Pages

Monday, November 28, 2022

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 4)

 




What is and what is not part of our Eternal Identity?

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

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 3)

 


Using Our Lady and St Cecilia to link identity with sacrifice and worship.

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!


Tuesday, November 15, 2022

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

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 1?)

 


What do we mean by our identity? How does it figure in our Christian conversation?

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.