The truth of the king

Sermon for the feast of Christ the King

Do you believe politicians tell the truth?

The image of the corrupt politician is quite a famous one that we see on television or in films. Many such characters are, unfortunately, based on real life politicians who have deceived us.

This leads us into some rather difficult problems. Look at recent events. It only takes the papers to report that a politician says not to panic about fuel shortages and we do the opposite. Why? We have it in our heads that if a politician says not to panic, then there is something to panic about. We simply do not trust our politicians.

Are kings any better? Should we trust a king?

[PAUSE]

History shows that kings are no more trustworthy than other political figures. Certainly, during the Wars of the Roses or the Civil War, you have to be very careful who you trust. Betrayal and intrigue make for a very unsettled peace. When there is no trust, there can only be a false peace while everyone waits to see who will make the next move. A kingdom based on a lack of trust is unstable and will fall.

But why don't we trust our leaders?

[PAUSE]

Ultimately, if politicians want to be trusted then they must demonstrate that they have the interests of all people at heart. These days, we suspect that many of our leaders have only the interests of bug business and not the people on the street. We expect our leaders to be in the pocket of the billionaires and controlled by those with economic power. If a politician were to demonstrate that he was not going to be controlled by money or power, then he might be seen to be someone you can trust.

[PAUSE]

That's not enough. In order to trust politicians, we would need to be persuaded that they are competent. They would need to show that they have authority and wisdom in order to face the uncertain challenges of the future. We need to believe that they can guide us through times of economic turmoil, threats from others, and through pandemics.

So, a trustworthy leader would have at heart the interests of the people he leads. He would reject the advances of the powerful. Yet he would possess authority and wisdom to give confidence to his people that things are under control.

Is there such a person? 

Well, look at the Man standing before Pontius Pilate. He stands before the rich and powerful and does not bend to their will. He has salvation for all people in His hands. He has authority to heal the sick and drive away demons. He has wisdom to teach His followers that love fulfills all of the law. Surely, this is a leader we can trust.

Surely Christ is truly King.

Visible and invisible

Sermon for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

Do you ever stop what you're doing and wonder whether there's something happening around you that you just can't put your finger on? Do you look at the News and think that there's something you're not being told? Do you find your Facebook feed occasionally points to some conspiracy theory that somehow makes sense? What do you make of all this?

[PAUSE]

It is true that the public have been prevented from knowing the truth before it's too late. The hunt for the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq is not something easily forgotten, nor has it been adequately explained. There have been conspiracies which is why we always seem to be looking for then even when they aren't there.

At the moment, we are surrounded with theories about COVID that may or may not be true. Before that, however,  there were the same theories about Bird Flu, Swine Flu and Mad Cow Disease.

There are lots of theories that we are being controlled and manipulated, nudged gently into accepting something that is actually unacceptable. But this is nothing new.

[PAUSE]

St Paul looks at his world and sees the Roman forces marching through the city on some errand. He hears of fighting at the outskirts of the Empire and is probably old enough to remember some insurrections that have taken place in Israel. At the centre of it all is the Emperor whose mind is not an open book to St Paul, nor does he know of the attempts on the Emperor's life, though he may suspect that Christians will be blamed for any trouble that the Emperor hears about. The Jewish authorities have already tried to pin false charges on him just as they did to the Lord.

St Paul, like us, sits in a political, social and spiritual whirlwind not quite knowing what will happen. How can he defend himself against the confusion and fear that rush towards him? How does he deal with forces that he cannot understand?

[PAUSE]

"Put on the armour of God," he tells the Ephesians, "and remember that we are not fighting human beings." St Paul tells us that it is not what we can see that wishes us the harm. When we fell in the Garden of Eden, we let Evil into Creation. It was already there outside, knocking at the door which we opened through our disobedience to God. Evil is the by-product of our free-will and of the Devil's free-will.

The battle truly is between Good and Evil, but it is we who are the battleground, as individuals and as a society. We can't predict its spread, nor do we have power of ourselves to stop it. This is why we need the armour of God: God Himself is our armour. Look at what armour He gives us: truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Spirit and the word of God. All of these come directly from God. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

What we are up against are things invisible: principalities, powers and rulers of darkness. They cloud our mind, distract us from understanding what's going on and convincing us to worry about our future and fear for our lives. The lie that they spread most easily is that we are fighting people. They convince us that there are people to hate. This is not true: we are to love our neighbour. The depth of our love is most obviously shown to our worst enemy. This is where the armour of God really comes in.

The armour of God can be used at all times and especially when we cannot see the bigger picture. We don't need to know about conspiracy theories when we see the truth of God's love for us and when we simply have faith in our salvation in Him. Even if there is a New World Order seeking to bring down the Church of God, it cannot win. It doesn't matter how powerful our enemy is, the truth is that God loves us and God is saving us and God is supreme in the Universe. We need to trust Him when all is dark around us. It doesn't matter how close the virus is to us when, in Christ, we have assurance of eternal life in the Gospel of peace and from the Word of God Himself. And when we find ourselves making a decision that we can't see the outcome, we choose the way of righteousness, however painful it may be, for righteousness will always, always lead us to God Himself. 

[PAUSE]

Let the world have its conspiracies. As long as we are working God's will in the world, the machinations of evil amount to nothing. All things work for good for those who love God. 

The Handmaid's Freedom

 

A reflection on how true religion frees the believer and Pharisaism does not.

Time management

Sermon for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity

Just how do you redeem Time? 

St Paul expects us to do just that, "for," he says, "the days are evil."

What does he mean?

[PAUSE]

Time is not something that we understand very well. It just happens to us. We have no control over it. Unless we have a TARDIS, there is no way we are free to go back and forth within Time. If we have no control over it, how can we redeem the time?

[PAUSE]

When we redeem something, we buy it back. This is the whole point of our redemption by Christ. Christ buys our lives back with His very life. But whom does he pay?

There are lots of different answers that Christians give but in many ways the answer is obvious. 

To ask whom we pay is the wrong question. When we buy something back, we recognise that there is a debt to pay - there is something lacking. Now, when there is a lack of goodness, that is the presence of evil. In choosing evil in the first place, there is a lack of good that we cannot pay. We need someone purely good to make that payment and thus destroy evil. That Redeemer is Christ. That is how our redemption works: we need Our Lord to plug the gap in our goodness which we call evil.

And this is how we can redeem the time as St Paul bids us.

[PAUSE]

St Paul tells us that the days are evil. There is a lack of goodness that needs to be filled in our time. We can only rid ourselves of evil by filling it with Christ. It means that, as we face evil in each day, we need to bring it to Christ in prayer and, instead of contributing to the day's evil, redeem the time by doing something good. 

You may be familiar with a prayer attributed to St Francis. It isn't actually his, but it certainly expresses his sentiments. It begins, "Lord, make me a channel of your peace." It is a prayer about redeeming our time, especially when it says, "where there is hatred, let me bring Your love." That's what we must do in every thought, word and deed. By letting Christ into our lives, homes, work and society, we can begin to redeem the time from the evil in the days.

[PAUSE]

Christ gives His body to the world to redeem it. The Church is given to the world to make Christ's body present in all places and all times. As Christians, we are the means of giving God's Grace to a world that lacks God's goodness. How will you redeem your time, today?

There's no discouragement...

 

 

A reflection on the dreadful events of today in the UK and why we must have hope to continue towards Christ.

Growing your investment in Christ

 A reflection on the need for every Christian to invest themselves in the Church.

Is all vanity?

Sermons for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

St Paul bids us not to walk in the vanity of our minds. What does he mean?

[PAUSE]

When we do something in vain, it means a wasted effort. Our work comes to nothing. It is all wasted, fruitless, pointless. It is vanity. It is in vain.

We can see how sad this is when we are trying to do something specific. Too many times we see on the news of someone trying to save someone else's life but in vain despite their efforts. That is truly a tragedy: vanity is a tragedy. But trying to save someone's life in vain is far from being a complete tragedy. Vanity has a greater tragedy.

[PAUSE]

If vanity is a tragedy when a longed-for outcome is missed then what about a life lived in vain? What if all we do is a waste of time and we don't care about it? A life lived for nothing in particular. A life lived for no-one in particular. A life just lived - if you can call it living.

St Paul asks us to reclaim our purpose in life. He shows us that the life of vanity is rich only in sin and selfishness. 

What is the point of hoarding money if you're not going to use it? It has no-use otherwise? What is the point of being too concerned with your appearance? You will age and die and all people are ugly when they are dead. What is the point of living for pleasure after pleasure? You will get bored and soon no pleasure will be enjoyable. This is vanity - all is vanity!

There is no earthly point to living.

But there is a heavenly point to living.

[PAUSE]

If St Paul warns us against walking in the vanity of our minds then he is reminding us that not only do we have a final destiny in Heaven with God, but we have a purpose for God here and now. We should be preparing for our last end but we need to do that right now - always now. 

God gives our lives meaning and purpose and that meaning and purpose are present to us every second of our lives. We are not meant to live vainly. We are not meant to idle our time away twiddling our thumbs until He comes again. To do so disrespects the gift of life that He has given us now, now, now!

[PAUSE]

But this sounds too hard, doesn't it? Accounting for every second of our lives. Directing every action, every word and every thought to God's purposes in us. It feels like an invasion of our selves and an abuse of our freedom to be ourselves. But we are fallen and earthly minded and, to an extent, we cannot help that. But we must try. We must struggle against the world and its infecting our being. 

It is the Prince of this World, the Devil himself, who tries to convince us that God has no right to be in our lives. It is he who tries to convince us that we need a break from God. It is he who tries to convince us that we are wasting our effort of repenting of sin and falling in sin and repenting of sin again and again and again. It is the Devil who tries to convince us that we should lie back, enjoy ourselves and let nature take its course. 

No!

Just say no!

[PAUSE]

Any effort to turn to God is not in vain. Any effort to stop sinning is recorded and acted upon. God wants us for Himself to be loved and to be active in His love. That is the life to be lived now and it is the life we will achieve long after the Devil has been shut up for Eternity in Hell.

Your life is not in vain, so do not give in to vanity!

Anglican Catholic Rosary

 

Should an Anglican Catholic pray the Rosary?

The house of good repute

Sermon for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

The house of Windsor. The house of Tudor. The house of Stewart. The house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Here in the UK, these houses mean something to us. They are the royal dynasties. The last one is that of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. You'll notice that they each have a different bearing on British history. They each have a reputation. The Tudors are the reformers; the Stewarts are the monarchs struggling for power. And the Windsors? Time will tell.

Each house has a reputation made by its members and, perhaps, you might hear an older member of the house saying to his son, "remember, you have the family tradition to uphold!" The reputation is set by the elders and maintained, theoretically, by the juniors as they grow. To be a member of the house means to look back at the founding father and continue his legacy. The authority is backward pointing.

[PAUSE]

And what of the Messiah, the son of David? Well, surely any son of David would look to King David and seek to uphold his name? Any son of David would bow to David's good example, preserve that heritage and continue to uphold the principles. However, a reading of the Chronicles or the second book of Samuel shows us that many of the sons of David have not been worthy of the name. 

It's not altogether surprising why. King David, while a hero of the Hebrews, is deeply flawed. Even as a king, there are times when he lets his children behave appallingly to the extent that Absolom rebels against him and temporarily takes his crown. Every house has its skeletons in the closet. And these skeletons come back to haunt the generations that come after.

[PAUSE]

Yet, with David regarded as the hero, to be a son of David is a big deal. The Messiah is a son of David and the Jews hope that he will be very much the conquering hero that David is in their eyes. 

Our Lord Jesus, however, points out something odd about the Messiah. Psalm cx says "The Lord said unto my Lord..." The Messiah is the one whom King David calls, "Lord". Rather than the Messiah deferring to David as the head of the house, David recognises the Messiah a thousand years his descendant as his senior. The Messiah may be the son of David, but it is the Messiah who is head of the house.

This is why the Scribes and Pharisees are silenced. To admit this means that their reputation of David as the head of the Royal household is broken. It means their reliance on being from good families to bolster their standing in society is ruined. It means that the Man standing in front of them is the true head of the house and they do not like it. Jesus is the son of David. He is the Messiah. He is the Lord.

[PAUSE]

Again we see Jesus being the one after Whom the whole family of God is named. In Him we are related and it is His name that we bear and it is a good name.

I does mean that we do truly need to see everyone who calls themselves Christian as part of our family and treat them accordingly. This is what it means to be born again. In being baptised we are born into the family of God. We cease to be of the family of the world.

It also means that we need to see those who aren't Christian as being potential members of our family and treating them in such a way that they should want to be part of our family. The Scribes and Pharisees use the name of David to shut the door to salvation. Jesus uses the blood and water from His side to open that door and to make every human being who chooses to become a blood relation through the waters of Baptism.

[PAUSE]

The one outside the Church needs to be able to say, "see how these Christians love one another!" The one outside the Church needs to be able to recognise the head of the household in us. The one outside the Church needs to be able to see that he or she is welcome to become part of that family and this family will be brought to salvation in Christ Jesus.

If this is what the one outside the Church needs then how will you live your life to give them what they need. How will you prove that you are a member of the house of Jesus?