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The Waiting Game

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Sermon preached on the 7th Sunday of Easter based on Acts 16:16-34 and John 17:20-26

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

I’m not very good at waiting. If something needs doing, then I want to get it done as soon as possible; but sometimes waiting is the only thing to do.

So, what to do in this period of waiting? Well the first thing you could do is to do absolutely nothing. Time to catch your breath, to rest up and regain some energy; but also not conducive to being prepared when the waiting is over.

Or perhaps you could fret and pace continuously up and down, putting forward different conjectures and scenarios, trying to cover all eventualities. Surely one will turn out to be close to what is likely to happen.

Or maybe there is a third way to use this time of waiting. A time of waiting that we find ourselves in right now. A time of waiting between Ascension and Pentecost, which we know is just seven days away…

However, let’s think back to the those first disciples, still in hiding from the authorities, witnesses to some amazing events; the reappearance of their teacher after witnessing his death on the cross, satisfying themselves that this miraculous thing had happened and then watching as he ascended back to his Father, with a promise that they would not be left alone to continue the work he had prepared them for, but that a helper, the Holy Spirit would be sent.

But when? Waking up each morning wondering if this was the day, then retiring at night still fearful but hoping that tomorrow would be different. What could they do to fill this time? Do nothing; restlessly throw ideas backwards and forwards or do something else.

Yes, you’ve guessed it they went for the third option – prayer!

The disciples, after Jesus’ ascension, were instructed to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit. This waiting was not a passive activity, but a time of fervent prayer seeking guidance and power from the Holy Spirit. They recognized their dependence on God and understood that the Holy Spirit was essential for their mission and ministry. It also emphasized the importance of waiting with a purpose, trusting in God’s timing and anticipating the fulfilment of his promises. 

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit’s presence was known and experienced through God’s active involvement in the lives of individuals, particularly prophets, kings, and those called to specific ministries. The Spirit was seen as a powerful force of God, bringing about specific tasks, empowering individuals, and inspiring holiness as seen in the books of Moses, Judges and particularly Isaiah. 

From the very beginning the Holy Spirit represented God’s creative and sustaining presence, the very creator of life according to Psalm 104. The Old Testament prophets even spoke of the Holy Spirit’s role in the coming Messiah, as seen in Isaiah 42  – ‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him’; and again in Isaiah 11 – ‘A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him.’

The Holy Spirit also inspired holiness in believers, as mentioned in Psalm 143:10 – ‘Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path’. However, they also knew that while the Holy Spirit’s presence was obvious, it was not poured out on everybody during the Old Covenant, but rather limited to specific individuals and occasions. So perhaps the disciples were wondering which one of them might be chosen to receive its power.

And so they continued to pray.

Now I’m not going to spoil how their waiting ended; you’ll have to come back next week to find that out, but I wanted to think more about their choice of activity in that waiting time – prayer.

In fact our reading from Acts emphasised that prayer was still the go to occupation when you were waiting to be shown where God wanted you to be. We heard that Paul and Silas, who had started their missionary journey in Antioch, now found themselves in Philippi, and were on their way ‘to the place of prayer’ when they were waylaid by a female divinator, whose powers they curtailed, thus leading to much annoyance by the girl’s owners and accusations of unlawful sedition.

Unbowed by their punishment and ill-treatment, they spend the night ‘praying and singing hymns to God’, waiting to see what how he would rescue them from this situation. The response was an earthquake and voluntary self-incarceration which proved to be the spark for the Holy Spirit to come into play and convinced the jailer and his family to seek salvation and become believers in God.

Just like the Holy Spirit, salvation can be seen as a gift from God, not something earned through good works. Yes, it involves turning away from sinful behaviour and acknowledging the need for God’s forgiveness, but it also signifies a new spiritual life and relationship with God.

It also provides hope for the future as believers are promised eternal life in heaven, wherever that is as Vicky told us on Thursday, but we know its a place of peace and joy where God dwells with his people. 

This is the prayer that Jesus was praying in our Gospel this morning. A prayer that included a request, ‘Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory’, in order that we will all be united, ‘I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.’ A prayer that shows that we will become an intrinsic part of the Trinity when the Holy Spirit resides within us.

An incredibly powerful prayer for us to look forward to being answered in time. But we are still here and we are still in that waiting room.

And this period of waiting provides a valuable lesson for those of us who believe. It highlights the importance of prayer when we are encouraged to engage in persistent and heartfelt prayer, seeking God’s guidance, strength, and power. And just as the disciples were anticipating the arrival of the Holy Spirit, we too can anticipate God’s presence and power in our lives, learning to trust God’s plan for our lives, so we can demonstrate our reliance on God’s power, rather than our own abilities. 

In this waiting time we should pray for God’s will to be done in our lives and in the world. ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven… Amen

Keeping Faith

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Sermon preached on Sunday 23rd February 2025 based on Luke 8:22-25

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit

I wasn’t expecting to end up in A & E on Tuesday, I certainly hadn’t planned to be, and I didn’t know it was going to last a whole twelve hours. The day has been going so smoothly, car in the garage having new tyres fitted – tick. A pleasant visit exploring the many delights of the garden centre, including a delicious lunch in the company of two granddaughters – on their best behaviour – tick. Excited chatter in the kitchen as baking with granddad got underway and flour and eggs were beaten and cracked – tick. Just the dog to take for a walk, to get some chocolate buttons requested for decoration requested…

The thing about tripping over your own feet is that it is totally unexpected. One moment admiring the spring flowers in the gardens, the next lying prone on the pavement, having connected head with said surface with an almighty whack. Two passing motorists stopped to come to my aid, and an informal paramedic examination by my son-in-law advised me that it really was necessary to go to A&E and that I couldn’t just stick a plaster on it and carry on.

I have the say that the first three hours were somewhat unremarkable after the initial flurry of information exchanged with the admissions team as I watched a lot of people coming and not going, some in obvious pain and suffering, others beyond pretending it was all going to be fine because their bodies showed clearly their illness, and others more stoic, but nonetheless anxious because of the unknown.

At this stage I very tentatively asked the million-dollar question – and was told very politely, ‘how long is a piece of string’ and that I hadn’t been forgotten, I was moving up the list and patients were being seen in order of need. Everybody in that waiting room was in the middle of a storm, which for many had blown up out of nowhere. They were frightened and lost because there was no clear sense of when or how they would be able return to normality. A fear of not being in control to make their own decisions.

Which is exactly how the disciples were feeling. They had been with Jesus for only a short time but had already seen things that confirmed their belief in Jesus, but which were also beyond their natural comprehension, the raising of the widow’s son and healing through faith alone. One can imagine that sitting listening to Jesus preaching a series of parables from a little fishing boat, pushed out a few feet from the shore was thought provoking and challenging, as well as the crowds that were beginning to gather in their thousands to hear what he had to say on that shoreline in Galilee.

However, according to Mark’s gospel, the day is drawing to its close and Jesus wants to get to the other side of the lake, as the Sea of Galilee was also known. Saying farewell to the multitude of people, they push away from the shore to head out into the deeper water. Nothing about this is usual, this shoreline and particular body of water is home to several of the disciples; they know this lake like the back of their hand. Even sailing into the sunset would not have been unusual, as they were used to fishing through the night.

It had obviously been a long day for everyone, and so it was hardly surprising that ‘while they were sailing, he fell asleep’. Jesus is exhausted. There is no doubt that he is entirely divine and yet he is at the same time entirely human. He gets hungry and thirsty, and he suffers pain and weariness and the need for sleep. He was worn out and asleep.

However, Luke’s account is about to give us one of the most interesting displays of Jesus’ two natures: human and divine. His physical weariness as a man, and as we shall see, his divine influence over nature.

Suddenly, a gale swept down the lake. Again, nothing that may be considered unnatural. Every time a fisherman got into a boat on the Sea of Galilee, they knew the risk. This lake is nearly 700 feet below sea level, surrounded by mountains. Deep ravines coming down the mountains act like funnels for the wind, picking up incredible speed. And that cold air rushing downwards collides with the warm air on the lake and creates hurricane conditions and 20-foot waves without warning.

The boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. The boat they were in was no modern-day fishing trawler, it would have been no more than an oversized rowing boat, and in the midst of this storm, Jesus is sleeping. What to do then?

Our first question might be, how can he still be asleep, does he not know what is happening, what we are going through. I wonder if sometimes we think this when we’re in the middle of our own storm, although we might not say it out loud. Because surely, he knows everything. Maybe he does know, but he doesn’t care. One wonders why the disciples didn’t try and wake Jesus up at least ten minutes earlier, when the storm was developing, why wait till the boat was swamped? Again, many of them were fishermen, and here was a carpenter. They had seen this before and had lived through storms – just keep bailing water James and John, we can handle this!

It would be easy to criticise the disciples for failing to simply put their faith and trust in Jesus, but I wonder what our faith and trust is doing in unexpected, difficult, dangerous, painful, confusing, life-threatening situations?

Finally, in desperation, they wake him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. The 20-foot wave heading their way, which sees them crouching down, arms covering their heads, never reaches them, instead the sea is like glass; everything is immediately still. I bet none of us has ever splashed or stirred water to find it completely motionless when we stop, but then which of US has a divine influence over nature.

He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’. He isn’t saying ‘you have no faith’ but asking them, ‘Where did your faith go?’. Because the problem when we face unexpected tests in our life, it isn’t that Jesus isn’t there for us, it’s that our trust in Jesus goes missing. Again, the problem isn’t that Jesus stops looking after us, the problem is we stop looking to him.

In this and other similar situations, Jesus demonstrates his power and divinity, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

But at the heart of everything is his love and care for each of us. Certainly, Jesus may not eliminate every storm, but he guarantees his presence in every storm. He might not calm the waves and the wind, but he is able to bring a calm to our troubled hearts. So that we too can be still and know that he is God.

Back to that waiting room, then, and please don’t think that this is in any way a complaint about the service that I received. The NHS is a megalithic machine but the cogs that keep the wheels turning couldn’t be praised more. From the nurse who walked an elderly gentleman to a nearby bus stop to make sure he could get home, to the young mum reassured that her young child was not causing a disturbance because she had had to bring her with her as she accompanied her own mother; to the cup of tea offered, unrequested just at the right moment when refreshment was needed. At each and every turn there was kindness and compassion, reassurance and a genuine desire to bring calm to troubled waters. It certainly restored my faith in the system.

Original artwork by Bernard Allen, The Calming of the Storm

Spiritual Gifts

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Sermon preached on 19th January 2025 based on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and John 2:1-11

Receiving a gift can be very exciting. Maybe we only have to look back a few weeks to Christmas Day, or a Christmas Day from your childhood, and waking up to find all those presents under the tree. Wondering which ones might be yours.

When you opened them though, I wonder what your reaction was. The best ones drew amazement, that you’d received the very thing you’d wished for and had been thinking about since at least September!

Or maybe you were surprised and unsure about what the gift actually was or did, so you need time to think about it?

Or even opening it and immediately setting it aside, perhaps it would do as a donation for a raffle prize, or to a charity shop, but importantly to remember to say thank you to the person who gave it to you.

Now what if we were to do the same with the gifts that we receive from God through the Holy Spirit? Putting them to use straight away, setting them aside through fear and uncertainty or rejecting them all together.

Our passage today from Corinthians talks about us being pagans, people without God, easily led astray by worthless enticements and trickery. Like the magicians in the court of Pharoah we might have viewed our gospel reading concerning the turning of water into wine as a magic trick.

Until we realise that despite his reluctance to begin his ministry with a somewhat unusual miracle, Jesus was indeed ready to show us what gifts he possessed… and which his mother already knew about!

Perhaps also, the disciples, who had only just recently thrown everything over to follow this man were reassured that God was indeed with Jesus and that the Holy Spirit was a living gift to enable these things to happen and to reveal his glory in order to strengthen their belief in him.

What about ourselves then? Well, we know that God has known us since before we were in the womb, knitting us together to become the people we are. So, he would be very aware of the strength of our characters, and the abilities we have, even if we’re not quite aware of them always. He would know the inherent skills we display and the skills that lie in our sub-conscious, waiting to be activated.

Did you notice though that there is one gift of the Spirit that is given to everyone – the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. This underpins the Christian faith and is the thing that unites not only Christians with a desire to serve others, and to insist on the dignity of every individual, but also can be found in many other faiths and religions around the world. Perhaps showing God’s ultimate sovereignty because he has ultimately activated them in everyone.

Then we come to individual gifts, those wise men and women among us who know how to act for the best and guide us to do good. A gift subtly different from having great knowledge as viewers of University Challenge and Only Connect will verify.

Those people who encourage us in our faith and our own sense of belief, whether we are able to work miracles or to speak out about choices being made on our behalf? The skills to communicate and teach or to solve problems that will benefit everyone.

And within each of these gifts there are subtleties – the gift of the surgeon’s skill to save lives, equally as valuable as the hand held in the act of friendship and love that can comfort and offer healing.

All of these are produced through the gift of the Spirit and may be given to us as and when they are needed in our lives.

So how do we respond? It is with great joy and excitement and an inner confidence that this is who we are meant to be. Or with uncertainty, unsure how to use the gift that you’ve been presented with something that you don’t believe you have the skills or capacity to be able to deal with. Or even that you dismiss the gift, certain that it’s not meant for you because you already know what’s what?

 What it all boils down to is ‘do you believe this?’ Is God through the Holy Spirit able to discern for us the paths we should take through life and equip us with the necessary skills to do so?

This very question is being asked in this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The exact question that Jesus asked Martha before bring Lazarus out of the tomb alive again. ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

Or our signature doubter, Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe”. Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Recognising our common belief and the fact that God, though the Holy Spirit has given each and every person a gift that can be used to bring us together, is a challenge as well as an invitation to deepen connection and belonging and to live faithfully as disciples of Christ.

Perhaps then as we shortly share our common belief in the words of the Creed, we will remember that it comes from the Latin word credo, meaning ‘I believe and trust’.

And try to remember, as St. Jerome once said, ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’. Amen

Who Is My Mother, Who Is My Brother…?

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Sermon preached on Sunday 9th June 2024 – Trinity 2 – based on Mark 3:20 to end.

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Who is my mother? Well, if I was being asked to complete an official form to aid my family history I think I could answer that one correctly; Peggy Missin, born 12th September 1932 in Clenchwarton, Norfolk, died 8th February 2018. Who is my brother? Well, again that’s quite easy – no one, I was an only child.

Of course this wasn’t the answer that Jesus was looking for in today’s gospel. Indeed it wasn’t even the question, which was – Who are my mother and my brothers?

We are only three chapters into Mark’s gospel, which unlike Matthew, doesn’t start with a sixteen verse genealogical list of Jesus’ lineage. No, Mark starts simply with the lead up to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

From the other gospel’s we can piece together some ‘facts’ about Jesus’ early life. According to Luke, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he was presented in the Temple as a baby and recognised by Simeon as the Messiah, but soon afterwards was taken into Egypt as a refugee from the genocide ordered by King Herod. When this danger had passed he returned with his family, not to Bethlehem, but his familial home town of Nazareth, about ninety miles to the north, where he grew up without much incident that we know of, apart from his theological debating skills at the age of twelve with the elders in Jerusalem on a Passover visit.

In Jesus’ day, Nazareth had a population of about a hundred and fifty, most of whom were interrelated. The Nazarites, were a small sect of Jews who believed they were the shoot – the “Netzer” – from the stump of Jesse, from whom according to Isaiah, the promised Messiah would come.  However, the negative references to Nazareth in the Gospel of John suggest that ancient Jews did not connect the town’s name to prophecy. They followed the teachings of Rabbi Shammai and were strictly orthodox and ultra-conservative.  They had as little to do with the outside world as possible, much like Hasidic Jews today.

Some thirty years later and further south, in the wilderness of Judea, a relative of Jesus appeared, namely John, who was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, with a view that the arrival of the Messiah was imminent, a prophecy fulfilled when Jesus presented himself for John’s baptism.

After John the Baptist was taken into custody by the authorities and imprisoned, Jesus now steps forward and announces his ministry, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

His speech in the synagogue at Nazareth creates an uproar.  ‘“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

He then goes on to prophecy about God’s judgment upon Israel.  It was not what the elders wanted to hear.  They dragged him out of the synagogue, took him out to the edge of town and were prepared to stone him to death. But for some reason, they stopped short.  Jesus walked away and never looked back.  He left his home and his family and moved to the nearby city of Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Things were different there. The synagogue was more open to his teaching, ‘They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.’

He won the loyalty of four local fishermen – Peter, Andrew, James and John; the local tax collector, Levi or Matthew; as well as seven more disciples and any number of followers.  As important as his teaching, he also had the power to heal the sick and perform all sorts of miracles.  People flocked to Capernaum to hear him teach and receive his healing touch.

But with rising popularity came criticism.  His teaching was unlike anything they’d ever heard before.  He broke the laws of ritual cleanliness, he violated the Sabbath, he spoke openly of a kingdom not of this world, he communicated directly and intimately with God.

His behaviour and his speech was so radical that they looked to label it as anti-social linking it to perceived mental health issues. He wasn’t conforming to the status quo. In a word, he didn’t fit the mode.  When it became clear that he had no intention of conforming to the expectations of the religious leaders, they began to say, ‘He is insane’

Apart from clinical diagnosis, people’s perception of mental health draws a thin line between sanity and insanity, and when it appeared, even to his friends, that he’d gone over the edge, they sent word to Nazareth for his family to come at once. So, it fell to his mother and his brothers to come to Capernaum and take him home.

When they got there, they found Jesus teaching in a home.  The place was packed.  People were standing in the doorway and spilling out into the courtyard straining to hear him.  Mary and her sons couldn’t get in, so they sent word, “Tell the teacher that his mother and brothers are outside.”  But when Jesus got the message, he said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 

And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

When Mary and the others were told what he’d said, what were they to do. On the surface it seems like a harsh thing to say. Was Jesus now rejecting his family altogether? The fact is, he wasn’t saying, ‘these people are not my mother and brothers, he wasn’t denying the relationship he had with his biological family; he merely expanded the conception of the family circle to include any number of others.  He pointed to a spiritual, rather than a physical, kinship as the basis for life in the kingdom of God. 

The Spirit of God unites us as family in a bond of love able to withstand the storms of life and last throughout all eternity.  It transcends the boundaries of age, race, nationality and gender.  It encompasses people from every station and walk of life.

Whilst we are children of our parents, we are also children of God, and, as we grow in our relationship to God, we’re called to seek God’s will for our lives and follow the leading of God’s Spirit, even when it means overriding the connections to our families.

It can be hard to break away from the authority of our parents, just as it’s hard, as parents, to cut the apron strings with our children. However, Jesus clearly defined the boundaries of parenthood when he asked the question, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  There could be no mistake about it, his relationship to God came first and foremost, and so must ours.

The Good News is that Jesus’ relationship with his family did not end here; it moved to a new level.  Mary became one of Jesus’ most devout followers.  She stayed by his side, if at a distance, to the very foot of the Cross.  And his brother, James, while hardly mentioned in the gospels, shows up in the Book of Acts as the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ Take a look around you, we so often talk about our church family. These people who are sitting around you are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Just like in every extended family, we may not know them that well, we may move in different social circles, we may hold different views and opinions and not agree with them all the time; but we are bound together in our love of God and Jesus’ command to love one another.

And the family ties don’t stop here in this building. Our fellow Christians are in the next town, the next city, in fact our family extends right around the world, wherever God’s name is proclaimed and honoured.

And the best thing we can do for this family is to grow it. I paid a visit to The Vyne, yesterday with my family. This beautiful house and estate was passed to the National Trust because the family lineage ran out with no more heirs to pass it on to. We can’t let this happen to our Christian family.

This afternoon I will baptise two young children, who are beginning their journey of faith, they will receive the sign of the cross on their foreheads, with the words, ‘Christ claims you for his own’ and an exhortation to ‘not be ashamed of Christ. You are his forever’

Today, two more young people being added to the family. What will you do to extend our family further…?

The Spirit of the Lord is on you, because he has anointed you to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent you to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

Amen.

In-Dwelling of the Trinity

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Worship The Holy Spirit by Lance Brown

Talk given on Easter 5 based on John 14:1-14

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me’.

We are being taken back to the Last Supper with Jesus still very much alive in the flesh. He has washed his disciples’ feet, foretold his betrayal and revealed it to be Judas Iscariot now in the thralls of Satan, given the remaining disciples a new commandment to love one another and foretold Peter’s denial of ever knowing him, but with a hint that eventually all will be well.

No wonder their hearts are troubled, events are moving so quickly and their emotions are about to be tested to the limit…and they don’t have the gift of hindsight. However, we do.

He tells them that he is going on ahead of them to prepare a place for them all be together again, and that they already know this place. This can be one of the most comforting and hope filled passages that is regularly used in funeral services.

Even so, I’ve often been puzzled, imagining what sort of place it would be. ‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places’. The original Greek word μοναί (monai) in the Kings James Bible was translated as mansion meaning dwelling place, from mansio, not as in modern usage a manor-house or palace. But μοναί literally means places to stay, to abide, to dwell, i.e. the rooms within a house.

But do our minds conjure up those pale pink sun-soaked Moorish Mediterranean palaces or the stark white of the infinite Matrix rooms? Or perhaps a replica of our favourite cosy living rooms? Perhaps we’re being too earthbound in our imaginations.

The fact is, unlike the disciples at that point, we do know the way to go; through Jesus himself, ‘ the way, the truth and the life.’ But are we like Thomas and Philip, still in the dark about what is happening? I would say we are – to a greater extent – unsure as to what the literal and physical outcome will actually turn out to be and I can live with that. It’s more about what it means for us here and now.

In fact it might not just be about a physical dwelling but an in-dwelling. Jesus will soon be ascending back to the Father and as yet unknown to the disciples, Pentecost looms, when each will be filled with the Holy Spirit and also those who believe in Jesus.

Immediately after our passage today, Jesus reveals that the Father will send the Holy Spirit ‘in my name’, who will be known to you because he abides in you (another form of the verb meno – to dwell or remain in) and suddenly the close interpersonal relationship of the Holy Trinity suddenly becomes a little clearer.

I say clearer, but as always for John it does become highly metaphorical and he uses the verb meno in many of its forms to mean a spiritual abiding. Perhaps we can think of it like this – if something or someone abides in someone, then that person is motivated by what abides in them and are dependent upon it or them. God the Father is spirit and invisible, yet he has shown himself in various ways, his most authentic presence of himself being in Jesus. ‘If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

We also know that Jesus is his own human person, the son of God; and he is on the same page as the Father in all things, having the same nature of love and outgoing concern, not inward focused and prideful, and he has his own will.

However, all of Jesus’ provisions and needs are from the Father. ‘The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works’. But as John revealed at the very opening of his gospel, Jesus IS the very WORD, the intent, the purpose, the reason, the wisdom of God in the form of flesh.

Providing His spirit at Jesus’ baptism, filling him with this essential connection with the Father, gave Jesus the words, the attitude, the wisdom, the miracles and through consistent prayer, the will to accomplish his mission to get to the cross.

 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father’ and ‘If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it’. This is Jesus offering us exactly the same encouragement, support and ability through the provision of the Holy Spirit, as we try to continue his works here on earth.

All comes from God for us, just as it did for Jesus. Jesus had the Father dwelling in him – just as he and God dwell in us through God’s Spirit. We simply have to choose to accept his presence in us and allow our nature to be aligned with His.

Then and only then will we know the way to go

Amen

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What’s In A Name?

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Sermon preached at St Peter’s, Boyatt Wood on New Year’s Day 2023 based on readings Luke 2:15-21 and Psalm 8

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Names are important to us, at least I’m very attached to mine. It allows me to be identified through my passport and bank account. It put me in my place on the school register and other lists, and it gives me a place within my family history… It’s also useful for people to grab my attention.

As parents we might have agonised for months what our unborn child should be called. Maybe we had a family name in mind, or we read baby name books to try and find something a little unusual and more unique, or perhaps we checked what the initials might spell, after all would it be easy to go through life as Graham Oliver Downes?

If you had been born a boy in Tudor times you would probably have received one of only seven names, John, Thomas, William, Robert, Richard, Henry or Edward, and been the same as every other Tom, Dick or Harry.

However, our parents today did not have any of these problems, because the name of their son had already been decided for them. He was to be called Jesus. His name had been decided before Mary had even known she would become pregnant and was told to her by the angel Gabriel, ‘And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus’ (Luke 1:31).

Joseph, too, was informed in a dream, ‘do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:20-21). And he did just that, from Matthew’s gospel we hear that, ‘he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus’ (Matthew 1:25).

It is only in Luke though that we hear that Jesus undergoes the Jewish ritual of circumcision, at 8 days old, and receives the name ‘given by the angel’.

Actually, the name Jesus was quite popular in first-century Judea. For this reason, we often hear him being distinguished by his childhood home, when he is ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ His neighbours would have simply known him as the son of Joseph the carpenter, but his name was important for other reasons.

The name Jesus, announced to Joseph and Mary through the angels, means ‘God (or Yahweh in Hebrew) saves’ or ‘Yahweh is salvation.’ Transliterated his name is Yeshua, a combination of Ya, an abbreviation for Yahweh, and the verb yasha, meaning to rescue, deliver or save. Now we can see it’s significance when applied to the person of God who has become our Saviour.

Jesus was sent by God for that particular purpose, to save us, and his personal name bears witness to that mission. In Acts we hear Peter, emboldened by the Holy Spirit declare, ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). Mortals, whom we hear in this morning’s Psalm, God is mindful of, having ‘made them a little lower than’ himself. Yet who will be saved?

The call of salvation goes out into all the world, and all who come to God through Christ become part of the people of God. They are to be saved from their sins through the power of the Holy Spirit, and when I say ‘they’, I include all of us here today. This is truly the good news of Christmas. The baby born on Christmas Eve is the Son of God who came to save his people from their sins.

If ever a name was packed with significance, it is the name Jesus. It is the name that establishes the tone for everything we should do, ‘in word or deed’ as Christians. We are called to proclaim that salvation is in the name of Jesus alone, that we receive forgiveness through his name and that at our baptism we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Healing and miracles were performed in the name of Jesus, and he teaches us to pray in his name, so that as John’s gospel tells us, ‘I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it’ (John 14:13-14).

In every way, Jesus lives up to His name. His name reminds us of the power, presence, and purpose of the risen Christ. It assures us that God’s gracious intention is to save us. Our Lord Jesus brought God to humanity and now brings humans to God through the salvation he purchased.

But what of our names? It is easy to overlook the extraordinary nature of Luke’s statement that Jesus’ name was told to Mary pre-conception, implying God’s pre-knowledge of Jesus and the role he would assume. Of course, we can read the Old Testament prophecies about a Saviour, and accept that, as one of the Persons of the Trinity, Jesus would have been ‘known’ before he began his life as one of us.

The fact is that we too have always been known and ‘named’ before we were conceived. If we read verses from Psalm 139, about an all-knowing God, For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb… My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

God knows all of us by name. We are not just numbers. We are persons with names and each of us have a different life story. There are millions of us, yet God knows each of us personally. We should never forget that. God does not treat us impersonally either. He knows our history. He knows our struggles. He knows our personalities. He knows us inside out. Yet he loves us without hesitation. We don’t need to fake anything in order to be good enough for God. We can come as we are and know that God receives us with great joy. God knows us by name.

I can think of no better way to start a New Year than with a fresh realization that we are wholly and deeply known to a loving God, and that, whatever our individual ‘name’ may be, our own unique and distinctive calling which we are continually discovering, if we are Christians, is to walk under the banner of the name of Jesus Christ.

 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Amen

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Life In The Middle

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Sermon preached on Sunday 15th May 2022 at the beginning of Christian Aid Week based on the readings, Acts 11: 1-18, John 13:31-35 and Revelation 21:1-6

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Today marks the beginning of Christian Aid Week and later some of us will enjoy a meal designed to raise funds for the work that the charity carries out around the world. Their recently retired CEO, Amanda Khosi Mukwashi, whom some of us will recognise from our Lent Course1, has spoken about the work of Christian Aid being based on three pillars, poverty, prayer and prophetic voice.

As she has said, ‘extreme poverty robs people of their dignity and denies them their rights. It renders them powerless and unrepresented, and vulnerable to abuse.’

The charity works with the poorest of the poor in some of the hardest to reach places in the world. When natural disasters strikes they are almost always one of the first aid agencies to be on hand to assist and give relief. However, what they would rather see is the world free from poverty and need. Hence their slogan ‘Life before death.’

Those three pillars, poverty, prayer and prophetic voice are reflected in our three readings this morning, and I say three readings because although we haven’t heard one because of the necessity of hearing Acts as well as a Gospel reading; the missing one from Revelation is quite possibly one of the most beautiful and hope filled passages in the bible, which is why it is so often chosen as a funeral reading.

Paraphrased from Revelation 21:1-6 ‘Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away … And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them… ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away… I am making everything new!”

Here is life after death, a promise for all those who believe, brought about by the death and resurrection of Christ. But until that unknown future time, we are called to do all we can to make this current world a place where people have the opportunity of life before death.

34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.’ John 13:34-35

Jesus tells his disciples that ‘where I am going you cannot come,’ which isn’t a final negative but a ‘not yet.’ Instead, he gives them a new command and direction that they are to use the love he has shown them to be reflected in what they do and say amongst themselves and towards others, so that through love others might be relieved of things that cause pain and sorrow; including the crushing pain caused by poverty.

We have so much that we take for granted in the developed, capitalist and also to a considerable extent communist, industrialised countries of this world, and democracies that give us what we see as inalienable rights. However, we should not forget that despite differing political systems or geographical climate, every person on this earth is deserving of a life to be lived in dignity and safety. If we are to be true disciples then we need to find ways to bring Christ’s love to all those in need wherever they are.

Sometimes, the only way we can show our support for others is through prayer. Prayer doesn’t make us lazy or inactive; prayer can be the most powerful weapon we have to change lives. Prayer connects us with God and can be an insight into what he is doing and calling us to do.

It also gives us an opportunity to hear his prophetic voice. For Peter, his experience literally changed the course of the early Christian movement. Now longer was this to be a Jewish Christian sect but was to be a way of life that was available to all people. God’s chosen people had actually been chosen to witness at first hand the power that could change people’s lives.

For Peter, the prophetic vision and subsequent meetings with the gentiles confirmed that God was the God of all peoples. It turned Peter’s world upside down, set aside life-long rituals and blessed him with the understanding that he was, ‘not to make a distinction between them and us.’

The giving of the Holy Spirit, in the same way as the disciple had received it, displayed the true nature of God, that love was the most powerful gift that could bring life to all.

Love can help us move mountains. It can make us generous with our wealth, our gifts, and our time. It can turn the world upside down so that everyone is given the opportunity to experience life in all its fullness before being called into what will become the glorious infinity of a new earth and heaven.

 Love will ultimately crush poverty; prayer will bring about change and God’s prophetic voice will be heard and seen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End’ for now though it’s what we do in the middle that’s important.

Let’s then make sure that how we choose to fill that time is by doing everything we can to bring about life before death for all.

Amen

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1The Lent Course in which Amanda Mukwashi featured in was Embracing Justice by Isobelle Hamley

The Elephant In The Room

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Ever wanted to know how to explain the Trinity? Well perhaps now you can stop trying so hard. Sermon preached on Trinity Sunday 2021 based on John 3:1-17 and Romans 8:12-17

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Before we turn our attention to our bible readings today, perhaps we ought to address the matter of the elephant in the room – that is the Trinity. Today is Trinity Sunday when traditionally an attempt is made by the preacher to ‘explain’ exactly what the Trinity is. It falls to my lot this year, but I wondered if we could take a different approach and actually try not to explain it.

By that I don’t mean dismiss it altogether for it is something that exists; but set aside the usual illustrations that somehow always fall short of the mark. For example, the idea that the Trinity is like water, which can be in a liquid, gas or solid state, but it’s still the same water. The problem with this is that is denies the three distinct Persons of the Trinity by claiming that God is one Person who appears in different ‘modes’ at different times. However, the three are not co-existing; H2O can only ever be one form at a time whereas for instance at the baptism of Christ, the Father, Son and Spirit are all distinctly present and interacting and only one of them is in the actual water!

To theologists this aquatic depiction of the Trinity is akin to the heresy of Modalism.

Similarly, we can discard many of the alternatives; the egg, with its yolk, shell and albumen where each part of the egg make up only a portion of the whole – the yolk alone is not the fullness of the egg, whereas each part of the Trinity is fully divine. Or perhaps the Sun, with itself, its light and its heat – again we’re verging towards the heresy of Arianism to claim that, because whereas light and heat are simply creations of the sun, we can not claim that the Son or the Spirit are mere creations of the Father.

And before you dash out to pick a clover leaf, just let it be…

Trying to explain the Trinity is rather like the Hindu fable of six blind men encountering an elephant, which John Godfrey Saxe translated into his poem The Blind Man and the Elephant where each man is brought into the presence of an elephant but can only feel one part and thus describe it variously as a wall, a spear, a snake, a tree, a fan and a rope – you will have to guess which parts they were touching. His concluding verse, however, can remind us God is someone whom we have to encounter as a whole.

So, oft in theologic wars the disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant not one of them has seen!

And yet we have seen and still see the Triune God all around us. We encounter the three persons of God when we visit a nature reserve and see the marks of careful husbandry; we encounter the three persons of God when we watch the skills of a surgeon in a real-life documentary, we encounter the three persons of God when we listen to the joyful sound of children’s laughter

At the moment I am on tenterhooks awaiting the birth of my first grandson, who will definitely be born of the flesh, and yet his arrival will reveal, as all new-born babies reveal, the Trinitarian presence of God, in creation, in love and in Spirit.

But what of Nicodemus, a devout Jew, a teacher of the Law; his mind was trained to obey God and to keep to the Law, yet his encounters with Jesus had led him to see a glimpse of God in the man Jesus, something had moved him to seek out a closer relationship and understanding that he was of God. Even so, he was trying to apply human logic and reasoning to something that clearly was beyond that.

Nicodemus was told he had to look beyond the physical and instead allow the spiritual to guide him. ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit’. And as St Paul suggests in his letter to the Romans, that instead of trying to elucidate God’s nature through the things that tie us to earthly conventions we must allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit as children of God. 

Perhaps we would be better to be content to admit that we cannot fully understand the Trinitarian nature of God, but rather to simply and faithfully accept that God exists eternally as one divine nature, substance, or essence, comprising three co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Instead to accept the truth that despite living in a perfect Triune relationship, which is completely self-sufficient and with no deficiency, he still chose to create and eventually redeem us at great cost to himself.  

If we bring to an end our attempts to cognitively master God and the fact that we cannot understand the full depth of the Trinity (and certainly not with any myriad of analogies from the limited realm of creation) it should bring us to the reality that we are finite creatures standing before a sovereign, transcendent divine mystery… or more appropriately, it should bring us to fall to our knees and humbly worship the One true God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Breathe Out… Breathe In

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Sermon preached for Easter 2 on Sunday 11th April 2021 based on readings Acts 4:32-35 and John 20:19-end

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Are you sitting comfortably…

Breathe in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe out.

I’ve recently started using an app on my phone which teaches basic meditation as a way of slowing down a little and making space for quietness from time to time.

Breathe in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe out.

The first thing it makes you do, apart from sitting comfortably is to focus on your breathing and suddenly you realise that you’re consciously thinking about something that you subconsciously have done all your life.

Breathe in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe out.

You find yourself with your hand on your diaphragm, trying to make sure that your stomach and abdominal muscles are fully engaged to make your lungs work more efficiently – and it’s then you begin to think that you’ve actually forgotten how to breathe…

Yet breathing is the thing that keeps us alive: it’s the reaction to the proverbial slap on the bottom by the midwife when we are born; it’s the air passing through our larynx to give us speech and laughter. It’s also the last thing we will do when we face the end of our mortal life. Breathing is a natural and necessary part of creation, but it is also a means by which God imparts his Spirit.

Throughout the bible we hear how the breath of God enlivens and invigorates. From the second account of creation in Genesis,

‘Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being’
Genesis 2:7

to the quickening of the dry bones and Ezekiel’s prophetic command to the four winds,

‘So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies.
They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army’
Ezekiel 37:10

However, in our gospel reading this morning we hear that the risen Christ comes and stands among his amazed and probably terrified disciples and breathes on them both as a soothing and galvanising action, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.

He then says something that seems a little disjointed in verse 23, ‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ However, there is a connection.

In Greek there are many different words for breathe, but two of them appear just four times in the gospels and all of them are an action of Jesus and all of them are connected to the Holy Spirit.

At the crucifixion scene, Mark tells us that Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last, and that the Centurion witnessed that in this way he breathed his last; whilst Luke tells us that it was after committing himself into this Father’s hands, that Jesus breathed his last. In all of these verses the Greek work for breathed is ekpnéo meaning to expire, to breathe out, to exhale.

However, Matthew’s account doesn’t mention breathing, he has Jesus crying out with a loud voice before yielding up his spirit, using the Greek word aphiēmi, for yield, which has a number of meanings but most commonly means to forgive. Luke also uses this word just before Jesus’ last breath when he tells us that Jesus says,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Luke 23:34

We could reasonably surmise that Luke and Matthew are connecting the breathing out of the Spirit with the forgiveness that Jesus gave. So, Jesus forgave us and breathed out the Holy Spirit on the cross.

But let’s go back to that locked room and the next time that breathed is mentioned in the gospels. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ However, breathed here is a different Greek word emphysáō , which means to breathe into, breathe on, or blow in and echoes the action of God in the story of creation. Jesus breathed out his Spirit on the cross. But here he is breathing out his Spirit onto the disciples, because he is sending them as the Father sent him, to bring life and peace to everyone by forgiveness of their sins.

This then is the purpose of the Holy Spirit, to provide life, to energise and to activate. Just like those disciples gathered together, they had now received the Spirit and were being transformed into a people who sought to live and work for the common good, who valued forgiveness as an essential grace and who through the Spirit gave their testimony with great power, no longer afraid and no longer doubting.

What then of Thomas? The absentee disciple, whose doubt would not be satisfied unless he had physical proof and who did not at this time receive the breath of the Spirit. For him the sense of touch activated his belief, but he too would go on to receive the Spirit at Pentecost.

What then do we need to believe? There’s a wonderful verse in the Book of Job,

But there is a spirit within people,
the breath of the Almighty within them,
that makes them intelligent
Job 32:8

This does not necessarily mean academic or clever, but more intuitive. Life is breathed into us at the moment of conception but there is an unconscious desire to understand what it means to be fully human.

When we encounter Jesus, whether through our baptism, a gradual awareness or a seismic moment of conversion it is then that the Spirit within us is activated and becomes a living breathing force that blesses us and sends us out to bless and bring life, peace and forgiveness to others.

Jesus breathed out his Spirit on the cross. But, after the resurrection, Jesus breathes his Spirit into us. So, it’s worth getting that breathing correct

Breathe in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe out           

Amen

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The Right Man In The Right Place At The Right Time

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San Juan Bautista, Alvise Vivarini, c1475

Sermon preached on the second Sunday of Advent 2020 based on the following readings 2 Peter 3:8-15a and Mark 1:1-8

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

We have a saying in our family, ‘Patience is a virtue, virtue is a Grace. Grace is a little girl who wouldn’t wash her face!’ It was often quoted when one or other of the children were eager to attain something sooner rather that wait. Of course, waiting when you’re very young can be a hard thing to do, especially if it’s something exciting that might be about to happen; but it’s no less hard waiting whatever your age.

In Peter’s letter he is faced with a congregation who are disillusioned and impatient by the non-appearance of Jesus coming in glory, definitely an event to be excited about. Even so, the ‘I want it now’s don’t get – they need to learn a little more grace. Instead he encourages them to live lives of holiness and godliness, to wait in ‘peace, without spot or blemish’. After all God’s time-relativity is different to ours. Except, there is still the need to be ready for the unknown moment of his return to the Earth.

But patience is not an attribute recognised by the writer of Mark’s gospel, as he takes us back to the beginning of the story. He starts off like a bullet train out of the station and to be honest never slows down or pause to take on water or fuel till the very end… an end that actually needed something added to it later!

His opening sentence is like a shout, a proclamation, a declaration of intent, ‘the beginning of the good news’. This is the gospel ‘of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon term god-spell, meaning ‘good story’. No starlit stable, no paternity angst, no migratory gift bearers, just straight into the reason that he was here on earth amongst us – to redeem us for all time.

Nevertheless, his first appearance is heralded by an unlikely character, a wild man of the desert, clad in camel’s hair and sustained by a diet of kosher protein and wild honey (locusts are mentioned in Leviticus as a ‘clean’ food). John the Baptist certainly dressed like Elijah and was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah to be ‘the messenger’ who was preparing the people of God for the long-awaited Messiah.

But why was this messenger so different from the many prophets that God had send before? What was it about this man that was attracting people to come out into the wilderness from the region of Judea and Jerusalem to be dipped in a river as a sign that were re-turning towards God – a baptism of repentance.

Well, it had been about 500 years since Malachi had stepped off the earthly stage, and since then no genuine prophetic voices had been heard.  Without a prophet, people in the land began to divide into parties and groups, each claiming the right to interpret the scriptures and lead the people.

So, the time was ripe for the long-awaited Messiah to appear, even so we could ask why this was the moment in time that God chose to do so? What we do know is that he came according to God’s time schedule, as Paul states in Galatians, ‘When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law’ (Galatians 4:4-5)

And if we were to try and put forward a reason why it was a perfect time for the spread of the gospel, we might assume that the Pax Romana, a time of peace in the Roman Empire, and great road and water transport systems, allowed for information to be passed quickly. In addition, Greek was a common language with allowed the Gospel to be communicated to a wide range of peoples, although language is no barrier to the Holy Spirit.

Today’s technological advances in global communications might suggest that now would have been a better time to reveal the Messiah, but would people be prepared to go and submit to a need for repentance from an eccentric looking, religious firebrand in the wilderness of our city suburbs? Yet alone recognise and accept Jesus?

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like one day.
2 Peter 3:8

God always communicates with us in ways we can understand and twenty first century humanity has sufficient reason to believe in Jesus. That he chose to come some two thousand years ago does not change the fact that he came and fulfilled everything that the Bible had predicted. Two thousand years ago, people were ready and able to understand just enough to get the message across; after all for the Lord, ‘a thousand years are like one day’ so it was God’s perfect time for him to come to us.

But it was not to be in the way that most people expected. He would not be a military leader. He would not crush the Romans and set up a Jewish state. The true Messiah would seem utterly defeated before he won.

Yet win he would, and John the Baptist knew this. Although his water of baptism would physically and metaphorically wash people clean from their sins, the power and glory of Jesus would lie in his ability to immerse, plunge or drench people in the Holy Spirit (from the Greek word baptizo).

For us, this drenching means that we are forgiven and brought back into a proper relationship with God; we are blessed with powerful gifts to prepare us for service and for building up the body of Christ, and we are given hope for the future, whatever that looks like and whenever it happens

As Peter says, ‘The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.’ We can’t hurry time, but this Advent we can repeat our heartfelt wish – Maranatha – come Lord Jesus. Come amongst us and be with us once again and we will welcome you

Amen

Maranatha written in the Southwick Codex

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