The Man of the Cloth

Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection

Making your bed

is supposed to be

the sign of maturity.

Taking the time

to refluff the pillows

and fling the duvet out

so that it covers the bed

ready for tonight

is often seen as a chore

by teenagers, 

and by those in a hurry.

But why?

If you live alone,

no-one else will see

an untidy bed,

so it won't matter.

You're just going to

get into it again

tonight.

Besides,

leaving it all rumpled

airs the bed a bit.

[PAUSE]

If you don't live on your own

or share a bed,

then making it

seems a courtesy.

It shows that

you want to keep things nice

for someone else.

It's an act that says

that we want

the other person 

to feel at home,

to feel comfortable,

to feel that everything is in order,

to feel looked after.

Does Jesus make His bed?

[PAUSE]

Peter and John 

are looking in the tomb.

They see the linen clothes

that Jesus was buried in

lying in the tomb.

The napkin that was

about His face,

is lying wrapped together

in a place by itself.

The Greek word

that is used for "lying"

is the same word

used when,

at Christmas,

we see the baby

lying in the manger.

The linen cloths

have not been tossed aside

they are lying

set in their places.

The napkin

is rolled up

and put aside.

Jesus has made His bed.

[PAUSE]

This is significant.

People stealing a body

would do so

as quickly as possible.

They would take the linen cloths

with the body,

or cast them aside

leaving them 

where they fell.

They would not have time

to roll up a napkin.

They would not have time

to gently place the linen cloths

in the tomb.

Indeed, 

if they were in a rush

the napkin would not

be in a place by itself.

No, the body was not stolen.

Jesus gets up,

makes His bed

and leaves.

[PAUSE]

But Our Lord

makes His bed

for a reason more

than an assurance

that He is truly risen.

We make our bed,

when there are others

that might sleep in it.

Jesus makes His bed

because we shall all

sleep where He slept

after His crucifixion.

We shall all sleep

when we face our own death.

It's that one terrible fact

that we must face.

It's that one terrible sadness

that we encounter

with our loved ones

as they pass from us.

Jesus makes His bed

knowing that we must sleep in it

at the end of our lives.

But He shows us

that we too will be making our beds

when we rise through Him.

By making His bed in the tomb,

Our Lord has shown

that Death is not for us.

Death for the Christian

is not a state of being,

it is an event,

just a thing that happens to us

and doesn't stop us

from being ourselves,

because God Himself

keeps us alive in Him.

At our Death,

we sleep until we are woken

by Eternity's sunrise.

And it will be Christ

who bids us rise with Him

into the glorious morning in the garden.

But let us make our bed first!

The Politics of Holy Week

 

How Our Lord reveals Himself as a political figure.

Palm Sunday Question

As usual, in view of the Long Gospel for Palm Sunday, rather than a sermon, I offer this question for your reflection:

Why are we able to go from "Hosanna!" to "Crucify!" so quickly?

Passionate Anxiety

 

How anxious was Our Lord before Holy Week?

The Truth of Life and Death

Sermon for Passion Sunday

"Before Abraham was, I am"

Grammatically, 

that's a very strange statement.

Looking at it

in the original Greek,

we see the idea that

Jesus is,

not was,

is before Abraham enters

into History.

Our Lord is as present

to Abraham

as He is present 

to these unbelieving Pharisees,

as He is to us now

as He is to those 

who come after 

we have long returned

to the dust.

In short,

every moment of Time

is directly accessible to Him

in His Eternal present.

Aside from using

the Name of God,

I AM

spoken to Moses in the bush

and making the Pharisees

ears bleed in horror,

Our Lord is making

a clear statement

that He is truly God

by virtue of His Eternity.

And still people will say,

"Jesus never claimed to be God."

But He is claiming to be God,

because He is God

and, if we take the time

just to simply hear His words,

He claims it,

loud and clear.

The testimony

of the Pharisees' reaction

shows that they hear

His claim to be God

and understand it

as a claim to be God.

[PAUSE]

This isn't the same confusion

of language

that poor Nicodemus has

when he hears Jesus say

that we must be born again

when Jesus means

we must be born from above.

The language is clear.

It is grammatically odd

because it is telling

an Eternal truth

in reference to Abraham

one who was time-bound but is no longer.

Abraham is not dead.

Abraham rejoices to see Jesus' day

because Jesus is God

and He is not the God of the dead,

but of the living.

Abraham lives

because Jesus is God.

And the same is true

for all who receive this fact

and live it out because it is true.

[PAUSE]

And we still hear people say today,

"Abraham is dead.

Moses is dead.

Mary is dead.

Peter is dead.

Paul is dead.

They can't hear you.

They are dead."

We ask them,

"who, then, is their God?

Who is the God of Abraham,

Moses, Mary, Peter, and Paul.

Is He the same God?

And if He is not the God of the dead

but of the living,

how are they dead?"

They are not

and they worship Father, Son and Holy Ghost

in Eternity

freed from the constraints 

of Time and Space,

yet keeping the Great Commandment

to love their neighbours.

[PAUSE]

It is the Pharisees who are dead

in the letter of their law.

Those who live by the text

shall die by the text.

They fail to see

the reason for the text

but rather bask in its certainty

which they and they alone control.

They see only the text

divorced from its history,

divorced from its context,

divorced from its meaning.

And the divorce themselves

from those 

who challenge their viewpoint.

But the reverse is also true.

There are those who see the text

only in today's context,

only in today's view of history,

only in today's meaning,

and thus divorce themselves

from the True Logos seeing Him

only the god of today.

[PAUSE]

"Before Abraham was, I am."

We know Our Lord,

to be the same 

yesterday,

today,

forever.

We know that we are

united in Him

with all who hold onto Him

past, present and to come.

We know that 

Our Lord is changeless,

His Law is Eternal,

His word enduring 

throughout all generations.

But He lives.

[PAUSE]

We hear the same words

of our liturgy each week,

telling us of the truth

of God's unwavering grace to us.

We cannot change

His sacraments

because they are

for the whole Church,

past, present and future.

But by our earnest longing

to be with Him and in Him,

thoss changeless words

carry life

- the same life of

Abraham,

Moses,

Mary,

Peter

and Paul.

And they carry life

because we do not express them

with death, 

as weapons of mass destruction

in hatred, or loathing

of those whom God has made.

The Pharisees hear truth

and seek to kill it.

We hear truth

and we proclaim it.

And what do we proclaim?

The next fourteen days.

Liturgical accuracy in the Anglican Catholic Church

 

What happens if you miss a responsary at Matins?

Magic, mystery and the multitudes

Sermon for the fourth Sunday in Lent

So, how is he doing it?

Five small barley loaves,

Two small fish

Twelve baskets over

Five thousand fed.

What do we see?

Does Our Lord 

put the bread 

into a magic hat,

or a magic bag

and then produce more bread

like Tubbo the Clown produces

a coin 

from behind the ear

of a jelly-smeared urchin?

Or does he break some off

from a loaf

that never seems 

to get smaller?

Is one of the disciples

behind Our Lord

secretly handing Him

bread smuggled 

from the bags

of the multitudes around.

Just what are we seeing,

when we behold 

this miracle?

[PAUSE]

We know that magicians

like to reproduce miracles.

We even see that

in the plagues of Egypt

when Pharaoh's Court Sorcerors

replicate some of the plagues

that Moses instigates.

Don't they realise that

they are adding to 

Egypt's suffering?

 But magicians

are using

sleight of hand,

special props,

misdirection 

and our assumptions

about the situation

to deceive us.

And that's the key.

Magic is amusement by deception.

We try to figure out

how it is done

as well as being amazed.

But we know it's a trick.

We know the coin

hasn't appeared from 

the ear of the child

unless the child is in fact 

Dumbo the Elephant,

and Tubbo is wearing rubber gloves.

Is that what Our Lord is doing?

He isn't prancing about

In top hat and cloak

because He is not a showman.

He's not a trickster.

He does not deceive.

His concern

is what these five thousand 

will eat.

Perhaps He turns

the stones on the mountain

into bread?

[PAUSE]

And now we're back

to the beginning of Lent.

Man shall not live

by bread alone

but by every word

that proceeds

from the mouth of God.

We can be sure 

that Our Lord

is not contradicting Himself.

He is concerned only

that these people are fed,

body and soul.

Somehow,

he is multiplying the bread,

not by magic or deceit

but by some act of creation

that we cannot be privy to

by the fact that 

are created.

It's a mystery,

not lost to Time,

but above our concepts

of Time, Space, Matter and Reality.

It's not how Jesus does it,

it's why He does it that matters,

and that lies

entirely in His intention

not to gather followers

by impressing them

but to gather those who

hunger and thirst 

for righteousness

and feed them until they are 

fully satisfied

with Truth and not deceit.

All He asks of us

is to use the gift of faith

that He gives us

to receive salvation,

refreshment

and restoration.

Our salvation comes

out of the empty tomb,

not from behind our ear.