Another sermon - two in one day!

Year A Proper 18

Matthew 18:15-20

Romans 13:8-end

Exodus 12.1-14

Being Church

I don’t know what your perfect Church would look like!  A lot of people who call me about baptisms and weddings in the team mention how much they want their service to take place in this building or that building because it is such a lovely Church.  And their concern in many ways is about the building…

I think many of those who visit our churches, though, are pleasantly surprised that what makes our Churches such good places to be a part of is not how well kept they are, or whether they are architecturally wonderful, or even if they look like Churches are meant to look.  It’s the warmth of the welcome, the genuine love that many of our congregations have for each other, and a desire to follow Jesus that makes our Churches special.

I am sure there are still many things we could do to make our Churches better – both the buildings and in growing together in faith and love to strengthen our Christian community.  I know of some churches who have radically re-ordered their whole church, who have added various technological aids to worship, from video projectors and computers to variable lighting and sound systems.  For some of our Churches the addition of heating has been a radical move forward!

Some Churches have taken on more of what is known as a ‘café church’ style, both in adding comfortable chairs and good coffee – a real plus in any Church in my opinion!  They have also considered what makes people feel comfortable and uncomfortable with coming to Church and are willing to take risks with the shape and content of services in order to give people a place to explore faith and where they feel welcome in Church.

Until a couple of years ago I used to spend the bank Holiday weekend every August in the wonderful surroundings of Cheltenham racecourse.  Don’t worry, though, there is no need to concern yourself that your Clergy are either being paid too much and like to spend it on gambling, or that we have way too much time on our hands and like to waste it with frivolous trips to dens of iniquity…

I spent the weekend, along with about 20, 000 or so other Christians, praying, worshipping, listening to various seminars, enjoying music from a variety of Christian Artists, chatting to various theologians, speaking to some very influential Christian writers and speakers, and seeing some very powerful art.  This was at an Arts festival, one of the Christian festivals that has been very much a way of reconsidering what it means to be Church, over the past thirty years and its called Greenbelt.  Greenbelt was part of my spiritual landscape for nearly 20 years, and perhaps had more influence on my own Christian journey than any other thing except the great privilege of being ordained to serve the Church of God.  It is enjoyable, often stimulating, usually challenging and provides an opportunity for many Christians to consider the real meaning of their faith and to think about how to apply their faith to their everyday lives.

Because Greenbelt is so enjoyable and so profound, and because there is very little quite like it even in the Church there is a fair amount of idealisation about it.  People describe it as the ideal way of being Church – one writer said that heaven will be like Greenbelt, but with better loos.

But it is not.  Greenbelt is a great place to be, but it is not Church.  It is a wonderful mix of idealism and pragmatism, of hope and frustration, of faith and questioning.

Which brings me on to our reading for this morning.  Of course, as you know, our Bibles are a fascinating, disturbing, sometimes confusing but always exciting mix of the idealistic and the pragmatic.  And our selection of verses for this Sunday is a wonderful example of how this can be the case even within one passage. The danger, of course it that is easy to fall into a false distinction of what is ‘spiritual’ and what is realistic when we look at the Bible – as what might seem very idealistic, is actually something we have to take very seriously for our daily walk with Christ.

We see this clearly in St Paul’s writings.  Paul is probably the greatest pastoral theologian the Church has ever had or will ever have.  He is writing without boundaries, without anything to work from except his Jewish faith and the inspiration of the Spirit.  For him there was no bible, just the Jewish Scriptures and the teachings and stories of Jesus passed on through the early Christians.  St Paul sets out exactly what the Church is and should be, but is quick to address the very real situations that people are writing to him about, unafraid to tackle difficult issues and yet setting out what God is calling the early Christians to be.

  

Today’s reading is a wonderful mix of the pragmatic and the idealistic – from the idea of not being indebted except to owe each other the debt of love, to the admonishment to avoid revelling and drunkenness, debaucher and licentiousness, quarrelling and jealousy and instead to allow Jesus to be as close as the clothing you wear.

But Paul doesn’t separate the practical and pastoral from the ideal and spiritual – they are all one.  As Christians, someone said, we live with our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground – a good image of what it means to be seeking to live as Christ’s followers – and particularly as the Church of God.

Likewise in Jesus words today we have very clear instructions as to how to deal with wrongdoing in the Church – it is to be dealt with face to face, then between a small group in the fellowship and if necessary to the whole body.  Then he goes on to talk about the immense power Christians are given to bind and loose – terms to do with the spiritual battle with evil that all Christians are engaged in.  Finally Jesus reminds us that as his body, where only two or three are gathered he is there, that is what makes the Church what it is – the presence of Christ.  This is, of course, not to say that Jesus is not with us individually in the whole of our lives but to remind us that there is something special about gathering together, and that Christ is at the very centre of our meetings as Christians.

As an aside, I must say though that though we are promised that even if only two or three are gathered Christ is with us, that is not an excuse for us not turning up to Church because the numbers don’t matter!

But in these two relatively short readings for today we are given a challenge – a challenge not to set our sights too low as a Church.  It is easy to focus on the struggles we have as a Church community, on our attendance or financial difficulties or building needs and become distracted from the core of our role to be the body of Christ and to share the Gospel in this village and in the whole of our lives.

We are called as a Church to be realistic – about our shortcomings, the things that need to change, the difficulties we face.  We’re called too to be realistic about the good things, our place in the heart of this community, the pastoral work that is undertaken not only by clergy but by many members of this congregation, our family ministry, our building development.

  

At the same time our realism shouldn’t make us forget our dreams as a Church.  We are called to seek God’s vision and to live up to the ideals that Christ has called us to.  We may not do terribly well, we may fail continually, but God’s Spirit calls us to be open to the ideal as well as being rooted in the practical.  We are called to strive to bring Christ into every area of our lives, and to make our faith a part of everything we do and say.

 

As a Church we are called to bear with one another, to love, to care.  We are called also to, as Paul says. ‘wake from sleep’ and to work together for the proclamation of the Gospel.  Often the possibility of Church growth may seem far away, but we are called to persevere, to trust in God and to support one another as part of this fellowship.

  

And in the end it all comes down to one thing.  Everything we do as individual Christians and as a Church must come down to this. 

“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ’ or as it says in another translation ‘Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as close as the clothes you wear’.  When we allow Jesus to be that close to us then our dreams of faith can become reality.

A sermon - Proper 17

Year A Proper 17 Principal

Exodus 3.1-15 

Romans 12.9-21 

Matthew 16.21-28

Struck

A few weeks back I talked about how we picture Jesus – some of us seem to be stuck with a ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ picture – all tied up with Victorian Kitsch and nicely scrubbed children gathered around a blue eyed saviour – some picture a revolutionary, shouting insults are the Pharisees, whipping traders from the temple courts, others prefer a more intellectual picture, with Jesus debating with scholars and scribes.  The list goes on – and having preached on this once I don’t plan to save myself the trouble of preaching by just saying the same thing again.

One of the points I wanted to make, among others, in that sermon was to say that our picture of Jesus, whatever it might be, cannot ever be enough – there will always be more to discover, more that challenges us, more to inspire and disturb.  And so it should be.

And it resonates in today’s readings too if we consider our pictures of God and our understanding of scripture.  We again are challenged, called to consider the demands of faith, of the life of faith, of Jesus’s call to us to be faithful, to be followers, to be his people.

Of course, the Bible is a precious gift – God allowing us to share in truth through Scripture  - but as well as familiarity and comfort, when we find ourselves facing the truth of God’s radical agenda, with the God of fire and of life, the God of hope and of freedom, when we see this God in scripture, then the Bible should shock us, disturb us and make us think again.

But we have to be open to this confrontation – as we see in our reading from the book of Exodus, Moses meets God in this vision of the burning bush but in order to do so he has to turn aside – he has to take time out, to set aside what he is doing, and then he finds himself on Holy Ground, and removes his shoes.

Moses has to act, to turn aside, to be open to the voice of God, and on meeting with God has to be willing to change something – a small thing, perhaps, removing his shoes – but it was a recognition that he stood somehow in the presence of God.  And its not like he was anywhere particularly special, just out in the desert tending crops.  But this was the place where God was (as I’ve said before, the phrase ‘angel of the Lord’ in the Old Testament, has more to it than our understanding of Angelic beings, and refers much more to the actual presence of God)

And from this response to God Moses is called, challenged and sent out to do something that will change the whole course of human history.  He is to lead the children of Israel from slavery to freedom – to head up the Exodus from Egypt – to speak God’s word to Pharaoh, and to be there for what is the defining moment of the Hebrew nation, the journey to the promised land.  It is this journey that brings about the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham, it is during this journey that God’s people will receive the first law, it is during this journey that they will be fed by the bread of heaven, it is this journey that makes Israel what it is.

All from this turning aside, and from meeting God and responding with God.  Small steps of faith which changed the world.

And our faith must follow this pattern.  Of being open to God, turning aside and listening, responding and following.  That journey for us must begin with scripture.  When we open our Bibles we are in the presence of God.  We may not take off our shoes but there is a need to turn aside and make time and space to encounter the Bible and allow it to encounter us.  Perhaps we need to consider more what it means to read and be read by our Bibles – to look beyond those parts that we are comfortable with, beyond the stories we know so well, to see those parts which will, as we pray and read and meditate, change us and lead us further into God’s truth.  If we really look at the Bible it will surprise us –  for instance, as I encourage confirmation candidates to do - read a whole Gospel at once and think again about what Jesus is like!  As I mentioned at the start, you will be surprised -  in today’s Gospel reading, for instance, Peter was shocked by Jesus (explain context, just after his ‘confession’).  Jesus reacts with passion, and anger!  Perhaps that’s not how we think of Jesus (gentle, meek & mild).  But, like most Scripture, can shock and surprise us.  For Peter it must have been a bit like being slapped.  He was only saying how strongly he felt about Jesus, only trying to express the fact of how important Jesus was.  The reaction he got must have been something of a surprise.

It’s easy as a Christian to go our own merry way – it’s only through prayer and reading the Bible that God can shake us up.  And GOD DOES SHAKE US UP…

Are we willing to be shaken up?  If we follow the Christian way we will be – it’s not always about ‘what I am comfortable with’ or ‘what I like’.   Our faith is demanding, its not an easy ride – look for instance at the standards which we are called to live by in today’s lesson taken from the Epistle to the Romans

Romans 12.9-21

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. 11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. 

and there is more 

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 

and

17Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.

 

and

21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

High standards indeed, and its only through learning in prayer, in reading scripture, in knowing the love of God and the power of his Spirit that any of this is possible. And we need to be willing to do things differently, to heed the call of God no matter what that might cost -   Sometimes we do things differently in our parishes, Sometimes we try something different in our meetings, in our groups.  Sometimes we need to be willing to think again about how we meet the needs of our communities and what we must do to be open to them and to serve our villages.

If we are open to God working in us, through us, because of us, then we will find that sometimes we are stopped short.  Sometimes God will do something which makes us stop in our tracks and think again. Like Moses in our first reading, confronted with a burning bush that speaks to him – God can speak in the most unexpected ways.  OR Like Peter, who is strongly rebuked for what he says, despite the fact he is sure he’s saying what is right to Jesus.

Christianity is NOT the easy way.  Jesus is blunt, it’s like taking up a cross and carrying it, knowing that the way is full of pain.  BUT the rewards are beyond our imagining.

Wrestling with Angels

Proper 13 (2008) Year A RCL Principal

Genesis 32.22-31
Romans 9.1-5
Matthew 14.13-21

Wrestling with Angels

When I was younger – in my early Teens, I think, there was never anything on TV on Saturday’s apart from Grandstand or ‘Dickie Davies’ world of Sport.’ As someone who didn’t appreciate spectator sports, this used to leave me frustrated and annoyed! There was one thing that grabbed my attention, though, (and considering it was 25 years ago now, it must really have grabbed my attention!) and that was the Saturday Afternoon ITV wrestling! This was in the days of ‘Big Daddy’ and ‘Giant Haystacks’ – it mainly involved huge men grunting a lot, running around a ring and jumping on each other!

But it was the sense of theatre, the make-believe aspect of it that really caught my attention. I was naïve enough to think that they might really be fighting – my illusions have since been shattered! But apart from that aspect of the make believe there was a sense of unreality about it – it seemed to be a game, not real, something that didn’t really hurt, despite the moans and groans on the TV. Of course, I now know that none of it was real, and the US wrestlers have taken the whole theatrical aspect of wresting to extremes with ‘WWF’ and ‘WCW’ (ask my nephew if you want to know what that stands for). But wrestling, at least any wrestling outside of the Olympics, has connotations of falsehood, unreality about it.

So I wonder how it felt to Jacob! There by the brook of Jabbok he settles down to rest and is wrestled by ‘a stranger’ who fights with him all night. Perhaps it seemed like a dream, it is certainly a strange picture. Jacob is waiting upon God, seeking reassurance and guidance before meeting his brother Esau after many years estrangement. Remember – Jacob had tricked Esau out of his inheritance, he had taken the blessing meant for the eldest son, and had gone ‘on the run’ as it were, fearful of his brother’s vengeance. Jacob had been tricked in return, though, and found himself with two wives: having been promised one sister, his first wedding was to the other, and he had to wait to marry the woman he had hoped for.

But Jacob had overcome his difficulties, he had turned his back on treachery, and deceit and had sought to do as God commanded. In the course of this he had become a successful man, he had built up large flocks, and owned land. As time had past, however, this had not been enough, and he felt the need to be reconciled to his brother. So he set off back to the family lands to meet Esau and to ask his forgiveness. In the earlier part of this chapter we see his fear about his brother’s reaction, we see him sending gifts ahead of himself in order to express his penitence, we see him worrying that he literally might not make it out of an encounter alive – after all, the last time they had met Esau was ready to kill his brother there and then.

So Jacob goes away to pray, to wait upon God, to seek God’s help.

And what happens.

A stranger comes along and wrestles with him!

But Jacob doesn’t roll over without a fight, he struggles back, even when the stranger cheats and dislocates Jacob’s hip. He holds on to the stranger and will not let go of him until he tells Jacob his name.

Of course, to those of us who know the story, we can say ‘yes, Jacob was wrestling with God’ – or more accurately with an Angel, because in the Old Testament Angels are the solid manifestation of God, not separate beings but, in some way, mini-incarnations of God. Yes, Jacob wrestled with an Angel, and was willing to keep struggling, even when things became difficult, when things became painful

And in return, he was blessed. He had seen God face to face, in some way at least, and had prevailed. He had wrestled with an Angel.

And it seems obvious that this offers some parallels to the nature of prayer in the Christian life.

To go back to the TV wrestling – there’s a fair amount of prayer that comes from the big daddy school of prayer – lots of grunting and groaning, and awful lot of noise, great theatre, wonderfully entertaining – but where is the substance??? It’s easy in ministry to make our prayer wordy and impressive, and look back after a service and say ‘actually did I really say anything there????’.

There is a place for formal prayers, for liturgy, for prayers that are led for us – but not as a replacement for our own prayer.

Real prayer, to be honest, is hard work. If we take prayer seriously, our Bible story tells us, then it’s going to be like wrestling with God.

Prayer is not about saying the right words, or about being in Church. Prayer is learning to wait on God, to listen, to be willing to be quiet – to be open to God working.

And that can be difficult, because when we are praying, and I mean really praying, we may well encounter God. We may find ourselves struggling in prayer. We could be struggling over finding God’s will, we could be struggling over having to leave something behind, we could be struggling with God because we have things that are blocking our relationship with Him and God wants to move us on in our faith.

There are as many reasons why prayer can be a struggle as there are people in this world – we may all have our reasons – but ultimately the question comes back…

Do we want to meet God? Are we willing to take the risk of finding out more of who God is?

Because, like Jacob, if we do meet God – we will be changed. We may suffer, because in the face of God’s holiness, God’s power and even God’s love we can feel battered and bruised, emotionally if not physically. But we will be changed – and ultimately we will be blessed – because we will encounter God and we will prevail.

And we will see the generosity of a God who is actually willing to come and meet us, who wrestles with us not because he is difficult, awkward or obstinate, but because by wrestling with us he allows us to see him more and more, and he can touch us with his grace and generosity because he is close to us.

And if you wish to see a little of God’s generosity then I will finish by pointing you towards our Gospel reading for today – as Jesus is confronted with a hungry crowd and has only five loaves and two fish with which to feed them. He looks to heaven, blesses the food, breaks it and feeds all five thousand men (plus women and children who aren’t included in the headcount, apparently), then there are also twelve baskets of leftovers at the end.

That’s the kind of God we approach in prayer, abundant, loving, caring, willing to cater for our needs. But that’s the God also who we wrestle with, who as he reveals himself to us strips away the things that prevent us from being close to him, sometimes painfully. This God is willing to meet us in our prayers – but are we willing to face the consequences??

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish far more all than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Samson

This is out of the usual pattern of sermons, we have been covering Old Testament figures under the very broad title 'Heroes of Faith' - seeing in these often deeply flawed individuals inspiration for our own journey of faith. This is the end of the series....

Heroes of Faith - Samson

Judges 13-16

We probably know a number of stories about Samson, perhaps like me you heard the stories of Samson in Sunday school and were presented with a great hero of faith, almost a kind of Old Testament ‘Superman’ – missing only a cape and pants outside his tights. He is renowned for his strength and his long hair – and being tricked by the dodgy Delilah! My My My Delilah…

A Summary of his life, as found on Luther Seminary’s online ‘people of the Bible’ website:

Samson - A judge noted for great physical strength.
Samson was born to aged parents. He was a Nazirite set apart for God's service and therefore did not cut his hair or drink alcohol. His exploits included tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, killing a company of the men of Ashdod, setting fire to their fields and orchards, and slaughtering a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. After a Philistine woman named Delilah enticed Samson to reveal the secret of his great strength, she cut off his hair, and the Philistines gouged out his eyes, bound him with strong fetters, and set him to grind at the mill in the prison. But Samson's hair, the secret of his strength, began to grow again. The day came when the Philistine lords sent for the blind Samson to laugh at him. Samson felt for the pillars on which the house rested, pulled them down, and died along with many Philistines.
That’s probably how most of us remember it, pretty straightforward really – almost ‘Grimm’s fairy tales’ in its scope, at least at first glance. We tend to remember the exploits, the tales of lions being killed and bees making a hive in the carcass, or we remember foxes being tied together and set off into the fields with burning tails, or the various wiles Delilah used to get him to reveal the secret of his great strength, or the heroic ending where blinded and mocked Samson enacts revenge on his Philistine captors by the ultimate ‘last word in entertainment’ – really bringing the house down…. sorry, couldn’t resist!

But all of this seems a bit two-dimensional, and there’s one thing that scripture doesn’t really let us get away with, and that’s seeing life in two dimensions. This is not a fairy story, it’s a history, something to challenge and inspire, a story in which we are invited to share, to immerse ourselves in and allow to affect us. The almost comic-book simplicity which comes from popular perceptions of Samson doesn’t really encourage us to do this. So in keeping with our other ‘heroes of faith’ talks, I want to try and delve a little deeper by looking at the text itself and seeing how it can speak to us today.

Like all of those we are calling ‘heroes’ from our Old Testament stories Samson is very human, in fact you could say deeply flawed. He doesn’t seem to know what’s good for him, and really doesn’t seem to pick up that Delilah, who he is obviously obsessed with, might not have his best interests at heart. It’s like the old joke – a man goes to the doctor and says ‘Doctor, I’ve broken my arm in three places’ to which the Doctor replies ‘I’d stop visiting those places if I were you’ – boom boom! Samson seems to head straight for trouble! Hot headed, and it seems at times, daft as a brush Samson keeps getting himself into trouble.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get Biblical and start at Chapter 13 of the Book of Judges and see in the first five verses:

1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

A bit of background, then, the people of God, God’s chosen people, are pretty Godless – they’ve given up on living the way that God has called them to, in fact they don’t seem too bothered, and they are overrun and ruled by the Philistines – as far as we know these were an even more godless bunch! And the people of Israel leave it there – they don’t even cry out to God for help, they allow themselves, it seems, to be subjugated and ruled by these unbelievers. There are only a few still faithful, and it seems that this ‘righteous remnant’ are pretty silent most of the time….

And then God takes the initiative, sending and Angel (or visiting himself, as in the Old Testament the word ‘angel’ seems to represent God visiting rather than some kind of being distinct from God – but that’s another discussion for another time!). He comes to a woman unable to have children and offers her a lifeline (remembering that children are a lifeline in a society where there are no social services or benefits or pensions, who else would care for you in your old age or carry on the family line?). She will have a child who will be dedicated to the Lord, he will be a Nazirite for all of his life.

This in itself is unusual, normally a Nazirite vow was taken for a set time, say a month or period of weeks, during this time the person having taken the vow would abstain from cutting his hair, could not touch or go near a dead body, and would not partake of any alcoholic drink. This was a standard of purity and discipline which reflected a rejection of worldly pleasures and earthly pursuits and focused on God and God’s standards. There are only three mentions in scripture of men who were lifetime Nazirites, Samuel, Samson and John the Baptist – interestingly all of them born to women who were unable to have children (that dreadful word ‘barren’) and all set apart for specific purposes – one to be a prophet to bring the people back to God, one to combat the Philistines, and one to proclaim the coming of Christ.

So from the moment Samson is conceived he is dedicated to God completely and utterly. In this way he mirrors our own calling to faithfulness. In the New Testament there is no mention of the practice of Nazirite vows for Christians, perhaps because we are called to practice such standards in all of our walk with Christ. No matter how Samson failed, the fact is still there that his devotion to God is the very foundation of his being, not just because certain vows have been made, but because God has a plan for him, and God longs to use him. In some ways maybe Samson is an example of the greatest ‘what if…?’ of Scripture – what if he’d not been drawn to this Philistine woman, what if he’d not been daft enough to give away his secret, what if he’d remained faithful?

In this way I think that the Lutheran Seminary summary is deficient. It’s not that Samson’s hair was the secret to his strength, but that the vow which was behind it was the basis of God’s ability to work in and through Samson. Ultimately it wasn’t a magical barnet that was the source of Samson’s super power, but his devotion to the Lord and the way that this devotion made it possible for the Holy Spirit to work in him. We see in Chapter 14 verses 5 & 6 that Samson may not have been super strong all of the time but was given strength of the Spirit to combat the lion which threatened him…

5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.

So a message here, to allow our devotion to God to be such that we too are open to the strength which the Spirit offers. Now we might not be nipping out on any lion ripping expeditions but there are things which we encounter day by day where we need God’s strength and God’s power in order to conquer. What Samson’s story says is that its not just about turning to God in emergencies, though often God is gracious enough to respond to our cries with the help and strength we need. It was the foundation of a devoted life that made it possible for the Spirit to enter Samson’s life in power in this moment of need!

The story continues in chapter fourteen with the exploits around Samson’s marriage and his desire to be with a particular Philistine woman. The Bible says that this was all part of God’s plan to bring the Israelites back from their subjugation by the Philistines, mainly it seems by Samson knocking seven bells out of lots of Philistines, killing them to get robes from them when he loses a bet, tying foxes together and setting them on fire to burn the fields, and the killing lots of them (a thousand we are told) with the jawbone of an ass when he’s really, really angry! All of that can be found in chapters 14 and 15 of the book of Judges if you want to look it up – stirring and slightly disturbing stuff, but not really what I want to concentrate on today.

Then in chapter sixteen of the book of Judges we get to that point where, having been a leader of Israel for twenty years Samson meets his greatest challenge.

Actually its worth noting that Chapter 15 verse 20 is a verse we often miss (its also mentioned again in chapter 16 verse 31), it reminds us that despite his failings God continued to use Samson, and after his disastrous marriage and his fearsome anger he is, as far as we can see, faithful again to his promise and returns to God and serves God and Israel for many years. Obviously without quite the same level of adventure as the rest of the story, as its skipped over and we get to the meaty bit. Samson and Delilah.

Unlike Samson’s first disaster in the romance department, his paramour isn’t under the threat of death (along with her family and everyone she knows or has ever looked at it seems in chapter 14) if she doesn’t find Samson’s particular brand of kryptonite. Delilah is in it for the money. Nice and simple. Chapter sixteen is an exercise in seeing how anyone can be distracted from what is right by differing vices. Samson finds himself completely at a loss because of his obsession with this woman, and blinded by love (and distracted by nagging, it seems) finally gives away this secret of his hair, the mark of his vow, which sees him shorn and stripped of his power. Delilah does the will of the Philistines because she wants to make a quick buck – faithful to neither the man who loves her nor her own people, but doing it for the cash – and quite a good amount too, about 26 pounds of silver. Not a bad return for a little bit of betrayal!

Samson, who starts chapter 16 with a visit to a Philistine prostitute (Gaza was a philistine stronghold) has a weakness for Philistine women. Earlier in the story God uses this weakness as a way of combating the Philistines. In Chapter 14 we read

1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
3 His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me." 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)

But this time, it’s Samson indulging his preference for Philistine womanhood that is going to be his downfall. Again and again Samson has drifted from his vow, and though the serious haircut he received in verse 19 is the symbol of the betrayal of his vow of faithfulness, he slips – as RC Sproul writes – ‘inch by inch into sinfulness’ and the low point is his visit to a prostitute in Gaza leading on to his odd relationship with Delilah. It’s almost as if he wills himself into that final loss of his strength, again and again falling into sin, blind to what Delilah is doing.

For a hero, Samson is something of failure. Despite the way the Spirit of God has inspired and strengthened him, despite all that has happened, he falls in a big way. For all we know his twenty years of being a Judge of Israel, the last in the line of the Judges, were successful and faithful – but in the end Samson fails to deliver Israel, and can’t even deliver himself.

Of course, after his capture and blinding by the Philistines he turns again to God and we are told in Chapter 16

28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

So his cry is heeded and his strength returns to him again.

Leaving behind our twenty-first century distaste for the bloodshed and violence that characterises much of this story. (Though there is much that could be said about that!) We are left with a story that contains a tragic hero, someone who despite being dedicated to God from before his birth, leaves that behind to satisfy his own carnal desires. With bouts of faithfulness, and at times an underpinning of devotion Samson shows perhaps how God is willing to use even those with a seriously patchy faith. But we are left with a feeling of a life wasted, and left to wonder just what might have been achieved if Samson had remained faithful and sought God….

And I’m sure I don’t need to join too many dots here to think about the application of such a story to our own Christian lives. The message seems pretty clear, look at what Samson did do, but also at what he didn’t – all those questions about what he might have been able to achieve if he’d not wasted. In our own lives are there distractions that prevent us being the people we are truly called to be and doing those things that God longs to do through and with us.

I could go on, but sometimes we just need some time to reflect – to dedicate ourselves again to God in order that when the storms come we are on the rock of Jesus Christ. That when things go wrong, we don’t run around desperate for guidance, blowing dust off of our Bibles and hoping for strength – yes, God is faithful even when we are faithless, but if we are rooted in lives of devotion and commitment, then when things happen – for good or bad – we will be equipped to meet them with the strength, grace and spirit of God.

Year A Proper 9

Matthew 11.16-19, 25-30

Tricky Jesus

In my wife’s room as she was growing up there was a picture of Jesus surrounded by animals and children – a wonderful example of Victorian Kitsch, all soft focus and shiny blonde Jesus – around it was a line from a well known hymn which said ‘all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all...’

It was a meant to be a comfort, a picture of a Jesus who welcomed the vulnerable and who projected an aura of love and acceptance. It didn’t possess any particular artistic merit, but was unthreatening and warm.

I’m not sure what picture you have of Jesus in your own mind, perhaps you share such a ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ image, perhaps you have a mental image of the publicity campaign a few years back which had a picture of Jesus on a red background, looking remarkably like the Che Gevuara pictures which have adorned lots of student walls for the past thirty years or so which say ‘Meek. Mild. As If’ Or maybe an image of a man on a cross, or Christ surrounded by light rising into glory, or a Jesus who never blinks like Robert Powell in the Jesus of Nazareth TV series. I could go on and on...

But all of these pictures, whether you consider them good or bad images of Jesus, can’t really encapsulate this grace-filled, awe-inspiring, earthy, divine and human, disturbing and joyful man which we read about in the Bible. A Jesus who, on a regular basis, breaks free of our own stereotypes and preconceptions, our own prejudices and human limitations.

And it is this Jesus we encounter in our passage for today – a disturbing, challenging Jesus, a frank and forthright Jesus, perhaps even a slightly exasperated Jesus and yet also a Jesus who offers comfort and care for us.

If we look at the text itself we see many different aspects of Jesus’ character. We see him begining with a children’s saying in response to the pharisees criticism of him ‘we played the flute for you and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn’. As far as his detractors were concerned, these strange teachers such as Jesus and John the baptist could do nothing right – if they were austere and aescetic they were miserable and were wrong, if they were open and welcoming, enjoying a party and spending time befriending people then they were equally wrong.

I must admit to being drawn more to Jesus’ model of reaching out myself – and it makes me smile when he is called a glutton and a drunkard – or ‘winebibber’ in the older translations of the bible! But there is a welcome and a joy in his reaching out to people that I believe that we are called to model as the church today!

In the text, though, Jesus is critical of those who are so negative towards his ministry. There is a sense of frustration in his pointed response, and it leads on to Jesus rather strong criticism of those who consider themselves clever and dismiss the truth by using complicated arguments: ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants’. There’s also a strong message to us no to veil the Gospel by clever argument, but by open and straightforward sharing of our faith to make real the good news of the kingdom of God by being open and straightforward ourselves!

Jesus continues saying that ‘no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father exceptht he Sond and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’. There is again a challenge for us to take up that call to reveal Christ in our lives and by our words and actions to live lives that draw others to getting to know Jesus, that we may be windows through whom Christ shines.

And having been so forthright in his speech, Jesus finishes this passage with words which console and offer a hope of comfort. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’. After these challenges, which apply not just to those original hearers, but to us today, we are given the reminder that the message that Jesus brings is one of life and freedom, rather than burden and struggle.

For those of us who follow Jesus, we are set free into the life which only he can bring. We no longer have the burden of living a certain way because we ‘should’ but of living life, as Jesus says in John’s Gospel chapter 10 ‘in all its fullness’. We are set free to live lives of joy, peace, hope, gentleness, self control, patience and more by the benevolent grace of the Spirit of God.

None of this is academic. This text isn’t here just so we can see different parts of Jesus character. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to know about Jesus I want to know Jesus – and in the same way that everyone we get to know has the capacity to surprise and challenge and disturb and inspire us, so it should be with Jesus. Then as we know Jesus more, we can call others to know this wonderful, difficult, grace filled person of God made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. As we read this passage we should be excited by the joy of calling others to know Jesus to. This passage doesn’t allow us to box Jesus up into nice easy categories, but serves to remind us of the fact that we who follow Jesus have still so much to learn about him, and that it is this Jesus we are called to share, that others may know the excitement of knowing him to.

May Jesus again refresh us as we see him anew and share his risen life with all those we know and those we meet.

Thanks be to God!

Peter & Paul

Zechariah 4.1-6a,10b-14
(or)
2 Timothy 4.6-8,17,18
Psalm 125
Acts 12.1-11
Matthew 16.13-19

Lousy Choice (of followers)?

I am not in the habit of hanging around with Bishops or Archbishops – I have a healthy (Biblical) respect for those in authority, but I don’t make a thing of trying to meet up with them, or catch their attention. At the Bishop’s annual garden party I always say hello and make small talk for a minute then make myself scarce and chat to colleagues.

There is one exception to this – I used to know an Archbishop quite well. He was a very unprepossessing man, diminutive in stature, though very much great of heart. I knew him in the last years of his life, having been the Archbishop of Uganda, predecessor and friend of the African Martyr and Ugandan Archbishop Janani Luwum Bishop Leslie had returned to the UK and became Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich before returning to Cambridge.

Bishop Leslie Brown had done a huge amount in the reform of liturgy in the Anglican Church, he had been the first Archbishop of Uganda and oversaw the foundation of the province there and led it in its early years. In his later years at Westcott House, where he was a part of the worshipping life of the College, his eyesight was failing and a number of us had the joy of reading to him on a regular basis and chatting over pretty much anything with him. He was a sensitive, intelligent, wise and spiritual man, and a man of great humility.

A story which sums up this humility is one that he told at his enthronement as Bishop of Eds and Ips (as St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is known. Leslie told of a time when in Kampala he went to the Cathedral and found a young boy playing with the mud near the Church. The boy was very involved in moulding and shaping the mud and Archbishop Leslie was fascinated so he asked what he was doing. ‘I’m making a procession for the Cathedral’ the lad said – then pointed to the figures made of mud – ‘there’s the choir, there’s the dean. there’s the vergers, there’s the clergy’. ‘Oh,’ said Leslie ‘Where’s the Archbishop?’ ‘I haven’t got enough muck for an Archbishop’ replied the boy. This response, said Leslie, kept him humble!

We all need reminders every now and then of what we are made! We are a collection of elements that – through some great process divinely inspired – has evolved into living, breathing, speaking people. As the words for the Ash Wednesday Liturgy say ‘remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’.

And yet, out of these unlikely elements God is able to do great things. We may not be perfect, we may not feel we are very special, but God thinks we are amazing! In many ways, its not believing in God that is important in the life of a Christian, but the knowledge that God believes in us!

Today is the festival of Peter and Paul. It’s a day where we honour two of the founders of the Church, two martyrs, two apostles, two men used by God to change the world. And though Paul was very keen to stress that all God’s people are Saints, we call Peter and Paul Saints in a special way as we recognise and give thanks for the contribution they have made to the life of the Church and the importance of that contribution even up to today.

We remember that Jesus said of St Peter that he was the Rock upon which the Church of Christ would be build. We remember that he was told that he would carry the keys to the kingdom of God – hence the popular image of ‘St Peter at the Pearly gates’ so beloved of cartoonists and writers. Peter is the one who, in our reading for this morning, confesses Jesus as the Christ, a startling revelation that is the basis for Jesus statement that Peter is the rock that Peter will turn out to be!

We remember that St Paul was added to the apostles by divine call, having heard the voice of Jesus and been struck blind by the light of Christ he went on to write letters which form much of the Canon of scripture and as a Pastoral Theologian steered the early Church in its formation as he spread the good news of Jesus Christ and as he reached out to the gentiles in a way that the early followers of Jesus weren’t keen on doing!

Yet we remember too the unlikely materials that God built these two great saints from. Peter, a fisherman, often shown in the Gospels as the one who speaks before thinking, and who ‘dashes in where angels fear to tread’ as it were! It is Peter who cuts of the ear of the high priest's servant, it is Peter that contradicts Jesus immediately following today’s Gospel reading and who is rebuked with those words which must have been so painful to hear – “Get behind me Satan...” It is Peter who denies Christ three times. It is Peter who dashes into the tomb without waiting to be confronted with the folded grave clothes left behind by the risen Christ.

Paul fares little better, again and again in his letters he speaks of his own unworthiness and sinfulness. Despite his high standing in the pharisaic tradition and his great Jewish heritage, Paul sees that his persecution of the Church and his religious zeal made him an enemy of Christ and that it was only the divine intervention of that vision of Christ which made possible the transformation of grace which was the start of a new life in Christ. Paul – or Saul as he was known – was the one who looked after the coats for those who stoned Stephen, who was charged by the high priest with rooting out these delinquent Christians from the synagogues, who needed to hear the voice of Christ saying ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ before he could be changed into the faithful follower of Christ he would turn out to be.

The stories of these two great saints are not celebrated each year to make us feel worthless in comparison.. We remember Peter and Paul as two deeply flawed human beings transformed by the power of God and called into his grace in order that they might change the world.

And we remember that in the same way we are called to transformation – to leaving our past behind, to recognising that God wants to use us, and being open to that touch of Grace that can turn everything around!

We may feel that we are ‘muck models’ of faith, but in the end it us up to God to make us who are were meant to be, to make us more than the nothings we may convince ourselves we are. God chooses the most unlikely people to work for him – just look at your clergy if you are in any doubt of that – and he calls us all to be open to his transformation, in order that through us the world may be changed. Through our prayers, our worship, through our action and through our own faithfulness God can and will do great things.

I suspect that when Peter and Paul began their journeys in faith they had little idea of where God would lead them, as they grew in faith they grew also, it seems, in the knowledge that what God required of them was faithfulness and the willingness to go where he led, no matter what it cost.

May we have that same faith and be faithful to God. May the examples of Peter and Paul serve not to create a sense of unworthiness, but a sense of partnership in the work and life of Christ which has stretched from the first followers of Jesus until now. May we allow God to reshape us, and through us reshape the world. Amen!

Year A Proper 4

Here's a sermon from a couple of weeks back....time to catch up again!

Genesis 6.9-22; 7.24; 8.14-19
Psalm 46
Romans 1.16,17; 3.22b-28[29-31]
Matthew 7.21-29

Preparing for the floods

Flooding is an uncomfortable subject at the moment, and our hearts go out, I’m sure to those who have experienced the terrible flooding and devastation in Burma and who have not been helped by the reluctance of the military rulers to allow any help. Likewise the threat of flooding for those victims of the Chinese earthquake who may find themselves in the path of a deluge from either the unsafe dams in the Sechuan province or the rising lake waters due to heavy rains is a cause of concern for all of us and our prayers and donations towards aid funds are very necessary at this time.

And its this kind of reminder that can make our Bible readings for this Sunday all the more powerful and distressing as we consider them today.

Not that I want to make a simplistic leap from the very real and painful realities of our world today and the Bible stories set for this week. Nor am I lessening what is happening to our brothers and sisters in Burma or China by comparing the events – on the contrary the real power of the story of Noah in our Old Testament reading and the ever-so-familiar parable of the wise and foolish builders are made even more striking when we consider the genuine danger that floods and the power of water pose even in our technologically advanced world where we seem to think that we are safe from the powers of the natural world. If only that were the case!

Water is commonly used in Scripture to impress upon the reader the power of the natural world, and the ultimate authority God has over the universe. From the very beginning of the book of Genesis we are to be awed by God’s might and power – as the Spirit of God hovers over the waters before the creation story. God demonstrated his creative power and authority over everything by controlling the waters, in the Genesis stories, and creating earth, sky and even land from the waters.

For those in the ancient world there was little which was more awe inspiring than water, the sea seemed to stretch on forever, indeed it was considered that the ocean would take unwitting sailors to the end of the world. Ships, no matter how mighty and well built they were, were still subject to the power of the waves. Floods could take away everything a person had, and the rains brought life, or death depending on when and how heavily they came.

So the God of the mighty waters who created the earth from the oceans, who could wipe out humans and animals with the rains, who led his people through the Red Sea from slavery to freedom, and who could withhold the rain from Israel during the time that the Hebrews deserted his service and worshipped Baal despite Elijah’s calls to be faithful, this was a God to be worshipped and feared.

This is the God of the flood in Jesus parable of the wise and foolish builders. On the one hand it’s a pretty straightforward story that most of us know so well, including the song with actions! But like most parables there’s a lot more to it than the meaning that might spring out at us.

Jesus is probably talking about building near a wadi pronounced wad –ee)– a watercourse that is dry in the hot weather, but rapidly fills in times of wet weather and flows with such ferocity that it can sweep away anything that gets in the way. Like those who farm on the fertile slopes of a volcano, or on the flood plain of a river, it was a risky business to build near a wadi but the rewards were great, the land would be good for grazing and growing, and water could be stored for use later. Those who knew they were building near one of these watercourses took sensible precautions and it would be a very foolish person indeed who didn’t make sure the foundations of their house were stable and able to withstand the inevitable flood waters.

Be prepared! Unlike so many of the floods we hear about on the news, in our own country and throughout the world, this parable is concerned with something which the foolish builder should have seen coming. It’s not a surprise…

There is a further twist to the parable – if God is the God of the flood then he is the one who controls the mighty waters – he is both the power of the flood and the rock which keeps the faithful safe.

Which should bring us pause for thought.

Jesus calls us to live lives founded on his word, and to trust in God. This parable is more than just a warning to make sure we believe the right things and live the right way, its saying something about being prepared for the power of God.

We are to build our lives on the rock of Jesus Christ, we are to have a faith which is founded on his truth and his life. Perhaps the flood that is coming is not one of destruction, but one of the power of God and we need to be prepared for that.

Things are changing in our Churches, in our team, in our parishes. I truly believe that God is at work in our fellowships and that great things are happening and will happen in the coming weeks, months and years. God’s Holy Spirit, that Spirit which Peter proclaimed at Pentecost as being ‘poured out’ is at work in our lives here and now.

We need to be prepared, to make ourselves ready for the work of God in this place.

It starts with examining ourselves and our lives of faith, asking questions about what we, both as individuals and as Churches can do in order to hear and understand the way that God is speaking to us. Prayer, worship, Scripture, living lives that glorify God, loving God with all we are and loving our neighbour as ourselves – all of these are the foundation on which we are to build. Perhaps as Church fellowships we need to ask questions of ourselves and what we do as Church, and what we should be doing to advance the kingdom in our communities.

It is different for each Church and for each one of us, there is no blanket recommendation, but a call for each one of us, together as the body of Christ in these villages, to pray and to consider where God is leading us.

I sincerely believe that God is doing something which will transform our Churches, and that we are called to stand firm and to trust in his power. Not to be swept away, but to use that power to change, to grow and to inspire our fellowships. For those of us building near the wadi of God’s Spirit we need to be rooted and grounded in Christ, and ready to respond to the rise in the river.

It’s a risky business being here near the watercourse, but we can trust in the words of God from Isaiah 43

¹⁸ Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

Amen.