Sex and Seduction

 The beheading of John the Baptiser

One Friday night, at choir practice, I happened to mention that I was going to be preaching about sex on Sunday.  One of the choir, who shall remain nameless, immediately responded "Oh No! I've been doing that all day!". After everyone had a good laugh, and the lady in question had a wonderful blush, she explained that what she meant was that the children at her school had been doing 'Personal and Social Development' all day - and that they had been learning about sex!

The story of the beheading of John the Baptist is one of the more gruesome stories in the Bible; gruesome not just because of the hideous notion of presenting a man's head on a platter - but, I think, even more so because of what it says about the power of seduction, and the allure of sex. 

Well, it certainly worked on Herod.  He paid no attention to the fact that the dancing girl was his niece and step-daughter. What he saw was an alluring young woman.  You can imagine him sighing and mooning over the girl. At the end of her dance, captivated by her beauty, and letting his guard down for a moment, he said, "Ask me for whatever you want, and I'll give it to you”

That was it - the girl rushed back to her mother who seems to have been a rather manipulative sort of person. She saw her chance to rid herself of the prophet, John, who had been a thorn in her side for a long time – especially condemning her marriage to her brother-in-law. "Ask him for the head of John the Baptist", she said.

And so, because he couldn't go back on his royal word in front of his guests, Herod reluctantly ordered John to be executed.  Herod had weakened. The power of the sexual urge is very strong. Throughout history, great men have often been brought down by it. Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Delilah. The ancient myths are laden with men who have gone to their deaths for beautiful women. Sex-starved sailors have often been lured to rocks because of the mere possibility of glimpsing a mermaid.

In our own time, marketing professionals know the power of seduction. We've all seen the perfume adverts, and the car commercials. At the darker end of seduction, some people get drawn into obsessions with sex...they give into their primal urges at all sorts of levels - from pornography, all the way down to the great evil of paedophilia.

We might well ask what this is all about. How has this sexual urge within us come to be so fundamental to us? Why is it so strong? If our picture of God is of one who designs the world with intricate care, what (we might wonder) is God doing when he makes us to be such powerfully sexual people?

Our sexuality is a gift from God, that enables us to connect with other people. When two people are in love, we are not at all surprised when one of them is able to sense at a deep level how the other is feeling.  But that ability to have compassion for others isn't just something which manifests itself in a couple’s relationship.  It is something that is in us all - waiting to be fanned into desire for one particular person, but always there, subliminally, in the way in which we feel, and love, and care for all people.

But, like all of God's gifts, our sexuality needs to be carefully and properly managed. Instead of being a force for love, care, compassion and commitment to others, it can be twisted into a morbid, self-satisfying desire for personal gratification. The Bible teaches us that we find our fullest expression of our humanity through loving God, and loving our neighbour. But when we start to seek our own gratification first - we get out of balance.  

Of course it isn't only sex that can seduce us. The world is full of many seductive temptations. We can be seduced into believing that wealth will make us happy, or that a new set of clothes, or that new car, will fullfil our deepest desire – even though we know, in our heads, that today’s precious purchase is tomorrow’s charity shop donation.  How can we stay in balance when so dances of the seven veils are being danced around us?

Jesus gave us a piece of advice that may can guide us. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). You see, the way we choose to spend our money, or our time, says a great deal about which seductions we have given in to.

Let's try a little exercise together. Let me invite you to think about what you spend your spare money on, after all the essential stuff. Then, ask yourself "what is the largest single expenditure that I make from my disposable income?".

Just think about that for a moment. What do you spend your spare cash on?  Is it life-affirming? Does it reflect your (and my) calling to be people who love God and love our neighbour? 

How does the amount you spend on that one item...or one luxury... compare to the amount of money you give to relieve poverty or sickness? Or for the work of God in this church?  "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

You can, of course, do precisely the same exercise with your time. We all have at least some spare time.  How much of it is used up doing things that are life-affirming and love-sharing?  And how much in things that we have been seduced into doing by marketing managers and television producers? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Please don't misunderstand me. I don't want you to leave here today feeling miserable and guilt-ridden! I simply want to invite us all, in the light of the story of Herodias' daughter, to become alert to the question "what am I seduced by?"  There are very few of us who are not, at one time or another, seduced by something.

Our task as people who are striving to be more like our creator is to recognises what seduces us...and then to learn from the story of Herod.  We are invited by Jesus to lay aside whatever our personal seduction may be, before it consumes us or leads us into real difficulty - as it did for Herod. Our task is to re-distribute our time, and our money, into spending and tasks that are life-affirming, and life-enhancing.  For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also.  Amen.

The Armour of God - the teachings of Jesus

 Readings:  Ephesians 6.10-20 (The Armour of God) & John 6.56-69 (The Words of Eternal Life).

As Bishop John reminded us, last week, today is the last time we will encounter John chapter six, for some time.  Next week, we return to Mark, who will be our guide during most of the time up until Advent.  I hope that over the last few weeks, you’ve gained some insight into John 6 – it’s a crucial chapter, especially in terms of understanding this service, this Holy Communion, or Eucharist – this ‘main event’ of the church’s week.  Rev’d Judy, Bishop John and I have tried to unpack it all for you, over the last three weeks.  I hope you’ve found it useful to hear our complementary perspectives, with our sometimes different emphases.

Today, we hear of how some of Jesus’ own disciples began to grumble about his teaching on eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  As Bishop John reminded us last week, this should not surprise us.  The drinking of blood was expressly forbidden by the Laws of Moses – and although Jesus was obviously speaking metaphorically, the text tells us that ‘when many of his disciples heard it, they said “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”’ A little later, the text says ‘because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him’.  These were members of the wider company of disciples – not the Twelve.  They were the ones who had witnessed Jesus’ great signs (as John calls them) like turning water into wine, and indeed the feeding of the 5000 men. 

Which, I think, is a cautionary tale to those who believe that performing signs and wonders are the key to recruiting new members to the church.  I’m sure we’ve all seen those promotions for healing crusades, with the promise of great miracles, speaking in tongues and all the rest.  Those who centre their ministry on such things labour under the false impression that if you can wow the crowd with super-natural tricks, and hyped-up emotion, you will bring new people into the Kingdom.  You may indeed bring along thousands of interested people, who are longing for some tangible sense of the Divine.  Healing crusades, as well as ‘holy sites’ like Lourdes, Fatima, and dare I say even lovely Walsingham, have long traded on being places where God might be somehow more tangible than in our own church, or our own front room.

But, as John 6 tells us, a faith that is built on following miracles, or visiting places of historic miracles, is likely to come under severe pressure when reality kicks in.  It is Simon Peter who leads us to the reality of the situation around Jesus, when asks him “Do you also wish to go away?”.  Simon replies “Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life!”

Simon sees what all those wider disciples could not.  He saw that following Jesus was not about following the miracle-worker – but about the hard graft of walking on what Jesus himself calls The Narrow Way to eternal life.  But what about Jesus own signs and wonders?  If his teaching was what really mattered, why all the miracles?  I find it helpful, personally, to think about them as Jesus being ‘unable to help himself’.  He knew that signs and wonders would not be sufficient to build deep and lasting faith into his followers.  That’s precisely why he rejected Satan’s temptations in the desert to turn stones into bread, or to launch himself off the temple roof.  But, although Jesus knew that, he just couldn’t help himself.  When he saw people in need, of food, of healing, even of being raised back to life, the Divine element of his nature just couldn’t resist.  He had to act – because he was driven by compassionate love.   

But it was not his miracles that would save the world.  It was his words, his teachings, his divine Word to the world (as John himself testifies in the introduction to his Gospel).  Simon Peter knew this – Jesus had the words of eternal life.  Peter knew that it was Jesus’ teaching he had to follow – symbolised by bread and wine, representing the blood and body of his Lord.  Feeding on Jesus means feeding on his Divine word. 

St Paul knew this too, as we saw in our first reading.  He knew that in order for the church to thrive, it had to defeat all the attacks on it which would come from the rulers of the world, and from the Great Metaphor of the Devil.  Writing from prison, as what he called ‘an ambassador in chains’ Paul encouraged his followers to focus on the teaching they had received from Jesus.  He dresses his teaching in the wonderful metaphor of the armour of God.  The belt of truth, and the breastplate of righteousness.  The shoes of the gospel, and the shield of faith (which we know, don’t we, means trust in the teachings of Jesus).  Then the helmet of salvation.  But let’s note, all these are pieces of protective armour.  Truth, righteousness, gospel, faith and salvation.  These are all core pieces of armour-plating against the evils of the world. 

But how shall we know what these things are, or what they mean?  How shall we know ‘what is truth’ as Pilate enquired?  How shall we know righteousness, faith and the true meaning of salvation?  Only by reference to the words, the teachings, of Jesus.  And this, we note, is the one piece of offensive weaponry in the armour of God.  Paul completes his metaphor of defensive armour with just one offensive weapon – ‘the sword of the Spirit – which is the word of God’. 

Because of this one chapter, and this one powerful metaphor, St Paul is often depicted holding a sword – indeed, he holds one in the south window of the chancel, here at St Faith’s.  A sword is also part of the Diocese of Portsmouth’s logo – pointing us, again, to the necessity of dwelling on, the living by, the teaching of Jesus. 

Any decent sermon should leave its hearers with a challenge.  So here’s one for us.  Let me ask you to consider how well you know the teachings of Jesus.  Other than hearing a portion of the gospel read in church on Sunday, how often do you, personally, engage with the words of eternal life flowing from his lips.  How often do you drink not just the symbol of his life-giving teaching through wine, but also drink in the life-changing wisdom of his actual words.  Maybe reading isn’t your thing – so then consider an audio-book of the Gospels.  Or check out my YouTube channel and watch my chapter-by-chapter reading of the Gospel of Luke. 

However you do it – please do it.  Soak yourself, day-by-day, in the life-giving words of eternal life of the one we call our Lord.  Amen.

What's a prophet?

 Readings: Ezekiel 36.23–28 & Matthew 22.1–14

What do you think of when I say the word prophet?  Perhaps you imagine John the Baptiser, railing in the dessert at the viper’s brood of religious leaders – dressed in sack-cloth, sticky with wild honey, and munching on a locust?

Or perhaps you think of Nostradamus, the seer of the middle ages, whose obscure prognostications seem to fit any number of modern situations.  Perhaps you think of Old Testament prophets, like Daniel, Isaiah, or Ezekiel (from whom we heard just now).  If you did, then you are at one with Jesus, this morning.

In his great parable of Matthew 22, Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven can be likened to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.  Jesus is using the metaphor of a wedding to describe the relationship which should exist between God, through Jesus, with the people of faith.  Throughout the New Testament, the church is often referred to as ‘the bride of Christ’…the symbolism is clear.  We are invited to be as united to God, in Christ, as a bride is united with her husband.  A close, loving, mutually-serving relationship.  But, says Jesus, the King of his story invited lots of wedding guests to this banquet.  These are all the people who believe themselves to be close to the wedding couple.  They are the ones who stand on the edge of faith – friendly towards it, but never quite committing fully.

To such people, the king sends his slaves, with an invitation.  For slaves, we should read ‘prophets’.  These are the people that God sends out with both an invitation and a warning to the people on the edge of faith.  Sadly, many such people will often find an excuse as to why they shouldn’t be fully committed to coming to the king’s banquet.  ‘Oh, I’ve got all these other duties to perform’, they say.  ‘I must tend to my farm, or my business.  Perhaps I’ll come along later’.

How many people do we know who are like that?  They are perhaps the kind of people for whom various leisure activities are the things they need to do on a Sunday morning, instead of taking a couple of hours to worship God and love his people together here?

Jesus tells us that such people cause the King to be enraged.  These people on the edge of the party, who never make it into the party, cause him to be furious.  I’m reminded of the prophet John, who in the book of Revelation writes to one the seven churches, saying, essentially, ‘I wish you would stop being so luke-warm!  Either be hot, or be cold – but this lukewarm religiosity of yours really irks me.  Choose!  Be either hot or cold.  But since you will not – I will spit you out of my mouth.’

The people on the edge of the banquet are not just lukewarm about the invitation – they actively attack the King’s slaves, even killing them.  These are the kind of people who attack prophets – the ones who sneer at wisdom, and tell holy people that they are idiots.  The Bible is full of such people, including those who attacked the greatest prophet of all, Jesus Christ, and nailed him to a cross.

So, what does the King do? Well, first of all, his mighty fury causes him to burn down the city of the lukewarm people on the edge of faith.  That’s a metaphor for the righteous anger that God has towards the lukewarm – just as in the book of Revelation.  It’s the kind of righteous anger displayed in the book of the prophet Micah, when God tells the people, effectively, ‘I hate all your festivals and religious observances - because they are hollow and meaningless – lukewarm faith. What I actually require of you is that you ‘do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.’

Next, he sends his prophets out to gather in the people who are not on the edge of faith – but far from it.  These are the rest of the world – the ones who never expected or even wanted to be invited to the life of faith.  These are the ones that we are called to reach too.  The ones for whom the dawning of faith will be a surprise, and a joy. 

But caution is required there too…says Jesus.  Wisdom is required to discern which of the new wedding guests are serious about coming to the banquet – and who therefore put on a wedding robe of righteousness, symbolised by the colour white.  But there’s always a risk of people coming to the feast who are not actually willing to commit – to put on the white wedding robe of true faith.  These are those people who, from time to time attach themselves to churches for their own purposes.  They might be child abusers, looking for an easy catch.  Or thieves, looking for the chance to steal a collection.  Or they might even be the senior lay person, who sits on a church committee, but who undermines every decision the church tries to make in the name of mission.  Or, the gossip, who uses the church as a place to get a thrill from sharing private information, because it gives them a sense of power.

Prophets, then, are not seers.  It is not the primary task of the prophet to look into the future – though some might attempt it, as a way of warning people of the consequences of their actions.  The prophet’s primary role is to call the lukewarm to repentence, and to true faith, and to call the outsider in.  Their role is to see the world as it is, and how it might be in the light of the Kingdom – and to look for ways to join those two ideas together.

And crucially, the prophet’s task is the task of the whole people of God.  You and I are the slaves in Jesus’ story.  We are also sent by the King to invite the lukewarm to become hot, and to draw the surprised outsider into faith.  May God grant us the strength and the vision to succeed in our task.  Amen

Responding to the Immigration Riots: You are what you eat

 Reading: John 6.35, 41-51

You are what eat – or so the saying goes.  Which if it’s true means that I am rapidly turning into a Greggs sausage roll, with a light frosting of white chocolate, hydrated by a delicious room temperature ale.

 ‘You are what you eat’ is supposed to encourage us to eat healthily, such as fruit, vegetables, something called couscous and other such things that I understand might be available to the general population.  Can’t say I’ve ever tried any.  But the idea is that if you eat healthily, your body will be healthy.  Well, my friends, I may not know much about healthy eating for the body, but I can tell you a little about healthy eating for the mind, and for the soul. 

When Jesus says that he is the bread of life – he’s inviting us to feed on his teachings, and on his wisdom.  It’s important that we understand this.  Too many Christians think that feeding on Jesus means making some kind of woo-woo spiritual connection with him, or stating their faith in certain theological statements about him.  Recently, we’ve experienced the shocking horror of people who claim to be Christians, and to be defending Christian Britain, terrorising their neighbours.

And of course, both kinds of people miss the point entirely.  Let’s look together at what Jesus himself says, from this morning’s Gospel reading (John 6.35,41-51).  Take a look at the middle of the reading, and start with the line ‘It is written in the prophets….(verse 45):

It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God”.  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life”.

Can you see what Jesus is driving at?  In answer to incredulous complaints from the Jews about his claim to be bread from heaven, Jesus points his listeners to necessity of learning from him, about God.  He reminds them of the Hebrew Bible’s promise that the people shall be taught by God…and here he is, God’s own Son, standing among them to teach them.  This is a theme taken up by other passages of Scripture, too, notably Matthew.  He records Jesus saying, “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me” (Matthew Chapter 11).  In Jesus time, students of a rabbi would take on their master’s yoke.  It was a metaphor – like being yoked to a plough, a student would yoke themselves to their Master’s teaching. 

We might then ask what does Jesus mean when he says ‘whoever believes has eternal life’?  Well, to answer that, we need to do a little Greek scholarship.  The word for ‘belief’, in Greek, is pisteuōn – which most Bible translators have rendered as ‘believe’.  But it can equally be rendered as ‘to trust’ or ‘to put one’s trust in’ someone or something.  The fact that many translators choose the word ‘belief’ says more about their own theology than it does the plain reading of the text in its context.  Jesus says this word, pisteuon, with his promise of eternal life, at the very end of his teaching about the necessity of being taught by God.  Do you get it?  Jesus is saying – learn from me, take my teachings seriously, trust in them – and you will have life that goes on for ever.  He saying, ‘I don’t want you to believe things about me – however clever the religious teachers are.  No…I want you to follow me, learn my teachings, and walk my path.

Which is why I get so frustrated – no, angry – when I see far right thugs misappropriating the word Christian either for themselves, or for their country.  Being a Christian has nothing to do with waving the flag of St George.  It certainly has nothing to do with beating up refugees, and setting fire to their hotels.  No-one who does such things has the right to use the term Christian.   

A Christian is the one who has taken the rabbi’s yoke upon their shoulders.  The Christian has heard, and learned, and applied the life-giving words of God, from the mouth of his Son.  The Christian is the one who has taken seriously the command to give away their spare tunic to the poor.  The Christian is the one who has not piled up excess wealth, and who does not dine on the finest food in their gilded palace while their brothers and sisters starve.  The Christian is the one who takes Jesus seriously when he says that the peacemakers are the blessed ones.

Crucially, for the recent events in our country, the Christian is the one who instinctively knows that the parable of the Good Samaritan is meant to teach us hospitality and care for all our neighbours.  By using the example of a Samaritan, Jesus leaves us in no doubt – he actively and deliberately means that we must care for our foreign neighbours.  Jesus builds on the Hebrew Bible, which has (by my count) nine specific teachings and commands from God about the way we should treat strangers and ‘aliens’.  Here’s just a selection:

“You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)

“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”  (Leviticus 19:34)

“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner…’  (Deuteronomy 27:19)

The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.  (Psalm 146:9)

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, …if you do not oppress the alien…or shed innocent blood in this place…then I will dwell with you in this place. (Jeremiah 7:5-7 - edited)

You shall allot [land] as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. (Ezekiel 47:22)

Thus says the Lord of hosts…do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor. (Zechariah 7:9-10 – edited)

Now, of course, I realise that translating these principles – this heavenly teaching - into policy is not easy to do.  I understand, of course, the pressures of excess migration on our housing and healthcare.  (And I could go on at some length about the policy choices which have led us to that point).  But I absolutely refute, deny, and will vigorously oppose anyone who claims to be Christian while calling for any treatment of others which is less than the treatment we ourselves would want and expect.  After all, what is the second of the great commandment, the second great command of our divine teacher and Lord, the one whose yoke we wear?  Love your neighbour as you love yourself! 

You are what you eat.  Feed on the word of Jesus Christ, and you will have life, and have it abundantly.  Amen