A Candlemass sermon.

A SERMON FOR CANDLEMASS 2011, ST MICHAEL AND ALL SAINTS EDINBURGH.

Heb 2:16-17^:”For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.”

This brief encounter between Jesus and Simeon can be seen as a meeting of 2 priests: one, a priest of the historic line descended from Aaron; the other, the Great High Priest himself, whose sacrificial self-offering was to bring the light of salvation to every nation and race and not just to a small, localised collection of Semitic tribes in Palestine and their Diaspora descendents.  It is one of those moments which we, with hindsight, can define as one of the great crossroads of human history.  Here is the very genesis, the birth, of the great Christian mission that was to utterly define human history.  It was to trigger the rise and fall of many Empires – Roman Byzantine, ottoman, British, Spanish, Portuguese amongst others.  As we celebrate Candlemass, we celebrate a moment when the world changed forever.

Like any moment of change, it did not come out of the blue.  It was the result of a long process of preparation and revelation.  The History of Israel is one of the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that his descendents would be more numerous than the grains of sand in the desert through which they had journeyed to the Promised Land.  Jesus the Christ, the child in the Temple, was and is the fulfilment of those promises.  The Light to lighten the Gentiles.  In order to truly be that light, he had to be fully, absolutely human – The Son of God, born of Mary.  He had to “become like his brothers and sisters in every respect” and experience human life in its glorious and sometimes grim entirety.  This is what Simeon prophetically alludes to in Luke’s Gospel.  Jesus is God’s salvation made ready in the sight and presence of every people.  Hence, Mary and Joseph’s journey from their home to the Temple on David’s Mount Zion.  Here, where God’s chosen people from all over the known world gathered to celebrate their special relationship with the One, True, Living God, the rites of the Law of Moses could be carried out where all could see and understand.  Only here was it possible to see through symbolic action that the Christ was for all and how terribly costly that would be. 

The rites and ceremonies Mary and Joseph brought their 1^st born son to were deeply symbolic.  They involved both “Purification after Childbirth” which took place 40 days after the birth of a male child and the redeeming of the First Born.    Interestingly, Luke’s Gospel says “the time had come for THEIR purification” – Mary AND Joseph were BOTH in need of ritual purification. The full cost of that sacrifice was a lamb.  The poor, however, could offer 2 young pigeons – one of the more generous and humane provisions of the Book of Leviticus.   The redemption of the First Born simply involved a payment of 5 shekels to the priest.  The Great High Priest was here symbolically both subject to and fulfilment of the Law of Moses.  He came from the weakest and poorest section of Society. Salvation was far more generous in its scope that the High and the Mighty could ever imagine.  It was witnessed by a frail old man and an even older devout widow – not by princes and prelates.  The Good News was not to be limited by class or wealth, race or privilege.  It truly was for all.

There was also a dark undercurrent in the proceedings: Simeon’s grim prophecy.  Here, Mary the Christ Bearer heard that her heart would be pierced as with a sword.  Salvation does not come cheap.  It does not come in a Rolls Royce.  It comes through courage, pain and suffering, as well as through joy, celebration, healing and liberation.  If it’s cheap and cheerful salvation, then it’s probably the Opium of the People, rather than the Glory of the Crucified Saviour of the World.  Yes, there was a baby and doubtless some “goo goo, ga ga” noises – but from the Crib to the Cross is but a short journey.  In a sense, Candlemass is the Christian Festival which is a concise précis of the whole narrative of Holy Scripture.  The People of God the Israelites, their history and heritage through Moses and Aaron, David and the Holy City and Mount Zion; their history of triumph and exile, their hope of deliverance and salvation through a Messiah, the birth, life, death and triumph of that Messiah – all are here.  Candlemass is the Bible in a nutshell.  For us here today at this celebration of the saving works of God, our story and our hope is told in full.  The Light of the World is in the World and the salvation of the World is in process.  Let us pause now and reflect in word and in silence on this mystery which we celebrate today.  Please make yourselves comfortable and still in your pews and in a moment or two, I’ll lead us in a meditation which will conclude this sermon.

MEDITATION

In the beginning there was darkness. And into the darkness and the chaos, 
God brought light and order. He gave two lights, one to govern the day, 
and 1 to govern the night.
“The light has come and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The Creator made many creatures, and some He made in His image, those to understand Light and Truth. But they chose darkness and hid in the shadows.
Yet “The light has come and the darkness has not overcome it.”

God sent messengers to bring the light of Truth, those who brought His word to be a lamp to their feet and a light to their path.  But they chose their own way and wandered from His.
Yet…“The light has come and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Then the One who has been Light and Truth from the beginning came into the world and lived among them. But the light of His life was too bright and exposed the darkness in theirs. So they tried to extinguish the light.  But they could not do so.
“The light has come and the darkness has not overcome it.”

And those who welcomed the light into their lives shone in the darkness, but many preferred the darkness to light because their deeds were evil. So they attempted to snuff out those who exposed them.
Yet…“The light has come and the darkness has not overcome it.”

And today there is darkness; there is fear, mistrust and anxiety. There is evil, corruption of the truth and a shadow over the world. And yet, just as surely as that baby was born, “The light has come and the darkness has not overcome it.”

And the darkness will never, will never, overcome it. And at the end all will stand, will stand before the Light that has been there from the beginning….May we be given grace to carry that light within us, now and always. Amen

A Sermon for Trinity 18 year C

Sermon for 2^nd October 2010 Good Shepherd Murrayfield.

“For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands” 2 Tim 1:6 (New American Bible)

Once upon a time (I trust this is a suitable beginning for a sermon!) not so very long ago, this text would have been preached on in both the RC and the Episcopal Churches as either (or both) an affirmation or a defence of the 3-fold Apostolic ministry of Bishop, Priest and Deacon – and ya, boo, sucks to the Presbyterians!  It would also have been cited as being written by the apostle Paul himself.  I intend to do neither of those things.  Firstly, there are more New Testament scholars than not who think this is at the very best written by Paul’s post martyrdom disciples in the spirit of and in tribute to the Apostle. The phrasing’s all wrong and the language too different for it to be by the man himself.  Some would say that the references to Church order and structure mean it is really written in the early 2^nd century AD.  Paul died in 67 AD; but that the 2^nd letter to Timothy contains a number of bits and pieces from his actual writings and from very early Christian liturgies (v10 might be a quote from an early Eucharistic Prayer).

But why am I telling you all this?  What, in the immortal words of a wee Glasgow woman who went to St Ninian’s Pollokshields when I was a Curate there, has this got to do with the price of Spam in Govan?  I’m illustrating what the point of this Epistle is: using the gifts God has given us.  God gave me a brain and I can use it when I read the Bible and study the Scriptures.  Just because I believe in God and go to Church, I am not by pious custom or divine commandment required to check my mind in at the West Door! And neither are you!  I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters, that I get really narked by the assumption both within the wider Church and in the non-God Bothering world that if you believe you have to be a credulous half wit who thinks that God dictated every word in the Bible by some form of ancient Dictaphone to the people who are named as the authors of the assorted bits of ancient literature that make up the Christian Holy Book. (The “I confess” by the way was an example of the sort of liturgical quoting that might have happened in verse 10!).

The gifts given us by the imposition of hands does not and cannot in the Church today refer exclusively to the ordained.  In our modern baptismal liturgies, hands are laid on, the baby or adult is anointed and the gift of the spirit is prayed for and given.  The comments attributed to Paul are properly addressed not just to the young leader of a young Church (Timothy) or even to Church leaders in general in every age – they are properly addressed to every single baptised Christian called by grace and the Holy Spirit.  In other words, to each and every person here today.

And they are challenging words indeed: we are reminded that we are not called to be cowering, timorous Church mice.  Because we have within each one of us the actual presence of Christ himself with whom we were joined in a spiritual and mystical union when we were baptised.  That gift may have lain dormant, it may never have expressed itself in anything other than quiet unostentatious faith and steadfast Christian loyalty, but it is a gift each one of us has.  Often we forget that.  We forget that Christ is part of us, especially when the  spiritual going underfoot is soggy to bloody difficult.  We forget to draw on his resurrection power, his grace and strength.  We need to hear that message today, so that we may truly live and serve – or rather, that Christ may really go on living and redeeming the world through us.

We are also challenged to follow the examples of the Great ones of God – like Paul, like John Henry Newman, like St Francis, whose Feast Day is tomorrow.  We can do worse than study the lives of God’s saints and draw inspiration from them.  Different ones will inspire different people. Some will not inspire us at all.  Personally, I cannot abide St Jerome!  The Scottish Prayer Book has a very apposite collect that sums this up nicely: it begins “O God the King of saints” and it has the neat phrase “inspired by their example and aided by their prayers” to sum up the usefulness of God’s saints for us today.

We are also encouraged to trust in the Grace of God: ”I know him in whom I have believed and am confident that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day” (v12).  Never mind Richard Dawkins and company, trust in God and Grace to win out in the end. The reference in verse 5 to Timothy’s mother and grandmother is significant here.  They were both Jewish born (you are Jewish if you mother is Jewish), yet must have been Christians (converts in others words).  Timothy is a Greek name so his mother probably married a Gentile.  Both would have been ostracised from their birth community of faith for apostasy and his mother doubly abhorred for marrying out with the accepted cultural norms of the day.    Yet they trusted and in due course they triumphed because the Grace of God surrounded them.  We too like them can learn to trust and to triumph.

The final challenge is for us to trust in the truth and power of the Gospel as it comes to us through the words of Holy Scripture.  “Take as your norm the sound words you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (v13).  At a profound level, it is quite irrelevant when or by whom this epistle is written.  They are sound words expressing the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus and have been recognised as such within the Christian Community over the ages.  That is what matters.  They have spoken and continue to speak through the action of the Holy Spirit to faithful souls in every age and culture.  That is what makes them Scripture, not who wrote them or when or what bits were added on later by well intentioned editors or fans.  It is their power to speak to us and to inform us, guide us and even change our actions and our thinking that make them the Scriptures of God.  And it is their ability to draw us nearer to God and to make us more Christ like through Grace that makes them Holy.  May the holy and life-giving Word of God, the Christ himself, stir into flame the gifts that lie within each one of us, so that his will may be done and the Day of Glory may arrive.

All life is here..or hereabouts!

One of THOSE days: the morning started with a very rushed shower and then a decant to work, where our new chappie introduced us to an aspect of his morning routine that certainly wasn't in the handover material. He greets the morning staff by name and then wheechs open his dressing gown (and he is not a pyjama wearer)! Luckily, the 1st victim was a Govanitess who simply said: "Pit that away - ah've no hid mah brekfast!". Also he called me a "fat poof"! FAT!!! I was black affronted! Well, first he called me Kenny - which meant he was possibly referring to my colleague rather than to me. Anyhow, forbearing to point out that I am not technically obese as he is and that it ill behaves a fan of both the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud to bandy such epithets about, I replied: "Only in Ethiopia" ! Subtle sarcasm seemed to slightly baffle him!

Tonight I returned to base camp reeking slightly of incense from the Corpus Christi hooley at St Mike's. I preached, ignoring the Scripture readings (damn inconvenient our reformed heritage is sometimes!). After quoting Martin Luther fulminating against Zwinglians (and pausing to describe him as a (Lord - ye Gods!) John Prescott lookalike), I cited this glorious passage from Dom Gregory Dix

Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; - one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week, and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done just this to MAKE the PLEBS SANCTA DEI - the holy common people of God.

I went on to point out that it is wonderful to think that the holy Sacrifice has been offered by millions over the millenia and it is wonderful to think of ourselves as part of that. But it leaves us with a problem that is a greater threat to our faith than anything Richard Dawkins can produce. So what? Has it changed anything? It hasn't stopped massacres in Cumbria or oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. My point was the God who reveals himself in the Sacrament is the God who revealed himself at Bethlehem and Calvary. A God who enters into and transforms suffering, not a vengeful judge or a fantasy figure who relieves us of responsibility and lets us float around in a happy world of pink fluffy clouds. it seemed to go down well enough. Last shift of the week to morrow - Yippee!

The German Sermon.

This I hope speaks for itself.

SERMON IN DORTMUND-SCHUREN EKD 28-9-08.

Mark 2:2: “While he was proclaiming the message to them...”

He was Jesus. What message was Jesus proclaiming to them? And who were they? They were a crowd from Capernaum – a mixed group of the deeply devout, the churchy but curious, the faintly religious, the positively pious, the holy, the half hearted and those who filled a pew in body, but not in spirit. Plus those who had turned out to see the show of the famous radical rabbi irritating the local gang of the godly – our predecessors in these pews, if you like.

The message was painfully simple and blunt – “The time has arrived; the kingdom of God is upon you. Repent and believe the Gospel.” (Mk. 1:19). That gospel was being preached in the 1st instance in Galilee – “Galilee of the Gentiles” – a mixed and multi-cultural, multi-faith and mixed language society. That is a society that is not unlike our own society today. The gospel – the Good News – was a message that all who chose to align themselves with God were welcomed into the kingdom of God. This, of course, is the classic message of the revivalist preacher, simple, passionate and easy to understand. The message is easy enough to accept, if it is simply a call for the individual to amend their life in accordance with an accepted pattern and lifestyle: a “Christian” lifestyle. But when it challenges and calls us as individuals, as a group, as congregations, as Church and as a society to radically change and transform our lives and lifestyles, then it is anything but easy to accept and then it is usually met with anger, apathy, lip service or anguish.

Whilst preaching this simple religious message to this very mixed group of hearers, Jesus was faced with a challenge from the crowd. A group of 4 men brought a friend with a practical problem to him. It was a practical problem that totally overshadowed his life and pushed the religious dimension of the Gospel message to one side. He was paralysed. His physical disability and practical needs dominated his existence. His friends believed that somehow Jesus could help him, so they made tremendous efforts to bring him in contact with the one who declared that he was God’s messenger – Jesus the Christ. His response was not what anyone might have expected. He didn’t say a prayer or preach a sermon telling the paralysed man it was all his own fault or the fault of his parents, grandparents or great great grandparents. Nor did he give him money or a wheelchair. Instead he told him “My son, your sins are forgiven”.

This wasn’t what anyone expected. The man and his friends probably were hoping for a healing miracle, for this radical rabbi Jesus from Nazareth was also famous for his gift of healing: in Mark chapter 1 he had healed a man with convulsions, Simon’s fever ridden mother in law and a leper. And the learned theologians who were listening to Jesus were scandalised. Only God could forgive sins. This Jesus was a blasphemer, a heretic. They were all surprised. And they all missed the point. Because what Jesus was doing was simple and significant – he was empowering the paralysed man and giving him the freedom to take charge of his own life and destiny. That man had been told for years that his misfortune and disability were the result either of his own lifestyle and choices or of the choices made by his ancestors. The theology of that period very strongly believed that God was good and generous to the righteous and that misfortune was the fate of the sinful. This rather ignores the wisdom and insight of many of the Psalms and the book of Job. The other side of that coin was to believe that if you were unfortunate then you logically were or had been sinful. It was a theology that Job’s friends and so-called comforters would have recognised instantly. When he declared that the paralysed man’s sins were forgiven, Jesus was freeing him from the burdens and chains of his own history and experience and from the attitudes and expectations of the society around about him.

That liberation and freedom which Christ brought was, at one level, not a new thing. It was exactly the freedom and liberation promised by God to his people in the Sinai covenant declared by Moses in Exodus chapters 19-40. The people of God were invited to enter into a relationship with God that brought both blessing and responsibility. The Covenant also impacted on the whole of Israelite society, defining both the prosperity they could expect if they maintained their side of the bargain and their responsibility to structure their personal and their corporate life in ways that ensured justice and holiness, not only for the Chosen people, but also for the stranger who dwelt in the land, for the widow and for the orphan. In the person of Jesus Christ, this Old Covenant was being renewed, but in a radically different way that extended its membership far beyond the descendents of a small Semitic tribe who had settled in the land of Canaan and offered its benefits to the whole human race if they wished to accept it as a way of life.

Offering that freedom and liberation to the wounded people of God is, of course, the evangelical task that we as Christians today are still charged with and committed to. It may lead us to proclaim freedom and liberation to individuals from the results and consequences of personal behaviour that is contrary to the will of God; it may require us to challenge the structures both of the Churches and of society in a prophetic role, to enable the freedom and justice which is God’s desire for all his children to prevail. But it always requires us to enable women and men to take responsibility for their own destiny and future, so that they may know and enjoy the fully free and restored humanity and life that we inherit through baptism into membership of the Body of the risen, ascended and glorified Christ. Enabling others to take charge of their destiny is a profoundly Christian and evangelical action. It expresses itself in many ways: in spiritual counselling, in proclaiming the Gospel of salvation and in acting practically and politically to empower men and women who are marginalised and disadvantaged.

I have personally been lucky enough to observe the Church doing this in many different ways and places over the years. A friend of mine worked for several years as a priest in the East End of Glasgow in Scotland. It is one of the most socially disadvantaged and deprived areas in the European Union - worse even that parts of the former Communist Bloc. He established a Credit Union in the parish in which he served to provide low cost financial loans to help people to improve their quality of life and avoid debt. It made a great difference to the lives of many families. My congregation in Falkirk has a link with a congregation in Nyakinoni in south western Uganda and 2 1/2 years ago we visited Uganda. There we saw the real difference our financial support of a medical clinic made (we supply the salaries for a nurse and a midwife), saving lives from malaria to an entire community. We also saw the difference that Fair-trade can make in helping communities to help themselves. Money from fairly traded tea was used locally to start brick factories which have transformed the local economy and improved the situation of hundreds of local people. From being dependant on one crop, with all the dangers that come when a local economy is built on a narrow base, the local economy has expanded and diversified, ensuring greater prosperity and economic stability and a higher standard of life for the future. We also saw the huge difference a local micro credit bank made in providing low cost loans for local development in the neighbouring town of Kihihi. These actions, organised by local Christians who realised that the Gospel calls them to enable freedom for all God’s people, have led to real and concrete metanoia – transformation – in the lives both of individuals and of societies.

You recall that Jesus forgave the paralysed man: he enabled him to accept and experience freedom. That in turn, through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, empowered him to take up his bed and go home. He returned to his family healed and transformed, no longer marginalised and despised but restored and able to take a full and active part in the life of his society as a worker and as a worshipper. No longer was his disability – the sign of God’s disfavour – able to separate him from the vital life of the congregation of Israel. He was fully able to participate in and contribute to the life of God’s kingdom. May the Christ who gave each one of us freedom through his saving life, death and resurrection inspire and enable us to proclaim and work for that freedom and to share it with others, that his kingdom may come and God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

St Columba's Day.

Today is the Feast of St Columba of Iona ... and it's Johnny Depp's 44th birthday! Rejoice according to taste. Here's a precis of the sermon I preached yesterday.

"St Columba, I would argue, was one of the most significant figures in world history. A native of Donegal and a prince of the then royal house of Ulster, he turned his back on a secular career and devoted his life to the service of God. After entering the religious life and training with St Finnian, he used his influence to found a number of monasteries in his native Ireland. A man of prodigious talents, it was his very giftedness that got him into trouble. He was a skilled copyist of illuminated manuscripts and he copied a set of the gospels belonging to his mentor Finnian without first asking permission. A court decision awarded the copy to Finnian, but Columba's clan got involved in the dispute and it all ended in a battle with the loss of 3,000 lives. Columba was so appalled at the result of his pride that he swore never to set foot in his native Ireland until he had converted 3000 new souls to Christ to atone for the 3000 who had died. Thus he left Ireland and settled on Iona and began to reach out to the pagan Picts. He successors reached out further to Northumbria and founded the great mission station on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. It was their efforts that began the conversion of Britain to the Christian faith, which led into due course to the Christian ethos of the British Empire and the USA. Truly, Columba shaped the path of world history.

The idea of a monk as missionary may seem strange to us today. After all ,mission = Billy Graham or the Alpha Course, doesn't it? Perhaps in our minds we think monks are those who have withdrawn from the normal world, drawn up the barriers and concentrated on their own salvation and spiritual journey. In Columba's day, that wasn't quite the case. Yes they sought solitude and went to out of the way places to commune with God. But they were also farmers who had to work the land to survive, builders who constructed their own homes and worship centres, teachers who instructed the children in reading and writing, as well as prayer and scripture and mediciners who healed the sick. They were men of prayer who were fully and actively engaged in the life of the community, as well as in their own faith journey and the proclamation of the Gospel and the building of the Kingdom.

The monastic model of mission and outreach may have much to teach us as we think about how we in Christ Church reach out as a community of faith in our society today. I have personal experience of two very different types of religious community. Firstly, I spent 3 months as a student living as part of the community at Iona Abbey,where Columba was based 1400 years ago. The resident group was made up of men and women, married and single from a variety of backgrounds and ages. No one took vows, we volunteered to work at the Abbey for a set period. We shared tasks, washing up, cooking, waiting on tables, gardening, repairs etc. We ate and worshipped together daily. We provided hospitality to day trippers and groups of pilgrims. Some worked with deprived children from the inner city. The Community's outreach probably reached people and places where the yuppie targeted Alpha would never think of going.

I also know something of the life of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield in Yorkshire. It's a much more "traditional" monastic community. Men only, big church, habits, sung office and silence. It helps to run a theological college and offers a ministry of hospitality to visitors. Not much to say to us then. Except that on a typical Saturday, there can be 200+ using the monastery, from retreats to training courses for clergy and laity and even local kids football teams using the monks two pitches! Ecumenically, they host a Romanian Orthodox congregation every Sunday in the lower Church. Their hospitality powerfully touches all sorts of people. And it makes a difference because that monastery is in Dewsbury, where the BNP have a large share of the vote, where Sharon Matthews was abducted and where an Asian teenager was murdered a few weeks ago.

We've spent time recently at Christ Church defining amongst ourselves what the essence is of being Episcopalian. What is the good news we want to share and the way of being with God we find attractive? If that's all we do, then we've missed the point. The gospel calls us to share our faith. Columba and his followers did so by being of service to others, by engaging with the real world in the context of having an active faith expressed in worship. Being honest, we need to reach out to our community, but we lack the numbers to do it well on our own. For us, reaching out with others in Falkirk Churches Together is probably the way forward. There are a number of suggestions that have come from FCT and I'd like you to think about your playing a part in them. Because if you don't, then they will fall flat on their face. FCT can piously dream up all sorts of great schemes, but if you, the people of God, don't support them, then nothing will happen.

May St Columba pray for us and with us today that we may like him and his followers reach out to our generation, not just with sermons and slogans but in the way described in words which St Paul wrote in our epistle this morning:

"So deeply do we care for you, that we are determined to share with you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." (1 Thessalonians 2:8).