'Tis the prison to be merry.

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the third Sunday of Advent

Why does God hide Himself?

Have you ever wondered that?

Everyone would be a Christian

if they could see Him.

Wouldn't they?

But we can't see Him

and so we are 

left wondering.

Why does He hide Himself

from us,

His church?

[PAUSE]

St John Baptist

sits in prison.

It's deep, dark and cold,

but he can still get messages

to and from his disciples.

But he is out of the loop.

He remembers that man,

a cousin of his, 

in fact.

He remembers

baptising Him.

He remembers

the water,

the Spirit,

the voice from above.

And then silence.

Silence as He decreases

so that the Christ increases.

Thrown into prison

for telling the king

that he cannot steal 

his brother's wife.

There are rumours.

Oh yes there are rumours,

but this Jesus

is not revealing Himself

in the way that Israel expects.

He is not revesling Himself

in the way 

that St John expects.

Can it really be Him,

the one that is to come?

Or is it someone else?

So St John sends disciples

to find out.

[PAUSE]

They return with the message:

the blind receive sight

the lame walk,

lepers are cleansed,

the deaf hear,

the dead are raised

and the poor have 

the gospel preached to them

and blessed are they

who are not offended in Jesus.

At this St John rests assured.

God has not hidden Himself.

St John rests assured,

but do you rest assured?

Does this answer 

the question for you?

Why does God hide Himself?

[PAUSE]

The answer is 

that He doesn't

though not many

will be convinced at that.

We don't see God the Father.

Why not?

This is a bit 

tricky to understand.

How does Bugs Bunny

know the width of the film

that he is recorded on?

How does Desperate Dan

know the colour of the paper

he is printed on?

How does the algae

that spends its life

on the pond surface

know how deep the water is?

We cannot see God

with our created eyes.

It's not possible.

To do so,

we need to step outside

existence itself

to see Him.

But God wants to be known.

So what does He do?

He becomes like us.

God reveals Himself

not in the way that we think.

Never in the way 

that we think.

Our preconceived ideas

about what constitutes

the Messiah

are always transformed

by how He has

always revealed Himself.

St John's preconceived ideas

are challenged

but presented

with what he knows

in his heart of hearts.

As soon as he hears,

he knows it to be true.

Jesus isn't hiding Himself.

He is making God visible.

Anyone who sees Our Lord

sees the Father and the Holy Ghost.

But why does He hide Himself now?

[PAUSE]

For us here, 

we know that He doesn't

hide Himself.

We shall see Him

not with these eyes

but with the eyes of faith

when we see Him 

in the Blessed Sacrament.

When the priest elevates the host,

we are staring

for a brief moment

at the Centre of the Universe

at Our Creator

and Redeemer.

A consecrated wafer

is God's promise

to one

who cannot have the eyes

to see Him

in His glory.

And,

when we are raised,

we will have eyes to see Him

as He is.

But what about the others?

Why is God hidden from them?

Well, all they have to do,

if they really, really  want to see 

that God is not hiding from them.

is look in the manger

on Christmas Day.

An Anglican Catholic legalises Advent

 

What is the relationship between the Law and Advent

Turning the last page

Sermon for the second Sunday in Advent

Why do we want 

to know the future?

To be fair,

some of us don't.

Some of us are terrified 

of the future.

It seems that we have

a love-hate relationship

with the things that are to cone.

For many, 

the future stands before them

like the black hooded figure

in A Christmas Carol

ready to point out their grave.

But, think now.

What do you see the future

looking like?

[PAUSE]

There are lots of 

doom mongers out there.

Some use horoscopes

or pendulums

or will even claim

to talk with spirits

about the future.

Some will use science

and scientific data

to predict what will happen.

Some will even use the Bible

or the apparitions of saints

to discern the future.

But why?

We already know

what's on the last page.

[PAUSE]

Turn to the last chapter

of the Book of Revelation

and you see exactly

what Our Lord is telling us.

There will be disruption:

disruption to countries

disruption to the Earth

disruption to the Heavens

disruption even in Heaven itself.

Things will be turned on their heads

and then Christ comes.

That scares us.

We don't like disruption.

We like things to follow a pattern,

even if we are a bit ofba daredevil.

We might love a bit

of drama and chaos

but ww still have

an expectation

that things behave consistently.

We might like the adrenaline rush

but the thought of the Moon

crashing into our planet

would still be a concern.

Even we Christians

who know what it says

on the last page

are frightened of the future.

Why?

[PAUSE]

There are two reasons

at least.

First,

there might be the possibility

that we're wrong

and that the last page of the Bible

won't happen.

This requires faith.

Based on what we know of gravity,

if we throw a ball.into the air

in normal circumstsnces

we have good reason

to believe that it will 

fall back down.

This is faith in the law of gravity.

Based on what we know of God

and how He loves us

and how He wants every human

alive yesterday, today and tomorrow

to be saved,

we can have faith that the last page is true.

Second,

we might be afraid of the future

because

even though God loves us

Christians have gone through

and still go through

the most awful tribulation

to get to the last page

and He doesn't take away

the possibility of

extreme suffering from us.

Yes, this is disturbing.

But this is still an issue of Faith.

Our Lord chooses the death on the cross.

He specifically chooses it.

Even if He has to be executed

He chooses crucifixion,

slow and agonising,

rather than something quick

He does not have to choose it

but He chooses extreme suffering

so that our extreme suffering.

would end in Heaven.

This is our faith.

[PAUSE]

While the future 

may look scary

the back page is still true.

Of course,

people will say

that Our Lord's generation

has come and gone

and He has not returned

We can see why.

Our children and our children's children

still need to know the love of God

even if they have not yet been born.

They are still the generation

of the Apostles.

We are still the generation

of the Apostles

because,

while people are still being baptised

they are still being regenerated

into the Family of the Church

and of the Body of Christ.

The Church has not passed away.

And that's because Our Lord's worda

will not pass away.

[PAUSE]

We do not need to see the future

because we already know what it is.

We still have the Holy Spirit.

The Church is still the Bride of Christ.

The Spirit and the Bride

say, "come!"

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

An Anglican Catholic falls into Advent

 

Why St Andrew opens the door to our failure and to our salvation.

Chucking out time in the temple.

Sermon for the first Sunday in Advent, preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

As the Lord rides

into the temple of your heart,

what will he find there 

to cast out?

Well, there's a nasty question

to be asked on a Sunday morning!

You want nice easy questions

to start the day off

such as

"Isn't it a lovely day?"

or

"don't the flowers look nice?"

or even

"how are you?"

But no,

as soon as you get into Advent

the voice from the pulpit asks,

"As the Lord rides

into the temple of your heart,

what will he find there 

to cast out?"

[PAUSE]

The trouble is

this is what happens

when you open the door

to Our Lord and let Him in.

Look at the chaos He causes!

They let Him into Jerusalem

and He comes in

sitting on a donkey

to shouts of "Hosanna!",

the crowd cheering

and waving palm branches.

And straightaway,

He's off His donkey

and throwing the moneychangers

and the dove sellers

out of the temple!

It's mayhem.

It sounds like Jesus

is not someone

you invite round

to dinner.

[PAUSE]

But people do invite Jesus

round for dinner.

We see this again and again.

And every time we see it,

He's causing some mischief.

And this is the Jesus

that we want to invite 

into our lives!

So it looks like the question

is important:

as the Lord rides

into the temple of your heart,

what will he find there 

to cast out?

[PAUSE]

It may seem impolite

for a guest in your house

to come in and 

immediately start

to throw out your throws,

chuck out your chintz

and shove out your sofa,

but we must remember

that Our Lord has one thing in mind

- our salvation.

Advent marks His desire

to come here at all

and save us all from Satan's power

when we have gone astray.

It's urgent.

Really urgent!

He wants us to be saved

and can't bear the thought of us

being away from God,

and suffering because

we are away from Him.

So straightaway,

He gets to work.

In the same way,

when a parent barges into a room

to deal with a child that has

hurt herself,

forgetting politeness

and courtesy,

Our Lord has the same ferocity

against anything

that is hurting us.

It's that immediate.

It's that intense.

[PAUSE]

This is why we're here.

We actually want Jesus

to come to dinner,

to be part of our lives,

to be our king.

And while we fling wide the gates,

and shout, "Hosanna!"

the question becomes

all the more important:

as the Lord rides

into the temple of your heart,

what will he find there 

to cast out?

This is why Advent

is a penitential season.

It is a time to look

at our lives

and see what we need to throw out

so that it comes as no surprise 

when He comes in

and throws out

all our pride and vanity,

all our wrath and cruelty,

all our lust, greed and desire to control,

all our laziness and envy

even if they don't look so bad

or if everyone else does them.

We have to let Him in

and we have to let Him

throw things out.

We don't need them,

not if He's king of our hearts

[PAUSE]

While this may make us

uncomfortable,

this is such

a refreshing thing!

If we let Him throw things out,

He will make a place

in our hearts in which He can live.

The worst thing we can do

is to bring back in

that which He throws out.

Oh, He will keep throwing it out

but if we will keep bringing it back

then at some point

He will stop and wait

until we are ready to let it go

but if we keep bringing back

something that Our Lord 

throws out,

then maybe

we love it more than

we love Him.

Or maybe the habit to sin 

is so strong

that we realise how weak we are

and must ask Him

to strengthen us

to let Him throw out

what He must.

God wants us 

to have a clear space 

in our hearts for Him

- not for His ego,

but for our good

for what is better

than having hearts

full of goodness and joy

and love and peace?

[PAUSE]

Advent is a penitential season.

We must take it seriously.

But not joylessly.

Indeed, to assist Our Lord

in His preparation

of our heart

so that he can live in it

will help us better

enjoy the truth of Christmas

with all its colour and song.

As the Lord rides

into the temple of your heart,

what will he find there 

to cast out?

Will you be happy 

if He does?

An Anglican Catholic and the Co-Mediatrix

 

What do words mean?

Takeawsy pop-up toast?

Sermon for the Sunday next before Advent

What do you think it looked like?

Did our Lord reach 

into a basket and 

pull out more bread?

Did it just appear in His hand?

Or did it just pop up

from who knows where

like slices of toast

on the mountainside?

Does Our Lord

have a toaster 

about His person

powered by divine energy?

It must have been something.

Yet nobody notices how,

because,

as usual,

Jesus doesn't make

a show of it.

He just gives the bread

to His disciples

and they go around 

distributing it.

So we miss 

how this bread appears.

[PAUSE]

In some way

this bread has to come

from the bread that's there.

It's not likely

to be freshly baked bread

of the moment,

because the bread that He is given

has been there listening to

Him teaching

with the lad

who has carried it up the mountain

and has been listening to Him.

Wherever it comes from,

this is good bread.

Everyone eats their fill

and there are baskets left over.

But where did this bread come from?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord doesn't say.

But there are hints.

First, 

we remember that

He teaches us to pray

"give us this day 

our daily bread."

The Greek word

we translate as "daily"

is only found here

in all of the Bible.

When we usual see

the Greek for daily,

it usually refers directly

to the Greek for "day".

But, in His prayer,

Our Lord uses a strange word 

Epiousios

which defies a literal translation:

it's sort of like

"exist upon".

Many people 

see this as meaning

"give us this day the bread we need"

and so you can see

why we often translate this as

"daily bread" - the bread we need

today or tomorrow.

It's an appeal to God

to feed us.

And this is exactly what we

see happening here

as the multitude who need bread

are given bread.

Our Lord says

that Our Father in Heaven

knows we have need of these things

and will supply what we need

if we turn to Him.

But the bread that He gives

seems to come

from nowhere

- it just is

- it just exists upon Our Lord's word.

Exists upon

Epiousios

And that is what

Our Lord teaches us

in His prayer.

[PAUSE]

But there is something else.

For the Lord says

"For the bread of God is 

he which cometh down from heaven, 

and giveth life unto the world...

I am the bread of life: 

he that cometh to me 

shall never hunger; 

and he that believeth on me 

shall never thirst."

"cometh down"?

Epiousios!

It's the same idea.

In many ways,

Our Lord is giving to the multitude

a taste of Heaven.

The bread they receive

is of the bread given by a lad

and given to the multitude

we know not how.

It is not the Eucharist

for Our Lord does not say,

"this is my body".

But this miracle shows

what Christ will do

for the whole Church.

He gives us what we need.

Food for the body.

Food for the soul.

And we ask for it

every time,

we pray the Lord's prayer.

[PAUSE]

We take away 

from the mountainside

more than just bread.

We take Jesus with us.

We take a greater faith

strengthened

by God Himself.

We take away hope

knowing that

God will provide

in some way.

We take away love

which we are to distribute

to all we meet

who need it.

Who needs a toaster 

up a mountain?