Will the G3 become the G2?
Monday, June 16, 2025
Saturday, June 14, 2025
From the top
Sermon for Trinity Sunday
We know that Jesus can speak Greek.
Greek in Israel for Jesus
is like English is for us.
It's a language
that everyone knows
but often not well.
Indeed,
some older people
who have taken up English
later in life sometimes struggle
to say what they mean.
And even now,
we hear that confusion
and it is a confusion
that still affects the way
that people translate
Holy Scripture from Greek
to English.
St Nicodemus hears our Lord say
that we must be born anōthen
- that's the Greek word.
It's a word that describes
the garment taken from Our Lord
at His Crucifixion:
that seamless garment
woven from the top.
So anōthen is a word
that we could translate
as "from the top".
The trouble is
that there are two meanings
to the phrase "from the top".
[PAUSE]
It could mean,
afresh or again,
and this is what St Nicodemus hears.
St Nicodemus hears
Our Lord say
we must be "born again"
which is why he gets confused
and thinks that his poor mother
is going to have to suffer
a terrible fate.
But that's not what Jesus means.
He us using the other meaning
of "from the top".
He is talking about
being born from above
from Heaven,
by the power of God
This is why He talks about us
being born of water and the Spirit.
It's a clear indication
of our need for Baptism.
It is through the waters of Baptism
that we are born from above
into the Kingdom of God
and thereby into Eternal life.
This birth from above
is not from this world.
It is a birth that lies beyond
our experience in life
and why it is given to us
as a Sacrament.
We see the external water
and know that,
through the covenant with God
we are born in the Holy Ghost.
Our Baptism is Baptism by the Holy Ghost.
And our birth in Him
can only be known
in this world
through the water in the font.
And what on Earth
has all this to do
with Trinity Sunday?
[PAUSE]
What on Earth?
Well, that's the point exactly.
If we are born from above,
then we are aware of things above
which have only pale shadows
here on Earth.
And our God,
The Triune God,
The Three-in-One,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Whom Earth and Heaven adore,
is not a thing of the Earth.
He is not created -
His Incarnation took
our Human Nature
into His Godhead
- He is not created.
And this means
we cannot expect
to understand
with minds of Earth
the Truth from above
that God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
We know it
because He shows it to us
in the words of Scripture and the Fathers
and the rational intelligence
that draws its Holy conclusions
from the words of Scripture and the Fathers.
We know it by His revelation,
not by looking at shamrocks
or ice-water-steam
or one flame on three wicks.
They are imperfect illustrations
and even the most complete
theological understanding
by the greatest Doctors of the Church
is like straw
compared with the reality of God
that is revealed from the top down to us.
[PAUSE]
If the world gives us grief
because it does not understand
the Holy Trinity,
that is not our problem
because the world listens
with ears of clay
to words born from on high.
Our task is to spread the news
of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to baptise as many of those
who believe
so that they may be born
from the top.
Saturday, June 07, 2025
A greater feast
Sermon for Whitsunday
"My Father is greater than I"
Those who hate Christianity
love to trot out this verse.
"If the Father is greater than Jesus,"
they say,
"how can Jesus be God?"
The most obvious answer
is that Our Lord is speaking
of Himself as a man,
not in His Divinity.
Because He does not think it
a prize to be equal in Divinity
with the Father
He humbles Himself
by being made Man,
thus giving a place
for His obedience to the Father
to show us how we must be
obedient to God.
But we human beings
are always thinking in terms
of greater and lesser,
better and worse.
That's the way our mind works.
We might say
that the Father is greater than the Son
because the Father begets the Son.
But the Father cannot be a Father
without the Son.
The relationship between
Father and Son
reveals their identities
as two distinct persons
but a single God.
But today is Whitsun,
not Trinity Sunday.
Where's the Holy Ghost?
Shouldn't we be focussing on Him?
[PAUSE]
We see the Holy Ghost
sent from the Father
in the Son's Name,
and yet He is often presented
as an instrument.
Our Lady conceives by the Holy Ghost.
The Apostles speak in
foreign languages
through the Holy Ghost
Who falls upon them.
Our Sacraments bestow grace
through the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is described as
the Spirit of God
or the Spirit of Jesus.
The Holy Ghost
seems more like a pipeline
to the Father and the Son
rather than a distinct person
in Himself.
This won't do.
It's not enough.
[PAUSE]
The Holy Ghost is a distinct person
from the Father and the Son.
Our Lord Himself
describes the Holy Ghost
proceeding from the Father.
But God is indivisible,
and not made of anything,
so how can anything
proceed out of God
that is not God Himself?
This procession
shows the relationship
between the Holy Ghost
and the Father.
We sing "breathe on me,
Breath of God"
because that's the best
we little human beings
can understand what
proceeding means.
In this sense of procession
the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father alone.
It is an analogy
that shows us how
God the Holy Ghost
comes forth
from the Father
to be God in us,
in the same way
that the Son
is begotten of the Father
to be God with us.
But if there is a relationship
with the Father
there must be
a relationship with the Son.
And there is.
The Son is conceived by the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is breathed
upon the disciples
through the Son.
The Word is carried on the Breath
and the Breath issues forth
because of the Word.
The Holy Spirit
is God.
It means that
we worship Him,
we pray to Him,
we relate with Him.
Indeed,
we relate more with Him
than any other Person
of the Trinity.
Certainly,
we pray, "Our Father,"
and we pray, "Jesu, mercy!"
but our inner prayers
our cries of "Lord, help me!"
those fleeting flicks
of our attention to God
are present directly
to the Holy Ghost.
St Paul tells us
that every time
we praise God
it is because the Holy Ghost
dwelling within us
gives us the ability
to praise God.
We speak through Him,
we learn through Him.
By His grace,
He bestows Himself upon us
at our Baptism and Confirmation.
The priest says,
"the Lord be with you."
and we don't say,
the vacuous
"and also with you,"
but rather
"and with thy spirit"
because we pray
that what our priests
breathe out on us
is the Breath of God
in the sacraments
they must distribute.
[PAUSE]
Our awareness of the Holy Ghost
must move away from thinking of Him
as being like spiritual petrol
which reinvigorates our faith,
but rather to recognise
His living in us.
We look upwards
to the Father.
We look around us
to the Son.
So we must look within us
to the Holy Ghost,
and worship Him
accordingly.
Monday, June 02, 2025
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Told you so!
Sermon for the Sunday after Ascension
It always seems
a bit odd to hear Our Lord's words
after we have witnessed
His Ascension into Heaven.
Indeed,
what is most jarring
is that we have been hearing
his words
on the night before He dies.
And today,
the Sunday after Our Lord ascends,
we hear Him tell His disciples
that they will be killed
for their witness to His truth.
And, having said that,
He says,
"But these things have I told you,
that, when the time shall come,
ye may remember that
I told you of them."
Does that mean
that during the oncoming tribulation
that our beloved apostles endure,
the memory of this night
pops into their heads
with Jesus saying,
"told you so!"?
[PAUSE]
People who say,
"I told you so!"
are usually berating us
for not following their advice.
"Told you so" comes with
an air of smugness
and satisfaction
that misfortune has come upon us
because we haven't followed
someone's advice.
But we don't see that in Our Lord.
So why does He effectively say
"Told you so"
to those whom He loves
as they suffer for His sake?
Clearly He doesn't mean it like that.
Clearly, he wants them to remember
that He has not forgotten them.
In a few hours,
Our Lord will be dead
hanging on the cross
and it will be easy for
the disciples to forget
the promise of Resurrection
amid the sorrow and anguish.
[PAUSE]
But remembering
is an activity that
we don't fully appreciate
these days.
Remembering is not just
being able to recite your phone number
or a thousand digits of pi.
Remembering is
literally a re-membering
- a putting back together
of an event.
For the disciples,
remembering Our Lord's words
is absolutely vital.
It is their calling,
their witness,
their testimony of all
that Jesus says and does
in their sight.
In their persecution,
they remember that
Our Lord told them so
and that His promises are true.
And they remember
that they have received
the Holy Ghost,
Who proceeds from the Father
Who us sent by the Son
who comes to us
with strength -
cum forte -
for us to use to proclaim
the Word of God.
[PAUSE]
The night before Our Lord dies
is a night to remember,
to piece back together,
and we do just that here in the Mass.
We are re-membering
what Our Lord told us to do.
And in re-membering
the Last Supper
we are given the presence
of Christ Himself
in the Holy Sacrament
so that we, too,
like the Apostles,
may go out and tell the truth
about Christ.
And, as we increase in faith,
and see the work of God
at our hands,
as we suffer our persecution,
our temptation,
our repentance,
our humiliation,
our cross,
all for His sake,
we will see Our Lord in His glory
pointing to our place
in His Kingdom
and saying,
"Told you so!"
Monday, May 26, 2025
Sunday, May 25, 2025
Asking for a beating
Are you ready to get up
and beat the bounds, today?
Ready for a nice little walk
around the parish?
Beating the bounds
occasionally happens today,
but not so much
and definitely not in its
traditional form.
Usually during
Rogationtide
or on Ascension Day,
the parish priest
is supposed to lead his people
to the edge of the parish
and walk around it.
Along the way,
a group of boys,
usually choirboys or servers,
are supposed
to beat the boundary stones
with green branches.
Often, rather than
just beating
the boundary stone,
it would be the boys
that were beaten
instead.
Perhaps that's something
we could reinstate?
[PAUSE]
But why?
Why beat the boys?
The maim reason,
it appears,
is to ensure that
the next generation
knows where
the parish boundary is.
By beating the stones,
or beating the boys,
a clear memory of where
the parish ends
is reinforced.
This is important
because it reinforces
the parish's legal identity
and the priest knows
where his care ends
and the neighbouring priest's begins.
Beating the bounds
establishes the neighbourhood.
But now you see the problem.
Where is our boundary?
[PAUSE]
Parishes are supposed
to share boundaries
so that there are no gaps
between where one parish stops
and another starts.
That way,
the whole country
can be sure
that every community
can find its Christian needs
met by the Church
through local priests.
If parishes have
to cover the country,
where's our boundary?
Half of Kent?
More?
The Diocesan boundary
is the coastline of
the British Isles!
How are we expected
to beat those bounds?
[PAUSE]
Our smallness
does sometimes seem
to be overwhelming.
We have a big task to do
as Christians
and so little time,
so few resources
to do it.
And we feel swamped.
We're not getting any younger
and the world is getting darker.
Let's just make sure
that we are honest
with ourselves here,
about this.
We are small.
The task is great.
We feel swamped.
What are we going to do?
[PAUSE]
Let's change the question
a little bit.
Instead of saying,
it's all too much,
let's say,
"this looks hard,
but what can we do?"
Let's not focus
on our shortcomings
or on the size of the task.
Let's focus on
what we can do,
what we are doing,
what we're good at.
And make sure
that we do these things in Faith.
[PAUSE]
We see the disciples
talking with Our Lord,
the night before He dies.
And there are only twelve.
One has gone off to betray the Christ.
The others will run away
and say that they do not know
this Man from Nazareth.
Such failure!
Such fragility!
Such smallness!
And yet,
eleven come back
and see their Master
raised from the Dead.
And they understand.
They see things clearly.
They know their mission.
Eleven in Christ
become the Church
because they have Faith.
And they now know what to ask for.
And how to ask.
No longer will they ask
to be the greatest
or to sit at the right hand
and left hand of Christ in glory.
Nor will they ask
not to avoid tribulation.
They ask for blessing.
They ask for forgiveness
for themselves
and for their enemies.
They ask for the Truth to be known
through them.
At their asking,
they receive the sacraments
to give to the people of God
even as God Himself
fed multitudes with so little.
[PAUSE]
And we are so little.
It doesn't matter
for we trust that God knows
what He is doing,
and if we should find ourselves
in tribulation,
we should not fear
because Christ has overcome the world.
It is the World's influence
that tells us that
because we are small
we are insignificant.
Tell that to St Augustine
who lands on these shores
and reinvigorates a Christianity
that has been sidelined
following the end of
Roman occupation.
The disciples do what little they can
in Faith.
St Augustine does what little he can do
in Faith
We do what little we can do
in Faith.
And in being faithful
we find ourselves praying
in the Name of Jesus
and our prayers
will be answered
- not in a worldly way,
but a Heavenly way.
[PAUSE]
Our bounds are too big
for us to beat,
but in Christ
there will be no limit
to what will come
from what we truly do
in His Name..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
