Is there an Anglican Catholic Philosophy

 

Can there be unity in different Christian philosophies?

All for the asking?

Sermon for Rogation Sunday

Yes, we know.

God is not a genie.

He doesn't grant wishes.

And we know that

tacking on "in Jesus' Name"

to our prayer is not 

going to guarantee 

that it is answered.

We know we have to ask

in conjunction with Our Lord,

knowing Him and loving Him

in obedience to His commands.

So why don't we get world peace?

We pray for that and don't get it!

What about Church unity?

Our Lord Himself prays

that we might be one,

so where is Church unity?

Jesus says,

"Verily, verily I say unto you, 

Whatsoever ye shall 

ask the Father in my name, 

he will give it you."

But even He doesn't seem

to have His prayer answered.

Even as He prays in the Garden

for the cup of crucifixion

to be taken from Him,

His prayer is not answered.

Admittedly, He does say,

"not My will but Thine be done."

But still, it does look

as if there is a big problem

if Our Lord says,

"Verily, verily" 

and then we don't get

what we ask for.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord teaches us to pray.

He gives us the seven petitions:

that the Father's Name be holy in our lives;

that His Kingdom grow in our lives;

that we His will even as it is done in Heaven;

that we should be given our daily bread;

that we be forgiven even as we forgive,

that we be not led into temptation;

and

that we be delivered from Evil.

What do we notice

about these petitions?

They are about the changing of our hearts.

We pray to God 

for our conversion

to His life.

And conversion 

to His life is Salvation.

Our Lord's Name is Salvation.

That's what the Name 

Jesus in Greek

Joshua in Hebrew

means

- God Saves.

We obtain everything we need

for our salvation.

That's what we should be praying for

and we know we shall get it!

[PAUSE]

We can pray for world peace,

but the prince of this world

doesn't want our salvation,

and world peace won't save us.

We can pray for Church unity

but the Church is already united

in the one salvation

through the One Lord Jesus Christ.

We can pray for the end 

of sickness and pain,

and while God may grant

us temporary relief from

the agonies in life,

our eternal salvation

means eternal health 

of body and soul

and death is the gateway to Salvation.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord is not spared agony

for the very reason 

that we cannot be spared agony.

Our pain and suffering

are part of this world

and we have to live in it

and not be of it.

But if we ask God for Salvation,

then He gives us His Son

Who willingly ascends the cross

and then ascends to Heaven

drawing His Church with Him.

[PAUSE]

Does that mean

we should stop praying for the sick?

Should we stop praying for the dying?

Should we stop begging God

for help when life is too much for us?

No! We must keep praying!

For God brings about His salvation

in ways that we are not apparent

to our little minds.

Every time we pray,

we grow into that salvation.

Every time we pray

the people we pray for

are touched with Salvation.

But we must be patient

for salvation is with us now

and will be with us tomorrow

and for Eternity.

Jesus saves

for salvation is done

in His Name!

The infinite Anglican Catholic

 Just how infinite is God?

Tag team Trinity

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the fourth Sunday after Easter.

Hooray for the simple pulley!

You pull one end down

and the other comes up.

Or you let your end pull up

and the other end goes down.

Fantastic for building sites

for hauling bricks up to the top floor,

and letting down the bucket of sludge 

from the roof in a controlled manner

rather than flinging it from the shingles

all over an unlucky foreman.

One end can only come down

if the other end comes up.

Is God like that?

[PAUSE]

For a few weeks now,

we've been sitting with the Disciples

listening to Our Lord speak

on the night He is arrested

and handed over for crucifixion.

We know that He is going to His Father,

and that He does so

in order that the Holy Spirit can come.

Is there a pulley system 

to get into Heaven?

Or is this like a wrestling match

in which the Holy Ghost

can only enter the fight

when He has been tagged

by Our Lord?

Why can't we have both?

Why not Our Lord 

and the Holy Ghost

together?

Why does one only come down

while the other goes up?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord is telling us

something of the Holy Ghost's mission.

The Holy Ghost comes

to correct the world

about sin, righteousness 

and judgment.

That's why the Holy Ghost 

is coming:

to correct and confirm.

To bind us more closely

to Christ.

It is because Christ

puts on our humanity

that we are saved.

Our humanity matters to God,

Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Our integrity as individuals

with the ability

to think for ourselves

and make our own choices

is part of what it means 

to be human.

Let us suppose

that Our Lord stays on Earth.

What happens?

Everyone listens

to the One raised from the dead.

He is revered 

and eventually

He is made king over all the world.

But we know

that's not what Our Lord wants.

Every time they try 

to make Him king

He escapes away.

Miracles are done

in private.

The Resurrection

is only for those

who love Him,

not those who are

unwillingly pressured 

into loving Him.

If Christ remains on Earth,

He will be made King of the Earth

and we lose our freedom,

our integrity as human beings

and our opportunity to know

Our Lord as ourselves

in the community of His Church.

There is no point

in sending the Holy Ghost

if the Son is to continue

to reign on Earth.

[PAUSE]

So the Son is to ascend

and thus free us from

the obligation to be Christian

sincerely or insincerely.

And the Holy Ghost

is to descend.

And He corrects the World on Sin

because the world does not believe

Our Lord's message about

whaf sin is and how we can be saved by Him.

He corrects the world on Righteousness

because Our Lord goes to the Father

and the World won't believe that He is

righteous.

And He corrects the World on Judgement

because the World believes 

it is above judgment.

But this correction

does not come from 

Our Heavenly King.

It comes from the Holy Ghost,

within us and upon us,

showing those who love God sincerely

from their hearts

how to continue to live

lives of love, of righteousness

and of justice.

[PAUSE]

When, one day,

when we stand before Christ the King,

He will look at us to see

if He knows us.

If He sees the Holy Ghost with us

then He will know us.

And then we shall be like Him

for we shall see Him as He is.

Sex and the Anglican Catholic Church

 

Why is the Church "hung up on sex"?

Let us while away the hours...

Sermon for the third Sunday after Easter

A little while 

and we shall not see Him.

And a little while

and we shall see Him.

We know that Our Lord

is talking to His disciples

hours before His arrest

and crucifixion,

and then His resurrection.

We get that.

Unlike the disciples

standing her

with Jesus,

not quite understanding

what He means,

we have the privilege of knowing

that they will not see the Lord

while He rests in the tomb

but they will see Him

in the locked room

in which He will show Himself

to be alive.

We're lucky to have

that hindsight.

But it's been more than

a little while

since we see Him

walking on the shore

of Lake Galilee.

With the disciples,

we see Him again

for a little while -

for forty joy-filled days -

and then He is gone,

ascending in glory

and promising that He will return

in the same manner that He ascends.

And it's been more than

a little while.

Two thousand years

and mankind waits,

waits for the return of the Resurrected.

[PAUSE]

At this present time,

the World feels weary.

It has seen wars

of titanic proportion.

It has seen almost

unimaginable cruelty.

It has seen things speed up,

so that life and death decisions

are made and executed

in the twinkling of an eye

and the click of a mouse.

The world is getting tired

and, although it denies it,

it longs for its Creator.

And we Christians

feel that longing

but we have hindsight.

We know where our rest,

our energy, our motivation

and our joy is coming from.

But we don't know when.

[PAUSE]

No-one knows.

No-one can know.

Sure, there are those

who claim to know

when Our Lord returns,

but the day passes

and embarrasses them.

We don't know when.

We shall never know when.

But then, perhaps "when"

is the wrong word.

[PAUSE]

"When" makes no real sense

to the One Who walks in Eternity,

for Whom each and every 

moment in Time is equally accessible.

For Him, the rise and fall of mankind

is both millennia and microsecond.

Our eighty-or-so years

are just a little while for Him

but they can also be an age for Him

as He inhabits every beat of our heart

every breath of our being,

every growth and death of 

our every cell.

And we wait for Him.

[PAUSE]

But our lives have not been

put on hold

while He is away from us.

We have to live our lives,

knowing that they mean something

to Him.

Not sit there waiting,

for then we get bored

and listless.

[PAUSE]

True. We see the world

do its best to go to Hell

in a handcart.

We can't stop that.

We see people 

lose so much:

their money,

their homes,

their justices,

their families,

their lives,

and we call out,

"How much longer?"

What reply do we get?

[PAUSE]

Like the saints under the altar

in Heaven,

we must wait a while longer.

It will hurt to encounter

pain and evil,

hurts done to us,

and hurts done to others.

But St Paul tells us to redeem the time

for the days are evil.

We redeem the time

by consecrating every moment

of our lives to God.

Not seeing this period

in our history as 

Time's waiting room,

but as a time to be alive

and make the difference.

Yes, the world is tired,

and we are tired,

and things always seem 

to be dark,

but we need to take time

to look into every second of our lives

every breath we draw,

every beat of our heart

and know that,

whether we feel His presence or not,

He IS here.

We might not see Him

but, as we still ourselves

and sit in His presence

we can still know

that He has not truly left us.

And in just a little while,

we shall see Him as He is.

Why doesn't the Anglican Catholic Church join the Ordinariate

 

Why Blessed Elzabeth Barton shows why the ACC cannot be part of the Anglican Patrimony within the Roman Catholic Church.

The voice of the shepherd

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the Second Sunday after Easter

What noise does a sheep make?

Well quite!

How old where you when 

you were taught 

that sheep say baa

cows say moo

and chickens say cluck cluck cluck?

Incidentally,

there is condition

called bovilexia

which is that inexpressible urge 

to shout, "Moo!"

whenever you see a cow.

Now we have established

these most important facts:

if sheep say baa

and cows say moo,

what does the shepherd say?

[PAUSE]

We can imagine such things as,

"Out to the grass you go"

or

"Sheep dip time"

or

"Come here, you woolly wotsit."

But, any one of us

could travel to 

the next farm

and shout these things.

It wouldn't make us a shepherd.

We could learn all the dog calls

and whistles,

to round up sheep.

But it wouldn't make us

a shepherd.

To walk into a field and say

"Hello Flossy, I'm a shepherd"

isn't going to endear you

to the sheep.

They do not know you.

They do not know your voice.

They will know 

that you are not a shepherd.

And that's crucial

for their survival.

Sheep are prey animals.

They are suspicious of anything

obviously strange

and will react whenever

something new enters their field.

Admittedly,

sheep are not very bright

and will follow the flock.

Doesn't that sound like us?

[PAUSE]

We might object

to Our Lord comparing us

to sheep,

but, to be honest

we behave like them.

We're suspicious

of whatever disrupts our routines.

If anyone offers us anything

immediately we think,

"what's in it for them?"

Our lives are driven

by routine and social convention,

even when that routine

and that social convention

lead us into dangerous territory.

We will follow the flock

unthinkingly

until it's too late.

We are prey 

to sin, the world and the Devil,

however much we think of ourselves

as being above the lowly sheep.

If we are going

to be truly safe 

we are going to need

to know the.voice

of the shepherd.

Have you ever heard 

the voice of the shepherd?

[PAUSE]

There are people

who certainly have.

Aside from the Disciples

and the women

who surround Our Lord,

we know that

St Paul hears the Shepherd 

speak to Him directly.

There's no mistaking it.

For us,

we can hear lots of voices.

Some come from those around us,

from the people we meet,

friend and family,

employers and co-workers,

from social media,

the television and radio,

from Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

Indeed,

there are a lot of voices

telling us what to do,

telling us that eggs are bad

but steak is good

or that steak is bad 

and eggs are good,

or that eggs and steak 

are both as bad for each other

or blowed be steak and eggs

and bring on the cake.

There is just so much noise.

And there is so much noise

inside our heads

as different voices

criticise us,

confuse us,

misdirect us,

and make us unhappy.

How do we expect

to hear the voice of the Shepherd?

[PAUSE]

The fact is

that you have already heard Him.

What happens when the Gospel finishes?

"This is the Gospel of the Lord."

It isn't the Gospel of Trump

and Starmer,

nor the Gospel of the Left

or the Right.

It's the Gospel of the Lord.

If you want to know

if a priest is preaching the truth

it's there, in the Gospel.

[PAUSE]

And you will hear the Shepherd's voice again.

"Take and eat ye all of this, 

for this is my body"

"Take and drink ye all of it

for this is the chalice of my blood..."

Those are the words of God

giving us of Himself

to eat and to drink.

These is the voice of

the Good Shepherd

and we know it.

We know it because

we've always heard it.

We should not expect Him

to speak to us

out of the blue,

 but that's not to say he won't.

We should not expect

to hear anything,

at least not with our ears.

We hear the voice of the shepherd

whenever we gather in His Name.

We hear Him when His word is preached

or when we are given Godly advice

which tallies with the voice

we have come to know in the Church.

And when we are alone

in silence and in prayer

we might hear Him

not in words, but in that silence

when He puts His mouth

to the ear of our soul

and reminds us of the love

that He has for every single one

of us 

[PAUSE]

The bleating of the sheep

may be loud,

but we can always listen out

for the voice of The Shepherd 

An Anglican Catholic view of the witness of Holy Scripture

 

Is eye-witness testimony reliable? What about what is included in the Bible?

Is eye-witness testimony reliable? What about what is included in the Bible?

Breathing marks

Sermon for Low Sunday

There's something

a little bit disturbing 

about being breathed on.

There's the hygiene issue -

getting breathed on

is how diseases

like coughs and colds

and the flu are spread.

And there is something

invasive about it.

We say that we don't want

someone breathing 

down our neck.

We shudder with the person

who picks up the phone

to a "heavy breather."

Yet, for those of you

present at the consecration

of Holy Oils,

or who attended 

the blessing of the baptismal font

at the Paschal Vigil,

it appears bishops have to learn to

be heavy breathers.

Would you really want

to receive the oil of Chrismation

knowing that the Bishop

had subjected it

to a bout of heavy breathing?

But then, 

during Confirmation,

the Bishop puff into the face

of the recipient of the Sacrament,

so you can't escape 

the Bishop's breath!

[PAUSE]

Yet, here, behind closed doors,

where confused and 

disoriented disciples dwell,

Our Lord appears and breathes on them.

Disgusting?

Germ spreading?

Invasive?

What do you think?

[PAUSE]

You say to yourself,

quite naturally,

if Jesus is doing

the heavy breathing

then it must be alright.

It affects us because

we are so aware of the germs

that can infect us

by being breathed in.

And perhaps

we can appreciate

why this couldn't be done

any other way.

In breathing on His Disciples,

Our Lord becomes

the vehicle for 

the Holy Ghost 

to begin His mission

in building the Church.

This is not a germ-ridden breath:

it's the Breath of Life,

pure, incorruptible

life-giving, empowering

and disinfecting.

Disinfecting?

Absolutely.

"Whose soever sins ye remit, 

they are remitted unto them; 

and whose soever sins ye retain, 

they are retained."

Sin is our infection

which we spread 

from the brokenness of 

our hearts and minds and souls

in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Just as we breathe out

infectious diseases from our bodies,

so do we breath out

infectious sins from our fallen nature.

And yet, 

here is the Holy Spirit of God

poured out upon the eleven disciples

for the purpose of 

remitting and retaining sins.

This is the same promise by Our Lord,

first made to St Peter in Matthew 16,

then to all the disciples

two chapters later in Matthew 18.

Here,

the promise is delivered

by a breath.

This Holy Ghost

ignites on the Day of Pentecost

when the Apostles become 

the first Bishops

each one with the power

to bind and loose,

remit and retain

through the authority

and power of the Holy Ghost

Who makes His dwelling 

within the Church.

Just as we breathe on glass

in order to see through it

more clearly

so does Our Lord

breathe on the disciples

to polish them up

for the purpose

of cleaning all those

befouled by the sins of the world

as they enter God's Church.

This is our salvation.

It is also why

we should rejoice

to have Jesus

breathing down our necks.

Paschal Post Mortem

 

How was Lent?

The Man of the Cloth

Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection

Making your bed

is supposed to be

the sign of maturity.

Taking the time

to refluff the pillows

and fling the duvet out

so that it covers the bed

ready for tonight

is often seen as a chore

by teenagers, 

and by those in a hurry.

But why?

If you live alone,

no-one else will see

an untidy bed,

so it won't matter.

You're just going to

get into it again

tonight.

Besides,

leaving it all rumpled

airs the bed a bit.

[PAUSE]

If you don't live on your own

or share a bed,

then making it

seems a courtesy.

It shows that

you want to keep things nice

for someone else.

It's an act that says

that we want

the other person 

to feel at home,

to feel comfortable,

to feel that everything is in order,

to feel looked after.

Does Jesus make His bed?

[PAUSE]

Peter and John 

are looking in the tomb.

They see the linen clothes

that Jesus was buried in

lying in the tomb.

The napkin that was

about His face,

is lying wrapped together

in a place by itself.

The Greek word

that is used for "lying"

is the same word

used when,

at Christmas,

we see the baby

lying in the manger.

The linen cloths

have not been tossed aside

they are lying

set in their places.

The napkin

is rolled up

and put aside.

Jesus has made His bed.

[PAUSE]

This is significant.

People stealing a body

would do so

as quickly as possible.

They would take the linen cloths

with the body,

or cast them aside

leaving them 

where they fell.

They would not have time

to roll up a napkin.

They would not have time

to gently place the linen cloths

in the tomb.

Indeed, 

if they were in a rush

the napkin would not

be in a place by itself.

No, the body was not stolen.

Jesus gets up,

makes His bed

and leaves.

[PAUSE]

But Our Lord

makes His bed

for a reason more

than an assurance

that He is truly risen.

We make our bed,

when there are others

that might sleep in it.

Jesus makes His bed

because we shall all

sleep where He slept

after His crucifixion.

We shall all sleep

when we face our own death.

It's that one terrible fact

that we must face.

It's that one terrible sadness

that we encounter

with our loved ones

as they pass from us.

Jesus makes His bed

knowing that we must sleep in it

at the end of our lives.

But He shows us

that we too will be making our beds

when we rise through Him.

By making His bed in the tomb,

Our Lord has shown

that Death is not for us.

Death for the Christian

is not a state of being,

it is an event,

just a thing that happens to us

and doesn't stop us

from being ourselves,

because God Himself

keeps us alive in Him.

At our Death,

we sleep until we are woken

by Eternity's sunrise.

And it will be Christ

who bids us rise with Him

into the glorious morning in the garden.

But let us make our bed first!

The Politics of Holy Week

 

How Our Lord reveals Himself as a political figure.

Palm Sunday Question

As usual, in view of the Long Gospel for Palm Sunday, rather than a sermon, I offer this question for your reflection:

Why are we able to go from "Hosanna!" to "Crucify!" so quickly?

Passionate Anxiety

 

How anxious was Our Lord before Holy Week?

The Truth of Life and Death

Sermon for Passion Sunday

"Before Abraham was, I am"

Grammatically, 

that's a very strange statement.

Looking at it

in the original Greek,

we see the idea that

Jesus is,

not was,

is before Abraham enters

into History.

Our Lord is as present

to Abraham

as He is present 

to these unbelieving Pharisees,

as He is to us now

as He is to those 

who come after 

we have long returned

to the dust.

In short,

every moment of Time

is directly accessible to Him

in His Eternal present.

Aside from using

the Name of God,

I AM

spoken to Moses in the bush

and making the Pharisees

ears bleed in horror,

Our Lord is making

a clear statement

that He is truly God

by virtue of His Eternity.

And still people will say,

"Jesus never claimed to be God."

But He is claiming to be God,

because He is God

and, if we take the time

just to simply hear His words,

He claims it,

loud and clear.

The testimony

of the Pharisees' reaction

shows that they hear

His claim to be God

and understand it

as a claim to be God.

[PAUSE]

This isn't the same confusion

of language

that poor Nicodemus has

when he hears Jesus say

that we must be born again

when Jesus means

we must be born from above.

The language is clear.

It is grammatically odd

because it is telling

an Eternal truth

in reference to Abraham

one who was time-bound but is no longer.

Abraham is not dead.

Abraham rejoices to see Jesus' day

because Jesus is God

and He is not the God of the dead,

but of the living.

Abraham lives

because Jesus is God.

And the same is true

for all who receive this fact

and live it out because it is true.

[PAUSE]

And we still hear people say today,

"Abraham is dead.

Moses is dead.

Mary is dead.

Peter is dead.

Paul is dead.

They can't hear you.

They are dead."

We ask them,

"who, then, is their God?

Who is the God of Abraham,

Moses, Mary, Peter, and Paul.

Is He the same God?

And if He is not the God of the dead

but of the living,

how are they dead?"

They are not

and they worship Father, Son and Holy Ghost

in Eternity

freed from the constraints 

of Time and Space,

yet keeping the Great Commandment

to love their neighbours.

[PAUSE]

It is the Pharisees who are dead

in the letter of their law.

Those who live by the text

shall die by the text.

They fail to see

the reason for the text

but rather bask in its certainty

which they and they alone control.

They see only the text

divorced from its history,

divorced from its context,

divorced from its meaning.

And the divorce themselves

from those 

who challenge their viewpoint.

But the reverse is also true.

There are those who see the text

only in today's context,

only in today's view of history,

only in today's meaning,

and thus divorce themselves

from the True Logos seeing Him

only the god of today.

[PAUSE]

"Before Abraham was, I am."

We know Our Lord,

to be the same 

yesterday,

today,

forever.

We know that we are

united in Him

with all who hold onto Him

past, present and to come.

We know that 

Our Lord is changeless,

His Law is Eternal,

His word enduring 

throughout all generations.

But He lives.

[PAUSE]

We hear the same words

of our liturgy each week,

telling us of the truth

of God's unwavering grace to us.

We cannot change

His sacraments

because they are

for the whole Church,

past, present and future.

But by our earnest longing

to be with Him and in Him,

thoss changeless words

carry life

- the same life of

Abraham,

Moses,

Mary,

Peter

and Paul.

And they carry life

because we do not express them

with death, 

as weapons of mass destruction

in hatred, or loathing

of those whom God has made.

The Pharisees hear truth

and seek to kill it.

We hear truth

and we proclaim it.

And what do we proclaim?

The next fourteen days.

Liturgical accuracy in the Anglican Catholic Church

 

What happens if you miss a responsary at Matins?

Magic, mystery and the multitudes

Sermon for the fourth Sunday in Lent

So, how is he doing it?

Five small barley loaves,

Two small fish

Twelve baskets over

Five thousand fed.

What do we see?

Does Our Lord 

put the bread 

into a magic hat,

or a magic bag

and then produce more bread

like Tubbo the Clown produces

a coin 

from behind the ear

of a jelly-smeared urchin?

Or does he break some off

from a loaf

that never seems 

to get smaller?

Is one of the disciples

behind Our Lord

secretly handing Him

bread smuggled 

from the bags

of the multitudes around.

Just what are we seeing,

when we behold 

this miracle?

[PAUSE]

We know that magicians

like to reproduce miracles.

We even see that

in the plagues of Egypt

when Pharaoh's Court Sorcerors

replicate some of the plagues

that Moses instigates.

Don't they realise that

they are adding to 

Egypt's suffering?

 But magicians

are using

sleight of hand,

special props,

misdirection 

and our assumptions

about the situation

to deceive us.

And that's the key.

Magic is amusement by deception.

We try to figure out

how it is done

as well as being amazed.

But we know it's a trick.

We know the coin

hasn't appeared from 

the ear of the child

unless the child is in fact 

Dumbo the Elephant,

and Tubbo is wearing rubber gloves.

Is that what Our Lord is doing?

He isn't prancing about

In top hat and cloak

because He is not a showman.

He's not a trickster.

He does not deceive.

His concern

is what these five thousand 

will eat.

Perhaps He turns

the stones on the mountain

into bread?

[PAUSE]

And now we're back

to the beginning of Lent.

Man shall not live

by bread alone

but by every word

that proceeds

from the mouth of God.

We can be sure 

that Our Lord

is not contradicting Himself.

He is concerned only

that these people are fed,

body and soul.

Somehow,

he is multiplying the bread,

not by magic or deceit

but by some act of creation

that we cannot be privy to

by the fact that 

are created.

It's a mystery,

not lost to Time,

but above our concepts

of Time, Space, Matter and Reality.

It's not how Jesus does it,

it's why He does it that matters,

and that lies

entirely in His intention

not to gather followers

by impressing them

but to gather those who

hunger and thirst 

for righteousness

and feed them until they are 

fully satisfied

with Truth and not deceit.

All He asks of us

is to use the gift of faith

that He gives us

to receive salvation,

refreshment

and restoration.

Our salvation comes

out of the empty tomb,

not from behind our ear.

War of the Church Fathers?

 

What happens when the Church Fathers disagree?

Better the Devil you know?

Sermon preached at the Cathedral of St Augustine of Canterbury on the third Sunday in Lent

Do you know your devil?

We are often told,

"better the devil you know

than the devil you don't."

So do you know your devil?

[PAUSE]

We often have this image

that on our right shoulder

stands our guardian angel

who looks like

a small version of us

only prettier and cleaner

and without unsightly hairs,

dressed in white

with halo and wings

and a rather simpering smile

over its smug little face.

Whereas, 

on our left shoulder

stands our devil,

who looks like

a small version of us

only uglier and red-skinned

with furry legs, horns,

more unsightly hairs,

and a mischievous twinkle

in its malevolent yellow eyes.

Is that what your angel 

and devil look like?

If they do,

then be prepared for a shock.

Any devil

that tries to tempt you

will look more like 

the image that you have

of your angel...

at first.

But let's dispel a few rumours.

[PAUSE]

You do not have

a devil and an angel

sitting on your shoulders.

Your guardian angel does not

sit on your right shoulder.

It is beetling up and down

between you

and the Throne of Heaven,

defending you,

praying for you,

correcting your prayers,

trying to steer you

and warn you,

but by directing your attention

to what is good,

or revealing the bad,

and not by whispering

in your ear...

normally.

More importantly,

you have a conscience,

which is really what

that idea of

the angel on your shoulder

represents.

That conscience 

is directed towards God,

but because of our fallen nature

it needs to be informed

to be of use.

It can only direct you

in the paths of righteousness

as far as you are willing

to have taught it what is good.

You need to keep its user manual 

up to date,

install the latest updates

and recognise bad habits

the more you grow in faith in God.

We inform our conscience

by learning what is 

good, true, clean, holy, lovely

and ordered to a better 

life with God.

But why would your devil

look more like your angel?

There's a good reason

why it definitely

does not look

like a hornèd imp.

Well, we still have 

more rumours

to dispel.

[PAUSE]

You don't have a devil,

at least not in the sense

the Holy Scriptures mean.

You have a dark side of your mind

where all the negative ideas

you have about yourself lie.

This dark side has grown

from sins and bad habits,

and not always your sins

and bad habits.

From the Holy Scriptures,

however,

we understand that

it is possible

to be controlled by devils

- that is at the heart of what we call

demonic possession,

where the will is

completely enslaved

by the powers of darkness.

In these situations

those who are possessed 

cannot do otherwise.

We see, 

in the Bible

that devils can make us dumb

or make us super strong

and raving mad.

But that doesn't mean

that being dumb

or super strong

or having significant 

mental illness

is necessarily caused

by a devil.

But if your conscience

can be informed by

good habits and good practices,

it can be damaged by bad habits

and bad practices.

And that's what the devils want.

So,

they pose as angels

to persuade you

into bad habits

by making them

look good

or, at least,

inconsequential.

If they looked like imps

you wouldn't take them

seriously.

The devils' job

is to make sin look attractive,

desireable,

irresistable.

That way,

even if you break a bad habit,

you have to watch out

because if you go back to it,

you get seven devils

trying to tempt you.

The worst of it is that,

when you give in to temptation

and you feel sorry,

the devils then make you feel

that you are unforgivable.

They don't drop

the façade

of looking like angels.

Instead,

they make you look

like the hornèd imp,

they give you the red skin

and yellow eyes

and convince you

that you are the devil,

hell-bound

and hated by God.

That is the lie.

You don't have a devil.

You are tempted by them.

But you don't possess a devil

and a devil doesn't possess you,

God forbid.

So if there isn't a devil 

on your left shoulder

nor an angel on your right,

how do you deal with

all those conflicting ideas?

How do we separate

what seems good

but is bad

and what seems bad

but is actually good

from

what seems good

and is actually good?

[PAUSE]

Two things.

First, the goal of the Devil

is to separate you from God.

So, if you know Who God Is,

then you know 

when someone is trying

to separate you.from Him

by tempting you

into despising what is holy

and loving what is unholy.

The more you strive

to be holy,

the more you try to know God,

the more you will recognise

the devil that's tempting you.

Second, the Devil will try 

either to persuade you

that he is equal with God

or that he himself doesn't exist.

The Devil will try to dominate you.

And he's right,

he is stronger than you,

but he is not another god.

Indeed, 

Jesus is the strong man

who breaks into the Devil's home

to carry out those

who are enslaved to him

- that's us.

Our Lord is the strong man

who carries us out

of the Devil's clutches

because we are God's priceless treasure.

And if the Devil

should try to persuade you

that he doesn't exist

and that all the evil in the world

comes from you,

then remind him

that he must exist

because Our Lord's foot 

is crushing his head.

[PAUSE]

The more we get into good habits

the more will we recognise

when we are duped.

Our angel will guide us

if we ask it.

The Devil will flee from us

when we oppose him

with Christ at our head.

The Devil can

circle our head as much as he likes.

We just 

don't let him sit

on our shoulder.

The core beliefs of.an Anglican Catholic?

 

Are you really a miserable sinner?

The consequence of Us and Them

Sermon for the second Sunday in Lent

"She's not one of us!"

"Stay away!"

"She's got no part in our nation!"

This is what the Canaanite Woman hears.

Already even in the first century,

politics in the Middle East

is complicated

and emotive.

The people of Canaan

are worse than Samaritans.

Their practices are disgusting

and no faithful Israelite

has any dealings

with such low life.

And this woman is one of them.

Keep her away.

[PAUSE]

Yet,

still she calls out

to the One she believes

can free her daughter

of devils.

She knows how vile she is

in the eyes of the Jews.

The Master's disciples,

naturally urge that she be

sent away.

She is used to that.

She hears his voice,

"I am not sent,

but unto the lost sheep

of the house of Israel."

This is the response

everyone expects.

The disciples know

that Our Lord

is supremely faithful

to the Jewish law.

The Messiah

is prophesied

to fight for the salvation

of the people of Israel.

And He does!

He comes to Israel first

knowing that,

when they reject Him,

He is justified in 

reaching out to the gentiles.

There is no surprise.

And despite the fact

that she knows is

this Canaanite Woman

this most unclean of the unclean

still sees in the Christ

something worth fighting for.

something to pursue.

She doesn't know

she is a bit premature.

But then,

does she have a choice?

He is special;

He is a wonderworker;

He speaks the truth;

He is loyal to His nation.

And so she fights 

through the protests,

derision

and hatred,

and worships the God

she is not allowed to approach.

"Help me!"

The Christ stops

and bothers to speak to her,

"It is not meet 

to take the children's bread,

and to cast it to the dogs."

The Jewish people smile smugly

for the Christ has put her 

in her place.

He's not for the likes of her.

He's proud of His nation.

Not going to be sullied by 

associating with her.

[PAUSE]

Dogs?

It's the word He uses

but it is not the word

she expects to hear.

She is expecting

a different Greek word for dog

that has always been used

to describe her Canaanite people

as being unclean and impure.

But the word He uses,

He calls her a puppy, a pet dog

one of those animals

for which there is affection

Immediately,

she sees them snuffling

round the family 

at the table

being fed treats.

If this is what she is to Him

even these little dogs 

get a scrap of kindness.

"Truth, Lord,

yet the dogs eat of the crumbs

which fall from the master's table."

And something shifts.

Not in the Christ,

for He knows what He does.

"O woman,"

He says.

Already this is significant

for "O Woman" 

is how He addresses His mother

at the wedding in Cana.

"O Woman"

a term of respect

of acknowledgement

of seeing her

without the Nationalistic label

"O Woman,

great is thy faith!"

Her faith has crossed 

the divide caused by

tribalism

Nationalism

political jingoism.

It's a woman

talking to a man

- a man Who just happens

to be God.

Her faith in Him

is greater

than the derision

of those who hate her.

"Be it unto thee

even as thou wilt."

And a way away,

a devil screeches

as the barrier of hatred is lifted

removing his protection

from being evicted.

The woman

who has struck at 

the barrier

that separates her and God

has let the light of Christ

pour forth onto her daughter

freeing her from darkness.

Jesus knows her

and through this

knowing her faith

He shows up the pettiness

of those who cling to their

national identity

above the good of a human being.

As we know this

because this is recorded for us

in the Gospels,

not as an.example

of Jesus being rude or unkind

but of showing that His love

will not be constrained 

by anything man made.

Yes, He comes to save

the Jewish people first

because of His promises

to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He is faithful to them 

but they reject Him.

And so, 

as the prophets foretell,

He comes for the people

of Tyre, Sidon, Cairo, Athens

Antioch, Alexandria,

Rome, London and Faversham

with the same promise

of salvation.

[PAUSE]

The faith of this Canaanite woman

saves her daughter

but it also reaches out to us

and challenges us

to see our fellow man

in all whom we meet.

The End of the Anglican Catholic Church?

 

What does the future hold?

Devil's Advocate

Sermon for the first Sunday of Lent

Let's play Devil's advocate.

How would you bring Christ down?

Yes of course, 

as Christians,

we know Christ to be God.

We couldn't bring Him down

even if we tried

and we don't want to try.

Sadly,

others do.

So how might they do it?

Well they need to show

that Jesus is not God.

They need to show

that He is not all-powerful

that He is not all-knowing

and that He is not all-good.

If the Devil 

can convince us

of just one of these things

then he has us.

And because Jesus is a man,

this should be easy.

If the Devil 

can convince us

that Jesus is only a man

then it's job done.

So how do we start?

[PAUSE]

Showing that 

He is not all-knowing

is tricky.

We might try

to show that 

He is not all-good.

But let's show

that He is not all-powerful.

That's easiest

That means we need 

to show that He is weak.

And He is weak too.

Look at Him

all hungry.

If He doesn't eat, 

then He'll die.

If He's God,

then He can change

these stones into bread

and feed Himself.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, 

but by every word that proceedeth 

out of the mouth of God"

Now,

is that more

or less powerful

than changing stones to bread?

Ah!

But if He does change

stones to bread

he can be fed

and show us that He is God.

He refuses!

So He's not all-powerful.

But what if he's right?

What if it's not the bread

that makes us live,

but the words of the mouth of God?

If He speaks the truth,

then changing stones to bread

would be needless

and, in the circumstances,

show us that He bows

to temptation.

So not turning stones to bread,

that's actually more powerful

and we still have no evidence

to show that

He is not all-powerful.

But we have no evidence

that He is all-powerful.

[PAUSE]

If He says

that we live by every word 

that comes out of His mouth

then let Him show it.

Let Him give proof

that He is all-powerful.

Send Him up

to the top of the pinnacle.

If He lives

by every word of God,

then, if He throws Himself down,

God's word will summon the angels, 

because Holy Scripture says,

"He shall give his angels 

charge concerning thee, 

and in their hands 

they shall bear thee up, 

lest at any time thou dash thy foot 

against a stone."

But if He does,

the He will not have seen

through the trick.

He will not know 

that He is being.deceived

into proving His word.

If He throws Himself down

then He might prove

that He is kept by God's word

but He will also prove

that He can be manipulated.

It will show that

He is not all-knowing

and not all-powerful.

[PAUSE]

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

So, He's not stupid.

He's not being fooled

by the clever ploy.

Last chance for now. 

Tempt Him

with everything

on the conditon

He stops worshipping God.

Every man has his price.

So offer Him

everything,

absolutely everything

to turn from God.

If He does,

He won't be all-good

because He doesn't worship God;

He won't be all-knowing

because He won't see through this trick,

He won't be all-powerful

for the riches of.the whole world

control Him.

And then we are done.

[PAUSE]

"Get thee hence, Satan; 

for it is written, 

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 

and him only shalt thou serve."

And that's the best we can do.

The Devil can't show that 

Jesus is not all-powerful

nor that

Jesus is not all-knowing

nor that

Jesus is not all-good.

To be fair,

Jesus hasn't shown

that He is all-knowing, 

all-powerful and all-good.

But He doesn't need to.

Watch.Him.

Watch what He does.

Watch Him.heal.

Watch Him forgive.

Watch Him teach.

Watch Him raise the dead.

And

Watch Him die.

Watch why He dies.

And watch Him rise in glory.

The Devil can

and will do his worst

and God shows us

why playing Devil's advocate

only leads us to see

the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

To Him be honour

and glory unto the age of ages.

A literal Creation for Anglican Catholics?

 Is it necessary for Anglican Catholics to believe the Science of Creation?

Two blind, two see

 

Sermon for Quinquagesima preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

How's your eyesight?

Some of us are lucky

and have perfect vision.

Some of us

can discern that 

one of the altar candles

is adrift from upright

by one twenty-seventh

of a degree,

or an n dash from an m dash

at 100 paces.

Lots of people wear glasses these days.

Is that because

watching too many screens

is making our eyesight bad

or is it because

opticians are now very good 

at picking up

subtle problems with 

our eyesight?

We can now correct

all manner of problems

with spectacles

or contact lenses

or even low-level surgery.

What do you think

is the most difficult

problem with our sight

for us to correct?

[PAUSE]

Have you gone for 

the most obvious answer?

Not having eyes at all?

Absolutely.

Trying to fit

an earthworm 

with contact lenses

is raising futility to a high art.

Yet we know

that Our Lord heals the blind.

That includes those blinded

by diseases,

and it also includes those

born blind.

In fact, 

if you look at that

instance where Our Lord

heals the man born blind

we can reasonably infer

that the man was born without eyes

or eyes so deformed 

that they actually need

to be re-created 

which our Lord does do

with the dust of the earth,

demonstrating clearly

that He is the Creator.

What is interesting today

in St Luke's record of the Gospel,

we hear of two blindnesses

but only one that is healed

- at least only one 

that is healed straightaway.

[PAUSE]

St Luke tells us of the situation

in which Our Lord lets 

His confused disciples know

that He is going to Jerusalem

for the last time. 

On that last trip to Jerusalem

they encounter a blind man at Jericho

who is calling to the Son of David 

to have mercy upon him.

He shouts out in his blindness,

recognising

that there is one near

who can restore his sight.

He sees wirhout seeing.

His faith saves him,

and by 'save' here, 

we can understand the word 'heals'

for 'salvation' and 'health' 

are two sides of the same coin.

So there's one blindness.

Did you spot the other blindness?

[PAUSE]

There, right at the beginning!

Our Lord tells his disciples

that He is going to Jerusalem

to be crucified.

They do not understand.

They do not see.

And they won't see,

not until the events of Good Friday

are played out

in front of them.

Only when

they see Him appear to them

in the flesh

do they understand Him

- they see what He is on about.

There is a sight of the eye

and the sight of the mind's eye.

The blind man sees 

Christ in his mind's eye

but not with his fleshly eyes.

The disciples see

Christ with their fleshly eyes,

but not in their mind's eye.

The Lord heals both.

As Our Saviour

- our restorer to our full health

in God,

He reveals His love

in revealing to us

the God to Whom 

we have been blind

since our Fall 

in the Garden of Eden.

Yet we still hear

the Atheist say to us

"Show us your God!

Show Him and we will believe.

Seeing is believing!"

What do we do then?

How do we respond?

Especially when

we do not see Our Lord

among us.

[PAUSE]

We might point

to the Eucharist

where we see Our Lord

under the appearance

of bread and wine.

But, as St Thomas Aquinas points out

Our Lord is truly present,

Body, Soul, Humanity

and Divinity,

but that He is seen

with eyes of faith.

He is not seen 

through microscopes,

telescopes,

oscilloscopes

or periscopes,

or even kalaidoscopes.

He is present with us

for us to see

with our eyes of faith,

- the same eyes

with which the Apostles

see Him

until their last earthly breath

and their first heavenly breath.

Those who do not believe

will not see Him

in the Most Holy Sacrament,

because they are blind.

For them to ask us

to show Him to them

is impossible

for their mind's eye is blind.

All we can do

is just bear witness to 

what we see,

what the Apostles see,

what the Church sees

in the hope that the eyes of faith

may be opened 

in the eyes of those 

whose mind is blind.

And what do we see?

[PAUSE]

We see a man,

a healer,

a teacher,

a preacher,

a giver of faith, hope and love.

We see a man,

mocked,

spat on,

flogged,

and crucified

for the love of each one of us.

And we see a tomb,

an empty tomb,

and, with our eyes of faith

we see Him who

once occupied it.

That is what we see

and that is what we show the world

in the hope that

that which is now blind

may soon see.

An Anglican Catholic meets Hypatia

 

Why the conflict between St Cyril of Alexandria and Hypatia has far-reaching consequences.

Sowing a tale of two Kingdoms?

Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday

What is the Kingdom of God like?

We know that 

when Jesus utters these words,

He is telling us something

about the way

God rules His Kingdom.

As we hear 

His parable of the sower,

are we being told

something 

of the Kingdom of God?

[PAUSE]

It seems that the answer is, "no."

First, we see Jesus

addressing the crowd,

and He begins straightaway,

"A sower went out 

to sow His seed..."

He does not begin

with "The Kingdom of God is like..."

Is the parable of the sower

about the Kingdom of God?

If not, then what is Jesus 

telling us?

[PAUSE]

It's after talking to the crowds

that the disciples ask about 

this parable,

and Jesus tells them

that this is about 

the Kingdom of God.

He tells them

that it is for them

to know the mysteries

of the Kingdom of God,

but for the others

they may only know the parable.

Why is that?

Listen to the parable of the sower.

A sower sows seed.

Some goes by the wayside

and gets trodden on and eaten by birds.

Some goes on rock

and withers away through lack of soil.

Some goes into the thorn bush

where it is choked up.

Some goes into good soil

where it thrives.

What is this telling us about

the Kingdom of God?

What is this telling us about

the way that God rules

His kingdom?

[PAUSE]

Turn the focus 

on the sower.

He sows seed.

He sows it everywhere.

Everywhere He can,

He casts seed

giving it every opportunity

to grow.

Jesus tells us

that this seed

is the Word of God.

It's Him.

Jesus is being sown

- sown everwhere.

Everyone has the opportunity

to receive the Word of God,

but many receive Him

on their terms

and not God's.

Some just let the Gospel

get trodden underfoot

and taken away by the Devil.

They hear the Word of God

and say, "who cares?"

Some receive the Gospel,

but don't pay it any real attention.

They say of Jesus, "oh He's nice!"

and then give Him not a further

sensible thought.

Some receive the Gospel

and try to turn it

into a thing of the word,

tangling it up

with politics, ideologies,

capital, finance,

social justice

and liberation.

They choke the meaning

of the Word of God.

They have their salvation,

and then they lose it.

All of these hear the Gospel

preached in a parable

because they have

only their agendas

and reject the Kingdom of God.

Something else rules them.

But notice 

how they still hear

the Gospel preached

because the Heavenly Sower

still wants them 

to hear the Word of God.

The seed is there for them

to receive,

and it is upto them

to let it grow.

[PAUSE]

We are given this opportunity

to receive the Kingdom of God.

If we are given a parable,

do we want to know what it means?

If we do,

if it niggles us,

if it confuses us,

if it makes us want

to come to Jesus and say,

"Please Lord, explain it to us!"

then it has done its job.

It has done its job

because it has given us

the opportunity to become

a member of the Kingdom of God,

by bringing us

to the King Himself.

If we accept His rule

and allow His love

to grow within our lives

then we will bear fruit

and enter into His courts

bringing our sheaves with us

rejoicing.

This is the seed 

that is sown in us

and we are here

in church

to let it grow.

God's generosity

means we get to 

hear His Word,

but does it matter enough

to us

to want to

understand it

- really understand it?

An Anglican Catholic makes a presentation

 

Why Candlemas is an.enlightening feast.

Liking the Kingdom of Heaven

Sermon for Septuagesima

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like..."

Our Lord says these words

several times,

but He usually goes on

to compare the Kingdom of Heaven

to something that doesn't 

seem to make sense. 

The Kingdom.of Heaven

is like workers working in a vineyard.

But it's also like a grain of mustard seed.

It's like leaven in bread dough,

treasure in a field,

a merchant man seeking goodly pearls,

a net cast into the sea,

a householder with treasures old and new,

and a marriage for the King's son.

Eight times Our Lord

tells us what 

the Kingdom of God

is like

and all only in

St Matthew's Gospel.

We hear Our Lord

describe a situation

in a parable

nut leaves us looking

for where the Kingdom of Heaven

actually is.

Look at this parable 

of the vineyard,

we see the labourers

some come at the beginning 

of the day

agree a fair price

and start work.

We see some labourers

coming in the middle of the day

even at the eleventh hour

and getting the same wages.

This is what 

the Kingdom of God is like,

but it's a struggle to see

where it is.

[PAUSE]

We can see the King,

that's clearly the owner

of the vineyard.

But who are his subjects?

The labourers?

Does that mean

that the Kingdom.of Heaven

contains people

who are invited in

to do some work

for wages?

Does that mean

that the Kingdom of Heaven

contains people

who complain about

how much they are being paid?

That doesn't ring true

with the idea of 

the Kingdom of Heaven

being a place of everlasting joy.

In this parable,

we see the king

but where are his subjects?

[PAUSE]

Perhaps we're looking

at the wrong thing.

We have an idea

of there being eternal joy

and bliss 

in the Kingdom of Heaven,

but perhaps

in these eight parables,

these eight ways of saying

what the Kingdom of God is like

we aren't actually looking at it

like a place on a map.

We aren't looking about

who is the king

and where is his castle

and what the Lord Chamberlain

had for breakfast.

Perhaps these parables

are more about 

how Our Lord

governs His Kingdom.

[PAUSE]

This makes sense

for this parable of the vineyard.

The focus is not 

on the labourers

it's on the fact that

the Owner gives

the same fair wage

to those who came late.

It's about his fairness

(no one gets diddled)

and his generosity

(he can use his money how he likes).

This is what we can expect

the Kingdom of Heaven

to be like.

The generosity of God

is so great

that it is scandalous

to those

who have a worldly way

of thinking.

The invitation for us

to enter Kingdom is there

and our work for that Kingdom

will not go unrewarded.

It is interesting to note

that only those

who complain about their wage

get told to go their way.

In refusing to see generosity

and accepting that

this is the way things are,

they find themselves 

out if the vineyard

with their wage

but none of the appreciation

of the Owner's willingness

to give good things.

[PAUSE]

God shows us

how He rules His kingdom.

He shows us the terms

that we can expect

and the price of entry,

but also how warm it is,

how full of love and joy.

We accept it 

on His terms,

not ours.

He is King

after all,

and Who is like Him?

Anglican Catholicism and Church Music

 

Why we need to hold Church music to high standards.

Conversion Contradicted

Sermon for the feast of the Conversion of St Paul

There are those

who read the bible

looking for any excuse

to find contradictions.

The story of St Paul's conversion

is mentioned three times

in the book of Acts

but they are not all the same.

The conversion is related

by St Luke as part of the narrative

in chapter 9

and then twice more 

in chapters 22 and 26

as St Paul tells the story to others.

People tend to focus on

the fact that these accounts differ.

There is some inconsistency

about whether everyone ses the light

or hears the voice,

or whether everyone falls down.

If you read these accounts

for yourselves,

you might come away 

not really knowing

how those travelling with St Paul

bear witness to what happened.

But does something happen,

or is it all in St Paul's head

- a result of a seizure,

or a stroke,

or an hallucination?

[PAUSE]

First,

we can be sure that

something is happening.

Before Damascus,

Saul is breathing out

fire and threatenings

against Christians.

In Damascus,

Saul becomes Paul

and seeks to serve 

the One whom he persecutes.

In many ways,

the evidence of St Paul's ministry

speaks for itself.

You know his letters.

They are reasoned,

passionate,

compassionate,

intelligent,

spiritual

and full of the praise of God.

That's evidence enough

that something is happening

on the Road to Damascus.

Second,

those around St Paul,

are affected.

St Paul himself may not be

fully aware of what others are seeing

but then, he is rather more concerned

with the Voice calling him out

for persecuting the King of Heaven.

In the confusion,

some of the others may see the light

some may hear the voice,

some may understand the voice,

some may have fallen down.

It depends who you ask!

And in the confusion

not all may experience

exactly the same thing.

What matters

is that the event is about

one man's conversion,

one man's redemptiom

and one man's shame being turned

to his praise.

This is his experience

and that experience

can be supported 

by those who were there

and by those who owe

their coming to faith

by the persecutor

turned apostle.

[PAUSE]

And the conversion 

still has an affect on us,

twenty centuries later.

We have to reconcile

the persecutor with the apostle.

We have to reconcile the man

rejoicing in the death 

of St Stephen

with the man rejoicing

in the strength of the Church

as the executioner

ends his life.

They are the same man.

And it shows why

we must love those 

who persecute us.

We can't hate Saul,

because then we hate Paul.

How can we hate Paul

even when he is Saul?

To see him 

before his conversion

is to see ourselves

before ours.

We have to start 

somewhere.

The Christians that Saul kills

are those Christians

who welcome him into heaven

with cries of joy

and warmth and love.

That's how we need to be:

loving our enemies,

accepting persecution with joy!

This attitude makes us

contradictions in this world

but perfect sense in heaven.

This attitude

helps Sauls become Pauls

and allows Heaven to ring with joy

over each repentant sinner.

And if Sauls become Pauls

then the Christian faith

is enriched upon the earth

allowing

for more conversions

from contradictions.