Going home...a homily for Lent 2 C

At our Lent groups this year we are exploring Henri Nouwen's book “The return of the prodigal son” - a deep, sustained meditation on the parable as it's presented in the Rembrandt painting. On Thursday we focussed on what it means for the son to leave home, on his rebellion and his wanderings. We explored the ways that we too leave our true home with God, through the choices we make every day...and began to imagine what homecoming might mean for both son and father.

If that first session is anything to go on, I think we are in for an engaging and thought-provoking Lent.

Of course you'll have noticed that today's readings do NOT feature the prodigal son in any way shape or form...but they are, I think, very much about the journey home...and about that Love that invites us all to make our home with Him.

Our Genesis reading introduces us to Abram –already embarked on the journey of faith that transformed his life.

Abram and Sarai, a childless couple leaving home – on the strength of a promise that home and family lie ahead ..a family as numerous as the stars in the sky.

A family wedded to their land, but asked to leave it behind them...with no idea where they might finally settle.

It's either madness or faith – (have you noticed how often they seem rather similar!)..

but Abram “believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness”

and we know that in due time God's promises were made good, the gift of a child was given and a new homeland claimed.

Our journey too takes us to a new place...somewhere we never expected to find ourselves.

We too are asked to leave behind the ways in which we have sought security...

“Our citizenship is in heaven” says Paul.

What a thought...that we might have a new identity, a transformed security found not in material things nor in human relationships but in the place that WE have been promised...and the central relationship that we can have with God.

“One thing I have asked of the Lord; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the fair beauty of the Lord....”

Those words from psalm 27 were printed on my ember card, when I was ordained priest – to encourage me to take a longer view...

When I'm in danger of getting bogged down by the demands of parish life, when I seem to be making all the wrong choices, when the voices in my head are telling me

“This enterprise is doomed” then I need that reminder...that I, and those I care for, are travelling home to the place where we will see for ourselves the fair beauty of the Lord, the end of all our exploration

(With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
     Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.)

And while we are travelling, taking wrong turnings, mistaking our destination and being distracted by sights along the way ..what's going on for God?

The gospel makes that obvious

He is aching for us...reaching out with endless longing love...never forcing us but totally intent on drawing us to Him.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem...How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing”

Like any parent whose child has gone astray, God is straining forward, his one aim our homecoming.

God longs to shelter us in Love...to welcome us to our true home, the place where each one of us can be fully ourselves, where there is no need to wear a mask, no need to pretend...and no need to fear.

“Do not be afraid Abram.....Kathryn......Eira.....Mary......June....”

Because, surely, home is the place where you are truly safe.

The place where you find sanctuary when life is tough...the place where you are always welcome, no matter what...

Do not be afraid.

You're on the way home...on the way to the place where you belong, the place where you are always welcome,

“Lord you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless til they find their rest in you”

wrote Augustine, no stranger to the excitements and struggles of life...

So journey through Lent in confidence.

Our road may be the way of the cross...for we are called to follow Jesus to Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets...but beyond the cross are the open arms of our Father who says to each one of us

“Welcome home”

All my hope - a response to this morning's "Together at Ten"

"God unknown
He alone calls my heart to be his own"

we sang this morning, to that wonderful Howell's tune "Michael"....and that theme unfolded in so many ways, both intended and unexpected, as the service went on.

We listened to Luke's account of the temptations and realised once again that Lent was our opportunity to make sure that it was God that had our hearts.

We looked at some of my very favourite temptations....the joy of shoes, of white chocolate with raspberries, of lovely shiny technology
Not bad things in themselves, obviously (I do SO love those purple shoes) but not the place to give our hearts.
More insidious, perhaps, is the temptation to let our churches, both the buildings and the whole wonderful, exasperating, joyous muddle of congregational life become an end in themselves.
How often do I substitute doing things FOR God (in the form of God's church) for doing things WITH God......or better yet, allowing God to do things WITH me.

We considered too the temptation to worldly power, that Jesus resisted.
I thought I might not be so very troubled by that one - til I realised how much it matters to me that things in my church are done "properly" (whatever that means - and whatever mad yardstick I may use to measure it)

And I wondered whether the whole "busyness" thing was part and parcel of the same temptation - to make myself indispensable...
"Look how much I'm doing. You can't possibly manage without me. See how full my diary is!".

By the time we'd thought about all that, I was glad that I'd given everyone a scrappy bit of paper on which to note those things which might hold our hearts in thrall, when truly they belong to God.
We talked about spring cleaning our hearts and then shredded those bits of paper, before making new acts of commitment to God, represented by paper hearts to carry with us as we continue our journey through Lent.

For me, it all came together at the offertory, as we sang "Purify my heart".
"My heart's one desire is to be holy, set apart for you Lord
I choose to be holy, set apart for you my Master, ready to do your will".

I choose to be holy.

I know I'm a long way from being able to sing, or say, with complete truth, that this is my one desire...
I want so many things - those caricatured in the "tempting objects" of the morning, but others too, things good in themselves that too easily crowd in to fill the space belonging to God alone.
But for all that, holiness IS a choice...a choice to continue, despite all the innumerable distractions and false leads, despite the lead-weight of baggage that we insist on carting with, to try to come close to God, who promises that, as he has called us, he will make us worthy of that calling.
"God shall call one and all, We who follow shall not fall"

Homily for Lent 1 C

Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.

That's something we need to remember. The wilderness – a landscape of disorientation,loneliness,and deprivation – is nonetheless the place where God's Spirit is present and active.

That may not be the way it felt to Jesus for those 40 days as he fasted and struggled...but though he was famished, empty – he was FULL of the Holy Spirit...the Spirit who never left him, even for a moment.

Standing, as we do, outside the gospel story we might assume that Jesus always knew what would happen, was always sure of himself – but surely as he emptied himself of his divinity to become fully human, Jesus also emptied himself of divine foreknowledge. His wilderness experience was REAL for him – not something manufactured as a teaching point for us.

But against all expectation, that place of deprivation and loneliness became a place of self-discovery and of blessing – for Jesus and for us too.

Each of the temptations offered him were temptations to be LESS than his true self.

“IF you are the Son of God – command this stone to become a loaf”

Why not?

What harm could it do

He was famished, after all.

Jesus knew he COULD produce bread from practically nothing (think of the feeding of the 5000) – but to do so now would be to cheat...to step outside the limitations of his humanity, just for his own benefit.

That's the nub of it.

To value oneself above all else is the root and ground of all genuine temptation – and surely one of the strongest voices in society today...

We're encouraged to see ourselves as privileged consumers, to focus on our own rights, to delight in having free choice in most things.

It's disturbingly easy, as you look at 21^st century western culture, to believe that it really IS all about ME -...so I am thankful that Jesus met this head on.

Not for him “Because I'm worth it...”

Rather in his steadfast insistence that

“We do not live by bread alone” Jesus reminds us that there are things of deeper importance than gratifying our own desires. We are creatures made to exist in relationship – above all in relationship to God, whose word shapes our lives.

So far, so good.

Jesus stays true to himself but next comes the temptation of power, an easy route to victory – all gain with no pain. To yield would mean Jesus ruling the world – but enthralled to Satan and thus so much less than himself.

Later Jesus would show all times and all people that God's power is made perfect in weakness, - for the greatest moment of his glory was when he was lifted on the cross, in powerless vulnerability. I don't think Satan understood that power – not then, not ever.

For now Jesus simply asserts that all worship belongs to God...worship offered elsewhere is meaningless and empty – for worship is all about putting things in their proper order..

God first.

Finally he's encouraged to make God PROVE that he cares.

“Go on.....jump....He'll save you if you're THAT special”

I know I fall into this one again and again....for despite all the evidence I find it hard to really believe that I am loved and worthy of salvation...I doubt the once and for all validity of the love-offering of the cross, continue to struggle with the outrageous grace of a God who cares enough to share our human life AND our human death...triumphantly demonstrating that there's nothing He won't do for us

“Because you're worth it”

Jesus is the proof of God's love – not a needy recipient of it....and in this 3^rd exchange we hear him coming into his own identiy...as the Scripture he speaks becomes in itself a declaration

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test”

Yes, Jesus is quoting...but as he rejects the idea of tempting God he is also sending the tempter packing...routing him from his work of tempting God made man in Christ.

So through these temptations Jesus discovers his true identity and the course he is to take.

The same is true for us.

Our temptations are important in helping us to recognise the flaws and weaknesses, the engrained distortions of reality that we barely notice any more...They may, like those we've heard about today, attract us at first because they seem to be routes to a greater good...but in fact they are byways, leading nowhere.

During Lent, we are each of us invited to spend time considering both who we are and who God calls us to be. That's the point of it all.

We go into our own wilderness to seek God in the silence.

We can be confident that even in that unfriendly landscape the Spirit is there, leading us, helping us to strip away the small props and luxuries that we've come to rely on, enabling us to increase our conscious dependence on Him.

The wilderness is the place where we recognise who we are, our own particular temptations, and face them head on, so that we might come to a deeper understanding of our own nature.

It's quiet out there – a good place to listen...so spend this time listening.

Listen to the voice of your ego, the one that insists “Go on.......because your worth it” and in listening come to a greater understanding of your own struggles and difficulties.

But having listened to yourself, listen even harder to the still small voice of God.

Expect to hear Him – and pay attention to his transforming words of love.

“What are you doing for Lent?”

It's a surprisingly common question – which could safely be translated as “What are you giving up for Lent?”.....but if I'm honest I'd rather start somewhere else.

“Don’t ask what you can do for Lent, but rather what Lent can do for you.”

A good line, which I owe to the former Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster...but one that rather goes against the current grain of the church – where we’re rightly encouraged not JUST to view Lent as a process of giving up, but rather of taking on.

The argument runs thus.

"Instead of pointless self denial, or a mini-detox process – another attempt at those failed New Year resolutions,an exercise in giving up chocolate loudly, just so that other people can see how seriously you take your faith – you'd much better embrace something positive, and use Lent as a time in which to work at making things better."

“BE the change you want to see” is the tag line for this year's “Love life, live Lent” programme...and there are others like it...myriad ways in which you can commit to a different generous task for each of the next 40 days.

And of course it is always good to spend more time in practically loving our neighbours....and there is so much to do...so many ways in which we can and should make a difference.

So - please don’t misunderstand me!

I’m delighted that these projects are running, and I’m looking forward to following some through myself,- but reflecting on our readings for today, I was struck with a sudden anxiety that, in our determination to see Lent make a huge difference to the world around us, we’re somehow missing the point.

This year in particular, as we’ve rushed headlong from Advent, through Christmas and Epiphany tide, to arrive breathless today with but one “green” Sunday in between, - it may be that more activism is not what is called for.

After all, frenetic displacement activity can often be an excellent strategy to avoid working on something we find painful – and part of the purpose of Lent surely remains the call to penitence…which is never easy, and frequently uncomfortable, even painful.

Much safer, after all, to get involved in a community litter picking expedition!

Sign me up now!

Of course, the original point of “giving things up” was to de-clutter heart, mind and soul to allow a clearer focus on the things that need attention, the inner concerns that we may prefer to evade.

“Rend your heart and not your garments” says Joel…

so we do need to spend time this Lent considering those parts of ourselves, our lives and beings that might need rending – tearing out – to enable us to become more fully the people God made us to be.

Those parts which need to go are the ones touched by that unfashionable reality, sin.

It’s amazing how hard it is to bring up the subject, even in a sermon to be preached in the safety of my own church on a day when it would surely be a strange priest who did not even mention sin!

But it seems that sin has become almost a taboo word…I know I tend to skirt round it, to talk about brokenness…failure…destructive habits…and perhaps that’s right when I’m trying to help someone else make sense of their own journey.

But when I come before God to consider the health of my own soul, then surely it’s time to be honest…to look hard at the reality of who I am, and the gulf between that and the person I long to be…and to name those habits of mind and behaviour that ensure that the gap continues to yawn wide.

And the name of those habits – those selfish choices, those failures to trust God with the people I hold most dear, those recurrent patterns of sheer nastiness –, well, that’s sin.

Today we enact the truth of this. We spend time like the psalmist acknowledging our faults, we lament that our sin is ever before us, within us, around us.

Perhaps this Lent might be the time to actually work a bit harder on changing things…on using the wonderful help that the Church offers us in both the general confession and in the sacrament of reconciliation to embark on a new start.

It's not easy – for few truly worthwhile things ever are...but if not easy, it is emphatically worth it...liberating, life-changing, life -giving, soul-transforming.

No matter what we bring before God – we can be confident of the outcome.

Because, wonderfully, once we have confronted the reality of our fallen humanity, we open ourselves to the God who is “ gracious and merciful,slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love”.

The people Joel talked of wept and lamented, but they wept and lamented in the presence of a God who was always ready to forgive and to heal. This is not the end for them but the beginning. Admitting to God that something is wrong with your

soul, or your attitudes, or your relationships, or whatever is the first

step to finding the real joy he means you to have, just as admitting to a doctor that something is wrong with your body is the first step to physical healing.

A dear friend, a priest in another place, told me once that he no longer uses the familiar words “you are dust and to dust you shall return” as he marks his people with the cross on Ash Wednesday.

Instead, he uses some of the loving words of Jesus - perhaps

“I do not call you servants, but friends” “God loves the world so much” “Abide in my love”

As you confront your own sinfulness, hear those words deep in your soul – and let them transform you there.

And in answering the church’s invitation to a holy Lent, don’t be too busy…Love life by all means, - and live Lent too, but do so as one conscious of sin, and open to forgiveness, so that you can truly rejoice in what Lent can, by God's grace, do for you.

"Sometimes it's hard, being a prophet" - Sermon for Triity 6B, Proper

We have a tendency, I think to regard the saints, heroes and heroines in the faith, as people who've got things sorted.

They are the ones who've managed to keep all of the Commandments – even that pesky one about loving your neighbour.

People whose lives are so overwhelmingly full of the joy of the Lord that they float through their days in a kind of glorious golden haze, secure in faith and hope and chock full of love at all times.

Finished products, secure and serene – so focussed on the promises of heaven that earthly struggles pretty much pass them by unnoticed.

If that's your impression, you might just need to think again.

Saints are real people, forthright, outraged, not afraid to take God to task

Saints are people like Teresa of Avila, who exploded one day

“If this is the way you treat your friends, Lord – I'm not surprised you have so few of them”

Her words most definitely struck a chord with me as I looked at today's gospel

Jesus says of his cousin

“Among those born of woman there is none greater than John the Baptist” but despite this affirmation, things don't exactly turn out well for him...(any more, of course, than they do for Jesus)...The story of his death is one of the most gruesome and disturbing in the New Testament. No easy ride for him.

“If that's how you treat your friends...”

Actually, when you're called to be a prophet easy rides are almost unheard of.

Small wonder, then, that most of the great Old Testament prophets resisted their vocation with all that was in them.

“Me? speak truth to power? God, you have to be joking!”

Think of Jonah, bolting for Tarshish when told to take God's message to Nineveh

Or Jeremiah, insisting “How can I speak. I'm only a child...” or Moses, pleading that his stammer disqualified him

Or Amos

“I'm neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I'm a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees”

That sounds wonderfully bucolic and peaceful – but God is adamant

“Go prophesy......”

Background doesn't matter....John the Baptist's father was a priest in the Temple, dedicated to the rites and observances of Jewish tradition...nor was Amos's father a recognised spokesman for God......but God called both their sons and placed HIS words of radical challenge on their lips.

You see, God persists in calling unlikely people

Ordinary souls with no particular gifting, fearful souls who would much sooner stay at home, sceptical souls who aren't really sure that God is still active, truculent souls who fight him every step of the way.

People like you and me

God calls them.

God calls us

He calls, because there remains so much in our world that needs to be challenged, needs to be changed...

But don't panic if you don't see yourself as an orator, - for often prophetic action speaks louder than all the words in the world.

Yesterday morning, some of you came to help us raise money for the 5K feast, a month long fund-raising drive for Marah and the Stroud & District Foodbank.

Those who came may have thought they were simply buying a cake or supporting a raffle – but actually they were part of an act of prophetic challenge.

I have to admit, I do have some reservations about the foodbank – because only those with an official referral can be fed, because there are limits to the help that one individual or family can receive. If we set this prudent strategy against the reckless generosity of God – it seems to me that the food bank organisers are setting their sights a little too low. But for all that, they ARE doing something...their words and their actions proclaim them emphatically a sign of God's kingdom.

Motivated by their faith, they are affirming with every food parcel they give out that the hungry in our society matter to God...that it is not acceptable that men, women and children should be going to bed with empty stomachs while just down the road their neighbours spend money on diet foods and exercise classes.

Their presence is a reminder that something is badly broken in society – and, as Christians, we have a responsibility to challenge that brokenness by our actions and by our words.

Does that bother you?

Perhaps I'm sounding too political?

But faith and politics absolutely belong together, until the power structures of our society and all societies are fully reflective of Kingdom values.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he took as his mission statement those words of the prophet Isaiah

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor”

If you are poor and hungry, then good news will surely involve being fed...

If you are frightened of persecution, good news will involve finding a place of safety...

If you are helpless, dis-empowered, good news will arm you with the tools that you need to claim your own future.

Good news changes things

I know that many feel the church should stay out of politics – and perhaps it may be inappropriate to engage in PARTY politics...

But our God has never been content to sit, robed in majesty, untouched by the plight of his children

Our God chose to become incarnate – to join in the mess and muddle and heartbreak of human life, so that that same mess, muddle and heartbreak might be transformed and redeemed.

Our God CARES – and charges us to live as signs of that care.

“Preach the gospel...Use words if you must” said St Francis...

Today too many will be deaf to the gospel unless we show them what it really means for them.

The clamour of their own struggle, their own pain, deafens them to our cry of “good news” - unless they can see, experience and recognise it as good news for themselves.

So......we are called to live as prophets, signs of the Kingdom, to the elderly, selling their homes to fund social care, to the mum crying in the Co-op because there's not enough cash in her purse to buy the food her family needs, to the children sent to school without breakfast, the rough sleeper, the battered wife.

We are called to show that there IS a better way, to live as prophets...sometimes to speak but ALWAYS to act to bring about transformation and root out injustice

This is the agenda presented in the letter of James

“ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”

But to act will probably not win you many friends

To act AND to speak will undoubtedly win you enemies

The Brazilian Archbishop, Dom Helder Camara said

“When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry,they call me a Communist...”

and you can be sure that “Communist” was not intended as a compliment.

No, it's definitely not easy being a prophet...downright dangerous at times.

But safety can be over-rated.

Remember the Collect for today, with its invitation to shake the kaleidoscope and see the world in a different way...

Our current preoccupations with personal security, prosperity, popularity, become second-order concerns when set against those good things which pass our understanding...God's promises that exceed all we can desire

There IS a better way

There IS more on offer than we can imagine in our wildest dreams

So we CAN dare the risk of faith, we can speak and act as citizens of this world who know that our true home is the Kingdom of God...

Let's pray that Collect once again, as we thank God for all those who speak his Truth in our world and ask for courage and faith to do the same

Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Sermon for All Saints, Selsley Trinity 5B

“Be prepared”
The motto adopted by Lord Baden Powell in the early days of Scouting is now famous across the world – and its sheer common sense is clear and evident. It's always advisable to be ready for all eventualities, to expect the unexpected and have the resources with you to enable you to deal with whatever life throws at you. On Wednesday night, when my car broke down a few miles outside Cirencester, on a wonderfully dark and empty stretch of road, I was extremely glad that though we had left the house in a hurry, so that I had only my phone and my car keys, Jack had automatically picked up his wallet – containing the all-important RAC membership card. What's more, thanks to a bit of startling self-knowledge, our family membership subs had been paid via standing order – or the card would almost certainly have been out of date, and help unavailable.
However, Jack was indeed a Scout – and had organised an expedition to Uganda whose preparations seemed to dominate every aspect of life for months beforehand, with all sorts of wonderful equipment arriving at the vicarage, designed to make it easier for his small group to survive and thrive during that part of the expedition when they were literally on their own in the bush.
I teased him – and indeed most of the medicine kit came home thankfully untouched – but in my heart of hearts I was really glad of his meticulous preparations – just as I was when eventually an RAC mechanic rescued us at a little before 1.00 on Thursday morning.

Quite often in life, it seems like a good thing to be prepared.

What, then, should we make of the rather different message that Jesus gives his disciples this morning?

 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

By almost any standards that sounds positively stupid...They are to go out into unknown situations, to places where they've no idea how their message or their ministry might be received...and they are to take nothing with them.

What a huge contrast to the way in which the Fleming family arrived at the vicarage 4 years ago, our removal van crammed to the gunwhales...and indeed, when we got here, it was to find churches thoroughly equipped with everything necessary for orderly worship and lots of measures in place to keep the show on the road.

There were, and are, teams of people engaged in managing most of the practicalities of church life, from making the important decisions to polishing the brass...and we even had funds to enable us to kick start the roof appeal, when that unwelcome eventuality came to pass.

I came, lock, stock and such a lot of baggage, to serve two groups of people who were, and are, prepared to keep the church afloat. Maybe we're not pioneers, for I don't think anyone would deny that we all of us (in the Church of England in general, and not just in these parishes) tend struggle a little with the task of going out and sharing good news with our neighbours...so perhaps we've not pushed the boundaries of our churches much in the past few decades...

Not pioneers, then......but as settlers we're not doing badly at all.

The trouble is – again and again when we read the gospels, we see that Jesus had something rather different in mind.

In the west today, even in recession, we are surrounded by the trappings of affluence – both good and bad. We have sound-systems to ensure that the gospel is heard, here in our churches …..but somehow we find we've lost our voice when we go out, so that we rarely share it beyond the walls.

We have envelopes schemes and direct debits to enable our giving – but we've lost the sense of urgency to feed the hungry and clothe the naked that inspired the early church to share everything in common as they waited for Christ's return.

We have devoted singers and musicians – but we don't always live each day as a song of praise to our Creator.

We've replaced spontaneity and openness to the Holy Spirit with a set of provisions for circumstances that WE have decided on...and no longer dare to consider how we might need to react, what kind of church we might need to be, in a world that looks quite different from the one in which we grew up.

We know what we CAN manage – so we tend to focus on that (remember the saying “if you have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail)...though as we look around it doesn't take much imagination to see that to carry on as we are is to ensure the death of the institution in the next few decades.

Does that sound bleak and pessimistic?

I don't think it needs to.

Yes, I think that there IS a crisis in the life of the institutional church...but I don't think that this is something to distress us.

We've carried so much luggage with us through the centuries, have become so very good at being the institutional church...but perhaps we've lost sight of what it means to be the radical church, the Body of Christ, charged with living the Kingdom here and now.

Perhaps we need to listen to Jesus once again

Take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

Travel light...Go empty handed....That way we'll never be deceived into thinking that we are in charge of this enterprise.

Did you imagine for a moment that we were?

This is not OUR Church.......it is GODS church....called to be the agent of his transforming love in the world.

If we're not able and willing for that, then God WILL do a new thing without us...

So – we need to have courage.

Courage to put down the beloved burdens, the contingency funds the prudent provisions for every occasion

Courage to empty our hands and open our hearts and our minds

Courage to recognise and accept just how small and powerless we are, when we stand alone, no longer hiding behind the weight of preparation that we have inherited

Courage to admit our own inadequacy to the task, the mission to which we are called.

Perhaps Paul can help us, for he had to step outside his own protective shield, as he recognised that in Christ God was turning the world upside down...that the values and assurances of orthodox Judaism were no longer enough....that all his education and status would do him no good at all in his new task.

He came to embrace his own limitations, even to celebrate them

 Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ

Remember, this is the kingdom of God, where victory comes through vulnerability, where winners look like losers, where the last is truly first.

That's our context for living as Christians today – and every day.

Does it scare you as much as it scares me?

But, oh its exciting too...

For if we dare to take the risk...if we dare to empty ourselves, in the same way that Christ did when he set aside divinity to live human life in all its vulnerability and pain...

well, then we can claim God's word to Paul as an assurance for us as well

‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness

Homily for 8.00 (& maybe 9.30) Proper 6 Yr B

The vicarage garden is, I have to say, so bad that it's funny.

Though I rather enjoy gardening, I simply don't have any time – and Andrew, who might have the time, has less than no inclination.

Couple that with the fact that when the new vicarage went up, I rather suspect that the builders simply dumped some topsoil on the rubble of the old, and add the presence of a digging enthusiast in the form of Libby the retriever, and hens who will eat anything that lies in their path....

You get the idea. Chelsea it isn't.

But for all that, we DO have a wildflower lawn...something I love for all sorts of reasons but mostly because it demands nothing of me at all.

The clover, daisies, speedwell and dandelions that flourish there owe nothing whatsoever to my hardwork or ingenuity.

They are there simply because they have self sown...and actually, if I decided tomorrow that I wanted a perfect stripey lawn, they'd be almost impossible to get rid of.

And that's also the case with the mustard seed in 1^st century Palestine.

While some varieties were used as spice and others medicinally, in general they were considered at the very least a pest and often somewhat dangerous.

Why? Because wild mustard is incredibly hard to control, and once it takes root it can take over a whole planting area.

In other words, mustard seed was the ground elder of the ancient world...rarely found in well tended gardens, but overrunning a vacant field...

And that, you know, is the most wonderfully encouraging thought.

Jesus says that the Kingdom is like a mustard seed...which means that actually nothing can stop it

We may think that there are no signs of its presence...may feel that the human race is intent on self destruction, that selfishness, cruelty, death and despair are having things all their own way....but, imperceptibly beneath the surface of our broken, workaday world, the seeds of Kingdom transformation are growing...subverting the patterns of this world in ways that we can neither predict nor control.
And I think that's the point: this kingdom Jesus proclaims is not something we can control.

And it's definitely not safe, not, that is, if we're even a little bit satisfied with the way things are.

Rather, the kingdom comes to turn the world upside down, to make the prayerful song of Magnificat a living reality.

The seeds of the kingdom, tiny but irresistible, are also the seeds of hope – hope which moves us to action.
That's what Jesus offers, the dangerous hope that God's kingdom is coming and while we can neither control or even summon it (the farmer in the first of today's parables has no idea how or why his seeds grow) we can be alert for signs of its coming and celebrate its presence among us.
So this week I invite you to look at the world through Kingdom spectacles...

“So now we regard no one from a human point of view”

See things differently.

Be on the lookout for signs of that dangerous, transformative hope of a new reality founded on Love.

And live into it... live your identity as a new creation, brought to birth by water and the Spirit, living in Christ and empowered to be a sign of the Kingdom yourself, in all its justice, and joy

The REAL Lord's Prayer? homily for 8.00 Easter 7B

The Lord's Prayer

That's how we describe the prayer that Jesus taught us...the one he offered when his disciples asked him how they ought to pray.

But in our gospel today we are allowed to eavesdrop on the Lord's prayer that he offers himself – the REAL Lord's prayer, if you like...the words that pass between Father and Son as Jesus prepares to leave the world, as, indeed, he prepares to die.

Time and again I find myself thinking, as I visit someone close to the end of their life-journey

"There's no room for pretence now...This is a time of relentless honesty, a time when we get to see what really matters, who are the real priorities"

And at this time in Jesus' earthly life who does he choose to pray for?

He prays for US

His disciples and all who would believe in him through their words.

The Church with all her aspirations and all her brokenness.

Here, as we listen to this outpouring from Son to Father, we glimpse ourselves as his Love sees us.

Although gospel writers, commentators, and preachers like to present the disciples as clueless and bumbling, we hear Jesus affirm them ("they know in truth that I came from you").

We hear him lift them up ("they do not belong to the world"), and tell us they were worthy companions on his journey ("they have kept your word").

More...they and we are his GLORY...

“I have been glorified in them”

We may offer but the poorest reflection of Christ's righteousness and holiness, we may be dull, disobedient, slow to love but for all that, we are his glory.

This prayer of Jesus is very much about his followers today - it is not just limited to his first century disciples. We still need protection from the evil one, and sanctification for the work we do in the world. In our struggle to preach Christ crucified in a society blinded by material wealth at any cost and enamoured with creature comforts, it is this kind of prayer on our behalf that invokes the Holy Spirit. When we hear Jesus pray this prayer for us, it is a foretaste of the feast of Pentecost, a sampling of the clothing of power from on high...and goodness, we need that power.

While on retreat before my priesting, I was invited to read this prayer and imagine Jesus replacing every reference to the disciples with my own name.

It turned out to be one of the most powerful exercises I've ever undertaken.

“I am coming to you and I speak these things to you so that Kathryn...Mary...Eira...may have my joy made complete in her....”

When Jesus is alone with his Father – he talks about US...and longs for us to be filled with joy. 

How good is that"

To know that Christ prayed for "me" gives us strength when we thought we were exhausted, success when we believed ourselves failures, and vision to see transformation where it seemed that none was possible

On Thursday as we celebrated Ascension we remembered that for all our inadequacies, WE are the ones to whom Jesus entrusted his mission in the world. There is no “Plan B”...

Today we see that though he prays for our protection from the world, he does not want to remove us from it but sends us out to get on with that insistent God given task of loving the world into the Kingdom. 

This is not just the “real” Lord's Prayer but the ultimate Eucharistic Prayer...a prayer in which Jesus consecrates not bread and wine but his very self, drawing together in unity all that his Father has given him into unity and sending them, sending US, forth into the world.

Dare we, as we listen to this prayer, offer a heart-felt “Amen”?

Thank God for Thomas - words for Easter 2B 2012

I wonder if you've ever had a nickname...and if so whether you liked it.

(Invite responses....)

Some nicknames are funny and endearing – I still like being called “Catkin” by those who knew me when I was too little to pronounce my own name

Others are plain silly – all those short guys known as “Lofty” and hulking 6 footers called “Titch”

And some are a bit hurtful....nicknames that reflect an aspect of a person and use that one aspect as shorthand for all that they are

“Four- eyes”

“Fatso”

“Doubting Thomas”

Ah yes...Doubting Thomas!

Such a familiar nickname that we even apply it to others...

“He's a bit of a doubting Thomas”

But is it really fair?

Across 2000 years Thomas is remembered not for his obedience in following Jesus

Not for his later courage in taking the gospel to India

but for his doubts.

But honestly, he wasn't much worse than the other disciples

Despite his denial of Jesus, we don't refer to “Peter the Turncoat”

Despite their anxiety to claim the best seats in the kingdom, we don't talk of James and John as the Wannabe Twins

But Thomas...he's stuck with that nickname, come what may.

And honestly, it's not surprising he doubted.

Imagine that you are with the 12 in that upper room in Jerusalem in the days after the crucifixion

None of you will be feeling very confident – in anything.

Each of you has let down your dearest friend

Each of you has put personal safety before the claims of God's kingdom

Each of you has cherished dreams that now seem to have withered before your eyes.

Each of you is, frankly, scared stiff.

But into that place of anxiety, fear and confusion comes Jesus – as he always does, into our places of anxiety, fear and confusion (even if we try to shut the doors against him)

Jesus with his message of peace – the forgiveness that each of that battered and beaten group most needs to receive

Peace – says Jesus...It's OK. I understand what you did. I still love you. You are forgiven.

PEACE BE WITH YOU

Peace to make good your failures

Peace to calm your fears

Peace to restore your broken dreams

The Peace of Christ – which he then tells them to share with others

“‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 

 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

Peace that transforms them all

But not Thomas

Poor Thomas is somewhere else that day, so he misses out not only on seeing Jesus but on receiving that blessed assurance that all is now well.

He listens to his friends, with all their new-found certainty – but while they seem to be seeing the world by the new light of Easter hope, he remains stuck in the darkness of Good Friday.

No Peace for him – indeed, their very confidence increases his isolation.

He must have been tempted to pretend that he too was now secure in his faith once again, or at least to keep out of their way, in an attempt to gloss over his uncertainty

....but he had the honesty to stick to his guns – and to his doubts

‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

Thank God for Thomas.

We need him – just as we continue to need those who, in any group, ask the questions we are afraid to voice ourselves...

We need him because he shows us that it is absolutely OK to have doubts, OK

to ask questions – and that God honours those questions....

There is no lecture on the essentials of faith, no reproach for his uncertainty.

Instead Thomas is invited to come close to Jesus (what could be better) and to touch with his own hands Christ's body in all its resurrection life.

It's hard to imagine a more wonderful confirmation that questioning is welcome, that we are to come to Christ as we are, - not resting on the faith of others but discovering it for ourselves as the complicated individuals that we are....complicated individuals with our own unique relationship with God in Christ.

Faith is PERSONAL

Not something you can receive off the peg from another person

Your faith is shaped by your life experiences, by the people you encounter, the books that you read

It's rather like a jigsaw puzzle. As you go through life, you slowly assembly the puzzle, until perhaps you get a lovely picture, with no gaps.

At that point, life intervenes, and doubt takes the puzzle and throws it up in the air, so that you have to start reassembling the pieces once again.

Every time that happens, the puzzle comes out with a slightly different picture...YOUR picture, created through your own encounters with God and his people.

Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, writes

"To be without questions is not a sign of faith, but of lack of depth." And he encourages people not only to ask questions about the meaning of the faith, but to question God. We ask questions, says Sacks, "not because we doubt, but because we believe."

So – that's my invitation to you today as well

ASK questions.

Write them down if you like and post them in the “Vicar's box”

I can't promise to answer them all, but if you add your name as well I'd love to explore them with you – or perhaps we'll use them to launch a study group...

Nothing is off limits...for what we're about is helping one another to make a really beautiful faith picture...and for that to be real, we need every experience of questioning and doubt.

Thank God for Thomas indeed.