The Politics of Holy Week

 

How Our Lord reveals Himself as a political figure.

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?

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.