Easter 3 - You Will be My Witnesses

Jesus said:  ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.' (Luke 24.46-48)

I wonder whether any of you have ever had to be a witness in a law court.  It’s something I’ve been asked to do on quite a few occasions.  It comes with the territory of being a pastor; sometimes to people who have got themselves into strange and difficult situations!

As a result, I perhaps have a slightly unhealthy obsession with court-room dramas, and especially court-room stories.  Like the one I heard last week, in which a lawyer was questioning a Doctor, who was a witness in a trial.  The lawyer asked the witness, "Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?"
The witness replied "No."
"Did you check for blood pressure?"
"No."
"Did you check for breathing?" asked the Lawyer
"No."
"So,” the Lawyer asserted, “it is possible that the patient was still alive when you began the autopsy?"
"No." said the Doctor
"How can you be so sure, Doctor?"
"Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar."
"But,” asked the lawyer “could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?"
"Yes, replied the witness, “it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere."

The legal system depends on witnesses.  We need people who can give reliable accounts of events so that proper judgments can be made.  And we need those witnesses to be credible.  Time and again, when I’ve been a witness, people that I’m supporting with my testimony have routinely asked ‘You will wear your dog-collar, won’t you?’.  Poor things – they seem to believe that someone with a clerical collar is likely to be more credible than someone in a suit.  Probably because they don’t know me very well!

Jesus needed reliable witnesses too.  He knew that the best way of spreading the Good News of his resurrection was to get people talking about it – people whose credibility could not be in doubt.  So, let’s look at the people whom he chose.  Strangely, these were not lawyers, judges, policemen or even priests!  Jesus’ disciples were a rag-tag bunch of ordinary, everyday people – or what English politicians keep calling ‘hard working families’.  

By the way - I wonder what our main political parties  would have made of Jesus in their notion of society.  He was a wanderer, who lived off the charity of others, and who generated no income by his labour.   I don’t think many English politicians would have liked Jesus very much.  To them he would have been a scrounger, who deserved no support from the rest of society.  We should perhaps be a little concerned when the only value we place on someone is the question of how hard they work to pay taxes.   Our politicians need to remember, I think, that there are many ways of contributing to society…being ‘hard working’ is only one of them.

Anyway – back to the disciples.  Hard working men and women.  Many were fishermen.  Some were civil servants.  One, Simon the Zealot was thought to be a Canaanite…a non-Jew…a foreigner who travelled with Jesus living off the charity of others!  (UKIP wouldn’t have liked that!).   Some commentators believe that Matthew might have been a pub landlord!   Ordinary men and women.  Men and women with jobs and families.  Men and women, in fact, just like you and me.

It was ordinary people that Jesus chose to be his credible witnesses.  Ordinary people who had, only days before, abandoned him to his fate, and run away.  Ordinary people who still didn’t understand the reasons for Jesus death and resurrection.  Ordinary people who were not theologians.  Even now, in today’s story, Jesus has to patiently explain the Scriptures to them.  They haven’t got it yet.  They are not complete.  Their theology is only just beginning to take hold.  But to Jesus – they are just what he needs.

“You will be my witnesses” he says – to them, and to ordinary people, just like us.

But what is it that Jesus wants them to be witnesses about?

Well, in the passage we just read, there are four key ideas that Jesus says his disciples are witnesses of.  Let’s hear it once more:

“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer(1) and to rise from the dead on the third day (2), and that repentance (3) and forgiveness of sins (4) is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

So, disciples are first of all witnesses to the idea that the Messiah is to suffer.  Jesus’ suffering is key to understanding Jesus’ mission.  It is through his willing self-sacrifice – even to the point of torture and execution – that Jesus points us to the way that the world will be saved.  The world will not be saved by political power and military might – the very things that nailed him to the cross.  I think it may have been Rowan Williams who first introduced me to the ‘myth of redemptive violence’.  In other words, the world is locked into a myth, that somehow we can make the world a better place – that we can redeem it – through violence.    The ‘myth of redemptive violence’ is what drives us to keep on creating ever larger war machines.  We somehow delude ourselves into thinking that if we can just get more guns than the bad guys, we will be able to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a pacifist.  If you try to shoot me after the service, I will shoot back!  We need our armed forces, and I praise God for every peacemaker among them.  But, I hate to say it, the use of force will never be enough to overcome evil.  Evil will always find a way of nailing up the Son of God onto a cross.  If you need evidence of that statement – just look at how a million Christians in the middle east are currently fleeing for their lives from the Islamic State hornets’ nest that was stirred up by our ‘righteous war on terror’.

Jesus calls his witness to shout out from the hilltops that violence is not the way.  He reminds us in the garden of Gethsemane that ‘he who lives by the sword will die by the sword’.  On the cross, Jesus allows the violence of the world to overwhelm him, and then, by the power of Love – the Love of a parent for a child – he overcomes the violence, and rises from the dead in a new a resurrected body.  The first born of the dead.  The first-fruits of those who sleep.  Death is overcome, violence becomes irrelevant.  Love conquers all.  Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

So the second thing we are witnesses to is resurrection.  And the third and fourth, in a last few minutes, are that repentance leads to the forgiveness of sins.  At the very start of his ministry (when you remember, he was living off the charity of others) Jesus cried out ‘repent’…or ‘turn around’ (which is the more accurate meaning of the word he used).  Turn away from human ways of living and turn towards God.  Turn away from the myth of redemptive violence.  Turn away from economic systems that keep the poor in poverty and keep the wealthy in power.  Turn away from political ideas that shut-out the stranger, and those which propagate the Dickensian lie that charity begins at home.

Then finally, the witnesses of Jesus can say, there is forgiveness.  Forgiveness for seeking more than our daily bread.  Forgiveness for trying to make our Kingdom on earth instead of God’s.   Forgiveness for our lack of forgiveness to those who have trespassed against us.

Then, and only then, will the new heaven and the new earth promised at the very end of the Bible come to pass.  Then, and only then, will the true power of the death and resurrection of Jesus be known.   Not some heavenly transaction to wipe away an individual’s sin… but a wholesale, full-scale, radical re-ordering of the whole of human life.  Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That’s what Jesus called his followers to be witness too.  That’s what we are still called to witness to.  That is our vocation and our calling.
Amen.

Mothering Sunday 2015

Luke 2: 21-35

Motherhood is something that most people have to grow into. It’s a road that is paved with all sorts of good intentions…many of which get thrown out of the window the first time that your darling little baby turns to you and says ‘No…I won’t!’.  Motherhood – and for that matter fatherhood – sort of creeps up on us. Here are five signs which conclusively prove that you have become a mother – which I found on the internet:
1. You start spending regular half hours in the bathroom…just to be alone!
2. You start hoping that tomato ketchup is a vegetable, because it’s the only one that your child eats.
3. You find that, without thinking about it, you’ve cut off the crusts of your husband’s sandwiches
4. You hear your own Mother’s voice coming out of your mouth when you say “NOT in your best clothes!”

And finally…the most telling sign of all…
5. You use your own spit to clean your child’s face.

This morning’s gospel reading invites us to consider something of both the joy and the pain of motherhood. When Mary and Joseph presented their new son Jesus to the Lord at the Temple, Simeon prophesied over the child – whom he recognised by divine light to be the promised Messiah. And his prophecy contained some strange words – topsy turvey words: “This child is destined to cause the rising and falling of many in Israel…” (Luke 2:34)

Mary exalted at this prospect. There was real joy in the gift of motherhood she had been given, because she glimpsed something of the potential of the child she had borne.

But there is a darker edge to the prophecy of Simeon too. At the end of his promises, there is a dark foreboding in his final line: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:35).

Simeon knows his Scriptures. He knows, for example, that Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would have to die to achieve his ultimate goal of redeeming Israel. He knows that the path Jesus must tread is going to a difficult one.

What Mary doesn’t yet know, at this point is that she will find herself at the foot of her son's cross - watching him die, having been deserted by all the crowds, and all the followers, expect John.

So - from the example and story of Mary, we see that both joy and pain are inevitable, normal aspects of what it means to be a mother.

There's something else about Mary's story which should give us pause for thought.  Like most mothers of her day, Mary worked out her joy and pain as a mother in community.   Mary had her cousin, Elizabeth, to support her during the earliest stages of her pregnancy.  At Jesus' birth she had the companionship of Joseph, and the shepherds and wise men.  In the story we've just read, Mary and Joseph present Jesus to the priests of the Temple, so that by his circumcision he can be welcomed into the community of faith.  During the visit to Jerusalem, when Jesus gets lost, the family travel with many pilgrims.  Even at the end of Jesus life, Mary has the support of Mary Magdelene, and of John.

Motherhood is never something which should be done in isolation.  As a church, we have a duty to support mothers in the joyful, painful, testing, glorious calling of motherhood.  Within this parish we enable lots of different ways for that to happen.  Dynamo Youth Theatre gives youngsters the chance to grow through drama.  The new All Aboard Club, gives space for children to grow before and after school – every day.  NCH Action for Children run a support group every Friday in our church hall.  The MumBaba group on Thursday mornings helps toddlers to learn music, dance and social skills.  The Rainbows group on Tuesday evenings teaches young girls valuable life skills.  Our Sunday School teachers, week by week, are giving support to families, by teaching our youngsters the things of God.  All of these opportunities help children to grow and develop, and therefore also supports their mothers.

All these things we can do because we are a church!  I feel so incredibly sorry for mothers who try to do the hard work of bringing up children all by themselves.  So many mothers in our Borough think that the only additional support they have as mothers is to plonk their child in front of a Playstation of C-Beebies!.  But as a church, a body of people, we are stronger together - we can support one another, as well as the local community.  

I wonder whether you've thought about that before?  Have you ever thought that one of the main reasons for coming to church, is quite simply - to serve your neighbour?  The church's primary task - the primary goal given to it by Christ  is to carry the gospel, the good news about God, into the world.  (Matthew 28).  Part of that good news is that people are stronger, happier, better when they live in community with one another - as members of the body of Christ.

That is something worth bearing in mind the next time you don't feel like coming to church...the next time that you want to pull the duvet over your head and go back to sleep.  We don't come to church for our benefit - we come to church for the benefit of the community.

But when we stay at home, when we can't be bothered to come...we leave a gap.  When we are not here, our seat is empty - and so are the hearts of those we would have encountered...including
⦁ that elderly person who has spent the week on their own, and is desperate for some human company
⦁ including that young couple who are starting out in life, and need the guidance, love and support of people who've been married for years
⦁ including that mother who has been coping with a crying baby all week - and needs to see your friendly smile, and gain your assurance that crying is normal, there's nothing wrong with her baby.
⦁ including that young woman who has not yet been blessed with a child - but who is supported through her grief and anxiety by the love of those around her.

When we come to church, we show by our very presence that we believe in community.  By committing ourselves to being here we act as mothers to those around us…and we create a community that reaches out and touches others.  People walking into a full church of many people will be drawn to that community.

In other words - don't only come to church for your benefit. Don’t even come just to worship God.   Come to church because being here is part of your duty, part of your calling, your vocation, to be a Christian who lives in community with other Christians.  Come to church because it is as church that we have the capacity to become all God made us to be – as people who need people.

I need you.  I hope you need me!  We certainly need each other, and mothers need us.  Just like Mary needed the people around her at the birth of her son, and again at his death, mothers today need us.

So on this Mothering Sunday, we thank God for all Mothers - and for the joy, privilege and incredible challenge of motherhood.    We remember that motherhood is a calling which brings great joy, but can also bring great pain...and we pray for all mothers, and those who feel called to be mothers.

But at the same time we recognise that, as Mary taught us, the best motherhood is carried out in community with others and, I pray, we dedicate ourselves to being part of that community.

Just like Mary did.

Amen

Deny Yourself, Take up your Cross and Follow Me. A Sermon for Lent 2

“If any want to become my disciples, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  (Mark 8.34)

We stand – or in your case, sit – in a very ancient place.  According to the histories I’ve been reading in recent days, Christians have worshipped here for at least a thousand years – and possibly a lot longer.  And throughout those years, I’ve no doubt that one of Jesus’ most famous sayings has rung around these walls time and time again:  “If any want to become my disciples, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me”.

As I say, I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of sermons on this text – so I hope you won’t object if I now offer you my own take on this saying.

Let’s first breakdown this saying into its constituent parts.   Jesus says, boldly, that if anyone wants to be worthy of the term disciple, they must do three things:  deny self, take up a cross, and follow him.  Let’s examine each of these in turn – meaning of course that I have a nice three point sermon for you!

1.  Deny Thyself.   One advantage that we modern worshippers have over our forebears is that psychology has taught us a great deal about ‘The Self’.  In fact, the notion of ‘self’ is a very ancient idea.  Eastern religions have known for centuries that what we call our ‘self’ can be a tricky thing indeed. Our sense of self – our desires, our personal feelings about things, our perceived needs, wants, fears and angers – these can separate us from God and from the world around us.  We can become too wrapped up in our self to notice and appreciate what is around us.  

Psychologists have taught us the Greek word ‘ego’ – but that has become a problematic word.  Tell someone that their ego is too big, and they will think you are calling them arrogant.  Whereas what is really meant is that a person’s sense of their own importance in the great scheme of things is blinding them to reality.

The Catholic Theologian Richard Rohr might be able to help us to discover what is truly meant by the term ‘self’.  He separates our sense of self into two constituent parts – what we might call the ‘small self’ and the ‘true self’.  Another short-hand for this is the notion of our Spirit and our Soul.

What do we mean when we talk about a person’s spirit?  We might talk about them as having a spirit of kindness, or a spirit of anger.  Our spirit is our ‘small self’.  It is our ego.  It is what life has made us.  It is influenced by all the things that have happened to us…our challenges, our joys, our fears, our wants.  It is also the identities that we have built around ourselves…the titles we have given ourselves.  Our spirit can dictate the kind of people we are – it can drive us to do wonderful things.  It can drive us to do terrible things.

When someone insults me, or fails to give me the respect I think I’m due, it is my small self, my spirit, that is wounded.  The spirit is the place where pride resides.  It’s the place where hurt pride resides as well.

But our soul…that’s another thing altogether.  Our soul is our ‘True Self’.  It is the self we were given when we first entered the world.  Our soul is the part of us that is unsullied by life, the part that is connected to God from our birth. Our true self is the pure essence of who we are…a son or daughter of God.   The danger of course, is that our soul can be polluted, corrupted and changed by our spirit.  When we talk about saving our souls, we mean that we need our souls to be washed, purified of the effects of our spirit, our small self, our ego.  We need to return to our ‘True Selves’ – the beautiful, divine spark that is within us, unencumbered by the effects that the world has had on our ‘small self’ – our spirit.

So when Jesus says that to be his disciple we need to ‘deny ourselves’ – this is what he is pointing to.  We need to be ‘born again’ – that is reborn spiritually.  We need to allow our world-affected spirit to recede, and let our True Self as a pure son or daughter of God emerge, washed and purified.  In the language of last week’s call to repentance, we need to wake up to who we are – and how we have become who we are.  We need to develop our understanding about who we are and why we do the things we do, think the things we think, act the ways we act.  These are usually dictated by the small self.  Rarely do we find the grace to act out of the beauty of our true self.

But how shall we do this?  How can we begin to find our true selves among the noise and chaos created by our ego, our small self, our spirit?  This brings us to the second part of Jesus’ three point plan!  He calls us to ‘take up our cross’.

The cross has many meanings – many of which we will explore together during Holy Week and especially Good Friday.  It may surprise you to know that the Cross is a much older symbol than Christianity.  For many ancient religions, including for the Eqyptians and the Hindus, the Cross was a simple symbol that points us to an eternal truth…the truth that we live in the middle of a great battle between the spiritual and physical worlds.  The arms of the cross signify the physical plane on which we live.  East – West…we live on an apparently flat plane of existence.  But the vertical slash of the cross intersects that plane.  The world is infused by God, and by the spiritual realms that are unseen, and yet present with us.  Our task is to live in the mid-point of the intersection.  We need to learn how to live at the very centre of the cross, to find the balance point between heaven and earth, between the spiritual and the physical.

But crucially, as Jesus showed us, this is where we also have to die.  On the cross, in the intersection between heaven and earth, we learn how to die to self, and live for God.  There, where Jesus died for us, we need to let our small selves die too…so that we can be reborn with him.

How?  How can we die and yet live?  This is where the third part of Jesus’ three point plan comes into effect.  We die to self by following him.  Jesus is our leader, our Lord, and our King.  It is his rules that we are called to follow.  It is his way of loving self-sacrifice that will save our souls from the effects of our spirit.  We need to give up the false claims of the world, dying to any idea that having a nice house, or a new car, or money in the bank will have any impact whatsoever on eternity.  A wise man once said that no matter how big your house is, your grave will be the same size as everyone else’s.

We who claim the title of disciple are called to a completely new way of being.  It’s a way that has been preached for a thousand years in this building…but it is a way that I suggest we are only just beginning to truly grasp.  We need to come to Jesus, and follow him and his ways, in order to find rest for our very souls.  

That is what disciples of Jesus do.

Against the Motion that ‘God is Dead’

Today (27th Feb 2015) I have been given 2/3 minutes to speak against the Motion that 'God is Dead' at the Havant College Debating Society.  Here's what I plan to do with my three minutes.  Does my (very brief!) argument persuade you?  Do comment below.

I’ve been invited to speak against the motion that ‘God is dead’.

My response is this:  it all depends on what kind of God we are talking about.  Or perhaps I should phrase that as a question to you: ‘what do you think God is like?’

Many people, sadly, think of God as some sort of white bearded Heavenly Headmaster, who sits on a cloud, dispensing rules and handing out favours to his favourite students.  I hope that kind of God is dead.  That is the Santa Claus God – the Hollywood God - the kind of God that some footballers thank when they score a goal.  That is the sort of God who one might equate to a vending machine.  Put in the right prayers, and get the answer you seek.  I’m glad that he – and it always seems to be a ‘he’ – is dead.  HE deserves to be.

But that is not the kind of God that religions (and thoughtful religious teachers) have been speaking about for thousands of years. The Alive God is neither male nor female.  The Alive God is what many Anglicans and Catholics refer to as ‘the Ground of our Being’ – the creative energy that connects and sustains the whole Universe.  The Alive God is the one of whom the Bible says ‘God is Love’, and who Hindus revere as the Supreme Spirit, the Brahman.  Unknowable.  Perceivable only by experiencing that God’s action in the human soul.

Can I prove that such God exists?  Not in the way that a scientist can prove that this chair is solid.  But science itself is constantly discovering that there is more to reality than meets the eye.  This chair is not actually solid.  Energy waves and certain molecules can pass right through it.  The fundamental particles of which it is made might well be in two places at once, depending on whether one is looking at them.  And it might be only one copy of the same chair that exists in billions of parallel universes.

To those who would easily dismiss the whole idea of God that I advocate, let me conclude with this thought:  there are 7 billion people in the world.  And around 6.5 billion of them believe in something that is deeper, greater, higher, lower and beyond than the everyday reality we experience.  Some call that something ‘God’ – and 6.5 billion people think of that something as very much alive.   My life mission is to uncover all I can about that kind of God…and I invite anyone who is interested to join me.

Repent! A Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent

One of the real delights about moving house is that you tend to discover just how dirty your home is.  You have much loved items of furniture, which you’ve lived happily alongside for years – and then you move them.  Suddenly, you see all the dust and grease that has accreted around them.  No longer the loved items of furniture you’ve happily lived with…they are festering piles of goo…and you have to overcome the urge to take them all to the tip and start again!

Take my freezer, for example.  I have been cheerfully loading and unloading bags of food from my freezer for years.  But it was only this week that I noticed that all around the edge of the door, a dirty film of filth has accumulated.  How did it get there?  It’s not as though I’ve been wiping lumps of ice-cream up and down the edge of the door every time I use it!  But there it was, a great sticky mass of slime,  that had to be scraped off with a knife, and one of those green washing-up pads. 

You see, I couldn’t just leave it there.  I had been alerted to a new reality.  No longer was my freezer the bright shiny receptacle for lovely things that I had always believed it to be.  Suddenly, I had been given a very different view of it…I had to wake up and smell the coffee. I had to get real. I had to turn around the way I looked at my freezer, and embrace the reality of the situation.

When Jesus came along, and cried out ‘repent’ – he meant something similar.  He wasn’t thinking about freezers, of course!  The word he used was ‘metanoia’ – which has many complex layers of meaning.  But those meanings coalesce around the notion of turning around, facing in a new direction, changing one’s mind about things.  Our English word ‘repent’ doesn’t really do justice to metanoia.  Repentance is about feeling sorry for past actions.  It’s a Middle English word with a Latin and Old French root – paenitere (pen –i-tere) – which was all about feeling remorseful. 

But Jesus was calling for something rather more radical than just feeling sorry.  In fact Jesus didn’t seem to be all that interested in remorse.  To the woman caught in adultery he simply said ‘Your sins are forgiven.  Go and sin no more’.  Rather, Jesus was calling for a complete change of mind.  He wanted his followers to wake up and see the world for what it really is.

You see, most of us go around with quite a complex set of delusions, about the world, about other people, and about ourselves.  Jesus’ radical notion was that we should begin to see those things as God sees them; not as we limited human beings perceive them through our limited eyes, ears and brains.

Jesus had a short-hand for the way God sees the world…he called it ‘God’s Kingdom’.  When we begin to glimpse the world, ourselves and other people as God sees them; then we begin to live as people of the Kingdom.

Let’s do a little thought-experiment together.  What do you think the world is like?  The answer you give to yourself will depend a great deal on your experiences of the world.  If you have only every lived on a tropical island, with food hanging ripe from every tree, then the world will seem a pretty wonderful place.  If, on the other hand, you have lived in a dry desert, or had your house torn apart by a tornado, your view of the world will be something quite different.

The reality, of course is that the world is something else altogether.  We need to look realistically at the world.  God didn’t create the world to give you and me a luxury dwelling, and a guaranteed safe future:  he made it to offer us challenges, to help us grow spiritually and emotionally, as we learn how to care for each other, for other species, for the very environment of the Earth as much as God cares for them.

Let’s try another thought experiment.  Picture in your mind someone who really annoys you.  They might be a family member.  They might be a church member!  Hopefully, on my first Sunday, none of you are thinking about me yet!  Let yourself, just for a moment, feel some of the anger that you have about that person.  Aren’t they just so annoying?!  They are so smug!  They always think they are right!  They never say sorry!  They have no concept of how much they hurt me that time!  And now…Stop.

Stop and wonder how God sees them.  Could it be that God sees them as a Father sees a child?  Could it be that God sees them as still needing to grow into all that they can be?  Could it be that God sees all the things they’ve been through in their life that has made them like they are?  God was watching when they were taught how to behave by a dysfunctional parent.  God was there when they were abused, or bullied, or deprived, or used.  God saw how the character they have today is a result of all that they have been through and the environment in which they first grew. 

And how does God react to them?

God loves them.  Those ‘other people’ – especially the ones who really rile you – they are not saints.  But that doesn’t stop God loving them, nor caring for them, nor wanting them to grow as human beings to become all they can become.

And that’s also how much God loves you!  With all your faults and human weakness.  God loves you.  Get rid of that delusion that you are somehow perfect…that weird delusion that you’ve never done anything to upset anyone (which is where your anger about other people comes from).  In the eyes of God, you and I are no better than anyone else…and possibly a little bit worse than some.  

Yet he still loves us.  By offering us the free gift of forgiveness, he restores our self-respect.  He removes the need to justify ourselves.

In Lent, Jesus encourages us to ‘Get real’ about ourselves.  Only when we’ve learned to see ourselves as God sees us, and learned to see the world as God sees it, will we ever truly understand what it means to ‘Love our neighbours as we love ourselves’. 

Get real, in Lent.  Turn around, and see the world as it really is.  Wake up and smell the coffee.  Then, you will be eager to love your neighbours.  Then you will be eager to pass on some of the love you have experienced in Christ. 

The kingdom of God has come near.  Turn around, repent, and believe the Good News.  Get real about yourself, the world and others.  Forget the dream world of self-created fantasies, and join in with God’s activity in the real world he created – which is the only place where true joy can be found.    Amen  

Ash Wednesday 2015

Homily for Ash Wednesday 2015 - My first sermon to St Faith's Havant as Rector

It is still horribly cold…but the days are beginning to lengthen at last!  And that’s where we get the word ‘Lent’ from.  The old English word ‘lenten’ means the time of lengthening and growing days. For centuries, that time of growth has been a pointer to the idea of spiritual growth and renewal.

Traditionally, spiritual growth and renewal has always been assisted by penitence, fasting, giving to the poor, and prayer.  None of these ideas are only about self-denial.  Like anointing with oil, fasting was believed to be a purifying and strengthening challenge…a preparation for some challenge yet to come.  And the idea of giving things up for Lent was always balanced by the requirement to give something out to the poor:  for we surely cannot claim to love the God whom we have not seen if we do not love the poor at our door that we do see.

That is why each year our Bishop invites us to participate in his Lent Appeal.  This is an extra call on our purses – at a time when we are encouraged to think most deeply about what it means to be a follower of a Lord who gave up everything for us.  This year, Bishop Christopher is inviting us to contribute to two causes: one at home, and one abroad.  At home, we will be called on to support work among those suffering from mental health issues; abroad, we will be supporting the work of the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation, which provides surgery and rehabilitation for victims of violence.  Pat, our curate, recently spent time in the Holy Land with other curates, where she visited BASR.  We’ll be hearing more about her experiences later in Lent.

This is a time for tidying up and preparing for Spring and Easter. Having just taken over the enormous grounds of Meadowlands, I’m especially conscious of the need to clear away dead leaves, trim the bushes, plant new seeds.  I’ve especially had fun mowing down the two-foot high grass that was left by the last tenants!
This is a time for tidying our spiritual lives as well.  In a moment, I will invite you all to receive the sign of the cross, drawn in ashes and olive oil on your foreheads.  This is a sign of repentance…a sign that we recognise ourselves to be human beings who fail – and who seek the forgiveness of our heavenly father.

This then is the heart of Lent…growth and spiritual renewal stem from an appreciation of who we are…failing human beings.  We are like a plant that needs the sun.  We cannot grow without the love, wisdom and power of our heavenly father.  That’s why, alongside the Bishop’s Lent Appeal, we also invite you to participate in a Lent Course.  The Christians of Havant are combining their resources to provide a course on almost every day of the week during Lent.  Let me encourage you to sign up for one of those course…take the chance to deepen your understanding of the wisdom and power of God to transform and change you.

As we receive the Ashes, today, we will be reminded that we are ‘but dust…from dust you came and to dust you shall return;’.  To the modern ear this sounds a rather morbid thought…but actually it’s intended to remind us, very simply of what we are…

We are made of dust.  Stardust, in fact…our atoms once burned in the heart of the Universe before they became grouped together with the ball of rock we call Planet Earth.  From the nutrients, atoms and molecules of that planet, each of us came forth.  Our mothers ate what the planet provided, and we came forth.  We are the product of a physical and biological process.  But what else are we?

Christians proclaim that yes, we are made of Stardust…but we are also given life by the Spirit and Power of the living God.  It is his power that sustains us, his wisdom that guides us, and his forgiveness which frees us to become all that we can become as Children of God.  From dust we came, and to dust we shall return…but thanks be to God:  our Spirits will sing, and our souls will be set free.

So let me invite you to receive the Ash cross this year, as a sign of your commitment to carry on growing in God…to reach beyond the dust from which you were made, to become the child of God you were destined to be.

Amen

The Baptism of Christ - Last Sermon to The Parish of North End Portsmouth Team Ministry

Last week, during our midweek Mass, we heard the story of Jesus walking on the water.  Today has a watery theme as well, with the story of the baptism of Christ.  Both stories remind me of the cartoon that I saw on Facebook this week.  It was a religious cartoon…but not of the prophet Mohammed.  Rather, it showed Jesus as a toddler, standing on the water of his bath-tub, while his mother Mary pointed to the water and said ‘in’!  I hope no-one decides to shoot the comic who drew that cartoon!  Je suis Charlie!

Today we celebrate the Baptism of Christ, which for Jesus marked the beginning of his public ministry.  The irony of the moment is, of course, that at the same time we are marking the conclusion of my public ministry here in this parish.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I am not equating myself to Jesus!  One of the stranger facts about his baptism is that Jesus chose to be baptised despite being sinless – so there’s definitely no comparison with me there!  Why did Jesus choose to do this?  Why go through a ceremony which implied the washing away of sin, to mark the beginning of his ministry?

Baptism was then, and is still now, a symbol of new life.  It was one of the ways that a gentile could convert to the Jewish faith.  It was, and still is, a powerful symbol of making a fresh start, and of starting along a new road of faith.  I think Jesus wanted us to see him as someone who is prepared to walk that same road with us.  By subjecting himself to baptism, Jesus identifies with us.  He declares that he is our brother, and that he will walk along faith’s road with us.

As I look back over the last six and a half years, I am in no doubt that Jesus has been walking along our road of faith with us.  Today is a good day to give thanks to God for all he has accomplished among us as he has walked with us.

We might give thanks for lives sustained and needs met through the community café, or through our pastoral visiting team.  We might give thanks for the music and laughter we’ve enjoyed together at countless social events, barn dances, quiz nights, choir concerts, and Songs of Praise.

We might give thanks for the funds we’ve raised together to touch the lives of people beyond this parish – some of whom will never know we even exist.  Just think of the funds YOU have raised for
Christian Aid,
the Children’s Society,
Isubilu’s work with sex workers in Zambia,
Bungokho’s rural development work in Uganda,
the Portsmouth Women’s Refuge,
the tons of food you’ve gathered for the Portsmouth Foodbank,
the Roberts Centre,
the annual appeal for vouchers for Churches Homeless Action,
Bishop’s Lent Appeals,
and latterly, the work of the church in Ghana.

Incidentally, Bishop Matthias was hoping to be with us today…but problems with his Visa have prevented it.  It comes to something when a Bishop of the Anglican Church struggles to get to England, doesn’t it?  I wonder if we are becoming just a bit too paranoid about foreigners coming to our country?  Bishop Matthias has asked me to send you his love and his greetings – and his promise of prayer for you in the coming months as my successor is identified.

But let’s get back to fundraising.  The list I just read is really only scratching the surface and of course it makes no mention of the regular sustained, committed giving and fundraising that you have done to maintain our three churches as beacons of the Kingdom in this area.

We might give thanks for the growth in faith that we have seen among so many lives.  All around us, Christianity is under severe attack.  A tide of consumerism, mixed with secularism, atheism and apathy has led to the closing of many churches.  In this parish, with the exception of the Roman Catholic church and the tiny Quaker meeting house…every other major church denomination is gone.  Our Anglican neighbours on either side are struggling…numbers have been falling at every neighbouring church.  But we have been blessed.  Across our parish, we have managed to maintain and even grow our congregations, and our finances are in good shape.

Yes…my friends.  We have much to be thankful for.  How many parishes of our size could maintain three church buildings and four community halls, with plans well advanced to bring a fifth hall back into use?  How many parishes of our size could run:
a daily community café,
and a Pre-School nursery,
and a music group
and a robed choir,
a Grade one pipe organ,
and a messy church,
and a café church,
and a monthly Evensong,
and fish & chip lunches,
and Ladies Breakfasts
and The Rock,
and two 8am communions,
and four midweek services,
and regular study courses?

How many parishes of our size would have so many organisations linked to them? –Everything from Alcoholics Anonymous, to the Brownies and the Scouts, martial arts training, a male voice choir, a line dancing class and five slimming and weight-watching classes!  This parish is a truly remarkable place – and we have so much to be thankful for.

What’s more, I am certain that God has amazing things yet in store for this parish.  Thanks to the help we’ve been receiving from our Bishop and Diocese, not least in helping to pay for Dave, our Parish Development Officer, there are some really exciting new plans coming down the pipe.  There is the very real prospect of a redevelopment of much of the St Nicholas site, with a new hall and refurbished church to ‘Connect Copnor’.  At St Mark’s, there are concrete plans taking shape to ensure that ‘every square inch’ of the building is used effectively for the mission of the church – and that the dreadful ramps finally consigned to history!

Last year, at our Annual Meeting we set a vision for ourselves…a vision summarised on a noticeboard in each church.  Our vision was intended to guide us in five key areas:
1) grow deeper into our spiritual foundations,
2) grow younger by reaching out to the next generation.
3) tell God’s story with more passion and clarity,
4) serve our local community with even more love and devotion, and
5) provide even better buildings as vibrant signs of the Kingdom.
That’s the vision that you agreed last year, and it’s a vision I encourage you to keep on following.  Keep reminding yourselves of it…LOOK at the noticeboard from time to time!

Let’s get back to our reading!  This Sunday, this Feast of the Baptism of Christ, can be a baptismal moment for us too.  Today we remember how in a simple act of ritual washing, Jesus symbolically embarked on the most vital period of his ministry.  We too are about to engage in a simple ritual act together…around this table…the act of receiving God’s gift of spiritual food for our spiritual journey.  Let’s make this act of coming together an act of commitment to God, to one another and to the future.

My personal journey is leading in a different direction – something that I am both excited about, but also sad.  There is sadness because I’ve grown deeply attached to so many of you…and I shall miss you.  Sad, because I won’t get to experience first-hand all that I know God has in store for this parish in the coming years.  But I also leave with gratitude in my heart.  Gratitude for all that God has taught me here, about myself, and about the kind of priest I’m called to be.  But gratitude to so many of you too.

So thank you, for all that you are and all that you have been.  Thank you for the hours of rehearsals or administration, or cleaning or gardening or maintaining, or sitting on committees or serving in the Café.  Thank you the prayerfulness, and for the companionship you have given to so many parishioners in their homes and over tea-pots and toasted sandwiches.  Thank you for your unstinting faithfulness in fundraising and in caring for one another.  Thank you for being steadfast in worship, and in giving.  Thank you for being hopeful and joyful.

I am certain that God has so much yet in store for North End.  I wish you joy in his service.  Amen.