Playing with Salvation

Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

Is Our Lord playing with us?

From seven loaves 

and some fishes,

he feeds four thousand men

and produces seven baskets

of leftovers.

Why the leftovers?

Is He just showing off?

Is He trying to show us

the superabundance 

of God's love by being wasteful?

Is this an example

for us to follow?

[PAUSE]

Clearly,

our environment shows that 

we have played fast and loose

with the things of this Earth.

We have wasted so much.

There is plastic everywhere.

Seas and rivers are polluted,

and animal species 

are suffering as a result

of our exploitation

of the environment.

But then,

we don't even treat our own selves

any better.

We even see our own bodies

as playthings

to do with as we will.

We seem to think of ourselves

as ghosts

which live in bodies

and have a right to enjoy them

in whatever way we deem fit.

We don't see ourselves

as one unity,

body and soul together.

If we have such

flagrant disregard for

our own selves

how can we care about the environment?

[PAUSE]

Seven baskets of leftovers.

What do you think 

the disciples did?

Ate them up themselves?

Gave them to the poor?

Fed the birds?

We are not told 

what happens to them,

except we know

that everyone had

enough to eat.

So it's unlikely

that these leftovers

we're eaten by someone

present, 

even the disciples,

or even the Lord.

But one thing that 

we can trust

is that they didn't go to waste.

These leftovers fed something

or someone.

Someone got the benefit

of so much leftovers

fish and bread,

from a hungry person

to hungry mould.

What is left is recycled

and reused,

because that is the way

that God has ordered Nature,

in order to be beautiful.

The Lord is generous,

not wasteful.

But we are wasteful,

because we use what we have

in a way that shows God

that we do not have the same

love, care and attention

to His Creation

as He does.

We are the only animal that can sin

because we are the only animal

that can understand

not only what's going on

but also how we can use

everything to our advantage.

We fail to see ourselves

as part of God's Creation

but rather think

that we are beings with our own

God-given rights

while closing our eyes to our

God-given responsibilities.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord's Holy Incarnation

shows that He has so much regard

for what He has created.

Given that we have fallen

into the sickness of sin

we have infected, 

not just each other,

but the whole world

with this sickness.

Our Lord comes to bring Salvation:

health to us

health to the world

in the New Heaven

and the New Earth

which He promises us.

We cannot undo

the damage that we have done

by bringing Sin 

into the world,

but can bring

the Christ's superabundant love

in to relieve the effects of that damage.

If Christ will pour seven extra baskets

of bread into the world

after feeding four thousand,

then we can rest assured 

that it will be no waste

but will bring good nourishment 

where nourishment is lacking.

[PAUSE]

We are creatures of God.

We deserve respect

because we exist,

not as playthings

neither of God,

nor of others

nor of ourselves,

but as beings capable

of bearing into the world

the seven baskets of love

over and above

the love that God has given us.

We do not play with Salvation,

we live it

and bring to those who need it

the One Who brims over

with that Salvation.

The Sacrifice of Uncrossed Fingers

 

How should the Christian approach politics?

Taking home the pay packet

Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity

Pay day should be 

very satisfying.

After all, 

you work so hard

and to find out

that,

perhaps,

all your labours

have reaped their reward

means you can breathe

a sigh of relief.

Bills can be paid.

Provisions can be bought.

And,

for the lucky ones,

some treat can be afforded.

Pay day comes 

with a sense of relief.

And then St Paul reminds us

the wages of sin is death.

Looking forward to pay day now?

[PAUSE]

We are well aware

of the inevitability

of death.

And, as Christians,

we know that sin and death 

are two sides of the same coin.

We die because we sin

and we sin because we know

we're going to die.

Adam and Eve

brought sin and death 

into Creation

creating a fissure,

a deep crack in our relationship

with God

and in our likeness

to God.

That crack has spread

through all humanity

depriving us 

of the ability to hear God

walking with us in the 

Garden of Creation.

Sin and death are

both separations from God:

they are both sides of the same coin.

How, then, can we possibly die to sin

as St Paul tells us?

[PAUSE]

The beauty of death 

is that it stops sin in its tracks.

The dead man can sin no more.

But to die in sin

means that separation from God

becomes permanent.

How can we both be dead to sin

and remain alive?

You know the answer to that.

Our Baptism is into the death 

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Baptism, we are given the grace

to be born again

but, in order to be born again,

we need to be dead first.

The wages of sin

have to be paid first.

And the death of Our Lord

pays those wages

for the whole world.

Who are the wages paid to?

God?

No. 

God does not want 

the death of a sinner

but rather that he turn

from his sin and live.

To the Devil?

No. 

The Devil wants us to think

he has a right to our souls

but he lies

and the truth of God frees us

from his grasp

by death.

To death?

How can death be paid to death?

With life!

Death is the absence of life.

We can pay a debt

by giving what is owed,

and the debt dies.

We can pay a hole in the earth

with earth,

and the hole disappears.

Pay death with life

and there is no more death.

Pay death with eternal life

and death is destroyed.

The death of Christ

is the means of our life.

In being baptized into His death

our wages of sin are paid

and, 

in paying those wages

both sin and death 

are destroyed.

[PAUSE]

Baptism gives us God's grace,

His active presence

by which we are incorporated

into His death

and into His life.

St John Chrysostom says,

"complete freedom 

from sin is not a reality as yet.

 We are told to live for God 

in Jesus Christ our Lord 

and to lay hold of every virtue, 

having Jesus as our ally in the struggle."

We cannot be free from 

the effects of sin in this life,

but, knowing that we have

Eternal Life in Christ,

we can be sure that 

Death will be the end of Sin

but not of us.

[PAUSE]

Sin and death are two sides

of the same coin.

And,

with that coin,

Christ has paid the wages of sin

for us on His cross.

We, too, must take up our cross

that we receive at our Baptism

and we must venerate that cross

because we are crucified with Christ

and will be raised to Eternal Joy

in Him.

The Sacred Feminine

 

Why the church needs to show society how equality of the sexes works.

Pushing forward and pulling back

Sermon for the fifth Sunday after Trinity

The Day of Judgement is here!

What do you see?

Perhaps you have the image

of Our Lord sitting on His throne

sending the sheep to Heaven

and the goats to Hell.

Perhaps you see Him

wearing a judge's wig

with a stern expression on His face.

Perhaps you hear Him

pronounce sentence

in a deep, grim voice

while all around 

angels circle 

ushering in the defendants,

escorting the blessed to Heaven

and driving the damned to Hell.

Perhaps, through it all

you hear that phrase repeated,

"Sin cannot stand in the presence of God."

Day of wrath and doom impending!

No wonder St Peter is terrified.

[PAUSE]

We are very used 

to the image of sin and punishment 

as being a legal affair.

And this is certainly

how St Peter sees it.

In recognising God standing

waiting for him on the shore,

he recognises

his own deficiencies

his failings,

his fear that causes him

to deny his God.

He cannot abide this

so He pushes God away,

 not only in fear of his life,

but also of shame for sin

and the fires of Hell.

Notice this! 

He is the one pushing God away.

God is drawing him near.

There is a bizarre tug of war here.

[PAUSE]

The image of God as judge

is perhaps too well established

in our thinking for our own good.

We only have human law-courts

and our experience of them 

and we frame our expectation

of God's judgement of us

in that way.

Some of us will only ever see

law courts on the television

and these will be overdramatic

and focused entirely

on the bad guy getting his comeuppance

and the good guy being acquitted.

But our law is a shadow 

of God's divine law.

What we fail to see

is the face of God

burning with a desire for us

to be whole again.

Look at the Holy Scriptures

from beginning to end.

Time and time again,

God comes to us face to face

but we turn away from Him,

so He approaches in a different direction

and we turn away from Him.

At every stage,

He presents Himself

sits with us

and tells us the truth.

He gives us every opportunity

to find Him,

begs us to turn to Him,

but in our selfish pride

we don't want to find Him

because our sin turns us away.

So we try and turn and turn and turn.

We spin on the spot

trying to cope with the presence 

of God that wills our good,

seeks our health

desires our presence

and rejoices in our being.

Afraid that the image of God as Judge

will cast us away 

into the forgotten wastes.

And what happens 

when God speaks to us

when His very presence

shows us how fallen we are?

"Fear not!"

[PAUSE]

Fear not. 

The Judge is not what you think.

Yes, He discerns Good and Evil

but He does so knowing everything

perfectly.

He does so with the intention

of doing something about it

healing,

restoring,

cleansing,

forgiving.

The Light if His Goodness

burns our sinful souls

but, rather than push Him away,

we have to embrace Him

and let the burning love

rid us of our 

most cherished misery,

our favourite sins,

our greatest faults

that, for whatever reason,

we can't let go.

It's the goats who won't let go

and who run away in fear

that God won't let them be

as they want to be

and who refuse the courage

to step forward into the arms

of their creator.

They have their reward.

But for those who turn

and trust the Lord

when He tells us not to be afraid,

we are given ...

Work.

A job to do.

Fish for men!

Feed the hungry!

Clothe the naked!

Preach the Gospel!

Give opportunities for people

to see Christ,

to fear Him,

and to dispel that fear

by seeing beyond our childish

perception of what it means

to be Judge in purest love!

He gives opportunities

to confront people

with His love.

Invite them to Joy!

Reel them in!

Don't push them away!

[PAUSE]

Our Lord will sit in judgement on us.

He sees our sins 

and He hates our sins.

He hates them because

they stop us from coming to Him.

We should push them 

out of our way to Christ

and let ourselves get drawn in

towards Him

and to Eternal Joy in Him.

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Why a good abbot is vital for the monastery and what this means for the parish.

Love's judgement

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Trinity

Be merciful and receive mercy.

Don't judge and you won't be judged.

Don't condemn and you won't be condemned.

Forgive and receive forgiveness.

Our Lord gives us two things to do

and two things not to do.

We are to be merciful and forgive.

We are neither to judge nor condemn.

But we do judge and we do condemn.

A man is judged guilty of murder 

and condemned to prison 

for ten years.

What's wrong with that?

We need judgement and condemnation

for the good of our society.

We need it in our personal lives, too.

If we make the judgement

that someone is a gossip,

then we don't confide 

our greatest worries 

with them.

If someone says something 

hateful towards another person,

then we condemn their words.

We need that.

Judgement tells us that 

there must be order in our society.

Condemnation tells us that 

there must be

fitting consequences

for our actions.

Our Lord cannot mean 

that we do away 

with the structure of our society

and our responsibility within it.

So what does He mean?

[PAUSE]

St Luke records 

these words of Jesus 

in his account of the Beatitudes.

Jesus pronounces 

who is blessed

and who can expect woe.

He also commands

that we are to love

even our enemies.

This means that

mercy, judgement, 

condemnation and forgiveness

have to be seen

in the context of Love

and to love

means to will 

intensely and actively 

the good of others 

regardless

of who they are.

We are to ensure 

that we only make judgements

in order to see 

what good the other needs to thrive

and be truly happy.

We are to ensure that 

we only condemn the evils

that beset other people.

[PAUSE]

True judgement is about discerning

what is good from what is evil.

But we are fallen 

and cannot always see 

what is good and what is not.

Certainly, 

we cannot make things good.

We cannot repair the damage

because we ourselves

are damaged.

It would be like 

repairing a pothole in the road

with a sponge.

If we discern evil in others

then there is evil within us

that can and must be discerned.

If we stand stoney-hearted

and allow others to be 

destroyed utterly by their sins

then we can expect the same thing.

We might not be able

to do good of ourselves

but we are able to do good

if we have God's grace,

because grace perfects nature.

We, the Church, 

have been given grace

to help,

to heal,

to strengthen,

and lead people

to their perfection

in God Himself.

Mercy and Forgiveness

are manifestations of that grace.

Judgement and Condemnation 

are reserved only for God

in the Last Day

Who knows the secrets of the hearts

of everyone created.

We don't take that upon ourselves.

We seek only to make people

truly whole

and truly happy.

We seek others' good

but we can only find their good

and ours

in Almighty God.

But seeking someone else's good 

without God,

using our own standards

will bring sorrow upon us.

If our judgement and condemnation

prevent another's approach to God

then we cease to be truly whole

we cease to be truly happy

because we fail 

to have reflected

the loving God in our lives.

There is evil to be judged,

and we can make that judgement,

but with God's love.

There is evil to be condemned

and we can make that condemnation

but with God's love.

But, if we lack

the love of God

and the love of neighbour

we all are worse off.

[PAUSE]

Love's judgement never destroys,

but what does love truly 

judge and condemn?

Can we do the same?

A battle of minds

 

Why shouting at each other is not evangelism.

Valuing Joy

Sermon for the third Sunday after Trinity

Why all this fuss over 

finding a single lost sheep?

Sheep go wandering off

every day.

Why call your friends together 

just to say, 

"look! I found my lost silver coin!"

Unless it is a rare silver coin

you might not think

much about it.

Surely there are better things

to rejoice over than 

a single silver coin

and a sheep with wanderlust.

[PAUSE]

Well here's the issue:

A lost sheep might seem

trivial to one person

but it isn't trivial

to this shepherd

who values the sheep highly.

A lost coin, 

even a ha'penny piece,

might have more value to this woman

than the billions in the bank

of a tycoon.

We each have a different idea

of what is valuable.

A thing is valuable to us

if it motivates us to do

or to feel something

to possess it

or keep it safe.

This is why Our Lord tells us

that where our treasure is

our heart will be also.

It's almost so simple

that we pass over it

without giving it a moment's thought.

We will only work 

for the things we value.

This is why the Lord tells this parable.

It's a parable about

the value we place on things.

What is insignificant to one person

is vital to another.

We only search 

for something lost

if it's something we value highly.

The harder we look,

the more valuable it must be.

If Christ is prepared 

to leave the Royal Court

of ninety-nine angels in Heaven

to save one poor human being,

then what does it say

about how much value we have?

This is why the beggar 

is called Lazarus,

and the rich man is not named.

It is the person who is valued,

not earthly riches

and we forget this at our peril.

Why are we so valued?

[PAUSE]

We have been created

to share in God's joy.

We are meant to be people

who rejoice in the Lord alway,

but we don't because

we start caring about things that get lost,

and spend our lives looking for them.

Sometimes, 

the things that we are looking for

don't exist in the first place!

It's something that we are to unlearn.

We need to unlearn 

our value of the world,

in order to value God most.

We worship only what we love the most

and we need to learn to worship God.

Only then can we rejoice 

in what we have

because we rejoice in it

for God's sake

and not for our own.

[PAUSE]

If someone asks us to rejoice

when they find something

that they have been looking for

then it is up to us Christians

to bring our joy with us

so that whatever was lost

and is now found

becomes a reason

 to thank God.

It is our Christian calling

to work at

turning happiness into joy.

That way we can consecrate

what was lost

and is now found

and make it a vehicle

for people to go one further

and find the God

Whom they lost

and is always there to be found

if people will just seek Him out.

[PAUSE]

We Christians can find joy

but it is hard work.

When we find it,

it is our duty to share it

so that others can rejoice 

in the Living God,

the source of all joy and gladness.