Angelic Living

 

What do the lives of angels mean for us?

How does a Christian eat a KitKat?

Sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Try getting into a lift 

and stand facing 

one of the back two corners.

What about eating a KitKat

without breaking it

into separate fingers,

but rather taking a big bite

out of one corner 

across the fingers?

Or cutting a piece of

a circular cake 

without going through the centre?

You might feel uncomfortable

at even the thought of 

these horrible actions.

But why?

[PAUSE]

Of themselves,

these aren't bad actions.

But they seem to defy

other people's expectations.

You won't be imprisoned

on the charge of 

improper consumption

of a KitKat

but it isn't what's expected

by society.

Should the correct

cutting of a cake

be legislated?

Or the opening of a boiled egg

at the little end?

[PAUSE]

Society does influence

how we make choices

and it is our desire

to be part of Society

that gives social customs 

their power over us

and why we feel awkward

when we break them.

Try not saying "please" 

or "thank you" for a day

or even an hour.

But social convention

is not in control of our salvation.

We are not saved by 

serving Society.

[PAUSE]

St Paul is very clear.

Christians do not need circumcision.

Nor should a Christian be forced 

to be circumcised.

The Covenant of Jesus Christ

is with all humanity 

not just the Children of Israel.

The source of all goodness,

the means of our perfection

and the one who determines

the structure of the Heavenly Society,

is God.

You are well aware 

of the difference

between being moral

and obeying social customs.

The difficulty comes

when people use

social customs

to control how people act.

Any society holds together

when people agree on the rules

of being together.

To be Jewish,

it is necessary to accept

circumcision

as part of belonging

Jewish society.

Although Our Lord is Jewish

it is not necessary to be Jewish

in order to find salvation

in Him.

It is not Our Lord's Jewishness

that saves us,

it is He Who saves us

being God Incarnate.

[PAUSE]

The temptation is to see the Church

only as a society

within secular society,

as if secular society

were the be all and end all.

The Church is a family

before it is a society.

Saying that the Church is a society

is like saying

that a human being 

is just an organised clump of cells,

a thing of bones, blood and organs.

To say that the Church is a society

misses the living principle

by which it exists

and is united to Almighty God Himself.

The law within the Church

is that we become like Christ

through love

cleansing our actions

by purifying our intentions

in the Mind of Christ.

That's how we Christians

exist within society.

We see the rules and customs

for what they are

and measuring them up

to belonging in Christ.

But we don't break these 

rules and customs

out of disdain or snobbishness

but we treat them with respect

and generosity.

But we do not let social rules

and customs

determine our Salvation in Christ.

But isn't our liturgy

a custom that controls us?

Our worship might be

framed by the Liturgy,

but the Liturgy is there 

to help us 

worship God together

with Christians now

and Christians past

and Christians yet to come,

and for us to share 

the living principle

that is Jesus Christ Our Lord

Who binds the whole Church

together.

[PAUSE]

We let the rule of Christ

determine our Salvation

because that rule is unity with Him.

... And not with a KitKat.

The Zealot and the Collaborator: Anglican Catholic Politics

 

How should the Christian approach political disagreement?

The faith of a leper

Sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

"Thy faith hath made thee whole."

And so a Samaritan leper 

is healed from his disease.

And so are the other nine cleansed.

The nine that didn't come back

to thank Our Lord.

The nine that did not discern

Christ Jesus the Living and true God,

Son of the Father.

The nine whose concern was

to follow the ritual.

All ten received their health.

So what did going back

to thank Jesus

actually achieve?

Could not all ten

have gone to the temple

and given thanks there

according to the rites of 

the Jewish religion?

Were not all ten 

made whole by their faith?

[PAUSE]

We must be clear.

We cannot say anything

about the other nine lepers

that the Bible doesn't tell us.

They may have offered

great worship to God

with great thanksgiving

and reverence.

They may have just

gone home,

made tea

and put their feet up 

to watch Strictly.

The Bible doesn't tell us 

about them.

But the Lord Himself

wonders why they 

haven't turned back.

The focus is squarely

on the faith of the leper

who did turn back.

What does he gain 

by turning back?

[PAUSE]

It is clear that he is healed

just like the other nine.

But what he gains

is Christ.

We don't know about the others.

We do know that 

this leper

by turning back 

meets and worships God

and his example

is recorded for us to learn from.

This leper is blessed

by knowing God.

His body has already

been made whole.

But this leper gazes upon God.

[PAUSE]

St John tells us that

when we see God

we shall be like Him

because we see Him

as He is.

In believing in Jesus,

the leper's faith makes him whole,

not just in body but also in soul.

In Christ, 

the leper is complete.

This is the point of the incarnation.

The Hebrews were saved

from snakebites

at the sight of a brass serpent.

How much more

are we saved

at the sight of God Himself?

The leper himself 

realises it.

He feels it 

within himself, 

and being a Samaritan

knows that holiness

does not necessarily

reside in the temple at Jerusalem.

In turning back,

he gains the Divine Smile

the warmth that touches

his soul right from the beginning of Time.

[PAUSE]

Healing comes in many forms.

We can be healed

in body,

mind,

and spirit.

Even from diseases

that are masked by others,

diseases invisible to us

and to those around us.

The beauty of repentance

is that it is not a negative action

for we turn to Christ

and, in our repentance,

we are made whole in our faith in Jesus.

And this constant

repentance

is how we know that in Christ

we can be saved

we are being saved

and we will be saved

whole again,

whole in Christ Our God.

Easter in the midst of Trinitytide

 

Why the cross is ubiquitous.

What's so Anglican about Anglican Catholicism?

 

A few thoughts on how to be Anglican but without being an Anglican.

Which came first?

Sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

We seem to be living at a time

in which laws themselves

are being called into question,

especially laws which are 

literally

a matter of life and death.

Is it ever right

to end someone's life?

If the Law can decide

whether we live or die

then it is truly powerful.

Except it isn't.

[PAUSE]

The Law decides nothing.

We make the decision

based on what the Law tells us.

The Law tells us that 

killing an innocent person is wrong.

If we kill an innocent person

then we know that we have 

broken the Law

and it is the court

who will ensure that

we are convicted and jailed.

It is Man who judges

not the Law. 

The Law shows us 

when what we do is wrong.

But that's all it does.

It's something that we've got used to

since we decided 

to eat from the fruit of the Tree

of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

What did we have before the Fall?

What did we have before

forbidden fruit?

[PAUSE]

We had God.

We had a relationship,

a way of living together,

a covenant of love

in which we saw 

the goodness of God

shining gloriously

throughout Creation.

There was no Law

because it was just us and God.

Since we have fallen

and now have knowledge of 

Good and Evil,

we are obsessed with 

doing the right thing

and living in a society

which would rather prevent us from 

killing one another

than enable us to love one another

as we love ourselves 

and walk with God.

Ironically, 

having a written Law

makes us forget about 

loving God,

because we just 

do what we want

as long as we do

what the Law says.

[PAUSE]

This is the whole point

of St Paul's letter to the Galatians.

The love of God comes first

before any law.

Love Him and love neighbour

and we do more than just

obey the Law.

We go beyond it

back to God

and open ourselves up 

to seeing Him again

just as we did before

we chose to disobey Him.

Our reason for obeying the Law

must be only to turn ourselves

back to God,

not for just merely existing 

in a society

which does not see the worship of God

as important.

If we love God and

if we love our neighbour

then there is absolutely nothing

for us to worry about

and the lawyer is out of a job.

[PAUSE]

Our duty and our joy

is to love God

as fully as we can.

We will not find happiness 

in codes of law

and books of statutes.

The Law cannot pick us up.

The Law cannot bind our wounds.

The Law cannot restore our health.

The Law sees us lying fallen

and can only pass by

on the other side of the road.

But, we can go back before the Law 

for, before the Law,

there is Love.

[PAUSE]

Christianity is not about 

doing the right thing

or avoiding sin.

It is about focusing on God

and living His life

and loving.

But loving does not mean

love according to

the lusts of the flesh

but according to 

our perfection,

and the perfection of others,

in God.

Knowing the Law 

Is crucial

because it shows us

what sin is,

and how it works.

Knowing what sin is

is vital for knowing our imperfections

and addressing them 

in God.

It means we avoid sin

by turning to God

in Whom all laws

have their fulfilment

and we have

true joy.

The Passing of Her Majesty

 

A few ill-prepared thoughts on the death of Queen Elizabeth II

On the difference between spouses and oysters

Sermon for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Someone approaches you

and says to you,

"Why can't I commit adultery?

It says in the Bible that 

you mustn't eat shellfish,

yet I've seen you eat those oysters.

If you, as a Christian,

can eat oysters

then I, as a Christian,

can commit adultery."

How do you answer?

[PAUSE]

Our relationship with God

has always been expressed

through covenants.

God has made lots of covenants

with Man.

There was the covenant with Noah.

There was the covenant with Abraham.

And there was the great Covenant,

The Covenant with Israel through Moses,

set in stone.

It is in this Covenant that we find 

the 613 commandments

given to the people of Israel.

This includes the prohibition

against eating shellfish

and the prohibition

of committing adultery.

That's the covenant God makes 

with His Chosen people Israel.

It is not a covenant 

that God makes

with all people.

It's just with the Israelites.

So what about us?

What about us Gentiles?

Where's our covenant?

[PAUSE]

Well, you know the answer to that.

The blood of the New Covenant

is the Blood of Christ itself,

the same Blood which we drink

at our Mass

and take into ourselves

to live and grow with in us.

This is a covenant that is not 

written on stone

but within our life,

because the life of the Christian

is the Life of Christ

and the Life of Christ 

is the Life of Love -

Love of God

Love of neighbour.

So now look again at the question.

If you can eat shellfish, 

can you really commit adultery?

The two laws are so different.

How can the prohibition

against eating shellfish

be similar to the prohibition

against committing adultery?

One is a ritual law.

One is a moral law.

The ritual law is an expression

of what it is to be an Israelite.

God may have given this law

for many particular reasons,

but overall,

the ritual law is to show the world

that God has separated 

His chosen people, Israel,

from the nations around.

The Old Testament ritual law is an expression

of the freedom of Israel

from the captivity of the Egyptians.

But it doesn't bind us.

We don't need circumcision,

we need Baptism.

We don't need the Passover,

we need the Mass.

Our Christian ritual law

is bound up with the Sacraments.

If we play our part in the sacraments

God gives us His Grace

- Grace which we need

to live the life of Christ.

This is why we have rules about how 

how sacraments are conducted

because a sacrament is an expression

of the Christian Covenant with God

through Our Lord Jesus Christ.

But our morals are based in Love.

[PAUSE]

To reject God,

to blaspheme,

to worship other gods,

to spurn His Church

all show hatred of God.

To dishonour our parents,

to murder,

to commit adultery,

to steal,

to bear false witness,

to cover another's possessions

all show hatred of our neighbour.

Love is the fulfilment of the Law.

[PAUSE]

The Old Covenant

shows the nation of Israel

what is righteous

but it cannot save them.

Israel falls from the covenant 

time and again.

But here is the true wonder.

The New Covenant can save them,

it does save them.

We know that Christ bursts

the gates of the dead

to rescue those who have died

before Christ is even born,

because the New Covenant

is Love

and Love is eternal.

This is the glory of the New Covenant:

it is eternal and it applies

to all who receive it.

[PAUSE]

"If ye love me, keep my commandments,"

says the Lord.

This is how we can tell the difference

between an oyster

and another person's spouse.

Resecrating the Cathedral

 

What happens if you don't have a chapel?