When the spirit of freedom stops the clock

Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

On our travels with St Paul, St Silas and St Luke, we meet three spirits. The first prevents them from spreading the Gospel in Asia. The second proclaims the Most High God. The third sends these saints to prison.

Only one of these spirits is not the Holy Ghost.

[PAUSE]

It's interesting that the spirit proclaiming the name of God is not the Holy Ghost but a spirit of divination. It is the Holy Ghost Who stops the saints from going into Asia and, by driving out this spirit of divination, has the saints thrown into prison.

It looks like the Holy Ghost is not a spirit of freedom.

[PAUSE]

At critical times in History, people have lifted their heads and said that there was something in the air. Major revolutions have followed with great turmoil and then sighs of relief. The crowd hails the new spirit of freedom; poems are written; statues are carved; pictures are painted. Until the next revolution, of course. Then a new spirit takes over; poems are censored; statues torn down; paintings are defaced.

And round and round we go.

And we Christians worship a Spirit Who constrains us, stops us from doing what we want,  and will even drive out spirits which mention His Name. Is our God not concerned with our freedom?

[PAUSE]

The girl is possessed by this spirit of divination. It might be speaking the truth but there is no way this poor girl is free. Human beings are not meant to be possessed. She is not free to be herself.

Too often we think that freedom means that we can do what we like. We think that freedom means that there is nothing holding us back from getting our desires. We think freedom means answering to no-one, eating what we want, sleeping with whom we want, and so on.

This is not what God wants. We cannot be free like this because God created us to be what He wants to be. And we don't want to be what He wants us to be.

[PAUSE]

We are like a clock - one of those old fashioned proper clockwork clocks with cogs and gears and hands and weights.

In that clock, there is a special device called the escapement. It regulates the clock and is responsible for the "tick-tock" sound. It consists of a wheel that is attached to the weights and a balance which is attached to the pendulum. The balance regulates the wheel: without it, the wheel would spin freely and the clock would be useless.

Without the wheel, the clock would be stuck.

And we are like the clock.

[PAUSE]

God has created us for His purpose, but we have damaged ourselves. Some of us struggle against God's law and are like a clock which throws out its balance. Our lives spin fast and free, but we cease to be what we are meant to be. We lose our very selves in our own pursuit of happiness.

Some of us become infected by evil spirits so that we become like the clock whose escapement wheel cannot turn. We are stuck, rigid, at the pleasure of the Devil. 

We need both the balance and the wheel in order to function for God and so find true freedom.

[PAUSE]

The balance of the Holy Ghost means that St Paul can't travel into Asia but must suffer imprisonment. As a result of his restrictions, a girl is saved from an evil spirit and a gaoler and his family are brought to Christ. The temporary loss of physical freedom is the tick which results in the tock of the spiritual freedom of others. 

In accepting regulation by the Holy Ghost we operate better as servants of God and find the freedom to do what we are meant to do, just as the clock is meant to tell the time.

[PAUSE]

Too often, what we think is freedom is anything but. False freedom leads to enslavement by our own short-sighted view of reality which leads us to reject God. True freedom accepts limitations so that we become what we are meant to be.

 And God alone tells us what we are meant to be. We are meant to be happy in Him.

A Hymn to God the Father

Apologies for the odd lengthening of some notes. I had to turn my own pages which is not easy!

Credit where credit is due

Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity

Your job as a waiter in a restaurant is going well. The customers are nice and the chef is just the right side of demanding. The food is good and the company genial.

Just before closing, you approach a man to settle his bill. He takes out his wallet and from it produces a shiny gold credit card. "I have this!" he says proudly, "it's accepted by all the best places!" Immediately, he gets up and tries to leave. 

Has the bill been paid?

[PAUSE]

Of course, you protest that you haven't put the bill onto the card and that just waving the card at you doesn't pay the bill. There has to be sufficient credit on the card in order to pay.

As you run his card through the machine, there is a beep and the card is declined. It doesn't matter how flashy the card is, if there is no credit on it, it is no good.

[PAUSE]

And that's the attitude that the Apostles are up against. They are faced with Jewish Christians saying that, in order to be saved, all men must be circumcised. This is why the very first Council of Jerusalem gets called by St James: how do gentiles become Christian?

St Paul tells us that circumcision availeth nothing and uncircumcision availeth nothing. Using a bodily scar as proof of your salvation is like the shiny credit card. It doesn't work if there is no credit. We cannot expect salvation without a change in our hearts. This is why St Paul tells us to circumcise our hearts.

[PAUSE]

The conclusion of the Council is that gentiles do not need to be circumcised but they do need to live lives of chastity and not eat food sacrificed to idols. For many gentiles in Jerusalem, this will be a big deal because it involves a change in lifestyle. It means turning away from sin and idolatry and towards Christ. These are painful and demanding changes that will put these gentile Christians directly at odds with their culture and their families. It is every bit a commitment to the church as circumcision is to the Jews.

[PAUSE]

It is only in Christ that we are saved from the debt of our sins. He is the credit on our cards: it doesn't matter if those cards are gold-plated or not. Nonetheless, we have to live lives of faith in order to recognise the value of this credit. We will not be saved by outward gimmickry but by knowing and loving God.

[PAUSE]

When the Day of Reckoning happens, will there be enough on your card? How do you know?

Return to care of the community

Reflecting on the solemnities of St Benedict, St John Gualbert and St Bonaventura and how the Religious Life contributes to the healing of a sense of community.

Gospel? What a riot!

Sermon for the fifth Sunday after Trinity

No good deed ever goes unpunished.

You've heard that saying and probably have first hand experience as to what it means. All you want to do is a little kind, noble and helpful act of generosity and you end up causing mayhem.

The Apostles certainly feel that way. All Paul and Barnabas want to do is preach the Good News and they manage to cause civil unrest in Iconium. All they want to do is heal the sick and they inadvertently whip up the people into a pagan frenzy. 

But then what would you want to happen? 

What has to happen for things to ran smoothly for once?

[PAUSE]

You approach a town that has never heard of Christ. You preach the Gospel. What then? What do you want to happen?

Ideally, we would want everyone to say, "I believe!" change their lives, build a church, find a priest, and start the business of preaching the Gospel themselves. 

That would be wonderful but it seems too easy. If people are so ready to drop their beliefs for Christianity, what will stop them from dropping Christianity for the next popular religion?

If anything it is the people who resist the most who will take Christianity most seriously. We see this in St Paul, himself. It may look as if St Peter, St James and St John turn to Christ at the drop of a hat, but they do struggle with Jesus' teaching and even abandon Him at His arrest in Gethsemane.

Christianity comes with a struggle.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord points out the reality of preaching in His parable of the sower. Some people just won't get the Gospel at all. Some people will treat it as a fashionable idea. Some people will only hold onto the Gospel for as long as it is convenient. Some will hold onto it, wrestle with it, question it, be hurt by it but will grow and grow and grow so that not only is the good news thoroughly received but will not be lost.

[PAUSE]

The Church has to expect resistance and allow for it. In times of civil unrest, the Church needs to be utterly uncompromising in preaching God's message even though it offends those who have not yet heard what is really being said. Even if preaching the Gospel becomes against the law, it will never be against God's Law provided that it is His Gospel that we preach. Thus even if we are commanded to keep silence, we must follow the Apostles' example and disobey in order to bring the Fact of Everlasting Life in Christ Jesus to a world that needs to hear it. If people see just how committed to the Gospel we are in the face of being countercultural, the more they will realise its importance and relevance.

[PAUSE]

If St Barnabas and St Paul cause riots just by telling people how much God loves them, should we not expect the same and give thanks for it?

There's none as blind...

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Trinity

Today Saul becomes Paul.

Saul, this convert to Christ, is a Roman Citizen. This means he has two names, a Hebrew name and a Roman name. This is quite common: the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus has the Hebrew name Joseph Ben Matityahu. It is something that Saul/Paul shares with Elymas BarJesus.  

Saul and the sorcerer Elymas share something else. They are both struck blind by God.

Why?

[PAUSE]

We see Saul converted from persecuting the Christian Faith. He seeks to destroy the Church through using the civil authorities to enforce Jewish teaching. He is struck blind on the Road to Damascus and sits in darkness until Ananias comes with God's authority to restore his sight.

And what about Elymas?

Here we have a sorcerer using his skills to impress and influence the Roman authorities in order to disrupt the Christian message and prevent it from being heard. And what happens? He is struck blind - temporarily, we are told - and has to search for someone to guide him. And we never hear from him again.

 Clearly blindness is the consequence of both Saul and Elymas' persecution of the Church, but why?

We have to see this blindness as a mercy from God. The consequences of our actions can be grave. We need only look at Pharaoh who hardens his heart to the Hebrews only to find that he cannot soften it again. We need only look at Judas Iscariot who regrets his betrayal and yet cannot face the One he betrays, ending his own life in an attempt never to remember Jesus again.

For Saul, blindness is an opportunity to see his own blindness to the truth. With his sight removed, he has to sit and reflect on the light that blinded him. He is not distracted by sights but has to sit and wait for Ananias. Ironically, outward blindness gives him better focus and a cure from being inly blind. 

With his inward vision corrected, his sight can be restored and he enters on to a great ministry.

What about Elymas?

[PAUSE]

All we know is that his blindness is temporary. What happens when his sight is restored is not told. The proconsul Sergius Paulus is converted at Elymas' blindness, so it seems reasonable that we would be told if Elymas converts. It seems we must still wait for that.

[PAUSE]

If we want to see where we are going wrong, we need to become blind in order to reflect more deeply. Obviously, this is not necessary for us to become physically blind but rather that we need to remove distractions. If we sit in silence with our eyes closed, we hear better and are better prepared to listen. If we fast and pray, then we clear our vision from denying earthly pleasures and we can see better spiritually. This is why it is good to go on retreat.

Just as the apostles fast and pray before ordaining St Paul and St Barnabas, we too should seek ways of becoming blind to the world in order to see God's will better. It is better to become blind for a little while than to see oneself falling away from God and not knowing what to do about it.

[PAUSE]

We are destined to see God in all His glory at the wedding feast of the Lamb. To be blind to that would be a terrible tragedy.

Chants for Anglican usage

I have just created a playlist of chants for traditional Anglican usage in a domestic setting. 

I will try to add to it, so if there are any requests, please let me know.

Merbecke's Benedicite

As requested.