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.

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?

O Mary!

 

Why the eighth Advent Antiphon is important.

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.

St Lucy and the Wobbly Christians

 

How St Lucy's example helps us when things seem dark.

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?

On Hitting the Arians

 

How St Ambrose and St Nicholas help rescue us from lazy thinking.

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.