The Problem of Holiness

 

When can a church be called Holy?

As the darkness deepens

Sermon for the Sunday next before Advent

Who is Jeremiah 

speaking to?

He tells us that God 

"will raise unto David

a righteous Branch,

and a King shall reign,

and prosper,

and shall execute judgment

and justice in the earth."

Is that message for us?

[PAUSE]

It would seem not.

Jeremiah

is preaching to

the peoples of Israel

and Judah

affected by the Great Captivity

and scattering

among the nations.

He tells of the coming Messiah,

the Branch of David,

the Root of Jesse,

the Lion of Judah.

But that's all past.

Jesus has come and gone.

What possible message

can Jeremiah have

for us now?

What can Jeremiah say

to this time

in which there is still

a barbarous war

in the Middle East

in which so much hatred

is being aired

and acted upon

with such great ferocity?

[PAUSE]

What message does Jeremiah

have for us

in a world in which

there is much 

darkness and depression?

Mankind is becoming

anxious,

fearful,

untrusting,

resentful,

demanding recompense

in order to find some closure

on the pains of living.

Mankind is seeing its demons

in Society,

in the Environment,

in the hearts of others,

in the stars and planets,

in the systems of living

which are supposed to protect

and allow for growth.

Mankind is now

imprisoned in a cage of freedom

which has been fabricated

by our fall from the face of God.

Mankind seems to be losing hope

and the darkness is coming.

[PAUSE]

But who is Jeremiah

speaking to?

He addresses precisely

those who have lost hope.

His words

are the words of God

- he is a prophet after all.

His words tell us 

of the growth of the Branch

the coming of the Kingdom

the establishment of justice.

He is not presenting

a final end

but the beginning of something

that, for us,

has already been sown

but is growing now

and will continue to grow

throughout Human history.

God's message through Jeremiah

is a message of hope.

God wants us to have hope

and hold it

and allow it to grow

so that faith and love 

may also increase.

God has never, 

never left the people who love Him

without hope.

Granted, 

we may not know what God is doing -

in fact we probably cannot know

what God is doing -

but he tells us to hold on

and continue to dare to hope

in Him

though the stars fall from the Heavens

and the angel trumpets echo 

around the earth,

though the dreaded horsemen

thunder across the nations

and men become sick and faint.

We hold on.

[PAUSE]

Advent approaches.

This is a time for us

to fast and pray

and to nuture the tiny grains of hope

that we have

because the Kingdom of God

is coming

and is now here with us

and we shall see it again

present with us

in the tiny Christ Child 

of Christmas Day.

The Devil will always

try to destroy that hope

in whatever way he can,

but, while the Innocents may perish,

the Christ Child will not

and He will give all good things

to those who lose for His sake.

The Innocents will receive their justice.

And we will see our hope fulfilled,

because we dare to cling onto it

for the love of Him

Who dares to hope in us

and shares His hope with us.

Glory be to Him 

that sitteth upon the throne

and to the Lamb

now and unto the age of ages.

Amen.

A present of presenting a present Presentation

 

Why the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady hammers home the incredible story of our redemption.

Making Jesus unclean?

Sermon for the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity

Let's just be clear about this.

According to the Jewish Law

touching blood

makes you unclean.

And,

if someone unclean

touches you

you become unclean too.

How selfish of this woman, then,

to touch the hem of

Jesus' garment,

just to stop her bleeding.

She doesn't even ask him.

She just does it.

She makes Jesus unclean

without Him knowing.

Not only is Jesus unclean

but all whom He touches

become unclean.

Who knows

how many people

become contaminated

just because this woman

wants to stop bleeding.

Who knows how many people

have had their relationship with God

damaged

by one woman's selfishness.

[PAUSE]

That's the way

a Pharisee might see it,

all fixated on the Law

and the Rite

and the purity.

But there is something

they will overlook.

Does the woman's bleeding stop?

Yes,

of course.

So,

how can someone unclean

on the outside of society

unable to approach God heal her?

This healing comes from God.

It means that Jesus is 

not unclean.

Oh,

He notices the power leave Him

to heal her,

but see how He tells her

that her faith has made her whole.

He does not see selfishness.

He sees her trust in Him.

She knows that,

if He is the great Healer

that He has shown Himself to be,

if He is the Messiah

that she believes Him to be,

if He is the Son of God

that He claims to be

then He can never be made unclean.

She has complete faith in Him.

But she is scared 

nonetheless.

It's scary having

your faith tested!

The devil likes to put

his little grain of doubt

in your mind.

But Jesus Himself says

that a grain of faith

can grow bigger than anything

and she has that grain of faith

enough to dare to touch Him

and be healed.

She lets go

of the grip of the Jewish Law

with its restrictions

on clean and unclean

and allows the cleanness

of her faith

to bring her to the One 

Who, not only can heal,

but Who wants to heal.

And, to strengthen this point

He goes to a girl

whom everyone says is dead

and who laugh at Him

when He says she isn't.

And this dead girl

he touches

and the Jewish Law cries,

"Unclean!"

But the girl revives

and is alive 

and cannot now be unclean.

Where has the uncleanness gone?

In Christ

it is nullified

- made nothing.

The only uncleanness

is the scorn

that pours out of

unbelieving,

unkind,

unfaithful hearts.

It is not what goes into a man

that makes him unclean

but what comes out of his heart.

[PAUSE]

Our faith in Christ

is the beginning of our healing

and comes from the same grace

that God gives to everyone.

We cannot make Christ unclean 

with our presence,

we cannot contaminate His Grace

with our sin.

We can never despair

of the mercy of Christ

Who will forgive the sins,

no matter how great,

that we present to Him

in repentance and humility.

While we are contaminated

by the sins of those

around us,

while our sins can

and do contaminate

those around us,

they are blotted out

through the Love of God.

Our baptism

has made us clean

and started the process

of justification,

sanctification

and glorification

in us

which will continue

for as long as we turn to Christ.

Benedictine Hallowe'en?

 

Why all Benedictine saints and souls?

The Antidote of Occult

Sermon for the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity

Did you have a good Hallowe'en?

For many people

the association of All Saintstide

and the Occult 

is too uncomfortable.

They have a point.

Some people take Hallowe'en

as an excuse

to be unpleasantly morbid 

in what they wear

and in what they do.

Telling a good ghost story

reminds us that 

there is a world beyond our vision

and that the soul 

continues its existence after death.

The problem comes

when people seek

to use the "spirits of the dead"

to gain information

or to do their bidding.

That's clearly prohibited 

by Holy Scripture.

But there is something

very tantalising about

the idea of magic

and the Occult.

It appalls us

and fascinates us,

thrills us

and disgusts us 

at the same time?

Why?

[PAUSE]

Let's be clear.

What do we mean by "occult"?

The word literally means "hidden"

or secret,

and it refers to the belief

that our real world 

is surrounded by a hidden world.

Now here you might worry.

We believe in a hidden world.

We believe in Heaven and Hell

and the Third State between.

We believe in a hidden God,

and our sacraments

are outward signs

of hidden grace,

aren't they?

Is Christianity an occult religion?

Wow! 

That is a deeply uncomfortable

thing to say!

But before we start to worry,

there is something more.

There is something

profoundly different

about Christianity

and the truly Occult.

It is the Lord's Prayer.

[PAUSE]

The Occult is dangerous

because its central idea

is to use what is hidden

to do your will.

That's the central idea:

do what you will

is the whole law 

for those who follow the Occult.

Put simply

the Occult law is

"My Kingdom come.

My will be done."

As Christians know

it's God's will be done.

We see exactly that in 

Christ the King Sunday

and that He promises

Eternal Life

to those who serve Him

in Love.

We see exactly that

He fulfils His promises

in All Saintstide.

To those who prefer the Occult,

we Christians are saps,

victims and brainwashed 

because we prefer to serve

the will of God

than serve our own wills.

But serving our own wills

separates us 

from becoming aware of God

in our lives.

[PAUSE]

The sad thing is

that many people

turn to Spiritualism

as a result of the First World War

trying to deal with 

the intense grief

at the immense loss of life

of so many soldiers

in seeking to serve

their countries.

Ironically,

the soldiers give up 

their wills to serve

unlike the mediums

who seek to control

their spirits at their bidding

to cash in on the grief

of the bereaved.

[PAUSE]

What we do today

in remembering 

the dead servicemen and women

is the opposite of the Occult.

We generate their memory

by giving up our wills 

in the Great Silence

to their memory

and thanking God

for their sacrifice.

And, rather than 

manipulate the dead

to comfort the bereaved

we seek to bring

the bereaved to God 

by giving up ourselves 

to their pain

in sorrow, prayer and compassion.

St Paul is very clear:

we follow Christ 

because He is the King

and has command 

of the whole universe

much to the dismay

of the Occultists.

If we truly want

to reverse the influence

of the Occult

then we pray the Lord's Prayer

and put it into action.

An Anglican Catholic view of Soli Deo Gratia

 

Why the veneration of saints is good for the Church.

How not to be dead

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of All Saints

"You're talking to the dead.

They can't hear you.

They can't do anything for you.

In fact, in trying to talk to them

you are committing

the sin of spiritualism

of necromancy.

In talking to the dead 

you are like the Witch of Endor,

not a Christian."

Wow!

Have you heard people 

talk to you like that

when they hear you say

"Hail Mary full of grace"

or

"St Anthony, pray for me"?

Are we really praying to the dead?

[PAUSE]

Let's listen to Jesus.

"Blessed are the pure in heart

for they shall see God."

"Blessed are those who are persecuted

for righteousness' sake:

for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

Those who are reviled and hated

for Christ's sake 

have a reward in Heaven 

If Christ is faithful

then His promises are fulfilled.

This means that

all those who have died

and have been faithful to God

are enjoying the Kingdom of God.

And St John says that 

they saints in Heaven praise God.

And we know that 

the Dead do not praise God 

so the saints in Heaven

are not dead, but alive.

St Paul also tells us

that we are surrounded by

a cloud of witnesses 

watching us run the race

to the Kingdom of Heaven.

They watch us and are aware 

of our lives,

they rejoice in Heaven

when sinners repent.

And the prayers of the saints

rise up before the throne of God

as incense.

For us Christians

Death has ceased to be a state

which prevents us

from living.

In Christ,

Death loses its power

to curtail our life

but becomes the gateway

to an opening up

of our little lives on Earth

into the Eternity of God's life.

So, when we pray "Hail Mary"

she heard us.

Even if a countless number

of people pray

"Hail Mary" 

every second,

she hears every single one

because she sees Christ

and is like Him 

because she sees Him as He is.

This is not being all-knowing

because the prayers

of a finite number of people

are finite, though large in number.

Only God knows the 

infinities of truths

that are and might be.

If Our Lady's life 

is Eternal now

then it lies beyond the comprehension

of those of us who are not 

in Eternity.

We can be sure

that the saints hear our prayers.

But we must be careful.

[PAUSE]

We may pray to St Anthony

when we lose our keys

as long as we don't expect him

to find them for us.

We can pray to Our Lady

for the undoing of 

the knots of our lives

as long as we don't expect her 

to be doing the disentangling.

The prayers of the saints

go to God directly.

Indeed,

nothing stops us

from praying to God directly.

It is God,

and God alone,

who answers prayers.

In praying to the saints

we are opening ourselves up 

to the Church.

Just as St James

bids us to confess our sins

in the presence of the Church

so we offer our concerns to God

in the presence of the Church

for those who stand around

are there to support us

to raise us up to God,

to will our perfection in Him.

The prayers of the saints 

are nothing less

than our expression of love for us

and to ask those prayers

recignises our need for love

and to love.

This is also why we pray

for the dead.

Our prayers are expressions 

of our love

for those we cannot reach 

and help physically.

To pray is to reach out in love.

To ask for prayers is to seek 

to be perfected

and allow others to love us.

It's not spiritualism

because we aren't seeking

knowledge of the future

or secret knowledge of Heaven.

We seek only love

for one another.

The communion of the saints

us exactly that.

It's just that some of us 

have passed through death

some of us haven't

and some of us 

have not yet been born.

But we are nonetheless

one Church because there is

one Lord Jesus Christ

who reconciles all who believe in Him

to His Father in His

one perfect sacrifice on the Cross

in which we participate

in the Mass.

[PAUSE]

The saints are not dead,

they live in Heaven

and yet surround us.

They pray for us

and so continue to love us

across death's divide.

They don't do anything for us

beyond the will of God

but stand alongside us

and support us 

as we stand before 

the Throne of Grace.

We may use the "direct line"

to God if we wish

but there are many friends 

around us right now

who see the Face of God

and want us to see it, too.

Hope - a Christian duty

 

Encouragement for the dark times.