Saturday, July 27, 2024

Welcoming Mammon


Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Trinity 

Our Lord sometimes says
things that sound
startling.

Are we really 
to make friends
of worldly people
in order to cover
our own backs?

Are the people of the world
really wiser in their generation 
than the children of light?

After all, 
the children of light
know the way to Heaven.

Many of the people
of the world 
reject the way to Heaven
which
to our ears
just doesn't seem wise.

And yet,
the Lord 
the wisest of all 
says that it will be
the people of this world 
who will welcome us
into everlasting habitations.

It sounds like 
the people of the world 
get to Heaven. 
before Christians do

It sounds
as if being a Christian 
doesn't make much difference.

[PAUSE]

The Lord says that
prostitutes and tax collectors
will get into Heaven
before the Scribes 
and Pharisees.

We should, therefore,
neither be surprised 
nor upset 
that people who
we don't expect to be entering Heaven
get there before we do.

But notice
they don't just get to Heaven 
before us
they welcome us
into everlasting habitations.

They want us to be there.
They are please to see us.

So it's really worth
looking at the words of Jesus
carefully 
to see how this unjust steward
is an example to us.

[PAUSE]

What do we see?

It's clear that 
the Lord is comparing us
to the unjust steward.

As fallen human beings
our lives must fail
and we face the prospect of dying.

We will no longer be allowed
to be steward.

What can we do then?

Where will we go when we die?

Can we work our way into Heaven?

No. We know we cannot earn salvation 
because there is nothing that we
can do of ourselves 
to reach Heaven.

It's like trying to 
walk to the Moon.

Do we beg others to let us into Heaven?

No, our sins will be laid bare
and we will be ashamed.

But what we do have 
is the means
of helping others
to have their sins forgiven.

We have Christ the Word.

The people come to us
presenting their debts to God
and, as the Church,
we seek to absolve them of their sins.

The Christian
is called to forgive,
absolve,
mitigate,
cover the sins of others 
by works of charity.

We know that we are saved
by grace through faith in Christ
not through adhering to rules
which are often called works of the law.

We are saved through faith in Christ
and by actively feeding that faith
allowing it to grow in us
by encouraging that faith in others.

Our Lord's parable 
Is telling us
that the route to Heaven
is through love and charity
for other people.

God is love 
and so our acts of charity
are always performed
alongside our faith in God
and in hope of the resurrection 
that He promises us.

The more we love others
and seek to relieve 
their burden of living,
the misery of their sin,
the wounds of the Devil's hatred 
the more we shall receive 
a welcome in Heaven
as more people get there 
to rejoice in the presence
of the same Christ
Whom we have carried with us
in our lives and actions.

[PAUSE]

Mammon holds up 
a mirror to our faces.

It shows us how 
we will be received in Heaven
by how we show Christ
to those
for whom Mammon
is their master.

If they see Christ in us
then they have an opportunity 
to turn and accept Him
as the Master.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord's words
about the unjust steward 
show us our part
in the drama of
Salvation 
for everyone,
that we can all participate 
in the salvation of others
and thus in our own.

It shows
that Salvation 
is not an individual affair,
it's about all of us together
the Body of Christ
His Church.

That's why Our Lord's words
about the unjust steward
are such a welcoming message.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Ravening Blackberries


Sermon for the eighth Sunday after Trinity 

The bramble bushes
are dropping their flowers
and from their buds
you can just make out
little green fruit
that you hope 
will become a nice crop of blackberries.

The bramble bush
is quite a pest
it can choke a garden
and is very difficult to get rid of
especially when it can
inflict nasty scratches.

But it can bear good fruit,
lovely, juicy blackberries.

A good year can yield 
blackberry jam,
blackberry juice
and blackberries and cream.

Perhaps it makes
the pestilential nature
of the bramble bush
worthwhile.

Of course,
if it doesn't bear fruit,
or the fruit is sour,
or if there is some
unpleasant substance in the soil
that the bramble soaks up
then the whole bush
is dug up and burnt.

By the bramble's fruit
shall ye know it.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord is very clear
about treating the prophets
who come in his name
the same way.

Clergy need to be prepared 
to show their good fruit
to people in order
to assure their congregation 
that they are truly in it
for God.

Too often
we see some smiling
man in a suit
proclaim the Lord Jesus
only to divert the donations 
he receives 
Into his comfortable lifestyle.

These folk get exposed 
and found out.

And that is when 
we must use our intelligence 
to stay away from them.

[PAUSE]

Even this warning is proof
of Jesus' love for us.

He doesn't want us
to be mindless,
unthinking,
allowing ourselves 
to be blown about
by any wind of doctrine.

A prophet worth the name 
will remember this,
remember the entrusted duty
to preach the Word of God.

Prophets, preachers,
teachers and clergy
must be sincere.

Our Lord is clear
that our true motives
will always find a way
of revealing themselves.

The fruit that we bear
is the fruit of our sincerity
as we proclaim 
the Word of God.

[PAUSE]

This Word of God 
will not be predictions
of the End of the World
because Jesus told us
that we will not ever know
when the end is coming.

Prophets who declare
that they know when 
the End is coming
are contradicting 
Our Lord.

Their fruit is confusion
and comes from their
intellectual pride.

[PAUSE]

The Word of God is attractive 
but not poisonous.

Sometimes it is hard
because it shows us things 
to put right in ourselves
and we know that.

But the Word of God 
will remind you 
of the love of God
and help you
to stand on your own two feet.

A prophet who makes you
dependent on their approval
rather than on the approval of God
is trying to control you.

Their fruit is intoxication
and comes from their 
desire to control others
rather than love them.

There is a reason why 
intoxication 
comes from the word toxic.

[PAUSE]

The Word of God
will not be showy or loud.

Prophets who perform miracles 
and make their message 
about the miracles
are craving your worship.

Our Lord preferrs
to do His miracles 
quietly
in the company of His friends
behind closed doors.

His message 
is more important 
than His miracles 
because He doesn't 
crave your worship
but rather needs you to know
that worshipping Him
will bring you all the joy
that you could ever desire.

Prophets who crave your attention 
are trying to be false gods.

Their fruits are idolatry and pride
and come from a deep insecurity 
and lack of faith in God.

[PAUSE]

And the list goes on.

But we can take comfort
in that true prophets
work for the good 
of the people
they are called to serve,
who recognise
the value God places in people
and seeks to bring to them
the best fruit from God Himself.

Their fruit is love.

Saturday, July 13, 2024

Ordering food


You can hear them now.

"So let me get this straight.
They come to Him,
listen to Him for hours
and they still get hungry?

Why go through the business
of multiplying loaves and fishes?

Why not just stop them 
from being hungry
in the first place?"

[PAUSE]

It's an objection
we hear many give
as their reason for 
why they do not believe 
in God.

Indeed, David Attenborough 
says that he can't believe 
in a God that created parasites 
that would infest small children.

It's all very well 
that Our Lord
walks among us 
and helps those 
suffering from hunger,
illness and even death.

But why didn't he
stop hunger, illness and death
to begin with?

[PAUSE]

As Christians,
we have to accept 
that any answer we give
will not address the whole
problem of our pain.

What we do have to accept 
is the responsibility that we hear
for the way that things are.

For example,
if everyone looked after each other
and only consumed what they needed
and did not hoard things up,
there would be no need of money,
there would be no starving millions
there would be no people living in places 
where they might get 
infected by parasites.

If everyone loved each other
and trusted each other
and valued the trust 
others have in them,
the world would be a better place.

[PAUSE]

God's order of creation works
but we suffer 
when we corrupt it ourselves.

And we corrupted it 
from the beginning 
when we took the fruit 
at the instigation
of the Wicked Serpent.

Once we add
the chaos of our own selfishness 
into the order of God's Creation 
then it is no wonder that
there is poverty, illness and death.

[PAUSE]

But then, God loves us
and He wants us to be free
so it is out of Love 
that He allows us
to live in the consequences 
of our freedom
and yet He Himself
enters in to the chaos
we have caused 
to show us that
if we love Him
if we trust Him
if we follow and obey Him
we can find our way back 
to a universe 
that is ordered to joy
not just despite our free will
but because of our free will.

God gives grace to us all
to endure and learn from
the follies of this life.

He does not forget the hungry
but perhaps we should not
forget the hungry either 
and feed them 
because we love them.

He does not change 
the habits of parasites
but perhaps 
we need to find ways
if living our lives
so that no child lives
in places or conditions 
where they can be infected 
by parasites.

Perhaps we need to use
what God has given us
to treat all those who are ill.

Perhaps we need to live lives
so that we can prevent 
painful sufferings and
painful deaths.

[PAUSE]

While this sounds
like we're the ones to blame
for the disorder in the world 
we should remember that
we are affected by the disorder 
we inherit from those
who came before.

This is not a blame game.

God isn't here to condemn us
for not giving enough to the poor
or to charities that care for the sick.

Guilt is not something 
God wants for us.

So instead He feeds us
He shows us that His love
for us never stops
bur rather we should 
learn to love each other
as best we can,
limited though we may be 
in this fallen world.

We do what we can.

That's okay.

But we do it
with prayer 
and pleading 
for the bread of life 
to help us
and to nourish those
who are hungry.

If we just keep praying 
keep loving 
keep serving God
to the best of our 
abilities 
then we will have done
what we can.

We will have given
our paltry loaves 
and our scrawny little fish 
into those pierced hands 
and God will do the rest.

God will always 
order good food
for His children.

Sometimes we just need 
to go and collect it.

Saturday, July 06, 2024

The right sort of righteousness



Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity 

Does your righteousness
exceed that of 
the scribes and Pharisees?

What does this mean?

Are we talking about 
righteousness 
in what we think, 
or say, 
or do?

Of is it something we are?

We think of Abraham
being a righteous man
whose faith in God
was accounted to him
as righteousness.

There are two understandings
of righteousness in the Bible.

One is a broad sense
which is related to perfection.

A righteous man is one
whom he is meant to be.

And already we see God
present in this understanding 
of righteousness 
because God is responsible 
for giving us meaning
and showing us 
who we are meant to be.

The other sense
is a narrow, legal sense
of passing the right judgement 
on others.

And now we begin to see
how we must exceed
the righteousness 
of the Scribes 
and Pharisees.

[PAUSE]

The Scribes and Pharisees 
adhere to the narrow form 
of righteousness.

Things are righteous 
because the Pharisees 
say that they are righteous 
according to the Law of Moses.

In many ways,
they are trying to ensure
that God's law is kept 
in due order 
so that God may be worshipped.

That's actually a fine thing.

The Pharisee regards 
God's Law with respect 
and seeks to apply it 
as in compliance with God.

So what's gone wrong?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord Jesus
shows us 
that this view of righteousness 
is too narrow
and needs to be broadened.

It is against God's Law
to commit murder.

But Jesus broadens out
what the Law says.

It is not what God wants
for us to harbour anger
against our brother 
in our hearts.

To be angry with your brother
without a good reason
(if there is such a reason)
is to damage
our righteousness 
which puts us back into 
narrow sense of righteousness 
and puts us in danger of
judgement, council and hellfire.

To be angry with your brother
means that there is something wrong
which needs to be put right
before you can proceed.

[PAUSE]

Righteousness is related to being perfect
and this means that 
the Law is not enough
to call us righteous.

We need to be made righteous.

This means cultivating 
righteousness 
in our lives
as something to grow.

God imparts righteousness 
at our baptism 
and when we confess our sins
and when we receive the Eucharist.

And then we must grow it
so that it exceeds 
the narrow view of righteousness 
that the Scribes and Pharisees 
possess

Just as our justification 
is not a one-off event
but something that we must
work at in faith 
so our righteousness is 
something that we must work at
and cultivate
in order to enter the kingdom of God.

We need the right sort of righteousness,
nice and broad 
that grows beyond the confines 
of the law court
and into our hearts and minds.