A meal of fish, lamb and bread.

Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

Seven loaves.

Oh, and a few small.fish.

Well they were a bit of an afterthought, weren't they? Is their presence significant?

Practically, we would expect fish to be on the menu. These folk are travelling with Our Lord from the Sea of Galilee. And of course, St Peter, St Andrew, St James and St John are all fishermen. It stands to reason that there are dried fish about for a snack.

But there aren't that many. In comparison with four thousand people, the number of fish is tiny. The miracle still holds. 

So why aren't there fish at the Last Supper? If fish are a common food, why doesn't Our Lord give us Himself under the appearance of fish? Why does He give Himself under the appearance of bread?

[PAUSE]

The first thing to note is that while Our Lord is feeding four thousand, He is not giving them communion. The miracle is purely practical: four thousand hungry souls require something to eat. At the Last Supper, Our Lord is in a completely different setting - a last meal with His friends to establish His Church through the covenant in His blood. The presence of the fish in the feeding of the four thousand shows us that Our Lord can take what He is given and use it to supply people's needs.

But the question still stands. Why give us His body and blood under the appearance of bread and wine?

[PAUSE]

As we see, fish are only really available in fishing communities. Bread, on the other hand, is universal, whether it be leavened or unleavened. This makes it easy for the Church to be universal and for the sacrament to be readily available.

But wouldn't it be more obvious if Our Lord used lamb in Eucharist rather than bread? Isn't He supposed to be the Paschal Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

Again, we run into the fact that bread is widely more available than any meat. It also has another property that fish or lamb don't: it can be broken and divided and still remain largely the same.

Those who don't believe in Our Lord's presence in the Eucharist often jeer at us when we receive communion.

"Well, which bit of Jesus are you eating there?

His arm? His big toe?"

They don't understand what they are saying, but they have just explained why Our Lord is umder the apoearance of bread - one wafer looks much like another. We aren't receiving a bit of Our Lord: each one of us receives His whole body, soul, mind and divinity - His full self!

Bread mediates that for us.

How He does it is as mysterious as the miracle of feeding four thousand people with five loaves and a few fish. We don't know how He does it. We know that He does it.

This may confound physics and metaphysics, but Our Lord shows us that as His body is broken for us, it doesn't make Him less. Rather it makes Him more present because He reaches more people.

Does that mean the Body of Christ can be divided?

[PAUSE]

Well, yes, insofar as it can reach more people who hunger for the love that He has for us, but no in that what each one of us receives is truly Him indivisible.

This is the paradox. This is the miracle.

Perhaps also we see how it is possible that there is One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and yet there be so many churches. The Body of Christ is divided to reach as many as will receive Him but is united in the One True Lord Jesus Christ to Whom be all honour, praise and glory forever!

The Continuity of Continuing Anglicanism

 

Why continuity is vitally important for what it means to be human.

How not to be angry?

Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

When people 

encounter the Christian Faith,

they usually very quickly

bring up the question of Hell

and what you can be 

punished for Eternally.

Can you go to Hell 

for using your neighbour's WiFi?

Can you go to Hell

for staring too long

at a naked dummy 

In a shop window?

Can you go to Hell 

for eating somebody else's 

cheese straws?

Can you go to Hell for emotions?

Can you go to Hell for...

Enough already!

[PAUSE]

There is an obsession

among non-Christians

and the Eternal flames.

Why?

The idea scares them.

Some say it isn't true

and deny the existence of Hell

or that Hell is eternal.

Some will become worried

that a single action

will lose their salvation.

An old Victorian belief

is that a dodgy potato

could send you to Hell

through indigestion.

It is ridiculous.

[PAUSE]

Our Eternal fate is based 

on how we grow in God.

When Our Lord shows us

the parable of the talents

He shows us that what matters

is the conscious effort 

that we put into our faith

that makes the value 

of the talent increase.

It isn't how we seek to grow in Christ

it's that we seek to grow in Christ.

We cast ourselves into Hell

for rejecting Christ

to the extent that we alter ourselves

in order that we cannot be saved.

If we refuse the Eternal medicine

then we shall be Eternally ill.

Hell is serious.

Deadly serious.

[PAUSE]

Yet Our Lord seems

to show us that what we do

can destine us for Hell.

If we are angry with our neighbour

without a cause

we will have to make an account

before the judge.

If we say to our neighbour, 

"Raca!" 

- "Empty head"!

an unthinking insult 

said in the heat of the moment

- will have to make an account 

before a full blown tribunal

of the supreme court.

If we call our neighbour, 

"you fool"

(the Greek word is

where we get our word, moron)

deliberately and wilfully,

filled with anger,

then we are destined for Hell!

These are the words of Christ,

and they make us

uncomfortable.

[PAUSE]

But we need understand 

what Hell is.

We say, 

"eternal separation from God".

Yet He is always near us,

whether we reject Him

or not.

In Hell, 

we reject any knowledge of God.

God is love

and anger leads to hate.

In Hell, 

we know only hate,

we will not know love,

even though God still loves us.

In Hell,

we make our own rules

because we reject God's authority.

In Hell

we judge by what 

we say is right,

because we reject God's goodness.

Imagine so many people together

for Eternity

all rejecting faith, hope, love, 

truth, order, generosity,

reason, common decency,

even health of body and soul,

because they know better than God.

This is why Hell 

is so mindnumbingly terrifying,

and anger born of hatred

leads us here.

[PAUSE]

So, if we're angry with someone,

we should leave our gift at the altar

and be reconciled?

No.

That's not what Our Lord tells us.

Hear His words:

"If thou bring thy gift to the altar,

and there rememberest 

that thy brother hath ought against thee,

leave there thy gift 

and go and be reconciled 

with thy brother..."

He's telling us

that if we think

someone is angry with us,

then it's our job

to be reconciled.

But that's backwards,

isn't it?

[PAUSE]

No. 

If we think someone

is in danger 

of going to Hell

because of their hatred of us,

we need to do something,

because that is what love does.

If we love our neighbour

as the Lord commands,

then we cannot simply

let them go to Hell.

We have to fight for them.

Our Lord wants us

to love those who hate us

because He does not want

anyone to end up in Hell,

and hatred leads to Hell.

Of course,

there is only so much

that we can do.

If someone is not willing

to give up hatred,

then we must draw a line

once we have done what we can.

But we remember

that all things are possible

with God.

This is why the Cross is so important.

Upon it,

Our Lord reconciles us

with God.

God hates our sins so much

that He would rather die

than just let us go to Hell.

As far as we can,

we live at peace with everyone.

When someone hurts us,

we forgive

and take the hit.

If we think we've hurt someone

we do what we can

to reconcile and repair.

Anger is an emotion.

We all feel it at times.

That's all it is,

so we treat it like an emotion

and not turn it into a way of life.

Anger is not a way of life.

Christ is.

Doctrinoclasm or Doctrinolatry?

What is the healthy attitude towards Church Teaching?

Dreadful Cathedrals

Sermon for the Anniversary of Consecration of the Cathedral of St Augustine of Canterbury

Some people step for the first time into this cathedral. They look around at its relics and ikons, the image of Our Lady of Walsingham, the altar with its coloured frontal, the friendly and warm congregation and clergy, and what do they say?

"How dreadful is this place!"

And what's your reaction?

Probably, "blooming cheek!" and you're probably wondering whether you are so cross at that, that you would consider even wasting a delicious after-Mass cheese scone by pelting them with it.

You would have to be incandescent with rage to do that.

And yet, "How dreadful is this place" are the first words of our Mass for the anniversary of our beloved cathedral.

Is it a dreadful place?

Should it be a dreadful place?

[PAUSE]

Of course, you know what to do when you want to understand something that doesn't sound right. We need to find it's context. It's the same procedure that Our Lord Himself uses upon the cross when He cries out, "My God, My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?"

We know it isn't the case that God has forsaken Our Lord, but rather we know that Our Lord is drawing everyone to Psalm 22 which prophesies His crucifixion and points to His resurrection.

The same is true here.

"How dreadful is this place?"

[PAUSE]

Where's it from? A quick search leads us to the famous passage of Jacob's ladder. Jacob is dreaming a dream and seeing angels ascending and descending a ladder. He is speaking with God Himself. And God is blessing Jacob, showing him His promise of a glorious inheritance.

And Jacob wakes and, as we see him try to come to grips with such a vivid dream, we hear him say, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not."

And we see how terrified he is as he says, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

He is awestruck because God is not a tame god who is all nice and cuddly and winks atvus when we are naughty and calls us, "Bro".

No. God is terrifying and His power can tear the universe to shreds, atom by atom. He is to be feared with that healthy fear that we might lose Him through our own sin and fallenness. We cannot be in His radiant presence with sin in our hearts, and even when Jacob, Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah see Him, He tones down His magnificence so that He can talk with them.

And He becomes incarnate so that we can still see God and be with Him despite our sin.

To see Him as He is will be terrifying but we remember that He is for us.

[PAUSE]

How dreadful is this place?

We love our cathedral, but is it dreadful?

Is it the house of God where people can be struck by His presence when they come in.

Oh, it needs to be warm and inviting. We want people to come in, but we want them to encounter the Living God. 

We have to remember that, even outside Mass, this building houses the centre of the universe In that tabernacle, veiled with fabric and metal, is Christ Himself, present to us right now. 

A Cathedral should be a place of awe, of quiet reverence and hushed tones. Not full of discos, golf courses and lego which distract from the true presence of God. But full of prayer, ikons, and the sacramental presence of the most Divine.

We see the cathedra, symbolic seat of the apostles who are witnesses of Christ and witnesses of us and who still operate through our bishops.

[PAUSE]

We love our cathedral because we have fought for a place where we can see angels ascending and descending from heaven and hear the word of God speak. We work to make this the house of God.

How dteadful is this place?

Can we ensure that it stays dreadful?

Colouring Chalcedon and Constantinople

 

Is it possible to begin reconciliation between the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Churches with a lick of paint?

The reality of judgement and condemnatiom

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Trinity

Have you noticed that one of the main objections to Christianity is that it is a list of dos and don’ts? People don’t like being told what to do. People especially do not like to be told “don’t do that!”

You can see why, can’t you? There are so many bits of conflicting advice and laws that we get confused, irritated and exhausted when all we want to do is get on with living life and finding some happiness in this rather strange world.

Our Lord also seems to get in the act. Be merciful. Don’t judge. Don’t condemn. Forgive. Give to others. How many times has someone said to you, “Jesus says not to judge. So you shouldn’t judge.”

Of course, we don’t take into account what Our Lord actually says.

“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned.”

We must judge whether something is evil and condemn it. If a man murders another to steal his watch, we are surely able to make the judgement, “that’s murder!” and then to condemn the man as a murderer. That is just and right.

However, if we condemn someone as lazy because they are unemployed then can we honestly say that our judgement is sound and our condemnation correct? We know full well, that Our Lord is telling us that the only judgements we can make are based on solid and full possession of the actual facts, not on our personal assumptions. Murder isn’t always easy to prove, but when the facts are considered – motive, evidence and opportunity – then we can make the judgement. There might be miscarriages of justice, but look at how they happen. Miscarriages of justice occur when there is information that is missing or distorted – a gap in what is real.

And that’s the point. If we judge others based upon our own criteria and our own assumptions rather than on what is real, then that is the only justice that will be available to us.

Look at the dos and don’ts that Our Lord gives us. They are not arbitrary.

We must not judge without expecting to be judged – we will judge our own selves by our own standards. We must not condemn – we will condemn our own selves by our own standards, and no-one can do anything about it. Judging others and condemning others can’t put things right. They can’t restore the balance. They can’t undo the wrong. They can’t bring people back to life. Judgement and condemnation are only means to an end. They aren’t ends in themselves.

If we condemn someone for being lazy, what do we expect to happen? Do we honestly expect the person to immediately find a 72 hour a week job? Our condemnation does nothing because condemnation has nothing to give to put the situation right. In the same way, judging someone doesn’t make that person right. Condemnation and judgment aren’t the end. They can only tell us that something is wrong, and what is wrong may be with us.

But look at what Our Lord does tell us to do.

Be merciful. Forgive. Give.

Why?

Because that’s exactly what God does.

God judges, yes, and judges minutely. We cannot escape God’s condemnation of any one of our sins or wrongdoings. But that isn’t where God stops. God judges so that He can put things right.

God is merciful when we sin and that makes is easier for us to be reconciled with Him. Likewise, if we are merciful, then it is easier for anyone who wrongs us to be reconciled with us. Mercy does something about sin and evil.

God forgives us when we sin. This robs sin of its hold over us and allows us to turn to Him, knowing that there is a way back to Him. Likewise, if we forgive, then we rob sin of its power both over the one who sins against us and also its power over us. Forgiveness does something about sin and evil.

God is generous to us and gives us what we need. This restores what is good. If we are generous, with God’s help, we can restore some goodness to the situation reducing the presence of sin and evil. Generosity does something about sin and evil.

St Paul points out to us that the Law is very good about telling us about what is right and wrong, but can do absolutely nothing about it. God’s grace however, can do something about what is right and wrong. This is why we Christians are not playing pick-and-choose with which Old Testament laws we follow. We follow the ritual and ceremonial laws only in accordance with what Christ does for us in His Life, Death and Resurrection. Circumcision is upgraded to Baptism. The Passover is upgraded to the Eucharist. We follow the moral laws because Christ ratifies them in the New Testament. Murder remains murder. Fornication remains fornication.

The difference is that Christ gives us His very self to help us deal both with murder and the anger that leads to murder, and to help us deal with adultery and the lust that leads to adultery. Mercy and forgiveness do not stop the necessary consequences of murder and adultery, but they point us to the God Who can and will make all things new in Heaven.

Murder can be undone by the Master of Life and Death. Adultery can be undone by the One Who reconciles all who love Him in Himself. But murder and adultery can ONLY be undone by the One Who has perfect knowledge and perfect power. This is why we imperfect creatures have forgiveness, mercy and generosity as ways of putting away sin and evil until God undoes them completely in the New Heaven and New Earth.

We learn what is right and wrong from God’s law and, by educating ourselves carefully, we grow in that knowledge. By exercising mercy, forgiveness and generosity, our judgement and condemnation of evil will bring forth a greater love for our neighbour and draw us all ever closer to the love of God.

 

Books, books, books!

 Two more for the library?

Conspiring with the enemy?

Sermon for the third Sunday after Trinity preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

It's Monday evening and, 

given the nice weather, 

you think you ought to go 

for an evening constitutional 

- a walk before bedtime.

As you pass through the town, 

the twilight deepens 

and the deep blue of the night sky 

darkens the roads and streets. 

As you turn the corner, 

in front of The Bishop's Finger 

- that's the name of the pub, 

and it's a dodgy old dive, too 

- you see your favourite priest 

talking and laughing with a woman.

What woman?

You know THAT woman 

- the one who "works at night"!

Well, what do you say 

next Sunday morning 

when you see your favourite priest 

all clad in his chasuable 

and looking holy? 

Would you sidle up to him and say, 

"I know who you were with, Monday night!" 

Or would you be on the phone to the bishop?

 Or would you interrupt the sermon 

to denounce him 

to all and sundry?

[PAUSE]

This is the trouble with the priesthood. 

Many people today seem to think 

that their priest must look 

beyond reproach in order 

to be beyond reproach. 

Absolutely a priest must not 

bring his office into disrepute, 

but that also means he must do 

what his office demands.

We see our blessed Lord 

talking with sinners 

- all the kinds of people 

you would want to steer clear of. 

You know the type of person: 

it may even be the person 

who has done you the greatest wrong. 

And Our Blessed Lord is standing there

chatting with them, 

laughing at their jokes, 

all as if these folk were 

as the angels in heaven. 

The very people that you think 

stand arm in arm with the Devil himself 

are enjoying the company of God.

[PAUSE]

We know Our Lord to be beyond reproach, 

but there is a sense of 

"whose side are you on, Lord?"

But then we think, whose side are we on? 

Who gets to pick the teams?

We know the message of the Gospel. 

We know the meaning of the parables. 

But still, we have to face the fact that 

there will be in Heaven 

people who on earth 

showed really dubious morals, 

who committed grave sins, 

who hurt many people. 

Worse, they may get into Heaven 

ahead of us!

[PAUSE]

This is the scandal of Salvation. 

It is open to everyone. 

Our Lord created each one of us, 

saint and sinner, 

and He seeks 

to save each one of us, 

saint and sinner. 

And it doesn't matter 

if you have murdered millions!

If you come to Christ 

and repent of your sins, 

if you are baptised 

and eat of the Bread of Life, 

if you long to love God 

with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

- you shall be saved. 

There is no doubt.

So the murderer of millions can be saved?

Yes.

But he murdered millions. 

What about justice?

That depends on what you think salvation is.

[PAUSE]

If you think salvation 

is an escape from Hell,

or a "get out of jail free" card, 

then there does seem to be an injustice. 

If a murderer gets the same 

"get out of Hell" card as we do, 

where's his accountability.

But what if salvation and justice 

are about making things right? 

What if they are about healing wounds? 

What if they are about being made perfect?

Well, then, 

in order to be made perfect, 

we must turn and 

see what we have done. 

And, if we are being made perfect, 

if we see what 

Our Lord sees 

of what we have done, 

then that will hurt a lot. 

It will be because we start loving 

the same way that He loves 

that will hurt.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord sees 

not taxcollecters and prostitutes, 

not sinners, 

but the people He created 

who have fallen 

and who come to Him 

knowing that there is something wrong, something that needs to be put right 

and that only He can help.

And that's the attitude 

that we should all have. 

Yes, there are people 

who we could never associate with. 

That's because we are not perfect. 

But, as we grow in perfection, 

the more we reflect Our Lord 

and the more that people will see in us 

the opportunity for true health 

and true happiness. 

If we are seen talking 

with people of dubious reputation, 

then let it be because 

God has found His lost sheep 

and is using us 

to bring them home 

to health, happiness and Heaven.

Anglican Catholics and the Sacred Heart

 

How Anglican is the Sacred Heart?

Settling for Poverty

Sermon for the second Sunday after Trinity

There are so many decisions in life.

When you start your day, you have to decide what to wear, whether you have time for breakfast, what to eat for breakfast, whether you’re going to take a chance on those eggs that might be past their best.

You have to decide on how you spend your day, what tasks you have to complete first, whether you need to contact that person, whether you need to pop out for some peptobismol on account of those eggs.

Every day, we are having to decide between all kinds of possibilities.

How do you make your decisions?

[PAUSE]

You receive an invitation to dinner from someone you’ve vaguely heard of. Do you decide to go?

Well, clearly, you have to weigh up your options, but you do so based on a series of value judgements. You have just bought that piece of land on which you are hoping to build a new home for you and the family. You have a new wife and want to spend more time with her. You’ve just got that new car and want to give it a spin. And you have this invitation to dinner from this bloke you’ve barely heard of.

The decision you have to make is based on what you know and what you don’t. You have the things that you know – the new car, the piece of land and the new wife. You’ve been involved in these decisions and you roughly know what you’re getting with each of them, but this dinner invitation is out of the blue and you simply don’t know what to expect. With the restaurants you’re used to, you know the food you’re getting, but while this chap could have a Michelin rated chef, he could also have ordered a bargain bucket from KFC. You know your new wife, but this chap you don’t. He could be a sparkling raconteur like Kenneth Williams or Sir Peter Ustinov, or he could be more dull and irritating than the chap who wants to know your favourite humming noise. You have a decision to weigh up.

[PAUSE]

Seen from this side of the parable, we don’t really find the actions of those who refuse the invitation to dinner all that unreasonable. They have better things to do, and this dinner invitation doesn’t really enter their lives. Indeed, the people who do accept the invitation are those whose lives make an impromptu invitation very appealing. They have nothing better in their lives and so what reason do they have to refuse. A dinner invitation beats sitting there with all your aches and pains in all your poverty.

And so this feast, this dinner is populated by people whose lives have been brightened by being invited. They are truly grateful and receive something wonderful. That does beg the question: why weren’t these invited in the first place?

[PAUSE]

Clearly, Our Lord is making a contrast between people who have everything and those who have nothing. It’s not really a question about when people get invited but rather a question of who accepts the invitation. Those who reject it do so on the belief that what they have is better than this invitation to a feast. Those who accept it do so on the basis that this feast offers more to them than their lives do.

The question Our Lord is asking us is, what does this invitation to a feast offer you above what you already have?

To those who are content with this life, this feast offers nothing. To those who recognise the poverty of their lives, this feast makes a welcome opportunity for true joy.

While there is so much in this world that is good – and, let’s be fair, new land, new cars and new wives are good – their goodness depends on something greater. The newness fades. The novelty wears off. The land gets built on, the car gets old, the marriage becomes customary. Even in earthly prosperity, there is poverty and people never really see it unless they accept the evidence of this life.

We Christians recognise that anything that is good in this life is good because God made it good. His feast of goodness is taking place now and while it touches the things we have, it is God Himself Who presents to us Himself as the only true good. Only He is good in Himself, everything else is a pale reflection of Him.

We accept His invitation to the feast when we start looking beyond the enjoyable things of a life without Him. God can bless us with a new car, but that car can be taken away. God can and does bless a marriage, but relationships can falter and people don’t last forever. What is lasting for us is the invitation that we have to enjoy God. That’s not just an invitation to a feast after this life – it’s an invitation to a feast that is available to us now. While the Mass is part of that feast, it is the presence of God in our lives that is cultivated by word and sacrament, and it is this presence, this grace, that is the feast to which we are invited. It is a feast that is happening right now, because God is with us right now.

[PAUSE]

The danger we face, particularly in the West, is a false contentment. We are tempted to settle for a life that makes us comfortably numb to what is truly meaningful. We are not to put our trust in things that pass away but rather look through them to the God Who gives them to us and to enjoy a feast that comes with gratitude and humility. We recognise our poverty, all that we lack, our moral disability, moral blindness, moral lameness, and we accept the invitation to a feast that will open our eyes, strengthen our limbs and set us truly aright with God.

Anglican Catholic Aliens?

 

Is there life on other planets?

Lining up for communion?

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi

You know what the Lord says, don’t you? “This is my body. This is my blood.” Yet, when you come up for communion, you still can’t get away from the fact that you are given a small white disc that tastes like rather papery bread, and a sip of some red fluid that tastes remarkably like wine.

Let us suppose that you are shown into a room in which are a line-up of ten wafers and ten chalices of wine. You are told that one of the wafers and one of the chalices have been consecrated at a Mass. Would you be able to pick out the Body and Blood of Christ from that which is not?

Well, why not?

Does that not bother you?

[PAUSE]

For some, the question doesn’t matter. They will say that the wafer and wine are only the body and blood to the person who believes that when they receive them, otherwise they are just wafer and wine and nothing else. To them, the fact that one of the wafers and the chalices have been consecrated means nothing – none of them are the Body and Blood.

If that’s true, then what is the point of consecration? What’s the point of the Mass if we only receive the Body and Blood of Christ as a result of our personal faith? How can there be communion with the person next to us at the altar rail if we believe that we receive Christ, but they might be suffering from a crippling doubt?

If we receive the Body and Blood only by virtue of our own personal faith, then we could never know with whom we are in communion within the same Mass. Indeed, if the Body and Blood are only present subjectively, then how do we know that we are all receiving the same Body and Blood? It’s Body and Blood in name only. There’s nothing substantial.

So much for a sacrament of unity. We are only united insofar as we say we are.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord says more than that, though. We must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood to have life within us. At the Last Supper, the Disciples are receiving that flesh and blood even though Our Lord is sitting there distributing it. Oh yes, it’s a mystery, but think of the feeding of the Five Thousand. We don’t know how it is done. We only know that it is done.

There, at the Last Supper, there can be no doubt that the Disciples are all receiving the same thing in the same way from the same person, and it is this that they are commanded to do in remembrance of Him so that all might receive the same flesh and the same blood of the same person that these Disciples themselves receive.

We all receive the same body and blood, stretching back to that one event. This is why Our Lord calls Himself the true vine, because we are all receiving the same nourishment from Him in the same way throughout History. Along these branches that spring from Our Lord, we grow and pass on so that we become united in one in His flesh so that we can become one in His Divinity.

What you receive is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, objectively, really, truly and fully – body, blood, soul and divinity!

[PAUSE]

But at that line-up of wafers and chalices, which do you pick?

They all look the same. The unconsecrated looks like the consecrated.

That’s true. We do not perceive the Body and Blood physically, but only spiritually through faith. The sacrament is not for the eyes of our body, but for the eyes of the soul. We all receive the same thing, but that same thing enters into us at the deepest levels to make us whole where we need to be made whole. This is the point: we are united in what we actually receive, but once it enters into us it fits us better for Heaven.

This is our communion with Our Lord and with the Church. It is not made on the basis of who we are, but on the basis of Who Christ Is.

[PAUSE]

So which wafer and which chalice do we pick?

None of them.

If the wafer and the chalice were truly consecrated, then they would be in a Church safely guarded and revered and not permitted to be subjected to silly experiments like this.

We cannot play games with the King of Heaven. We cannot put Our Lord to the test.

If He is truly present under the appearance of wafer and wine, then He is to be worshipped with reverence and love. If a mouse eats a crumb from a consecrated wafer, then it consumes Christ, but what does this say about the reverence for His presence if this is allowed to happen?

This is why we have all the elaborate ceremony. We need corporals to catch any crumbs. We need the ciborium to carry the wafers. We need the priest to hold his fingers together after touching the consecrated host in order to prevent any particles from falling. We need the chalice to be thoroughly cleansed after communion to ensure that all the Body and Blood of Christ is truly consumed.

[PAUSE]

So what do you do at the line up?

Walk out and pray for those who created this line-up. They are in dire need of the nourishment that only Christ will provide for His Church.

 

Anglican Catholicism and the Undivided Church

But there has never been a time when the Church has been undivided, has there?

But there has never been a time when the Church has been undivided, has there?

Riddle me, Trinity

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on Trinity Sunday

Tubbo the clown

has a riddle for you.

With his best W.C. Fields impression,

he shows you four grapes 

and asks if you can arrange

all four grapes

so that they are all 

3 inches apart,

one from another

- all the same distance

one from another.

Sally thinks she knows 

the answer.

She is the school swot

after all.

She arranges them into a square.

Tubbo points out

that the grapes opposite each other

are over an inch further away 

than the grapes they are next to.

Kyle makes three of them 

into a triangle 

and puts the fourth in the middle.

Tubbo shows Kyle

that the grape in the middle

is closer than three inches

to the other three grapes.

Can it be done?

What's the answer?

[PAUSE]

Nicodemus has a riddle for you.

Jesus is telling him

that he has to be born again.

Nicodemus asks,

"can a man enter a second time

into his mother's womb?"

What's the answer?

How can you be born again?

And just what do all these riddles

have to do with Trinity Sunday?

[PAUSE]

Almughty God has a riddle for you.

One God.

Three Persons.

Each Person is God.

All Persons are distinct.

How is it done?

It boggles the brain.

Every time we see Jesus,

we see God.

 But the Father is God,

so is Jesus the Father?

No!

He's the Son

and the Father and the Son

can't be the same.

A son can't be the same person

as his father.

By now,

Some brains have given up,

and the sanctuary carpet

is providing greater relief

and making more spiritual sense.

 But, be of good cheer.

Surely,

the fact that you don't know

what's going on

makes you realise

that you believe in a God

who is incomprehensible

to the minds of men combined.

Everything  

every concept,

every degree of inifinity,

that this universe contains

is minuscule to God.

[PAUSE]

Let's face it.

We can't even understand ourselves.

We are a riddle to ourselves.

We are all bundles 

of contradictions,

even to ourselves.

We want to do what's good,

but we do what's bad instead.

We know we mustn't say that thing,

but we say the thing.

We know it's not kind to smirk

at Sally for getting the riddle wrong

but we smirk at Sally

for getting the riddle wrong.

We don't understand ourselves.

We don't know the answer

to the riddle that is us.

How do we expect to understand 

The Trinity?

[PAUSE]

We need help from above.

We need help from above

to figure us out,

to make us better,

to renew and refresh minds

clouded with sin

and contradiction,

self-loathing and self-promotion.

We need the one from above.

And we have Him.

And He says,

"you must be born again."

Except He doesn't.

And this is where Nicodemus 

gets confused.

You see,

Our Lord and Nicodemus

are conversing in Greek.

And the Greek word for "again: 

is the same as the Greek word for

"from above."

Nicodemus hears "born again"

Our Lord says, "from above."

Our Lord is saying

that we need Creation, Redemption

and Sanctification

in order to receive Salvation.

To be born from above,

is to be born of

water and the Spirit

- Baptism.

And Our Lord explicitly commands us

to be baptised

in the Name of 

the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

We are baptised,

born from above

through the one God

in three Persons.

It doesn't matter if it confuses us.

We rejoice in the confusion

because, quite frankly,

it makes more sense

than this chaotic and fallen world.

[PAUSE]

Nicodemus' riddle points us

beyond our world

to the Truth.

That's the God we embrace,

even if it doesn't give us

an easy answer to the riddle.

And what about our own riddle?

God knows the answer for that!

Yes.

God knows the answer for that.

Poltergeists and personhood

Why the questions raised by paranormal activity affect what it means to be human.

Shout out to @AndyCroftsofficial at the Terror Cellar. 

https://www.instagram.com/theterrorcellarpodcast/

Why the questions raised by paranormal activity affect what it means to be human.

Shout out to @AndyCroftsofficial at the Terror Cellar.

https://www.instagram.com/theterrorcellarpodcast/

Will the real Holy Spirit please stand up?

Sermon for Whitsunday

How many Holy Ghosts are there?

"One!" you cry

loud and clear.

Why is then,

that in the first five chapters

of the Revelation,

St John talks about 

"The Seven Spirits of God"?

Have we got it wrong?

Is there not a Trinity 

but an Ennead

- nine persons in one substance?

[PAUSE]

Of courss,

the Church tells us 

that there is One Holy Ghost.

And how do we know 

that we've got that right?

Our Lord tells us

that He will send us

THE Spirit of Truth.

The same Person

Who declares that 

He is the Truth

declares that He will send

THE Spirit of Truth

- His Spirit.

The trouble with the word "Spirit"

Is that it has so many uses

and nuances in Holy Scripture.

There are more than five hundred

mentions of the word "spirit" 

in Holy Scripture:

some are not good at all;

some seem to be abstract;

some seem to be related with God;

and some refer to the Holy Ghost Himself.

We use the word "spirit"

in different ways too.

We talk of "school spirit",

"the spirit of the law"

"spirit of the game"

as well as the spirits of people.

All of these point to something

present but not visible,

some essence 

but not easy to put into words,

sonething that exists

perceptible 

but on the very edge

of our perception.

The Holy Ghost is not easy to grasp.

Why? 

Because we are physical beings

and the lusts of our flesh

for food, money, sex and power

blind us to the truth of the Spirit.

To know the Spirit,

we need to know the Truth,

and the Truth is Jesus.

We know the Holy Ghost

because Our Lord makes Him known.

In fact, even before His birth

in Bethlehem,

Our Lord makes the Spirit known

as He spake through His prophets.

And one of those prophets is Isaiah!

[PAUSE]

"And there shall come forth 

a rod out of the stem of Jesse, 

and a Branch shall grow 

out of his roots:

And the spirit of the LORD 

shall rest upon him, 

the spirit of wisdom and understanding, 

the spirit of counsel and might, 

the spirit of knowledge 

and of the fear of the LORD;"

Hang on there!

The Spirit of the Lord.

The Spirit of Wisdom.

The Spirit of Understanding.

The Spirit of Counsel.

The Spirit of Might.

The Spirit of Knowledge.

The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord.

Seven Spirits.

The Seven Spirits of God

which St John sees 

in his Revelation.

One Holy Ghost

complete in the seven ways

in which He presents Himself.

Not for nothing does St John

tell us to test all these 

different spirits we encounter.

Many spirits do not come from God.

But the Holy Ghost 

wants us to know Him.

And He wants to be known

in union with Father and the Son.

This is why the Holy Ghost

will always announce 

and confirm Our Lord's Incarnation.

The Holy Spirit will always,

ALWAYS

declare our salvation

in the Life, Death and Resurrection

of our God and Lord Jesus Christ

for the simple reason

that it is God,

Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Who wants every one of us saved.

A spirit that does not want our salvation,

will not preach our salvation.

The Holy Ghost comes to us

because of our salvation.

[PAUSE]

Spirits confuse us

because they exist

right on the edges

of our perception,

but the Holy Ghost

will not let us be confused.

There is only one Holy Ghost

because Our Lord says so,

and when we are confused

by the different spirits in the air,

He will always bring us back

by presenting us with Our Lord,

and His Truth.

We are saved in Christ

and the Holy Spirit will never hide it

because He rejoices in telling us.

Anglican Catholicism and the Priesthood of all Believers

 

Is every Christian a priest? Are they formed or made?

Lambs to the slaughter?

Sermon for the Sunday after Ascension

There's a knock at your door.

It's your best friend

who says

"I've got a wonderful gift for you.

It's truly wonderful,

superb,

glorious.

And because of it,

you'll be skinned alive

and set on fire."

Hooray(!) 

What a lovely gift(!)

You really shouldn't have (!)

No, you really shouldn't have.

[PAUSE]

To be fair, 

Our Lord doesn't make

the descent of the Holy Ghost

that attractive.

The Holy Ghost

means rejection,

scorn,

mocking and death.

And all who put the disciples to death

will be thought to be

doing the world a favour.

It's clear that the world

doesn't want Christians.

It doesn't want Our Lord.

It doesn't want some crackpot idea

of salvation from a "Sky Daddy!"

And why not?

Because to receive Christ

is to say

that the world is not good enough

on its own.

To receive Christ

is to say that the standards of the world

fall short of what is good.

To receive Christ 

is to say that there is a better way of life

which is free from the control

of society, government and country.

Christianity is a rebellion

against the status quo.

Is all this the Holy Ghost's fault?

No!

But as a result of receiving the Holy Ghost

all the Apostles suffer for their faith

and nearly all of them die

in terrible circumstances.

If you were told 

you would be skinned alive

if you received the Holy Ghost,

would you receive Him?

[PAUSE]

What a terrible question!

Really, a terrible question.

It forces us

to face the fact

that our faith is limited,

that it is conditional,

that we could fall away

out of sheer fear of the consequences.

We have to realise

that we are fragile

especially in the face of our

deepest, darkest fear.

But here's the thing...

[PAUSE]

The Apostles show us

that it can be done.

And it is the Holy Ghost

Who strengthens them 

through their ordeals.

It is people like them

and like St Ignatius of Antioch

who begs not to be released 

from martyrdom

but would rather 

feel the teeth of the lions

than deviate from Christ.

They remain steadfast 

knowing that

whatever they suffer now

they will receive more than enough

recompense

to make their suffering worthwhile.

But their fate

isn't necessarily our fate.

Our Lord tells us

that we do not each

have the same amount of faith

we just have to live the faith we have

within the circumstances

in which our faith will grow.

But our faith will only grow

when it is challenged by the world.

We only learn to trust God

in those situations when

we need to trust Him

rather than capitulate

to the demands of the world.

This is why cooperating

with the grace of God 

is so vital,

because we cooperate

in the face of tribulation,

and in that tribulation

however big,

however small,

our faith grows,

and our love grows.

It doesn't matter how limited

our faith in God is.

It doesn't matter how limited

our love for God is.

It is just that we choose

of our own free will

to let faith, hope and love

grow in us 

for as long as it takes.

We choose to work out our salvation

with fear and trembling

knowing that the Spirit of God

is working within us

and making us able

to stand up to the bullying

of a world that does hate us

and wants to tear the Holy Spirit from us

in a fit of jealousy and spite.

[PAUSE]

Martyrdom will come to those few

who allow the Lord to prepare them

for that task.

We will have our own troubles,

agonies and tribulations

but we face them

with the faith

that the Holy Ghost gives us 

for the task.

We will not be left alone

in pain,

but we can trust God

to turn our occasions

of suffering for His sake

into joys that words fail to describe

in any meangful sense.

[PAUSE]

You are being offered a gift

so precious,

so beautiful,

so eternally rewarding

that the world is jealous of it.

Will you allow the world

to take it from you?

Is there an Anglican Catholic Philosophy

 

Can there be unity in different Christian philosophies?