Always nigh

Sermon for the Sunday after the Ascension

Repent! 

For the end of the world 

is nigh!

Heard that before?

The end of the world is nigh.

It's always nigh.

Worrying about the world

is something that

has plagued mankind

for centuries.

St Peter sees the end of the world

as being imminent in his time.

Even before him, 

many have worried 

about whether all things

will end in some catastrophe

in their time.

What is different from their time

and ours

is that we have a pretty good idea

of how the world might end

and what will cause it.

Unlike St Peter,

we can see the world

and what's happening.

We have good reasons 

to fear and worry

especially about our children

and our children's children.

There is a key difference

in how we see the end of the world

and how St Peter sees

the end of the world.

[PAUSE]

It seems that we look at

the end of the world

with fear and trembling.

We dread the horrors of the future

the pain and suffering

and the destruction

of all that is familiar.

St Peter has that future.

Rejection. Persecution. Crucifixion.

His Jewish heritage destroys itself

by hating him 

and throwing him out of the synagogue.

His stability of life in the fishing village

is taken away from him.

His life ends on a cross

upside down

in agony.

St Peter goes through

the end of the world

but he welcomes it.

We fear the end.

St Peter looks forward to it.

So do all the other saints.

They long for the end -

not because they want destruction -

but because they know

that what comes next

will exceed

any joy they can imagine.

[PAUSE]

As we stand 

and watch Our Lord

ascend,

body and soul,

into Heaven,

we are told that

He will come again

in the same manner.

We have nothing to fear.

But we do fear.

[PAUSE]

We fear because

we are still attached to earthly things

and earthly things will be destroyed

even our bodies.

God tells us not to cling to 

earthly things

but we do.

What do we do, then?

The key is holiness.

[PAUSE]

Holiness is about separation.

Whatever is separated

out for God is called holy.

God is holy because

He is separate from His Creation

and anything that is

separated for Him

shares His holiness.

And we are to share His holiness.

We have to be separated out,

set ourselves aside,

for God.

This is how St Peter

faces the end of his world,

trusting not in anything he has,

but that God has called Him out

into a better, more glorious world.

St Peter is holy, 

which is why he is called Saint.

Our lives, too,

must be set aside

from the purposes of the world

for the purposes of God.

We are always close

to the end of the world -

it could happen any minute -

but that's not a reason to be afraid,

or to give up

living for God.

Lives of prayer,

of devotion,

of seeking God in Creation,

of living the best lives we can

according to what is truly good,

of bearing our cross

as Christ bears His,

this is the path to holiness.

[PAUSE]

We are meant to be holy,

for God is holy. 

Not even the end of the world 

can stop us 

if we turn to Christ in love.

Ascending on the humdrum

 

Why monotony is the way to God.

Canonically Catholic

 

A reflection on St Vincent of Lérins' famous canon.

Asking for reality

Sermon for Rogation Sunday

What are you asking God for?

Our Lord tells us that 

whatever we ask the Father for 

in Jesus' name, 

He will grant us.

It sounds like 

a licence to print money,

but you know that it's not.

St Paul is in prison.

If God would give Paul

whatever he wanted,

then he might be free from prison.

If God gives us what we want,

then why is St Stephen stoned to death?

If God gives us what we want,

then why does He not take 

the cup of suffering from 

His Only Son,

even when His Only Son

begs Him 

to let the cup pass from Him?

[PAUSE]

We worship God 

and that means

not treating Him 

like a genie.

We may ask for 

the things that we want,

but we cannot expect 

our prayers to be answered

in the narrow prison

of our own desires.

We can expect 

our prayers to be answered.

We should expect 

our prayers to be answered,

but they will be answered in a way 

that makes us more real.

St James tells us

that it is not enough

to say the words.

We have to do the work.

Doing the work

makes what we believe

obvious.

Doing the work 

takes our faith from

the vague clouds

of fact and theory in our heads

and shows the world

that we do have faith in God.

We are not saved by faith alone,

because faith is never alone.

A faith that exists just in the mind

does nothing for the body.

And we are to be saved Body and Soul.

Faith is the gift of God.

Free will is the gift of God.

And free will makes 

what is in our mind

become real.

Faith and free will go together.

And Faith also comes with 

Hope and Charity.

And it is Our Lord present

in body and soul

Who saves us 

Body and Soul.

If Faith saves

then it never saves us alone.

[PAUSE]

Whatever we ask God for 

requires faith in God,

but faith must be worked out.

Faith is the paper on 

which God has written 

His covenant with us

in the blood of His Son.

That covenant needs working out.

We need to play our part.

And God will play His.

And what does God promise us 

in this Covenant?

[PAUSE]

He promises

our hearts' desire.

He promises 

the one thing 

that will give us true joy

more than cars 

or money

or health

or wine, women and song,

more than 

freedom from prison,

freedom from persecution,

freedom from a painful, miserable death,

He gives us the one thing.

Himself.

And, in order to give us Himself,

He makes us more real

than we can know,

so that we can

enjoy his presence

for Eternity.

[PAUSE]

But this means

seeing the things that we desire

as not being the things 

that will make us happy

but as being the things

which show us 

what we really need from God.

If we want a fast car

then we might really want

a sense of exhilaration

of fresh air

and speed. 

It's not really the car

we want, 

it's the experience that

having a car might 

give us.

If we ask Him,

God will give us

His Holy Spirit

to thrill us,

give us a blast of the clean air

from Eternity

and the sense of His power

rushing through Creation.

But this means 

that we must 

be prepared to go 

wherever the Holy Spirit

leads us.

If we want to be healthy

then we might really want 

a life free from pain.

But God can give us this life

through His Son

in our own resurrection

from the dead.

But this means we cannot

be satisfied with 

our own relief from pain

and must work to relieve

the pain of others.

Their pain must become

our own pain.

If we want the company

of a pretty woman or handsome man,

then we might have a longing

for the company of someone

who truly loves us

and whom we find able to love.

God loves us

and, if we ask Him,

He will show us His beauty

which will go beyond anything

created.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord Jesus Christ says that, 

if we ask,

we shall receive.

We can ask for the universe.

But we cannot be satisfied with that

because we can have

the Creator of the Universe

Himself.

What do you really, really want?

Nipping the nose of bad priests

 

Why St Dunstan's strictness is good for the Church.

Grace and favour

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Easter

What is grace?

You hear a lot about grace 

in the Church, 

from the Gospels, 

in the sacraments 

and from the pulpit. 

Have you ever stopped 

to think about what 

grace actually is?

[PAUSE]

Tuesday's child is allegedly full of grace.

A good ballerina is graceful.

What does that mean?

Is it because she has 

complete control over her limbs?

Is it because she can

display the music in her body?

Or is it because we find 

her movements beautiful?

[PAUSE]

The Greek word 

we translate as grace 

can also mean favour. 

If something is graceful 

then it is favourable, pleasing, fitting.

Grace is not something

the ballerina possesses.

It's something we see in her,

something good.

[PAUSE]

The Angel tells Mary that 

she is full of grace.

Actually, he says something stronger 

In a single Greek word, 

Gabriel says 

not only that she is full of grace,

but that the act of filling her with grace

is complete, finished, done.

She is perfected in grace.

She has God's complete favour.

She is completely good!

This sounds very alien 

to ears two thousand years distant

and two thousand years sinful.

How is Mary good?

Only God is truly good.

So where good is, God must be.

"Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee!"

[PAUSE]

If God finds favour

in something He has created 

then He is present with it.

We now know that grace is 

nothing less than

the active presence of God.

Grace is a good gift,

and a perfect gift

that comes down to us 

from the Father of Lights.

It is something He wants us to have.

Mary has it 

because she chooses to receive it.

And we need to receive the gift, too.

Every sacrament the Church possesses

is a means of grace,

and gives the active presence of God

to all who receive it.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord enters the waters of the Jordan

to be baptized by St John.

His active presence in the water

means that the water in the font

is transformed into the same water

in which He bathes 

and washes away our sin,

and draws us into his family.

Our Lord breaks bread and says,

"This is My body".

This means that the bread is transformed

 into His body, and the wine, His blood.

And we are given His active presence

to nourish us

and prepare us for life's journey.

Our Lord blesses a marriage 

with His presence

and so sanctifies every marriage.

He is handled by His apostles,

and so gives them the power 

to bestow the Holy Ghost

for confirmation and ordination.

He is anointed with oil for His burial.

He forgives sins and tells His disciples to.

It is the active presence of Christ

in each of these actions

that make the sacraments 

not empty symbols,

but real displays of God's favour

and desire to be with us,

live with us,

love us,

forgive us,

heal us

and perfect us.

[PAUSE]

St James says:

"Every good gift 

and every perfect gift 

is from above, 

and cometh down 

from the Father of lights, 

with whom is no variableness, 

neither shadow of turning. 

Of his own will begat he us 

with the word of truth, 

that we should be 

a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

God does not change and so

God's grace does not change.

The sacraments that we receive

are the same sacraments

that are received by 

St James,

St Paul

and anyone they give them to,

provided that 

we do not change how 

these sacraments operate.

God's grace begets us

with His Word of Truth

because 

Christ is the Word of Truth.

To be favoured by God

is to have Him with us

as we live our lives.

The Church is the means

by which every human being

may receive God's grace.

That is her purpose.

While we are with her,

we do receive God's grace

- grace which we can give

to those others

who dearly need to know

not only that they are lovable

not only that they are lovely

but they are also truly 

and completely

loved.

What should you expect of the Anglican Catholic Church, part the second

 

Addressing members of the Continuum, how do we reach the people who need us?

What can we expect of the Anglican Catholic Church?

 

What face does the ACC present to the world?

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

Sermon for the third Sunday after Easter

What do you expect to see 

when a mirror is broken?

It depends 

how badly it's broken, 

doesn't it?

It might be completely broken, 

glass shards everywhere, 

but you will still see yourself

 in any single one of those shards.

What if it's just cracked?

Well, then something 

interesting happens.

 If you look at yourself in 

an uncracked piece, 

you will appear normally. 

But, if your reflection 

goes across a crack, 

or even a missing piece, 

then there will be distortion 

or even gaps in your reflection.

 It's only when there is 

a crack or a warp in the glass 

that your reflection looks odd 

and doesn't behave in the way 

that it should.

What a broken mirror doesn't do 

is show a reflection of anyone else

other than the person looking into it.

[PAUSE]

When something is broken, 

it does not behave in the way 

it's supposed to. 

If it's just cracked, 

then it may well work 

reasonably normally for a time 

until something widens that crack 

and bits break off. 

The same is true for us. 

We are broken because of Sin. 

There are cracks in our being 

and we do not work properly. 

Look at our wills. 

If there is a crack in our will 

then it causes a split in 

what we want to do. 

We can want to do good and, 

yet, 

at the same time 

want to be utterly selfish. 

St Paul recognises this fracture 

when he sees in himself that 

he doesn't do the good 

that he wants to do

and that which he doesn't want to do, 

he does.

This is why even the very best of us 

are confused by 

our own sinfulness. 

This is why the people 

whom we revere most 

fall and sin and disappoint us.

Essentially the problem comes 

when the reflection of God in our lives 

falls over our cracks 

which distort our view.

[PAUSE]

It's seems as if we have two wills, 

but we don't. 

One part hunts for the things of the Spirit, the other for the things of the World. 

Both bits of your will 

want the same thing 

- to be happy, 

but you are confused as to 

how to get there. 

But, the more we follow 

our lust for worldly things, 

the bigger the crack gets 

and the more the reflection distorts.

Whose reflection?

It isn't yours!

[PAUSE]

Each one of us is 

supposed to be a reflection of God. 

The more we sin, 

the more the crack 

in our being widens. 

When we confess and repent, 

the more we focus 

on the unblemished part 

of the reflection of God in us.

 What we cannot do 

is close and repair the crack. 

That needs God's creating Grace. 

The will of the Flesh pulls away 

from the will of the Spirit. 

So St Paul tells us to focus on 

that part of our will 

that seeks the spirit 

because we can still see God 

reflected in that bit, 

despite our fragmentation. 

The more people see 

God reflected in us, 

the more will they see 

how to be good 

and seek the things of God. 

The more we recognise 

the will of the Flesh and reject it, 

the more will we show up the world 

for being silly and foolish 

- not by violence, ridicule or shouting, 

but by simply being obedient 

and quiet for God.

[PAUSE]

God looks at you 

and sees Himself. 

That surely is a wonderful 

and frightening privilege. 

Rejoice and reflect Him 

as best you can 

for the world needs it!

Signal strength

 

How do we use the sign of the cross in our lives?

Firing the Synod

Sermon preached at the XXXth Synod of the Anglican Catholic Diocese of the United Kingdom

The planet Jupiter

is fascinating

for many reasons.

It is the largest planet

we know

in our Solar System.

The Great Red Storm

on its surface

is more than

twice the size of our planet.

It has the largest number of natural moons

that we know of

and a magnetic field that probably

helped shape our Solar System.

Its gravity is enough

to trap the larger rocks into its orbit

thereby saving planet Earth

a bit of a bashing.

However, the planet Jupiter is a failure.

Despite its vast size,

it hasn't enough gravity

to compress and combust

the gas that forms it.

Jupiter could have been another star,

but it failed to ignite. 

[PAUSE] 

Ten virgins,

all pure as the driven snow,

all chaste,

all demure,

all socially acceptable,

all preserved from stain.

Yet only five get to go into the wedding feast.

The other five failed to ignite

because they didn't have enough oil.

What do we see here?

The pattern should be familiar to you:

it is not the following of social rules

that gets you into Heaven.

It's not the impression of sanctity

or holiness that cause our Salvation.

It's more than that.

There may be something important lacking.

Something internal.

Jupiter lacks enough substance

so it cannot burn.

The Virgins lack oil in their lamps,

so they cannot shine their light.

Having the appearance of the right materials

is not enough for the fire to start.

What is lacking?

[PAUSE]

We remember today St Catherine of Siena.

She is a noted Doctor of the Church.

So what is her diagnosis of those

who cannot start a fire?

What does she say is lacking?

She says quite clearly,

"be who you are meant to be

and you will set the world on fire!" 

Is she right? 

Many would say, "yes!"

but for precisely

the wrong reason.

We know full well that the Church isn't

about being who you want to be.

That’s the mistake the World makes.

The person of the world says,

"I am who I say I am.

Accept it, or else!" 

Listen to that again.

"I am who I say I am!"

You can really hear the problem, can't you?

Only One can say,

"I am that I am!"

and He rules the Universe.

It precisely this reason that

Traditional Christian Religion

is not popular at the moment.

It is precisely this reason

that some Christians

are trying to change the Church

so that it will say,

"you are who you say you are

and God loves you for that."

That is, of course, unbiblical,

unfounded

and unmitigated rubbish!

[PAUSE]

God loves you for who you are

- this is true.

But loving you means

a burning desire for your good.

God loves you

so that you shine as the person

He created you to be.

He desires your good.

But what is your good?

Nothing less than your perfection in Him.

We are to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect.

The Church is about

you being who you are meant to be.

Who you are meant to be

is God's decision, not yours.

Only God gives meaning.

Now, God created you

but He also allows you the freedom

to shape your life as you see fit.

That is part of the glory of being human:

we get a say our own creation.

We are indeed free

to be whoever we think we are.

But, leaving God out

of our lives of self-creation

means we will never be

who we are meant to be.

We cannot be perfect without God. 

 

[PAUSE]

In trying to become who we want to be,

we do set the world on fire.

The fire we cause destroys.

We burn up the world around us.

We burn up our environment,

our community,

our family and friends

and even ourselves,

just to get our own way.

We want what we want and,

literally,

to Hell with the consequences!

Just to become the person

that we want to be,

we cut off our noses to spite our face

in glorious vindictiveness

against God Himself

Who tries to show us who we really are

in His love.

We would rather burn up than let God ignite us.

We would rather disintegrate

into the ash of our own making

rather than shine like stars for all eternity.

[PAUSE]

But we needn't destroy.

Look at the burning bush

– aflame with the glory of God,

burning with a fire that illuminates

the sight of Man

to see God once more.

But the bush is not consumed.

It does not burn away,

and Moses catches fire from it

and he does not burn away.

 His face shines so that

people cannot look at him

for he burns with God's fire

and yet he does not burn away.

That is what we are meant to be.

This is what the Church is for.

We are the lamp for the world

set upon the hill for all to see.

We are like Abba Lot.

[PAUSE]

The desert father, Abba Lot,

goes to see the elderly Abba Joseph

and says to him,

 “Abba, as far as I can I say my Little Office.

I fast a little.

I pray.

I meditate.

I live in peace and,

as far as I can,

I purify my thoughts.

What else am I to do?”

Abba Joseph, in his great age,

stands up,

stretches his hands towards heaven

and his fingers become like ten lamps of fire,

and he says to Abba Lot,

“If you will, you can become all flame.”

We have all the ingredients to burn:

we have the Catholic Faith,

a Catholic Bishop,

a Catholic Liturgy.

We have Bible, Altar, Font.

We have the Church Fathers,

the authority to remit sins,

the Holy Sacraments, 

the Word of God Himself!

We have everything we need to burn.

We just need to be

who we are meant to be.

We just need the humility

to accept who God means us to be.

We need to struggle and be prepared to struggle because of this discrepancy

between who we really are 

and who we want to be.

Like Jacob, we wrestle with God

over our own existence

until, out of love,

He puts our hips out of joint,

so that we might understand

and accept ourselves in Him.

And who are we meant to be?

 

[PAUSE]

We are the Anglican Catholic Church

and we are meant to be exactly that.

As a part of the wider Catholic Church,

we are meant to bear the Faith once delivered to the saints,

the Faith that applies

at all times, in all places and for everybody,

to the English-speaking and English-cultured people.

We are to help people struggle with Life,

in the midst of our own struggles with Life,

so that all might find God.

This is what we are meant to be

and this is how

we are to set the world ablaze.

We can only do so if we hold together

in the unity of the Holy Ghost,

living our lives alongside the saints,

 like St Catherine,

who only appear to have died

and whose lives still burn brightly with God.

We can only do so if we are humble before God and each other.

If we shame the world by laying aside

our own hobby-horses,

our own selfish desires,

 our own self-importance

in order to share the same

Communion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

and thus further the burning love of God

for mankind in a world

that is growing cold.

[PAUSE]

 

Do you know who God means you to be?

How will you set the world on fire?