St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Pre-Lent Sunday 27 February 2022

And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white…(and) a cloud came and overshadowed them Luke 9 

Years back when I was a student at Oxford a coach taking pilgrims from my church, St Mary Magdalene’s, to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham crashed and someone died. The Sunday afterwards the parish priest preached his sermon with reference to this Gospel and I will never forget Fr Hooper’s sermon.

He presented to us, as I now present to you, how the mystery of the glorious Transfiguration is set under the dark cloud.  After Our Lord’s clothes became dazzling white… St Luke records a cloud came and overshadowed them.

As we gathered in St Mary Mags that Sunday we were reminded how God’s glory can shine brightest of all through the cloud of bereavement. We gather Sunday by Sunday to celebrate the glory of the risen Lord with pain, the pains of the church and its divisions, of the world in its godforsakenness, especially with the invasion of Ukraine and the pains of those of in our circle which are most inscribed on our hearts. Then - the glory of the Lord shines over us as we take, bless, break and share bread!

Christianity is about suffering and the supernatural - these are the two things that keep us close to Christ - the two things Lent reminds us of.

We the baptised are a dying and rising people of a dying and rising Lord.

We are a people losing ourselves to gain the Holy Spirit.

Paul expresses this beautifully in the second reading: ‘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’ (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Made in his image we are being transformed into his selfless likeness …from glory to glory.

Made to know ourselves, love ourselves and forget ourselves - a good motto for Lent! Know yourself, love yourself, forget yourself’ 

Know yourself - for that is the other side of the coin to knowing God. 

Love yourself - as you recognise again and again how much you are loved by God who made you. Then - and here is the struggle - forget yourself as Christ forgot himself on Calvary so he could die and rise and give us the Holy Spirit!

Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people unprepared to forget themselves, people wanting instead to be important as seems the case with President Putin. 

As Raniero Cantalamessa writes: ‘70% of the human body is made up of water, but perhaps even more than 70% of man’s spirit is made up of pride...We all long to be noticed. If we could visualise the whole of humankind as it appears in the eyes of God, we would see the spectacle of an immense crowd of people all standing on tiptoe, all pushing one another in the attempt to make themselves seen and all shouting, ‘I’m here too, I’m here in the world too!’. All this pride is, of course, just smoke that death dissipates day by day. ‘Vanity of vanities’...but its consequences are...dreadful’.

There is so much wastage in life and that does not exclude the Christian life. So much of our energy, even though we be Christians, gets dissipated in the instinctive serving of our desires or attending to our fears. The energy we put into this subtracts from all we are able to offer the Lord for building his kingdom. Our Lord needs more of our energies directed to his ends and not our own, our wills more and more directing our lives to his praise and his service.

Self-forgetfulness is a real gift of God which balances self-worth and self knowledge. I find that juggling around with these three is what the deepening of spirituality is all about. The supernatural and suffering play their part as well from God’s side…

Sometimes we need to know ourselves better, sometimes to pay attention, to be kind and loving to ourselves. There are times to concentrate and affirm the self. There are many other times when we are best off getting to work on forgetting ourselves.

As we approach Lent the Church presents to us in today’s scripture the radiant and transfigured humanity of Christ illuminated and filled right through with the life of God coupled to the invitation to be transformed likewise into a heavenly new creation. 

The Transfiguration of Christ preceding his death and resurrection provides disciples then and now insight into the beauty, glory and wondrous life of the world to come and courage to keep heading there. We are not there yet but rather in the vale of tears yet sufferings in that vale are destined to be lost in the ultimate praise and glory of heaven. 

We are the dying and rising people of a dying and rising Lord, a people losing ourselves to gain the Holy Spirit, made in his image to be transformed into his selfless likeness …from glory to glory, made to know ourselves, love ourselves and forget ourselves…so Christ may shine in us now and always! 

A happy and holy Lent!

Revd Eve Wiseman College of St Barnabas, Lingfield 1130am 20-2-22

Introduction to Requiem 

We are gathered in Chapel to give thanks to God and to pray for Eve Wiseman. We have come from near and far to salute a friend and priest whose passing leaves us all the poorer. Weeks back I was at the altar with Eve and many of you to pray for Derek Goodrich and months back, again with Eve, for our mutual friend and former resident Allan Buik. Now for this eucharist Eve herself is on the other side in this celebration as her picture by the Paschal Candle reminds us. In penitence and faith therefore let us prepare to celebrate the sacred mysteries central to our life as Christians, central to Eve’s life and ministry, welcoming through them a pledge of the glory which is to come.

Sermon                                                            Romans 8:35-39

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Words dear to Eve from Job Chapter 19 verses 25 to 27

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Eve Wiseman died January 8 a few days after suffering a stroke. My wife Anne prayed with her just before she was taken from College to hospital. Eve is survived by her niece, Helen Clay of Caernarfon, Wales and nephew, Simon Clay of Vancouver.

Eve was born near here in Coulsdon, baptized at St. Francis Church and confirmed at St. Andrew’s Church. As a child, she was awarded a scholarship to Purley County Grammar School for Girls. She studied for her school certificate and higher school certificate at London University, and went on to obtain a Teaching Certificate from Cambridge’s Homerton College. Her main subjects were physical education and educational psychology. Eve taught for four years on Cable Street in Stepney, London, in the school in which “To Sir With Love” was based. 

 

Eve had a distinguished academic career. She obtained a Master of Education from Western Washington State College in Bellingham and a Master of Divinity from the Vancouver School of Theology. She lectured and taught at CF Mott Training College in Liverpool, the University of Birmingham’s Faculty of Education and was an associate professor at Western Washington University. In the 1970s she was considered one of the top ten experts in the field of movement education in the United States. Eve once said that “a child dancing is often worshipping God”. She also coached the women’s field hockey team at Western Washington University as well as being on the Senate there and later at Vancouver School of Theology. Eve spoke at conferences and seminars around the world.

 

She was ordained to the diaconate in 1984, and to the priesthood in 1985 by Archbishop Douglas Hambidge. Prior to ordination she had been active at St. James, Vancouver and St. John, Shaughnessy. In the late 1970s she served as a lay minister at Nooksack Indian United Methodist Church near Bellingham.  

 

As a student, deacon and priest Eve held positions in many parishes in the Canadian Diocese of New Westminster including St. Matthew, Abbotsford; St. Francis in-the-Wood, West Vancouver; St. Richard, Norgate; St. Mary, Galiano Island; St. Christopher, West Vancouver;  St. Thomas, Chilliwack and St. David, Tsawwassen. She was Rector of St. Anne, Steveston from 1988-1992. Eve was deeply involved in Healing Ministry. It was always a joy to pray with her, so warm and so convinced of the power of God.

 

After Eve’s retirement in 1996, she had a number of “House for Duty” appointments including Ullapool (Northwest Scotland) and Scotshouse (Irish Republic) and as interim priest at the Parish of Thurso and Wick in the Scottish Episcopal Church in 2000 and 2001. She then settled more permanently in England where she occasionally presided and preached at St. John the Baptist, Hove, at her local church, St. Peter, Henfield near Terry’s Cross, The Point and here at the College.

 

Eve was generous to many of us including Anne and I who enjoyed visiting her house near Corinth and discussing with her the ins and outs of deacon Phoebe. An avid gardener, a voracious reader, she loved music and loved to sing so it's good we can sing this morning as part of her Christian farewell. 

There is one thing and one alone that is stronger than death - the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

As St. Paul wrote in the passage Anne read, 'neither death, nor life...nor things present, nor things to come...nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’.

Christians believe God himself has entered our human condition to live and die, a man like us in all things but sin. 

We believe that by dying Christ destroyed the power of death, and by rising again opened up a new and imperishable life to all believers.

The love of God in Jesus - this and this alone is stronger than death. When the Spirit of Jesus comes into our lives we know this for sure. As the Lord said himself, the very hairs on our head are numbered - God, the very source of life, cares for us all with an infinite love, a love stronger than death.

We commend Eve to God with this faith, faith built upon the Risen Christ. There alone, in the love of Jesus, is a sure foundation that death cannot shake.

Yet we should not presume upon that love. 

As we come to say farewell to Eve purple vestments challenge us to remember our own mortality. As our friend has departed this life, so most certainly must we, and which of us knows the day or the hour the Lord has for them?

Scripture makes plain the need to prepare for that day. The surest preparation comes as we welcome the love of Jesus into our lives. This is the sure way to a purpose for living and a reason for dying.

Gathering with the Lord's people around the Lord's Table fits us to gather in our eternal homeland, in the house of the Lord for ever

Come close to God, scripture says, and he will come close to you!

Today as we come close we have the people of Ukraine on our hearts. Let us not doubt that God sees that concern and through the eucharist will impact that perilous situation as we come to him this morning.

Commit your way to him and he will act for you, in this life and the next!

God immerse you in his endless love through this eucharist, strengthen in you the hope of heaven and grant the soul of Eve Wiseman purification for the vision of himself. 

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord - and let light perpetual shine upon her!

Prayers

Priest:    For our sister Eve, let us pray to the Lord Christ who said ‘I am the Resurrection and I am Life’.

Reader: Lord, you consoled Martha and Mary in their distress: draw near to us who mourn Eve and dry the tears of those who weep.

All    Hear us, Lord.

You wept at the grave of Lazarus, your friend, comfort us in our sorrow.

All    Hear us, Lord.

You raised the dead to life: raise our sister Eve, to eternal life

All    Hear us, Lord.

You promised paradise to the thief who repented: bring our sister Eve to the joys of heaven

All    Hear us, Lord.

Our sister Eve was washed in baptism and anointed with the Holy Spirit. Give her fellowship with all your saints.

All    Hear us, Lord.

Eve celebrated your mysteries and was nourished with your body and blood. Grant her a place at the table in your heavenly kingdom.

All    Hear us, Lord.

We pray your blessing upon the churches and communities dear to Eve: St. Francis and St. Andrew, Coulsdon; St. James, Vancouver and St. John, Shaughnessy; Nooksack Indian United Methodist Church; St. Matthew, Abbotsford; St. Francis in-the-Wood, West Vancouver; St. Richard, Norgate; St. Mary, Galiano Island; St. Christopher, West Vancouver;  St. Thomas, Chilliwack and St. David, Tsawwassen; St. Anne, Steveston;  Ullapool in Scotland and Scotshouse in the Irish Republic, the Parish of Thurso and Wick in Scotland; St. John the Baptist, Hove; St. Peter, Henfield; Terry’s Cross; The Point and we pray a blessing upon our life together here at the College.

All    Hear us, Lord

Let us commend Eve to the prayers of the holy Mother of God, St Barnabas, deacon Phoebe and all the saints as we pray in our own words keeping silence: 

Reader: Merciful Father,  

All        accept these prayers for the sake of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 

Wivelsfield Church Memoria of St Polycarp Mark 9:38-40 23.2.22

‘Anyone who is not against us is for us’ Mark 9:40

‘Does God confine the gift of his Spirit to authorised channels?’ is the question raised and answered in today’s Gospel. We read there how Our Lord’s disciples tried to stop someone casting out demons in his name because he was not an obvious, or should we say ‘legitimate’ follower of Jesus. ‘But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me’.

Our Lord in the Gospel, like Moses faced before him with the same question, disowns clerical arrogance which sees the Holy Spirit just flowing through the channels they have authorised. God is bigger than the institutions he sets up to help his people function right. God is bigger than the church and can make exceptions we should go along with, but - and it's a contentious ‘but’ - we are bound as a rule to expect the Holy Spirit to flow primarily through the channels he authorises. 

For us Anglicans the Holy Spirit is known as God’s grace and comes primarily through the church. ‘In what ways do you receive… God’s grace?’ Our Catechism asks and it gives this reply. ‘I receive… grace within the fellowship of the Church, when I worship and pray, when I read the Bible, when I receive the Sacraments, and as I live my daily life to his glory’.

Without bishops and priests we cannot have sacramental grace, making my visit this morning to cover for Fr Christopher a necessity. We need apostolic order, as today’s feast of St Polycarp reminds us - he worked within the 2nd century in immediate succession to the apostles - but apostolic order is no use without apostolic vitality. Through bishops and priests in apostolic succession we have authority to break Bread this morning pleading Christ’s Sacrifice for our community and our world and  receiving the grace of Holy Communion in Christ’s body and blood.

The eucharist is vital and vitalising, helping Christ dwell in us, but today’s Gospel invites us to keep on the look out for Christ’s presence and action outside the orbit of his Church. Though God commits to work through channels he has authorised like the eucharist - how wonderful to find him here as he has promised - we have surprises of the Spirit outside this orbit and need to be open to these.

The God we worship is deep in all things, working wherever goodness, truth and beauty are being built, inside and outside the fellowship of believers. We are his coworkers, sent out from here in the power of his Spirit to live and work to his praise and glory, alongside other unwitting servants of God.

‘Anyone who is not against us is for us’.

St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Candlemas 30.1.22

We come to Church to worship and to be enlightened. Jesus came first to the Temple on this day with those two ends of self offering and edification.

His parents made an offering on his behalf and they heard Simeon's prophecy of their Son becoming 'a light to lighten the nations'.

Candlemas gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect about what we do when we come to this Temple Sunday by Sunday. It is a Temple before it is a preaching house, a place of teaching, yes, but primarily not a place of edification but a place of worship. 

In this Church the worship of the eucharist has been offered day by day with a few breaks since 1863. People in their thousands have joined here to offer the unbloody sacrifice initiated by Jesus Christ we call the eucharist. They've come 'to offer themselves, their souls and bodies as a living sacrifice' with, in and through Jesus Christ.

The West Window, subject of our appeal, has two smaller windows at the bottom designed to emphasise the eucharist in this context. One has the sacrifice of the Cross. The other has the priest at the altar pleading the same sacrifice on our behalf with the text ‘ye do show the Lord's death until he comes’. Praying as we do ‘that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father almighty’. Our response, especially true to this Feast, is ‘may the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands to the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy church’. 

Today on Candlemas, Feast of his Presentation, on his first visit to the one earthly Temple of his day, Our Lord anticipated his eternal sacrifice. The turtle doves sacrificed on his behalf in that Temple gave way, with all animal sacrifices, to his once for all offering made on a repeat visit to Jerusalem in his 33rd year. They took then no doves but an innocent Lamb, and as they did so the prophecy about his mother Mary in today's Gospel was fulfilled. 'A  sword will pierce your heart'. In St Martin’s Brighton, a Church I know well, that very image of Our Lady is provided at the foot of the Cross, graphically in black and with a sword stuck into her heart.

There is deep continuity between the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the offering of Jesus the Lamb of God, the Eucharistic Sacrifice and our own sacrificial living as Christians. They all hang together. In a culture full of self-interest what we are about this morning is powerfully counter-cultural. Here, in union with Christ, we are offering our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice.  Sacrifice is at heart about voluntary choice about how we direct our lives - it is about love before it is about death.  It is about joyous living just as sure as ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. It is not so much about forgoing what we desire but of binding our energies to what God desires. 

In this context it is an excellent practice, helping prepare for the eucharist, to start each day with what’s called the Morning Offering. The idea is to sit on your bed as soon as you get up and, whilst letting the blood reach your head, get into gear spiritually by praying something like, ‘Lord, I thank you for who you are and your love for me and all that is. I give myself to you. Take me and use me for your praise and service and the building up of the body of Christ. Come, Holy Spirit'. When you have made such a prayer at the start of the day you recognise spiritual needs and opportunities around you and the hand of God working in your life in the hours that follow. I know this from when I forget to pray it - my day turns rather useless! The Morning Offering is linked to Christ’s Offering and invitation to join in it at Mass where we pray, ‘May he make of us an eternal offering to you’.

We come to Church to worship and to be enlightened.

Part of that enlightenment, as Mary and Joseph found, is the bringing of understanding and hence more creative involvement with the dark times of our life.

We all live with these - bereavement, chronic illness or the necessity to live with unresolved situations where there may be conflict. With Mary and Joseph this morning we welcome holy Simeon's words with gratitude since they speak of peace coming, as it does again and again, through heavenly illumination.

Jesus Christ is the light who lightens all nations and all ages.

May his light shine on us and into our various life situations this morning as we come to worship 'offering ourselves, our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice' with in and through Jesus Christ.

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.

We come to Church to worship and to be enlightened. Our Lord came first to the Temple on this day with those two ends of self offering and edification.

I end with a beautiful prayer of John Donne, sixteenth century Dean of St Paul’s which captures that aspiration: 

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. Amen.

St Richard, Haywards Heath 3rd Sunday of Year 23 January 2022

The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. Luke 4:18-19

This morning’s Gospel reading from Luke 4:14-21 speaks very powerfully about all Jesus is about and all his church is meant to be about. Just think of that awesome scene at the start of Our Lord’s public ministry - the Synagogue at Nazareth Our Lord’s first Sermon.  In reading this Gospel we do so mindful that Jesus is invisibly present this morning.  This ministry of the word is his ministry. Jesus speaks and there is no word of God without power!

The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me.

Our Lord applies Isaiah’s prophecy to himself.  Yet his anointing as Christ and Messiah is not just for him - it is to be shared with us. Jesus is anointed by the Holy Spirit as Christ so that we might share in his anointing! A Christian is one who shares in the anointing of the Anointed One.  

We can only do what the church must do if we welcome and own that anointing which is our own through baptism. What we say and do flows from what we are.  Only as we welcome and own the presence of Christ deep within us can our words and deeds have any spiritual force.

When you bump into someone something of them spills over you. When you bump into a Christian something of Jesus should come across.

The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor – returning to Our Lord’s great sermon he goes on in v18 to speak of the purpose of his anointing: God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor..

In the Greek there is no definite article before the word ‘ptochos’ - poor, which means it refers to a quality of life rather than particular poor persons.  Jesus will be good news to those who are otherwise powerless to enrich themselves.

As Gospel people we are on the lookout for the poor, seeking to serve them and to be served by them. Those saddled with debt through faulty stewardship or who live in isolation desperate to belong. Those overwhelmed by the circumstances of their life, desperate for forgiveness, for guidance, for a purpose for living or a reason for dying. 

They include ourselves – if we are to bring good news to the poor our own sense of poverty before God and trust in his provision counts over all else.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives ...Our Lord continues to set the downtrodden free

What a difference Christianity can make to lives and communities! The good news of Jesus Christ is about the liberation of lives and communities and St Richard’s is a catalyst of this in the way we invest in Haywards Heath serving as a proud beacon of the light of the Lord.

Some years back in London our drains began to overflow.  We had to send for Dyno-Rod.  In the end they had to send a small camera on a tube down the sewers.  They gave us a 20 minute video of our drains. It’s quite a fascinating 20 minutes, especially the rat that appears half way through! The cameras showed what human eye could never view.  The neighbour’s tree roots had blocked our drains.  They needed cutting out and the drain needed a resin soaked felt lining.

Inside each one of us and indeed our communities there are bonds that oppress us and restrict our health and life and God sees these far more surely than a Dyno-Rod camera.  What is more he is able to show us just where we are held captive and then help us enter a new freedom. The ministry of our priests is a bonus in facing up to this as is that of the PCC in helping discern and address the needs of both church and community under God.

He has sent me to proclaim... to the blind new sight Our Lord continues.

When it comes to mission it is the opening of ‘inner eyes’ that matters most. In the story of Lourdes the key figure is the peasant girl, Bernadette, the shepherdess who in 1854 received a number of visions, allegedly of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In one of these visions Our Lady asked her to lift up some stones so that a spring was uncovered, a spring that flows to this day, a healing stream visited by millions every year.

How important discernment is! What healing streams can flow from one little insight! We have a mission at St Richard’s but where do we get our enthusiasm to do so?  The word means literally ‘in God’. It comes from an ever-fresh welcoming of the anointing of the Anointed One, a readiness to be shown where the flow of his grace is getting blocked within us. As Our Lord says in John’s Gospel:  Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.  As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’  Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive  John 7:37-9

How the church needs to take this invitation to heart! How else can we generate new enthusiasm about Jesus other than through some heart-searching for the things that weigh down and block the Spirit in our lives and in our Christian community? As we do so – and lift the stones – we recover a sense of God’s goodness and become his effective instruments, Gospel people – real good news people! Come, Holy Spirit!

He has sent me to proclaim… liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free…

This is our task – our task together, priests and people. We need a fresh ‘anointing from the Anointed One’ to effect a new spirit of collaboration. As a church growth expert writes: The task of the ordained ministry is not simply to minister to the congregation but to create and direct a ministering congregation through the detection, development and deployment of God-given resources (Eddie Gibbs). 

The last phrase Our Lord uses in his address at Nazareth refers to ‘the Lord’s favour’.

He has sent me to proclaim ... the Lord’s year of favour

The growth of the church is growth in faith, love and numbers. It is also growth in ‘the Lord’s favour’.  

How can we find favour with God and man as Jesus did?  In such favour lies our lasting peace and wholeness - but how do we find it?  The letter to the Hebrews gives us the answer: Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

To find favour as we approach Christ we need faith, we need to believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Our mission at St Richard’s should go forward not in a forced or artificial way but in a trusting and natural way, a way that trusts in the Lord’s own favour and empowering.

Listen once again to what Jesus is saying to each one of us individually this morning

The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me - let me share my anointing with you this morning...

He has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor - empty yourself so I can fill you!

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives... to set the downtrodden free - show me the bonds that bind you and St Richard’s and let me loosen them.   

He has sent me to proclaim ... to the blind new sight - see and welcome my possibilities which exceed your imagining - and so place yourself more fully in my favour.

Come, Holy Spirit!

St Barnabas, Hove St Agnes Feast 21.1.22

Our thoughts determine our lives.

Be they self-centred, neighbour-centred or God-centred - and they’re bound to be a mixture of all three for believers.

Controlling our thoughts is difficult. We can’t easily do it because they’re a river flowing through our minds. The danger is seizing a wrong one and implementing it on impulse. Our more measured thoughts help life flow well. Our best thoughts are the making of us and of the world. 

So flowed my own thoughts looking at the martyrdom of St Agnes, a 12 year old girl we know little about save her paying the highest price for chaste thoughts and, being named after Jesus Lamb of God, becoming an icon of self offering. Her story is of a Christian girl resolved to stay single for the sake of the Gospel, who, threatened by an aggressive suitor, is forced into a legal conflict. Agnes’ faith went on trial during the Diocletian persecutions of 304 AD. Her name, mentioned in the oldest eucharistic prayer, means chaste in Greek and lamb in Latin hence our two themes of purity and self-sacrifice.

Being a retired priest gives me more time for relaxation and conversation and - thank you Fr John - attending and leading worship. The other day I got into a conversation with a 21 year old lad who confided in me his decision to turn away from the pornography so many of his friends were getting immersed in. ‘I don’t want my future relationships spoiled’ he said with telling wisdom. 

Our thoughts determine our lives. St Augustine captured the damage done in his lustful youth when he talked of memory being ‘a sad privilege’. Many of us know first hand the truth he speaks of. Thoughts of things from the past intrude the flow of our thinking and fuel action destructive of our relationships. The Feast of St Agnes is a call to purity of thought, word and deed including custody of the eyes and the avoidance of salacious television and reading material.

Secondly, today’s Saint calls us to think on her namesake Jesus Agnus dei. This image may be familiar to some of us - show book ‘The Bound Lamb’ by Francisco de Zurbarin who lived in the 17th century.  It’s an image that often appears on Nativity scenes, the Shepherds’ offering which anticipates Christ’s sacrifice. As Jeremy Paxman wrote in the Church Times of this painting: ‘no image I know so perfectly captures the astonishing force of the Christian story’. Jesus fulfils the sacrifice of the Old Testament Passover Lamb whose blood daubed on doors  protected the households of believers. Unlike the Old Testament lambs, Our Lord’s sacrifice is voluntary and as such takes away sin.  Our Lord on Calvary takes the full force of sin and death for us at the cost of his life. 

Today on our patronal feast we make the memorial of the Offering of Jesus and enter into that Self-Offering. It is through the sacrificial Lamb of God that we can make a perfect offering to the Father, our sinful bodies made clean by his body..our souls washed through his most precious blood. There is a deep continuity between the sacrifices of the Old Testament - Abel, Abraham and Melchizedek - the offering of Jesus the Lamb of God, the Eucharistic Sacrifice and our own sacrificial living as Christians. They all hang together. In a culture full of self-interest what we are about this evening is powerfully counter-cultural. Here, in union with Christ, we are offering our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice 

As St Agnes teaches, sacrifice is at heart about voluntary choice about how we direct our lives - it is about love before it is about death.  It is about joyous living just as sure as ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. It is not so much about forgoing what we desire but of binding our energies to what God desires. 

Our thoughts determine our lives - be they indulgent or geared to purity and sacrifice.

A couple of practical suggestions to help order our thinking and action more into those two qualities of St Agnes captured in her name, one about using the Jesus Prayer and another about making a Morning Offering. 

Repeating under our breath the Jesus Prayer of Eastern Orthodoxy, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’ is very powerful, as people have found praying it for 1500 years. It's a succinct summary of faith with capacity to empower us against useless and harmful thoughts. The power in the name of Jesus is such that, when we are tempted by base thoughts, repetition of this prayer sees them fly away. ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’. We need the will to pray, but knowing and using this prayer is a key aid to purity. 

Secondly the Morning Offering. The idea is to sit on your bed as soon as you get up and, whilst letting the blood reach your head, get into gear spiritually by praying something like, ‘Lord, I thank you for who you are and your love for me and all that is. I give myself to you. Take me and use me for your praise and service and the building up of the body of Christ. Come, Holy Spirit'. When you have made such a prayer at the start of the day you recognise spiritual needs and opportunities around you and the hand of God working in your life in the hours that follow. I know this from when I forget to pray it - my day turns rather useless! The Morning Offering is linked to Christ’s Offering and invitation to join in it at Mass where we pray, ‘May he make of us an eternal offering to you’.

Our thoughts determine our lives. May the prayer of St Agnes inspire us to take continual battle against bad thoughts and make of our lives an ever more complete offering to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom be all might, majesty, dominion and power now and henceforth and to the ages of ages. Amen.