Sermon from 11th March 2007

Our Vicar, Cameron Barker, gives a sermon based on the reading from Luke 13 verses 1-9

40; 33; 67; 96; 215; 126; 59. That’s the number of civilian deaths each day of the past week in Iraq – a total of 636. It’s now become so routine that the only stories we heard about were the larger numbers, of Shiites who were killed on pilgrimage. The same is true of South Africa, where there are 300+ murders or violent attacks per day. But that statistic only came to light because of a protest march against crime there yesterday. Death has been prominent in our headlines once again this week. But what’s almost more shocking, I think, is what we don’t hear about until we go looking for it. Who read about Billy Cox this week, e.g?

I confess I was keeping a close eye on this week’s news because of the 2 stories in the 1st part of our reading from Luke. 1 story was told to Jesus, about group of Galileans executed while they offered sacrifices in the temple. The other was a story Jesus told himself – about 18 people killed when a tower collapsed on them in Siloam. Neither of these stories is recorded anywhere else in history: yet Jesus used them both to teach very important principles.

The first story was told to Jesus because of a comment he’d just made. Let your eye wander up the page, 96NT / 1046, to 12:54ff. Jesus had just told his hearers that they needed to read the signs of their times. And they wanted to prove they could. So they told him this rather gruesome story about the death of these Galileans in Jerusalem.

The Galileans had been executed in this callous way by Pilate, the Roman governor in Jerusalem. For Pilate to have done that, they must have been guilty of rebellion. It’s likely that the people who told Jesus this story were Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that any1 who rebelled against Rome deserved everything they got. So these Pharisees were telling Jesus they could read the signs of their times. These people had sinned, by rebelling against the authorities; they’d got their just deserts – hadn’t they?

As we’ll see, Jesus did answer that question – albeit in a rather unexpected way. But 1st he made a counter-point, by telling his own sad story. His story was about 18 people killed by a falling tower. Nobody knows the circumstances of this tragedy – but most commentators think these were Jewish workers collaborating on a Roman construction project. What’s certain is that one group of Jews – the Zealots – believed that to collaborate with the Romans was to sin against God. So Jesus invited his hearers to reflect of the fate of these people too: did they die in this accident because of their sin of collaboration?

Jesus also answered that question himself. We’ll get to that as well; but 1st lets reflect on what we can learn from what has – & hasn’t – been in our news this week. How do we read the signs of our time? What do we say about so many people killed in Iraq? Was it their own fault they died – even if only for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Did some of them truly deserve to die, because they were involved in terrorist activities and had to be stopped?

I’m aware the real answers are likely much more complex than that. But lets leave that question in the air, and think instead about what hasn’t been in our news. What does it say about our society that so many deaths go unreported? Or that we seem to have forgotten about the teenagers, like Billy Cox, who were shot dead not far from here only 3 weeks ago? Are we so used to a youth culture of guns & drugs now that we accept it and move on with our lives as fast as we can? How do we read these signs? These deaths were all tragic. But did any of these people deserve to die because of their own sin, or stupidity? And what can we learn from these deaths before they’re forgotten by all except those directly affected by them?

Jesus certainly said that there were lessons to be learned from the deaths in his time; but maybe not the lessons we might think. Jesus told his hearers not to conclude either group of people deserved to die because of their sin. In the most emphatic way possible Jesus told his hearers to look instead to themselves, & to their own eternal futures.

It wasn’t that either the Galileans or the workmen were especially sinful – no matter what the Pharisees or Zealots might have thought. Yes of course people needed to read the signs of their time: Jesus had already told them to. But sometimes we need not to reflect on the wider issues of who dies or why. Sometimes we need to focus on the one key fact of all our lives – that one day we too will die.

Jesus told his hearers to concentrate on that: the fact that one day they would die. It’s a sobering message, I know; but it’s a message very suited to Lent. This is, in theory, a time for us to think on important and serious matters. And there can be nothing more important or serious than the certain fact of our own death. None of us know when it will happen – but we can be certain that it will. Most of us assume that we have time, that it isn’t going to happen for a while yet. But how safe, or wise, an assumption is that?

The Youth Bible makes a striking point on this passage. It suggests we all tell ourselves we only have two weeks to live. Then it suggests we ask ourselves what our priorities would be, if we knew our death was that close. The key point it makes is that maybe those should be our priorities anyway. And I think that’s well worth pondering this Lent. What are our priorities in life? And what should they be? Are there changes we need to make to them; & would we make those changes if we accepted the fact of own death?

Not surprisingly, Jesus had priorities in mind as he talked about what people needed to learn from these stories of people dying his time. The greatest priority, he suggested, was that people should get straight with God. Jesus believed that was so important he told them to do it twice – once after each story. Actually, because Greek is a more subtle language than English, there’s an added twist here to being straight with God. But lets start with the most obvious way of being straight with God.

Now I know that this isn’t a very popular idea, but it is a biblical 1. Jesus’ working assumption was that everyone was a sinner. Jesus assumed that everyone had done or said things to separate them from God. Jesus assumed that everyone needed to do something to get straight with God. That something was to believe in Jesus as God’s Son. He’d come for that exact reason – to give people a way to get right with God. Of course people didn’t have to – but if they chose not to, then Jesus said they would not spend eternity with him; instead death would mean death.

In 1 way, getting straight with God is a once-for-all event. All it takes is to accept Jesus for who he is and what he’s done for us. If that’s something you’ve never done, then today’s a very good day to do it. There’ll be some space to do that after I’m finished (& a chance to be prayed with afterwards). If that needs to become a longer conversation I’d love to have that with you, so call me in the week.

I imagine that most people here will already have made that once-for-all decision to get straight with God. That’s great – but it doesn’t mean we can sit back. As I’ve said recently, there’s more to repentance than that. That point is well made by the subtlety of the Greek – and by the parable that Jesus told in the second part of the reading.

Jesus recognised the fact that nobody becomes perfect by making that once-for-all decision to believe in him. We all go on doing & saying things we shouldn’t – and that’s something we need to put straight with God too. We need to go on repenting, to go on saying sorry to God, to go on asking for his help to be changed. So the 2nd time Jesus told his hearers to turn from their sins / repent, that’s what he meant – that we should go on being aware of our sin.

What we’ve been learning is that repentance needs to be a way of life. What Christians need to do is to spot where we’re going wrong – & then do something about it. So you may want to run through the 4 R’s of repentance when we take time to reflect shortly. What are the things you need to put right with God, to repent of, to turn from? God is always willing to help us see those areas, if we ask his Spirit to show them to us. (Again, if you want to be prayed with for that afterwards, that’s on offer too).

This is a point Christians need to take seriously. It’s part of our responsibility as believers, that we don’t presume on God’s grace. It’s a lesson Jesus then rammed home by telling this parable about the fig tree in the rest of our reading. And Christians need to listen to it very carefully – because it shows that God expects more from believers.

The man is this parable is clearly God. It’s God who does the work of making us believers, or planting us as his trees. It’s good soil he put the fig tree in, good enough for grapes to grow in. So he has a right to expect fruit from the tree, after a giving it a reasonable period to develop. In the parable God didn’t find the fruit he expected after that time – and so he ordered the tree to be cut down.

In the parable the owner is persuaded to give the tree 1 more year to do what it should. But not even the gardener said the tree shouldn’t bear fruit. He said he’d do the extra work – fertilise it – but if that didn’t work then the tree should be cut down. And that is a stern warning to those who are Christians. We need to know that God does expect more from us, that he does expect us to bear the fruit of repentance. And, if we don’t, he will take action. Yes, God is merciful: he gives us time to change; he will help us to change too; but he won’t stand for less than the best from us. He has given us all we need to live for him; so we must respond – by living changed, repentant lives.

These are sober & serious facts we need to consider on our faith journey this Lent. We must look at the disasters around us, & know that one day it will be our turn to die. What do we believe will happen to us then? How does the fact of death affect how we live now? What does it say to us about our priorities? How do they need to change?

For some people the main decision is whether to believe in Jesus for the first time. For those who have done that already the issue will be how to live a life of repentance day by day. We may well need to ask if we are bearing the kind of fruit God has a right to expect from us. God is merciful. Today he gives us a chance to get straight with him – in whatever way that we need to. But will we see reality for what it is – and accept this offer? Each of us must decide that for ourselves. So let’s pray …

Sermon from 4th March 2007

Sermon by one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, based on the reading from Luke 7: 36-50

Jesus’ Bad Table Manners How would we feel if we were visiting someone for dinner, and in the middle of the meal, completely out of the blue, a prostitute unexpectedly gate-crashed the gathering, and then went on to make a complete spectacle of herself? I suspect that I would find it a shock to the system, and difficult to handle. My reaction might well be a bit like that of Simon the Pharisee when his party was gate-crashed by a prostitute. Apart from Jesus, there are two main characters in our passage, the unnamed woman and Simon the Pharisee, and we’ll look at them in turn. While many Pharisees were totally opposed to Jesus, some, such as Simon, were willing to give him a fair hearing. He had probably heard rumours that Jesus was a prophet, as Jesus had been making a huge impact with all the preaching and healing he had been doing. So Simon wanted to see Jesus for himself and find out whether or not Jesus was a prophet. And when the woman appeared on the scene, he thought he had discovered the answer. Jesus couldn’t be a prophet because he hadn’t realised what sort of woman she was. But Simon was wrong, doubly wrong. Jesus did know what she had been, but he also knew what she had become – a forgiven sinner. And what’s more, Jesus knew what Simon had been thinking! And so Jesus corrected Simon’s wrong understanding of the position. He told a parable, a short story about two men who owed money, one 500 denarii, the other 50. (A denarius was worth about a day’s wages.) Neither of them could pay back their debts, and so the money-lender let them off. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that the one who had been let off the most would love the most. But Simon rather grudgingly replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.” Jesus agreed with Simon and then went on to apply the parable. He turned to the woman and asked Simon, “Do you see this woman?” At one level the answer seems obvious; of course Simon could see her. But at a deeper level I don’t think that Simon saw the woman. He looked at her and saw a sinner, a prostitute who had no place in respectable society. Jesus saw a person, a person who loved God and who had received forgiveness for her sins. Simon was an upright citizen, a pillar of society who knew how to behave properly. As for the woman, she was beyond the pale. But by the time Jesus had finished, it was clear that it was Simon who had behaved poorly, and it was the woman who had set an example for us to follow. It must have been an amazing scene. The woman had burst into Simon’s house intending, it seems, to anoint Jesus with some very expensive perfume. Perhaps her original plan had been to anoint Jesus’ head. But when she stood before Jesus she was so overcome with emotion that she cried, and Jesus’ feet were wet with her tears before she had even been able to open the jar. So what did she do? In the eyes of Simon, she made an even greater spectacle of herself. She let down her hair, something no decent woman would do in public, and wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them before she poured the perfume on. I think we would have found this behaviour extraordinary and totally over the top, let alone Simon; yet Jesus found it completely acceptable. So what had Simon done wrong? Why was it the woman who had got things right? We discover that Simon had been a poor host, and had committed a number of social errors. He had neglected to wash Jesus’ feet, a common courtesy to guests because sandaled feet could get very dusty. But the woman had washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. It was also a common courtesy to offer guests a kiss of greeting, and Simon hadn’t done so. But the woman had kissed his feet again and again. And thirdly Simon had provided no oil for Jesus’ head, another social error. Now oil was cheap, and Simon hadn’t even bothered with it. In contrast the woman had lavished Jesus’ feet with perfume which was very expensive! Back to the question Jesus asked at the end of his parable. Who loved the most? The one who was forgiven the most. And that is why the woman showed her love for Jesus in such an extravagant manner. Because she knew that she had received forgiveness, and Simon probably had never even realised that he needed forgiveness. The woman loved Jesus because she had faced up to her own sin and her need for forgiveness. Love for Jesus begins with a sense of sin. And this is a point that the passage clearly makes. Verses 37 and 39 tell us that she lived a “sinful life”. And the clear implication of this is that she had been a prostitute. In verse 47 Jesus said that “her many sins have been forgiven”. There’s no attempt to water down the fact that she was a sinful woman. And this is something which quite clearly she was conscious of. Her whole behaviour was marked by a deep conviction of sin, and a very real repentance. When she stood in front of Jesus, she wept. We don’t know how she came to this position of repentance; the passage doesn’t tell us. Perhaps she had met Jesus on another occasion, or heard him preach, and in repentance she decided to lead a new life. We can’t be sure how it happened, but we do know what happened, that she repented of her past life and responded in the way she did out of love for Jesus. Now I must admit that I do struggle a bit with this story. I’ve led a very conventional sort of life, and don’t have a dramatic conversion story. And for those of us who have lived outwardly respectable lives, I suspect it is sometimes harder to repent than for someone like the woman in our passage. Some of us may say, “If I’d been a prostitute, a violent criminal or drug dealer, then I would have a deep conviction of sin. But I haven’t behaved like that, and it’s hard to have that sense of sin.” But it’s not the case that the woman needed to be forgiven more than anyone else. Simon the Pharisee was equally in need of forgiveness, but his outward respectability blinded him to that need. I expect that he would have admitted that he wasn’t perfect; after all, nobody’s perfect. He would have admitted that he had committed some small sins, so he would have needed a little bit of forgiveness. But, in the words of Jesus, “…he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Our lives may have been more like Simon the Pharisee’s than the woman’s, but we need forgiveness just as much as the woman did. The woman didn’t need to be forgiven any more than Simon needed to be forgiven. But she realised she needed forgiveness, and Simon did not. In some ways, then, respectability can be a barrier, because we can delude ourselves that we are better than others, the prostitutes, the drug dealers and the armed criminals. There are some people who say that they don’t believe in Jesus as the Son of God, but try to live by his moral teaching, in particular the Sermon on the Mount. I rather suspect they haven’t taken in the full impact of the Sermon on the Mount, because it sets an impossibly high standard. To give you an example, I’ll quote just two verses from it, Luke 6:27-28; “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” We all fall short of that standard, and if we look inside ourselves, we’ll find pride, greed, selfishness, envy and a whole multitude of dark feelings. It’s not only outward behaviour that counts, but also what goes on inside us. This passage warns us that if our outward behaviour has appeared to be respectable, then we are less likely to see our need for God. On the other hand, it tells us that once we’ve realised our need for forgiveness and repentance, it doesn’t matter how bad our outward behaviour may have been. It doesn’t matter that society may totally condemn our actions. Whatever we may have done in the past, we can find forgiveness. Love for Jesus begins with an understanding and realisation of a sense of sin. But there’s a second aspect to the woman’s love for Jesus. Love for Jesus also flows from a sense of forgiveness. Otherwise we would have a massive guilt complex, and Christians would be depressed, morose and gloomy. In verse 47, Jesus said, “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.” Her love for Jesus came from a realisation of a great sense of forgiveness of her sins. Some of us may suffer from a sense of guilt. In the psychological world there are those who say that guilt has been overplayed and we must forget about it. But guilt is a very real thing, and the wonder of the Christian message is that there can be total and complete forgiveness. And that’s wonderful for the person who has a sense of sin. But for the person who doesn’t have a sense of sin, that doesn’t mean very much. The problem for some of us is that we are rather unmoved about this. We agree that the prostitute, drug dealer and gangster need forgiveness, but we think we’ve only done a few things wrong. It doesn’t mean that much to us, so we don't love Jesus that much. Our love for him is lukewarm. But the woman’s love for Jesus wasn’t lukewarm; it was extravagant and costly. Amongst the Jews it was considered a disgrace to undo her hair in public, but the woman couldn’t have cared less for what people thought. Yet so many of us are inhibited. We don’t want our friends or colleagues at work to think we’re fanatics, so we tone down our faith. But for the woman it was a costly thing. She bought expensive perfume, not cheap oil, to put on Jesus. She was willing to make a fool of herself in public to express her love. And love for Jesus will express itself in costliness, maybe in terms of vulnerability, or in terms of career, money, or where we live. Jesus turned the tables on Simon the Pharisee. He was a respectable, upright religious figure, but he didn’t appreciate God’s forgiving and generous love, even when it sat at his own table in the person of Jesus. He never realised his need for God’s love and forgiveness. In contrast, there’s the woman. She realised her need; she had a deep awareness and conviction of her sin, and this led to genuine repentance. This flowed over into wonder and joy at the forgiveness she received, and an extravagant love which expressed itself in costly sacrifice. Whose example are we going to follow? Let’s pray: Father, it’s very easy to think that we’re OK compared to other people, and that we only need a little bit of forgiveness. Help us fully to realise our need to repent and receive forgiveness, so that we can love you with our hearts and souls. Amen. [i] Sunday 4th March 2007

Sermon from 25th February 2007

Today our Youth Worker, Phil Brooks, preaches on the reading from John 5:1-18

Good morning everybody!It’s good to be back… in church that is, not up here! I’ve missed our gatherings the last couple of Sundays. And I’m just about all better now, and I’ve been feeling a lot more energetic for a couple of days. Which I found a bit frustrating because my doctor told me I had to stay in and rest, even though I was feeling better.So I didn’t really want to obey the rules, but I had to. And it got me thinking. If I’d got out and ran around after being poorly, I might have had fun by breaking the rules, but I’d have completely missed the point of getting better.I wonder how many rules we all obey every day, maybe without even paying attention to them. We’re surrounded by a whole heap of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ that make it possible for us to live together in peace.Some rules, however, are just plain silly. So I got digging around on the internet and managed to find some rules so silly that you are going to have a hard time believing them. And I’m going to need 3 volunteers this morning to come and help me with a challenge I have for the congregation. I’d like to have volunteers of secondary school age or over… and there’s no upper age limit!I’m going to ask each of my volunteers to read out a rule from the envelope. Two of these rules are genuine rules that people will be in trouble if they don’t follow. One of them I’ve made up for this morning.So which one of these rules is made up? Which means, scarily… that two of them are actually true!And the answer… rule number….Just as an aside, when I was searching around on the internet I found an English law from a long time ago: All English males over the age 14 are to carry out 2 or so hours of longbow practice a week as supervised by the local clergy.There is a suggestion box at the back of the church…I wonder which of the rules that we have to obey we’d most like to do without. Which ones we consider really important, and which ones we think we could do without. What are the sort of things that make us decide a rule is or isn’t worth following?So this morning I’m up here so we can take a closer look at the story we just read together, and what It might have to say about rules, and why we may or may not follow them. If you’ve closed your Bible already and want to find the passage again, we’re in the fifth chapter of John. It’ll be page 122 of your green bibles. There are a few things I’d like to have a look at as we get stuck in with this really confusing story….If we look at the beginning of the story, we notice that Jesus, like a normal Jewish Rabbi, goes up to Jerusalem for a festival. So Jesus wanders around the centre of town, taking in the sights. Like the rest of His people, coming to Jerusalem would have been a special occasion for Jesus.And he comes across a pool, where people with disabilities would lie and wait. Back in those days, people with disabilities, the blind, those unable to walk, or move, wouldn’t have been looked after well. They wouldn’t have had the chance to work for a living. They’d have sat around all day, hoping somebody might throw them a bit of food or some coins… or perhaps, been healed in the pool.If you look at the bottom of the page, you’ll notice a detail that didn’t make it into the final cut of the text, which seems a shame to me. I don’t know if it’s true or not… apparently the reason why this pool was so special for ill and disabled people is that ‘every now and then’ an angel would touch the water. What a great way to fit that detail in… imagine speaking to someone who told you that ‘every now and then’ they’d seen an angel at Brockwell Park Lido. So even if that bit isn’t true, then at least we can tell that this place was special to the people around it. Whoever got in the water first, after it had been stirred, would have been healed. Can you imagine the rush?And, for 38 years, a man waits for somebody to help him into the water. Is anybody here 38? That’s a LOT older than me. The really heartbreaking thing about this man is that nobody will help him into the pool. He realizes that he can’t manage on his own steam, yet nobody cares enough to give him a chance.So surely, after 38 years of sitting paralyzed, You would have begun to lose hope in your life getting any better. So maybe Jesus’ question to the man at the end of verse 6 wasn’t as stupid as it first looks. ‘Do you want to be healed?’ To ask a paralysed man, who has been waiting by a healing pool, if he wants to get well.. maybe this guy had given up on ever being well again. Maybe he’d not only forgotten what it felt like to be well, but he’d forgotten what it was like to want to be well.So Jesus says to him ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk’.If that was the whole story this morning, that in itself is pretty incredible. But the plot was about to thicken…This is where the Gospel writer mentions that the story is taking place on a Saturday.So Jesus asks this man, who is using his legs for the first time in 38 years, to carry his mat away with him. To not leave his rubbish lying around., Now God had told the Jews to make Saturday a special day, And their interpretation of that was that they were allowed to do no work at all, under any circumstances, Not even carrying something that belongs to them.So by healing somebody, and then asking that same person to carry his mat, Jesus not only broke that rule himself, but encouraged somebody else to…So the Pharisees, the legal experts of the day, pounce on this. We can read in verse 10… be careful to note the wording of this… ‘This is a Sabbath, it is against OUR law for you to carry your mat’.Can we see what the Pharisees have done here? They have completely missed the point. Jesus has turned this broken man’s life upside-down and all these religious people can see is red tape.And yet there is more. Later on in the story, Jesus winds these guys up even more says to the authorities- ‘My Father is working and so am I’ in other words… I am doing God’s work, so you can’t stop me. This man will be made well, whether you like it or not, however inconvenient it may be for your religious system. No matter how many rules you put there, you can’t stop me from doing what I am here to do.’So which rule was really broken that Saturday morning?I wonder if the real rulebreaking that took part was Jesus reaching out to this man on his mat. This man who had all but given up on getting better. And Jesus’ power to help this man was so much more offensive than ‘just’ healing someone on the Sabbath. This was about life-changing healing.. not limited to just making him walk again. Because Jesus knew that wasn’t the point.When Jesus sees this man in the temple again, he invites him to take part in the new kingdom that Jesus is creating. ‘So stop sinning!’ or else you will miss out.The point of this meeting was Jesus breaking the ‘rule’ that certain people are excluded from God’s Kingdom. So no matter how sinful, weak, helpless and broken this man was, he was invited to be a part of God’s new world.And so I ask that God would help me to see the point of his rules, and that I’d want to obey them, to hold his will deeper and deeper within me.. but also to see the point of them.So let’s pray…

Sermon from Ash Wednesday 21st February 2007

One of our NSM trainees, Michael Brooks, preached at the Ash Wednesday evening service at St. Paul's. Readings were from Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 & 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10.

May I speak in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I would like to start by asking ‘Why have we come here tonight?’, and this is related to the traditional question, ‘What do you intend to give up during Lent?’ and these are both part of the bigger question of ‘What does Lent mean to you?’ Now do not worry, I promise I am not going to embarrass anyone by leaving this lectern, and then approaching you armed with the radio microphone to put you on the spot, so you are safe from me at least. Of course Lent is a time of repentance and this sermon is a reflection on this theme. You will have received a stone at the start of this service. You may wish to think how this stone could represent something that you wish to leave behind in your past.
Now the first question ‘Why have we come here tonight?’ is relatively easy to answer. We have come here tonight on this Ash Wednesday evening to mark the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent has become the Season in our tradition where we focus on the events that lead to Good Friday. The origins of Lent are unclear, but they do date from the third century and were originally a period of fasting and preparation for Easter. The forty days are symbolic of the time that Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing himself for ministry. In much of Early Church tradition, Lent was also a time of preparation for the baptism of believers which usually occurred at Easter. We have lost this link in our tradition. It is helpful to think that the events for which we are preparing are the remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This, in turn, is re-enacted in baptisms which are conducted with full immersion in the water. The believer is symbolically drowned and raised to life again. Although we are not going to be baptised again at Easter, I find it helpful to use this image.
So now we know why we are here and this is a good start. The questions now begin to challenge us a little more. So, what of the traditional question, ‘What do you intend to give up during Lent?’ Many people do indeed ‘give up’ things during Lent, and I often wonder why….. For the next point I am sorry to pick on those who smoke, but smoking makes the best illustration. If it is a good idea to give up smoking during Lent, is it not a good idea to give it up altogether?’ And what does this giving up achieve? Does our suffering, and possibly the suffering induced in those around us, really enable our preparation for Good Friday. I sometimes imagine Jesus dying on the cross, and being greeted by people like me. ‘Jesus’ I would say, ‘I gave up smoking for a whole 40 days because I am so grateful for what you are doing’. This question, of the worthiness or otherwise of our sacrifices, is for us all to answer for ourselves, but lest we become complacent I should like to introduce a most unsettling idea.
Endemic in our culture is what has been called the cult of Diana. I am not talking about the Diana of ancient Greek mythology but the Diana of Kensington, now sadly deceased, who signified and championed a mythology. In this mythology, or world-view, ‘religion’ is subsumed as just one aspect of a life which has a correct balance of social care, worship of self-image and the enjoyment of the material. And this all leads to happiness. Underlying this cult is the basic notion that we are all good people, and this has permeated thinking with the Church. However, in a book titled ’the Problem of Pain’, CS Lewis describes how people may be in a group, such as a school, institution, regiment or indeed a global Christian denomination. Within this group a particular standard of behaviour seems normal. It is only when people leave this self-reassuring environment that they realise how wicked and unworthy they are. I had such a realisation when I visited the war torn area of Sudan and saw people being buried who had starved to death. So it might be the case with all of us gathered here, in that our commonly understood goodness is a mere illusion. The evidence that this might be the case is there. Scattered throughout time and place in history are people that CS Lewis lists such as Jeremiah, Socrates, Zarathustra and Jesus who have been at odds with the whole of society in stating what is right. Remember how Jesus said it was as bad to look lustfully at someone as it was to commit adultery with them. We have watered this down to the more acceptable notion of it only being really bad if we make plans in our mind to seduce the person or even take them by force. But what if Jesus really meant it? It would mean that most of us here are as wicked as adulterers and rapists, and in great need of God‘s forgiveness.
Is it likely then, that we can truly give up anything in Lent as an adequate response to the mercy that God has for us? I would suggest that a brief period of self-denial is almost insulting to God. In the passage that we read in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus said that those who have done their deeds in public receive their reward through the admiration of other people but not from God. God rewards those who do things in secret. In other words God rewards those who do what they do as a consequence of their relationship with God and for no other purpose. So if we are in relationship with God and imagine that we are in dialogue with God, we should not be asking ourselves the question ‘What shall I give up for God’, but perhaps we should listen to hear what God wants us to stop doing, and also listen to hear what it is that God wants us to do.
So, the last question, ‘What does Lent mean to you?’ There is no getting away from the fact that Lent is a most symbolic time in the liturgical year. On the subject of the liturgical year, I think it is a good thing that we spend different times of year focussing on different aspects of our faith. This is not to stave off boredom, but it is because even those living a monastic life could not contemplate well all things at all times. Having said that, it could be argued that the focus of Lent is the most important one in the liturgical year, so much so that we return to the themes each time we celebrate Communion together.
This symbolism has started now. It is, for example, unusual for us to gather on a Wednesday night. Later many of us will receive the mark of the Cross on our forehead to symbolise the start of a season of penitence. Jesus calls us to repent. He started his teaching in the Gospel of Mark with the phrase ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand’. The Greek word for repent is metanoia and this word means a complete change of heart and mind. If you can take just one word away from this sermon, then metanoia would be a good choice. Of course we can not have a complete change of heart and mind every time someone mentions repentance, but at this time of Lent we could perhaps think of where we are now, where we once wanted to be, and where we think God is calling us to be. I am not suggesting that we all make major decisions about what jobs we do or where we live, but perhaps we should think and pray about how we live our lives and whether they express in actions what we profess to believe. You may decide that a period of self-denial is worthwhile as it helps you to grow in your relationship with God. In the reading from Corinthians, St Paul implored the Christians in Corinth to be reconciled to God and urged them not to receive God’s grace in vain. In other words Paul asked them to deepen their relationship with God, and I think that is what Lent is for.
The symbolism of Lent is to assist us with a process of change within us. I do not believe that we humans can perform rituals that oblige God to pour out God’s grace upon us. Rather it is that such rituals will help us in our faithfulness and the way that we respond to God. It is through this that God’s grace will flow in to our lives. But do not be mistaken as to how God’s grace might feel. For St Paul it meant a life of hardship. And such lives are not buried in history. A few weekends ago I shared a room with an Ethiopian Christian who had been imprisoned for spreading the Gospel whilst at medical school; he now lives in this country as an exile. Being a channel for God’s grace and peace was not easy for him.
Going back to the stones, on the table over there is a large bowl of water. You may have been able to think of something that your stone could represent in your life. You are invited to place the stone in the bowl. You can do this either before or after you have received the ashings or received Communion, or even after the service has formally ended. Lower the stone gently in to the water to symbolise that you have parted from this ambition, or habit or whatever it is that you wish to stop doing. I suggest you lower the stone gently not just to stop the bowl being cracked or chipped [!] but because you recognise that what you are giving up might have with it some sense of personal loss. When I was on a retreat recently, I realised that it was my ambition to be rich and famous as a musician that was getting in the way of living the life that God wanted me to live. And if you are wanting to balance this loss with something positive, you may wish to light a candle in your house to symbolise something which you are going to start doing, and you might wish to think about this and light the candle on Easter day as part of a new beginning.
Let us pray that the will of God will prevail in our lives.
Amen

Sermon 18th February 2007

There was no written sermon from this service.