Minding the open book

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

Tubbo the Clown

is performing at Mia's party.

He gives Mia's mummy

a pack of cards

and asks her to pick a card

memorise it

and put it 

back in the pack

without telling him.

After some over theatrical

moans and groans,

waving of hands 

and a rubber chicken,

Tubbo says,

"eight of diamonds!"

"Yes!" exclaims Mia's mummy

Cue much applause

and bowing and tripping over

big clown shoes.

How does he do it?

Can Tubbo really 

read minds?

[PAUSE]

The more sceptical of us

might suggest that

he can't.

We would probably say

that he is using 

a rigged deck of cards.

He might be using 

the reflection

in Mia's mummy's glasses.

Or perhaps,

he is using some

deep psychological trick.

[PAUSE,]

Mind reading acts

these days

rely on careful observation

of a person.

Knowing how 

people act normally

and how they react

unconsciously to 

various events,

can give a gifted observer

a good idea of what

people are thinking.

Just subtle little mannerisms

can expose to an eagle-eye

what we are thinking.

Poker players call these 

little signs 'tells'

because they use them to

tell if someone is bluffing.

We're very used to this

with the people closest to us.

"That face" on a parent

usually means 

that you have done something wrong.

[PAUSE]

What, then, are we to make 

of Our Lord

knowing the thoughts

of the scribes

who are watching Him

heal a man with the palsy.

Is this an act of mind reading,

or has He seen "that face"

on the scribes

when He forgives

the paralysed man

his sins.

Do the scribes

have a "tell"?

We can understand

if this is the case.

We can see the sneers,

the raised eyebrows,

the hands balling 

into fists.

And we can tell 

that they are taking issue

with Our Lord's authority

to forgive sins.

We don't need to read minds

to know what they are thinking.

So perhaps Our Lord

isn't a mind reader at all.

Except...

[PAUSE]

He is.

But the minds being read

aren't just

the minds of the scribes.

Right at the beginning,

all we see is a paralysed man

being brought to

Our Lord by friends.

We see their faith in Jesus.

What we don't see

is that the man 

needs forgiveness

in order to be healed.

Our Lord is the first to admit

that not every illness 

is the result of sin.

But equally, 

some illnesses

might be the result 

of sin.

How does Our Lord know

that forgiving this man's sin

will heal him?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord knows his thoughts.

And He knows the thoughts

of the scribes.

He knows our thoughts

because He knows us.

He knows our "tells".

He knows our triggers.

He knows our deepest

darkest thoughts.

Got a deep dark secret?

Sonething you want 

to keep hidden?

Something which would 

mortify you if someone else knows?

Well, sorry, 

Our Lord knows it.

Does that make you 

uncomfortable?

Why?

[PAUSE]

If God knows our shame,

why is that a problem?

What we see here in front of us,

is a God Who doesn't raise 

His eyebrows,

doesn't tut-tut,

doesn't condemn,

but seeks to heal.

He wants to make us better.

He wants to forgive our sins.

But we need to come to Him

or be carried to Him

in order to find

the healing of our souls

through the forgiveness

of our sins.

We are sinners.

We know that

and we have a tendency

to scold others

or sneer at others

or avoid others 

because of their sins.

But God is not like that.

And He doesn't want us to be like that.

This is why priests

cannot reveal

what is told them in confession.

God wants us 

to confess to Him

and not be ashamed

of coming to confession.

We should be ashamed

of sinning.

We should not be ashamed

of repenting

of confessing

of wanting to be healed.

Because God is not

ashamed of creating us

as the Incarnation,

Death and Resurrection

proves in spades.

[PAUSE]

God reads our minds

because He knows us.

The converse is also true.

If we know God,

we know His mind too.

We can read the Mind of God

if we choose to.

But that means a life of 

searching for Him

and seeking His "tell"

which can only be found

in the Word of God.

Entitled to High Church?

Sermon for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

They say that a bad tenor is a form of piracy, being murder on the high Cs.

Why do we think that one note is higher than another? It's not as if we can see them - they are sounds, not sights. Yes, indeed, we may write notes as being higher or lower on the page, but why not left or right? Do we think that one note is higher than another because of how they are written, or is it something else?

[PAUSE]

It's interesting that different cultures have thought of notes as being high or low regardless of how they write the music down. Many think that it's because of where the notes feel in the body as you sing them. Low notes are in the belly and take less effort. High notes feel in the head and take more effort.

Indeed, it is the sense of effort that makes us think of climbing a ladder. Walking uphill takes more effort than walking down. 

You might now look and see why we're often called "High Church". We go to a lot of effort in decorating our churches and in the way in which we perform our liturgy. Low Church has a simple table with a white cloth. High Church has the Big Six on the altar with an appropriate frontal. The more ornate, the more effort, the higher church.

Low Church tend to put their effort into words and interior contemplation. High Church tend to put their effort into the decoration and engaging the senses. There is room for both.

To be high up in anything requires effort and people indeed put in the effort so that they can go up higher. The trouble comes when people think two rather pernicious things. They first think that their efforts entitle them to the high places, the best positions, the ring-side seats. They then think that, because they are in the high places, the best positions and the ring-side seats, they must be better than those who aren't.

And that's the problem.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord presents us with a wedding with lots of rooms. These days, we think of tables at the wedding breakfast. The better tables are those closest to the bride and groom.

If the Archbishop were to come in and demand a seat between Bridegroom and Bride just because he is the Archbishop, we know that something is wrong.

The archbishop would be entitled to sit in the top place here and now, because he is the Archbishop and his high office would entitle him to take this position. His effort and position means that he has authority here. 

But a wedding isn't like that. "High" and "Low" at a wedding don't mean the same as "High" and "Low" in church authority. To think that because we have a high position in one way, doesn't mean that we have a high position in every way. We cannot presume on our sense of entitlement.

Our Lord is demonstrating the danger of presuming entitlement which effectively comes from worshipping entitlement.

And people do worship entitlement.

[PAUSE]

Some people seem to think that, just because they have put the effort in to achieve something, doesn't mean that they are entitled to have that achievement recognised universally.

Some people seem to think that, just because they think they have put the effort in to achieve something, doesn't mean that they are entitled to have that achievement recognised universally.

It doesn't work like that.

High Mass is as valid as Low Mass. What matters is how we approach the sacrament.

At the wedding feast, it's not what you have achieved that determines your place, it's your relationship with the bride and groom.

And the Wedding Feast of the Lamb is no different.

Those who believe that they entitled to sit in the higher room will be disappointed.

Those whom the Bride and Bridegroom recognise will be invited to go up higher.

[PAUSE]

The more we value Jesus, the less we value the entitlements of this life. The more we learn to approach Him in reverence at His altar, and the more we learn to take Him away with us in our hearts, in our minds and in our lives, the less we need for the trappings of pride and reputation.

We are entitled to Heaven, but only through the love of Christ.

Bishop Apparent

Sermon for the 18th anniversary of Consecration of Bishop Damien Mead

Mitre, purple cassock, 

rochet, chimere, pectoral cross.

All items of apparel 

exclusive to a bishop.

Why on earth would anyone

long to wear them?

And yet some people do.

[PAUSE]

Look out on the street,

and you see people walking about.

They don't tend to stand out. 

Coats and hats, 

hoodies and jeans,

smart suits and scruffy tracksuits.

But a man

coming down the street

in a cope and mitre

seems rather odd.

Conspicuous,

attention-grabbing,

silly.

The dress of a bishop 

is distinctive

and indicative of

an authority

that comes down

through the ages.

It has a place

and that place is the church.

Indeed, where the people

gather around their bishop,

there is the Catholic Church.

The office of a bishop

is attractive to Christians

for this reason.

But can we be sure

that when we see

a man dressed as a bishop

that we see the Catholic Church?

[PAUSE]

Of course not!

An actor can dress as a bishop,

that doesn't mean that

he has the authority of a bishop.

Anyone,

man or woman,

can dress as a bishop

but only those who are truly

consecrated by the Church

are truly bishops.

And some people

long to dress as bishops

for that sense of authority

because they hope people

will listen to them

and give them some sense of respect.

These people

dress as bishops for themselves.

They desire the appearance 

of a bishop,

not the office of a bishop.

[PAUSE]

St Paul tells us

that to desire the office of a bishop

is a good thing.

To want to do

what bishops do

is something holy.

But not all are called

to do that.

Only those whom

God calls

and the Church recognises

in keeping with the authority

and teaching she has received

from Christ.

The first bishops

did not look like bishops

but they were bishops

setting the pattern for ours today.

The distinctive dress

of bishops may develop

over the ages,

but all bishops

possess the same, 

unchanging authority.

There is only One

Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church,

united across Time and Space,

and the bishops 

are an integral ingredient

of what it means for

the Church to be

Apostolic.

[PAUSE]

And we have a bishop,

and we are gathered 

around that bishop 

in order to do what the Church

has always done.

At the hands of our bishop,

we offer the Sacrifice of the Mass,

the same sacrifice

that the Church has always offered,

and we receive at His hands

the true Body and Blood

of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

This makes us members

of that One, Holy, Catholic

and Apostolic Church.

[PAUSE]

Of courss,

there will always be those

who say that

we are actors.

They will say that

our bishop is playing dress-up -

cosplaying.

They will say

that we are not really 

doing what we think we're doing.

They will say

that we do not

really have bishops

because we changed 

what bishops are.

But we haven't!

What do they think

we are doing?

Cosplay!

Okay, but why?

For what reason?

Why are you here today?

Why is our bishop here today?

We are here

in faith

to worship God in our Lord Jesus Christ

and offer the sacrifice of the Mass

according to the rites of Holy Church

and we intend 

to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.

Just as we intend 

to consecrate bishops

according to 

the One, Holy, Catholic 

and Apostolic Church

through the grace of God.

That is our intention.

It has always been our intention,

through 1054,

through 1534,

through 1992.

"Ah, you might intend it,

but it's not really happening,

is it?"

God will judge our intentions

and not men.

We will not force people

to receive from our bishops.

We will not insist 

that people accept our authority.

For Love does not insist

on His own way.

Let those who don't believe us

go their way in peace.

But as many as will have faith

and accept the ministry

and authority of our bishop,

these will receive

the fulness of 

the One, Holy,.Catholic

and Apostolic Church.

[PAUSE]

And to our bishop

who does the office of a bishop

rather than just 

looking like a bishop.

Thank you.

And 

Thank God.

Perspectives of Mammon

Sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Does Our Lord really not understand mortgages?

We need to think about how we are going to pay off our debts otherwise, we will be homeless.

If we don’t spend some time thinking about which secondary school our child needs to go to, then they will end up somewhere horrid.

If we don’t think about that presentation for work, we will lose our jobs.

So, for Our Lord to tell us not to take any thought for tomorrow is rather more worrying, especially when it suggests that, if we do take thought for tomorrow, we’re not really displaying faith in God Who loves us and provides for us.

Surely, we do need to plan for the future. Surely, we need to think about pensions, and mortgages and payslips and what we are going to eat.

Our Lord suggests that being anxious for the future is almost a sin.

[PAUSE]

Anxiety is rife in our modern society. More and more people are being treated for anxiety, especially since the economic turbulence started twenty years ago and exacerbated some four years ago. Couple that with the political situations, the wars and rumours of wars. Surely, we do need to think forward.

And isn’t the Lord being a little inconsistent? If the five foolish virgins had the presence of mind to fill their lamps well before the bridegroom came, as He tells us, surely they would have entered into the feast with the five wise virgins.

What’s the problem? Where have things gone wrong?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord reminds us of the two masters: God and Mammon. They are entirely contradictory but only one is the Creator. What actually is Mammon, then?

Many people have thought that Mammon is actually a demon sent to tempt those prone to avarice. In fact, Mammon is just a Aramaic personification of wealth. The word is just used in the same way that we would talk about Death as the Grim Reaper or Love as being a chubby cherub bearing a bow and arrow. Mammon is an idea, a meme. It simply focuses the mind on our concepts of wealth and riches.

Our Lord is contrasting two influences in our lives. One is God our Father seeking to love us and to share His good things with us – His good things, not the things we think are good. The other is Mammon, Wealth, Riches, the sparkling mountain of gold upon which lurks Smaug the dragon. Mammon is what we think good things are, and we think that they are good irrespective of whether they are actually good.

Mammon arises when we make the decision as to what is good for us rather than rely on God Whose very nature tells us what is good for us.

[PAUSE]

The trouble is that we live in a society in which material things are shoved in our face. Every advertisement promises us something good. Every security system is a testament to the evil robbers who seek to steal our wealth. Every bank is encouraging us to invest our money into computer systems that have made our wealth invisible and susceptible to instant deletion by a strategic power cut. Even our banknotes are IOUs – “I promise to pay the bearer…”

Our anxiety is heightened when we can’t see our riches for what they are. In fact, the world around actively wants us to be unable for us to see our riches for what they are. The world does not want the spell of Mammon to be broken so that, while we worry about what we have and what we don’t, we can be controlled through delight and through dread.

Our Lord urges us to see the better path.

[PAUSE]

First, we are urged to grow in faith. This takes time, but Our Lord tells us that even a grain of faith makes a difference. We are to look to God as the source of what we need. Yes, we have mortgages, investments, pensions, and debts, and He knows that. He doesn’t ask that we forget that, nor live irresponsibly, but rather to focus on Him.

Second, we are urged to see God as the source of what is really good, not our belly. The beauty of Lent and Advent, as well as the Ember Days, is that days of fasting are our opportunity to gain control over our own bodies and to look for what is truly nourishing. Riches will not buy our way into Heaven. Indeed, we shall spend seventy, eighty, ninety years on this earth and Eternity somewhere else, preferably in the Kingdom of God.

Third, we are urged to focus on God’s love for us. Anxiety is real and growing, but the more people see that there is hope, security and joy in the Church, the more they can put their problems into a better perspective. The more active love we can show people, the more they can realise that even in the worst-case scenario, there is true hope, justice and resolution. Anxiety might be seen as a lack of faith in God. In truth it is a loss of perspective which we can regain by struggling through hardship and worry to the realisation that God truly is in control.

We, the Church have a duty to love people and give assistance where we can so that this grip of Mammon can be loosened.

[PAUSE]

Easier said than done?

Possibly, but the grip of our economy is rooted in Mammon, one way or another. We cannot serve two masters, and so we need to learn to serve only one. That is going to take time. This is why our salvation is not a one-off event but a life-long struggle against Mammon as well as the other temptations. It is part of our life’s walk with Christ to disengage from worrying about material things that are ultimately immaterial. It takes work, prayer, silence and love.

It’s not as if we don’t have a reason to worry, but rather that this reason needs perspective and only the perspective of Almighty God will do.

 

Priests, lepers and rubber stamps

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Why is the tenth leper so good?

Just because 

he comes back 

to glorify Jesus? 

Is that all?

Where are the other nine?

Doing what they are told to do!

They have been told 

to show themselves 

to the priests.

That is what they are doing!

Only the Samaritan turns back.

If anything, 

this Samaritan leper 

is being disobedient.

He's not doing 

what Our Lord tells him.

And he is praised for it!

[PAUSE]

Why does Our Lord 

send the lepers to the priests 

in the first place?

This is standard Jewish practice. 

Lepers are not permitted 

to be part of Society 

on the grounds of their 

contagious disease. 

That's a standard practice 

and we do it even today! 

Think of the self-isolation 

that we do when we have COVID. 

Of course with leprosy, 

or whatever skin disease these ten men have,

 it stays contagious for longer. 

In order to re-enter Jewish society, 

a (hopefully former) leper 

has to show himself 

to the priests 

who administer their own tests 

to see whether he is free 

from the disease.

Let's be clear on this: 

in order to be able to re-enter society, 

it is the priests that need 

to declare a man clean. 

The person with the disease 

doesn't get to say, "I'm all betfer!" 

Even if everyone can see 

that there are 

no more spots or lesions 

on his body, 

only the priest can say 

whether a man is free 

from the disease.

It's the priest who holds 

the rubber stamps marked 

"clean" and "unclean".

[PAUSE]

So the ten lepers 

go their way and, 

on the way, 

they are healed.

But the nine Jewish lepers 

won't know that 

until they are seen 

by the priests. 

Even if they say, 

"ooh I suddenly feel better!" 

or "gosh, Gerald! 

You don't look blotchy any more!" 

they can't say that 

they are healed 

until they have seen the priests.

And here's the thing.

The priests don't heal them.

It's not they who are making 

the disease go away. 

They are just declaring a fact.

These men are healed 

through a distinct action 

of God Himself.

And one man, 

the Samaritan, 

sees it for what it is.

[PAUSE]

For someone as hated 

as the Samaritan, 

it's entirely possible 

that the priests 

will not declare him clean, 

just because he is a Samaritan.

But that's not fair.

He is clean.

He does not need 

the Jewish Law 

to tell him that.

It is not the Jewish Law 

that saves him.

It is Christ.

And he sees 

and turns back 

to the One Who has done this, 

Who has made him.healthy again. 

This man is in utter joy 

at knowing 

the Source of his healing 

and turns to worship Him.

And a few years after this, 

a faithful Jew, 

a great Pharisee, 

full of the knowledge 

of the Law and the prophets 

will see exactly the same thing.

[PAUSE]

St Paul comes 

to the same 

God-given revelation 

as this former leper. 

We are not saved 

by what the Jewish Law 

does for us. 

Law can only tell us 

whether we are 

right or wrong, 

clean or unclean, 

fit for Society or unfit for Society. 

It is not by doing 

the works of the Law 

that makes us right with God. 

We are not justified by works of the Law.

"Thy faith hath made thee whole."

The leper is cleansed 

and made whole 

by Our Lord 

because he has faith 

in Our Lord 

and acts on this faith. 

We, too, are justified 

- made whole, 

made right with God, 

but not by faith alone 

rather by a faith acting 

in obedience, 

in harmony,

in co-operation

not with a Law which cannot save, 

but with Christ Who does save.

In this miracle, 

Our Lord is completely respecting 

the integrity of the Law 

by telling the lepers to obey it.

Yet, through the faith of one man 

we are shown that

it is the Christ that saves, 

not the Law.

[PAUSE]

Our healing,

our salvation,

comes from presenting 

ourselves to Christ

as we are,

all fractures, foibles

and fallibilities.

And then, 

we hear the voice of Our Lady,

"Do whatever He tells you."

And we do that

with faith in Him

and in that faith

we find His healing for us

which begins with Eternal life.

That is salvation.

That is His promise.

That is our hope and joy.

Surprising the Lawyer

Sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Where on earth did this lawyer come from?

We see our Lord receiving back the seventy disciples from a highly successful mission in which the words of love have been backed up with signs and wonders from Almighty God.

We hear Him telling them how blessed they are at what has happened at their hands.

And then, from nowhere, up pops a lawyer to tempt Our Lord on matters of law.

Who is he? Where has he come from?

Either he is one of the disciples, or he is a gatecrasher.

Which is it?

Time to do some detective work!

[PAUSE]

What do we know about this lawyer?

We know first that he is described as a "certain lawyer". This might suggest that he is known.

Second, we know that he knows the two most important commandments to love God and neighbour because Our Lord tells him that he has got that right.

Third, we know that it is important for him to appear to be right in the eyes of men. He wants to tempt Our Lord and wishes to justify himself before the disciples. 

The result is one of the most well-known parables about who our neighbour is.

So who is this lawyer?

[PAUSE]

He is clearly known to the disciples and has clearly been listening to Our Lord's teaching, but it is also apparent that he has only done so in order to trap Our Lord. He is a hanger-on with apparently less than honourable motives. What we see here is another attempt to undermine Our Lord's authority.

"Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

As we watch we notice that Our Lord doesn't answer the question - at least not immediately. Rather than give an answer, He seeks to establish the legal basis on which this lawyer is asking his question. To do so means that the lawyer must answer or show that he doesn't know his own career.

As a result, he answers his own question.

What must we do to inherit eternal life? Love God with every fibre and faculty of our being and love our neighbour as ourself, as one of our family, as one with whom we share a God-given and God-loved nature.

He can't argue any more. The lawyer has answered his own question.

And now, he feels foolish for even asking. So, just to save face, he tries a technicality.

"Who is my neighbour?"

The lawyer asks to try and force Our Lord into a tricky situation.

For the Lawyer, "neighbour" means Israelite. If Our Lord affirms this, then He undoes all His work in showing His love for the Samaritans, the Romans, the Greeks and the Syro-Phoenicians and all mankind.

But if Our Lord says that "neighbour" means anyone including Samaritans, Romans, Greeksvand Syro-Phoenicians, then he can denounce Our Lord as denying what the Law explicitly says.

How can Our Lord escape this trap?

He gives us His parable.

[PAUSE]

In this parable that Our Lord is telling us it is the Samaritan that shows love. Not the priest, not the Levite, not the representatives of the best of Israelite society. It is the Samaritan who is obeying the commandment. The lawyer can't quibble over that. The law is being obeyed.

Neighbourhood can't go one way. If Tom is near to you, then you are near to Tom. So if Tom is your neighbour, then you are his. If you deserved to be loved, then so does Tom.

If Samaritans are capable of loving their neighbour, then they are capable of being loved because they can be neighbours.

A masterstroke and God be praised in Our Lord Jesus Christ!

[PAUSE]

The Law of the Old Testament is not denied nor criticised nor disobeyed, but it is cherished and obeyed to the full. The laws of Jewish rituals and ceremonies may no longer apply to us who live in the New Covenant, but the Law of Love was written for everyone for all time!

The law to love goes deeper than any law written on scrolls and parchment because it is written in our very beings.

If we are capable of being loved, then we are capable of loving. 

If we are capable of loving, then we are capable of being loved.

No exceptions.

Our Lord has created us because He loves us from Eternity and it is in Eternity that He means for us to live.

For that to happen we must choose to grow in love and thus bring ourselves to fruition in Him, for God is Love, and Love does not insist on its own way. 

In using the Law to thwart those who ask questions in bad faith, Our Lord shows us that it has always been His intention for Him to be our neighbour and we His.

Ephphathahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

What a glorious word! Ephphatha! Be open! Our English pronunciation of the word doesn’t do it justice. This is because Greek doesn’t have the same quantity of guttural letters as Hebrew and Aramaic do. The best they can do is the “h” in “help” or “ch” as in “Bach”. In Aramaic, the last Hebrew letter of Ephphatha isn’t accounted for in our English bibles but it is a letter called chet that roughly makes the same sound as when you breathe on your glasses to clean them.

It is also the same sound that you hear the Bishop make when he breathes into the Oil of Chrism or into the font at the Paschal Vigil. That’s not an accident. The Bishop is using the authority which has been passed to him through the Apostles from Our Lord. Indeed, we know that Our Lord breathes on His disciples saying, “receive the Holy Ghost.” The Bishop is doing that self-same thing.

The Hebrew word for “spirit” is, again, difficult to spell in English. It looks like ruach but it ends with the same Hebrew letter chet – that hard breathing sound as if you were cleaning glass. What is very interesting is that there is this relationship between spirit and breath. We sing, “breathe on me, Breath of God” and Whom do we mean? Clearly, we are talking about the Holy Ghost.

[PAUSE]

Notice what is happening here. We see this deaf and mute man approach Our Lord. From the fact that he has a speech impediment, we can reasonably assume that he was born deaf and that he has simply never been able to learn how to speak because of his inability to hear. Like the man born blind, he comes to Jesus imperfectly made seeking to be made whole.

What happens next is quite telling: Jesus is taking him aside from the multitude, putting His fingers into his ears. He is spitting (yuck!) and touching his tongue. See, He is looking up to heaven, sighing, and saying to this man, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

He takes him aside. This man as a person, not God’s magic show participant. He puts His fingers in his ears, touches his tongue with spittle. He looks to Heaven and sighs. Sighs? He breathes out on this man and utters the word “Ephphathahhhhh” with that breath.

We are witnessing something truly fantastic. We are witnessing Creation itself. New ears, new tongue, new life! Notice, that we see here the Father in Heaven, the Son touching the man, and the Holy Ghost pouring forth from Our Lord upon this most fortunate of men. We see here a man who is touched, healed and recreated by God: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This is one act of creation by one God in three Persons. And we get to witness it too, two thousand years later.

So why don’t we get healed like that? Shouldn’t our bishop come to us and breathe all over us and heal us?

[PAUSE]

We do have our monthly healing services and they are very important, but we remember that our focus must be on our souls and bringing ourselves in line with God. St Paul complains that he has his thorn in the flesh which God doesn’t take away from him. God tells St Paul that His grace is sufficient for Him. Life is not about the healing of the body which is mortal but the healing of the soul first because the soul is immortal. It is in our very selves that we need to be healed first because it is in our souls that we orient our lives to move towards God. Our prayers for healing must not be demands for healing. Healing prayers are about our standing with God, in God and by God as broken beings, that need healing in ways we don’t appreciate. While pain is awful, and the suffering of others unbearable, we bring to God in our prayers for healing all those imperfections, all those failures of body, mind and spirit to work perfectly. In our prayer for healing we bring our own inability to hear God’s word, our inability to see Him at work, our inability to speak His love and our inability to control the forces of evil that whisper deliciously in our ears daily.

And what does God do?

Many would say our prayers fall on deaf ears.

[PAUSE]

But there is none as deaf as the one who chooses not to hear. As Christians, we choose to hear. While we present God with all that we need, we receive grace from Him – He promises that. That grace might heal us straight away. That grace might take five days, weeks, months, years to heal us. That grace may never heal us, not in the way we expect, but will bring us a life lived with, despite and because of our pains, sorrows and sufferings. We may not see it, but a life lived in prayer within the darkness of pain, may prove to be truly most wonderful and glorious after death when we see that life with God by our side as we look on it in the context of Eternity.

Just as the Holy Trinity goes beyond our understanding, so His healing of our imperfections will go beyond our understanding. The more we pray, the more we will come to know how He is working with us.

And, when our eyes finally close in death, then we shall hear that word, “Ephphathahhhh!”

The most important sixteenth of a square inch

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the Sunday in the Octave of the Assumption

Is that it?

A little flake

a sixteenth of 

a square inch in size?

And you're calling

that a significant relic?

You must be joking!

People might look

at our relic on the Lady Chapel altar

and think just these things.

It's true.

It might be housed

in a very special reliquary

but our relic 

is just a tiny, tiny scrap

of material.

It's marginally less underwhelming

than a Mr Whippy ice cream

for dessert at The Ritz.

Until you think about it.

[PAUSE]

Let's be clear.

On Our Lady Chapel altar

is a relic

of Our Lady's veil.

It may be tiny.

But one thing is clear.

However tiny it is.

Our Lady,

the Queen of Heaven,

the Theotokos

the Mother of God

has touched it.

The same hands

as those which nursed

Our Redeemer as a baby

and held His body

taken down from the cross

have touched

that little spot of material.

We have a direct connection

to the truth of the Gospels,

and it is among us.

[PAUSE]

People might think

how silly it is

to get worked up

about a 2000 year-old 

fragment of cloth.

But we have every reason to celebrate

especially as there are

no physical relics of Our Lady's body.

No-one has a relic 

of Our Lady's body.

The heads of St Peter and St Paul

are in the Vatican.

There are incorrupt bodies of 

St Francis Xavier

and St Padre Pio

and others 

All the apostles of the New Testament

have bodily relics.

But there are none 

of Our Lady.

Not one.

Not even her hair.

What does this tell you?

[PAUSE]

There are no bodily relics

because Our Lady's body

is no longer on Earth.

She has a tomb 

in the Garden of Gethsemane,

but it is empty.

This makes 

her relic so much more important.

It proves that she exists.

It proves she has a connection with us

despite being in Heaven.

Her veil for us

becomes yet another thread

that ties the reality of Earth

with the reality of Heaven.

Mary is testament 

to our salvation.

Whatever Our Lord assumes

that He saves.

He assumes our humanity

to save our humanity.

He assumes our will

to save our will.

He assumes His mother 

to save our human family.

And the evidence is there

in our Lady Chapel.

[PAUSE]

But Our Lady still shares 

something with us.

She touches her son

at His birth and His death.

And with her,

we touch her son

in the Eucharist.

This is the gift Our Lord

shares with all of us.

In assuming His Mother,

she becomes our Mother

to venerate and honour,

for we must always honour

our father and our mother

as the Lord commands.

And she shares her son with us

and her concern for us

is His concern for us.

[PAUSE]

It may be tiny

but that sixteenth of a square inch,

is evidence of our salvation

and our welcome into

the court of Heaven.

Jesus wept!

Sermon for the tenth Sunday after Trinity

Children are horrible!

Any parent knows why

children are horrible.

They break your heart,

that's why.

"Don't go too near the edge!"

Splash!

"Mummy!"

"Leave that priceless antique alone!"

Crash!

"Mummy!"

"If you eat all that, you'll be sick!"

"Mummy!"

Scrub, scrub scrub.

There are times when children

just won't listen,

go their own way

and end up needing to be bailed out.

That's all very well, when it comes

to ponds, 

Ming vases 

and wet patches on the carpet,

but you know very well,

that there are some scrapes

that you can't get them out of,

and some that are positively terrible.

Being a parent 

sometimes means 

sitting down and weeping

for the child

that is on a dreadful path

because you can't reach them.

[PAUSE]

It's not for a want of trying.

You've taught them yourself,

they've had all the right lessons

in PHSE at school,

they've seen all the cautionary tales

on television

and yet, they still go down the path

that you know full well

leads to great pain,

and there's nothing you can do

because you've done everything.

Your child must take

the consequences of their actions,

and that is hard.

And when you know

those consequences

are now unavoidable,

all you can do is weep.

[PAUSE]

God weeps.

He weeps over Jerusalem,

over Ephraim His beloved child,

over the efforts of

thousands of artisans

and craftsmen whose faith,

blood, sweat and tears,

built the temple to worship Him.

He weeps because 

He has come to them,

urged them to return to the Way,

showed them what the Scriptures mean,

commanded them to love,

love God,

love neighbour

love enemy,

and they will not listen.

They continue

along the same path

which is not the way

to salvation,

but the way to complete

and utter destruction.

God sees

and God weeps.

[PAUSE]

"Ah!" says the atheist,

"If God were all powerful,

then He would stop the consequences.

He would rescue them.

He would stop them from falling.

What God is this,

Who stands and weeps

like a big sissy?"

It seems like

these folk

have never really been parents.

If you love your children,

you love them as they are.

While you do your best

to teach them about life,

they have their own minds

their own lives,

their own experiences,

their own authentic selves.

They are not extensions of you.

While we are commanded

to honour our father and our mother,

we are not commanded to become

their clones,

and, if we're honest,

we don't want our children

to be carbon copies of us.

We want better for them

than that.

God has given us

our very selves,

our own separate beings.

We are not meant to be His clones,

but we are meant

to have a hand

in our own creation

in our own perfection

in our own reality.

God wants us to be

people who are truly authentic

and thar means

taking the consequences

that our choices have 

upon our very selves.

He will not violate this,

any more than we can control

or would want to control 

our children.

To violate this

would mean that God

would violate His own nature,

for His nature is Love.

He prefers the pain

of frustration,

of grief,

of suffering,

of the Cross,

than the destruction

of our being ourselves.

And,

while God the Father cannot suffer,

while God the Holy Ghost cannot suffer,

God the Son can,

because He has taken on 

our full humanity

so that we can take on

His full divinity.

We can take on His divinity

but we can choose not to,

by failing to know Him,

by failing to receive Him,

by failing to love Him.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord stands and weeps

for those who choose destruction

rather than life.

He stands and rejoices

for those who return to Him

ready to share Eternity with Him.

Weeping may endure for a night,

but joy cometh in the morning,

the morning of Eternity's sunrise.

I O U one sermon

Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Trinity

There are those who claim that Our Lord is a revolutionary.  There are those who claim that Our Lord seeks only to reform society, not tear it to shreds. There are those who claim that Our Lord has no interest in politics and what governs how societies operate but rather direct souls to the Kingdom of God.

What do you think? Where does Our Lord fit in, politically? Is He authoritarian, liberal, conservative, revolutionary or completely apolitical?

[PAUSE]

Imagine then, a manager of a national bank who has been told he is on two weeks’ notice. Looking at his customers’ mortgages, he halves them all, reducing the debt of several thousand people. Will the district manager commend him for his actions, like the master of Our Lord’s steward?

Why not?

In fact, is the master in Our Lord’s parable even like real masters of stewards.

Our Lord is presenting a scenario that makes no fiscal sense, nor does it make sense to anyone who is owed lots of money by several people. It’s a parable that makes very little sense to us because this is not how banks, building societies and mortgage lenders work. Indeed, how would we react if we were in the master’s shoes and saw those in debt to us relieved by someone who works for us?

What the Lord is describing would be described as fraud these days and this shows us that money has become completely entwined with law. By reducing the debt of others, the steward is causing financial chaos. Indeed, think of the mess that our errant bank manager would cause by slashing people’s mortgages willy-nilly. The law would come down on him like a tonne of bricks!

And what does the steward get? What does the bank manager get?

[PAUSE]

Grateful people. People who are willing to return the favour. People who now see something of greater importance than the value of money because someone saw their friendship as more important than their debts.

And that’s important for today. Our banks rely on selling debts to one another. It was this behaviour that caused the great economic crash of 2008. As far as banks are concerned, our debts are their bread and butter.

But our society doesn’t just operate on our monetary debts, it also operates on our moral debts too. We say that a man going to prison is paying his debt to society. When someone does something kind to us, we are morally obliged to them – we owe a debt of gratitude.

The weird thing is, we speak of debt as if it were something, some commodity to buy and sell, something to pay back. But what is a debt really? We know what fifty pence looks like but what does a debt of fifty pence look like? Our minds can’t turn it into a thing. The best we can do is to think about it as a place where fifty pence should be and isn’t.  A debt can only become real as a relationship between people. If Dan lends fifty pence to Tom, then there is an expectation that, at some point that fifty pence is given back. If Dan says, “forget about the fifty pence” then suddenly the debt vanishes.

Debt exists only as an expectation between two people. As soon as the expectation is altered the debt is altered.

That’s all that the steward is doing – he’s changing the situation by changing the relationships and creating new relationships based on something more valuable than debt – the kindness of others.

[PAUSE]

We often think of Sin as a debt but, again, Sin is defined by a relationship. We hear it said that Jesus pays the price for our sins, but who is He paying the price to? Do our sins steal anything from God? No, because the Earth is the Lord’s and all that therein is. Do our sins steal anything from the Devil? No, because the Devil is not another God, but a creature like the rest of us.

Sins are like debts because they change the relationship with God, but they can’t be passed around like monetary debts. Our sin remains our sin, because it is our relationship with God that is damaged and requires repair. Our Lord offers Himself on the Cross as that atoning sacrifice for sin – a demonstration that God still loves us and that His relationship with us is unchanged. On the cross, that relationship is restored and Sin is shown up as being a complete nonentity that only exists when we allow ourselves to become enslaved to it. The moment we let it go, the moment we claim Christ’s death as our own, that is the moment when sin has no effect on us. Sin disappears with God’s forgiveness, just as a hole in the wall disappears when the stone is put in its place.

Does this not put us in God’s debt?

[PAUSE]

A debt of gratitude certainly, and a debt that cannot be repaid.

But then, God doesn’t want it to be repaid.

He just wants that relationship with us, just like the steward pays the debt of others to build a relationship with them.

We owe it to Him to love Him, and this debt will make us Eternally joyful.

 

Mindful of God

Sermon for the eighth Sunday after Trinity

Our Lord says

that He is the Good Shepherd

and that He lays His life down

for His flock.

If He is our shepherd,

isn't it His job

to watch out 

for ravening wolves

in sheep's clothing?

Are we sheep,

or aren't we?

[PAUSE]

Analogies only go so far,

and Our Lord is deliberately

stretching His own analogy

to show us what He wants for us.

Yes,

we are like sheep.

We need someone 

to guide us on the way home

- home being heaven

where our destiny lies.

We need someone

to lead us into green pastures

and feed us with good food

that nourishes both body and soul.

We need someone

to protect us from our predators

who seek to rip us from Christ's love.

We need a Shepherd.

But this Shepherd is not 

going to do it all for us.

We need to follow Him.

He is not going to drag us

behind Him

on a trolley.

He is a Shepherd,

not a carthorse.

We have to follow Him.

We actively have to get up

and walk in His direction,

follow His commands 

and this means watching out

for wolves in sheep's clothing.

We can't walk faithfully 

and blindly.

We have to think,

judge,

consider,

evaluate.

We have to make 

our own decisions

which can act in alignment

with our faith in Jesus,

but also against our faith in Jesus.

We are given faith by grace,

but we must co-operate with that grace

for our faith to grow.

And if our faith grows

it begins to recognise

the voice of the Shepherd.

As it grows in us,

our faith influences our ability

to reason and decide,

to recognise and to judge

and understand 

which actions are good

and which actions are not,

whose teaching is good

and whose teaching is not,

which law is good

and which law is not.

[PAUSE]

God has given us minds

to use, reason deduce and understand,

and He expects us to use them.

Even Our Lord learns

His Jewish Faith at His Mother's knee.

He grows in stature and knowledge.

Just like we have to.

Not every voice you hear

is leading you to God

and you have to learn His voice.

While Our Lord is our Good Shepherd

and expects us to learn

to distinguish between His voice

and the howls of hungry wolves

He is never far from us.

A Shepherd is always at hand.

Even if we do go astray,

He is there for us to turn to,

and to learn from.

But He is not going to do

our learning for us.

He loves us too much

to diminish our humanity

by turning us into puppets.

We play a part in our own salvation ,

otherwise our humanity 

is not full.

[PAUSE]

We are not to listen blindly

to others,

but to learn from Christ

what is good for us.

After all, how do you know

that this sermon 

doesn't come from

a wolf in sheep's clothing?

A meal of fish, lamb and bread.

Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

Seven loaves.

Oh, and a few small.fish.

Well they were a bit of an afterthought, weren't they? Is their presence significant?

Practically, we would expect fish to be on the menu. These folk are travelling with Our Lord from the Sea of Galilee. And of course, St Peter, St Andrew, St James and St John are all fishermen. It stands to reason that there are dried fish about for a snack.

But there aren't that many. In comparison with four thousand people, the number of fish is tiny. The miracle still holds. 

So why aren't there fish at the Last Supper? If fish are a common food, why doesn't Our Lord give us Himself under the appearance of fish? Why does He give Himself under the appearance of bread?

[PAUSE]

The first thing to note is that while Our Lord is feeding four thousand, He is not giving them communion. The miracle is purely practical: four thousand hungry souls require something to eat. At the Last Supper, Our Lord is in a completely different setting - a last meal with His friends to establish His Church through the covenant in His blood. The presence of the fish in the feeding of the four thousand shows us that Our Lord can take what He is given and use it to supply people's needs.

But the question still stands. Why give us His body and blood under the appearance of bread and wine?

[PAUSE]

As we see, fish are only really available in fishing communities. Bread, on the other hand, is universal, whether it be leavened or unleavened. This makes it easy for the Church to be universal and for the sacrament to be readily available.

But wouldn't it be more obvious if Our Lord used lamb in Eucharist rather than bread? Isn't He supposed to be the Paschal Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

Again, we run into the fact that bread is widely more available than any meat. It also has another property that fish or lamb don't: it can be broken and divided and still remain largely the same.

Those who don't believe in Our Lord's presence in the Eucharist often jeer at us when we receive communion.

"Well, which bit of Jesus are you eating there?

His arm? His big toe?"

They don't understand what they are saying, but they have just explained why Our Lord is umder the apoearance of bread - one wafer looks much like another. We aren't receiving a bit of Our Lord: each one of us receives His whole body, soul, mind and divinity - His full self!

Bread mediates that for us.

How He does it is as mysterious as the miracle of feeding four thousand people with five loaves and a few fish. We don't know how He does it. We know that He does it.

This may confound physics and metaphysics, but Our Lord shows us that as His body is broken for us, it doesn't make Him less. Rather it makes Him more present because He reaches more people.

Does that mean the Body of Christ can be divided?

[PAUSE]

Well, yes, insofar as it can reach more people who hunger for the love that He has for us, but no in that what each one of us receives is truly Him indivisible.

This is the paradox. This is the miracle.

Perhaps also we see how it is possible that there is One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and yet there be so many churches. The Body of Christ is divided to reach as many as will receive Him but is united in the One True Lord Jesus Christ to Whom be all honour, praise and glory forever!

How not to be angry?

Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

When people 

encounter the Christian Faith,

they usually very quickly

bring up the question of Hell

and what you can be 

punished for Eternally.

Can you go to Hell 

for using your neighbour's WiFi?

Can you go to Hell

for staring too long

at a naked dummy 

In a shop window?

Can you go to Hell 

for eating somebody else's 

cheese straws?

Can you go to Hell for emotions?

Can you go to Hell for...

Enough already!

[PAUSE]

There is an obsession

among non-Christians

and the Eternal flames.

Why?

The idea scares them.

Some say it isn't true

and deny the existence of Hell

or that Hell is eternal.

Some will become worried

that a single action

will lose their salvation.

An old Victorian belief

is that a dodgy potato

could send you to Hell

through indigestion.

It is ridiculous.

[PAUSE]

Our Eternal fate is based 

on how we grow in God.

When Our Lord shows us

the parable of the talents

He shows us that what matters

is the conscious effort 

that we put into our faith

that makes the value 

of the talent increase.

It isn't how we seek to grow in Christ

it's that we seek to grow in Christ.

We cast ourselves into Hell

for rejecting Christ

to the extent that we alter ourselves

in order that we cannot be saved.

If we refuse the Eternal medicine

then we shall be Eternally ill.

Hell is serious.

Deadly serious.

[PAUSE]

Yet Our Lord seems

to show us that what we do

can destine us for Hell.

If we are angry with our neighbour

without a cause

we will have to make an account

before the judge.

If we say to our neighbour, 

"Raca!" 

- "Empty head"!

an unthinking insult 

said in the heat of the moment

- will have to make an account 

before a full blown tribunal

of the supreme court.

If we call our neighbour, 

"you fool"

(the Greek word is

where we get our word, moron)

deliberately and wilfully,

filled with anger,

then we are destined for Hell!

These are the words of Christ,

and they make us

uncomfortable.

[PAUSE]

But we need understand 

what Hell is.

We say, 

"eternal separation from God".

Yet He is always near us,

whether we reject Him

or not.

In Hell, 

we reject any knowledge of God.

God is love

and anger leads to hate.

In Hell, 

we know only hate,

we will not know love,

even though God still loves us.

In Hell,

we make our own rules

because we reject God's authority.

In Hell

we judge by what 

we say is right,

because we reject God's goodness.

Imagine so many people together

for Eternity

all rejecting faith, hope, love, 

truth, order, generosity,

reason, common decency,

even health of body and soul,

because they know better than God.

This is why Hell 

is so mindnumbingly terrifying,

and anger born of hatred

leads us here.

[PAUSE]

So, if we're angry with someone,

we should leave our gift at the altar

and be reconciled?

No.

That's not what Our Lord tells us.

Hear His words:

"If thou bring thy gift to the altar,

and there rememberest 

that thy brother hath ought against thee,

leave there thy gift 

and go and be reconciled 

with thy brother..."

He's telling us

that if we think

someone is angry with us,

then it's our job

to be reconciled.

But that's backwards,

isn't it?

[PAUSE]

No. 

If we think someone

is in danger 

of going to Hell

because of their hatred of us,

we need to do something,

because that is what love does.

If we love our neighbour

as the Lord commands,

then we cannot simply

let them go to Hell.

We have to fight for them.

Our Lord wants us

to love those who hate us

because He does not want

anyone to end up in Hell,

and hatred leads to Hell.

Of course,

there is only so much

that we can do.

If someone is not willing

to give up hatred,

then we must draw a line

once we have done what we can.

But we remember

that all things are possible

with God.

This is why the Cross is so important.

Upon it,

Our Lord reconciles us

with God.

God hates our sins so much

that He would rather die

than just let us go to Hell.

As far as we can,

we live at peace with everyone.

When someone hurts us,

we forgive

and take the hit.

If we think we've hurt someone

we do what we can

to reconcile and repair.

Anger is an emotion.

We all feel it at times.

That's all it is,

so we treat it like an emotion

and not turn it into a way of life.

Anger is not a way of life.

Christ is.

Dreadful Cathedrals

Sermon for the Anniversary of Consecration of the Cathedral of St Augustine of Canterbury

Some people step for the first time into this cathedral. They look around at its relics and ikons, the image of Our Lady of Walsingham, the altar with its coloured frontal, the friendly and warm congregation and clergy, and what do they say?

"How dreadful is this place!"

And what's your reaction?

Probably, "blooming cheek!" and you're probably wondering whether you are so cross at that, that you would consider even wasting a delicious after-Mass cheese scone by pelting them with it.

You would have to be incandescent with rage to do that.

And yet, "How dreadful is this place" are the first words of our Mass for the anniversary of our beloved cathedral.

Is it a dreadful place?

Should it be a dreadful place?

[PAUSE]

Of course, you know what to do when you want to understand something that doesn't sound right. We need to find it's context. It's the same procedure that Our Lord Himself uses upon the cross when He cries out, "My God, My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?"

We know it isn't the case that God has forsaken Our Lord, but rather we know that Our Lord is drawing everyone to Psalm 22 which prophesies His crucifixion and points to His resurrection.

The same is true here.

"How dreadful is this place?"

[PAUSE]

Where's it from? A quick search leads us to the famous passage of Jacob's ladder. Jacob is dreaming a dream and seeing angels ascending and descending a ladder. He is speaking with God Himself. And God is blessing Jacob, showing him His promise of a glorious inheritance.

And Jacob wakes and, as we see him try to come to grips with such a vivid dream, we hear him say, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not."

And we see how terrified he is as he says, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

He is awestruck because God is not a tame god who is all nice and cuddly and winks atvus when we are naughty and calls us, "Bro".

No. God is terrifying and His power can tear the universe to shreds, atom by atom. He is to be feared with that healthy fear that we might lose Him through our own sin and fallenness. We cannot be in His radiant presence with sin in our hearts, and even when Jacob, Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah see Him, He tones down His magnificence so that He can talk with them.

And He becomes incarnate so that we can still see God and be with Him despite our sin.

To see Him as He is will be terrifying but we remember that He is for us.

[PAUSE]

How dreadful is this place?

We love our cathedral, but is it dreadful?

Is it the house of God where people can be struck by His presence when they come in.

Oh, it needs to be warm and inviting. We want people to come in, but we want them to encounter the Living God. 

We have to remember that, even outside Mass, this building houses the centre of the universe In that tabernacle, veiled with fabric and metal, is Christ Himself, present to us right now. 

A Cathedral should be a place of awe, of quiet reverence and hushed tones. Not full of discos, golf courses and lego which distract from the true presence of God. But full of prayer, ikons, and the sacramental presence of the most Divine.

We see the cathedra, symbolic seat of the apostles who are witnesses of Christ and witnesses of us and who still operate through our bishops.

[PAUSE]

We love our cathedral because we have fought for a place where we can see angels ascending and descending from heaven and hear the word of God speak. We work to make this the house of God.

How dteadful is this place?

Can we ensure that it stays dreadful?

The reality of judgement and condemnatiom

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Trinity

Have you noticed that one of the main objections to Christianity is that it is a list of dos and don’ts? People don’t like being told what to do. People especially do not like to be told “don’t do that!”

You can see why, can’t you? There are so many bits of conflicting advice and laws that we get confused, irritated and exhausted when all we want to do is get on with living life and finding some happiness in this rather strange world.

Our Lord also seems to get in the act. Be merciful. Don’t judge. Don’t condemn. Forgive. Give to others. How many times has someone said to you, “Jesus says not to judge. So you shouldn’t judge.”

Of course, we don’t take into account what Our Lord actually says.

“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned.”

We must judge whether something is evil and condemn it. If a man murders another to steal his watch, we are surely able to make the judgement, “that’s murder!” and then to condemn the man as a murderer. That is just and right.

However, if we condemn someone as lazy because they are unemployed then can we honestly say that our judgement is sound and our condemnation correct? We know full well, that Our Lord is telling us that the only judgements we can make are based on solid and full possession of the actual facts, not on our personal assumptions. Murder isn’t always easy to prove, but when the facts are considered – motive, evidence and opportunity – then we can make the judgement. There might be miscarriages of justice, but look at how they happen. Miscarriages of justice occur when there is information that is missing or distorted – a gap in what is real.

And that’s the point. If we judge others based upon our own criteria and our own assumptions rather than on what is real, then that is the only justice that will be available to us.

Look at the dos and don’ts that Our Lord gives us. They are not arbitrary.

We must not judge without expecting to be judged – we will judge our own selves by our own standards. We must not condemn – we will condemn our own selves by our own standards, and no-one can do anything about it. Judging others and condemning others can’t put things right. They can’t restore the balance. They can’t undo the wrong. They can’t bring people back to life. Judgement and condemnation are only means to an end. They aren’t ends in themselves.

If we condemn someone for being lazy, what do we expect to happen? Do we honestly expect the person to immediately find a 72 hour a week job? Our condemnation does nothing because condemnation has nothing to give to put the situation right. In the same way, judging someone doesn’t make that person right. Condemnation and judgment aren’t the end. They can only tell us that something is wrong, and what is wrong may be with us.

But look at what Our Lord does tell us to do.

Be merciful. Forgive. Give.

Why?

Because that’s exactly what God does.

God judges, yes, and judges minutely. We cannot escape God’s condemnation of any one of our sins or wrongdoings. But that isn’t where God stops. God judges so that He can put things right.

God is merciful when we sin and that makes is easier for us to be reconciled with Him. Likewise, if we are merciful, then it is easier for anyone who wrongs us to be reconciled with us. Mercy does something about sin and evil.

God forgives us when we sin. This robs sin of its hold over us and allows us to turn to Him, knowing that there is a way back to Him. Likewise, if we forgive, then we rob sin of its power both over the one who sins against us and also its power over us. Forgiveness does something about sin and evil.

God is generous to us and gives us what we need. This restores what is good. If we are generous, with God’s help, we can restore some goodness to the situation reducing the presence of sin and evil. Generosity does something about sin and evil.

St Paul points out to us that the Law is very good about telling us about what is right and wrong, but can do absolutely nothing about it. God’s grace however, can do something about what is right and wrong. This is why we Christians are not playing pick-and-choose with which Old Testament laws we follow. We follow the ritual and ceremonial laws only in accordance with what Christ does for us in His Life, Death and Resurrection. Circumcision is upgraded to Baptism. The Passover is upgraded to the Eucharist. We follow the moral laws because Christ ratifies them in the New Testament. Murder remains murder. Fornication remains fornication.

The difference is that Christ gives us His very self to help us deal both with murder and the anger that leads to murder, and to help us deal with adultery and the lust that leads to adultery. Mercy and forgiveness do not stop the necessary consequences of murder and adultery, but they point us to the God Who can and will make all things new in Heaven.

Murder can be undone by the Master of Life and Death. Adultery can be undone by the One Who reconciles all who love Him in Himself. But murder and adultery can ONLY be undone by the One Who has perfect knowledge and perfect power. This is why we imperfect creatures have forgiveness, mercy and generosity as ways of putting away sin and evil until God undoes them completely in the New Heaven and New Earth.

We learn what is right and wrong from God’s law and, by educating ourselves carefully, we grow in that knowledge. By exercising mercy, forgiveness and generosity, our judgement and condemnation of evil will bring forth a greater love for our neighbour and draw us all ever closer to the love of God.

 

Conspiring with the enemy?

Sermon for the third Sunday after Trinity preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

It's Monday evening and, 

given the nice weather, 

you think you ought to go 

for an evening constitutional 

- a walk before bedtime.

As you pass through the town, 

the twilight deepens 

and the deep blue of the night sky 

darkens the roads and streets. 

As you turn the corner, 

in front of The Bishop's Finger 

- that's the name of the pub, 

and it's a dodgy old dive, too 

- you see your favourite priest 

talking and laughing with a woman.

What woman?

You know THAT woman 

- the one who "works at night"!

Well, what do you say 

next Sunday morning 

when you see your favourite priest 

all clad in his chasuable 

and looking holy? 

Would you sidle up to him and say, 

"I know who you were with, Monday night!" 

Or would you be on the phone to the bishop?

 Or would you interrupt the sermon 

to denounce him 

to all and sundry?

[PAUSE]

This is the trouble with the priesthood. 

Many people today seem to think 

that their priest must look 

beyond reproach in order 

to be beyond reproach. 

Absolutely a priest must not 

bring his office into disrepute, 

but that also means he must do 

what his office demands.

We see our blessed Lord 

talking with sinners 

- all the kinds of people 

you would want to steer clear of. 

You know the type of person: 

it may even be the person 

who has done you the greatest wrong. 

And Our Blessed Lord is standing there

chatting with them, 

laughing at their jokes, 

all as if these folk were 

as the angels in heaven. 

The very people that you think 

stand arm in arm with the Devil himself 

are enjoying the company of God.

[PAUSE]

We know Our Lord to be beyond reproach, 

but there is a sense of 

"whose side are you on, Lord?"

But then we think, whose side are we on? 

Who gets to pick the teams?

We know the message of the Gospel. 

We know the meaning of the parables. 

But still, we have to face the fact that 

there will be in Heaven 

people who on earth 

showed really dubious morals, 

who committed grave sins, 

who hurt many people. 

Worse, they may get into Heaven 

ahead of us!

[PAUSE]

This is the scandal of Salvation. 

It is open to everyone. 

Our Lord created each one of us, 

saint and sinner, 

and He seeks 

to save each one of us, 

saint and sinner. 

And it doesn't matter 

if you have murdered millions!

If you come to Christ 

and repent of your sins, 

if you are baptised 

and eat of the Bread of Life, 

if you long to love God 

with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

- you shall be saved. 

There is no doubt.

So the murderer of millions can be saved?

Yes.

But he murdered millions. 

What about justice?

That depends on what you think salvation is.

[PAUSE]

If you think salvation 

is an escape from Hell,

or a "get out of jail free" card, 

then there does seem to be an injustice. 

If a murderer gets the same 

"get out of Hell" card as we do, 

where's his accountability.

But what if salvation and justice 

are about making things right? 

What if they are about healing wounds? 

What if they are about being made perfect?

Well, then, 

in order to be made perfect, 

we must turn and 

see what we have done. 

And, if we are being made perfect, 

if we see what 

Our Lord sees 

of what we have done, 

then that will hurt a lot. 

It will be because we start loving 

the same way that He loves 

that will hurt.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord sees 

not taxcollecters and prostitutes, 

not sinners, 

but the people He created 

who have fallen 

and who come to Him 

knowing that there is something wrong, something that needs to be put right 

and that only He can help.

And that's the attitude 

that we should all have. 

Yes, there are people 

who we could never associate with. 

That's because we are not perfect. 

But, as we grow in perfection, 

the more we reflect Our Lord 

and the more that people will see in us 

the opportunity for true health 

and true happiness. 

If we are seen talking 

with people of dubious reputation, 

then let it be because 

God has found His lost sheep 

and is using us 

to bring them home 

to health, happiness and Heaven.