable speaks about our mission calling as followers of Jesus.

We are called to identify people’s needs and go serve them. Serve them not on our terms but theirs. Serve them without getting in the way of what’s best for them. Serve them also with a view to their ongoing welfare.

We have a big vision as a church – God’s glory and the salvation of the world – but we have a tight focus expressed in our Mission Action Plan or MAP as: to grow in faith, love and numbers.

What must I do to inherit eternal life? …You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.

In today’s Gospel Jesus gives us the big vision and illustrates it in a focussed example. This morning we are reminded of St Giles’ aspiration to serve that same vision with its own particular focus. Like the Good Samaritan we are keeping on the case.

In particular we are set on using the Martindale to serve our new MAP in engaging villagers with St Giles. Already it’s a hub of parish life but we want to make it more of a Christian focus. From September we’ll be having a monthly last Sunday service at 5 o’clock starting 29^th September. Another initiative builds on the beautiful view we've now got in the main hall. We’re holding a quiet day there on 28^th September which will be attended both by trainee diocesan readers and by any church members or parishioners who wish to join in.

So far as social engagement goes the PCC is working initially through the P&P deliverers to help St Giles engage more fully with isolated people in our community, especially those who would appreciate occasional visits from the Church.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus taught us to identify and serve people’s needs where they are, to make a difference to them and to keep on the case. When it comes to the action we’re planning in the coming months for outreach we can be inspired by the example of the Good Samaritan to see from God what’s needed and to be generous in providing for it with an ongoing commitment.

The Lord bless us through this eucharist as we express our love for him! The Lord guide us, individually in the coming week and corporately in the coming months, as we seek better expression of love for him and for our neighbours faithful to the calling he has for us as his Church.

Trinity 6 Marriage renewal 7th July 2013

Later on this morning we’ll be having a presentation from Laurence and Rebeka Hardy, married 60 years ago in St Giles, as part of a focus on marriage renewal which explains my changing the Gospel reading.

Their presentation is based on Gary Chapman’s book The language of love with a reminder love isn't love unless expressed and acted out.

This church was built because of love expressed and acted out. Its spire points to Love unbounded and the sacraments celebrated under its roof for almost 1000 years have invoked that love.

This morning at the eucharist we’re seeking a special anointing in that love, the love that made us, and all that is, and loved us so much as to give himself up for us all.

The love within married couples is meant to reflect that love – love that can’t be taken back. As God gave himself up to death in Jesus we give ourselves to one another for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.

The Christian religion holds us to a high standard as we heard in the Gospel reading which has words used in a Christian marriage: what God has joined together, let no one separate.

Marriage can’t be dissolved in the Christian ideal because God’s love can’t be dissolved. Human love can dissolve, but if Christ is in our lives there’s a higher indissoluble power at work.

My song is love unknown Samuel Crossman wrote speaking of my Saviour’s love to me, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.

What beautiful words!  Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be. God in love treats us loveless beings beyond our wildest dreams so as to lift us up into his possibilities and teach us to do the same. For this is the practical truth of Christianity: husbands and wives and children do better when treated better than they deserve! This is what God shows us in the unmerited love he gives to every believer.

The sacrament of marriage is the language of such love. Words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time together, giving presents, touch (Gary Chapman) – all of these mirror how God acts towards us once we enter relationship with him.

I have loved you from the foundation of the world he says in scripture. See my Cross, see and share the bread and wine which is my body and blood, offered for you – accept my love: love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.

Marriage isn’t easy - but when God asks something of us he gives us the wherewithal to complete the task. Christian marriage is a particular anointing in the Holy Spirit and that anointing continues throughout life. Such anointing helps husbands and wives and all of us, whatever our state of life, to rise above worldly standards into those of Jesus Christ.

The Christian religion holds us to a high standard in the divorce friendly culture we inhabit: what God has joined together, let no one separate.

There is no word of God without power! What God has joined together, let no one separate. When we recognise the promise of God and hold to it we see things changing all around us mainly because we see things changing within us through the destruction of negative attitudes.

There is no word of God without power! May that power be with us by his Spirit as we keep fellowship with the Lord and with one another seeking him in prayer and sacrament, through the Bible and Christian fellowship.

Above all may it be ours in the eucharist we celebrate and receive.

The Letters of Saint Paul (3) Paul’s view of the Church Third of four sermons - Sunday 30th June 2013

Welcome back to the sermon series on the letters of St Paul and this third address on his view of the Church. The subject fits this feast day when we mark his death and the inspiration of his life and teaching.

As for me Paul writes in the epistle from 2 Timothy the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Would that we might say the same when we’ve finished our course!

This teaching series draws on the inspiration Paul has given through the ages to Bible readers and my hope is that what I share might encourage you to pick up your own Bible and draw anew on its inspired teaching.

We’re looking today at how Paul sees the Church.

Previously we’ve looked at what he’s got to say about human nature, the good and bad in us and how we get our nature to be in its right mind. We looked last time at how Paul sees God as love shown in Jesus’ death and poured into our hearts by his Spirit, God whose unity is shown in the fellowship of three persons, as in 2 Corinthians 13:13: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word translated there as fellowship is koinonia and that word gives us a vital clue to his understanding of the Church.

A family I know were on holiday on a Greek Island. They were having a meal in the local taverna when they were greeted by a friendly local. ‘Koinonia’ said the gentleman, waving his arms around the family circle to indicate their evident sense of belonging. That 2 Corinthians ending, with its reminder of Christian koinonia or communion in God, is mirrored at the start of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 1:9 where Paul speaks of how God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship literally koinonia of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The first of Jesus followers to meet with him after his death and resurrection had a koinonia or fellowship with him that extended outwards to fellow believers. Their commitment was to a fellowship built on teaching, sacrament and prayer from which the Church developed as we know it built on the same essentials.

The writings of Paul and other New Testament authors speak of Christian believers’ koinonia with Christ and with one another. Paul especially emphasises how this union is effected through the sacraments. In the one Spirit he writes in 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptised into one body. Earlier in Chapter 10:16-17 he writes The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

St Paul sees the Church as generated by both word and sacrament, a teaching picked up in Article 19 of the Church of England Thirty Nine Articles: ‘The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men [sic], in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance’.

To keep close to Jesus you need the Church, both its preaching and sacraments, which you can’t, as a rule, get at home!  

It’s Paul who teaches us most about the Church in the New Testament. His letters start as addressed to churches or to the Church of God in particular places – Thessalonica, Galatia, Corinth and so on. The apostle is first to use that Greek word ekklesia or assembly we translate as Church. It’s used in two senses, one of particular churches as in his opening greeting to the Churches of Galatia (Galatians1:2) but elsewhere as ‘the Church of God’, an institution over and beyond individual local Churches that’s actually expressed or brought into being in them. When he writes to the Galatians in Chapter 1:13 of persecuting the church of God he echoes his vision reported in Acts 9:5 where, questioning the Lord on Damascus road, he’s told I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. In hurting Christians Paul has hurt Christ!

This understanding of the mystical oneness of Christ and his Church comes across very plainly in Paul’s letters. It’s there especially in his teaching about the Church as the Body of Christ in Corinthians and in later letters like Ephesians and Colossians. We Christians are part of Christ’s life and work that fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23) and completes what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions (Colossians 1:24). Paul also speaks of the Church as the People of God, the Temple of the Spirit and the Bride of Christ though I’ve no time this morning to pursue those images.

As we think about what Paul has to say about the Church we can’t ignore the obvious point that his letters came about because of the love he had for the churches he founded. It’s his evident concern to keep them in the faith that flowed from Christ’s death and resurrection, safe from interest groups that threatened the apostolic faith. His so-called pastoral letters – 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus – show how that apostolic faith came to have guardians in the bishops that succeeded the apostles. By the end of the second century holy orders as we now know them had emerged – bishops, priests and deacons – as well as the assembly of New Testament documents we now know as the Canon of Scripture. Both Scripture and three fold order are with us still as double grounding in the risen Christ who is the church’s one foundation.

Today’s feast celebrates how both Peter and Paul anchor our bishops as successors of the apostles in their scriptural teaching. The strong tradition of their martyrdom in Rome gives the Diocese of Rome a special title – the apostolic see. The Anglican-Roman Catholic agreement honours that see or diocese and looks to a day when a reformed papacy will serve the unity of all Christians in the apostolic faith.

So what useful thoughts might we take away from this brief investigation of Paul’s view of the Church?

First thought - our communion with God as Christians is inseparable from our communion with one another and there’s a challenge because in choosing God we probably didn’t choose one another! Our evangelism depends not just on your faith and my faith but on generating an intriguing Christ-centred community.

Second thought - Christian faith grows by the Church’s gift as ‘the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance’. In more common parlance Paul strongly urges what we call Sunday obligation - gathering as the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day around the Lord’s table – and not neglecting Christian fellowship.

Third thought - the Church is both human and divine. With all its failings it’s Christ’s body and woe betide us if we make it our own. A 20^th century prophet heard God say: ‘I want my Church back’. Letting God have his church back in Horsted Keynes is our joyful task as we seek to put mission before maintenance and money.

‘St Giles Church seeks to grow in faith, love and numbers.’ May Paul’s teaching and prayers further our progress towards that end as we read his letters here and at home and as we partake of the one bread for we are Christ’s body, given once again Christ’s body, to become more fully that body which is the Church.