Anglican Catholic Spirit?

 

How there is something indefinable about our faith.

Worth worship

Sermon for the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity 

So many people

seem to think

that Jesus never claimed

to be God.

There are so many places

where He does make that plain

such as saying 

"Before Abraham was, I am."

which causes the Pharisees 

to pick up stones

since Jesus has just used

the same words

that God uses in the Burning Bush

to Moses.

Jesus does not say explicitly 

"I am God!"

but it's there

in the Gospels.

And today 

we see Jairus

- at least it's probably Jairus

since St Matthew

doesn't say -

approach Jesus

to heal his daughter.

And crucially

what's the first thing

Jairus does?

He falls down and

worships Jesus.

This is exactly 

the same worship 

that Our Lord tells us

belongs to God.

The Greek word

that we translate as worship

literally means

to kiss the hand

in the same way

that a pet dog 

licks the hand of its master.

Is that how God wants us

to worship him?

[PAUSE]

The underlying idea

behind worship

is the amount of value 

we put upon a thing

or a person.

Worship is worth-ship:

that's where the word comes from.

The question is 

how do we demonstrate 

the worth something 

or someone has 

in our estimation?

If we regard someone 

as more important than us,

as possessing some 

power over us,

as someone whom we need

to live our lives,

then we have to demonstrate 

that respect.

We demonstrate it 

so that the person we value

knows we value them,

and we demonstrate it

to remind ourselves

if how much

that person means to us.

You can certainly see

how people who are shown

into the presence of

an emperor 

get on their knees

in knowledge 

that he has the power

of life and death over you.

Your bowing down 

is the outward act 

of your expression 

of the emperor's worth.

[PAUSE]

And we see Jairus 

(if it is indeed Jairus)

worshipping Jesus,

bowing before Him.

A leader of the Jewish community 

is bowing before this teacher 

and so shows Him of greater worth

than his own standing 

in the community.

But the Commandment says,

"Thou shalt not make unto thee 

a graven image, 

nor any manner of likeness, 

of any thing that is in heaven above, 

or that is in the earth beneath, 

or that is in the water 

under the earth;

thou shalt not bow down 

unto them, nor serve them."

Now, 

there are several times

when someone falls down 

to worship someone 

who isn't God.

This happens to St Paul

and Barnabus, 

who are mistaken 

for Greek gods,

and St John gets

terribly overawed

and tries to worship an angel

in the Revelation.

In each case,

where the worship 

is misplaced,

they say,

"don't worship us

we are not God."

But Jesus doesn't do that.

There is no rebuke 

for those

like the Magi,

the Leper ,

Jairus,

and the Disciples 

especially after 

St Peter walks on water

and again after the Resurrection,

all of whom 

worship Jesus as the Son of God.

But worship 

can go wrong.

[PAUSE]

The Roman Soldiers

who mock Jesus

before His crucifixion 

worship Him

St Matthew tells us that.

What does that mean?

It means 

that the soldiers

go through the motions

of worship,

bowing down 

and genuflecting.

But it isn't true worship 

because the intention 

to honour Jesus

is not there.

They do not see Him

as being of any value to them

so they have no respect for Him.

There is no actual worship here,

just the appearance of worship.

They worship Him in truth

because Jesus is truly God

but not in spirit

because they do not love Him.

[PAUSE]

And then there are

the Israelites 

who make a Golden Calf 

and worship it.

They believe that 

the God who saves them

from Egypt 

has the likeness of a calf.

But this is not true.

God does not have

the image of a calf.

The Israelites 

are worshipping in spirit 

because they intend to worship the calf 

but not in truth

because the calf is not God.

Further,

in the persecution under the Romans

Christians are compelled

to burn incense to the pagan gods.

They could do so,

secretly intending 

to burn the incense 

in honour of God.

But this is worship in spirit 

and not in truth.

The outward sign

and the inward intention

do not marry up.

[PAUSE]

Jesus says,

"God is a Spirit:

and they that worship Him

must worship Him

in spirit and in truth."

Jairus worships Jesus

in truth because he

perceives that

Jesus is God

and in spirit 

because he believes 

that Jesus can raise 

His daughter 

from the dead.

St Paul says that Jesus is 

the image of the invisible God.

When we see God with our eyes

it is Jesus Whom we see.

This makes sense

because the Father

is the source of all being

and stands outside the gaze

of anything He has created.

And the Holy Ghost is a spirit

who does not have a body.

It means that Jesus 

is the focus of our worship 

because we have someone 

visible to bow down to.

It means 

whenever we see 

a picture of Jesus

we can bow down

not to the picture

but the one in the picture.

[PAUSE]

We Catholics are often accused 

of worshipping statues

but we know this is not the case.

We venerate the saints

because we see Christ at work in them.

We venerate Mary greatly

because we see Christ born in her.

And we worship Christ

the image of the invisible God.

And we do what the Church has done

from the earliest times.

We venerate ikons,

sacred images,

because of who they depict.

Our outward worship 

is towards a picture 

of Christ

and our inward worship

is towards the Christ depicted.

We worship Christ truly and in spirit.

We don't worship

the block of wood 

with paint on it,

but the truth of Christ

the visible God.

If people cannot tell the difference 

then they are only watching our worship

at a superficial

and unspiritual level.

[PAUSE]

As Jairus worships 

the image of the invisible God

so must we venerate His image

with Jairus.

Ikons of the saints 

help us remember that

they are truly real

and truly alive

- spirit and truth.

Ikons of Our Lady

help us remember 

that God becomes a man

so that man can become like Him

in spirit and in truth.

Ikons of Our Lord,

show us the picture

of the One Who saves us

by showing us His very self

in spirit and in truth.

We are not worshipping 

a graven image,

but Christ Himself through

that image in the truth

of His Incarnation 

and we do so in spirit 

because we love Him.

Anglican Catholicism and the Reformation

Why the Reformation is not something that Anglican Catholics celebrate.

Present Tense Saints

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of All Saints

Our Lord sits

on the mountain 

to teach.

His disciples 

are those who

have climbed after Him

scaling the rocky crags

against gravity,

against comfort,

against the better judgment 

of others

to hear this Man teach.

Already,

they show themselves 

to be blessed

for "blessed are those

who hunger and thirst

for righteousness' sake

for theirs is

the Kingdom of Heaven."

And how the disciples

demonstrate that!

In clambering uphill

they have demonstrated 

their hunger and thirst

for the teaching of Christ 

because they know 

that what He teaches 

is not just righteous 

but Righteousness

itself.

Last week,

we recognise 

Jesus as our King

and this week 

we follow Him

and set ourselves apart for Him

from the World.

And if we set ourselves 

apart from the world

for Righteousness' sake

God sets us apart for Him.

We become holy.

We become saints.

[PAUSE]

We are only as holy

as far as we are apart from 

Sin, the World and the Devil.

Our salvation is 

precisely the end of 

our separation from God,

our return to the full health

that God has wanted for us 

from Eternity.

Our Lord promises those 

who hunger and thirst

for righteousness' sake

a place in His Kingdom 

which St Peter describes as an

eternal Kingdom,

something that even

the prophet Daniel knows to be true.

Something is Eternal

if it is connected 

with God's age.

Just as we have 

the Stone Age,

the Iron Age,

the Bronze Age,

whatever is Eternal

is of the God Age.

Think about that,

because,

for God,

Time is not a limitation.

He is as present now

as He was a million years ago

and a million years to come.

All Time is present to God

at once.

And this is the Eternal life

that He offers in His Kingdom.

He offers His saints

to be of His Age,

Eternal, 

not simply everlasting 

but unbound to Time.

St John tells us

that we cannot understand 

what we will be like

when we are in His Kingdom 

but we will be like Him

because we will see Him as He is.

When Jesus says

that God is not the God of the dead 

but of the living

He shows us that

Abraham,

Isaac,

Jacob,

Moses,

Elijah

and all the saints are still alive

and that Death 

for the saints

is an event,

not a state of being.

The saints are not dead.

[PAUSE]

And, we know that St Peter says

the ears of the Lord

are open to

the prayers of the righteous,

and their prayers ascend 

before God like incense.

St Jerome says,

"If the Apostles and Martyrs, 

while still in the body, 

can pray for others, 

at a time when 

they must still be anxious for themselves, how much more 

after their crowns, 

victories, and triumphs are won!"

We also no that 

nothing in Heaven and Earth

or under the Earth,

not even life and death

can separate us 

from the love of Christ.

And the saints are righteous 

because they show 

the love of Christ to us

even as Christ in Heaven 

shows His love for us on earth.

[PAUSE]

So,

the saints are alive,

but are no longer

bound by Time and Space.

The saints still love us

because they are perfected

in the love of God,

and Love is something 

that requires action.

The saints have passed 

through death 

but are neither 

separated from God

nor from us

because nothing separates us

from the love of God.

The saints pray

just as they have 

throughout their lives

hungering and thirsting

for Righteousness' sake.

Prayer is more than just words.

It is a communication 

at a deeper level between 

us and God

and 

us and those who love God.

Likewise,

we pray for our departed loved ones

for their happiness in God.

This prayer is an expression

of our continued love 

for those who have died.

The saints prayer for us

is an expression of

their continued love

for us who are yet to 

undergo death.

This is true communion

for these prayers

bring us closer to God 

because God is love.

This is precisely 

the communion of the saints

a communion expressed 

through mutual prayer

and, at its summit, 

Christ Himself 

in the Blessed Sacrament

of the altar.

[PAUSE]

We should rejoice

that we have such

a cloud of witnesses

cheering us on

bringing their concerns for us

to God,

and that our prayers

do the same

for those in need

whether living 

or departed.

There will be those

who try to show us

that we are wrong,

who say the saints are dead

who say the dead heart nothing

who say that praying for the dead

does nothing.

But these are they

who do not understand prayer

who do not understand death

and who do not understand 

that Love and Power are the same in God

and grow in the hearts 

of those who hunger and thirst 

for Righteousness' sake.

May Holy Mary,

Mother of God

and all the Holy Angels and Saints 

pray for us

and may the souls 

of the faithful departed 

through the love of God 

rest in peace.

Amen.