The image of loyalty

Sermon for the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity coinciding with Remembrance Sunday

"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."

But just what is Caesar's? Just what do we owe Caesar?

[PAUSE]

Of course, the Caesars are no more. There are no Roman emperors and anyone descended from that line of Caesar no longer has any claim to power. The right of Caesar to rule has passed to other governments. 

So, in keeping with Our Lord's teaching, we need to render to the authority who controls our money that which belongs to them. What does belong to them?

Well there's a lot of political and economic arguments about what human beings actually own. Some say taxation is a necessary price to pay for the good order of society. Others say that taxation is theft because it takes away money from us that we have fairly earned.

"Render unto Caesar... Render unto God"

Our Lord does not want us to be heavily invested in the sort of argument that pits rival.economic philosphies against each other. He wants us to give up anything that has any claim on us which interferes with His. We need to be able to leave behind our possessions, our friends, even our closest family for love of Him.

But is our economy the only thing that is Caesar's. Do we owe Caesar loyalty? If Caesar calls us up for military service, do we obey? Should we obey?

[PAUSE]

We remember today those who die in active military service. Originally, we focussed on remembering the dead of World War One. Much of that war arose from political disagreements between the aristocracy of European Rulers. The catalyst of these disagreements is found in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Each ruler pledged their military might to honour alliances and ententes. Notice that it is assumed that each country's military would leap into action at their ruler's command.

By the end of that war, with millions of ordinary soldiers lying dead in pits of mud, people begin to question the right of their rulers to assume their loyalty. Loyalty to Caesar seems not to be something that Caesar has a right to receive back.

With the Second World War, there is a very clear evil to be fought - an evil which tries to dehumanise people and thus remove any right to exist. By the grace of God that war was won to reassert the dignity of each and every human being from conception to grave. Yes, there was national loyalty as countries fought to retain their own sovereignty over a war machine that sought to conquer and dehumanise. 

Is loyalty something that our country can demand of us? Is it something that Our Lord wishes us render to Caesar?

[PAUSE]

You might think that this should be an easy question to answer. You say, "loyalty to our true king, the Lord Jesus Christ!" and that is a very commendable attitude. But now think of the wars, battles and skirmishes that have been fought, apparently in His Name.

Remember, there are those who will say, "Lord, Lord, look at what we have done in your name!" And the Lord will look.and say, "I never knew you. Depart from me!"

If loyalty to Our Christ beats loyalty to our country, then what are we to do when our country demands the loyalty we owe it? 

[PAUSE]

Our Lord cimmands two things; to love God with all.our heart, soul, mind and strength; and to love our neighbour as ourself.

As beings limited by space and time, we are only capable of showing love to the person who is present to us in a manner consistent with how they are present to us. An enemy on a piece of paper, or on the internet is not an enemy standing in front of us. If our enemies are human beings, then we are called to love them: our choice to be loyal to Jesus means we must love our enemies.

But we do not have to love political systems, regimes, or ideologies. If loving our neighbour, even if they are our enemy, means breaking a political or ideological law, then we must break it and accept the consequences.

And what does loving someone mean?

It means actively willing the good for that person in God. It means wanting them to be perfected by the same grace that we want to perfect us. It means the thought of seeing that person in the agonies of Hell should appal, terrify and sicken us. And this includes our enemies.

We have to seek the salvation of everyone. Our love will be measured by how much we actually love the person we struggle to love.

That is what we must render to God and what we render to Caesar is what burden he puts on us which prevents us from loving.

But this isn't pacifism.

[PAUSE]

It is right to fight and die in order that another's humanity may be restored.

It is right to fight and die in order that the most vulnerable members of our society may be protected.

It is right to fight and die in order that the least of us can live in peace in the sanctity of their lives in freedom to worship the One true God: Three Persons in One Substance.

[PAUSE]

So we honour the fallen, those who gave their lives in the service of their country which they sought to love and protect. We honour them and reach out our hands across the centuries to shake in an act of peace and reconciliation. We honour their pain, their blood, their death and lift them to Almighty God Who promises to wipe tears away, destroy sorrow, and oblierate evil.

We owe them our loyalty in Christ and we owe them our love.

Artificially Intelligent Anglican Catholics

 

What does AI mean for Christians?

How Patronising!

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the Feast of All Saints

Do you have a patron saint?

St Cecilia?

St Martin?

St Gregory the Great?

How do you interact with them?

[PAUSE]

Well can you interact with them?

That's a question we often get asked. 

"Why do you expect the dead 

to listen to you?"

they say.

"That's necromancy!"

Well, Hallowe'en was yesterday

so it stands to reason

why our more fervent 

Protestant brothers and sisters

might have the dead on their mind.

But the saints are not dead.

They are alive.

They hear us.

They pray for us.

And we need only one verse of the Bible

to prove it.

[PAUSE]

Hebrews xii.1 

"Wherefore seeing 

we also are compassed about 

with so great a cloud of witnesses, 

let us lay aside every weight, 

and the sin which doth so easily beset us, 

and let us run with patience 

the race that is set before us,"

"So great a cloud of witnesses."

St Paul is referring to the saints

that he has just mentioned

who have overcome the world

by faith in God.

The saints are a cloud

of witnesses.

What is a witness?

To be a witness,

you need to be conscious.

You need to be able

to see, to hear, to be aware

of what you are witnessing.

The dead witness nothing.

Only those who are alive

can actively bear witness.

Inanimate objects,

like a smoking gun,

can only bear witness

as a sign.

They are not witnesses 

in themselves.

So what!

So what?

The saints can't be dead then!

Our Lord Himself tells us that

when He says that He is not

the God of the dead

but the living.

Only the living can worship God.

So the saints must 

not only be still alive,

they must be able to see

in order to bear witness.

What are they witnessing?

[PAUSE]

Us.

They are witnessing us

as we run the same race

of salvation that

they ran

- the same race that they ran

and that they won.

They see us strive for God

and they cheer us on.

We know that Heaven rejoices

when the sinner truly repents.

So they do not witness us

like a social experiment,

in a lab with security cameras

and television monitors.

They are interested in us,

they are cheering us on.

They want us to win!

And they surround us

like a cloud.

They are near us

even though we 

can't point to where 

they are.

Let's just take stock then.

We know

that the saints are alive,

that they see,

that they are cheering us on

that they are near us

that they want us to succeed

and that they bear witness of us.

Bear witness of us to whom?

You don't bear witness 

for no reason.

[PAUSE]

It's clear that

the saints bear witness

of us to God.

They aren't being tattle tales,

telling God about

who snaffled

all the chocolate bourbons.

If they are interested

in our progress to God,

then they bear witness of us

to God.

They pray for us.

They have all Eternity

to hear every prayer

that we utter to them

and they bear witness

of our prayers

and add their prayers to ours.

Together,

the smoke 

of the prayers of the saints

rises up before God

like incense.

The saints surround us

like the cloud of incense

that surrounds us

during our Mass.

We are surrounded by prayer.

We are surrounded by truth.

We are surrounded by love.

The saints are for us

because God is for us.

Although we sit here

blind and deaf 

to the glory of God

upon His throne of Heaven,

we can be confident that

here, at Mass,

we are part of His court

standing with the saints

who behold Him face to face

and who pray that,

one day,

we will be able to do the same.

[PAUSE]

All the saints

are our patrons,

but some of their real lives

resonate with us

more than with others.

If you haven't done so,

find your patron saint

and ask for their prayers

and may their earthly example

guide you to stand by their side

in Heaven.

Anglican Catholics in Europe

 

Why building networks is important.

Policy policies and policy policy policies

A matter of love and death for the Anglican Catholic

Why thinking about our last end needn't be morbid.

Will you Luke at that?

Sermon for the Feast of St Luke

Have you noticed that St Luke doesn't appear in the canon of the Mass?

We have the apostles, including St Paul.

We have early bishops of Rome, like St Linus, St Cletus, St Clement and St Xystus. We have other bishops and martyrs like St Cornelius and St Cyprian, St Barnabus, St Ignatius, St Lucy and St Anastasia, even St Chrysogonus!

But no St Luke the Evangelist.

Granted also that neither does St Mark appear, nor even St Joseph.

Why not?

[PAUSE]

It does seem odd that the Church does not include the writer of the most historically detailed Gospel. St Luke is a magnificent historian of his time. Modern historians such as Ramsay, Harnack, Cadbury and Sherwin-White class St Luke as being of great importance and value. His Gospel is history, biography and theology rolled into one.

Yet he is not good enough to include in the canon of the Mass.

No, that's not true, and St Luke himself shows why.

How many disciples are there?

"Twelve, if you count Judas," everyone says enthusiastically!

Nope!

St Luke points out that there are at least seventy who are being sent out to spread the Gospel of Our Lord's presence among us in the neighbouring towns and cities.

Do we know their names?

Possibly there are lists out there with their names including that of St Aristobulus.

Who?

According to second century sources, St Aristobulus was sent to Britain after the day of Pentecost which means that the Church in England has existed from the first century.

But he seems to be forgotten too.

There are more names than we can.handle. We can't recite all the relevant saints or we would distract ourselves from the business of the Mass itself. We have to limit whose names we read out.

But we also have feast days like St Luke's today where we can thank.him and thank God for him and his witness to the Truth.

He is certainly not forgotten. Morning and Evening prayer contain those most important Gospel canticles which St Luke recorded: the Benedictus, the Magnificat, the Nunc Dimittis. He is there in the Litany listed among the apostles and evangelists. It is not an insult that he is not in the canon of the Mass for St Luke himself wants us to focus on the mystery unfolding before our very eyes - the same mystery that he bears witness to in his Gospel.

And yes we are allowed to think of St Luke as we read his words. He is a saint worth getting to know as he tells us categorically not just of what he witnessed but the people he associates with. He introduces us to Our Lady from whom he tells the story of Our Lord's birth. He introduces us to St Peter and St John who tell us of the events of the Gethsemane and the words spoken at the cross.

He introduces us to the closes circle of Our Lord's friends who themselves draw us in further to meet the Christ Himself.

[PAUSE]

St Luke doesn't need his name in the canon of the Mass. He just wants us to meet Christ which is exactly what the Mass is for.