Everybody Loves a Wedding

Matthew 22:1-14

Everybody loves a wedding.  And one of my biggest regrets about my recent convalescence is that I missed the wedding of the year, here at St Mark's!  I really enjoyed seeing the photos that Yvonne showed me last week...especially the Bridesmaid's dresses.  I didn't know there was such a colour as Cadbury's Purple...but I want a waistcoat made of it now!

Weddings are a big theme in the Bible.  According to John's gospel, it was at a wedding in Cana that Jesus first demonstrated his power, publicly, by turning water into wine.  Weddings are often used as metaphors for the relationship between God and his people.  In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Jesus is described as a bridegroom who longs to be married to his bride, the Church.  Jesus used the same wedding metaphor on a few occasions, including the famous story of the 10 virgins who await the coming of the bridegroom, with various degrees of readiness.

But in today's parable, there is real sting in the tail.  Jesus tells a striking and somewhat troubling story in which all the invited guests to a wedding banquet refuse to come, at the last minute.  So the King (who is the host) rounds up a rag-tag gang of street people, who suddenly find themselves at a party they had never dreamed of attending.  Then, when King enters the wedding hall, he finds a man who has not put on a wedding robe, who finds himself thrown into the outer darkness 'where there is weeping and knashing of teeth'.

Many of Jesus' parables are aimed at the rich and the powerful...but this one is aimed full-square at us.  There are dire warnings at play here...warnings which we need to hear.  Before they end up refusing his invitation, the original guests receive invites from two sets of the King's servants.  Jesus' hearers would have understood that he was referring to the prophets, and then the Christian missionaries that God had sent out with the good news of the invitation.  

In Jesus metaphor, some invited guests go to work on their farm, others to their business.  Each of us should let Jesus' metaphors speak to our own imaginations.  But for me, these are the people who put their need to accumulate wealth over and above their duty to the community that they are called to belong to.  Instead of taking part in the wedding feast, they are too busy making money and feathering their nest.

Most of you will know by now that I bought myself a second-hand caravan during my convalescence.  My plan is that from time to time I'm going to slip away from the parish and spend a few days in peace and quietness, and get some serious walking done!  A couple of weeks ago, Clare and I sited our caravan in the Chichester harbour area.  I have to tell you...it's been a long time since I've been in a place that has so much wealth on display.  Much of my ministry of the last few years has been either in North End or Ghana, where I mainly see people who are just managing to get from day to day, with very little wealth or luxury.  But in the Chichester Harbour area, we could not believe the wealth that we saw - only half an hour from North End.  House after house that we passed had high walls, manicured lawns and enormous numbers of rooms.  The harbour itself is packed with yachts and expensive motor-boats...almost too many for other boats to be able to make their way up and down the water-ways!  It's a beautiful area - and I don't blame anyone for wanting to live in such a place.  But I have to wonder at the priorities of the people who live in these vast mansions, and who own such luxury.

Who are these people?  Well, of course some of them will be those who have inherited the houses they live in from previous generations, and who no doubt struggle to keep them going.  But others - and I suspect this means the majority - will be those who have managed to accumulate sufficient wealth in their life-time to be able to afford such luxury.  But here's what troubles me... one only accumulates that kind of wealth by deliberately and persistently keeping as much earned income as possible to oneself.  Such wealth is made by lawyers, bankers, investment managers, and high flying business-people.  Sometimes it’s made by media-stars or football players.  Sometimes it is simply inherited.  Most of it, for most rich people, is made by luck - the luck of being born into wealth, or having been in the right place at the right time when a lot of money was being made, or when the right jobs in the right businesses were being handed out.

What distinguishes these people from the rest of humanity is what they choose to do with their wealth.  There are some people who make millions, only to give it all away - or at least enough of it to make a huge difference, while still affording a reasonable and comfortable living for themselves.  And there are others who hold onto it, knowing full well the voices of the prophets.  They know that billions are starving.  They know that, according to recent figures, more than 2.7 billion people live on less than two dollars a day.  And yet, they do nothing.  Oh, perhaps they write the odd little cheque to charity...especially if it can be written off against their tax bill...

But these are the people who are able to justify to themselves the ownership of multiple houses, enormous yachts and other expensive toys, while eighty per cent of the world lives in squalor.  These are the people who have been invited to the great sharing of the wedding banquet...but who choose to go back to their farm, or to tend to their business.  They are not evil people as such...most of them are lovely folks who one could spend a very pleasant time with over a gin and tonic on the deck of their yacht.  They are the 'Great Mis-guided'...the ones who have missed the point of life.  They are the ones who mistakenly, but genuinely believe that the only real purpose in life is to be the one who dies owning the most toys.  As I drove around Chichester Harbour, I found that I felt profound pity for these people.

There's another group of invitees who are even worse, though.  There are those who, according to Jesus' parable, who seized the King's servants, and then 'mistreated and killed them'.  These are the people who deliberately seek to destroy the work of the King.  These are the ones, like the mad mullahs of ISIS, who are systematically killing Christians at the moment in Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan.  These are the arms manufacturers who deliberately foment war, all around the world, in order to make as much profit as possible out of death.  These are the makers and distributors of illegal drugs on the streets of our cities, who trade deliberately on the addiction and misery of others.  They are the owners of banking institutions, like Wonga, who charge stratospheric interest rates to the poorest and most desperate people in our community.  There is, frankly, no hope for such people - unless they repent of their ways and turn to the King.  Their fate, in Jesus words, is to be ultimately destroyed.  They will not survive the coming of the Kingdom.  They are doomed.

So if these are the people who have ignored the wedding invitation (or who even have killed the Kings servants) who are the guests who actually end up at the wedding?  It is the rest of humanity - both bad and good, according to Jesus, who find themselves there.  God's love for humanity is total.  He invites all - the bad and the good - to the wedding feast.  He wants all his children to be present - and to each one who will accept it, he offers a new set of clothes...what Jesus calls a 'wedding robe'.

Even today, we still understand the value of new clothes for significant moments in life, don't we,  For Yvonne and Neil, it was Cadbury-Purple bridesmaids' dresses, and a beautiful new dress for Yvonne.  For Neil it was a very smart penguin suit!  At baptisms, more often than not, parents will often buy brand new christening gowns for the children.  This harks back to the days of the early church, when those being baptised would cast aside their old clothes at the moment of baptism, and would then be clothed in a brand new white robe as they emerged from the water.  It was a visible sign of the new life that the convert had taken on...the new community to which they now belonged.

But when the King arrives, according to Jesus, there is one guest who is not wearing the new robe.  "Friend," says the King, "how did you get in here without a wedding robe?".  And when the man cannot give an explanation, the King's punishment is harsh.  "Bind him, hand and foot", says the King, "and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth".

Finally, then, this is where we need to be the most cautious.  For this section of the story is aimed as a loving but sincere warning, straight at us.  This man, without a robe, represents those people who think that the only thing they need to do to be considered guest at the wedding, is to turn up.  This is the kind of person who regularly comes to church.  They sing the hymns, and take part in the rotas.  They might even sit on a church committee.  They might  even wear a clerical collar and be called ''Reverend'!  But all this is just for show.  Deep down, within their hearts, they have not put on the wedding garment.  Deep down, nothing has changed.

This is the person who recites the Lord's Prayer, but who says in their heart 'I will make sure I get myself my daily bread'.  This is the person who says 'we forgive others their trespasses' but who still nurtures hatred and resentment towards another person.  This is the person who publicly offers to be a living sacrifice, at the end of every Communion service, but who makes no effort during the rest of the week to pour out their life in sacrifice to others.

This parable then speaks to the whole of humanity.  It is a warning to the 'Great Mis-Guided', who would rather tend to their business than come to the feast.  It is a warning to most evil people of humanity, who deliberately kill or subjugate others for their own profit.  But it is also a warning to us, that we need to be on our guard against having all the outwards appearance of faith, but none of the substance of it within our hearts.

My prayer is that we might all find the strength, the courage, and the grace to accept the invitation of the King.  I pray that each one of us will accept the wedding garment that we are offered...the new life, and new way of living that is ours for the taking.  It's the way of sacrifice, and the way of love.  It's the way of giving life to others, and receiving life from them in return.  It's the way of living in community and not just turning up to it occasionally.  It's the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus.  It's the Way to the only real Truth, and the only real Life.

Amen

The Rise and Fall of Empires

Trinity 16:  Isaiah 5:1-7, Ps 80: 7-14, Phil 3: 4b-14, Matt 21:33-46

One small advantage of my recent period of convalescence has been having some time to listen to the radio.  One of my favourite programmes is 'Gardener's Question Time', which I listen to with a mixture of emotions.  On the one hand, I marvel at how anyone can remember all those funny latin names for everyday plants.  Did you know, for example, that the humble carrot is know by fancy gardeners as Daucus Carota Sativus?  

Another reason I listen to 'GQT' is frankly to make myself feel better.  I enjoy gardening...its great stress-relief, and the obsessive-compulsive in me is never happier than when the lawn has been freshly cut, and there are nice neat lines running up and down!  But the trouble is that although I can handle a lawn mower...I'm useless at pretty much anything else.  Any other plant that I try to nurture - other than grass seed, just dies on me.  I either over-water it, or under water it.  I over-feed it, or under-feed it.  So when I hear members of the public being roundly told off for similar errors on 'GQT' - I feel better.  I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one whose green fingers have turned to autumn colours and dropped off!

As a constantly failing gardener, I find myself with a lot of sympathy for Isaiah, this morning.  He sings a song of the planting of a vineyard, during which the owner goes to enormous lengths to get everything right to grow his grapes.  He chooses a fertile hill, builds a wall around it, clears the ground of stones and even builds a watch-tower to keep off predators.  (Watch-towers were the fore-runner of scarecrows).  But all he gets for his trouble...just like me, so often...is wild grapes - or rather, weeds!

Isaiah's tale would have got sympathy from his listeners too...until they realised what his song really meant.  The sting in the tail was that they, his listeners, God people were the vineyard that had not produced the fruit that was to be expected of them after all God's care.  After building them up as a nation, rescuing them out of Eqypt, establishing them in a new land, giving them laws to live by and prosperity as a nation...the people constantly turned away from God.  They worshipped other gods, they clutched at possessions with greed. They were inhospitable towards strangers, they ignored God's just laws.  God was furious with them, and deeply disappointed.

What was he going to do about it?  Essentially, he was going to punish it.  He would break down the walls of the Vineyard, and trample down the land.  He would make it a waste-land.  Or at least - that's what Isaiah predicted.  What Isaiah's listeners couldn't know (but we do) is that soon after this warning, the land of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian nation - and effectively wiped off the map of the day.  For the Israelites, there were consequences for ignoring God's way of living.  Not for the first time in the history of Israel and its ancestors, they would be thrown out of a garden.  That's exactly what happened to Adam and Eve.

Jump forward a few centuries, into the time of Jesus, and we find the same story being expanded upon.  Jesus focuses his version of the tale onto the Landlord (who of course is God).  This time, the Landlord prepares his beautiful vineyard, but then leases it to others - called tenants - to look after.

This is a fascinating picture because it suggests to us the idea of free-will.  The Landlord has prepared the ground, and given his tenants every chance to succeed... but then he leaves them to work out for themselves how they are going to live.  The Landlord does not force his tenants to love him...but he does send them reminders, every now and again, of how much he loves them.  The Landlord sends his servants - which we might think of as the Prophets.  Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the rest.  Time and time again God sends his prophets to remind the people - the tenants - of just whose Vineyard this is.  But time and time again the tenants beat up and kill the prophets.

Finally, in exasperation, the Landlord sends his own son.  Surely the tenants will listen to him?!  But no, they seize him, kill him and thrown him out of the vineyard.  They will not even listen to the Landlord's son!

And what are the consequences?  Jesus spells it out starkly..."The Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people that produces the fruit of the kingdom".  What Jesus' listeners couldn't know, but we do, is that only 30 or so years later, the city of Jerusalem would be completely destroyed by the Romans.  The temple would be torn down...never to be rebuilt.  The once mighty nation of Israel would be scattered to the four corners of the globe, for a period of nearly two thousand years - and even today its great Temple is only a pile of archaeological rubble.

And the task of bringing the Kingdom of God alive would be passed on to a new generation, a new nation. But this time, it wouldn't be nation with land to rule over...at least not for hundreds of years.  This time, the new tenants of the Kingdom would be the Christ-ians...the followers of Jesus Christ.  They would be a people who were bound together not by blood, nor by ownership of land - but bound together by an idea....the idea that by living out the commands of their Lord, the Kingdom of Heaven could truly be established on earth.

But this nation too would rise, and then fall.  History teaches us that there was a time, a sort of Golden Age, when the Christian Church became, effectively, the greatest Empire that the world has ever seen.  Based on the glories of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Catholic Church expanded to hold sway over vast stretches of land...all over Europe, much of Africa, and even taking in the newly discovered lands of the Americas for a while, after their 'discovery'.

But even that great Empire fell.  The walls of the vineyard were torn down, once the tenants stopped producing the right kind of fruit.  Instead of justice, the church presided over huge injustice.  The rich princes of the church and the state lived in their castles, while the poor lived in their hovels.  Wars between nations demonstrated once again the fear of the stranger, and the dismantling of the ancient Kingdom notion of hospitality.  Greed, consumerism, pleasure-seeking drunkeness, a falling away from worshipping God to worshipping other false idols...these were the same sort of characteristics that Isaiah and Jesus, and many other prophets, had warned Israel about.

Over and over again...the Empires of Man rise, and then fall.  Epyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, the Church, the Mongol Empire, the Chinese Empire, the British Empire, the Third Reich, the Soviet Union, the USA, the European Union...to name but a few.  The list is almost endless.  Time and time again these Empires, these Vineyards - are established with the most noble of motives.  Their initial leaders are often inspiring and charismatic people, with great hearts for their people - just think of the fine-sounding words of the Constitution of the United States.  But time and time again they are brought down by the baseness of human nature.  Over and over again we see the same characteristics emerge just before an Empire collapses.

Historians will argue over what those characteristics are - but I believe that there are common themes.  Most Empires collapse when they become too large to manage, or when leaders become too overconfident in their status, or when resentment builds up towards the over-weaning power of the super-elite.  It is greed that drives expansion...greed for more land, more resources, more money.  Leaders seek more and more resources, and justice towards the original owners of such resources becomes the casualty.  The people themselves seek more and more comfort and luxury, and justice towards neighbour becomes the casualty.  People seek instinctively to protect what they already have, and so hospitality towards the stranger becomes a casualty.  This is the way of the world.  This is the pattern again and again.  From Isaiah to Jesus to Us...this is the way the Vineyard of the Kingdom is built, and then destroyed...over and over and over again.

But WE do not need to be victims of this process.  WE, like the tenants of Jesus' Vineyard story, are given free-will by the Landlord to decide how WE are going to live up to the challenge of the Kingdom.  Are WE going to be those who ignore the prophets?  Are WE going to be those who participate in the murder of the Landlord's Son?  Are WE going to be those who let the base human instincts of greed and fear of the other dictate the kind of people that we are going to be?

Or are we going to be those whose witness to the World is of a God who overflows with love and generosity?  Are we going to be those who, like Jesus, sit alongside the powerless and the weak - the prostitutes and junkies, the homeless and the starving, the refugee and the economic migrant?  Or are we going to hold on to what we've got and protect it from anyone who might take it from us.

That's the choice we face.  That's the free-will which the Landlord of the Vineyard has offered us.

I wonder which we will choose.

Amen.

Fanatics R Us?

Fanatics R Us?
Matthew 10:24-39

Let's get down to this morning's gospel reading shall we? Tough stuff this, isn't it? Verse 34-36: Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother in law; and one’s foes will be members of one's own household!

Now, as tempting as it is, I have to resist the temptation to tell some mother-in-law jokes at this point...mainly because, as you may know, I choose to publish my sermons on the Internet...and I have a mother-in-law!

And actually, Jesus doesn't seem to be joking when he says that his followers may have to make some pretty tough decisions about where their allegiance is. "Whosever does not take up his cross, and follow me is not worthy of me..."and so on. To us Western Christians, this speech of his seems rather odd, even a bit fanatical doesn't it? It’s the sort of thing that we expect to hear the Mad Mullahs of Al Quaida saying to their brain-washed followers. To us, who have the freedom to worship wherever and whenever we like, all this talk of witness, persecution, poverty and martyrdom seems to represent another world altogether.

But we should remember that in every generation since the time of Jesus, his disciples have been in situations in which these words of Jesus ring true...painfully true. Let me read to you some examples of what I mean – from a series of headlines published by the Barnabas Fund:

18th June:  Around 40 church leaders and members were arrested in Nepal, accused of forcibly converting Hindus.

18th June:  Around 50 people were killed in an al-Shabaab attack on a mainly Christian town in Kenya.  The gunmen went door to door questioning occupants about their faith and shooting non-Muslim men

17th June:  In India, Hindus kill Christian man, mistaking him for his newly baptised son

17th June:  In Tanzania, a church building is burned down by Mulsims in a night-time attack

17th June:  In Cameroon, suspected Boko Haram militants attack a village, and burn down churches.

That’ five separate attacks on Christians in the last week…and there is still no news about the hundreds of children who were kidnapped by Boko Haram last month.

I don't know about you, but these stories - and the many more like it that are going on all around the world, force me to ask some pretty tough questions of myself. Could it be, for example, that we here in the West have somehow tamed the Christian faith, re-fashioned it in our own image to such an extent that it is no longer seen as a challenge to the society in which we live? Have we become so contaminated by the world around us, that the world no longer sees us as a threat to its selfish, violent, materialistic way of life? Could it be that we have become silent, when we should be upsetting the money-changers' tables? Could it be that instead of calling for justice, the relief of poverty, the end to war, and the love of God, we are rather content to let the rest of the world carry on exploiting the poor, blowing each other up, and hating one another?

But there are places in the world where Christians do still stand up for what they believe...and when they do, often find themselves at the sharp end of persecution, torture, and death. Just as Jesus said would happen. The Christian faith, if it is fully and openly declared, is dangerous to the world. It speaks of a way of life that is exactly the opposite of the way that most people chose to live. It is a way of peace, not war. It is a way of self-control, not Friday night legless-ness on the streets of Southsea. It is a way of poverty and simplicity, not materialism and consumerism. It is a way of faithfulness to one another, not sleeping around with as many partners as possible. It is a way of finding contentment through giving things away, not getting more and more of them. It is a way of embracing and welcoming the stranger, not finding ever more complicated legal ways to 'keep the scroungers out'.

So, from another perspective, this chapter need not be alien to us at all. It boils down, into concentrated form, what the Christian life essentially is. And what is it? It is a confession, a stated sure belief, that God has acted decisively in Jesus; it is a way of placing our loyalty to God, revealed in Christ, over and above all other loyalties...even the deepest loyalties of home and family.

Now - let's think about that for a moment. I have lived in or near Portsmouth, for the last 22 years...and I know how important family ties are in this town. When I used to run the YMCA hostel down in old Portsmouth, we once had a young man staying with us who was, how shall I put it, a right old pain in the posterior. I shall call him Johnny Smith - which was not his real name - and he was a member of what we will call the Smith family...one of the 'old families' of Portsmouth. Johnny, unfortunately, was constantly drunk, always abusive to my staff, never paid his rent on time, and often violent. Well after a number of warnings, and a lot of prayer, we had no choice but to evict him from the hostel. As he was ejected out of the doors, his parting words were: "You've messed with the wrong guy...I'm a Smith! I'll get my family to sort you out!"

Sure enough, a few hours later, about half a dozen of his family arrived...in a right old mood. I honestly thought they were going to smash all the windows in the YMCA. It took just about every ounce of my diplomatic skills to talk them into not kicking my head in... mainly by reminding them why they had kicked Johnny out of their own house in the first place.

There is an old saying, that blood is thicker than water...which is sometimes used to justify all sorts of feuds between families. In some feuds, it doesn't matter who is right or wrong...it matters only that someone's family has been insulted. It's what the Mafia does. And, frankly, it’s what some families even in Portsmouth do.

I don't know about you...but I think that that way lies madness. If we all began jumping to the defense of someone who was clearly in the wrong, just because they were a member of our family - or our playground gang - then pretty soon the whole of society would crumble.

Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that families are a bad thing. God loves families! God invented families. Families are one of the most important structures in our whole society. The best families give us companionship and love, a place to feel secure, a place to make mistakes, and still be accepted.

But Jesus says to us, through this reading, that we have an even higher loyalty...a loyalty that only a God could claim...a loyalty to Him. And that, Jesus warns, will bring division even between members of the same family. Because God, who made us, and is transforming us and who loves us has an even higher claim on our loyalty than our families....even if our families don't acknowledge him.

But…what did Jesus mean when he said, in verse 34, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword"?
Well, the first thing we must say is that Jesus was speaking metaphorically. It is abundantly clear from the rest of the Gospels that the last thing Jesus came to do was put a sword in anyone's hand. "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."

So what sword might Jesus have been referring to? Like so many of Jesus' statements, we are rather left to wonder and ponder his meaning. However, I think we can get a bit of a clue, by turning to one or two other readings from the New Testament. Here's a small selection:

Ephesians 6:17 “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

In both these cases (and many others in the New Testament) the word sword is used as a metaphor. The sword represents the Spirit and the Living Word of God - something that is so fantastically pure and true that it cuts to the heart of every situation.

It is the Spirit of God which produces the Fruit of the Spirit of God, which we know from the book of Galatians to be: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. And the sword of the Spirit divides the fruit of the spirit from the fruits of the flesh. He offers us the choice. Instead of hate, we could choose love.   Instead of war, we could chose peace.  Instead of anger, patience.  Instead of selfishness, kindness.  Instead of evil, goodness.  

There are so many around us who chose another path. Perhaps they our neighbours or some of the other inhabitants of our city.  Perhaps even our Government, or multi-national corporations founded on greed and materialism.   Perhaps even members of our own family choose not to follow the path of the Spirit...how do we respond?  Who is it who commands our loyalty?

Let's pray...  Heavenly Father...we confess to you that there are times when we forget just how much loyalty we owe to you. You have shown us how to live, in peace and harmony with one another and with you. And yet sometimes we choose to go the way of the world. Will you send your Spirit on us afresh, showing us clearly the path of life you would have us follow? Will you fill us to overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit? Help us to be people who declare your love, your way of living, to those around us - whatever the cost. For we ask it in Jesus' name, and in the prayerful hope of the completion of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Amen

Kim's a Deacon at Last

So…at last…Kim is a Deacon!  I know she’ll want me to thank everyone who came to the Cathedral yesterday, so support her, Barbara and Damon.

Three ordained ministers in one day, from one parish!  That’s got to be some kind of record – and it’s a testament to all the love and support that the people of this parish have given to the three of them during the last few years.

Today is tinged with sadness, though.  It’s a sad reality that most people who are ordained are rarely able to serve their curacy in their home parish.  I had to leave mine, and Damon left us last year when he was made a Deacon.  Now, as of today, Barbara has also moved on – though thankfully only to the neighbouring parish of St Mary!  It’s quite an important principle – that Deacons and Priests do not offer themselves to their own church, but to the whole church…and often they are called outside the walls of the church in which they were nurtured.

But not for Kim!  By a set of circumstances related to her health and her marriage, and possibly by a little bribery and corruption on my part(!), Kim, we get to keep!  Halleluiah!

Kim has been ordained as a Deacon for less than 24 hours - and they don't come much newer than that!  In a few moments, I'm going to invite her to read us the legal declarations which she must make on taking up her appointment.  But before that, I thought it might be helpful to make sure we all understand what a deacon is!

Let's start with what a deacon is not!  A deacon is not a sort of 'baby priest' - or a priest in waiting.... although there is something of that in Kim’s situation, because we fully expect that she will be ordained as a priest in not too much time.  But actually, being a deacon, is at the heart of what it means to be a minister in the church today.  And it’s worth remembering that no priest ever stops being a deacon.  Even a Bishop is still a deacon...something that Bishop Christopher demonstrated very powerfully yesterday by washing the feet of the all the new deacons.  Some of you might have noticed that when the Archdeacon was with us for our Patronal Festival, I wore my stole across my shoulder, as a deacon – for much the same reason.

The word 'deacon' comes from a Greek word, diakonos - which meant 'servant', 'waiting man', 'minister' or 'messenger'.  The first deacons were appointed by the Apostles, who found that during the early days of the church, when everyone was eating together, they were spending too much time in waiting at tables, and in general administration...they were neglecting their primary call to be the theologians, leaders and teachers of their community.

So a deacon is a servant....and in serving, the deacon represents the service to which every Christian is called.  In many ways, all of us in this parish have diaconal ministries.  We all serve one another, and the world around us, in many different ways.  Working in the cafe, cleaning and maintaining buildings, sitting on committees, singing, visiting the sick, serving at the Altar, teaching at Sunday School, administering the papers and finances of the parish...all of these are diaconal roles.  But Kim and I, and all the other ordained ministers in the Parish, have been called to represent that diaconal role in a particular way.  We are called to model it as a way of life to which all Christians are called.

So when you see one of us with a hand down a U-bend, or lugging tables, or painting a wall, or making the coffee, or filling out the endless paperwork of the Anglican Church!...we're being deacons - called to a ministry of service, just like everyone here.

But as ordained deacons, we are also 'set aside' by the church for some particular ministries.  We have been given rather expensive training for particular specialist tasks...especially the tasks of preaching and teaching and leading worship. Ordained Deacons are 'set apart' from some of the day to day servant-tasks of all the people - because communities need leaders, and teachers, and experts in worship....so that all that is said and done in our worship can be of the highest standard possible.  Ordained deacons also have a particular role in the worship of the church – which is reflected in the roles that they take during the Eucharist.
Kim has been carrying out those roles already among us, as what we call a Liturgical Deacon.  That’s because it was Church Law which prevented her from being actually ordained until now – as a result of her re-marriage to Iain.  But the Bishop instructed us to use Kim as a deacon, in all but name.  So you will already be used to hearing Kim lead parts of the service.

And why does she – as a Deacon – do this?  It’s because deacons come from the people. They speak on behalf of the people, and to the people.  They call us at the beginning of our worship to prepare ourselves to meet God in Word and Sacrament.  Then they call the whole congregation to confession, before the Priest offers absolution.  Then, again as the act of someone who is a part of the community, from the community, the Deacon calls the congregation to share peace – ‘saying ‘Let us offer one another a sign of peace’.  This is the Deacon’s instruction, because the Deacon is the one who is set aside for the role of pastoring and nurturing the congregation…the Deacon is the one who best knows which relationships within a congregation are in need of peace.  After the sermon, the Deacon calls the congregation to declare their faith – because the Deacon is the Teacher, the one who nourishes the faith and teaches it to us.  And finally, the Deacon is the last voice we hear at the end of the service, when they encouraging us to go out in faith to love and serve the Lord.

Perhaps it might help if I draw a little bit of a further distinction between the roles of Deacon and Priest.  As I’ve already said, being a Deacon is my primary calling.  Almost everything I do, as a minister, is essentially a diaconal role.  That’s why I can say the Deacon’s words in the Mass when there isn’t another Deacon around.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that 99% of my daily ministry is the ministry of a Deacon.  The other 1%, is the additional role of priest.  It is only a priest who may consecrate the elements, offer absolution, and pronounce the blessing of God.  So, my priestly roles are only really exercised for a few minutes on a Sunday…the rest of the time, it’s deacon, deacon deacon.

I hope that helps a bit - to understand something of what all of us up here in the fancy clothes are attempting to do with our lives as we respond to the call of God.  I also hope it will help you to see Kim’s new role as anything other than some sort of ‘second-class’ priest.  Priestly duties are special duties, not ‘better ones’.
This ministry is something we desperately need your prayers for... so please pray for us, and especially for Kim, as she formally takes up this vital task.  We, both of us, are called to be present in this community of 20,000 people – offering the love of God in a thousand different ways.  We need your prayers, and God’s strength to carry out such a massive task.

One thing that Kim is going to have to get used to is the wearing of her clerical collar.  Kim’s collar, like mine, is a symbol...an important symbol.  It resembles the collar of a slave....a ring of steel round the neck.  It's a collar which is meant to remind all of us deacons that we are called to be servants of the servants of God.  You are the servants of God...that is your calling...but we are called to be your servants!  It's pretty mind-blowing, really!  We serve you by offering you leadership and teaching...teaching which we pray will be transformational for us all!

Now, before I ask Kim to read her declaration to the church, which will mark her formal acceptance by us as our new Assistant Curate, I'm going to offer her three symbols of the particular ministry she is called to exercise - as we all are.  I'm going to invite him to accept these symbols, and then to lay them upon the altar, as a sign of offering these ministries to God.

First a Bible:  Teach us, Kim, from these pages.  This book contains all that is necessary for us to obtain the salvation of our souls...and we don't know it well enough.  Teach us...for we need to know what it contains.

Do you accept the charge you have been given?

Secondly:  A Chalice.  Kim, you are called to serve this parish through worship.  During your ministry, you will administer the Holy Communion of Christ to the people of this parish whom you will hold in your heart through prayer.  In worship you will both call and lead the people to repentance, to faith, and to action for Christ.  

Do you accept the charge you have been given?

Finally:  A towel:  Kim, along with every member of the Body of Christ you are called to a ministry of service to other Christians, and to the wider world.  You are called to exemplify that ministry, so that we may all be challenged and encouraged by your example - learning from you the power of serving Christ in one another, and loving as he loves us.

Do you accept the charge you have been given?

{Kim then reads her Declaration to the Congregation, and is welcomed into the Ministry Team as  Deacon}

Rector's Annual Address - "On the Road to Emmaus"

Acts 2.14a,36-41 and Luke 24.13-35

There are times, I must confess, when I wonder whether all the effort we put into running a parish is really worth it.  Do you know what I mean?  I frequently find myself utterly exhausted by the sheer weight of 'things to do' that arrive on my desk, or in my emails, or on my phones, or via face-to-face requests.  I sometimes find myself overwhelmed by guilt about the sick parishioners I haven't had a chance to visit, or the latest piece of uncompleted admin from the Diocese, or the Sermon that I just made up off the top of my head (because I didn't have time to prepare) or the staff member who hasn't met with me for weeks because we've both been too busy.

And I know that many of you share the same pressures - or perhaps feel them even more keenly, because unlike me, you are not paid a stipend to be able to work full-time for the parish.  You've got to juggle your own ministry in the parish with your work commitments, or your membership of other clubs and organisations, or your caring for family members, or whatever your particular pressure is.

There are days, I must confess, when I feel like throwing in the towel.  There are days when I wonder whether all the effort and sacrifice of time and resources, for the sake of the Gospel is really worth it.   Are we really making a difference...or are we just perpetuating a system of guilt-ridden clergy and lay people, stretched beyond belief to try to make a difference?  Do the improvements that we've made in all our buildings in the last few years really matter?  Do the hours of music practice or cafe volunteering or pastoral visiting, or endless Diocesan and parish meetings or fundraising sales actually make a halfpenny's worth of difference?

I wonder whether those two Disciples who were walking along the road to Emmaus felt something similar.  Not the pressure of piles of admin, but the pressure of wondering whether the previous years of their lives had been in vain.  They had left their homes and their families to follow the man they thought was the Messiah.  But all their hopes and dreams for transforming their society appeared to have come to nothing; on a Cross erected at the Place of the Skull.

Oh sure, there were now rumours that Jesus had risen from the dead, but these Disciples hadn't seen him yet.  And certainly there was no sign of the redemption of Israel that they had hoped for all these years.  Rome was still firmly in charge of their society, and the High Priests of the Temple were still in charge of their religion.  The 'corrupt generation' that Peter referred to in his speech in Acts was still in charge.  Nothing had changed.  All the sacrifice had been in vain.  All their work had come to naught.  Perhaps it would be better if they just gave up and went home to the quiet solitude of Emmaus?  Let someone else worry about the transformation of society for a change.  Perhaps those Disciples, going home to Emmaus, will just hang up their sandals, sit in the sun, and let the world go on without them?

But see what happens next.  In the midst of their despair, Jesus comes.  He walks alongside them for a while, unrecognised at first.  He explains that everything that happened in the previous week was all part of a much bigger plan; a divine plan for the redemption of the whole world.  The Disciples are intrigued, and suddenly excited.  Perhaps all their sacrifice has not been in vain after all.  Perhaps God is still working to transform the world.  Perhaps Jesus really was the Messiah after all.  They want to know more, and they invite the stranger who has been teaching them to come and share a meal...and then, they discover who he really is, in the breaking of the bread.

Does Jesus walk alongside us too, perhaps even as unrecognised as he was to those Emmaus-Disciples?  Does he still walk alongside disciples in despair at the apparent fruitlessness of their labours?  I think he does.  And if we will listen to his voice, I think he will unfold to us something of the divine plan in which we are involved.  For when we look at our parish's life through Jesus' eyes, and not our own, we can begin to glimpse the signs of the Kingdom that those Emmaus Disciples were looking for.  Whenever a lonely life has been filled with friendship at the Community Cafe, the Kingdom is glimpsed.  Whenever someone's soul is lifted into real worship at one of our services, in our refurbished buildings, inspired by our choir or music group, the Kingdom is at hand.  Whenever a bereaved person finds comfort in the truths of the Gospel (and the promise of Resurrection) the Kingdom is among you.  Whenever, someone repents of their old way of life, and turns towards a life with Jesus, the Kingdom advances.  Whenever a hungry belly in Africa is filled because of our donation, the Kingdom is at hand.

Today we look back over another year of service to this community.  We will review - briefly, I promise! - the activities of the last 12 months, but more importantly we will look to the future.  To those who, like me, sometimes wonder whether all this grind and sacrifice is worth it, I invite you to peer, with me, into that future.

It's a future in which God's plan for North End, Hilsea and Copnor is being unfolded in our very presence - God's plan to transform the lives of the lost and the lonely into lives of purpose and community.  God's plan to call every one of the 20,000 people we serve in this parish.  God's plan to have vibrant centres of worship which call people away from consumerism and into community.  God's plan to touch the lives of every person, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight - with hope and love.

Is that a plan worth straining every sinew for?  Is that a plan worth giving up weekends to raise funds, and evenings to have meetings?  Is that a plan worth giving up hours to paint and dig and repair and maintain our buildings?  Is that a plan worth giving our money too, sacrificially and consistently?  Is that a plan worth offering our lives to in every sense?  I think it is.   And I hope and pray that you do too.

And here's a final thought.  For those Emmaus disciples, Jesus was finally made known to them in the breaking of the bread.  Who knows why this was?  Perhaps it was too dark for them to have seen his face until then?  Perhaps his resurrected body and voice were subtly different?  Whatever the reason, it was in a moment of brokenness that Jesus was finally and ultimately revealed...echoing the brokenness of his own body upon the Cross.  We can find Jesus in our brokenness too.

In a few minutes, bread will be broken for us on the Altar.  Jesus' sacrificial death for all humanity will be brought to mind once more.  But then, we who are also broken, will gather together on these steps to participate in a great coming together.  We will each of us, from all across this parish, receive the spiritual food that Jesus offers us for our ministries in this parish.  We will do this together. Our brokenness, mirroring Jesus own brokenness, will be healed by the very act of coming together.  We will come together with each other and with Jesus in the great central act of all Christian worship, the very act of Communion with God and our neighbours.

May we each find in that moment, the inspiration, the energy, the commitment and the drive to carry on playing our part in the building of God's Kingdom in North End, Hilsea and Copnor.

Amen

Mothering Sunday 2014

John 19. 25b-27: Mary at the Foot of the Cross

Here is a letter from a Mother to a Child....

Dear Child,

The bathroom door is closed! Please do not stand here and talk, whine, or ask questions. Wait until I get out. Yes, it is locked. I want it that way. It is not broken, and I am not trapped. I know I have left it unlocked, and even open at times, since you were born, because I was afraid that some horrible tragedy might occur while I was in here, and you would want some comfort from me. But it's been ten years and I want some privacy.

Do not ask me how long I will be. I will come out when I am done. Do not bring the phone to the bathroom door. Do not go running back to the phone yelling "She's on the toilet!".

Do not stick your fingers under the door and wiggle them. That was funny when you were two, but not now. Do not slide pennies under the door, or notes, or LEGO pieces.

If you have followed me down the hall talking, and are still talking as you face this closed door, please turn around, walk away, and wait for me in another room. I will be glad to listen to you when I am done.

And yes, I still love you.

Mum.

(From 'A Barrel of Fun' by J.John and Mark Stibbe. ISBN: 1-85424-621-6)

There's an old Jewish proverb that goes, "God could not be everywhere at once, and therefore he made mothers". It's meant to be taken ironically, of course. God, as we well know, is everywhere - at all times and in all places - deeply and fundamentally present by the Holy Spirit. In fact if we change the old Jewish proverb just a little bit, I think we might get an even better picture of the importance of motherhood. Let's say "God is everywhere at once, and yet he still decided to make mothers".

The idea of motherhood was so important to God, that Jesus was given an earthly mother. God could easily have appeared among us in an instant. He could have arrived on earth, as Jesus, by just willing himself into a human body - fully grown and ready to embark on his ministry. But that was not the path that he chose.

Instead, God chose that Jesus should raised by a mother...that he should experience 30 or so years of the closeness of family life, under the leadership of Mary. Joseph, of course, was involved too - but it is interesting to note that the focus of the gospel stories about Jesus' parents tend to be on Mary, rather more than Joseph. It is Mary who is chosen to bring Jesus into the world. It is Mary who first accepts the Angel's news. It is Mary who goes through the pain of childbirth. Ultimately, for reasons we don't know, Joseph drops out of the Gospel stories altogether - until it is only Mary who stands at the foot of the cross, in front of her dying son.

The Orthodox church has a term for Mary - they call her "Theotokos" which directly translates as the 'God-bearer', or the one who gives birth to God. It is a rather more precise understanding of Mary's role than the term 'Mother of God' which is often used in English. 'Mother of God' can seem to imply that Mary was the source from which Jesus came, eternally. Whereas, of course, Jesus has always existed, from eternity – according to the beginning of John’s Gospel. "In the beginning was the Word…”

The word 'Theotokos' - God-bearer - then, makes clear that Mary bore Jesus into the world. She was the channel through which he came - and she was the one entrusted with the task of bearing him, and bearing with him, throughout his childhood, and then his earthly ministry. She was entrusted with his care, and with teaching him what it meant to be human. The church teaches that Jesus was, in a weird theological paradox, both fully human, and fully divine. Being fully human, Jesus needed the love, care and teaching of an earthly mother.

It is for that reason that the church venerates Mary as perhaps the most important human being who has ever lived. She had more physical connection with God than anyone has had - by bearing Jesus within her. She obediently and willingly carried out the task that was given to her of bringing Jesus into the world, and bringing him up to fulfill his mission.

Isn't it interesting that this most important human being of all...was a woman? The world is so often dominated by men, and by male perspectives. Just think for a moment about the worlds of politics, academia, journalism, finance and banking...all of them are still dominated by men. Gradually, decade by decade, we are seeing women beginning to gain a foothold...but it is a slow and difficult process.

The majority of Christian churches are still dominated by men. The Orthodox church, the Catholic Church, the Coptic Church, and many of the Bible-belt churches of the USA...all of them still reserve the role of priest or minister, or pastor, exclusively for men.  It is only in some of the reformed churches that women are gradually being recognised for the contribution that they bring to the role of priest.  

What we must not do is fall into the trap of saying that it is only women who can do certain things, or only men who do others. It is too easy to say, as the classic book-title does, that 'Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus'. Too often we hear the tired old rhetoric that men are the warmongers, and women are the peace-makers. In African culture, as I've discovered in Ghana, the division is between women who are the life-givers (by giving birth and nurturing children) and men who are the life-takers (through hunting, warfare and offering sacrifices).  That's why some many churches are still struggling with the idea of women priests...they cannot cope, culturally, with the idea of a woman offering the sacrifice of Christ.

But  we can transcend these cultural ideas.  Ghandi wasn’t a man, nor was the Buddha.  But they all promoted love, forgiveness and nurture.  They were all, in a sense, from ‘Venus’.  Margaret Thatcher and Queen Bodesia were not men, but they easily picked up the tools of war to resolve problems.  Jesus, in fact, embodies both the notion of life-giver and sacrifice-maker.  He sacrifices himself on the Cross, and by doing so offers spiritual life to all.  The male and female, completely combined.

The Bible teaches us that we are all made in the image of God - male and female. Just think about that for a moment.  To say we are all made in the image of God means that God has both male and female characteristics.  That means, I think, that all of us - potentially - have those God-given attributes of creativity, and nurturing, and caring for one another, and loving each other. Motherhood is not necessarily something that is only done by women...some of the best mothers I know, are actually men! Consider those men who are perhaps widowed, or left by their wives to bring up their children. What about those men who stay in England bringing up children while their wives are serving in in the Forces overseas? What about those – like some in this very congregation – who live with and look after their elderly mothers?

Perhaps the story of Adam and Eve invites us to realise that to be truly human - truly made in the image of God - is to embrace all of the characteristics of maleness and femaleness.  According to their story, it is only after the Fall that the role of farmer is given to Adam, and the role of baby-bearer given to Eve.   Perhaps becoming more like God, in whose image we are made, means men embracing their female side, and women embracing the male.  Perhaps getting the balance right is the way back into the garden of Eden?

I believe in a Lord who welcomed women into his circle of disciples...a circle that for any other Rabbi of his time would have been exclusively reserved for men. I worship a Lord who chose to reveal himself, after his resurrection, first and foremost to a woman. I worship a Lord who used words like 'Love one another' and 'forgive one another'.  These are traditionally female words, nurturing words. I worship a Lord who, perhaps because of the influence of the Mother whom God had appointed for him, was completely in touch with the feminine side of his nature, as much as the masculine.

He held those two sides in balance. He refused the temptation of the Devil - during the 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness.  As we thought about at Café Church two weeks ago, Jesus resisted the temptation to use the very male-concept of power to dominate the world. Instead, he embraced the more traditionally feminine concept of service - washing his disciples feet, and giving up his life for others.

So, on this Mother's day - we celebrate all the women who give up their lives to serve their children, or to 'mother' those in need around them.  We gratefully acknowledge their contribution to our own lives and well-being.  Let us also acknowledge that, by and large, mothers are the only workers who do not have regular time off.  Even holidays are not time off for most mothers…just mothering in a different location, without all the normal tools of distraction at their finger-tips!  No wonder some mothers would want to lock themselves in the bathroom from time to time…they are the great 'vacation-less' class.

But let us also embrace the mother that is within us all - drawing from the example of Jesus and his Mother Mary.  Jesus teaches us that having children is only one way of being a mother. As we embrace the idea that we are made in the image of God...who is father and mother to us all...we know that mothering is something that we all have the capacity to do...whether we have our own children or not.

May you – men and women alike - discover the mother within you - as you rise to the challenge of knowing yourself to be made in the image of God.  May you follow the example of Mary, the God-bearer, and of Jesus her Son - as you offer love, care and nurture to those around you.  And may you come to know God not just as Father, but also as Mother...the mother whose love for you will never end, throughout eternity.  Let this ‘Mother’s Day’ be God’s day…the day we seek out and celebrate the Mother within all of us.  Amen.

Advent 1: Are We There Yet?

Advent 1 Are We There Yet?

(Isaiah 2.1-5, Matthew 24.36-44). 

Have you ever been on one of those very long journeys with a very young child?  Clare and I once took Emily on a three day journey to Romania, via Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary.  She was about five at the time, and we drove for around 14 hours each day.  So I’ll leave you to imagine how often she used the immortal words “Are we there yet?”!

There is something about human beings that we see most especially reflected in the young – although I think that is because they are less accomplished than us at hiding it.  I am referring of course to our impatience.  None of us like waiting, for anything.  We want what we want, now! 

I am as guilty as anyone.  Here I am, reading this sermon from my new Tablet, which I bought last week.  My family tell me that I am the hardest person to buy presents for, because I have a tendency to just go and get what I want, as soon as I want it!  So it will be socks again for me this Christmas!

The Season of Advent is the beginning of the Church’s New Year, and it is designed specifically to be a time of waiting.  That is a deliberate ploy on the part of the church Fathers. They set out, like Jesus, to do something which would contradict and challenge the normal way that society does things.  In theologian-speak, we talk about this as being ‘counter-cultural’ – that is, a way of doing something that is counter (or opposite) to the culture around us.  

So, the New Year for the rest of society starts with a bang and fireworks…with a sense that we’ve ‘arrived’ at something important (as though the turn of the Calendar was something to be celebrated).  But the Church, deliberately, starts its new year with two important words…’Coming’ (which is what ‘Advent’ means)…and ‘Wait’.

In Advent, we celebrate the coming into this world of Jesus, Son of God – our Rescuer, our Teacher.  We look forward to the Christ Mass, when his first coming in poverty is our focus.  But in Advent, we look ahead with hope to his Second Coming, with justice and mercy in his hands.  Christians can’t help looking forward, because we see the way the world is now.

Last week I spoke about the one billion people in our world who live on a dollar a day.  Do you remember how I told you it would take over a year to drive past that many people at 60 miles an hour?  And we look around at the world in which the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.  We look at a world in which people regularly open fire on each other.  We shake our heads at the greed which caused punch-ups and injuries on so called ‘Black Friday’ in ASDA super-stores.  We see these things, and we say to ourselves, “this is not how it is supposed to be!”.  And we yearn for the transformation of the world that God promises us through his Son.   We yearn for it, we hope for it.  And naturally, we don’t want to wait for it! 

This sense of hope that God will one day put all things right is rooted in a long, long tradition.   The Hebrew Bible – which Christians sometimes call the Old Testament – is full of longing for the day when God will transform society into something fair and just.  The prophet Isaiah, for example, looked around him at wars between the kingdoms all around Israel.  He despaired of what he saw, but looked forward prophetically to a time when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation”, and when they will “beat their swords into ploughshares, and the spears into pruning hooks”. 

When will this happen?  Well according to Isaiah, peace will break out when all the peoples of the world say ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…that he may teach us his ways’.  In other words, Isaiah prophecies that the reign of God will begin when the peoples of the world finally accept that human ways of doing things don’t work.  Peace will reign when the peoples of the world turn away from their sin, and ask God to teach them his ways.

But, human beings are too stubborn.  We don’t want to wait for God’s teachings about love, justice and mercy to bring about the change in society that we want.  So we take up arms against those with whom we disagree, and we attempt to bring about justice and peace with the barrel of a gun. There was a pithy saying doing the rounds this week on Facebook – ‘Why do we kill people who kill other people to show that killing is wrong?’

People often ask me how God could stand by and watch people killing, and torturing each other, or oppressing each other, or making their brother and sister live on less than a dollar a day.  I tell them this: God is not standing by.  Thousands of years ago he gave us a simple list of 10 rules by which to live – we call them the 10 Commandments.  They included some pretty simple stuff – don’t murder, and don’t go lusting after things you can’t have. 

But did we listen? 

So he sent us a whole series of prophets, like Isaiah, who kept on reminding us that peace and justice will only reign when people listen to the teachings of God. 

But did we listen?

So he sent us not just a prophet, but his own son – a man who was so much like God that people who knew him said ‘this man is God’.  And he repeated the message of thousands of years before.  Summarising the Law of God, he said, ‘Love God, and Love your Neighbour as Yourself’.

But did we listen?

God has done anything but stand by while the world ‘goes to hell in a hand-cart’.  Having sent his Son, he established the Church – and organisation of people who would carry on calling the people of the world to repentance….calling their neighbours and friends to live by God’s laws…and continuing to prayer with their hearts and their hands those profound words, ‘Thy Kingdom Come’.

And that, finally, is what Jesus calls us to carry on doing…until the time that God’s reign is completely and definitively established.  In our Gospel reading, Jesus reminds us that we cannot know when that day will come.  Only God knows when the Kingdom will be finally and fully established.  But , he gives us a sacred task to carry out until that day finally comes.  We are those who, in the words of the Gospel, are to ‘keep awake’.  We are to be constantly ready – like a house-owner who waits for the thief in the night.  We are to be alert…alert to every sign of the Kingdom.

Because, while we wait for the completion of the  Justice and Mercy of God, there is a very real sense in which God is already among us, already coming – in fact already here. 

Back in October, I took around £2,500 to Ghana, to bring the simple gift of water to a priest and his family…thanks in no small measure to the donations that many of you made.  Justice and mercy were enacted that day.  In a very real sense, Jesus came to Father Angelo and his family. 

And every time a family is raised up out of poverty, Jesus comes. 

Every time a war-monger lays down his weapons, Jesus comes. 

Every time a lonely person finds a friend in our community café, Jesus comes. 

Every time a poverty stricken family is fed by the Portsmouth Foodbank, Jesus comes.

And so, we are entitled to ask, like every small child, ‘Are we there yet?’.  The answer, as every car-driving parent knows is ‘nearly’.    We are nearly there!  Signs of the kingdom are all around us.  Our task, like an alert house-owner, is to keep awake.  See the signs of the kingdom with open eyes, and join in with the activity of God, wherever it is found.

Amen