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Sunday, June 26, 2022

Beyond the Walls

Sermon for the second Sunday after Trinity

Three invitations. Did you count them?

To the well-to-do people of the city;

To the socially disadvantaged 
people of the city 
living rough in the streets; 

To the socially disadvantaged people 
who live outside the city 
in hedges and by the side of roads.

The only people we know 
who don't go into the feast
are those who live comfortable lives
and know that they need nothing
from this feast.

Only those who hurt
those who struggle to live
those who know that they need healing
those who know that there is joy 
but not in how they are living
those who know that the feast
will be more than they could ever hope for,
these accept the invitation.

But it isn't three invitations, is it?

It's just the one,
just the one "come to the feast!"
offered to everyone.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord's parable is quite clear.

The city is Jerusalem 
and those inside are the Jewish people
- people whom God has always loved
- people whom He has called to the feast.

But those who are satisfied
with their own lives
reject Him,
and the invitation that He has written
in His own Blood.

So He turns to those 
who see Him as their hope
and they receive Him.

Here are Peter, James, John 
and the others
who know that they need healing,
who know that they need joy,
who know that they need salvation,
who are wounded by the world's
pitiless indifference
who hate the brokenness of
their souls
who are tired of the battle
to be good within them
with its constant losses
failures 
and degradation.

They accept the invitation
but it isn't enough.

The feast is not big enough yet.
There is still room.

And so the invitation passes
beyond the walls.

[PAUSE]

It finds those outside
the Jewish race,
who suffer the same woes
and torment
and it gives them hope.

They, too, can come into the city,
further up and further in,
to the palace of the feast giver,
the king of the Jews,
The Lord God Himself,
The Father
Whose invitation is the Word of Life
Christ Himself
and Who draws all people
through His Holy Spirit.

It is the Spirit that fires the hearts
of men to spread the Word,
this invitation to Life Eternal,
of Eternal Joy
of Eternal Satisfaction.

Those who refuse
live out their lives
with what they have always wanted,
but their hearts 
are where their treasure is
and they miss out on
Life Eternal
Eternal Joy
and Eternal Satisfaction.

They are left with
an Eternal Life of sorts 
but nothing beyond their thoughts;
an Eternity of indifference
shown to others and by others;
an Eternity of never being satisfied
but never knowing precisely why.

Those who refuse the invitation 
shall not enter into God's rest.

[PAUSE]

What we have to do is clear:
Say "yes!" to the invitation
and spend lives inviting others
in our thoughts, words and deeds.

At the moment, 
we stand beyond the walls
but we are invited nonetheless.

We must prepare ourselves
for the feast.
We must lives turning towards God
We must let others know that
they are invited too.

We have to wait for the city gates 
to be flung wide
to lift up their heads
and we shall enter in
with the King of Glory.

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Flesh and Spirit

Sermon for the Sunday in the octave of Corpus Christi

In some of our Churches,
they use the Thanksgiving after Mass
from the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.

This prayer gives thanks
for being fed with
the spiritual food
of the Body and Blood 
of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

What does that mean?

Does it mean that
Our Lord is only present
spiritually in the
Consecrated Host 
and Chalice?

This presents us
with a bit of a problem.

Our Lord says to His Disciples 
"a spirit hath not flesh and bones." 

He also says,
"the bread that I will give 
is my flesh, 
which I will give for 
the life of the world."

If the Lord gives His flesh
for us to eat,
and spirits do not have flesh,
then the presence of Christ
at the Mass
cannot be a spiritual presence.

We know also,
that God is a spirit
and this means that 
the Divine Nature 
does not have a body.

But Jesus is God,
fully Divine,
fully Human,
He has no flesh in His Divine Nature
but in His Human Nature.

If He gives us His flesh to eat,
then He does so from His Human Nature.
But Our Lord's Divine Nature is inseparable from His Human Nature.

This means that
Our Lord is present 
in the Consecrated Host
fully in both His Humanity
and His Divinity,
Flesh and Blood.

So how can what 
we receive in the Mass
be spiritual food?

[PAUSE]

God is spirit and
we are to worship Him
in spirit and in truth.

If we are to worship Him in spirit,
then we are spiritual beings.

The food we receive is not 
a spiritual presence.

It is food for our spirit.

Remember that 
our flesh is at war with our spirit.

We human beings
are broken.

Our nature is fractured.

We are at war within ourselves.

Our Baptism changes that
because we are given
the gift of the Holy Spirit
to dwell with us and in us.

And, to make us more spiritual,
we take into ourselves
the very Flesh and Blood
of God Himself
so that our bodies
and spirits are fed.

[PAUSE]

God gives us Himself
so that we can become
like Him
and participate
in His Divine Nature.

This is why we are grateful
for His feeding us 
with the food that will
grow our spirits
so that we can be like Him.

It carries the responsibility
for using what we are given
to sanctify the world
through battling against
the flesh of the world
which wants us
to deny Christ and become
just corruptible children of dust.

The Mass shows the world
that it is still loved by God
and this love is in such plentiful supply
that it breaks the boundary
between what is Human
and what is Divine.

We need to show this Mass to the world.
And, in ourselves,
we are to lift up Christ
and carry Him about,
so that through us
and by Him
the world may be brought back to Him.

We have a lot to do.
Perhaps we need to gain strength
by eating what is truly good for us.

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Anglican Catholic Mass immersion

 



Why the feast of Corpus Christi is vital for Christian living.

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Living Trinity

Sermon for Trinity Sunday

At Mass, we come to God, 
and God comes to us 
at the meeting place of the altar.

We can point to His presence with us
and, in the same faith,
we are fixed in His gaze
until we have taken Him
into our bodies and souls,
our lives and our hearts
where He dwells 
and makes us more like Him.

But God is Trinity in Unity.

We are not.

How are we meant to become
like God?

We need to learn to live the Trinity.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord Jesus Christ 
becomes a man,
so that we might become 
like Him
and live our lives
as committed members
of the Orthodox and Catholic Church.

We are not to live lives that are Arian.
Arians believe that Jesus is created,
more than a man,
but not of the same substance of God.

If Arians become more like that,
they will never see God.

They will never know 
true salvation
which lies beyond
the universe of created things.

We are not Arians.

Being Arian says that
our life can only be lived
in Creation
and separate from God.

Being Arian
denies that
the end of our journey
is God.

We are to live lives
in the hope 
of our return
to the visible presence of God
and not as part of the backdrop 
of the universe.

[PAUSE]

We are not to live lives that are Apollinarian.
Apollinarians think that God 
doesn't become fully Human,
that He puts on a human costume.

A god in a human costume is 
not being true
either to himself
or to human beings.

God is the Truth
and He loves us,
so He can't pretend to be human.

He becomes human
in order to be true to us
and to join us to Him.

If we live Apollinarian lives
then we see God as remote
and not fullyy invested in what we do
or who we are.

If we live Apollinarian lives,
then we push God away from us,
not trusting Him to be fully on our side,
rather than inviting Him
in to our lives.

[PAUSE]

We are not to live Nestorian lives.

Nestorians think that 
you can separate Jesus the Man 
from Christ the God.

They say that Mary is 
only the mother of the human bit
of Jesus,
not His God bit.

The Nestorian life says that 
we can live human lives 
every day of the week
but we have to be Christian 
on a Sunday.

The Nestorian life says
we can keep God in 
a separate part of our lives
and can live out the rest 
without worrying about 
His involvement in the rest.

But we are to lead lives
Inseparably with God.
We recognise Our Lady
as the Mother of God
and see that God is truly present
in our Humanity
so that we lead lives
in order to be truly present
in His Divinity.

[PAUSE]

We are not to lead lives
in which we think that 
being God and being human 
are the same. 

While we cannot separate
Jesus' humanity and His divinity,
we cannot pretend that
 they are the same thing.

Jesus is human,
so He has every aspect
of being human.

Jesus is God,
so He has every aspect
of being God.

Jesus' human nature
lives co-operating with His 
divine nature.

We have to live lives
In which we too
co-operate with God,
neither seeing ourselves in charge
nor leaving everything
up to God.

Our will is saved
by choosing God.

We are saved through God's grace 
and co-operating
with that grace.

[PAUSE]

We are not to lead Ikonoclast lives.

Ikonoclasts believe 
that the image of God 
should not make us long to worship.

They do not believe 
that an ikon can be holy.

They cannot tell the difference
between an ikon and an idol.

Living the ikonoclast life
means not seeing God
as being really present
alongside His creation.

Ikonoclasts separate God
from His creation.

For them, 
a photograph of Our Lord
would not stir up 
any desire to worship Him.

They do not believe that 
venerating an ikon
means that the veneration
is meant for who is in the ikon,
just as the kissing of a picture
of your mother
is an expression of your love for her
not for the picture.

We are to live in a world of ikons
reflecting God in the world around,
relating creation back to God
acting on our worship of God
through acts of veneration
whenever we are aware of His presence.

We are to live in a world of ikons
and using them to learn
how to become aware
of His presence again.

[PAUSE]

We are to live lives 
which reflect 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost
as being real, supreme 
and always with us,
always willing to associate with us,
always present 
to love us,
forgive us
have mercy on us,
draw us,
save us,
and bring us to Him.

We do believe in one God,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Filioque fisticuffs and Trinitarian tussles

 


Why the filioque issue does matter and why we need to engage with it.

Sunday, June 05, 2022

Spiritual Takeover?

Sermon for Whitsunday

One of the more 
frightening afflictions mentioned
In the Gospels
is the possibility
of being possessed.

The idea that 
a devil has some control over you,
making you do things 
you don't want to do,
that it inhabits your life
at the very deepest part,
is truly terrifying!

We see the poor man
possessed by Legion
able to rip chains
and terrify the neighbours.
But we see him 
delivered by God
as the devils are cast out
into suicidal swine.

Being possessed 
is something that should 
and does worry us.

We do not want to be controlled
by anyone
or anything
other than ourselves.

But isn't this what happens
to the Apostles?

Do they not become possessed,
albeit with the Holy Ghost?

Is the Holy Ghost taking control
of people?

[PAUSE]

Some of us are afraid
of the Holy Ghost
for this reason.

They worry that 
the Holy Ghost 
will make them do things
that they really do not want to do.

They worry that He will
change their lives
in ways that 
they cannot bear thinking about.

The trouble is,
they are right.

[PAUSE]

Allowing the Holy Ghost
to enter your heart 
will change your life,
but He will honour where you are
in your faith.

Look at Moses.

He is frightened
of the task 
of telling Pharaoh
to let his people go.

God gives him powers
and even lets Aaron speak for him.

So Moses accepts and is transformed.

[PAUSE]

Our Lady accepts the gift
of the Holy Baby in her womb
and all is done unto her
according to the Angel's word.

The disciples aren't ready
for the Holy Ghost
until Our Lord ascends into Heaven.

At every stage, 
the Holy Ghost meets is where we are
but spurs us on.

We do not lose 
the freedom to choose.

The Lord says,
"If ye love me, keep my commandments."
And then He says,
"and I will pray the Father
and He shall give you
another Comforter."

Our keeping of the commandments
comes before,
and separately from,
the giving of the Spirit.

That's not to say 
that we can work our way
into Heaven
by keeping of the commandments.

But rather we can work out 
our salvation
with the Holy Ghost
alongside us,
not controlling us,
so that our salvation is completed
and perfected
by His grace.

It also means that
when the Holy Ghost comes
He is not going to take us over
so that we can just sit back
and let Him do all the work.

While we may be His,
the Holy Ghost
will not possess us
and turn us into His puppets.

We are given 
the immense dignity
of our own free will.

God created that in us
He wants us to use it
and He wants to perfect it
by living alongside us.

That is what Paraclete means:
one who works alongside,
a side-kick almost!

[PAUSE]

But the Holy Ghost is dynamic
and, for love of us,
demands that we be dynamic too.

He may respect who we are,
even who we think we are,
but still He wants us
to become the person who He created
- the person we truly want to be.

Eventually, in Him,
the person that we think we are
becomes the person
that we really are.

[PAUSE]

We are not God's playthings
or Jesus' Holy Incarnation
makes no sense.

Although life in the Holy Ghost
can be intensely uncomfortable
at times,
that discomfort comes
from a world that is passing away
possessed by the spirits of
Apostasy, Apathy and Complacency. 

The Holy Ghost living with us 
means that
we are living alongside
Eternity itself.

The more we grow in love,
the more we want to say, "yes" 
to the Spirit
and the more we say, "yes"
to the Spirit
the more we grow in love.

Wednesday, June 01, 2022

Growth in Anglican Catholic Housegroups

 


How can a little church minister to the whole of the country?