The going rate for the evil eye

Sermon for Septuagesima

Is thine eye evil because I am good?

We get the idea behind our Lord’s parable.

We get that the Lord gives

what he wants to give,

and sometimes it looks unfair.

Those who have put in hard work

from the first hour

are paid less per hour

than those who work

from the eleventh hour.

Per hour, it's unfair.

Per hour,

those who work at the eleventh hour

get twelve times more

than those who work at the first hour.

But do you see the problem with this?

[PAUSE]

We like to look at things,

particularly payment,

in terms of the going rate.

The amount paid by hour in this case.

But what these workers fail to see

is that the Lord has given

a fair day's pay

for a fair day’s work.

Per day, 

or part thereof,

they have received 

the same.

That is the going rate,

that is the rate they agreed.

We know that those

who have worked all day

have not been tricked or deceived.

They have enough to live on.

What they dislike

is the fact that

someone else’s time seems

to be more precious than theirs.

Is thine eye evil because I am good?

What we are beginning to see here

in this dividing the day into twelve hours,

is the idea of entitlement.

These workers are dividing the day up

to suit their rate

regardless of the fact

that everyone will get a fair day's pay.

These workers from the first hour

believe that they are entitled to more

because they have worked 

twelve times more

than those who came at the last hour.

They believe that they are entitled 

to what they think is fair.

But the first workers

and the last workers have worked

one day for one day’s pay

in the eyes of the Lord.

[PAUSE]

Entitlement is very much

a word for today.

We look at entitled people

who try to get more,

or to get something extraordinary

based on their own sense of entitlement.

The trouble is that their view

of what they are entitled to

is not the same is that agreed

by the community,

by the country,

by God.

Is thine eye evil because I am good?

We see that entitled people 

suffer from Envy.

Envy is perhaps the saddest sin going,

because it is based on discomfort

surrounding another person’s goods.

There is nothing to enjoy in Envy.

Entitlement is born of envy.

It means that entitled folk

just cannot keep their eyes

on their own situation.

The consequence is simple

they kick up a fuss,

they scream and shout

and demand to be heard

by the boss,

the manager,

the Lord.

And they demand 

that their entitlement

be honoured

at the expense

of the good of others.

What they don't realise

is that they are not in control

of the goods that they receive.

The pay that they get is

already agreed with the employers.

As long as the pay is fair,

there is no problem

but someone else's pay packet

should not really be the cause

of demanding a raise.

To have an evil eye

for the goodness of God

is one of the saddest things going.

We can never enter

a relationship with God

or with each other

if we believe that

we are entitled to anything.

We need to realise that,

with God,

we are entitled to 

absolutely nothing.

[PAUSE]

Does that make you uncomfortable?

Knowing that with God

you have

no rights,

no entitlements,

no credit arrangements.

The thing that the Entitled need most

is humility.

The first gift that

God gives anyone

is that of existence.

We exist because

God has created us.

And also we have

the gift of salvation –

life with God.  

In this parable,

we see the people

who have been with God

for thousands of years

being regarded just as highly

as those who have come to God

at the last minute.

This eternal life with God,

is precisely God’s gift to us.

We don't earn it,

though we do play a part

in acquiring our salvation

because we learn to work with God

in our own creation.

We have to receive

the gift that is offered to us.

We have to be thankful truly for

the gift that is offered to us.

We have to use

the gift that is offered to us.

The first workers

are complaining about

the eternal life,

the salvation,

of those who have

only just come to Christ.

To concern yourself with 

another's salvation,

and to base your system of worth

upon another’s salvation

defeats the object of that salvation

because it denies God

His right as Creator

to say what is good, just and fair.

We do like to speculate

about other people’s salvation.

We do like to speculate

about the state of other people’s souls.

What we forget to do is

to look at the state of our own soul.

Of course,

we do have to look out for other people,

for that is what love requires.

If we are truly loving

then we are making a way

for other people

to achieve their perfection in God.

We can't achieve it

if we are envious of them,

for Envy denies the perfection 

of other people.

It begrudges their perfection.

 It even seeks revenge

in order to redress the balance

in their favour.

[PAUSE]

We should not be speculating

about who is in Heaven,

or who is in Hell.

We need to be worrying

about our own relationship with God,

and looking around and seeing

if there is any good that

we can do

to help someone else

achieve their perfection in Almighty God.

The first workers do not love

the last workers.

If they did,

they would rejoice in the fact

that the last workers

get the same amount of pay.

That would be a cause

for joy and celebration,

because it is good.

God's goodness should always be

an occasion of rejoicing,

of praising,

of thanking

and of worshipping 

the Great Giver of life Himself.

[PAUSE]

We can see how envy 

does make the eye evil.

It makes us look at everything

in terms of our own good,

our own rate of measurement

and not the goodness of God.

We need to put aside our entitlements

and accept the circumstances 

that God gives us.

For,

rich or poor,

better or worse,

in sickness or in health

we can be sure that

by learning humility

we will be richer than

we could ever possibly imagine in Christ.

And Lent is a good time

to examine what we believe

what we are entitled to

and looking for the 

Truth behind it.

Anglican Catholicism and Scripture

 

Where does the Septuagint feature in an Anglican Catholic's theology?

Perfectly possessed?

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany

How do you feel

when you realise

that the devils

and the demons

know Jesus better than you do?

 

This is a fact that we have to understand.

 It is clear that the Devil knows

Holy Scripture better than we do.

It is clear that the devils recognise

Jesus as Son of God before anyone of us does.

Look, and see how it is

that two possessed men

call Jesus the Son of God

before a billion people

come to realise that fact.

 

So if the devils know Jesus

better than we do,

does that not show us

just how small and stupid,

sinful and worthless

 we are?

 

[PAUSE]

 

The first thing to remember,

is that Christ becomes incarnate

for the sole purpose

 of saving us.

 

Once we have that belief,

we know that

we are not worthless.

We must accept that

because we are blind to God

through Adam’s sin.

We do not understand

or see things as the spirits do.

We know that we are

not wholly spiritual beings,

because we have flesh

and the flesh lusts against the spirit

and spirit last against the flesh.

It doesn't make us stupid

that we cannot see God.

It is a consequence of our human nature.

It is a consequence of our fall from grace.

 

[PAUSE]

 

We have established two things, then.

First that we are worth the death of Christ.

Second that we are blind to Christ.

And now

we must remember

that it is partly the Devil’s fault

that we are blind in the first place.

He still is able to see God,

but he cannot approach him.

 

We do see that our Lord

wants to free us

from all that is not his.

To be possessed by devils

is to be enslaved to them.

To be possessed means that

whatever we want to do

 we cannot do

for someone else is using us 

to do their will.

Demonic possession 

Is a form of slavery,

and it is motivated 

by pure hatred.

How do we know?

If love seeks our perfection,

then hatred must seek

to prevent our perfection.

The Devil does not want us

to be perfect in God;

he wants us to be playthings of his will

and perfect puppets of his hatred

of all that is good.

That cannot be love.

It means that where the Devil’s will is,

God’s will is not.

There is a converse to this 

that where God is,

 hatred cannot be

and the Devil cannot stand.

 

It all depends on

who we want to be perfect with.

 

[PAUSE]

 

Jesus tell us,

“be perfect 

as your Father in Heaven 

is perfect.”

This is why the Devils flee

when He comes near.

This is how they know him.

They know him because

his very presence drives them away.

They may know him

but they know him out of fear.

Likewise,

the Devil knows Christ

out of fear

because he knows that

he cannot win.

The Devil cannot win souls 

who truly turn to Christ.

 

We may be blind to Christ

through our fallen nature.

We must accept that,

but each is our search for Christ

in humility and in honesty

where we encounter him truly.

Christ’s presence

doesn't drive us away

because we are not wholly evil.

 We are fallen,

and we may choose to remain fallen,

but ultimately the image of Christ in us

is still visible.

Whether we like it or not,

we are ikons of Christ.

So it really doesn't matter

if the Devil knows God

better than we do,

because he knows him out of hatred.

Our job is to know God

out of love and,

because God is love,

the more we love,

the more we know God

and we know him in a way

that makes the devil tremble

because we know God in a way

that the devil cannot.

 

[PAUSE]

 

Here in the Mass,

we receive truly

the Body and Blood of Christ.

He is truly present in the host

and within the chalice.

This means that the Devil cannot be there.

While we may receive the sacrament

with clouded minds

clouded with sinful thoughts 

and foolish ideas,

we still receive Christ.

We must therefore use

what has been taken in

with our body to percolate into the soul.

This is why we have the liturgy.

If we concentrate,

if we focus our hearts and minds

on what is happening,

then we drive out devils.

We can believe that.

We must believe that.

 

We are allowed to be perfect in Christ.

We must therefore allow

His presence to drive out

the evil from our lives.

We cannot do this ourselves

any more then we can chase

the darkness out of the room

before we switch the light on.

But we can switch the light on.

We can seek perfection 

in Christ.

We can allow the Divine Light

to shine in us

and the darkness will clear away.

Csezlawa Kwoka

This is Csezlawa Kwoka, a Polish Catholic girl shortly before her execution by the Nazis. Before this photo was taken, she dried the tears from her eyes and wiped the blood from her lip.

Hers is the face of so many who lost their lives in the Nazi Death Camps and it's almost to hard to believe that so many men, women and children met a horrifically cruel death be they Jew, Polish, Sinta-Roman, Slavic, homosexual, politically unacceptable or simply socially "unacceptable".

As she stares out at us, Csezlawa exhibits in her eyes a refusal to be crushed. Hers is the human spirit in the face of unrelenting evil. That human beings should be capable of both heroism and depravity is extraordinary. It shows that we are in possession of a power that can lay waste and stand strong. I could have published any other photograph but Csezlawa's is the one that passed before today.

It is truly heartbreaking to see an innocent girl brutalised but her resolve betrays the fact that each human being possesses an indelible dignity which lies far beyond the reach of the diabolical. In her eyes, perhaps we catch a glimpse of the Resurrection in the eyes of Christ at His Crucifixion. We weep for her because she should not suffer, because she is too young to suffer, because she is too innocent. We weep because it is our sins that cause people like Csezlawa to suffer. It is our sins that cause our children to suffer, directly or indirectly, and we cannot forget the reality of that. Csezlawa shows us why we need justice, mercy, healing and grace because our sins damage others grievously.

We have to remember that the Devil exists and hates us. He wants Csezlawa and all the others to be forgotten so that we are not confronted by the sins we have committed. He wants us to be comfortable in our descent into Hell. But we Christians have the audacity to repent, to bewail our sins, to cry to God for forgiveness and grace, and seek to be better people in that grace. And God has the audacity to forgive us, to be merciful to us, to be gracious to us. We must make sure that we take sin and repentance seriously so that we love truly our God and love truly our neighbours, for surely every Csezlawa is our neighbour.

I have one prayer, for I need her prayers more than she needs mine. That prayer is, before I stand before the Great Judge for His judgement upon me, that I shall see her face again as she is now in Heaven and know that she sees eternally that beauty and joy which pass human understanding.

Protestant Anglican Catholics

 Why the word Protestant needs careful handling.

Ordering St Timothy

 

Why the Church isn't a free-for-all.

Well actually...

Sermon for the third Sunday after Epiphany

“Well actually...”

Social media comment boxes are full of “well actually…”s.

When someone expresses a fact,

you can bet your boots that

someone will take issue with that fact

and find some way of correcting it,

loudly and obnoxiously.

Many times you can find yourself

being corrected for things

you didn't know were possible.

Why?

Why do people bother

to make comments

that correct others?

[PAUSE]

There is an old meme 

on the Internet

that says,

“Don't bother me, I’m busy!

Someone on the Internet is wrong.”

Sometimes we just can't help

trying to put others right.

We do this often

because we believe 

that we have the truth

and that this truth is 

utterly true and

inescapably correct.

We believe that we have

the knowledge that this is true.

We believe that

we can refute arguments 

with a simple one-liner.

The trouble is,

we have fallen into

precisely what Saint Paul 

warns us against.

We have become 

wise in our own conceits.

[PAUSE]

Saint Paul recognises the danger

of intellectual pride.

He recognises the compulsion

that we have to correct others

and to make them aware of 

why they are wrong.

Of course,

this may be necessary.

If someone believes that

a lorry isn't hurtling

down the road towards them,

then telling them that there is,

loudly and urgently,

is clearly an important thing to do!

But it is the motives 

in intellectual pride

that give it away

for the sin that it is.

Intellectual pride has its birth in

how we react to 

being told that 

we are clever.

We are praised for 

being a good school child,

which is right and proper,

but if we allow that praise 

to enter into our soul

as something to crave

and become addicted to

then we risk becoming the school swot.

School swots always unpopular

because their rightness

puts other people down.

It is condescending

and damaging,

pushing people away.

Their rightness comes

at the expense of others' 

true growth in Christ.

Intellectual pride is only

about the standing of our own intellect,

it is not about 

the perfection of other people.

And perfection of other people is

precisely the goal of loving them.

[PAUSE]

Now,

Saint Paul often writes 

to correct his readers.

Look at his letter to the Romans!.

It isn't that he wants to put the Jews down,

nor that he wants to raise the Gentiles up,

but rather that he wants

both Jew and Gentile to be joined

in love for Christ and for each other.

What he doesn't do

is use his heritage

to show how clever he 

and insult the intelligence

of his readership.

Our intellects have to be used for love,

not for bolstering our own egos,

or massaging our sense of self-worth.

That phrase “well actually…”

is a phrase that can be used

to alienate other people

by making them feel small

or inadequate

or to rubbish whatever learning they have.

Yes they may indeed be

wrong in their thinking,

but there are ways and means

of helping them see the truth.

To assume that we have

the right to correct people,

is a falsehood

if we do not see the beam in our own eyes.

Look at the way 

Our Lord puts people right.

The Syro-Phoenician woman is encouraged

to express her faith in Jesus

by answering His statement

that the bread of the children

should not be given to dogs.

In saying that even the dogs

eat the crumbs falling from the table,

her faith is exposed and lauded.

She becomes edified

and her prayers are answered.

Look at the way that Jesus

puts down the teaching of the Pharisees.

He has the authority to teach

because he knows the truth

fully and completely.

And it is because

He has full knowledge of the truth

that the teaching of the Pharisees

must be corrected and cast out.

The Pharisees have been forcing

their intellectual pride 

upon other people

and that has been the problem.

Their zeal for bringing

people back to God through

minute performances of the law,

noble though that ambition is,

is rooted in pride in what they know

and they know best.

They have raised the Law

above the perfection

of their people.

Intellectual Pride has

thwarted the Pharisee’s ambition

to bring the people to God

by crushing their souls.

[PAUSE]

If we are to correct others,

then it must be from a position of humility,

recognising our own faults and failures,

our own propensity

to misunderstand,

misread,

and misspeak.

We must take care

not to be condescending,

or insulting,

or belittling.

If at any time we fail

to will the perfection

of those whom we seek to correct,

then we fail God.

[PAUSE]

The true way to communicate

with people is through humility

and a desire for that person’s joy in life.

It is very easy to make

glib corrections which destroy a that joy.

Careless remarks do a lot of damage,

and the only way that

this damage can be repaired

is through repentance, 

prayer

and begging for the grace of God

to supply whatever is lacking

and correct what is done amiss.

[PAUSE]

Whenever we are tempted to say “well actually…”,

we must think carefully

about what we want to achieve 

in telling the truth.

If we cannot tell the truth in love,

then maybe the truth that we speak

is not actually the truth at all.

Burnley, Blackburn and Blazing Rows

 

Another reason for humility within the Church

Why you don't find stones in the chalice.

Sermon for the second Sunday after Epiphany

He'll turn water into wine,

but He won't turn stone into bread.

We can compare

Our Lord’s miracle at Cana

with His temptation in the wilderness.

If we look carefully,

we might think that it is

only because the Devil wants

Our Lord to be selfish

that He does not change stones into bread.

On the other hand

to allow people to enjoy a wedding

is not selfish

and so turning water into wine seems perfectly loving.

But is there more to it than that?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord refuses to turn

stones into bread

on the grounds that

“Man shall not live by bread alone, 

but by every word that proceedeth 

out of the mouth of God.”

 That's His reason

and it is nothing to do with selfishness,

or assuaging his hunger

or for showing off

– it is about what people need.

Our Lord uses miracles as signs

because we need them.

Notice how He will not

perform a miracle on demand

but rather use miracles

only to show

us little human beings

some wonderful truth

that lies beyond

our understanding

of existence.

Turning stones into bread

doesn't show anyone anything.

It's just between our Lord and the Devil.

There is nothing that reveals any truth

to anyone by turning stones into bread.

What needs to be shown is

that human beings need

the Word of God before their bellies are filled

What is the message, then,

of the miracle of water made wine?

What significance does this have for us?

[PAUSE]

We see a wedding feast;

we see a man and a woman 

joined together,

but the wedding is deficient,

it lacks something.

That something is wine.

What does Our Lord do?

He could easily have filled

those jars with water Himself

miraculously.

He could have filled them with wine miraculously!

But he doesn't.

The water is already there

but it lacks that something

to make it a vehicle of rejoicing.

Wine makes the heart merry

and our Lord does not condemn

anyone for drinking wine.

On the contrary,

he himself supplies it and it is very good.

What does this show us?

[PAUSE]

The first thing it shows us is that

the water is deficient 

because it is not capable

of bringing forth rejoicing.

Our Lord supplies what is lacking

to make it a drink

of rejoicing,

of happiness,

of sheer delight!

Our Lord supplies merriment

to an occasion where there is

concern and worry

that people won't be happy.

This miracle shows us that

the human institution of marriage

is not just blessed by Our Lord

it is completed by Our Lord.

He perfects the wedding

by supplying what is lacking.

At every stage,

Our Lord is supplying what is not there

in order that it might be perfected.

[PAUSE]

We see the same miracle in every Mass.

Look very carefully 

when the priest

fills the chalice 

first with wine,

then with water.

In normal Masses 

the water is blessed:

in Requiem Masses

it is not blessed.

The wine reminds us 

of Our Lord’s divine nature.

It is the water that 

receives something more

just like Our Lord’s humanity 

is received into His Divine Nature

in order to be Our Incarnate Lord.

And He takes into himself 

our humanity –

He takes us, 

His Church, 

into himself.

Just as the wine in the chalice

receives the water 

which is blessed,

so does Our Lord 

receive us into himself.

Why is the water blessed?

Because we are 

a work in progress

and we need to work 

at our perfection in Christ.

Why is the water 

not blessed 

in Requiem Masses?

Because the water reflects 

the humanity of those 

who have died,

whose work has ended.

Either way,

whatever happens

at our Mass,

the water and wine

become the same real

Blood of Christ

shed for our salvation.

[PAUSE]

At every stage of his life with us,

Our Lord supplies what is lacking.

He never takes away.

Stones don't need 

to become bread,

for God created stones 

which are not bread.

Our Lord created wheat

to become flour

to become bread:

that is the way that 

His creation works.

But human beings have

introduced into Creation

that which is evil 

and that evil runs

throughout creation 

like cracks in ice.

We lack wholeness.

We lack integrity.

 And we cannot fill those cracks,

because we are cracked throughout.

It is Our Lord Jesus Christ

Who fills those cracks 

with His very self.

This is salvation,

salvation not in terms 

of crime and punishment,

but in healing and wholeness.

Our Lord’s salvation gives us

our true selves back again.

It wipes clean 

the image of God 

that we bear.

This is the salvation that He offers us.

The wicked are 

their own punishers,

for they remain broken

in their refusal to love 

and be loved

and it is Love Himself

who supplies whatever is lacking.

[PAUSE

At our Mass,

we see wine transformed into blood,

the blood of Christ Himself.

It is a cup of 

healing and wholeness 

and,

if we let it,

we can find that salvation 

for ourselves

and for the whole world.

Anglican Catholic Orders: a brief outline

 

How do Anglican Catholic Orders fit with the wider Catholic Church?

Again: no polemics will be entertained either way!

The nature of rocks

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of the Epiphany

As you know,

there are people who like

to try and trick Christians

in order to show that our faith

is ridiculous.

One of the favourite ways

they try this 

is to ask,

“can God make a rock

that is too heavy for Him to lift?”

If He can't, they say, 

then God cannot create 

anything He likes

and is not Almighty.

If He can, they say,

then God is too weak

and is not Almighty.

Can God make a rock 

too heavy for Him to lift?

How do you answer that question?

[PAUSE]

We can answer this question

by asking, 

"If God does so

then how would

we know that He'd done it?"

We could say that 

to be Amighty 

means that 

whatever God does

has to make sense to us,

and such a rock

doesn't make sense.

But for us Christians,

the question is 

surprisingly easy to answer.

Yes, God can create a rock

that's too heavy for Him to lift.

But doesn't this contradict

His being able to do all things,

including lifting heavy things?

The answer really lies in 

this festal season,

the octave of 

the feast of the Epiphany.

[PAUSE]

The Epiphany is 

the revelation of 

the Word made flesh.

The whole point of the Incarnation

is that God takes 

into Himself our human nature.

This means that Our Lord 

is both human and divine

and that these two natures

cannot be separated in Him.

This means that our Lord Jesus Christ

has both a human nature 

and a divine nature.

To see how this works,

we can simply consider that

it is not in human nature

to lift huge rocks such as 

the Rock of Gibraltar.

Therefore, it is not in 

Our Lord’s human nature

to be able to lift the Rock of Gibraltar.

So God has already created a rock

that is too heavy for Him to lift!

We can see that this is all due

to Our Lord Jesus Christ being

both human and divine.

[PAUSE]

The fact that Jesus has two natures

shows that there are many questions

that we can answer about him.

He has revealed those answers

about Himself in HIs Epiphany.

In his human nature,

he is just like us.

As a child he has to learn,

and he grows in wisdom

and stature

and maturity.

Notice then that 

Jesus is not born perfect,

but he is sinless.

Perfection is about achieving

what one is meant to do,

or what one is meant to be.

Perfection is total completion.

Until Jesus dies upon the cross,

He has not lived a full human life,

therefore He is not perfect.

But he is without sin.

So how can Jesus be God

and yet not know things?

[PAUSE]

These days, we human beings

have great knowledge

at our fingertips.

If we don't know something,

we take out our phone

and we Google the answer.

Now imagine being able to do this

without the phone.

Our Lord Jesus Christ

may not have all the answers

in His human nature,

but He does in His divine nature

and He can communicate 

with His divine nature through prayer.

This is why Jesus prays.

What does this mean for us?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord Jesus can communicate

between His natures through prayer.

While he may not be perfect 

in His human nature,

He can still communicate infallibly

with His divine nature 

through perfect prayer.

This is why Jesus can know things

that human beings can’t

and yet be truly human.

This also shows us the pattern

for how we are to be with God.

While we may not be perfect,

and while we are certainly not sinless,

prayer is still something 

that is always open to us

and can be perfected 

through daily practice.

The Epiphany of Our Lord shows us

the reality of God

in His taking of our human nature.

He is like us in every way but without sin.

So we can have communion with God

through our liturgy,

through our Mass,

through our prayer.

The Epiphany shows us

that we now have direct access to Almighty God

in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[PAUSE]

Here is the reason why God became man.

He became man like us

so that we could become 

divine like Him.

We can become perfect in Christ

and become rocks 

that build the Church,

a Church that is carried by

and carries Our Creator.

Participating in Forgiveness

 

Why the Church's approach to forgiveness must change the world.

An unkind cut?

Sermon for the feast of the Circumcision

Jewish baby boys 

are circumcised

on the eighth day.

This is in accordance

with God's command

to Abraham

as part of His covenant

with Abraham

and his descendants.

For those of us

who are not of the Jewish race

this seems unnecessarily unpleasant

or even an abuse of a child.

There are many that say

that children should not 

be circumcised 

because they cannot choose

their faith.

There are in Christianity

those who believe that

children should not be baptized

because they cannot choose their faith.

But being Jewish is 

not just a religion, 

it is a race, 

a family,

all genetically related

to Abraham.

This is why baby boys

are circumcised

in order to become

full members of that family

in obedience to God.

This is why Our Lord 

is circumcised

in order to play a full part

in the family of Abraham

to receive His inheritance

from David

and to participate in 

the life of God's chosen people.

In being circumcised,

Our Lord ratifies and fulfils 

the Old Testament.

But there is

more to it 

than that.

[PAUSE]

Christ is circumcised for us 

just as He lives and dies for us. 

But He is also baptized

and, in so doing,

sanctifies the waters of Baptism

in order to bring others

into the family of God.

As we have been reminded

at Christmas,

we have fallen from 

our first state of grace,

though grace has not been

obliterated in us.

We have turned our backs

to God and rejected

being part of a family

with Him.

In so doing,

we have lost ourselves

and sit in the degradation

of our own making.

This is the purpose

of Our Lord's Incarnation.

His whole life is 

to re-sanctify ours 

in some things by setting the example, 

in others by doing what we can't do ourselves.

On the one hand,

He shows obedience to God

so that we might see 

how to be obedient to God.

This we can do.

On the other hand,

He supplies goodness

to heal wounds and restore

what is broken.

This we cannot do.

At Baptism,

Grace is given back to us

in order for us to be

part of the Family of God

once more.

This is why we baptise babies,

to bring them into 

the family of God,

even as they are already

members of their family.

In Christ, 

we are bound together

as God's people 

of the New Testament 

with the God's people 

of the Old Testament

as one family

whether or not 

we are of the Jewish race.

This is why St Paul 

can say that, 

in Christ,

there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

[PAUSE]

As Gentiles, 

we are spared circumcision,

but we are not spared

the pains that come

with being Christian.

As Christ suffers,

so we must suffer with Him

on the road to our perfection.

We must all endure unkind cuts in life,

but in Christ,

the are badges of honour

in which we will find Eternal Joy.

Blogday 2023: Backs to the Rock

It's now 17 years since this blog started and, of late, it seems to be much more a forum for videos and sermons than for anything else. I think I lamented about that change last year. However, I do think that the purpose of this blog has changed so much in the 17 years that it has existed. From being a vehicle of my own thoughts and attempts to understand what was going on in the Church of England to which I then belonged, this blog has evolved into an opportunity for me to reach out as a minister of Christ's Church and thereby connect with people in a wider audience than a simple parish might allow. I am grateful for that opportunity.

Of course, things do change and evolve but what needs to happen is that things grow in an organic manner so that there is some principle of integrity, internal coherence and continuity with the past is preserved. That is the Catholic principle, that we cannot forget the past but rather adhere our lives to it. But there is a danger, because in looking at what happened in the past we are in danger of assuming that we must live in the past. Nostalgia is a wonderful emotion to take comfort in. It is of great comfort to remember Christmases past and to think how wonderful they were, how wonderfully the choir sang, how beautiful sermon was, and how glorious the snow lay round about in the churchyard. But this is not always a healthy way of thinking. Nostalgia can poisonous: it is like sugar to the soul – very sweet – but  it fattens the soul and encumbers our way of thinking, our way of living and our way of seeing things.

I belong to a church in which continuity with the past is vitally important, and that we observe the various rituals and ceremonies and ornaments that have been handed down to us from old. We expect our priests to say mass in a chasuble, and with their stole under the chasuble: that is the convention. But we also know that needs must when the Devil drives. Our manner of worship is dictated to by our circumstances.

We are not free to choose the locality in which God has placed us nor even when He has placed us, we are however to be there as a witness to the Eternity of God in the place and time in which He puts us. I often think to myself, wouldn't it have been better had I been born in the 19th century or early 20th century or late 1400s or early 11th century etc? Oh! How foolish! As much as these eras appeal to me, they are seen through rose-tinted spectacles. While I would have loved to have been part of the entourage of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, this ignores all the fine and terrible details of that time. I am when God put me and so are you: you are when God put you. So we have to make the best of it, holding fast to the beautiful things of our Faith, our treasures, our aesthetics, and bring them into a world which does not know them.

What we have to learn to do is to look forward to our future and to the time of our now, but rely very much on the past that we already have. If we are sincere about holding the Catholic Faith, then we have 20 centuries worth of truth behind this. We can rely upon that body of truth, especially when we haven't tried to change that truth to suit our time. If we look backwards all the time, then we will stumble and fall over the unseen rock that lies in the way – a rock that may well have been placed there by Christ himself in order to build the church more soundly. Or we can forget about the past and look forward on our own terms deliberately disconnected from what has gone before, and then we are merely building our house upon the sand. The winds of time and change will blow upon that house and it will fall and what a great calamity it shall be!

This blog is built upon my own experiences of church, and I am grateful for those experiences because I know that I have grown. Some of those experiences have been very painful, especially 10 years ago when I finally pulled myself out of the Church of England and the wreckage of my life that it had caused me. I am now stronger and, while life is not always easy and the present always has its own challenges, I trust in the truth that lies behind me in my own time and in my experience of eternity that comes through the Catholic faith.  And I trust that, with my Faith set upon this rock, that I have hope for the future in God’s unwavering fidelity to all mankind. These past few years for all of us, have been very difficult, and we face uncertainty in the economic, political and social turbulence that surrounds us. But we have a rock to cling to and we trust that rock, and I have learned that my little protuberance from the rock, known as the Anglican Catholic Church, is reliable and that I am working to ensure its reliability for better or for worse.

As ever, I wish all my readership a most wonderful and happy 2023, and pray that it may have more blessings then trials.

Simply away

Sermon for the feast of the Nativity

 

“Away in a Manger” is one of the most important carols that we can sing at this time. 

It's very easy for us to get focused on our own preferences and tastes of what we want to sing at Christmas. 

In church choirs there are often debates and squabbles about what to sing, and what version to sing, and what key to sing it in. 

But “Away in a Manger” is so important. But why?

 

[PAUSE]

 

Our recent experiences of living have become so complicated. 

We have seen so much drama this year. 

The cost of living is high, our political systems are being stretched, even our social conventions are being challenged by ideas that seem preposterous. 

At the heart of these problems, is Man’s propensity to sin. Sin comes from Death and, with Sin, we die. 

Our problems stem from our very selves.

 

The complexity of our living comes about because we want complicated things. 

We want to save our money, but we want to spend our money. We want to eat lots, but we don't want to get fat.

 We want respect, but we want to have reckless fun. All around us people are living lives which are rooted in contradictions and, in trying to sort out those contradictions, the life they lead becomes complicated and confused.

 

[PAUSE]

 

Away in a Manger, 

no crib for his bed, 

the little Lord Jesus 

lay down his sweet head. 

The stars in the bright sky look down where he lay, 

the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.

 

This image is so simple that a child can see it. 

In our lives of contradiction, we miss the simplicity of Christ’s birth. 

We miss the simple statement that the Word is made flesh and dwells among us. 

We are so wrapped up in our own complexity bound by it like chains of steel that we cannot free ourselves to be as simple as a child.

A father cradles his new baby for the first time, and the universe stops. 

In the eyes of the little one, blinking in the new light, is nothing less then love. 

There is nothing else to worry about, in that instant, all is well with the world when those little eyes look into your soul, and the little heartbeat ticks next to yours.

 

In that instant, you know it's not just you anymore. 

Your needs and wants and contradictions have to be put aside for the new one who has been born to you. 

There is only the simplicity of a cuddle.

 

[PAUSE]

 

With our lives facing more and more complexity, we rejoice in the opportunity that Christmas has for us to stop and to be as simple as we can be in embracing the little Lord Jesus, for as powerful, as wise, as incomprehensible as He is, He embraces the simplicity of humanity, in order that we can enjoy His simplicity as God.

This is why “Away in a Manger” is so very important. Are you singing it now?

O Mary!

 

Why the eighth Advent Antiphon is important.

Hell and the Heart of Hosanna

Sermon for the fourth Sunday in Advent

Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

Should we be thinking

of Hell so near Christmas?

Isn't it a decidedly

unChristmassy thing

to think about amid

all the tidings of 

comfort and joy?

[PAUSE]

We must admit

that what happens after this life

is not directly accessible for us.

While Heaven is 

more obviously tied

to the promise of God,

Hell seems less clear cut.

If Heaven is Tahiti

then Hell could be anywhere

other than Tahiti,

like Milan,

Ouagadougou,

or London.

But, as we have seen,

Heaven is anywhere

that we can see and interact

directly with God.

It seems reasonable

that Hell is exclusion

from seeing and interacting

directly with God.

Jesus does tell us

about being cast into outer darkness

where there is wailing 

and gnashing of teeth.

He tells of an undying worm

and flame unquenchable

for those who cause 

the innocent to stumble,

and that cutting off hands

is preferable to this.

And yet, the question comes up,

"How can a loving God

consign people 

to eternal torment in Hell?"

But likewise there is the other question,

"How can the most evil people

who slaughter millions of innocents

ever be allowed to enter

the Kingdom of Heaven?"

[PAUSE]

Answers to either of these questions

are complicated,

but we must acknowledge

that what awaits us 

after this life

has been determined by

a supremely merciful 

and supremely just God.

And that whatever awaits us

has been told us

by the patriarchs and prophets,

by apostles and angels

and by the Lord Himself

so that wherever we end up

is determined by ourselves

and the love of God.

[PAUSE]

The big facts are that

we need a saviour

and that we can't save ourselves.

The love of God 

provides us with a saviour.

If we say that we don't need a saviour,

then there is nothing more 

for us. 

Without a saviour,

we cannot leave the 

state of Sin, Death.

God tolerates our imperfection

so that we can have

some authorship

of our own being.

We get a say

in our own creation

but we can only become

truly perfect

with the grace of God.

We can choose

to remain imperfect,

incomplete,

choosing unforgiveness

instead of forgiveness,

hatred instead of love,

selfishness instead of generosity,

darkness instead of light

Death instead of Life.

Unforgiveness, hatred, 

selfishness, darkness and Death 

eat us up, 

and their fire cannot be quenched

because, without God,

there is nothing to quench them.

They burn us

because they war

with the person that 

we are meant to be.

And the Devil?

He is doomed to crawl on his belly

and eat dust.

But we are dust,

formed of the dust of the earth by God.

The Devil seeks to consume us

and, in so doing, 

take away our lives

for as long as he can.

And the worst of it?

This horrible state 

could happen to us!

That's certainly not 

very Christmassy.

[PAUSE]

But look at the crowds

at the entry into Jerusalem.

Look at them 

and hear their Hosanna!

"God save us!"

But this is a cry of joy.

There is no joy in Hell.

We are not in Hell,

nor are we meant for it.

And the crowd knows it.

While they want salvation,

they know that it has arrived

in the Man on the donkey.

While we do dread Hell,

we can rejoice so much

that salvation is here.

In Him we can become perfect.

In Him we can be forgiven

and forgive.

In Him we can love even when hated.

In Him we can find 

the strength to be generous

because we have all

that we could ever need.

In Him we can see the truth

and there is no darkness

to obscure our sight

or cloud our thinking.

In Him is Life

and Death itself is cast away from us

into the abyss.

[PAUSE]

Yes, the thought of 

being eternally lost

is terrifying

but we know that 

we needn't be.

We have a saviour.

He is with us,

in the manger,

on the donkey,

on the Cross, 

in the tomb

and risen in Glory.

For us.

For you.

So that your worst fear

will not define you,

nor be yours for eternity.

So that all your hopes,

wants, needs and desires

all that you could ever hope for

can be yours

with that little baby in the manger.

Be not afraid,

Hell is not for you.

God is.

St Lucy and the Wobbly Christians

 

How St Lucy's example helps us when things seem dark.

Heaven and the heart of Hosanna

Sermon for the third Sunday in Advent

“Our Father who art in Heaven.”

What does that mean?

If you think hard,
this becomes rather
an odd thing to say.

What do you say
when someone askes you,
“where is God?”

Do you say,
“He is everywhere”?

Or do you say,
“He is in Heaven”?

Or do you say
something else?

Where is God?

[PAUSE]

To say that
God is everywhere
is to say that
God has direct access
to every place
and every time.

But to say that
He is in a place
seems rather hard
to understand.

Is there a place
so big
it would contain
God Himself?

Well, as He walks with us
Jesus is contained in
Earth and Heaven.

So is it hard to imagine
God contained
in the vastness of Heaven?

The trouble is
God made Heaven.

Where was He before that?

[PAUSE]

The question is too big
for little mortal minds
to understand,
but there is one thing we cans say.

If the Father is in Heaven,
and we are with the Father,
then we are in Heaven.

Heaven is wherever
the Father is.

Well, more than that.

[PAUSE]

In the beginning,
Man walks with God;
he hears His footsteps in the Garden,
talks with Him face-to-face.

Man lost that through his sin.

Our understanding
of Original Sin
says that,
because of Adam,
we are all born blind
and deaf
to God.

It is a state of sin
because we are separated
from Him,
and His image that we bear
is distorted and damaged.

But, listen!

You hear the Hosannas of the crowd,
welcoming the Messiah into Jerusalem.

“Hosanna - God save us!”

This is what Jesus comes to do.

He is our advocate and mediator.

He brings us back to God.

And, if we are back with God,
and we see Him,
and we bow before His throne,
and we talk with Him,
and see His Divine Smile,
then we must be in Heaven,
wherever we are.

The saints and prophets
who are given visions,
see Heaven,
even if that vision
is only a shadow of where God is.

The Kingdom of God
is not a geographical place,
it is the heart of Man.

[PAUSE]

To be in Heaven
is to see God and to worship Him.

To be there for Eternity,
in the New Heavens and the New Earth
shown to St John,
the new creation separate from the old
which passes away,
that is truly to be in Heaven
where the light of God shines
and we need no more Sun nor Moon.

This is Heaven.

But what if you don’t want it?

On Hitting the Arians

 

How St Ambrose and St Nicholas help rescue us from lazy thinking.

Judgement and the Heart of Hosanna

Sermon for the second Sunday in Advent

As we watch the Lord

enter Jerusalem on a donkey,

we hear the shouts of

“Hosanna!”

“Save us!”

“Save us from death!”

“Save us from the judgement to come!”

But if we are innocent,

then we should not fear judgement,

because we shall be judged innocent

and not go to punishment.

If we are innocent

then we have nothing

to be saved from.

Are we innocent?

How do we know?

[PAUSE]

 We think of ourselves

as innocent or guilty

because we think legally,

in terms of crime and punishment.

And because we think legally,

we see judgement in terms of

rewarding the good

and punishing the bad.

We see to it that

the good guys always win

and bad guys always lose.

 That's a judgement but,

 as St James says,

if we are guilty of breaking

one of the commandments,

then we are guilty of breaking them all.

The fact of the matter is,

that we are a race

which has been infected with Sin.

Our first parent Adam

is the one who brought

Death into the world.

He sinned and,

as St Paul tells us,

Death breeds Sin

and Sin breeds Death:

they are two sides of the same coin.

We are not born guilty.

God says very clearly that

He does not

punish the son

for the sins of his father.

But we are affected by

the consequences of

all the sins around us.

We contribute to 

the ripples of sin

by adding in our own.

We cannot see God 

because of Adam's sin.

We are unable to walk with God,

because Adam chose

 his own will over God’s.

We have to bear 

the consequences of that.

So, to see Sin as a matter

only of legal judgement

 is to miss a significant part

of the problem.

God sees that we need salvation,

not through pronouncing

condemnation and sentence.

He see that we need salvation

through putting things right 

– really right.

He sees that we need Salvation

through healing.

God judges, indeed,

but this is not entirely

the judgement of the law court.

There is also the judgement of a doctor.

After all, God creates man 

to be immortal.

Man allows himself to die.

[PAUSE]

It is very easy for us Christians

to be judgmental about sin

and sinners.

If we think of sin as being

something legal,

then we put ourselves

into the position of seeing

in every case

“reward good,

punish bad.”

It makes us ready

 to cry out, “sinner!”

But this is a naive view of sin.

It is a view of sin

that seeks to rob man 

of the dignity he has

- the dignity that,

actually,

can never be taken away.

When Man falls 

from the garden of Eden,

he does not die immediately.

It may come to an end,

but Man still has life.  

And God is life,

actively present in our lives.

And God’s active presence 

is His Grace.

In falling,

we lose the grace to see God,

to walk with Him,

to talk with Him,

and to know and love Him properly.

But, we do not lose

the grace of His image we bear.

That image may be blotched

scratched

and defaced by our sin,

but it is still there.

It is not indelible

because it is 

the image of God.

[PAUSE]

As fallen human beings,

we are not in a position

to make things good.

Our judgement between good and evil

does nothing

to restore good

or take away evil.

We can't make good 

where there is no good.

We cannot undo a murder.

But with God 

all things are possible,

and in Him is life.

St Paul tells us that 

the Holy Scriptures

are given to us 

to give us hope.

They are not there 

for condemning the sinner.

As Christians, then,

we must not judge

 in the manner of a law court,

but we should discern

what is the good thing to do.

We can do nothing about 

other people’s sins,

we can only seek 

to repent of our own.

But we can seek

 the good thing to do

for those who are in need,

who are in pain,

who are in misery.

We are not to judge others,

but we can discern what good

we can do for them.

Holy Scripture and the Church

together provide us

with the opportunity to learn

to discern the will of God.

Discernment is a virtue

that we must ask God for

with prayers,

tears

and fasting.

It stops us from judging

but rather draws us deeper

into the mind of God

Who does not condemn the world

but rather is born to save it.

[PAUSE]

Once we rid ourselves

of the compulsion

to judge each other,

we begin to appreciate 

what is truly good.

The world around us

is becoming

more and more unforgiving

because,

not only has it lost sight 

of the dignity of Man,

it refuses ever to see it.

Tweet the wrong thing,

post the wrong thing 

on Facebook

and you are 

the worst human being imaginable,

never to be forgiven,

never to be forgotten,

never allowed to repent or change

or even be a human being.

But we are Christians,

and we forgive

because our brothers and sisters

need love in order

to heal from whatever 

is causing them to sin.

We cannot heal things

by sinning more through

judging them without all the facts.

[PAUSE]

God will judge 

and His judgement

will make us right,

make us good,

make us better,

but only with our consent.

Love does not demand its own way.

This is why He comes

as a baby in a manger,

not as a conquering general

clad in the garments 

of strength and war.

We need to learn to discern

the life, light and love of that baby

in ourselves

and in others

if we are truly to love them

and the Christ-Child

whose Nativity draws nigh.

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 4)

 

What is and what is not part of our Eternal Identity?

Death and the Heart of Hosanna

Sermon for the first Sunday in Advent

We stand gazing upon the Man

riding into Jerusalem

and we hear the crowd shout

in jubilation,

"Hosanna"

Hosanna?

What does it mean?

[PAUSE]

The people of Jerusalem

shout, "Hosanna"

in their native tongue

meaning, "please save us!"

They recognise that 

the Man on the donkey

is the Messiah 

who has come to save 

Jerusalem from oppression.

At the very heart of the word 

Hosanna in Hebrew and Aramaic

is "yesha'"

and you see that word

in the Hebrew name Yeshua,

which we know as Joshua

and its Greek form is

Jesus.

In calling "Hosanna" the crowd

are calling the Name of the Lord.

They recognise 

that Jesus is the Saviour.

But saviour from what?

[PAUSE]

During Advent,

we think upon 

The Four Last Things:

Death

Judgement

Hell and Heaven.

The first of these is Death.

In Advent,

we remember that 

Our Lord comes

to save us from Death.

Death is the end of Life.

In Death we lose the power

to move ourselves,

to feel or express our thoughts.

In Death, we are slaves 

to our inability to control 

any aspect of the world around us.

In Death, we are utterly helpless.

Death enters the world

with the sins of Adam and Eve.

Because of Death, 

we sin,

and because of sin,

we die.

Sin separates us 

from awareness of God.

Death separates us

from the ability

to become aware of God.

Our Salvation

requires God Himself.

[PAUSE]

God is Life.

So He gives us Life

through His Son.

His Incarnation 

is the means for us

to live Eternally,

to be able to move and have our being

in God.

[PAUSE]

Of course,

the Incarnation begins

at the Holy Conception of Our Lord,

the moment Our Lady

said "yes" to God

at the Annunciation.

Once we know that

He's on His way,

we can prepare ourselves to live

we can prepare ourselves

by recognising that 

our ability to affect the world around us

is best lived in Christ.

[PAUSE]

We shout, "Hosanna!" 

with the crowds

because we can be sure that

at the Heart of that Hosanna

is Life itself.

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 3)

 

Using Our Lady and St Cecilia to link identity with sacrifice and worship.

Branches in the East

Sermon for the Sunday next before Advent

So what happened?

It's fair to say that 

the history of the Middle East

has been far from peaceful.

Even while Our Lord 

walks in Galilee,

the land is oppressed.

After He ascends,

the temple is destroyed

and the Jewish people

are scattered.

The state of Israel

has only had some

stability since the late 1940s

and even then

it has been rocked time and again

by violence, hatred and bloodshed.

But if Israel has been turbulent

even in Our Lord's day,

how can Jeremiah say

that Israel will dwell safely

in the days of the great King?

[PAUSE]

The prophecy is clear:

"Behold, the days come, 

saith the Lord, 

that I will raise unto David 

a righteous Branch, 

and a King shall reign and prosper, 

and shall execute 

judgment and justice in the earth."

If the King is Jesus

then the prophecy has gone wrong,

hasn't it?

And what of this branch?

Ah! The branch may hold the key.

[PAUSE]

What is this branch? 

Branch of what?

As we approach Advent,

we think of the Root of Jesse

and the Line of David,

and we see Jesus born

as a member of 

the ancient royal family.

We think of Jesus' words

"I am the vine 

and ye are the branches."

And we see an image

of something growing.

But there is something else.

The Greek for "branch"

also means "a shoot"

and "sunrise"

the dawning of a new day.

So the branch here,

is budding 

it's just come forth from the stem.

And this is what Jeremiah sees.

When Jesus walks in Galilee,

He is the Branch budding.

Indeed, for all the time we know Him

from His birth to His death 

to His resurrection,

He is just budding.

His day is only dawning.

And it is still dawning.

[PAUSE]

The Day of the Lord

is still coming,

though it is

for the faithful now.

The dark and troubled world

full of hatred and work

won't see this yet,

but we do.

Christians see

the Day of the Lord

when they come to Mass.

[PAUSE]

Christians all over the world

gather together

to meet Our Lord in the Sacrament.

We meet in our here and now

but are gathered to 

the Lord's table in His here and now.

In the Mass, we find peace,

we find stability and joy,

for in the Mass,

the Heavenly Kingdom 

touches our world

and we see beyond 

into the Day of the Lord.

[PAUSE]

We should not expect

to understand Jeremiah's words

with our concept of Time.

The Creation of the World 

took six days

and on the seventh day

God rests from His labours.

But the world is still being created.

New plants, 

new animals,

new stars and planets.

New people are being born

every day.

We have not yet reached the Seventh Day,

but it has begun to dawn,

the branch has begun to grow,

and the promises of God

are met.

Next Sunday begins the new year

as we wait for the coming

of Our Lord.

Let us be patient!

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 2)

 

Why are we so concerned about our identity?

Love in head and heart

Sermon for the twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

What's the Bible for?

How do you approach it?

Clearly Holy Scripture

tells us about God

and our relationship with Him.

It teaches us

and we learn much

about the Truth of God,

but is that all it tells us?

[PAUSE]

We trust St Paul 

as one of the foremost teachers

of the Christian Faith.

We hear his telling us

about the truth of God

and helping us to know

what to think.

Did you notice that

he also tells us how to feel?

[PAUSE]

It's very easy for us 

to get the relationship

between our thinking

and our feelings

completely wrong.

We focus on one 

at the expense of the other

and you can see this in the Church.

If we forget about people's feelings

then the Doctrine of the Church

becomes a stick to beat people with,

control them,

make sure they think the right thoughts,

and judge them if they don't.

If we forget about sound thinking,

then we let our emotions rule,

forget that the truth 

is outside of us

and say that we can believe what we want

as long as it feels right.

The Church has been damaged

by both extremes.

So what's right?

Thinking or feeling?

Answer: both and neither.

[PAUSE]

The answer has to be Love.

Love stands at the centre

of our thinking and feeling.

Love is not an emotion.

Love is not a theory.

God is Love.

He is what it means to love.

He is perfect

and He wants us to be perfect

in the way that He intends us

to be perfect.

And this is what love is:

to love someone

means to desire their perfection,

every good thing possible

for them.

And God is their perfection.

You cannot love anyone properly

without God.

That's why in the world without God,

we simply do not love anyone

as properly

or as fully

as we should.

[PAUSE]

Listen how St Paul

begins speaking

to the Philippians.

Hear him rejoice

hear him thank and praise Almighty God

for bringing the Philippians

to the Faith

and beginning in them a good work.

He is over the moon for them

and his love for them

pours out in every word

of his letter.

It truly is a love letter.

But St Paul's love for his spiritual children

pours out of every word of every letter,

even the most difficult letters

to understand.

This love is not an emotion

nor is it a theoretical construct

nor is it some far-off ideal 

that we could never really hope to reach.

Love is something that St Paul does

in his heart and in his mind

in his inward life 

and in his outward dealings

with others.

Gone are the days 

when his love for God

saw him persecute the Church.

In seeing the light

St Paul understands

that Jesus stands with His Church

always, in all places at all times.

And in seeing Love in action

St Paul is able 

to show love for others

not by accepting them for who they are

but urging them to see themselves

in Christ standing with them,

seeing their need for perfection

not as an offence against who they are

as fallen, weak and erring individuals

but as a goal, a challenge, a hope

for transformation into their

true selves.

[PAUSE]

And St Paul loves us.

The truth of Our Lord's Resurrection

tells us (at least) three things.

St Paul still lives.

St Paul still loves.

And that it is our destiny to live and love even as we live and are loved now.

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 1?)

 

What do we mean by our identity? How does it figure in our Christian conversation?

Believing is seeing

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of All Saints

Why do you believe what you do?

Is it because you 

have been told that it's true,

or have you seen that it's true?

The heart of our faith

is the Resurrection of 

Our Lord Jesus Christ.

If that didn't happen,

then there is no point

in being Christian.

But how do we know it happened?

[PAUSE]

If we want to know

what happened last week,

we look at the news,

read newspapers

or look at the internet.

If we want to know 

what happened a long time ago,

then we read history books

or we learn to read the original sources.

Which is more reliable though?

The News or the History Book?

Many will say the news 

is more reliable

because people have

direct experience

of what is currently happening.

But we can't experience

the past,

can we?

[PAUSE]

Did the First World War happen?

We can be confident that it did,

because we are still affected by it.

We have families that 

are shaped

when a great-grandfather

comes back from the trenches

with only one eye and one arm

or a village

loses all its young men

and village businesses

change hands

or disappear.

We don't need to smell the smoke

or hear the gunfire

or see the dying

to know that it happened

and was dreadful.

We don't need signs and wonders.

[PAUSE]

Did the Reformation happen?

We can be confident that it did

because we are still affected by it.

There is a reason why 

there are different groups of Christians

who don't see eye-to-eye.

We don't need 

to sit next to Pope Leo X

or Martin Luther

and watch them write

and condemn each other.

We don't need to be present

in the battles

and arguments

and murders

to know that the Reformation is real.

We don't need signs and wonders

to know that it happened.

[PAUSE]

What about the Resurrection?

We Christians can be confident

that it did happen

because we are still affected by it.

The Church exists

because something happened,

and the evidence is found

in the Bible.

Indeed that's why the Bible exists

because the Church

gathered the testament

to the truth.

But it isn't just history.

It's more than that.

Look around you.

Look at the church

the people sitting by you

all seeking and finding

the risen Christ.

They are here because

something happened

and still happens.

We don't believe because

we have seen signs and wonders,

but because we can see

in the faces of Christians around 

we can hear in the words of the Bible

we can smell in the incense

we can taste and touch the sacraments.

The Resurrection

is an extraordinary event

but it doesn't require

extraordinary evidence,

just the evidence

of faithful eye-witnesses

who have no reason

to lie.

Einstein is wrong sometimes!

We don't need signs and wonders.

We need to trust those around us.

[PAUSE]

There is something extraordinary

about the evidence, though.

The people who bear witness

are still with us.

Christ is the Resurrection

and the Life.

If we come to Him

even if we die

we shall live forever.

The saints come to Jesus

and, though they die,

they live forever.

Indeed, they see Christ

so they are like Him

because they see him 

as He really is.

If Christ is still with us,

if Christ still hears us,

if Christ still responds to us

then so do the saints

and so they still bear witness to Christ

for us.

They still interact with us

we have Communion with them.

They still hear us ask for their prayers;

they still bless us

and pass on God's grace

through the good deeds 

that they have done 

and still do.

[PAUSE]

There are those 

who deny that this is possible.

They demand Bible verses

to support this

but they fail to see that

Holy Scripture

is a testament by the Church

for the Church

and is filled with the presence

of the saints who write 

the words of God to us.

The words of the saints live

because they share the Living Word,

and, sharing the Living Word,

the saints themselves still live.

The lives of the saints

their commitment,

their striving,

their pain, sorrow, agony and dying

make the words on the pages of the Bible

live in their lives

with the life of Christ.

[PAUSE]

There are times 

when we can be very sceptical

about our faith

especially when things seem heavy.

But we need to trust God

and those whom He sends to us

to tell us the truth.

The saints are there

to do just that for us.

They are the cloud 

of witnesses

who tell the stories

that join us to what happened

and keep it alive in us

so that we, too, can live out

the true story

in our lives

and become the saints 

we are meant to be

in Christ Himself.