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.

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 4)

 

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

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.

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 3)

 

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

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!

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 2)

 

Why are we so concerned about our identity?

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.

Identity and Anglican Catholicism (Part 1?)

 

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

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.

On Ghosts and Saints

 

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

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.

Raphael, Tobit and Salvation

 The importance of trusting the Archangels.

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?

The Hardness of Scripture and the Lightness of Luke

 

What St Luke does for the Bible and what the Bible does for us.

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.

What to know and how to know it

 

A few thoughts about the relationship between Science and Religion.

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!"

St Bruno and Continuing Anglican Community

 

Is there a way of bridging the gap between individuals and communities?

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.

Angelic Living

 

What do the lives of angels mean for us?

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.

The Zealot and the Collaborator: Anglican Catholic Politics

 

How should the Christian approach political disagreement?

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.

Easter in the midst of Trinitytide

 

Why the cross is ubiquitous.

What's so Anglican about Anglican Catholicism?

 

A few thoughts on how to be Anglican but without being an Anglican.

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.

The Passing of Her Majesty

 

A few ill-prepared thoughts on the death of Queen Elizabeth II

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.