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?