Thursday, December 29, 2022

Blogday 2023: Backs to the Rock

It's now 17 years since this blog started and, of late, it seems to be much more a forum for videos and sermons than for anything else. I think I lamented about that change last year. However, I do think that the purpose of this blog has changed so much in the 17 years that it has existed. From being a vehicle of my own thoughts and attempts to understand what was going on in the Church of England to which I then belonged, this blog has evolved into an opportunity for me to reach out as a minister of Christ's Church and thereby connect with people in a wider audience than a simple parish might allow. I am grateful for that opportunity.

Of course, things do change and evolve but what needs to happen is that things grow in an organic manner so that there is some principle of integrity, internal coherence and continuity with the past is preserved. That is the Catholic principle, that we cannot forget the past but rather adhere our lives to it. But there is a danger, because in looking at what happened in the past we are in danger of assuming that we must live in the past. Nostalgia is a wonderful emotion to take comfort in. It is of great comfort to remember Christmases past and to think how wonderful they were, how wonderfully the choir sang, how beautiful sermon was, and how glorious the snow lay round about in the churchyard. But this is not always a healthy way of thinking. Nostalgia can poisonous: it is like sugar to the soul – very sweet – but  it fattens the soul and encumbers our way of thinking, our way of living and our way of seeing things.

I belong to a church in which continuity with the past is vitally important, and that we observe the various rituals and ceremonies and ornaments that have been handed down to us from old. We expect our priests to say mass in a chasuble, and with their stole under the chasuble: that is the convention. But we also know that needs must when the Devil drives. Our manner of worship is dictated to by our circumstances.

We are not free to choose the locality in which God has placed us nor even when He has placed us, we are however to be there as a witness to the Eternity of God in the place and time in which He puts us. I often think to myself, wouldn't it have been better had I been born in the 19th century or early 20th century or late 1400s or early 11th century etc? Oh! How foolish! As much as these eras appeal to me, they are seen through rose-tinted spectacles. While I would have loved to have been part of the entourage of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, this ignores all the fine and terrible details of that time. I am when God put me and so are you: you are when God put you. So we have to make the best of it, holding fast to the beautiful things of our Faith, our treasures, our aesthetics, and bring them into a world which does not know them.

What we have to learn to do is to look forward to our future and to the time of our now, but rely very much on the past that we already have. If we are sincere about holding the Catholic Faith, then we have 20 centuries worth of truth behind this. We can rely upon that body of truth, especially when we haven't tried to change that truth to suit our time. If we look backwards all the time, then we will stumble and fall over the unseen rock that lies in the way – a rock that may well have been placed there by Christ himself in order to build the church more soundly. Or we can forget about the past and look forward on our own terms deliberately disconnected from what has gone before, and then we are merely building our house upon the sand. The winds of time and change will blow upon that house and it will fall and what a great calamity it shall be!

This blog is built upon my own experiences of church, and I am grateful for those experiences because I know that I have grown. Some of those experiences have been very painful, especially 10 years ago when I finally pulled myself out of the Church of England and the wreckage of my life that it had caused me. I am now stronger and, while life is not always easy and the present always has its own challenges, I trust in the truth that lies behind me in my own time and in my experience of eternity that comes through the Catholic faith.  And I trust that, with my Faith set upon this rock, that I have hope for the future in God’s unwavering fidelity to all mankind. These past few years for all of us, have been very difficult, and we face uncertainty in the economic, political and social turbulence that surrounds us. But we have a rock to cling to and we trust that rock, and I have learned that my little protuberance from the rock, known as the Anglican Catholic Church, is reliable and that I am working to ensure its reliability for better or for worse.


As ever, I wish all my readership a most wonderful and happy 2023, and pray that it may have more blessings then trials.


Sunday, December 25, 2022

Simply away

Sermon for the feast of the Nativity

 

“Away in a Manger” is one of the most important carols that we can sing at this time. 

It's very easy for us to get focused on our own preferences and tastes of what we want to sing at Christmas. 

In church choirs there are often debates and squabbles about what to sing, and what version to sing, and what key to sing it in. 

But “Away in a Manger” is so important. But why?

 

[PAUSE]

 

Our recent experiences of living have become so complicated. 

We have seen so much drama this year. 

The cost of living is high, our political systems are being stretched, even our social conventions are being challenged by ideas that seem preposterous. 

At the heart of these problems, is Man’s propensity to sin. Sin comes from Death and, with Sin, we die. 

Our problems stem from our very selves.

 

The complexity of our living comes about because we want complicated things. 

We want to save our money, but we want to spend our money. We want to eat lots, but we don't want to get fat.

 We want respect, but we want to have reckless fun. All around us people are living lives which are rooted in contradictions and, in trying to sort out those contradictions, the life they lead becomes complicated and confused.

 

[PAUSE]

 

Away in a Manger, 

no crib for his bed, 

the little Lord Jesus 

lay down his sweet head. 

The stars in the bright sky look down where he lay, 

the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.

 

This image is so simple that a child can see it. 

In our lives of contradiction, we miss the simplicity of Christ’s birth. 

We miss the simple statement that the Word is made flesh and dwells among us. 

We are so wrapped up in our own complexity bound by it like chains of steel that we cannot free ourselves to be as simple as a child.

A father cradles his new baby for the first time, and the universe stops. 

In the eyes of the little one, blinking in the new light, is nothing less then love. 

There is nothing else to worry about, in that instant, all is well with the world when those little eyes look into your soul, and the little heartbeat ticks next to yours.

 

In that instant, you know it's not just you anymore. 

Your needs and wants and contradictions have to be put aside for the new one who has been born to you. 

There is only the simplicity of a cuddle.

 

[PAUSE]

 

With our lives facing more and more complexity, we rejoice in the opportunity that Christmas has for us to stop and to be as simple as we can be in embracing the little Lord Jesus, for as powerful, as wise, as incomprehensible as He is, He embraces the simplicity of humanity, in order that we can enjoy His simplicity as God.

This is why “Away in a Manger” is so very important. Are you singing it now?


Monday, December 19, 2022

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Hell and the Heart of Hosanna

Sermon for the fourth Sunday in Advent

Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

Should we be thinking
of Hell so near Christmas?

Isn't it a decidedly
unChristmassy thing
to think about amid
all the tidings of 
comfort and joy?

[PAUSE]

We must admit
that what happens after this life
is not directly accessible for us.

While Heaven is 
more obviously tied
to the promise of God,
Hell seems less clear cut.

If Heaven is Tahiti
then Hell could be anywhere
other than Tahiti,
like Milan,
Ouagadougou,
or London.

But, as we have seen,
Heaven is anywhere
that we can see and interact
directly with God.

It seems reasonable
that Hell is exclusion
from seeing and interacting
directly with God.

Jesus does tell us
about being cast into outer darkness
where there is wailing 
and gnashing of teeth.

He tells of an undying worm
and flame unquenchable
for those who cause 
the innocent to stumble,
and that cutting off hands
is preferable to this.

And yet, the question comes up,
"How can a loving God
consign people 
to eternal torment in Hell?"

But likewise there is the other question,
"How can the most evil people
who slaughter millions of innocents
ever be allowed to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven?"

[PAUSE]

Answers to either of these questions
are complicated,
but we must acknowledge
that what awaits us 
after this life
has been determined by
a supremely merciful 
and supremely just God.

And that whatever awaits us
has been told us
by the patriarchs and prophets,
by apostles and angels
and by the Lord Himself
so that wherever we end up
is determined by ourselves
and the love of God.

[PAUSE]

The big facts are that
we need a saviour
and that we can't save ourselves.

The love of God 
provides us with a saviour.

If we say that we don't need a saviour,
then there is nothing more 
for us. 

Without a saviour,
we cannot leave the 
state of Sin, Death.

God tolerates our imperfection
so that we can have
some authorship
of our own being.

We get a say
in our own creation
but we can only become
truly perfect
with the grace of God.

We can choose
to remain imperfect,
incomplete,
choosing unforgiveness
instead of forgiveness,
hatred instead of love,
selfishness instead of generosity,
darkness instead of light
Death instead of Life.

Unforgiveness, hatred, 
selfishness, darkness and Death 
eat us up, 
and their fire cannot be quenched
because, without God,
there is nothing to quench them.

They burn us
because they war
with the person that 
we are meant to be.

And the Devil?

He is doomed to crawl on his belly
and eat dust.

But we are dust,
formed of the dust of the earth by God.

The Devil seeks to consume us
and, in so doing, 
take away our lives
for as long as he can.

And the worst of it?

This horrible state 
could happen to us!

That's certainly not 
very Christmassy.

[PAUSE]

But look at the crowds
at the entry into Jerusalem.

Look at them 
and hear their Hosanna!

"God save us!"

But this is a cry of joy.

There is no joy in Hell.

We are not in Hell,
nor are we meant for it.

And the crowd knows it.

While they want salvation,
they know that it has arrived
in the Man on the donkey.

While we do dread Hell,
we can rejoice so much
that salvation is here.

In Him we can become perfect.
In Him we can be forgiven
and forgive.
In Him we can love even when hated.
In Him we can find 
the strength to be generous
because we have all
that we could ever need.
In Him we can see the truth
and there is no darkness
to obscure our sight
or cloud our thinking.
In Him is Life
and Death itself is cast away from us
into the abyss.

[PAUSE]

Yes, the thought of 
being eternally lost
is terrifying
but we know that 
we needn't be.

We have a saviour.
He is with us,
in the manger,
on the donkey,
on the Cross, 
in the tomb
and risen in Glory.

For us.

For you.

So that your worst fear
will not define you,
nor be yours for eternity.

So that all your hopes,
wants, needs and desires
all that you could ever hope for
can be yours
with that little baby in the manger.

Be not afraid,
Hell is not for you.

God is.

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Heaven and the heart of Hosanna

Sermon for the third Sunday in Advent

“Our Father who art in Heaven.”

What does that mean?

If you think hard,
this becomes rather
an odd thing to say.

What do you say
when someone askes you,
“where is God?”

Do you say,
“He is everywhere”?

Or do you say,
“He is in Heaven”?

Or do you say
something else?

Where is God?

[PAUSE]

To say that
God is everywhere
is to say that
God has direct access
to every place
and every time.

But to say that
He is in a place
seems rather hard
to understand.

Is there a place
so big
it would contain
God Himself?

Well, as He walks with us
Jesus is contained in
Earth and Heaven.

So is it hard to imagine
God contained
in the vastness of Heaven?

The trouble is
God made Heaven.

Where was He before that?

[PAUSE]

The question is too big
for little mortal minds
to understand,
but there is one thing we cans say.

If the Father is in Heaven,
and we are with the Father,
then we are in Heaven.

Heaven is wherever
the Father is.

Well, more than that.

[PAUSE]

In the beginning,
Man walks with God;
he hears His footsteps in the Garden,
talks with Him face-to-face.

Man lost that through his sin.

Our understanding
of Original Sin
says that,
because of Adam,
we are all born blind
and deaf
to God.

It is a state of sin
because we are separated
from Him,
and His image that we bear
is distorted and damaged.

But, listen!

You hear the Hosannas of the crowd,
welcoming the Messiah into Jerusalem.

“Hosanna - God save us!”

This is what Jesus comes to do.

He is our advocate and mediator.

He brings us back to God.

And, if we are back with God,
and we see Him,
and we bow before His throne,
and we talk with Him,
and see His Divine Smile,
then we must be in Heaven,
wherever we are.

The saints and prophets
who are given visions,
see Heaven,
even if that vision
is only a shadow of where God is.

The Kingdom of God
is not a geographical place,
it is the heart of Man.

[PAUSE]

To be in Heaven
is to see God and to worship Him.

To be there for Eternity,
in the New Heavens and the New Earth
shown to St John,
the new creation separate from the old
which passes away,
that is truly to be in Heaven
where the light of God shines
and we need no more Sun nor Moon.

This is Heaven.

But what if you don’t want it?

Tuesday, December 06, 2022

Sunday, December 04, 2022

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.


Sunday, November 27, 2022

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.


Monday, November 21, 2022

Sunday, November 20, 2022

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!


Sunday, November 13, 2022

Love in head and heart

Sermon for the twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

What's the Bible for?

How do you approach it?

Clearly Holy Scripture
tells us about God
and our relationship with Him.

It teaches us
and we learn much
about the Truth of God,
but is that all it tells us?

[PAUSE]

We trust St Paul 
as one of the foremost teachers
of the Christian Faith.

We hear his telling us
about the truth of God
and helping us to know
what to think.

Did you notice that
he also tells us how to feel?

[PAUSE]

It's very easy for us 
to get the relationship
between our thinking
and our feelings
completely wrong.

We focus on one 
at the expense of the other
and you can see this in the Church.

If we forget about people's feelings
then the Doctrine of the Church
becomes a stick to beat people with,
control them,
make sure they think the right thoughts,
and judge them if they don't.

If we forget about sound thinking,
then we let our emotions rule,
forget that the truth 
is outside of us
and say that we can believe what we want
as long as it feels right.

The Church has been damaged
by both extremes.

So what's right?

Thinking or feeling?

Answer: both and neither.

[PAUSE]

The answer has to be Love.

Love stands at the centre
of our thinking and feeling.

Love is not an emotion.
Love is not a theory.

God is Love.

He is what it means to love.

He is perfect
and He wants us to be perfect
in the way that He intends us
to be perfect.

And this is what love is:
to love someone
means to desire their perfection,
every good thing possible
for them.

And God is their perfection.
You cannot love anyone properly
without God.

That's why in the world without God,
we simply do not love anyone
as properly
or as fully
as we should.

[PAUSE]

Listen how St Paul
begins speaking
to the Philippians.

Hear him rejoice
hear him thank and praise Almighty God
for bringing the Philippians
to the Faith
and beginning in them a good work.

He is over the moon for them
and his love for them
pours out in every word
of his letter.

It truly is a love letter.

But St Paul's love for his spiritual children
pours out of every word of every letter,
even the most difficult letters
to understand.

This love is not an emotion
nor is it a theoretical construct
nor is it some far-off ideal 
that we could never really hope to reach.

Love is something that St Paul does
in his heart and in his mind
in his inward life 
and in his outward dealings
with others.

Gone are the days 
when his love for God
saw him persecute the Church.

In seeing the light
St Paul understands
that Jesus stands with His Church
always, in all places at all times.

And in seeing Love in action
St Paul is able 
to show love for others
not by accepting them for who they are
but urging them to see themselves
in Christ standing with them,
seeing their need for perfection
not as an offence against who they are
as fallen, weak and erring individuals
but as a goal, a challenge, a hope
for transformation into their
true selves.

[PAUSE]

And St Paul loves us.

The truth of Our Lord's Resurrection
tells us (at least) three things.

St Paul still lives.
St Paul still loves.

And that it is our destiny to live and love even as we live and are loved now.

Monday, November 07, 2022

Sunday, November 06, 2022

Believing is seeing

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of All Saints

Why do you believe what you do?

Is it because you 
have been told that it's true,
or have you seen that it's true?

The heart of our faith
is the Resurrection of 
Our Lord Jesus Christ.

If that didn't happen,
then there is no point
in being Christian.

But how do we know it happened?

[PAUSE]

If we want to know
what happened last week,
we look at the news,
read newspapers
or look at the internet.

If we want to know 
what happened a long time ago,
then we read history books
or we learn to read the original sources.

Which is more reliable though?

The News or the History Book?

Many will say the news 
is more reliable
because people have
direct experience
of what is currently happening.

But we can't experience
the past,
can we?

[PAUSE]

Did the First World War happen?

We can be confident that it did,
because we are still affected by it.

We have families that 
are shaped
when a great-grandfather
comes back from the trenches
with only one eye and one arm
or a village
loses all its young men
and village businesses
change hands
or disappear.

We don't need to smell the smoke
or hear the gunfire
or see the dying
to know that it happened
and was dreadful.

We don't need signs and wonders.

[PAUSE]

Did the Reformation happen?

We can be confident that it did
because we are still affected by it.

There is a reason why 
there are different groups of Christians
who don't see eye-to-eye.

We don't need 
to sit next to Pope Leo X
or Martin Luther
and watch them write
and condemn each other.

We don't need to be present
in the battles
and arguments
and murders
to know that the Reformation is real.

We don't need signs and wonders
to know that it happened.

[PAUSE]

What about the Resurrection?

We Christians can be confident
that it did happen
because we are still affected by it.

The Church exists
because something happened,
and the evidence is found
in the Bible.

Indeed that's why the Bible exists
because the Church
gathered the testament
to the truth.

But it isn't just history.

It's more than that.

Look around you.

Look at the church
the people sitting by you
all seeking and finding
the risen Christ.

They are here because
something happened
and still happens.

We don't believe because
we have seen signs and wonders,
but because we can see
in the faces of Christians around 
we can hear in the words of the Bible
we can smell in the incense
we can taste and touch the sacraments.

The Resurrection
is an extraordinary event
but it doesn't require
extraordinary evidence,
just the evidence
of faithful eye-witnesses
who have no reason
to lie.

Einstein is wrong sometimes!

We don't need signs and wonders.

We need to trust those around us.

[PAUSE]

There is something extraordinary
about the evidence, though.

The people who bear witness
are still with us.

Christ is the Resurrection
and the Life.

If we come to Him
even if we die
we shall live forever.

The saints come to Jesus
and, though they die,
they live forever.

Indeed, they see Christ
so they are like Him
because they see him 
as He really is.

If Christ is still with us,
if Christ still hears us,
if Christ still responds to us
then so do the saints
and so they still bear witness to Christ
for us.

They still interact with us
we have Communion with them.

They still hear us ask for their prayers;
they still bless us
and pass on God's grace
through the good deeds 
that they have done 
and still do.

[PAUSE]

There are those 
who deny that this is possible.

They demand Bible verses
to support this
but they fail to see that
Holy Scripture
is a testament by the Church
for the Church
and is filled with the presence
of the saints who write 
the words of God to us.

The words of the saints live
because they share the Living Word,
and, sharing the Living Word,
the saints themselves still live.

The lives of the saints
their commitment,
their striving,
their pain, sorrow, agony and dying
make the words on the pages of the Bible
live in their lives
with the life of Christ.

[PAUSE]

There are times 
when we can be very sceptical
about our faith
especially when things seem heavy.

But we need to trust God
and those whom He sends to us
to tell us the truth.

The saints are there
to do just that for us.

They are the cloud 
of witnesses
who tell the stories
that join us to what happened
and keep it alive in us
so that we, too, can live out
the true story
in our lives
and become the saints 
we are meant to be
in Christ Himself.


Monday, October 31, 2022

On Ghosts and Saints

 



Why tales of the paranormal pale in comparison with the promise of God.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Coming to the Defence of the Lord

Sermon for the Feast of Christ the King

Is Our Lord not worth defending?

He stands before Pilate
a man who has the power
of life and death over the Lord
- or so he thinks.

"Thine own nation and chief priests
have delivered thee unto me."

If Jesus is the King of the Jews
why have His people
delivered Him up for trial
and punishment?

Our Lord may say that 
if His Kingdom were of this world
then His troops would 
rush to defend Him.

So why don't the troops of 
Our Lord's true kingdom rush to help?

Why aren't there seraphim
swooping down from the sky
and scattering the hostile powers?

Why is this king
left at the mercy
of people who hate Him?

[PAUSE]

You obviously understand the reason.

Our Lord is become 
one with us 
for a very good reason.

Being saved from the Cross
by a squadron of angels
defeats the purpose.

If He is saved
then the Incarnation
is a complete failure.

But this leaves us 
with a strange situation.

What kind of King 
goes into the battle
single-handed
to a certain, painful death?

If Jesus is a true king,
wouldn't He send 
an angel to be incarnate instead?

[PAUSE]

That's the point.

His kingdom is
not of this world.

It's not a kingdom 
that we would recognise
because we think too worldly.

Our Lord is king
because He is God.

It really is as simple as that.

For us to be saved,
and made truly good,
we need true good to save us.

And God is true good
and Jesus is true God
and so Jesus is true good.

None less than the king 
can save us.

This is why His Kingdom
cannot work like our kingdoms.

Our Lord rules
by directing His Creation.

He did not need to create us.
He did not need to create anything at all.
He could have just sat
in Eternity and been satisfied
with that.

But, out of love
He chooses to create us,
and chooses to save us
and chooses to glorify us.

His will be done
in Earth as it is in Heaven
and that makes Him king.

His kingdom 
is a kingdom of recognising
what is true 
and loving that truth.

He doesn't need defence.

So why do we defend Him?

[PAUSE]

It's not God's honour 
that needs to be defended
because that honour 
can't be impugned.

What we are defending
is the faith of those 
who don't yet understand fully
and who might be tempted
by those who hate God.

If someone chooses to reject God,
that is on them,
and they must answer
for their choice.

But when someone has serious questions
about the church,
then we need to answer those questions
honestly and lovingly
and truly.

It is not human beings
that are against us
though they can be
the instruments of 
those who hate us.

The Devil uses troops
like tools, 
as simply means to his ends.

God can use us as tools, too,
that is His right as King.

But He never forgets that 
we are His,
and not just playthings
but intelligent creatures
who were made for love
and to be loved.

[PAUSE]

We defend the Church
from attacks by the Devil
using Christ's protection.

It's the King that goes 
into battle for us
not the other way around.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Lying about Confession

Sermon for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

As sacramentalists, 
we are often asked,
"where is that sacrament in the Bible?"

Many of our brothers and sisters
say that there are only two sacraments,
namely, Baptism and the Eucharist.

Martin Luther thinks 
that there are three: 
he believes that 
Confession is a Sacrament, too.

Of course,
we believe that there are seven
at least.

In being present 
and hallowing the wedding at Cana
with His first Miracle,
Our Lord gives us marriage as a sacrament.

In breathing on His Disciples
He gives us the Holy Ghost
to confirm them for the task 
of spreading the Gospel.

In being anointed for His death
and rising again
He sanctifies the oil of unction
with which we are prepared 
for our own death
and resurrection.

In giving His authority to His disciples
over unclean spirits,
in commanding them to baptise,
in commanding them to say the Mass,
in giving them authority to remit sins,
and in offering Himself as victim
He institutes and sanctifies Holy Orders
and gives the Church the priests and bishops
that it needs to give His grace to all those who thirst for it.

And what of confession?

Where do we see Our Lord 
actually administer the forgiveness of sins 
as a sacrament?

[PAUSE]

Well, you've just heard it!

"Take up thy bed and go unto thine own house."

That doesn't sound like 
what the priest says to us 
when we make our confession,
does it?

Look at the context.

The paralysed man 
comes to Christ on his bed,
paralysed and fearful
carried by the love of his friends.

But Our Lord knows Him,
He knows this man needs assurance.

This man needs to know that 
whatever he has done wrong,
however he has sinned 
so that he has had to suffer this palsy
as a punishment,
he can be forgiven
and whatever has caused this palsy
can be lifted. 

And so Our Lord gives that assurance,

But see how the scribes sneer!

"How dare this man blaspheme!

"Only God can forgive!"

You see their doubt that 
Our Lord's absolution of sins
is real.

You see how they 
cannot see 
the grace of God at work.

And so,
Our Lord shows them.

[PAUSE]

"Take up thy bed!"

We see the fact that
if the man's palsy is removed 
at a word 
from Our Lord,
then his sins must also 
be removed at a word. 

Sin is not just a legal wrong,
it is a sickness,
and Our Lord has come 
to be our physician
as well as our advocate in Heaven.

Here, in this room, 
surrounded by friend and foe
Scribe and Disciple
Sinful and Holy
a man's sins are really absolved
just as his paralysis is really removed. 

This is the sacrament of Confession
demonstrated by Our Lord
and bestowed upon His disciples
as the authority to remit or retain sins.

[PAUSE]

We will always be challenged by those
who do not believe that 
there are seven sacraments.

But they are there, and in the Gospel, too.

Most chiefly,
they are there for us to use
and be strengthened and healed,
because that's exactly why 
Our Lord gave them for us.

The sacrament of Confession
is real
and it is for our healing and wholeness.

It is there for us 
to be released from the paralysis of guilt
and freed to serve Our Lord 
in happiness and joy.

[PAUSE]

There are those who say,
"you don't need Confession."

Are you going to take that lying down?

Sunday, October 16, 2022

When the Authorised Version lets you down

Sermon for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sometimes the Authorised Version 
just isn't good enough.

What a bold statement to make!

But it is true. 

Sometimes, the English language
gets in its own way
when we try to understand what it's saying.

Take Psalm 110 for example.

Our Lord tells us that it begins:

"The Lord said unto my Lord
sit Thou at my right hand 
until I make Thine enemies 
Thy footstool."

Now, who said what to whom?

[PAUSE]

The Lord said to my Lord. 

Who are we talking about here?

We can try going into the 
Biblical languages.

We don't fare much better with Greek.

That just translates to

"The Lord said to my Lord"

While this means that 
our English translation 
is pretty spot on,
it doesn't solve the problem.

We have to go to the Hebrew.

If we do, then we find that
the Hebrew translates literally as

"Yahweh said to my Lord..."

The Hebrew uses 
the Sacred Name of God here,
but it wouldn't be pronounced.

They would use the word "Lord" 
instead of God's Sacred Name.

What about the other "Lord"?

Well, both Jesus and the Pharisees
say that this other "Lord"
is the Messiah,
the Christ,
the Anointed One
the saviour of Israel.

And that's why the confusion arises.

So the verse says:

"Yahweh said to my Messiah..."

Well, this is all very well
and rather clever, 
but what does it mean?

[PAUSE]

There's one other word to worry about.

Who is the "my" in "my Lord"?

Well, this is David. 

It says so at the beginning of the psalm.

And Our Lord says that it is David too.

So this psalm starts

"Yahweh said to David's Messiah..."
"David's Lord..."

Now perhaps you begin to see 
that there is something 
very deep happening here.

Our Lord Jesus asks these questions of the Pharisees.

If David calls this person "Lord" 
and David is the king of Israel,
then clearly this "Lord" 
whom the Pharisees recognise as the Messiah
is greater than David. 

This Messiah is both the Son of David
and yet before David.

How can this be?

[PAUSE]

Hindsight is a lovely thing,
and we Christians 
know the answer already.

The only way that this Son of David
can be before David
is if the Messiah is God Himself.

And if the Messiah is a son of David,
then He must be a human being.

God and Man simultaneously.

Here, in our Gospel reading
we see Our Lord Jesus Christ
prove Himself to be God Incarnate
to those who will not listen,
to those who wilfully will not understand,
to those who will laugh at His claims to be Christ
and thus to be God,
to those whi will kill Him for saying so.

[PAUSE]

Even today, 
we still hear the same heresies.

"Jesus was just a good man."
"Jesus was like God but not really God."
"Jesus didn't exist."

We know better,
and our Gospel tells us so,

It may not convince those
who refuse to engage with Our Lord,
but it should strengthen our faith
that when we preach 
a doctrine as difficult understand
as that of the Holy Trinity - 
three Persons, one God -
we have it right 
even if we cannot fully grasp it ourselves.

The major point is
that if Jesus Christ
is both human and divine in one Person,
then, as he shares in our human nature
we share in His divine nature -
that's exactly what salvation is.

It's not just being saved from Evil,
it's being healed so that we can
enjoy living God's life in us
with our lives in Him.

As Christians,
we embrace the mystery 
and find greater joy
in listening to the Lord
tell Our Lord 
that His enemies - Sin and Death
are put down beneath His feer
and ours too.

The Lord speaks to Our Lord
and we hear His words
and are healed Eternally.

Monday, October 10, 2022

Sunday, October 09, 2022

Sayonara Sabbath

Sermon for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

You do know
the Ten Commandments,
don't you?

Are they meant for us, though?

[PAUSE]

You might say,
"Yes, of course!"
but they are part 
of the Old Covenant.

Remember,
that covenant was with
the Children of Israel,
not with Gentiles.

If we keep these Ten Commandments,
then shouldn't we also
circumcise our boys
and eat no pork?

Why these Ten 
and not the other six-hundred
or so?

[PAUSE]

Of course, you realise
that these commandments
are repeated in the New Covenant.

They are moral commandments,
not ritual commandments.

They are for everyone,
not the priests alone.

The New Testament is filled
with teaching 
the necessity to worship
God alone,
not to make idols,
not to blaspheme.

St Paul reminds us
to honour our parents.

The Lord Himself
prohibits
murder,
adultery,
stealing, 
bearing false witness
and coveting.

Hang on!
There's one missing!

Which one?

[PAUSE]

There is no mention
of observing the Sabbath day
and keeping it holy.

Indeed,
Our Lord seems to be 
quite severe on those who keep it
and encourage others
to do the same.

The Disciples transgress tha Sabbath
by picking corn to eat.

The Lord Himself
heals people on the Sabbath day.

Does that mean
the Sabbath has lost its meaning?

[PAUSE]

In a sense,
Jesus is showing the Pharisees
that they have lost the meaning
of the Sabbath.

God gives the Israelites
the commandment 
to observe the Sabbath day
because they have just 
escaped slavery,
and God wants them to be
free to rest,
to enjoy life
not to live to work
but work to live.

The Sabbath is made for Man
not Man for the Sabbath.

Over the centuries,
the Sabbath becomes
a set of enforced rules
that miss the point 
of not being slaves.

These Pharisees
have forgotten what was intended.
They have hardened their hearts
as at the waters of Meribah and Massah,
and they are in danger
of not entering into God's rest,
that great expanse of freedom
and joy away from the burden 
of sin, death and misery.

Thus, the Sabbath remains
part of the Old Covenant.

But what about the New?

Are we to be slaves in the New?

[PAUSE]

Christians have designated
Sunday as the day of worship.

It's not technically
in Scripture,
but is part of the great 
Tradition of the Church,
observed from 
the very earliest moments
of the Church's Mission
after Pentecost.

We separate the day
to meet for the Mass
and to focus our
attention on God.

Of course,
we should be doing that every day.

What makes Sunday special,
is that it's
the day of Resurrection.

It's a day when we should
make an attempt to 
go to church on
and meet with each other
in the light of the Resurrection
to receive communion
with God and each other.

But it should not be forced.

We go to church
because we want to
because we recognise our need for God
and because we are free 
not to go to church!

Yes!

We go to church
precisely because we are free
not to go the church.

Sunday and the Sabbath
should alert us
to what enslaves us.

If we are not allowed to 
seek healing
then how can we be free?

If we are not allowed
to put things down
and seek refreshment of our soul
from communion with Christ,
then how are we not enslaved?

[PAUSE]

Freedom means
becoming the person
God created us to be.

If we cannot find time
to becoming perfect in God
then we need a Sabbath
to sit down, 
rest,
and reconsider
in His presence.

We must not be too hasty
to pick up our worktools
and say, "sayonara, Sabbath!"

Sunday, October 02, 2022

Commanding command

Sermon for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

Your best friend's in hospital
and all you are told to do 
is 
"Cheer up! 
It might never happen."

It grates
because you have a good reason
not to be happy.

You don't like 
being told how to feel.

Your feelings are unique to you
and not to anyone else.

What does a person mean
when they tell you
to cheer up?

[PAUSE]

It's clear that 
they mean well.

They don't want you 
to be sad.

But the way it comes out
is that they don't want
you to be sad
because they find your sadness
uncomfortable.

The way it comes across
is that they don't want 
you to be sad
for their sake.

That may be wrong
but it's what it feels like.

It gives you no comfort
to be told,
"don't be sad"
especially if then follows 
a list of reasons
to make you feel better.

[PAUSE]

"Weep not" says the stranger
to the woman 
who has lost her son.

When your world collapses around you
Is there no better time to weep?

Weep not?

What a terrible command!

And yet...

[PAUSE]

One thing that we don't appreciate
in the English language
is the difference
between the Latin word for command
and the Greek word for command.

The word "command" is from the Latin
in which a officer's orders
would be put into his hand 
to read to his soldiers.

This could be anything.

Whatever is written
on the piece of paper
is to be done.

"Ours not to reason why,
ours but to do and die."

But the Greek command is different.

The Greek word for command
means that whatever is done
has a purpose,
a meaning,
a specific goal to achieve.

When Christ commands us
to weep not,
we can be sure,
utterly sure
that He means to remove
the cause of our sorrow.

When He commands us
not to be afraid,
we can be sure,
utterly sure,
that He intends
to remove whatever terrifies us.

Our Lord's commands
have a purpose.
They are not arbitrary,
or a show of His power over us,
or a source of amusement at
us being playthings.

He commands us
for our Good,
because He wills our Good.
He wills our perfection.

The will to perfection of another
is precisely what it means
to love.

This is why the Lord says,
"If ye love me,
keep my commandments."

This is not the command
of an inscrutable general
seeking to execute his own plans
seeing his men as means to his end.

This Jesus commands
in order that we be perfect.

Every miracle,
every sacrament,
every covenant,
every directive,
issued by Christ
has our perfection at heart.

This is why God 
deserves worship,
because He loves us .

This is why He should be obeyed,
because He wants nothing less
than our healing,
our growth,
our strengthening
to be the people He loved to create.

[PAUSE]

If we tell someone
not to cry,
or not to worry,
or not to be afraid,
then we need to give them a reason.

If that reason is anything less than
our active love for them,
it's not worth it.


Sunday, September 25, 2022

How does a Christian eat a KitKat?

Sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Try getting into a lift 
and stand facing 
one of the back two corners.

What about eating a KitKat
without breaking it
into separate fingers,
but rather taking a big bite
out of one corner 
across the fingers?

Or cutting a piece of
a circular cake 
without going through the centre?

You might feel uncomfortable
at even the thought of 
these horrible actions.

But why?

[PAUSE]

Of themselves,
these aren't bad actions.

But they seem to defy
other people's expectations.

You won't be imprisoned
on the charge of 
improper consumption
of a KitKat
but it isn't what's expected
by society.

Should the correct
cutting of a cake
be legislated?

Or the opening of a boiled egg
at the little end?

[PAUSE]

Society does influence
how we make choices
and it is our desire
to be part of Society
that gives social customs 
their power over us
and why we feel awkward
when we break them.

Try not saying "please" 
or "thank you" for a day
or even an hour.

But social convention
is not in control of our salvation.

We are not saved by 
serving Society.

[PAUSE]

St Paul is very clear.

Christians do not need circumcision.

Nor should a Christian be forced 
to be circumcised.

The Covenant of Jesus Christ
is with all humanity 
not just the Children of Israel.

The source of all goodness,
the means of our perfection
and the one who determines
the structure of the Heavenly Society,
is God.

You are well aware 
of the difference
between being moral
and obeying social customs.

The difficulty comes
when people use
social customs
to control how people act.

Any society holds together
when people agree on the rules
of being together.

To be Jewish,
it is necessary to accept
circumcision
as part of belonging
Jewish society.

Although Our Lord is Jewish
it is not necessary to be Jewish
in order to find salvation
in Him.

It is not Our Lord's Jewishness
that saves us,
it is He Who saves us
being God Incarnate.

[PAUSE]

The temptation is to see the Church
only as a society
within secular society,
as if secular society
were the be all and end all.

The Church is a family
before it is a society.

Saying that the Church is a society
is like saying
that a human being 
is just an organised clump of cells,
a thing of bones, blood and organs.

To say that the Church is a society
misses the living principle
by which it exists
and is united to Almighty God Himself.

The law within the Church
is that we become like Christ
through love
cleansing our actions
by purifying our intentions
in the Mind of Christ.

That's how we Christians
exist within society.

We see the rules and customs
for what they are
and measuring them up
to belonging in Christ.

But we don't break these 
rules and customs
out of disdain or snobbishness
but we treat them with respect
and generosity.

But we do not let social rules
and customs
determine our Salvation in Christ.

But isn't our liturgy
a custom that controls us?

Our worship might be
framed by the Liturgy,
but the Liturgy is there 
to help us 
worship God together
with Christians now
and Christians past
and Christians yet to come,
and for us to share 
the living principle
that is Jesus Christ Our Lord
Who binds the whole Church
together.

[PAUSE]

We let the rule of Christ
determine our Salvation
because that rule is unity with Him.

... And not with a KitKat.


Sunday, September 18, 2022

The faith of a leper

Sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

"Thy faith hath made thee whole."

And so a Samaritan leper 
is healed from his disease.

And so are the other nine cleansed.
The nine that didn't come back
to thank Our Lord.
The nine that did not discern
Christ Jesus the Living and true God,
Son of the Father.
The nine whose concern was
to follow the ritual.

All ten received their health.

So what did going back
to thank Jesus
actually achieve?

Could not all ten
have gone to the temple
and given thanks there
according to the rites of 
the Jewish religion?

Were not all ten 
made whole by their faith?

[PAUSE]

We must be clear.

We cannot say anything
about the other nine lepers
that the Bible doesn't tell us.

They may have offered
great worship to God
with great thanksgiving
and reverence.

They may have just
gone home,
made tea
and put their feet up 
to watch Strictly.

The Bible doesn't tell us 
about them.

But the Lord Himself
wonders why they 
haven't turned back.

The focus is squarely
on the faith of the leper
who did turn back.

What does he gain 
by turning back?

[PAUSE]

It is clear that he is healed
just like the other nine.

But what he gains
is Christ.

We don't know about the others.

We do know that 
this leper
by turning back 
meets and worships God
and his example
is recorded for us to learn from.

This leper is blessed
by knowing God.

His body has already
been made whole.

But this leper gazes upon God.

[PAUSE]

St John tells us that
when we see God
we shall be like Him
because we see Him
as He is.

In believing in Jesus,
the leper's faith makes him whole,
not just in body but also in soul.

In Christ, 
the leper is complete.

This is the point of the incarnation.

The Hebrews were saved
from snakebites
at the sight of a brass serpent.

How much more
are we saved
at the sight of God Himself?

The leper himself 
realises it.

He feels it 
within himself, 
and being a Samaritan
knows that holiness
does not necessarily
reside in the temple at Jerusalem.

In turning back,
he gains the Divine Smile
the warmth that touches
his soul right from the beginning of Time.

[PAUSE]

Healing comes in many forms.

We can be healed
in body,
mind,
and spirit.

Even from diseases
that are masked by others,
diseases invisible to us
and to those around us.

The beauty of repentance
is that it is not a negative action
for we turn to Christ
and, in our repentance,
we are made whole in our faith in Jesus.

And this constant
repentance
is how we know that in Christ
we can be saved
we are being saved
and we will be saved
whole again,
whole in Christ Our God.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Which came first?

Sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

We seem to be living at a time
in which laws themselves
are being called into question,
especially laws which are 
literally
a matter of life and death.

Is it ever right
to end someone's life?

If the Law can decide
whether we live or die
then it is truly powerful.

Except it isn't.

[PAUSE]

The Law decides nothing.

We make the decision
based on what the Law tells us.

The Law tells us that 
killing an innocent person is wrong.

If we kill an innocent person
then we know that we have 
broken the Law
and it is the court
who will ensure that
we are convicted and jailed.

It is Man who judges
not the Law. 

The Law shows us 
when what we do is wrong.

But that's all it does.

It's something that we've got used to
since we decided 
to eat from the fruit of the Tree
of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

What did we have before the Fall?

What did we have before
forbidden fruit?

[PAUSE]

We had God.

We had a relationship,
a way of living together,
a covenant of love
in which we saw 
the goodness of God
shining gloriously
throughout Creation.

There was no Law
because it was just us and God.

Since we have fallen
and now have knowledge of 
Good and Evil,
we are obsessed with 
doing the right thing
and living in a society
which would rather prevent us from 
killing one another
than enable us to love one another
as we love ourselves 
and walk with God.

Ironically, 
having a written Law
makes us forget about 
loving God,
because we just 
do what we want
as long as we do
what the Law says.

[PAUSE]

This is the whole point
of St Paul's letter to the Galatians.
The love of God comes first
before any law.

Love Him and love neighbour
and we do more than just
obey the Law.

We go beyond it
back to God
and open ourselves up 
to seeing Him again
just as we did before
we chose to disobey Him.

Our reason for obeying the Law
must be only to turn ourselves
back to God,
not for just merely existing 
in a society
which does not see the worship of God
as important.

If we love God and
if we love our neighbour
then there is absolutely nothing
for us to worry about
and the lawyer is out of a job.

[PAUSE]

Our duty and our joy
is to love God
as fully as we can.

We will not find happiness 
in codes of law
and books of statutes.

The Law cannot pick us up.
The Law cannot bind our wounds.
The Law cannot restore our health.

The Law sees us lying fallen
and can only pass by
on the other side of the road.

But, we can go back before the Law 
for, before the Law,
there is Love.

[PAUSE]

Christianity is not about 
doing the right thing
or avoiding sin.

It is about focusing on God
and living His life
and loving.

But loving does not mean
love according to
the lusts of the flesh
but according to 
our perfection,
and the perfection of others,
in God.

Knowing the Law 
Is crucial
because it shows us
what sin is,
and how it works.

Knowing what sin is
is vital for knowing our imperfections
and addressing them 
in God.

It means we avoid sin
by turning to God
in Whom all laws
have their fulfilment
and we have
true joy.

Thursday, September 08, 2022

Sunday, September 04, 2022

On the difference between spouses and oysters

Sermon for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Someone approaches you
and says to you,
"Why can't I commit adultery?
It says in the Bible that 
you mustn't eat shellfish,
yet I've seen you eat those oysters.

If you, as a Christian,
can eat oysters
then I, as a Christian,
can commit adultery."

How do you answer?

[PAUSE]

Our relationship with God
has always been expressed
through covenants.

God has made lots of covenants
with Man.

There was the covenant with Noah.
There was the covenant with Abraham.

And there was the great Covenant,
The Covenant with Israel through Moses,
set in stone.

It is in this Covenant that we find 
the 613 commandments
given to the people of Israel.
This includes the prohibition
against eating shellfish
and the prohibition
of committing adultery.

That's the covenant God makes 
with His Chosen people Israel.
It is not a covenant 
that God makes
with all people.
It's just with the Israelites.

So what about us?
What about us Gentiles?

Where's our covenant?

[PAUSE]

Well, you know the answer to that.

The blood of the New Covenant
is the Blood of Christ itself,
the same Blood which we drink
at our Mass
and take into ourselves
to live and grow with in us.

This is a covenant that is not 
written on stone
but within our life,
because the life of the Christian
is the Life of Christ
and the Life of Christ 
is the Life of Love -
Love of God
Love of neighbour.

So now look again at the question.

If you can eat shellfish, 
can you really commit adultery?

The two laws are so different.

How can the prohibition
against eating shellfish
be similar to the prohibition
against committing adultery?

One is a ritual law.
One is a moral law.

The ritual law is an expression
of what it is to be an Israelite.
God may have given this law
for many particular reasons,
but overall,
the ritual law is to show the world
that God has separated 
His chosen people, Israel,
from the nations around.

The Old Testament ritual law is an expression
of the freedom of Israel
from the captivity of the Egyptians.
But it doesn't bind us.

We don't need circumcision,
we need Baptism.
We don't need the Passover,
we need the Mass.

Our Christian ritual law
is bound up with the Sacraments.
If we play our part in the sacraments
God gives us His Grace
- Grace which we need
to live the life of Christ.

This is why we have rules about how 
how sacraments are conducted
because a sacrament is an expression
of the Christian Covenant with God
through Our Lord Jesus Christ.

But our morals are based in Love.

[PAUSE]

To reject God,
to blaspheme,
to worship other gods,
to spurn His Church
all show hatred of God.

To dishonour our parents,
to murder,
to commit adultery,
to steal,
to bear false witness,
to cover another's possessions
all show hatred of our neighbour.

Love is the fulfilment of the Law.

[PAUSE]

The Old Covenant
shows the nation of Israel
what is righteous
but it cannot save them.

Israel falls from the covenant 
time and again.

But here is the true wonder.

The New Covenant can save them,
it does save them.

We know that Christ bursts
the gates of the dead
to rescue those who have died
before Christ is even born,
because the New Covenant
is Love
and Love is eternal.

This is the glory of the New Covenant:
it is eternal and it applies
to all who receive it.

[PAUSE]

"If ye love me, keep my commandments,"
says the Lord.

This is how we can tell the difference
between an oyster
and another person's spouse.