Conviction and love

 

Why the irascible St Jerome reminds us of the close fit between truth and love.

The backroom boys

Sermon for Michaelimas Day

We are in that strange situation 

where what we hear in the Gospel 

does not seem to fit 

with feast of the day.

Our Lord

speaks of the importance 

of being as humble as children.

He speaks of the fate

of those who would corrupt them.

He speaks of clear and decisive action

to prevent sin.

Then and only then

does He speak briefly 

of the angels

that represent His children

in Heaven.

There is no mention 

of St Michael.

In celebrating Michaelmas,

are we focussing 

too much on things

that are really unimportant?

[PAUSE]

The thing is

that angels are very important.

We see them throughout 

Holy Scripture,

we know three of their names

from the Bible:

Gabriel, Michael and Raphael.

They herald important events,

offer healing to the righteous,

and battle evil with swords drawn.

We know Our Lord 

has legions of angels 

at His disposal.

So why, on this celebration 

of the Angels

is there so little in the Gospel?

[PAUSE]

Angels are background workers.

Their days are spent 

in service to God.

As spirits,

they have no bodies,

just appearances of bodies

when rare circumstances demand.

They don't operate 

in the same part of Creation 

that we do.

We don't see them

because our eyes are physical 

and the Angels are spirits.

But God tells us they are there

and on our side. 

We also know

that there are those spirits 

who wants us to fall

and be destroyed.

There are spirits of hate

and malice,

who corrupt those

who are weak enough 

to be corrupted.

There are spirits 

who are corrupters

of the children of God.

We have seen them

almost from the beginning 

tempting us 

to eat the forbidden fruit

and turn from Almighty God.

These beguiling spirits 

are the cause of much 

of our misery

because they exploit 

our weaknesses.

It s these spirits 

that God bids us

amputate from our lives.

[PAUSE]

We don't always see

the evil until it's too late

but, if we listen,

we can learn to hear the words

of temptation 

which seek to corrupt us.

Our duty is 

to keep our humility,

realise our need 

for someone greater to look after us

in our weakness,

and not try to be greater

or more powerful than we really are.

We differ from the angels

because we have bodies.

While those bodies limit us

they are gifts of God to us

and they are to be used

for the Glory of God.

Of course,

having a body 

makes us open to corruption 

sin and temptation.

Our Lord says

that we are better off

cutting off bits of our body

than entering Hell.

But we need not do that

if we recognise the work 

of the angels around us.

For, 

behind the scenes,

we know that St Michael

has already fought

with that old serpent 

and cast it away.

It is the Devil 

and his angels that have 

caused offence

and are cut off

and thrown into the pit

so that we can be free

from the same fate

through the resurrection 

of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Behind the scenes,

the angels climb up and down

the ladder connecting 

Heaven and Earth

on our behalf

bringing us messages of hope

and instruction,

protecting us

lest we should dash 

our foot against a stone.

It is not permitted for us

to use the angels as our servants

for they obey only 

the Divine Master.

Any spirit that would obey us

is a spirit that seeks 

to take advantage of our bodies

and corrupt us

with enticements and trinkets 

which we need to cut out of our lives

so that, like the angels

we might obey only God

in our service of Him.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord tells us

that the angels are there 

before the throne 

on our behalf 

but we must keep our focus

on being children of God.

But, if Our Lord says 

that they are there,

then we ought to venerate

their feast day in gratitude 

for their service to us.

For they will take our veneration

and give it to the One

to Whom all glory is given

a glory that is not just

reflected in angels

but in all of His creation.

Including us.

Including you.

Yes. You.

Anglican Catholicism and the Book of Common Prayer

 

Why does the Anglican Catholic Church use the 1549 BCP and not the 1662?

Pharisaic Freedom

Sermon for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity 

Is it lawful

to heal on the Sabbath day?

No-one has an answer.

Nor does any

answer Jesus

when He asks them

whether they would

rescue their ox or their ass

- expensive and highly useful animals

- from a pit

on the Sabbath day.

This is rather surprising.

Jesus is sitting

eating with 

the chief Pharisee

and,

one would presume,

the Pharisee social set.

All doctors of the law.

And they have no answer.

This is worrying.

[PAUSE]

In writing His laws 

in Deuteronomy,

God tells people

that if they have a problem

too difficult for the law

they are to ask the priests.

The priests 

are to interpret the Law of God.

That is what God intended

and this is why it was written down

In the book of Deuteronomy.

So why can't the Pharisees answer?

[PAUSE]

They are not priests.

Well not necessarily.

The Pharisees

are a Jewish sect

who practice rigorous observation

of the Jewish law.

They are very well versed 

in the details of the Law of Moses 

and they are fixed 

on keeping Judaism pure.

This is why they are respected

in Jewish Society.

Their practices 

are meant to be exemplary 

and the height of social etiquette.

They are meant to be

the morally superior

declaring what's right.

But they aren't priests

- not all of them.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord 

has one intention 

to bring people back to God,

to offer them salvation 

at His hands 

to show them what Love really is.

Yes, that is one intention.

And He is the priest

of the New Covenant.

This is how He not only keeps the Law

but teaches it as to what it means.

He shows us

that the Sabbath 

is not something that needs

minute regulation 

because the Sabbath

is given for the good of man,

not man for the good of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath rest

represents freedom

from slavery.

It represents the end

of back-breaking,

soul-destroying,

endless miserable

labour under 

indifferent, uncaring 

and often malicious masters.

Of course it's lawful

to heal on the Sabbath 

and it's clear to anyone

who seeks the kingdom of God.

[PAUSE]

The Pharisees 

have assumed more authority 

than they are entitled.

Thus they are enslaving people

by micromanaging 

the Sabbath to the extent

that they are not permitting people

to be free to deal with

the extraordinary circumstances 

of life.

And yet it seems

that if no-one is looking

they will haul

their ox and ass 

out of a pit 

and pretend 

nothing has happened.

This is why Our Lord says,

"what they say, do,

but what they do, do not."

The Pharisees have walked

into the wedding feast of the Lamb

and,

in claiming the same authority 

as the priests,

have sat down.

The trouble is

that the Great High Priest,

the Bridegroom Himself

has seen this 

and humiliates them

by sending them to a lower room.

And this is why

the Pharisees hate Jesus:

He exposed them 

for the frauds that they are

and ruins their social standing 

which they worship

more than their God.

[PAUSE]

To interpret the law of God

we need to be close to God.

This doesn't necessarily mean

getting doctorates

in Theology or Law.

It means seeking first 

the Kingdom of God

in our hearts,

spending time 

remembering that we need 

to be Holy through Christ 

and being honest

with our shortcomings.

We can and should study

the word of God as well as we can 

but it is in living His word 

from the heart

not looking for social acceptance 

and respectability, 

it is in these that we encounter Him

and find ourselves able 

to help others truly

by letting His love speak through us

to them.

Cyprian and Cornelius: Salvation in the Catholic Church:

 

Why, as Christians, we need to be wary of extremism.

Up and at 'em!

Sermon for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

Have you ever been

to a stately home

which has a family vault?

Generations of

aristocratic families

all buried in one place?

There's something creepy 

about it,

something of 

the Edgar Allen Poe

and Vincent Price

lurking in the shadows

of the family crypt.

For those of us

of a more modest

and lowly status,

we will find our resting place

in a cemetery 

or a crematorium.

Unlike family vaults,

cemeteries and crematoria 

are usually set away 

from places where people live.

There's something 

uncomfortable about living

in the House by the Cemetery.

Why?

Do the living not want

to associate with the dead?

[PAUSE]

For the people of Nain,

it is important for everyone's health

that the dead be carried out 

of the City.

It's not that they 

dishonour the dead -

they would not treat the dead

with such ritual and care -

but that the dead rest in peace

while the living are kept away

from the unpleasant nature

of death.

As far as the people of Nain

are concerned,

they know the scriptures:

"For the living know 

that they shall die: 

but the dead know not any thing, 

neither have they any more a reward; 

for the memory of them 

is forgotten."

"So man lieth down, 

and riseth not: till 

the heavens be no more, 

they shall not awake, 

nor be raised out of their sleep."

"His breath goeth forth, 

he returneth to his earth; 

in that very day his thoughts perish."

And then comes Our Lord.

[PAUSE]

The widow's son 

lives!

His thoughts have not perished!

His breath has returned!

He has been raised,

just like Lazarus,

just like Jairus' daughter.

In raising the dead,

Our Lord shows the difference 

between the old life

of sin, depravity 

corruption and death,

and the new life

of restoration, renewal

sanctification and communion

with God and His saints.

The Old Testament 

gives us the facts

that sin leads to death.

It presents us with the Law

and then shows how the best of us

Saul

David

Solomon

even Moses

fall away.

As far as the Law goes,

when you are dead

there's nothing more

that can be said.

Indeed,

it's just a short step

from that

to believing that 

when you're dead,

you're dead - finito!

[PAUSE]

What the Old Testament does do

is point beyond itself

to the One Who Lives

the true God 

in Whom there is life 

and love.

He is not the God of the dead

but of the living.

He is the God of Abraham,

of Isaac

of Jacob.

"Is," not, "was."

With Him appear

Elijah and Moses

after Moses' death.

And Jesus says to Martha,

before raising Lazarus,

"whosoever liveth

and believeth in Me

shall never die."

These are the words of God.

[PAUSE]

So we can be sure,

at the words of Our Lord,

the saints are alive 

and have not died

because they have lived 

and believed in Christ

and therefore

live beyond their bodily death

and in Eternity.

We see this 

in the Revelation 

of the saints who have died for Christ

alive beneath the altar

crying to God.

We see the prayers of saints

rising up to God

like incense.

Their life is in Christ 

and the whole of Holy Scripture 

points to this common fact

of reunion with Christ in Eternity.

Indeed, we shall be like Him

because we shall see Him

as He really is.

And we have communion

with the saints who have gone before

in the great cloud of witnesses

seen by St Paul 

and told to the Hebrews

the people of the Old Testament 

who once thought

that death is an end.

Indeed,

in Christ we have life 

and death is no more a state 

but just an event in our lives.

Just a passing from

a world of sin and toil

and into the world of light 

and love.

And the saints still love us

- how could they not? -

so, looking with Christ,

cheering us on,

welcoming our entry into life 

with feasts and joys,

and praying to God for us

in the communion of the saints

which we have always believed in.

[PAUSE]

The one who says

"The saints are dead"

lives in the Old Testament 

waiting for the New to be born in him

from on high.

The saints live 

raised

like Lazarus,

like Jairus' daughter,

like the widow's son in Nain,

and they will accompany us

from the place of the dead

back into the city

where mourning is replaced with joy

and sorrow with jubilation.

Come, Lord Jesus.

An Anglican Catholic doubts Descartes

 

Why casting doubt on Descartes gives us back our objectivity.

Heavenly birthday parties?

Sermon for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Why do we celebrate birthdays?

They seem quite arbitrary,

just another complete circuit

of the Earth around the Sun.

We celebrate anniversaries 

like wedding anniversaries 

or ordination anniversaries 

because we remember them.

We remember the sights

the sounds,

the various little mishaps 

and their resolutions.

We remember the joy

and the thrill 

of being with our families and friends.

We remember achieving something.

But birthdays aren't like that.

[PAUSE]

Do you remember your birthday?

The actual moment of your birth?

Do you remember the sights

and sounds?

Do you remember 

what you achieved that day?

But it wasn't you 

putting in all the work.

It was your mother 

labouring to give birth to you,

and delivering you

safely into the cold light

of day.

Surely it's not we 

who should celebrate our birthday.

Rather it is we who should be

celebrating our mothers

on our birthday.

They should get

the cards,

the presents,

the cake.

Birthdays should be

about the mothers.

So should today

be more in honour

of St Anne 

rather than Our Lady?

[PAUSE]

Well, this is the funny thing.

Our Lady's birthday 

is a cause of celebration 

for us

because of 

who she becomes.

She is born Mary;

she leaves this world

Mother of God.

She would not be

the Mother of God

if she had not been born,

and yet, she is the same person 

throughout her life.

It is because of Jesus

that she becomes the Mother of God

in the same way that

God the Father

can only be called Father

because of His Son Jesus.

Mary becomes 

Mother of God

because of Jesus.

Even when she is born,

even when she is conceived,

Mary is the Mother of God

because of Jesus

regardless of Christmas Day.

From Eternity,

being the Mother of God

is part of Our Lady's identity 

written by the very Person

of her Son.

[PAUSE]

Today,

we celebrate what that means for us.

It's something we can rejoice in,

because we have the benefit

of hindsight 

seeing the truth 

of Our Lord's Incarnation 

even in the birth 

of His Mother.

Even at her birth,

we still hear the words,

"where she is,

He is."

[PAUSE]

Our Lord says that

whoever does the will of His Father

is His brother and sister and mother.

He opens up 

His family to us

to participate in the joy

of family celebrations.

Just as He joys

in the birth of His Mother,

so He invites us to share in that joy

by following Him

being obedient to the Father's will

which seeks

the flourishing of mankind

in love through 

His salvation.

We participate in the Holy Family 

by being one with the Church

and labouring for its good,

for its spreading of the Gospel 

for the giving of grace

for the redemption of souls 

to joy.

Is there a heavenly birthday party

for Mary?

Given the love that Jesus has for her,

we can't rule it out.

In fact,

we are invited to it!

Anglican Catholicism: Directed by Doctrine

 

Why truth without love and love without truth deconstruct the Church.