Sermon 9th March 2008

Today our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-22

Half-term may now seem quite a while back, especially for those directly impacted by it. But, even so, this last half-term will long live in my memory – because of roller-coasters!

The first roller-coaster of half-term was of the emotional variety. On the Sunday night we had what turned out to be the second false-alarm transplant call for my wife. There's plenty that could be said about that very long night that we spent in the Harefield hospital, and its aftermath. But I want to focus instead on the other roller-coaster of that half-term. My day off that week was spent at Thorpe Park – which has roller-coasters of the very literal variety!

If you've not been there lately then I'll need to describe the Stealth ride to you. It claims to take you from 0-80 in less than 2 seconds, and up to a height of 210 feet! I was persuaded to go on it partly because the whole ride takes barely 15 seconds. But what a 15 seconds! You're shot along this track at great speed, and then catapulted straight up into the air. At the top you just about stop, for long enough to realise that all you can see is the ground, 210 feet beneath. The track isn't even visible as you then plunge downwards, at over 80 mph, with a slight twist just to add to the fun. And then you have to try to stand up and walk away from it with a grin!

Of course any experience like that demands reflection – and my reflection was at least partly theological, believe it or not. It took me a while to get there – as it would do, after having your whole life pass before your eyes. But that ride did remind me in some ways of our series this Lent - really!

Now, like every analogy, this one will break down at some point. But I want to stick with it for now, because I think it's helpful. It's not just that this series has been relatively short – though it has been. It's more that it started on such a high note. On that first Sunday we were instantly catapulted to a dramatic high point, with Isaiah's awe-inspiring vision of God in the Temple. There we were, straight into being confronted by the reality of God's holiness, and how at least one person responded to encountering it. For Isaiah – as it must be for us – it was a life-transforming experience. Not only did he meet God for and as who He truly is, in all his glory. In that moment Isaiah also came to know himself for who and what he truly was in the presence of God. And that, for him and for us, was a deeply humbling experience.

In terms of that roller-coaster, I think I'd want to say that Isaiah caught a glimpse of the ground far beneath at that point. The contrast between himself and the holiness of God was at least that vast and that scary. And I also think that we shared something of that experience last week, when we looked at the holiness of God the Holy Spirit. John spoke of how the Spirit who is holy, just as God the Father is holy, sees into even the dark corners of our hearts. It's there that the magnitude of the contrast between ourselves and the holy God is most stark. God knows our deepest motivations, even when we manage to say or do the right things. He knows our thoughts. He knows us far better than we know ourselves. And the contrast between his holiness and us is far greater than a 210 foot drop!

If you missed either of those sermons, or Adrian's on the holiness of Jesus, they're all on our blogsite. They're well worth reading, and re-reading, time and again. Above all, we need to keep in constant view the nature of the holy God of the Bible. As I said that first week, the word 'holy' is used to describe God more than all the other adjectives in the Old Testament put together. So I'm strongly encouraging you to keep on coming back to his holiness long after this Lent is over. The reality of God's holiness is absolutely central to the Christian faith, because everything else is based on it. And, in case you've missed it, holiness is precisely what God calls his people to also!

That call came in our 1 Peter reading. 'Be holy because I am holy,' Peter instructed churches across modern-day Turkey. Of course he was quoting God's words, rather than pointing to his own example. And he was quoting God's words from the Old Testament. You see, from the very beginning of his encounters with humanity God has never done anything less than call people to holiness. Peter was quoting God's issuing of the call to holiness when he gave his people the law that he wanted them to live by. It was against the standard of his own holiness that God measured his people throughout the Old Testament. It was precisely because of their failures to be his holy people that God judged them. And it was then in order for us to become his holy people that God sent his holy Son, Jesus, to die for us.

Now in case you've been wondering where God's holy Son fits into the roller-coaster image, here he is! Jesus is like the track that guides us back down to where we are meant to be – God's holy people! Peter's reminder of God's call to holiness applies just as much to us today as it did to those first believers. This is who and what God wants us to be too. In his holy Son, God has given us the perfect, holy example to follow. And I believe the image of that being an essentially downward journey is exactly right, for many reasons. There's the example of Jesus himself – who humbled himself to become human. He gave up his rights as God, and was obedient – even to the point of death.

Jesus is the example of costly, sacrificial, self-giving, obedient love that God has given us to follow as his holy people. Thinking on that example may well change our experience of Easter this year. On Palm Sunday next week, think of what Jesus could have chosen. He could have accepted the adulation of the crowds, and chosen the easy route to glory that the Devil had first offered him during his temptation. Then, as you go through Holy Week, be challenged by what Jesus chose instead. He chose that route to the cross which he walked for you and me. As I said: costly, sacrificial, self-giving, obedient, holy love, even to the point of death. There's holiness: God's way, all the way.

And, in case you missed it, these are the two other main reasons that Peter put to support his call for us to be holy. Yes we are to be holy because God is holy, and we are his people. That should be enough in itself. But we are also to be holy because the God we pray to isn't just our loving Father but also our judge. God has adopted us as his children: he wants us to grow in the family likeness. But, as Isaiah experienced, God judges all people by the same standard: on the basis of what each has done. And so we are to live the rest of our lives in reverent, or holy, fear.

In case that's not enough Peter also reminded his readers of the price that was paid for our freedom. It wasn't with things that can be destroyed, like silver or gold. No, it was with the most precious substance ever: the blood of God's holy Son, Jesus shed on the cross. And of course this was no after-thought on God's part: he had planned it from before the creation of the world! That's how much we are worth to God; that's what he was willing to pay for us; that's how much he wants us to be his holy people!

So what does it mean for us to be God's holy people? And how are we to be that? In this part of his letter Peter gave one specific concrete example – and warned us that it all takes hard work! He wrote that holiness is, to some extent, an active choice on our part. We are, Peter said, to have our mind prepared for action. We're to keep alert, be self-controlled, and keep focused on the sure hope we have in Christ. We're to be obedient and to make the right choices for the right reasons in all that we we do, and in how we do it. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian doesn't have the excuse of ignorance any more. We know what God wants: now we have to choose to do it!

Obedience is where holiness starts, and continues – as per the example of Jesus. As God's holy people we are to obey what God has told us. That means, as Peter said, not allowing our lives to be shaped by any desires that we know go against what God wants. Deep down we know what they are, even if it may sometimes be convenient to pretend that we don't. But now we know that we can't fool God – because he sees into our hearts. So, how much better instead is it to ask for the help of his Holy Spirit to be holy in what we do, and how we do it. His help is always on offer, though it isn't often comfortable or easy to have!

An essential part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy by leading us to repentance. I've said before that the Christian life is never less than a life of repentance. To be God's holy people is to become like him, and to be set apart for him. On our own human level we are to be holy as God is holy: in our character, our conduct; our desires; our decisions; and our delights. And a key part of that is recognising the ways in which that is not true of us at the moment. The ways in which it isn't true should, and will, change over time. But the only way they will change is by repentance. Again as Peter said here, we need to purify ourselves by obeying God's truth.

We must learn how to be God's holy people by becoming ever more trustful, obedient, patient, dependent, and willing in our relationship with God. That's hard work, at which we will often fail. But when we do, we can repent, and then get up and try again to follow the track that has been laid for us by Jesus. It's there to take us down into that holiness into which God has called us. And one of the ways in which that holiness is expressed is by how we love God, and one another, Peter said. So there's a test of the state of your holiness as we reach the end of Lent. How deeply, sincerely, earnestly do you love God and your neighbours?

Well, this Lent has been a right roller-coaster ride. We have been to the heights; we have caught a glimpse of the ground far beneath; we have seen the tracks down and along which we can travel deeper into the holiness of God, as his holy people. This ride may not reach 80mph; and it will last far longer than 15 seconds. But we can choose not to get on it at all. Or we can choose to say once we get to Palm Sunday that it's all over. But think what we will miss if we choose that. We will be walking away from the central truth about God, and from our main calling as his people: 'be holy because I am holy'. Today we can choose instead to stay on this ride, for the rest of our life. My prayer is that we will each choose to do that. So may having encountered God's holiness be the life-changing experience that He wants it to be. And may we now each keep on growing downwards into his holiness. Amen.

Sermon for Mothering Sunday 2nd March 2008

Today our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, preaches based on the reading from Acts 5: 1-11

God the Holy Spirit

This is the third teaching in our Lent series about the holiness of God. We begun by looking at the holiness of God the Father, followed by God the Son and today God the Holy Spirit. And what a distressing story! Can you imagine witnessing the death of a church couple know within three hours of each other on a Sunday morning!
The setting of the story is after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. It was a time when the young church – the community of believers in Jesus Christ was gathering momentum.

But what did it mean to be called a believer?
We read from Acts 2:42ffd
They (believers) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. One of the things that characterised a believer’s life is described by the word fellowship.
What did it mean to fellowship? Well, they they were together – sharing meals, worshipping God – just being together. This togetherness however went a step further than we might understand it. It opened their eyes to each other’s needs; put another way, they allowed themselves to see the needs of one another. Acts 2:45 …they (even) sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need…

As I thought about, I realised how possible and easy it is to be together – eat, laugh, relate with someone yet be miles away from the issues that burden them, their struggles, their fears…
It is equally easy for us to smile back at people when they ask how are you because we do not expect that anyone would be bothered with our issues, struggles, fears. That is our world. Even from within the church family – we do not often expect that our needs will be met by the other members. And quite unlike this early Christian community – sometimes described as primitive – we will usually not even need to sell our property to meet the needs of those in our fellowship. We have enough to give away.

These first century believers however, held their goods at the disposal of others, whenever a need arose. They expressed their love to the giver of all things – God, by attending to the needs of their neighbours. One man called Barnabas had just done exactly that.

And it is this very positive character of the church’s communal life that takes a different turn in the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They desired to gain credit for a greater personal sacrifice, than they had actually made. They sold their land and offered only part of the proceeds passing it off as the whole amount.
And Peter asks Ananias in verse 4 - Didn’t the property belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? Someone once commented that this story appears to present the workings of the Holy Spirit almost in a magical fashion. It is very dramatic – Ananias collapses dead, closely followed by his wife who backs the lie.

And Peter says to Ananias, You have not lied just to human beings but to God; you have lied to the Holy Spirit…
This is how a leading theologian (Wayne Grudem) describes the work of the Holy Spirit:
‘..to manifest the active presence of God in the world, in our lives and especially in the church.’

We read in Exodus that a ‘holy ground’ surrounded the burning bush on Mount Sinai when God appeared to Moses. In the OT holiness is connected with God’s revelation and presence which evokes awe and fear before the divine. It is this holiness of God that guarantees the validity of what Moses has to say to the Israelites after meeting with him. This presence of God is often described as the ‘glory of God’.

In the NT - gospels, Jesus manifested this holy presence of God everywhere he went; the healings, miracles, his words, arguments, even at age twelve while he debated with learned Jewish teachers in the temple – nothing like that had ever been heard! He lived, was tempted like we do, but never committed a sin (Hebrews 4:15) He was holy.

And now after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is now the primary manifestation of God (the active presence of God) the Father and God the Son; this relationship is called the Trinity. The Holy Spirit who is a member of the Trinity is Holy, just like God the Father and God the Son. Holiness is the sum total of his being. The adjective ‘Holy’ is used more times to describe God than all others put together, we heard from Cameron three weeks ago.

If the work of the Holy Spirit therefore is to manifest the active presence of God in the world, then this active presence of the Holy Spirit of God is what Ananias and Sapphira are up against. The Holy Spirit of God will not tolerate deceit. The Holy Spirit of God is holy just as God the Father and God the Son. He is one being. It is to this reality that Peter draws Ananias’s attention to when he says: you have not lied to a human being but to God the Holy Spirit.
‘…do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…’ (GNB – do not make the Holy Spirit of God sad) the apostle Paul warns the Ephesian church in Eph 4:30. Jesus himself while teaching his followers how to pray said;
Do not be like the hypocrites who love to pray standing in synagogues and street corners to be seen by others..;. such ostentatious behaviour that lacks sincerity, God abhors.

The desire to want to be seen by others as ‘very generous’ so completely overwhelmed Ananias and his wife that they purposed to deceive. Theirs was not a sincere desire to share with the needy, or to boost the common-good kitty of the church but to show off their generosity (to fatten their own ego!). No one was being forced to sell their property. The giving was completely voluntary. Peter attributes their action to the inspiration of Satan – he tells him, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit…

This story transports us to a different world, a realm where sin is taken seriously, a realm where God shows severe judgement for sin. Did I say judgement – that alarmist insensitive word? Yes, God’s judgement. For that is what Ananias and Sapphira receive for their sin of dishonesty. From the Old Testament the attitude required of human beings by God was faith; a readiness to accept whole-heartedly the demands of a holy God. The opposite attitude was to question whether God really intended a certain demand. This challenge was described as ‘putting God to test’; a very serious offence. (Deut 6:16)

And it is to this that Peter draws their attention to: how could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord?
Some commentators explain the cause of this couple’s death as heart-attack out of shock while others say that it was Peter’s curse. One thing is however clear - God the Holy Spirit is at work! Our holy, perfect, sinless God! This deceit was not directed to Peter but to the Holy Spirit in whose name all these gifts were being surrendered to the church. Incidentally there is a parallel of this story in Joshua 7 when Achan suffered similar consequences for dishonesty. This time however his children, animals and all his property was burnt. That is again unsettling.

Isn’t it impressive that Luke does not cover up the interior life of this young Spirit-filled community. It just confirms to us the apostle Peter’s words - that our enemy, the devil, Satan roams about, seeking who to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) It can happen to any community of believers, even those who are enjoying God’s enormous favours and blessings like this early church. You and I could easily be Ananias and Sapphira, regardless of the length of time we have been members of a Christian community.
It should also remind us that sin is serious – and has consequences. The Holy Spirit, whose work is to manifest the active presence of God, is holy, and He will not tolerate sin.

I have been awakened by this reminder about a God who sees the dark corners of my being; a holy God who sees us, just as we are. But I am also encouraged by the fact that God the Holy Spirit wants to be involved in our lives, to change us. In the Old Testament, which is the history of the nation of Israel, God the Father is constantly reaching out to the Israelites with the words, be holy because I am holy. Years later, Jesus’ ministry is concerned with the restoration of the marginalised, outsiders like Samaritans, the impure, the sinners, everyone is being welcomed to enter God’s kingdom through repentance. Today, God’s Holy Spirit is with us; he sheds light into the dark corners of our hearts where deceit and lies, un-forgiveness, greed, malice, bitterness reside. Before his presence, all acting needs to stop. We can be ourselves, because he sees us as we are. He sweeps these corners clean; but only with our permission.

That demands a personal response and one that will change your life. I know it is more comfortable to come as we are, do church, leave as we are and go for Sunday lunch – after all its Mothering Sunday! But today I invite us all to re-examine our hearts - those deep spots that only you know and to willingly give them up for cleaning. This is not to make anyone feel guilty, but you know what I mean. We stand before the Holy Spirit of God, the only one who can discern your heart and mine – and the only one who offers cleansing services, for free and forever. Amen

Sermon 17th February 2008

Today one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches based on the reading from Matthew 4: 1 – 11


1. So the second Sunday in Lent and the second in our sermon series looking at “holiness”: the holiness of God the Father, the Son, the Spirit and, then, lastly a look at what it means for us to be holy. All within the context of the invitation extended by Cameron last week – and before that on Ash Wednesday – to “keep a holy Lent” – by practising self-examination, repentance and self-denial, by praying, and by fasting.

Last week Cameron led us to Isaiah’s awe-full vision of God, high and lifted up, His robe filling the temple; and in our next sermon in a fortnight, John will consider the holiness of the Spirit of God. This week we consider the holiness of Jesus, the Son.

It is interesting that if you search the Bible looking for the description “holy” applied to Jesus, you will find only very few instances: in the gospels only one that I found – at the beginning of Mark, the madman in the synagogue: “I know who you are – you’re God’s holy one!”; then in Acts one or two references, such as the post-Pentecost Peter accusing the crowd “you disowned the holy and righteous one and begged to be granted instead a man who was a murderer!” Perhaps the most worked through statement comes in the letter to the Hebrews, where the writer, on his way from a theological frolic into the role of priesthood comes out with a clear and assured statement:

“Here is the High Priest we need. A man who is holy, faultless, unstained, beyond the very reach of sin and lifted above the very Heavens”

And that about sums it up really: Jesus, holy, faultless, unstained, beyond the reach of sin.

2. Did you see Rageh Omaar’s programme last week on the Dead Sea Scrolls? It was an intriguing examination of the background and significance of the scrolls. For today’s purposes, it was helpful in revealing the nature of the wilderness into which Jesus was led by Spirit before the start of his ministry. The Dead Sea scrolls were found by a Bedouin herdsman in Qum-ran to the NW of the Dead Sea: an area of what in the US would be termed “high desert” – rocky, bare, steep, mountainous dry and hot. A place to be alone; to find yourself and God and for Jesus, Matthew tells us, “to be tempted”. And Jesus fasted 40 days – the 40 days which provide the basis of this time of Lent.

Then the temptation began.

Two thoughts impress themselves on me as I read this passage – and they both lead towards the same conclusion: the first thought is that in the manner of his responses to the devil, Jesus made it clear who he was not; and the second thought is that in the terms of his responses, he hints clearly at who he was.

You see if Jesus had turned the stones into bread – he might just have been a magician, a trickster, a dealer in the dark arts, a sorcerer. That he was not. If he had succumbed to the dare to cast himself off the ledge on the Temple – perhaps daring a leap across the ravine that is the Kidron Valley – he might have seemed like any other deluded visionary who tries to back up his grandiose claims by calling on the support of God in some hopeless dare so as to prove the integrity of his theories. Jesus was not a false prophet like these. And if he had given-in to the offer of power over the kingdoms of the world, then he would have been or become what so many of the Jews expected: a man of politics and influence. But Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world.

And in what he says, Jesus points us to who he was: each of the passages of scripture he quotes are taken from the book of Deuteronomy chapters 6 -8 – a re-telling of the giving of the commandments to the nation Israel as it waits in the very borders of the promised Land. And these chapters take the people back to the fundamental formula of the covenant: “You will be my people and I will be your God” and “You are to be holy as I am holy”. Israel was called to be special; it was “the elect” of God; it was to be faithful to God and obedient to His commands. Holy. And Jesus use of these words to rebut the devil remind us that Israel too had been led by God into the wilderness for 40 years – and had failed in meeting His call to be holy: but Jesus does not fail.

Jesus does not sin. He remains holy. But what is that holiness? Is it just withstanding temptation? Is it only the ethical meaning of goodness?

3. If we were to read on in Matthew’s gospel, the next passage has Jesus begin to preach that the Kingdom of God is has arrived. And “while he was walking by the lake….he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting their large net into the water. They were fishermen so Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will teach you to catch men!” At once the left their nets and followed him.”

Why?

4. It was with mixed emotions that I heard of the death of Jeremy Beadle? Sorry that he had died at a relatively young age but relieved that I no longer have to worry that somewhere, somehow how he is waiting to trick me in some way and show the results on TV. Those of my generation will remember him on “Beadle’s About” filming practical jokes on unsuspecting members of the public. The ones that always stick in my memory involved peoples’ cars: usually involving swapping the victim’s prized Mercedes for a look-alike and then, as he comes back into the car park, letting it topple over the car park wall, or be lifted into a car-crusher, or be buried in an accidental dump of liquid concrete. And at that moment the camera pans to the victim who stands aghast – soon to turn to tears or to anger. That moment used to worry me: those “car-park-moments” seemed to me to involve high risk on the part of the programme makers – the chance of heart attacks must have been high?

I had my own car-park-moment the other week and very impressive it was too. I had stopped at a motorway service station and very consciously parked in a Marks & Spencer customer bay before going in to buy a coffee and a bun. And when I came out, I looked to my bay. Not only was there no longer a shiny black estate sat there; but also, in its place, was a grimy white van. The shock was fast, extreme and confused: had I come out of the wrong door? Would thieves operate in such a place? Could they act so quickly? What should I do? How would I get home? Help! All this and more flooded through my mind in a split second. A car-park-moment. What I expected, what I had anticipated, what I took for granted had gone and was undone. In its place was a dirty white van.

As I read on in Matthew’s gospel this week, it struck me that Simon and Andrew had had a car-park-moment by the lake. Had it been you or I who had made that strange half-jokey invitation – “come and catch men” – what response would we have expected: more important what response would they have expected to make? “Get lost!”

But faced with Jesus: “Follow me” and at once they left their nets. A car-park-moment: what they had expected to see, what they anticipated hearing, how they assumed they would, react undermined by being in the presence of Jesus.

5. And as you read on through the gospel, this “special-ness” - this holiness could we call it, because it seems to me it must be more than only the absence of sin, it must be that something of the holiness of the Father could be seen too – can be seen to lie at the heart of all that he says and does. It is because he is holy like the Father that his teaching can make the demands it does – go the extra mile, turn the other cheek, the hungry will be satisfied, the poor lifted high; it is because he is holy like the Father that he can command the waves to be still, the leper to be clean, the dead man to walk; it is because he is holy like that the Father that he can clean out the Temple, wash his followers’ feet and die.

CS Lewis said in one of his letters written “To an American Lady”: “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible”. It was for Simon and Andrew. It was for me. For me there had been a previous car-park-moment (not one caused by the failure to apply the hand brake so that the car had evidently sidled slowly and sedately across the car park until it had nuzzled gently against a new BMW in a far row). For me there was a moment when at which I had had to accept that my many theories about Jesus – as magician, thinker, manipulator, good man, victim, whatever – did not stack up next to “the real thing”, the holiness, what Paul in Philippians calls the “nature of God”. Everything I had assumed was undone in that car-park-moment. I had met with the fact that for me Jesus was holy and more important than I my theories would admit.

6. A “Holy Lent”. How is it going for you? Does it feel like 40 days in the high desert? If you are like me, then “not yet” may be an appropriate answer. To catch up, can I recommend seeking out a car-park-moment: finding space when you want to understand how it was that the disciples met the nature of God in the holiness of Jesus.