The core beliefs of.an Anglican Catholic?

 

Are you really a miserable sinner?

The consequence of Us and Them

Sermon for the second Sunday in Lent

"She's not one of us!"

"Stay away!"

"She's got no part in our nation!"

This is what the Canaanite Woman hears.

Already even in the first century,

politics in the Middle East

is complicated

and emotive.

The people of Canaan

are worse than Samaritans.

Their practices are disgusting

and no faithful Israelite

has any dealings

with such low life.

And this woman is one of them.

Keep her away.

[PAUSE]

Yet,

still she calls out

to the One she believes

can free her daughter

of devils.

She knows how vile she is

in the eyes of the Jews.

The Master's disciples,

naturally urge that she be

sent away.

She is used to that.

She hears his voice,

"I am not sent,

but unto the lost sheep

of the house of Israel."

This is the response

everyone expects.

The disciples know

that Our Lord

is supremely faithful

to the Jewish law.

The Messiah

is prophesied

to fight for the salvation

of the people of Israel.

And He does!

He comes to Israel first

knowing that,

when they reject Him,

He is justified in 

reaching out to the gentiles.

There is no surprise.

And despite the fact

that she knows is

this Canaanite Woman

this most unclean of the unclean

still sees in the Christ

something worth fighting for.

something to pursue.

She doesn't know

she is a bit premature.

But then,

does she have a choice?

He is special;

He is a wonderworker;

He speaks the truth;

He is loyal to His nation.

And so she fights 

through the protests,

derision

and hatred,

and worships the God

she is not allowed to approach.

"Help me!"

The Christ stops

and bothers to speak to her,

"It is not meet 

to take the children's bread,

and to cast it to the dogs."

The Jewish people smile smugly

for the Christ has put her 

in her place.

He's not for the likes of her.

He's proud of His nation.

Not going to be sullied by 

associating with her.

[PAUSE]

Dogs?

It's the word He uses

but it is not the word

she expects to hear.

She is expecting

a different Greek word for dog

that has always been used

to describe her Canaanite people

as being unclean and impure.

But the word He uses,

He calls her a puppy, a pet dog

one of those animals

for which there is affection

Immediately,

she sees them snuffling

round the family 

at the table

being fed treats.

If this is what she is to Him

even these little dogs 

get a scrap of kindness.

"Truth, Lord,

yet the dogs eat of the crumbs

which fall from the master's table."

And something shifts.

Not in the Christ,

for He knows what He does.

"O woman,"

He says.

Already this is significant

for "O Woman" 

is how He addresses His mother

at the wedding in Cana.

"O Woman"

a term of respect

of acknowledgement

of seeing her

without the Nationalistic label

"O Woman,

great is thy faith!"

Her faith has crossed 

the divide caused by

tribalism

Nationalism

political jingoism.

It's a woman

talking to a man

- a man Who just happens

to be God.

Her faith in Him

is greater

than the derision

of those who hate her.

"Be it unto thee

even as thou wilt."

And a way away,

a devil screeches

as the barrier of hatred is lifted

removing his protection

from being evicted.

The woman

who has struck at 

the barrier

that separates her and God

has let the light of Christ

pour forth onto her daughter

freeing her from darkness.

Jesus knows her

and through this

knowing her faith

He shows up the pettiness

of those who cling to their

national identity

above the good of a human being.

As we know this

because this is recorded for us

in the Gospels,

not as an.example

of Jesus being rude or unkind

but of showing that His love

will not be constrained 

by anything man made.

Yes, He comes to save

the Jewish people first

because of His promises

to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He is faithful to them 

but they reject Him.

And so, 

as the prophets foretell,

He comes for the people

of Tyre, Sidon, Cairo, Athens

Antioch, Alexandria,

Rome, London and Faversham

with the same promise

of salvation.

[PAUSE]

The faith of this Canaanite woman

saves her daughter

but it also reaches out to us

and challenges us

to see our fellow man

in all whom we meet.

The End of the Anglican Catholic Church?

 

What does the future hold?

Devil's Advocate

Sermon for the first Sunday of Lent

Let's play Devil's advocate.

How would you bring Christ down?

Yes of course, 

as Christians,

we know Christ to be God.

We couldn't bring Him down

even if we tried

and we don't want to try.

Sadly,

others do.

So how might they do it?

Well they need to show

that Jesus is not God.

They need to show

that He is not all-powerful

that He is not all-knowing

and that He is not all-good.

If the Devil 

can convince us

of just one of these things

then he has us.

And because Jesus is a man,

this should be easy.

If the Devil 

can convince us

that Jesus is only a man

then it's job done.

So how do we start?

[PAUSE]

Showing that 

He is not all-knowing

is tricky.

We might try

to show that 

He is not all-good.

But let's show

that He is not all-powerful.

That's easiest

That means we need 

to show that He is weak.

And He is weak too.

Look at Him

all hungry.

If He doesn't eat, 

then He'll die.

If He's God,

then He can change

these stones into bread

and feed Himself.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, 

but by every word that proceedeth 

out of the mouth of God"

Now,

is that more

or less powerful

than changing stones to bread?

Ah!

But if He does change

stones to bread

he can be fed

and show us that He is God.

He refuses!

So He's not all-powerful.

But what if he's right?

What if it's not the bread

that makes us live,

but the words of the mouth of God?

If He speaks the truth,

then changing stones to bread

would be needless

and, in the circumstances,

show us that He bows

to temptation.

So not turning stones to bread,

that's actually more powerful

and we still have no evidence

to show that

He is not all-powerful.

But we have no evidence

that He is all-powerful.

[PAUSE]

If He says

that we live by every word 

that comes out of His mouth

then let Him show it.

Let Him give proof

that He is all-powerful.

Send Him up

to the top of the pinnacle.

If He lives

by every word of God,

then, if He throws Himself down,

God's word will summon the angels, 

because Holy Scripture says,

"He shall give his angels 

charge concerning thee, 

and in their hands 

they shall bear thee up, 

lest at any time thou dash thy foot 

against a stone."

But if He does,

the He will not have seen

through the trick.

He will not know 

that He is being.deceived

into proving His word.

If He throws Himself down

then He might prove

that He is kept by God's word

but He will also prove

that He can be manipulated.

It will show that

He is not all-knowing

and not all-powerful.

[PAUSE]

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

So, He's not stupid.

He's not being fooled

by the clever ploy.

Last chance for now. 

Tempt Him

with everything

on the conditon

He stops worshipping God.

Every man has his price.

So offer Him

everything,

absolutely everything

to turn from God.

If He does,

He won't be all-good

because He doesn't worship God;

He won't be all-knowing

because He won't see through this trick,

He won't be all-powerful

for the riches of.the whole world

control Him.

And then we are done.

[PAUSE]

"Get thee hence, Satan; 

for it is written, 

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 

and him only shalt thou serve."

And that's the best we can do.

The Devil can't show that 

Jesus is not all-powerful

nor that

Jesus is not all-knowing

nor that

Jesus is not all-good.

To be fair,

Jesus hasn't shown

that He is all-knowing, 

all-powerful and all-good.

But He doesn't need to.

Watch.Him.

Watch what He does.

Watch Him.heal.

Watch Him forgive.

Watch Him teach.

Watch Him raise the dead.

And

Watch Him die.

Watch why He dies.

And watch Him rise in glory.

The Devil can

and will do his worst

and God shows us

why playing Devil's advocate

only leads us to see

the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

To Him be honour

and glory unto the age of ages.

A literal Creation for Anglican Catholics?

 Is it necessary for Anglican Catholics to believe the Science of Creation?

Two blind, two see

 

Sermon for Quinquagesima preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

How's your eyesight?

Some of us are lucky

and have perfect vision.

Some of us

can discern that 

one of the altar candles

is adrift from upright

by one twenty-seventh

of a degree,

or an n dash from an m dash

at 100 paces.

Lots of people wear glasses these days.

Is that because

watching too many screens

is making our eyesight bad

or is it because

opticians are now very good 

at picking up

subtle problems with 

our eyesight?

We can now correct

all manner of problems

with spectacles

or contact lenses

or even low-level surgery.

What do you think

is the most difficult

problem with our sight

for us to correct?

[PAUSE]

Have you gone for 

the most obvious answer?

Not having eyes at all?

Absolutely.

Trying to fit

an earthworm 

with contact lenses

is raising futility to a high art.

Yet we know

that Our Lord heals the blind.

That includes those blinded

by diseases,

and it also includes those

born blind.

In fact, 

if you look at that

instance where Our Lord

heals the man born blind

we can reasonably infer

that the man was born without eyes

or eyes so deformed 

that they actually need

to be re-created 

which our Lord does do

with the dust of the earth,

demonstrating clearly

that He is the Creator.

What is interesting today

in St Luke's record of the Gospel,

we hear of two blindnesses

but only one that is healed

- at least only one 

that is healed straightaway.

[PAUSE]

St Luke tells us of the situation

in which Our Lord lets 

His confused disciples know

that He is going to Jerusalem

for the last time. 

On that last trip to Jerusalem

they encounter a blind man at Jericho

who is calling to the Son of David 

to have mercy upon him.

He shouts out in his blindness,

recognising

that there is one near

who can restore his sight.

He sees wirhout seeing.

His faith saves him,

and by 'save' here, 

we can understand the word 'heals'

for 'salvation' and 'health' 

are two sides of the same coin.

So there's one blindness.

Did you spot the other blindness?

[PAUSE]

There, right at the beginning!

Our Lord tells his disciples

that He is going to Jerusalem

to be crucified.

They do not understand.

They do not see.

And they won't see,

not until the events of Good Friday

are played out

in front of them.

Only when

they see Him appear to them

in the flesh

do they understand Him

- they see what He is on about.

There is a sight of the eye

and the sight of the mind's eye.

The blind man sees 

Christ in his mind's eye

but not with his fleshly eyes.

The disciples see

Christ with their fleshly eyes,

but not in their mind's eye.

The Lord heals both.

As Our Saviour

- our restorer to our full health

in God,

He reveals His love

in revealing to us

the God to Whom 

we have been blind

since our Fall 

in the Garden of Eden.

Yet we still hear

the Atheist say to us

"Show us your God!

Show Him and we will believe.

Seeing is believing!"

What do we do then?

How do we respond?

Especially when

we do not see Our Lord

among us.

[PAUSE]

We might point

to the Eucharist

where we see Our Lord

under the appearance

of bread and wine.

But, as St Thomas Aquinas points out

Our Lord is truly present,

Body, Soul, Humanity

and Divinity,

but that He is seen

with eyes of faith.

He is not seen 

through microscopes,

telescopes,

oscilloscopes

or periscopes,

or even kalaidoscopes.

He is present with us

for us to see

with our eyes of faith,

- the same eyes

with which the Apostles

see Him

until their last earthly breath

and their first heavenly breath.

Those who do not believe

will not see Him

in the Most Holy Sacrament,

because they are blind.

For them to ask us

to show Him to them

is impossible

for their mind's eye is blind.

All we can do

is just bear witness to 

what we see,

what the Apostles see,

what the Church sees

in the hope that the eyes of faith

may be opened 

in the eyes of those 

whose mind is blind.

And what do we see?

[PAUSE]

We see a man,

a healer,

a teacher,

a preacher,

a giver of faith, hope and love.

We see a man,

mocked,

spat on,

flogged,

and crucified

for the love of each one of us.

And we see a tomb,

an empty tomb,

and, with our eyes of faith

we see Him who

once occupied it.

That is what we see

and that is what we show the world

in the hope that

that which is now blind

may soon see.

An Anglican Catholic meets Hypatia

 

Why the conflict between St Cyril of Alexandria and Hypatia has far-reaching consequences.