Branching out of Nazareth

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury for the second Sunday after Christmas

Can St Matthew be wrong?

He says of Our Lord 

that the prophets say,

"He shall be called a Nazarene."

Which prophets?

Bethlehem is prophesied

by Micah.

Egypt is mentioned by

Hosea.

But who mentions Nazareth?

Any ideas?

Neither have the scholars!

Where on earth 

has St Matthew plucked this?

Is he misreading 

the Old Testament prophets?

Is he referring to a prophet

that isn't in the Old Testament?

Or is his memory failing?

[PAUSE]

St Jerome tells us

to be fair.

He reminds us

that St Matthew doesn't 

mention a specific prophet

or specific prophecy

but is rather 

referring to a fact

borne out the combined

testimony of the prophets.

We're used to this.

The Holy Trinity

isn't mentioned

explicitly in the Bible.

But the doctrine is there

when you put the pieces together.

St Matthew isn't talking

about one prophet.

He's putting the pieces 

of the prophets together.

]PAUSE]

You see Nazareth

sounds a lot like 

Netser which is Aramaic

for branch.

Both Jeremiah 

snd Isaiah refer

to Our Lord as being

a branch out of David's line.

So, this is one reason

why Our Lord

is called a Nazarene.

But there is another possibility

which goes along with that.

The Prophet Isaiah

says that the Messiah

will be despised and rejected,

of little account,

having no beauty.

Nazareth is famous

for being less glamorous

than Chatham docks 

after the dockers

have spent New Year's Eve

at a dodgy curry house.

It does not have a good reputation.

Indeed, you remember that

St Nathanael asks,

"Can anything good 

come out of Nazareth?"

This is in keeping

with a baby born in a stable

laid in a cattle trough

who will dine

with the prostitutes

and tax collectors

and die a cruel 

and humiliating death

with thieves.

If Nazareth is the dunghill of Judaea,

then Our Lord's life of humility

shows that He is indeed called

a Nazarene.

And from dunghills,

branches can grow and flourish.

[PAUSE]

You see why

St Matthew cannot identify

a single prophet

because Our Lord's life and work

is encoded 

in the entirety of the Old Testament.

We may see Him.

in poverty in Isaiah,

as a cuckold in Hosea,

as the blossoming rod of Aaron

as the Son of Man in Daniel

even, possibly,

as Melchizedek

or one of the visitors to Abraham.

Just like St Matthew

might struggle

to find explicit, specific references

to Our Lord in the Old Testament,

so we might struggle to see Him

explicitly and specifically, 

not just in the Old Testament

but here and now.

While it is good

to have something concrete

to refer to,

Our Lord,

the Word of God,

is written on our hearts

more than just on the page.

Our life of prayer

is as much about 

knowing His presence with us

as it is knowing what is

written about Him in the Bible.

Internal presence

and external book:

both are important.

And both are united

through the grace of the Sacrament,

because that's what sacraments do.

They nourish the soul

through physical means.

[PAUSE]

But we do have to remember

that in opening our hearts 

to Christ,

we open our hearts

to a Nazarene,

the lowest of the low,

the one who challenges us

not to feel contempt.

Our Lord's humility

challenges us to be humble.

If we are wise,

we must learn to see ourselves

as Nazarenes

from which the branch of David

can grow

live and thrive.

That's not to say

that we are worthless,

because the Incarnation

says we are worth more

than we know.

It's more that

we should recognise

the cheapness of the World around

and trust God 

to lead us to fruitful lives

which mean more than

the World will ever know.

Following Our Lord,

we too will branch

out of our Nazareth.

Blogday 2025: 20 years of blogging

 

 Twenty years today!

Innocence and the sword

Sermon for the feast of the Holy Innocents

Today

is one of the most uncomfortable,

and even distressing feasts

in the Church Kalendar.

Today,

in amidst all the joy,

happiness,

feasting and merriment,

we are faced with atrocity

- naked atrocity.

Many of us 

try to turn away 

and focus on the events

of Christmas Day

rather than on the 

deaths of little babies.

That's natural.

So why remember it at all?

And if we must remember it,

why do we remember it here

at Christmas time?

[PAUSE]

Well,

the day after Christmas,

we remember the death

of St Stephen.

And that doesn't seem 

to bother us as much.

His death,

although distressing

is, in some way,

chosen by St Stephen.

He could have just shut up

and said nothing,

but instead glorifies God

and is killed for it.

His death doesn't 

affect us

in the same way

as the Holy Innocents.

But surely,

St Stephen was a baby once,

so why is the death

of the babies of Bethlehem

so much more dreadful?

Why is the death of a newborn

so much more horrible

in our eyes

than the murder 

of a young man?

[PAUSE]

We react to death

in the proportion

that we love.

We remember 

that grief is a transformation

of our love 

because we can

no longer engage

with the person we love.

The baby newly born

is small, innocent and helpless

born separated from mother

and separated from God.

A baby is born

needing love,

needing that human goodness

to be nourished

and cared for,

to grow and become

her own person.

And,

in Bethlehem,

instead of that love

the baby meets a sword,

[PAUSE]

If that appals you,

if you feel like crying,

if you are disturbed by that,

then there is love in you.

Well done!

In grasping this horrible truth,

you have shown yourself capable

of love

and meeting hatred head on.

The depth of our love

Is measured by its capacity 

to suffer.

And we Christians 

are born to suffer

because we are born to love.

And it isn't our personal injuries

that cause us to suffer

it is the injuries that others suffer

that we count as our own.

We mourn 

with those who mourn.

And there is no grief

like that 

of a bereaved mother.

[PAUSE]

For nine months,

mother and baby

are inseparable.

Within her grows

someone beautiful

of her own body

and of the father's.

When we gaze into the face

of a baby,

we see a beauty as yet

untouched by the world,

and this beauty 

is a reflection 

an ikon of God Himself.

To destroy this child

is an act against God Himself.

Conversely,

to love this child,

to protect her,

to nourish her,

to hold her close and keep her safe

is an act of love shown

to God Himself.

To remember the Holy Innocents

is to remember our own humanity,

our need,

not only to be loved,

but to love,

actively and fully.

St Stephen chooses to proclaim

the love of God,

knowing that

it will lead to his death,

and we love him 

for his bravery and faith.

But the babies

have no choice at all.

Death comes for them

in their innocence

and in that innocence

they, too,

bear witness to the death of Death.

In the Holy Innocents' fate,

we recognise 

not only the evil 

that we can perpetrate,

but our ability to love

that has not been lost.

If we can still feel love,

then we can still love

and there is some health in us.

We are not totally depraved.

And this means 

that God thinks

we are worth saving,

worth the shame and spitting

and the Cross.

[PAUSE]

But what about joy?

Why is it the feast of the Holy Innocents?

Because they are not dead.

In Christ, 

they are full of life,

full of humanity,

full of joy, peace and love.

And because

not only can no further evil touch them

but also that evil flees from them.

Love has conquered hate

and death is swallowed up

in Christ's victory

which they share.

They may have never spoken

a single word on the Earth

but they intercede 

for us in Heaven nonetheless.

And they invite us

into their joy

which is hard won

but worth winning.

An Anglican Catholic makes merry!

 

Wishing you a joyful Christmas!

An Anglican Catholic crosses from the Old Testament to the New

 

Why perhaps we ought to rethink the divisions of the Bible.

The Red Herring of Advent

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the fourth Sunday in Advent

Suppose you want 

to stop a fox hunt

or a rabbit hunt.

What do you do?

One practice is to get

a smoked fish, 

wait until its gone

a bit ripe -

well, okay, a lot ripe,

and drag it across the track 

behind the rabbit

as it flees.

The stinky trail

will send the dogs off

in completely the wrong direction.

And which type of fish

would be best?

A herring!

And, if you leave it

for long enough,

it will turn red.

That's where 

the red herring 

comes from.

The red herring

is designed 

to throw us off the scent

and confuse us

so we don't see

what's going on.

Is St John the Baptist

a red herring?

[PAUSE]

The priests and Levites 

might think so.

There in front of them -

a man calling for them

to repent,

and not mincing his words.

Who is he?

Is he the Christ? 

No.

Well, that seems 

straightforward enough.

Is he Elijah?

No?

Except that he is.

God says through 

the prophet Malachi,

"Behold, I will send you 

Elijah the prophet 

before the coming of 

the great and dreadful day of the LORD."

God is not being literal

but identifying

the last prophet with Elijah

Jesus Himself

will say that St John

comes in Elijah's spirit.

But hang on!

All this is a red herring.

We are being side-tracked.

Do you see that?

[PAUSE]

What is the real issue?

Who is this John the Baptist?

We've just seen one red herring

perhaps this man is another.

Hear him,

"I am the voice of him

that crieth in the wilderness,

'make straight 

the way of the Lord!'"

That's as far from being

a red herring as you can get!

A red herring is

supposed put you 

off the scent 

not put you on it.

St John clearly 

points the way to Christ

so why don't the rulers

of Jewish society

go the way that 

St John is pointing?

The have received 

another red herring.

They are seeking the Christ

but they are not seeking Jesus.

Their senses have become

confused with the different

scents of the previous centuries.

Israel has erred and strayed

from the way of God 

like a lost sheep.

Israel has been overrun

and conquered

ruled by Emperors 

that think they are gods,

and by self-important kings,

like Herod,

who want to be gods.

The people of Judaea

seek the Christ,

but their eyes have become clouded

by politics,

and expectations,

and battles,

and protests,

and invasions,

and rulers in it for themselves.

This is the smell 

of the red herring,

one thrown into draw people

away from Christ

by the Devil

who knows that the time is near

when his head will be crushed

by a virgin bearing a child.

Only St John

in his rags,

poverty,

and disrespect 

for human vanity

points the way clearly

in exactly the same way

that the prophet Elijah might.

Only those

who sniff past

the stench of this world's

depravity and degradation

will smell the sweetness

of Christ Himself.

[PAUSE]

Our Advent has been spent

clearing our noses

from Hell's smells.

We smell the mulled wine,

the pine needles and mince pies 

the candles and the frankincense

but we know that 

they draw us on to the Lord

because we recognise 

His presence with us

despite the aroma of

the world outside.

[PAUSE]

The more we know Christ

the more we will be able

to sniff Him out

despite the red herrings

that are thrown at us.

An Anglican Catholic prophesies about Advent

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