Category: Sermons
The Baptism of Christ – Take One
The river Jordan
This Sunday was the feast of the Baptism of Christ. As it happens, both Mother Anne-Marie and I were preaching. I was playing at home at St John’s while Mother Anne-Marie was playing away at the church of St Paul in Woldingham, another church in our team. So, this week you get two sermons for the price of one. At St John’s, immediately after the sermon we go down to the font and give thanks for the gift of baptism, following which everyone is sprinkled with water from the font, hence the end of the sermon.
Here’s what I said.
Isaiah 43.1-7; Acts 8.14-17; Luke 3.15-17; 21-22
Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas? Or did you, perhaps, get what you needed rather than what you wanted? When I was growing up what I got for Christmas was far more often the latter than the former. It reminds me of the Rolling Stones song “You can’t always get what you want”, which Rolling Stones fans among you will know only too well – though I wonder how many actually know the last line of the chorus: Continue reading
The Feast of Saint John
This last Sunday, as well as being the first Sunday of Christmas, was also the feast day of our patron, Saint John the Evangelist. I took as my theme the idea that culture and attitudes change over time but that Jesus never changes.
Today is, of course, a very important birthday. 134 years ago this month the foundation stone of our church was laid. And a year later, on 27th December 1882, the new parish church of Saint John the Evangelist was consecrated – 133 years old today.
And how times have changed over the years for the Church – both for St John’s and for the Church of England as a whole. We now have women bishops. We already, of course, have had women priests for much longer and that particular issue doesn’t really seem to most of us to be an issue at all, anymore. Yet even relatively recently such concepts would have baffled the people who sat in the pews at St John’s.
People’s expectations of what men and women could – and should – do, have changed so much since St. John’s was built. Let’s go back to the early days of Saint John’s, over a hundred and twenty years ago. A woman’s place was most definitely in the home, and not in the house of bishops. In 1895 the Isle of Man Times gave the following advice:
Don’t argue with your husband; do whatever he tells you and obey all his orders. Continue reading
Sermon for Midnight Mass
We always have, as the gospel for Midnight Mass, the wonderful prologue to the gospel of Saint John in John 1.1-14. Here’s what I said to those gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus at our Midnight Mass.
Will it be the warmest Christmas on record?
That was actually a headline from the Daily Mail in 2011.
And similar headlines have been repeated on a yearly basis with one exception – 2013 – ever since. And this year again similar questions are being asked as we come towards the end of the warmest December on record.
The daffodils outside the church are blooming. They think it’s spring! We’ve had to switch off the heating in the vicarage, and yesterday I had the window open as I was preparing my sermon for tonight, because it was just too hot. Children are growing up with no idea of the joys of making snowmen, or having snowball fights, or tobogganing.
And – I have to say – it’s making it very difficult when it comes to choosing which carols to sing. Singing, “See amid the winter’s snow, born for us on earth below” doesn’t seem quite appropriate. And as for “In the bleak midwinter” with its lines, “snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow”! No chance of that. And as for Bing Crosby dreaming of a white Christmas – well, he can dream on, because we know that yet again we’re not going to see one! Continue reading
O what a beautiful morning …
Last Sunday was the fourth Sunday of Advent, and as we approach Christmas our thoughts turn towards the coming nativity. This year, being the year of Luke, our gospel reading gives us Mary’s visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth, and her famous song of praise the Magnificat.
Luke 1.39-55
Don’t you sometimes have a great day – a day when the sun is shining and the birds are singing and the temperature is just right. A day when you feel really good. A day when, as you’re walking down the street you feel like bursting into song and singing, “Oh, what a beautiful morning!” Because it’s a beautiful day and like Howard Keel in Oklahoma you’ve got a beautiful feeling that everything’s going your way. Perhaps you feel like that this morning! Well, perhaps not! Particularly this close to Christmas Day with so much still to do to get ready. But most of us have a day like that now and then – just not as often as we would like. Continue reading
Christ the King – Where is our true home?
It was my turn to preach this week for the feast of Christ the King. Here’s what I said.
“We do not go to Church; we live in the Church and go into the world”. Words of the Roman Catholic writer Keith Fournier. “We do not go to Church; we live in the Church and go into the world”.
So it’s Sunday morning and the family are milling around getting their breakfast, cereal is spilling on the floor, the radio is booming out music you don’t like, “Are you going to church this morning Mum?”, asks one of your teenagers who is still lolling about in pyjamas. He’s probably hoping you will say “yes” so there will be a couple of hours free of nagging about doing jobs and homework! You pause, and say “No, I’m not going to Church, I’m going Home”. Continue reading
Remembrance Sunday – and what I said
This week was Remembrance Sunday in the UK, when we remember all those who have fought and died for their country in war. At St John’s it’s always a big service. We have lots of extra people in the congregation, and all our young people’s uniformed groups – scouts, guides and so on – are on parade.We have the Service of Remembrance culminating in the two minute silence at 11am. Here’s what I said.
This year saw an important seventieth anniversary to celebrate for many. Yes, 1945 was a good year for rock and pop music. It’s the year Rod Stewart – who sang at the Festival of Remembrance last night – was born, along with Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend, Rita Coolidge and Carly Simon, Bette Midler and Don McLean, Bryan Ferry and Van Morrison – and even Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame… what a list! Familiar names to anyone of my age who started listening to music in the late sixties and the seventies.
But 1945 is also, of course, a somewhat more significant seventieth anniversary, as I’m sure you all know. Continue reading
Bible Sunday – and when did you last read your Bible?
This week, the last Sunday of October, the Church of England gives us three options. We can keep the Last Sunday after Trinity in which case we use the Revised Common Lectionary readings. Or we can keep the feast of the Dedication of the Church if we don’t know the correct date – that’s usually only true of very old churches, and since we know ours that wasn’t a choice. Or we can keep Bible Sunday. Since I’m a great believer in encouraging regular reading of the Scriptures, on the grounds that God’s Word is supremely important since it’s one of the key ways in which he speaks to us and instructs us, I chose to keep Bible Sunday. Here’s what I said.
When was the last time you read your Bible?
I have a reason for asking, and it’s not what you think! Of course, I hope you’re reading it regularly and frequently, but let me explain my real reason for asking!
This week it was reported in the press that Bonhams the auctioneers would be selling a very old edition of the King James Bible at auction on the 11th of November. Printed in 1631 it is expected to sell for at least £15,000. Part of a print run of about 1,000, only about 9 are known still to exist. So what’s so special about this particular Bible? Well, it’s a copy of what came to be known as The Sinner’s Bible because of a printing error. The King’s printers, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, who were responsible for the printing of the Bible failed to notice that they had left out a very important word – the word not. Unfortunately they left it out of Continue reading
Be an action person for Jesus – the feast of Saint Luke
Last Sunday in the Church of England we kept the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist, who wrote the gospel that bears his name as well as the Acts of the Apostles, and who also accompanied Saint Paul on some of his missionary journeys.
Acts 16.6-12a; 2 Timothy 4.5-17; Luke 10.1-9
During my childhood one of the most popular toys to be introduced was Action Man. For those of you who have no idea what an Action Man is let me briefly explain. It was introduced in the UK 1966 – a fully pose-able action figure about a foot tall of a soldier, sailor or airman complete with uniform. When they first came out just about every boy wanted one. I have to admit that I never had one – and to be honest I never really wanted one, but I think I must have been unique. But for a while they were top of every boy’s wanted list. Except me, obviously.
Over the years they started to introduce additions to the range. In time, in addition to the soldier, the sailor and the airman you could get a tank commander, lifeboatman, space ranger, jungle explorer – the list just grew. One model that they never introduced – I can’t think why – was evangelist action man. I think they may have missed a trick there, but clearly they didn’t know anything about Saint Luke.
Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist, and I want you to think of Luke as an Action Man. And to help us do that our readings, very conveniently, all have something to teach us about action – about being busy – about our response to God, God the Creator, who himself is always active. Luke’s writings, in particular, are full of action, and highlight how a life of action is part and parcel of being a follower of Jesus. Luke himself was to accompany Saint Paul on some of his missionary journeys.
In the reading from Acts we see Paul and Timothy urged by the Macedonian – traditionally believed to be Luke – to cross over to Macedonia to preach the gospel. And it’s clear that this is the point at which Luke joins Paul for the first time – just look at how the writer starts by talking about ‘they’, but immediately after the vision switches to ‘we’. Luke in action right from the start! A reminder of the call to all of us to get involved in the preaching of the good news of Christ.
Then there is the reading from the second letter to Timothy, from Saint Paul. Paul is older now, an old man calmly facing death – he knows he is going to be taken to Rome, he knows the result of the “arranged” trial there long before he even starts on the journey. He looks back over a ministry packed with action – and he still would like to fit in some reading, and some further writing up of his memoirs – if only Timothy will bring the books and his notebooks he left in Troas.
Above all the Gospel makes us conscious of the need for action in the service of God; Jesus is shown sending out thirty-five couples of disciples, telling them to prepare the way before him. Luke is the only evangelist who mentions this episode; it seems to go in with his special interest in activity. He is very strong on action.
It is in Luke’s gospel that we have the parable of the Good Samaritan, who was certainly a man of action; the story of Zacchaeus, who so badly wanted to see Jesus that he was prepared to make a fool of himself and climb a tree. It is also Luke who gives us the stories of Gabriel coming from God to announce the news of a birth to Mary, and of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, and of the birth of Jesus himself among the animals. Since Luke never knew Jesus and since only Mary could have known the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus it has been the tradition since the early church that Mary knew Luke and told him these things. Saint Luke likes to portray people who ‘do’ things. And part two of Luke’s gospel is of course the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which tells us everything by its name.
These are not just examples to follow. All three readings are deeply theological. That is, they give us the reason why we should be people of action. The reason is, that this is the way we respond to God, who is also active in the world – God does not simply sit back and let things follow their own course. It was perhaps best put by Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast day was last Thursday. She wrote:
Christ has no body on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through
which he is to look out into the world;
yours are the feet with which
he is to go about doing good,
and yours are the hands with which
he is to bless us now.
Probably she was talking to a priest when she first said that but she might just as easily have been talking to any Christian man or woman.
But when the writer of 2 Timothy says “Do all the duties of your calling” he means more than that. He means prayer too – and this is where we often slip as Christians. When we are under pressure, when time seems short or life particularly difficult, the first thing that often starts to go is prayer. We think that God will understand and forgive. So he does. But that is not an excuse. Prayer is not for God’s benefit, it is for ours. One of the best definitions of prayer that I know also comes from Saint Teresa:
Prayer is knowing, remembering, considering,
that I am always in the presence of God,
who is closer than breathing,
Closer than hands and feet.
If we are too busy to take that to heart, too busy to pray, we are letting go of the very thing that make us Christian – our relationship with God through Jesus.
Luke may well be an Action Man. But he is also equally concerned about prayer – because Luke also knows the value of being properly prepared for our action. Any Action Man – soldier, sailor or airman, knows the need for proper preparation before going into action. So it is with Christians, and for us that means prayer. Luke is always showing us Jesus at prayer. And he is the one who gives us that story about Martha, who rushed around, and Mary who chose the better part and sat at the feet of Jesus and listened.
Our prayer life is absolutely crucial. Each of us needs to ask ourselves – are we praying enough – at home – or with our brothers and sisters in Church? Could we pray more? Could we spend an extra few minutes each day in prayer? For prayer must undergird everything we do for Christ. It is for our sake and the sake of the work we are doing as Christ’s body in this place.
Now, to finish, this is the point at which I should ask you all to be, like Saint Luke, an evangelist Action Man. But clearly that would be sexist. I don’t think that they ever introduced an Action Woman figure, and I don’t think Barbie quite fills the bill.
So – be an evangelist Action Person. That’s the message that comes out of our readings this morning. That people who follow Jesus need to be active in the spreading of the gospel, the good news about Jesus. Be people of action for Jesus, with everything you do undergirded with prayer. Continue reading
One thing you lack…
Last Sunday we had the gospel reading about the rich man who comes to see Jesus and asks the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Here’s what I said.
Down at the swimming pool John had learnt and practised all the arm and leg strokes he needed for swimming. His muscles were well toned and he had learned how to breath correctly in time with the strokes so he didn’t swallow any water. He knew all about how to get off to a flying start, how to turn quickly at the end of each length and how to pace himself. But he still didn’t seem to be making any progress. So one day John said to his swimming coach “I know all about these things but I still can’t swim. What’s going wrong?” The coach, took a deep breath and said, Continue reading
Bread and buses
This Sunday we heard more of Jesus describing himself as the Bread of Life in John 6. Here’s what I said.
Why is bread like a bus?
Well, just like the proverbial bus that doesn’t come along for ages and then three come at once, so in our readings we go for months on end without any reference to bread, and here we are for the third week in a row with a gospel reading about bread. Having had the feeding of the five thousand on five loaves and two fish two weeks ago, last week and this we get Jesus saying, “I am the bread of life.”
This makes life difficult for people like me who take services. There are only so many hymns about bread in our hymn book. And only so many sermons you can preach in a row on the same theme! And count yourselves lucky! Next week, if it wasn’t for the fact that we are keeping the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary – which is really next Saturday but we do it a day late – you’d be getting Jesus saying, “I am the bread of life” for the third week in a row!
So why is bread – living bread – so important?
Life seemed so much simpler when I was a child. Continue reading
View from the Valley 