Collect for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

Prayer book of 1662
GRANT, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection
This collect is used in place of the absolution when a layperson leads the Office and it is clear why this is so. In order to repent of our sins, we must first know that we have sinned and then it must trouble us. We cannot repent of our actions if it does not cause us grief that we did them in the first place. That grief can be perfect in that we grieve for offending God, or it can be imperfect if we fear the consequences of our actions. Nonetheless, if we are not troubled by our sins then we are simply not repenting properly.


We pray this collect for the complete removal of our sin so that our minds can be still again and focus on the task of living a life of service to God's will. The Devil will often trouble us by bringing up past sins, sins that we regret having done, of which we have confessed, and from which we are making amendment of life - that is what it means to repent. This is one of the Devils wicked tricks against the people of God. Yes, repentance is a life-long activity and it is with God's grace that we do repent beyond just an intention. However, God has promised that repenting of our sins and living a new life in Christ Who has opened the gateway from imprisonment to sin will bring us to Eternal life with Him.


Thus, we also pray this prayer when we are troubled by past sins so that remembering them spurs us on towards God and His mercy. The Devil may say that our sin is still with us, yet we know that we are dead to sin in Christ and live to God. That sin is still with us, but only with our corpse, not with our risen selves. We should take courage when the Devil torments us with the past. If we are truly repenting, then it shows that we really do care what God thinks and, further, makes His love for us ever more real.

Power versus Authority: the real battle

Sermon prached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on the Feast of Christ the King 2015

These notes are a reconstruction and amplification of what I said on Sunday. At the moment, I am having to speak more ex tempore rather than scripting my sermons as I usually do. We'll see how this goes. Please do feel free to comment.

The Bible contains many wondrous creatures both physical and spiritual. Of the spiritual beings both  St Thomas Aquinas and the writer formerly known as Dionysius point to nine orders of angels such as seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, powers, virtues, principalities, archangels, and angels. We're probably most familiar with the angels, archangels and the cherubim and seraphim, but what of the others? What of the powers and dominions?

[PAUSE]

When we think of powers in a spiritual sense, we often find ourselves thinking of the Powers of Darkness. The Greek and Latin words used here are subtly different in meaning. The Latin word has the sense of force and can imply coercion, the Greek has the sense of authority. Do power and authority mean the same thing?

[PAUSE]

No. The point is subtle but they are different. Just because someone has the power to do something, does not mean that they have the authority to do it. We have the power to pick up a bag of sweets, or light a match, or to fire a gun. We can do these things - we have the power to do them. However, we do not have the authority to pick up a bag of sweets when it means we're intending to leave without paying. We do not have the authority to light a match when we intend to burn someone's house down. We do not have the authority to fire a gun at someone whom we intend to kill unlawfully.

Notice that it is the lawfulness of an action that gives it authority. Authority possesses power held legally.They have a right in themselves which is the sense of the Greek word. Authority recognises the right of the author over what has been created. Despite the outcry of her readers, J.K. Rowling has every right to kill off Dumbledore without criticism. This is why God has supreme authority as He is the author of all Creation.

. As human beings can and do create our own laws for living, they only have authority if we consent to them. If we do not consent then the rest of society may coerce us through the power of numbers, yet they cannot change the level of our consent.

The Powers of Darkness only have authority over us if we believe that they do and if they do, then they possess laws in themselves. The powers of darkness draw authority from the simple act of being against God and it is while we turn from God that we are indeed subject to darkness as an authority. We pay our dues to darkness for as long as we recognise the false authority which is not God. The Law of Satan is anything that leads to misery, pain and death, all these were paid to him by Our Lord so that we should not be bound any longer to the power of Darkness. Through the death of Christ, the Powers of Darkness have no authority over us. We can be forced to do things by powers stronger than us, but those powers have no claim on anyone who accepts the true authority of Christ.

[PAUSE]

Christ is King by authority from God in His inheritance as the Son, by human law through His lineage from King David, and by our loyalty to Him through His ransom on the Cross. The task that we face is always looking for what has His authority in our lives and what has not. Through the Divine Will, we have free-will. We can choose freely who is to be king of our lives, but we must accept the consequences of that choice in full. In Christ our King do we find the power to live lives governed by light and not by the powers of darkness. That makes us pretty powerful ourselves!

Holy uncertainty!

There seems to be nothing more despised in modern Western Society as being certain or convicted in your belief. As soon as you say that you believe in God, and then go on to defend that belief, you tend to get labelled as a bigot or fundamentalist. Of course, it's interesting how certain people can be that you actually are a bigot or fundamentalist, but that's not really my concern here.

If I say that I believe that homosexuals cannot receive the sacrament of Holy Matrimony and then support my argument, all well and good. The trouble is that, in so doing, I necessarily show why I believe that the opposite view is false and therefore go against the opinion of many in Society. Andrew Brown of The Guardian says that being a loud orthodox member of the Roman Catholic Church is why many are leaving, and that this orthodoxy is corrosive. He says that no church is immune.

The Church of England has its own version of this argument, which goes back to the unbelieving Bishop of Durham, a figure of legendary horror to evangelicals. This man, identified by historians as the Right Rev David Jenkins, was widely supposed to believe nothing at all of traditional Christianity, despite being the fifth most senior bishop in the hierarchy. He certainly did not believe in the virgin birth, nor in the bodily resurrection. Neither, of course, do most churchgoers. It was an article of faith among conservatives, though, that churchgoers required a bishop who would believe all the things they could not themselves suppose were true, and he was succeeded by a succession of men of unimpeachable orthodoxy. Under their stewardship, church attendance in the diocese declined by 36% in 20 years. Andrew Brown.

The first thing that I would say to this is that the Church of England (as far as I know) still holds the Catholic Creeds. If anyone in the CofE from the Archbishop of Canterbury up to the person in the pew says these creeds and denies the virgin birth or bodily resurrection, then they are either paying lip-service in the liturgy or they are crossing their fingers, or they are on autopilot and not engaging with what they are saying. In each case, there is  a question of the quality of their honesty and sincerity. Now the person in the pew is often regarded (somewhat patronizingly by the clergy) as the least theologically educated. That is not true, and many members of the laity have thought sincerely about their theology. They do have a Christian duty to inform their conscience and to play some part in teaching the Christian Faith to their families, especially when it comes to instructing the ignorant about the Christian Faith. Clergy have a vocation to teach the Christian Faith.

For deacons, the promises run as follows

IT appertaineth to the Office of a Deacon, in the Church where he shall be appointed to serve, to assist the Priest in Divine Service, and specially when he ministereth the holy Communion, and to help him in the distribution thereof; and to read Holy Scriptures and Homilies in the Church; and to instruct the youth in the Catechism; in the absence of the Priest to baptize infants; and to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the Bishop.

WILL you apply all your diligence to frame and fashion your own lives, and the lives of your families, according to the Doctrine of Christ; and to make both yourselves and them, as much as in you lieth, wholesome examples of the flock of Christ. (BCP of 1662)

For priests and priests:

WILL you be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word; and to use both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the whole, within your Cures, as need shall require, and occasion shall be given? (BCP of 1662)

In Common Worship, we read that for deacons and priests:

Archdeacon: They have duly taken the oath of allegiance to the Sovereign and the oath of canonical obedience to the Bishop. They have affirmed and declared their belief in 'the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness'. (Common Worship)

For bishops, the affirmation in Common Worship reads:

I, AB, do so affirm, and accordingly declare my belief in the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, I will use only the forms of service which are authorized or allowed by Canon.

It is clear that Clergy in the Church of England both past and present are expected to say the creeds and believe in what they contain. This includes the virgin birth ("born of the Virgin Mary")  and bodily resurrection ("the Resurrection of the Body"). It's sad to say that if Bishop David Jenkins really meant what he said when he denied these doctrines, then he could only have been a heretic in need of instruction. My point is this: if you say that you believe something, then actually believe it. Don't be dishonest with yourself, or with the community to which you're bound to believe it. Of course, we're all hypocrites and heretics in some way or other, and it takes the grace of God to convince us of that. We just have to allow Him to correct us, accept His correction and work at living our belief in Him more sincerely.

Of course, it isn't your personal belief that puts other people's back up, it's when "you try and force your beliefs on them." What does this mean?

Well, I have just said that, if you claim to be a member of the clergy, then you must believe what the Church says that it teaches. I believe what the Church teaches, therefore I have just made a statement about something I believe that you must also believe. Likewise, I do not believe in the marriage of homosexuals in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony primarily because the Catholic Church teaches that two folk of the same sex cannot enter into a sacramental union. If I say that, and you claim to be a member of the Catholic Church, then again, I am saying that you must believe the same. Is it a true coercion?

Likewise, the Law says that a woman is a man, yet when that "man" falls pregnant (as is his/her right) I cannot take seriously the law's statement. In that sense, the Law has forced the beliefs of the lawmakers on me in that, if I press the case that this man is actually a woman, I can be found liable under the Law. Likewise, if I fail to recognise lawful civil union as being marriage then, as is being shown in the courts, I become a transgressor of the Law.

What Andrew Brown seems to want is for Christians to become much less certain about their beliefs so as to function better in Society. Uncertainty for many these days, builds a little give into the system, a little slack into everyday life whereby one can say one thing, but not really mean it. That way one can say "I am a devout Catholic" and "I believe in Gay Marriage" without too much cognitive dissonance. The trouble is that this undermines the very Truth the the Lord Jesus would have us speak.

We hear Him speak to the Church of Laodicia:

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write ; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest * , I am rich, and increased with goods , and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed , and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see . As many as I love , I rebuke and chasten : be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold , I stand at the door, and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame , and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Apocalypse iii.14-end)

We are not meant to compromise on our beliefs, not one jot. We are to take up our cross and follow Christ by living the faith that He gives us. It is painful and hard, but it is not a faith of "trolls" deliberately provoking folk in order to produce a negative reaction and then cry "Persecution!" This is a faith of confronting injustice and hatred caused by the Devil in our midst. Rather than seeing Man as the Devil, we need eyes to see the Devil walking about seeking whom he might devour. We can only do this when we know what God and Evil truly are. The doctrine of Uncertainty prevents the clarity of sight and thus enables diabolical agents to do diabolical things undisturbed.

Often we look at what politicians do and think them evil or wicked for doing so. The equality of marriage between same-sex couples with that of opposite sex couples is rooted in am idea of justice whereby, in legal terms, one can ensure provision for a life-partner in the event of death, or make end-of-life decisions, et c. There is a nobility there, a care for the fact that there are people out there who have a genuine love for someone of the same sex and have made some form of life-long commitment to that someone. What we cannot do is enter into that relationship and understand it in the same terms as the couple. The only thing that the Church can do is offer up for sanctification that which it knows can be sanctified and pass over that which cannot,.trusting that God will know what is truly sanctifiable.

The Church indeed has a lot of uncertainty built into it, and necessarily so. We can be certain that, following the Catholic Faith, Christ is really present in the Host. We can be certain that the Catholic Creeds present truth and that this truth can neither be infallibly be proved true or false by human means. We can be certain that when we repent of our sins from the heart, we will be forgiven by God. However, the Church cannot see into the human mind and know the state of a person's soul - that can only be revealed by consent in the Sacrament of Confession. The Church cannot know what God knows, but must be faithful to what she has received.

St Paul writes to St Titus in chapters 2 and 3.

In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed , having no evil thing to say of you... 

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates , to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived , serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared , Not by works of righteousness which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This gives the Church the pattern about how to be certain in the Faith she has received, but how to conduct herself in a secular society which may not hold those beliefs. We must remember that we are only as moral as any other human being. We possess a certainty of our Salvation which rests on the conviction that we have in the Faith. We have to acknowledge our uncertainty about things we cannot know, that are not revealed to us by God, and not pretend that we know them. We certainly have to acknowledge uncertainty but if we truly believe, then we have to love what we believe wholeheartedly and accept the limitations it puts on us. Limitation is the essence of Religion and it is a wonderful thing to live within one's limitations if we actually accept them.

Collect for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
OMNIPOTENS et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude, ut mente et corpore pariter expediti, quæ tua sunt, liberis mentibus exsequamur, Per Christum Dominum nostrum . . . Amen.

[My Translation:Almighty and Merciful God, mercifully shut out from us all things that are turned against us, that with mind and body equally prepared, we may perform those things which are Thine with free minds. Through... ]

Prayer book of 1549
ALMIGHTIE and merciful God, of thy bountiful goodnes, kepe us from all thynges that maye hurte us; that we, beyng ready bothe in body and soule, maye with free heartes accomplishe those thynges that thou wouldest have doen; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

Prayer book of 1662
O ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, of thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection
The Latin and the collect of 1549 emphasise the freedom of our minds to choose to do the will of God. For us to be able to make that choice we need God to show us that choice, and this means Him cutting through the various sounds, sights and sensations that bombard us every day. The Devil likes to throw all that He can at us so that we might be turned away from God.

Yet the mercy and the grace of God is always within us, we just have to be prepared to see them. This means having faith in God and allowing that faith to grow and prepare our hearts and minds to see whatever is right, noble, true and loving. If our hearts are free to choose God then we find good cheer at our liberation by God and live lives more fully Christ-like.

Look at Luke

Sermon preached at the parish of Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on St Luke’s day 2015

Science and religion are always presented to us as being in a battle to the death. Some would say that, because we’re in a scientific age, there is no place for God – Science explains Him away. It seems that you’re not allowed to believe in God and be a scientist.
Yet that is exactly who St Luke is.

[PAUSE]

Tradition has it that St Luke is a doctor, a physician charged with healing the sick. His science is not the same as our science. He does not have access to the medical knowledge that we have, yet he still makes people better. “Better” for St Luke might not mean the same as “better” means now, but clearly he does something to alleviate people’s suffering. His methods are clearly not perfect, so you can see how impressed he is when he interviews the witnesses the miracles of Jesus. We don’t know whether St Luke meets Jesus in his lifetime. We do know that St Luke is a disciple of St Paul. Perhaps it is because he hasn’t met Jesus that he decides to write his gospel as the results of his investigation into historical fact. He begins:

“Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed .”

Many historical scholars regard St Luke as a reputable historian of the Greek tradition and this helps us to see Jesus healing the first Christians in clear light. For St Luke, there is no battle between Science and Religion. He uses his scientific training to serve God. His Gospel is the result. That's the beauty of St Luke's gospel, it is clear and it bears record to the many witnesses of Jesus' life with us. Without St Luke, we would not have the poetry of the Magnificat, the Nunc Dimittis or the Benedictus which are all read at Morning and Evening Prayer. He is merely reporting what people said as a good scientist or historian might.

That's where we have to be. We have to follow St Luke's example by telling what Our Lord has said and letting the beauty of God's words speak to others. Our Lord sent St Luke to be a labourer for the harvest and complains that there are too few people to take up this task. The task is simple: we need to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength and our neighbours as ourselves. We do this by listening to God and simply doing what He bids us do, simply speaking what He bids us speak, and simply loving what He bids us love.
How are we to hear God's voice to us? Let's begin by reading St Luke's Gospel!

Collect for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
DIRIGAT corda nostra, quæsumus Domine, tuæ miserationis operatio : quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum . . . Amen.

[My translation: Direct our hearts, we beseech Thee O Lord, by the operation of thy mercy: for without Thee we are not able to please Thee. Through Jesus Christ]

Prayer book of 1549 O GOD, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee; Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our heartes; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

Prayer book of 1662
O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection
It seems to go without saying that, if God did not exist, we certainly could not please Him. However, the word "without" stands diametrically opposed to "within". In order to please God, we must be in with God. This puts a new spin on an old idea. God actually rejoices at our presence and is not pleased when we are away from Him. He does not need our presence, but rejoices in it.

It is our sin that makes us walk without God, and it is by His mercy working in us - operating in us - that we have our route back to Him. We walk through the wounds in Christ. We enter into the hoes in His hands and His side, like St Thomas. In so doing we find ourselves within God, participating in Him being Him. We take our being from God and, if our being stands apart from God, then we become nothing.

The mercy of God does indeed operate through the Holy Ghost as the modification of the 1662 collect does point out. The Holy Trinity are all involved in our existence, in our redemption and in our reunion with God. Their different personalities interact and even dance around us so that we might simply become and remain with God. We need God to show us those dance steps.

Devotion from Benediction: October 2015

There are those who would tell us that the Blessed Sacrament is not to be gazed upon nor carried about. Yet, if Christ is truly present in the Sacrament, how can we not gaze at Him? If we carry Christ about within ourselves after consuming Him, why can we not carry Him when He can be seen? We bear witness to a mystery that some would call foolish and some would call idolatry. Yet we bear witness to what we believe in our hearts, just as we have taken with our lips, a witness that Holy Church has borne from her birth, through today and into Eternity.

We stand here upon the very threshold between the physical world and the world beyond ready to bear Christ out into the world. Like Our Lady, we can bear Christ within us and live to bring His work to birth in us. Like St Francis, we bear the marks of Christ through the suffering we receive at His service. In the Sacrament of the Altar, we gaze upon His glorious scars and prepare to show Him our own that we bear for the sake of Him.

As we look now upon Christ with the eyes of our Faith, let us bring ourselves before Him, broken as we are by our sins and the sins of others and know that what we see Christ's expression of love to be with us always unto the end of the age.

Therefore we before Him bending...

The mugness of smugness

The world would have ended today according to some Christian believers. So far I'm still here and I'm actually quite pleased about that! I do find that all these prophecies about the end of days are rather silly especially as Our Lord tells us clearly that no-one knows the time when God will put an end to things. Not even Jesus knew in His humanity when the end time would be, even though He knew in His divinity. So I guess I'm feeling rather smug that these people who state categorically when the end of the world will be have come a cropper. Is it right of me to feel smug, ever?

The answer is no, and quite categorically so. The fact that I am smug demonstrates self-righteousness and this is actually a big sin because it allies itself with pride. It is pride which caused Lucifer to fall from Heaven, and it is pride that can cost a man his soul if he refuses to let go of it.

So how does smugness work?

The essential feature of smugness is found when we are shown to be right at another's expense and derive some joy or satisfaction from that expense. There's clearly an attitude of transaction that the investment in showing oneself to be in the right is paid by another's being shown to be wrong. We see that the whole power of being smug is the pleasure of being shown to be right. It is divorced from the actual truth itself.

And this is the problem, particularly for those who are supposed to be bearing witness to the Truth.

I don't think smugness is peculiar to Christians but I do think it is very damaging to our message when we exhibit characteristics of being smug. The point is that we believe fundamentally that Our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life. When we are smug, we are actually doing something very damaging to our faith.

We can debate atheists at the academic level and show them to be wrong about what we believe, but if we treat our debate like some kind of contest, then no wonder that we can be judged as being smug. We can forget a central fact that it really is not we who can convert anyone. It is only God who can turn someone to Him, and even then He has the respect enough to allow that person to choose. All the Christian should do is just bear witness, not rejoice in getting one over on another, not treat evangelism like an intellectual contest. A debate should be an honest inquiry into the truth - a dialogue in which positions can be investigated and scrutinised honestly.

The Church has a duty to combat heresy because heresy does endanger people's souls. There is only one God in three persons and that is difficult to comprehend, but the central truth of our salvation through Our Lord Jesus Christ needs to be told and told well, not for our sake but for the sake of others. This is where smugness really lets us down because smugness is inherently selfish. It comes at the expense of the person to whom we are trying to minister. The moment we forget about them and where they are then we have lost the Truth and its power, but exchanged that great power for our own which is worse than useless.

Often, when someone leaves the Church we find fault with their theology. That theology may indeed be flawed but we often miss the question of what it is about the Church that has caused that person to leave. We forget that someone who leaves the Church is tacitly saying something about the way we haven't been communicating our precious Truth. If someone leaves in heresy, then it is because we have not been thinking of them and where they are, but rather basking in the warm glow of our own smugness. That is an indictment and it is a serious indictment.

What's the answer to smugness? Simple: look at the other person and put yourself where they are.

If some Christians are predicting the end of the world, one has to ask why. The answer is simple. They want the world to end, and it's not hard to see why as we watch much chaos, bloodshed and loveless behaviour spreading around the globe. What they want is not so much the end of the world but the end of mankind's cruelty and the coming of God's Kingdom. Well, I'm on board with that. I don't think it will happen the way they will. I will stand with them and say "Maranatha". Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Collect for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
DA, quæsumus Domine, populo tuo diabolica vitare contagia, et te solum verum Deum pura mente sectari, Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.
[My translation: Grant, we beseech Thee O Lord, Thy people to avoid the infection of the Devil and to follow Thee the only true God with pure mind. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord ]

Prayer book of 1549
LORDE we beseche thee, graunt thy people grace to avoyde the infeccions of the Devil, and with pure harte and mynde to folowe thee the onelye God; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

Prayer book of 1662
LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection
We notice that the prayer book of 1549 closely follows the Latin Collect and sees the work of the Devil as an infection that draws mankind from the health that God intended. We are sick and infected with a dangerous separation from God. We wander in the half-light bearing both light and darkness in our very selves, with the Devil seeking to extinguish it with his own brand of light.

This diabolical desire is fleshed out in the collect of 1662 in which the means and sources of infection are revealed, namely through temptation by the world, the flesh and the Devil. The world around us distracts us, the pain of our mortal limitations depresses us, and the final lie that Evil can triumph over Good causes us to fall away into darkness. This is the light that fizzles like some neon sign that crackles before finally going out.

Yet God is righteous, and His righteousness is unmistakable to those who seek Him. No matter how the Devil tries, and his neon light may blind like the sun, his efforts will not penetrate or fool the pure and humble heart seeking earnestly for its creator. We pray this prayer that we may indeed be purified by the burning goodness of God and find our rest in Him away from the infection of the deceit and lies that can kill both body and soul.

Collect for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Prayer book of 1549
LORD we praye thee that thy grace maye alwayes prevente and folowe us, and make us continuallye to be geven to all good workes thorough Jesus Christe our Lorde.

Reflection
Again, we see that words change their meaning over time. These days, we tend to think of preventing meaning to stop something happening. The word actually means "to go before" and if you think of the soldiers heading the enemy off at the pass, then you can see how the word prevent has got its now negative meaning.

Yet we pray for the grace of God to go before us and to follow us. We  are praying, therefore, for a complete surrounding of our lives with the grace of God, yet not so that we can be protected from Evil happening to us, but rather protected from doing Evil things. If Evil is the hole in our being which prevents us from being full, then our actions carry those same holes as a lack of goodness.

With God's grace surrounding our lives, the Evil in our actions and the Evil within our substance are prevented from proliferating, though we have to look with the eyes of faith to see that happening. This is difficult when sometimes we can see nothing but the darkness of Evil. Part of God's grace is to live lives of trust in Him that, even when we cannot see any good whatsoever, we can find some assurance that His goodness will envelop us even to Eternity.

Morris Dancing and Harvest Festivals? No thank you.

Sermon preached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity being the parish Harvest Festival. 

Apparently, if you didn't know it already Morris Dancing is no longer regarded as quintessentially British. It's not something that is regarded as something British people do any more. However, moaning about the weather remains on the list of typical British actions. Another loss from this list of "thing Britons do" is going to a Harvest Festival.

Perhaps there are places that still do Harvest Festivals. Perhaps somewhere there are churches filled with crates of apples, leeks, carrots and onions, the ubiquitous pumpkin and, wonderful to behold, the harvest loaf. The harvest loaf was always a beautiful piece of bread in the shape of a wheatsheaf often with a little field mouse somewhere on it. Perhaps they still exist. Perhaps Harvest Festivals still happen.

On 10th of May this year, you may remember that we celebrated Rogation Sunday. We had Benediction that Sunday. Rogation Sunday is the day on which we ask God for a good Harvest. Again, this has fallen out of being English. We ask God for a good Harvest, and then thank God for what He gives us.

The fact that this is falling out of English culture does show us something of the people that English folk are becoming. We no longer ask God for a good harvest because we believe that we can control our produce with genetically modified grain, and the right kind of disease resistant crop. We don't have anything to celebrate because the machinery does the job and people get fed.

Yet it is still a fact that we do not control the scale of our harvest. Farmers still know that floods and frosts and droughts and pests can still ruin crops in this country, though perhaps not on the scale that can devastate a culture as we often see on the news. We are not immune from poor harvests, and perhaps God will remind us that we are not immune.

But then, this seems to be the way that we are going. Our society seems to be no longer grateful for what it receives, and yet we receive so much. But then, it seem that society has forgotten who to be grateful to! In this country, we do enjoy good food, and plenty of it. And we are here to say thank you to God for it. Like the tenth leper healed of his disease, we, the Church turn around, look Christ our God in the eye and with joyful heart we say, "thank you!" In so doing we recognise our need for God and that He is good to us, giving us everything that we experience as a gift to bring us closer to Him.

Yet, what is truly sad is that not only has our society seem to have lost its manners in saying please and thank you to God, it has lost the ability to have festivals. We no longer celebrate! We just lift another cream cake to our mouths and consume it without a moment's thought. And so, society loses its capacity for joy! If we,the Church, can ensure that we can cultivate our ability to be joyful in what God does for us, then perhaps those outside the Church will see that joy and want to know where we find it.

Perhaps, somewhere, Rogation Sunday and Harvest Festivals are still kept. Perhaps, somewhere, people remember to ask God for their daily bread and then thank Him for what they receive. Perhaps, somewhere, there are people who have the joy of living with God in their lives. Perhaps, perhaps it's us?

Devotion from Benediction: September 2015

As we gaze up and see Our Lord with the eyes of our Faith, let us offer ourselves to Him wholly in all our lives. Let us see Him and bring all that we are before Him knowing that He is here with us now.

This day, let us commend to Him our Bishop, Damien on this the seventh anniversary of His consecration. Let us remember the Lord's choice of Apostles to work His will and serve His people throughout the world, remembering that service to which all bishops, priests and deacons are called, that the church may be served by their efforts and that all members of the Church may go out to preach the word of God. Let us offer to Our Lord this threefold Apostolic ministry that all who are called to serve may indeed serve in holy devotion, and may ever be good examples of what it means to be holy in this world.

Let us offer ourselves to Him that we may all be made holy, remembering our sinful nature and our fall from Him, and ever remember that we cannot ever be completely bad, for why, then, would He want to save us in such a fashion as He has?

Therefore we before Him, bending...

Collect for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
ECCLESIAM tuam, Domine, miseratio continuata mundet et muniat; et quia sine te non potest salva consistere, tuo semper munere gubernetur. Per Jesum Christum.

[My translation: May continual mercy cleanse and defend Thy Church, O Lord; and, because without Thee She cannot continue safe, may She always be directed by Thy grace. Through Jesus Christ.]

Prayer book of 1549
LORD, we beseche thee, let thy continual pitie clense and defende thy congregacion; and, because it cannot continue in safetie without thy succoure, preserve it evermore by thy helpe and goodnes; through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

Reflection
Again, we see Archbishop Cranmer tidying up the Latin so that its sense may be rendered more naturally in English, The sentiments are, as we have often found throughout the year, in accord with Pre-Reformation thinking. In effect what Cranmer does to the language is what we pray will happen to the Church when we pray this collect.

There are times when we feel that our lives don't quite make sense, and translating our perceptions to other people is difficult, nigh on impossible. We simply cannot communicate our pain and suffering in a way that does justice to how we feel. We know that our lives need sorting out; we also have faith that God will sort out our lives for us; however, we find out that our lives just don't get sorted out in the way we anticipate, Somehow our own lives get tangled up in translation in the world.

The mercy of God is that our lives do get cleaned up and sorted out. It is He who rids us of the lasting consequences of our sinfulness, though that sinfulness still does knot up our existence in Time. We can still trust in Him for direction even when we cannot see where we are going. We need to be full of faith and feel for His guiding grace that will draw His Church into the daylight.

When being an example is not being an example

Sermon preached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

The cry of “look at me, Mummy” can cause many reactions in a parent. Perhaps it’s a new dress, perhaps they’ve climbed to the top of a tower. Perhaps they’ve found something you really hadn’t wanted them to find, and here they are waving it around like a flag.

“Look at me, mummy!” It’s a desire for your attention.

[PAUSE]

Cries for attention are all around us. Adverts try to get noticed by being loud, or funny, or with annoying tunes that you couldn’t get out of your head with caustic soda. There are celebrities who are famous just for being famous. “Look at me, mum! I’m on the telly!” There are even clergy out there who seem to be saying, “look at me”. All around us, we are being bombarded by people who want us to see them. But why should we look at them?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord has some tough things to say about people who want to be noticed. All around Him, the priests and scribes and Pharisees always want the high chairs, want to be bowed to, want to wear the fancy robes. They want to be the centre of attention. They want their voice to be heard loud and clear. “Look at me!”

Our Lord doesn’t mince His words. He calls them whitewashed sepulchres – nice on the outside but putrid on the inside.

St Paul, too, does not mince his words because he is listening very carefully to Our Lord. He sees that the Church in Galatia is being victimised by those who want Christians to follow the Hebrew Law so that they can say, “look at me, I’m in the right! I’ve made all these Christians do what I want!”

St Paul says that these folk don’t even keep the Hebrew Law, themselves!

The trouble is that we Christians have a message to proclaim but we tend not to proclaim it very well. We, too, can get caught up in wanting to be seen by others as being good and devout Christians but forgetting that we’re supposed to be pointing people to Our Lord Jesus Christ. How can we speak the good news about Our Lord without saying “look at me”? Should we, or should we not seek to draw attention to ourselves?

[PAUSE]

St Paul says, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. “

St Paul does not boast of anything save that he believes that the Cross of Christ brings salvation to all who will receive that cross. He does not seek to be recognised or looked at. He seeks only one thing, to serve God. St Paul says that he does not care what people think of him, but rather he lets his belief in Christ speak for itself through his living the Faith. If we live our faith, then it will be seen. We don’t need to say, “look at me” for God’s light will shine through His marks in our bodies.

[PAUSE]

We should say, “look at me!” to God, but not as something to boast about but rather as an act of recognition that not all is well in our lives, that we need to be put right. When we say, “look at me” to God, we invite Him to show us what is wrong with us, show us our sins, our failings, our shortcomings. He will show us these things so that we can confess them freely and know that He will put us right if we let Him.

Saying “look at me!” is a dangerous activity. God might make us look at ourselves instead! Will you take that risk?

Collect for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
CUSTODI, Domine, quaesumus, Ecclesiam tuam propitatione perpetua: et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxiis, et ad salutaria dirigatur. Per Dominum

[My translation: Keep, O Lord, we beseech Thee, Thy Church by Thy perpetual mercy: and, because human mortality falls without Thee, always by Thy help both draw us from things hurtful and direct us to things beneficial. Through...]

Prayer book of 1549
KEPE we beseche thee, O Lorde, thy Churche with thy perpetuall mercye: and because the frailtie of man without thee, cannot but fall: Kepe us ever by thy helpe, and leade us to al thynges profitable to our salvacion; through Jesus Christe our Lorde. Amen.

Prayer book of 1662
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy: and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection
Archbishop Cranmer always has the question of our salvation in his mind as he translates this collect from the Gelasian Sacramentary. Anything that is not drawing us to that salvation is automatically harmful to us: Archbishop Cranmer doesn't want us even to consider things which are not bringing us to our end in God. Is this why, perhaps, he omits translating abstrahuntur a noxiis?

It is by God's mercy that we are drawn from our sins and that this is a continued process. When we fail to consider God, we fall; we cry out to Him and He saves us. The story of Israel is repeated again and again in our lives, all because of human inability to keep God's moral law. Sin, the World and the Devil cling close drawing our fragile wills back and our repentance permits God to draw us out. The cycle of sin-fall-repent-rise is part of our being in Time. On the fabric of Eternity, our lives look like some oscillating wave crying out for an end and for constancy in God.

Archbishop Cranmer's long term view is the knowledge that God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. Since Christ comes not to condemn but to save the world, that single sacrifice also written across the fabric of Eternity is enough to draw anyone who chooses to follow Him out of this cycle and into eternal joy.

The Subjunctive God

God save the Queen!

Actually, I'm not much of a royalist these days, though I do wish Queen Elizabeth well. Now that I argue for a separation of Church and State for the disestablishment of the CofE, the argument in favour of a constitutional monarchy is not as strong in my eyes as it once was - indeed it is considerably weaker. However, it is not the Queen that is the point of this post; it is a point of grammar - namely the subjunctive mood.

The subjunctive is not a mood that's easily seen in English: the word "mood" now has another meaning. I'm sure that there have been times when a Latin teacher asks which mood "vivat" is in, the answer has come back "happy, Miss!"

For those unfamiliar with the finer points of grammar, the subjunctive is used to speak of potentiality, of circumstances which are possible, but not necessarily certain. We use the subjunctive to express conditions or deal with uncertainties. The phrase "God save the Queen" is an example of the seldom-used English subjunctive. It doesn't say "God saves the Queen" so it's not an expression of a simple present tense. It's not a command (as if one could or would command God!) otherwise a comma would be needed - "God, save the Queen!" It is a prayer for God to save the Queen, and in modern English, we might more usually say, "may God save the Queen". He doesn't have to save her: it may be morally necessary for Him not to save her. However, it is our desire that He save her (note the subjunctive there!) and we pray that He would indeed do so.

We are therefore able to speak of things which may or may not happen, or which may or may not be true by use of the subjunctive mood. If mankind is capable of inventing ways of expressing conditional, probable or undecided statements, then mankind is also capable of realising that there indeed are many possibilities that could happen. If that is the case, then we find ourselves confronted with the fact that the mind of a Sovereign God must be much bigger and able to consider all possibilities, their causes and consequences in ways that the human mind can never reach. All these possibilities and conditions are real in the mind of God in a similar way to the square root of -1 being possible in the mind of a mathematician. These possibilities are not necessarily actual, i.e. made real in our universe, but it is possible for God to know how each and every possible human being can act, and how they can make free choices. He knows how in certain situations they will choose this, and when they will choose the alternative.

This is rather a sobering thought. If God does know how we would possibly act, then each time we spend thinking "if ever I meet X, I'll fetch him such a bop on the nose," or "if she would only turn her back, I could pop that chocolate bar in my pocket without her knowing" and entertain these thoughts, then it becomes very easy to see why God indeed does look at the intentions of our hearts before what we actually do. If we actually take stock of these hypothetical thoughts, we get an insight into just how broken we are as people. Even a little subjunctive thought can speak volumes about who we actually are and what motivates us.

Every day, we have a thousand thoughts that fly through our heads which, if made real, would shame us, humiliate the ones we love, put us in prison, or find us hanging from a tree surrounded by a crowd of people with burning torches. These thoughts are only vague possibilities, but we do need to examine why we have entertained those thoughts, because at heart there is something lurking in us that needs to be brought to light and dashed upon the Rock that is Christ.

This is not easy to do and takes much spiritual discipline and practice. The sacrament of Confession really can help here. Once the actual sins are out of the way, taken care of by the Mercy of God, then we can work on the potential sins lurking in our subjunctive. The forming of a good conscience is imperative in progression in the Christian Faith.

Setting some time aside each day to examine our thoughts should be part of our daily practice. It does hurt, but sin should be recognised as the cause of that hurt, and the fact that we feel pain shows us that we are no longer numb to the presence of sin in us. We feel pain because we are getting closer to God, and the pain is GOOD!

Once we have conquered our subjunctive, we will be more thoughtful in what we do, say, and think. By thinking hard, we will be less prone to crass statements or barely concealed bigotry, and in a much better position to love our neighbour as ourself.

In knowledge of our free-will, God has predestined us for Salvation by putting us in the best place in which we can flourish. This is how He has taken care of our subjunctive. We now have to ensure that our will is not enslaved to sin by rooting all sin out with God's Grace through Confession and Repentance, so that we cannot fall away from that Salvation and that our Eternal Life with Him is an actuality, rather than a possibility.

Collect for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
OMNIPOTENS sempiterne Deus, da nobis fidei, spei et caritatis incrementum : et ut mereamur assequi quod promittis, fac nos amare quod præcipis. Per Jesum Christum

[My translation: Almighty and Everlasting God, grant us increase of faith, hope, and charity: and that we may merit to obtain that which Thou dost promise, make us to love that which Thou doest command. Through Jesus Christ.]

Prayer book of 1549
ALMIGHTYE and everlastyng God, geve unto us the increase of faythe, hope, and charitie; and that we may obteine that whiche thou doest promise; make us to love that whiche thou doest commaunde, through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

Reflection
We notice that Archbishop Cranmer effectively removes the word mereamur from the English Collect. In so doing, he creates a tension. Many folk interpret Cranmer as believing that we deserve nothing from God and can never deserve anything because of our sin. In his own words of confession, we are "miserable sinners" The word "miserable" here is not a statement of emotion, though it has a very emotive nuance. We are miserable sinners in the sense that our sins cause misery. Our sins separate us from God and prevent us from the fullness of His presence in our lives.

Is it true, then, that we deserve nothing from God? After all, we have no legal standing on which to claim entitlement from God. He makes the rules, and this means we cannot go to God and claim a seat in Heaven for any reason of our actions. That belief would be Pelagianism. However, it is not our actions that make us worthy of entrance into Heaven - it is God's actions.

All good works begin with God, and the life that is united with God - that wonderful state of grace - produces work that deserves merit. The collect that we pray here is asking for the God-given ability to be faithful, hopeful, and loving so that we may deserve the promises of God. Indeed, we have no entitlement with God, but God's grace in our lives entitles itself to more grace - grace upon grace. Like a magnet magnetises everything it sticks to, so God's grace makes worthy of grave everthing it touches. For the repentant sinner, merit is freely available from God's love, first through Baptism then through the other sacraments, especially Confirmation and Confession whereby this grace is first strengthened and then renewed.

Our sins may cause our misery, but our love of God and adherence to His Will will allow His grace to cause our joy, and that joy will indeed be everlasting.

 

Collect for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
Omnipotens et misericors Deus, de cuius munere venit, ut tibi a fidelibus tuis digne et laudabiliter serviatur: tribue, quaesumus, nobis; ut ad promissiones tuas sine offensione curramus.

[My Translation: Almighty and Merciful God, from whose gift it cometh that thou mayest be served worthily and laudibly by thy faithful people: grant us, we beseech thee, that we may run toward thy promises without stumbling. Through Jesus Christ.]

Prayer book of 1549
ALMYGHTIE and mercyfull God, of whose onely gifte it cometh that thy faythfull people doe unto thee true and laudable service; graunte we beseche thee, that we may so runne to thy heavenly promises, that we faile not finally to attayne the same; through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

Reflection
St Paul reminds us that we run a race. We know where we are running from, and we know where we are running too. We also know that, as far as competition goes, we should try and out do each other in showing love. The prize is open to everyone.and sharing that prize does not diminish it, for the prize is God Himself.

The race we run is on a path cut out for us by the death of Our Lord.  It is the hole in the wall of our prison, the loosing of our chains and the drugging of the guards to our captivity to sin. The one, true and pervading sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the gift of freedom whereby in serving God we may indeed be truly free. Yet we must be aware that it is possible for us to fall over and stumble over the obstacles put in our way by the Malicious Malcontents who delight in watching those fleeing into the light fall over in the hope that they may be enticed back into captivity by the arduous nature of the race. After all, running is so much effort, why not sit in one's prison for Eternity rather than waste the energy.

We have the gift of God. It is light, life, sustenance, hope, comfort, and challenge all rolled into one. It takes effort in being Christian. It will be hard; it will be discouraging; it will be horrible, oppressive, and filled with hypocrisy, but these are the very stumbling blocks put in our way. If we fall, we fall, that's no problem for God for the pathway always remains open. We can only go back to where we were by our own desire. The enticements away from the Light are many but, by running in that Light, we wil see those stumbling blocks for what they are. We may get to Heaven with scraped knees and twisted ankles, but so what? We get to Heaven!

Adulthood, childishness and the Church

The trouble with babies is that they grow up - at least that's what parents often seem to say but probably don't actually mean. One minute, they are all cute and snuggly in Mummy's arms, the next they are throwing a strop about not being allowed out at ten o'clock at night dressed like THAT! It has to be expected that babies must grow into adults, and that it is the duty of parents that they help their children become fully functioning and well-adjusted adults. It would not do to allow children free-rein when living in society that is necessarily bound by social contracts and codes of conduct. Now would it do to stifle the individual humanity of the child by insisting on complete control of her life. A balance must be struck, and the needs of the child must be met along paths which allow that child to grow into adulthood. Ideally, we should want to nullify Philip Larkin's rather depressive view of parenthood.

Many psychologists regard the state of adulthood as being able to make autonomous objective appraisals of their situation and act according to that appraisal. What does this really mean? Essentially, adults have decisions to make in life. A child will look to his parents to make that decision for them; a mother will seek to make a decision on behalf of those for whom she feels responsible. For an adult, the decision is to be made autonomously, not deferring the responsibility for that decision onto another, nor claiming responsibility for other adults' decisions.

Any decision must be made on an objective basis. According to this type of psychology, adulthood is about ensuring that any decision is made along reasonable, rational and factual grounds. An adult researches into the decisions that need to be made and obtains facts before making a decision, A child relies on the research of the parent before it is guided into making any decision, but ultimately, the parent must make the decision based on what that parent believes to be the right moral decision. This is why it is no more wrong to bring up a child as Christian than it is to bring them up atheist or agnostic.

Isn't parenthood frightening? Yes, but it must be frightening when we consider that the decisions that we make affect our children. It's frightening because we love our children so much, Yet, a parent must allow the child the opportunity to become an adult in themselves. That's the goal of parenthood. Like teachers, parents must seek to make themselves redundant so that the children grow up autonomous and objective and able to make decisions well.

And this is where the Church comes in.

One reason that people give for rejecting God and Christianity, indeed perhaps all religion is their belief that it seeks to prevent its members from growing up. Obviously, Karl Marx is one of the philosophers who voiced that opinion carefully. For him, Religion prevented the workers from realising their true worth by pointing them to false hopes. Of course, he failed to show that the hopes were indeed false. However, one of the major obstacles to belief in God is the idea of submission of our wills to Him. These folk don't want to be treated like children with God, and particularly the Church, making the decisions on their behalf. 

Is belief in God really the loss of one's autonomy? Or does belief in God remove true objectivity when it comes to making the decisions that all adults make? An adult must be responsible for one's decisions, yet a God who says "do this or go to Hell" subverts the adulthood of the theist. While this is a stereotype of God, it is a stereotype that pervades and the Church must look to see that this stereotype is not sanctioned, but truly seeks the adulthood of its members.

No matter what atheists say, they have not shown that God does not exist, nor have they proved that belief in God is not rational. Indeed they cannot do so unless they engage in a committed reductio ad absurdam rather than the setting up of straw man arguments or appealing to the problem of evil which, while challenging our relationship with God does not demonstrate that He should not be worshipped. 

The agnostic doubts that knowledge about God's existence can ever be obtained, but the rational Christian must accept that knowledge of God's existence is not absolute in the minds of human beings and until we see Him face to face, we must wrestle a doubt which is not necessarily the enemy of the faith, but the salt which promotes self-examination. There are rational principles on which the existence of God can be based, but they can still be doubted. There are so many Christians who have arrived at their faith because they have been able to make an autonomous objective appraisal of the situation and conclude that God exists.

However, does this mean that, having arrived at belief in God, we now have to surrender our adulthood? It's true to say that, if we are Christian, then we do have to see God as our Creator and we must therefore surrender any idea that we are responsible for our existence. We have to see God as Our Father and recognise that He does indeed provide everything for us. Does this mean that we can no longer be adults, but be good little boys and girls and do what daddy tells us?

Here, the parable of the Prodigal Son helps.

A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat , and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost , and is found. And they began to be merry . 

Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant . And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out , and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again ; and was lost , and is found . (St Luke xv.11-end)

Look at the situation with regard to what we understand to be adulthood. Clearly, the father in this parable stands for God, and the sons the whole of humanity. At which point are they disallowed from acting autonomously? At which point are they disallowed from acting objectively? The prodigal son makes his decision on His own and is provided with all that he needs from his father's estate. The father allows this to happen even at the cost of half his belongings precisely so that the son can exercise his free decisions based on his own understanding and wants. It's the wrong decision, but the prodigal son learns his own lesson. The father's love for his son is not conditional on the son's exercise of his adulthood. Far from being a controlling parent, the father permits freedom and is ready to receive his son back to him, not to infantilise, but to be a son.

That's how God acts as Our Father. We just have to choose to come back when we realise that our lives are objectively better with God than they are without Him.

However, atheists always make very good points which is why the honest and noble atheist (such as Bertrand Russell and Stephen Law) should be heard seriously. Does the Church infantilise her flock. I really wish that I could say, "no she doesn't" but I would either be lying or very misguided and brainwashed. The Church infantilises when she seeks to control the faithful imposing sanctions for failing to adhere to Church teaching. As a priest, I can indeed expect censure and sanction for failing to teach what the Church teaches, and rightly so. I have promised in my vows of ordination to obey church teaching and observe my duty to be faithful to the Doctrine and Dogma of Holy Church. However, as the parable of the Prodigal Son shows, if God allows people to wander away, then so must I. My duty then becomes to call the errant back, to keep the lights on so that the errant can find their way home. I have no business proscribing any form of censure or sanction against my fellow sinners.

Of course, my office as priest means that I can hear people's confession and that means that, God has appointed me to listen to a penitent's "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son" and to pronounce the fact that God willingly receives back the truly penitent. Any "penance" that I "impose" is not a punishment but an exercise for the penitent to re-engage with the God with whom they have just been reconciled.

And yet, I am called, "Father". This would certainly suggest that my presence is to belittle my flock and put them in the place of children. Looking at some members of my congregation, I see two gentlemen who are old enough to be my father who have led colourful lives, and a working mother of no little commitment and no mean intelligence. Infantilising them would be a vile abuse of the sacrament that I have received from God to carry out His will. They may call me "Father" but it is not me they recognise, but the God whom they love.

Every time I am called "Father," it pulls me up short and even hurts me a little bit because I have such a great fatherhood to live up to, a fatherhood that I share with my brother priests. It would be truly infantilising if Bishops and Priests sought to seek the title of "Father" in order to receive obeisance. I am personally of the opinion that Clergy should keep right out of the political arena and shun all forms of power over other human beings. Thankfully, gone are the days of feudal obeisance to clergy.As far as this world is concerned, I am just a simple teacher. As far as the Church goes, I hold out the embrace of  God the Father in the Holy Sacraments that I am permitted to distribute to all who would receive them, As far as the next world goes, I stand out from the crowd only to receive harsher judgement for failing to shine the light of Christ to the world and for all whom I have misled through wrong teaching.

If the Church wishes to dispel the image of the infantilising god rejected rightly by so many, then she herself must seek to ensure that Her members exercise their God-given right to make their decisions autonomously and objectively, and then stand back and wait for the prodigal sons to return, She can learn much about life and the World from the prodigals and perhaps better advise Her children because of these lessons. This way, God's children can indeed grow healthily into God's adults while still remaining sons and daughters of God by His adoption and love.

Collect for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Latin Collect
OMNIPOTENS sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuæ et merita supplicum excedis et vota, effunde super nos misericordiam tuam, ut dimittas quæ conscientia metuit, et adjicias quæ oratio postulare non audet. Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.

[My translation: Almighty and Everlasting God, who exceedest both the merits and prayers of supplicants with the abundance of Thy pity, pour upon us Thy mercy that Thou wouldst pardon those things which consciences fear, and Thou wouldst increase those things which prayer doth not dare to ask. Through...]

Prayer book of 1662
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire, or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

Reflection
Archbishop Cranmer seeks to clarify the meaning of the Latin collect without losing the poetry of its expression. In this collect, we are faced with the great mysterious nature of God. This is a God whose presence strikes fear into the hearts of men, whose raw power renders Man's capabilities insignificant, and whose lifespan render's Man's existence a matter of milliseconds. This is a God who excels any capacity that Man possesses except the capacity to hate, for that is contrary to the existence of God.

In comparison with God, we are nothing, and yet the great mystery is revealed when this Divine Being, the Creator of the Universe, bends down to touch the lives of His Creation, bestowing worth, dignity, attention, and devotion liberally from His consideration. Faced with this, our consciences find themselves scurrying around, bringing out our deepest darkest fears, the secret sins,and the most ignoble and disgusting thoughts, all because we know full well that God knows the secrets of our hearts.

The trouble is that our fear strikes us dumb. Knowing that we cannot hide anything from God, we fear that what we need to ask of Him might be unacceptable, idiotic, or that, because we are habitual and unmitigated sinners, He is within His rights to refuse all our prayers. We might be able to gabble "give us this day our daily bread" but we do so disallowing our minds any purchase on what we have just prayed so that we don't anger God by asking unworthily.

While we are right to be afraid of what our sins have done to us, yet we should fear God more because He forgives sin. He is not out for our destruction - He is after our salvation and seeks our happiness. We might be afraid to ask, but God does not forbid us to ask. His answer might be "No" but it will be a "No" with the greatest Love and respect for the person He has created us to be. We pray on our knees but we can do so boldly, knowing that we will be heard by One Who seeks only our good.