Creation waits for the revealing of the children of God

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Gabriel's Pitsea:

We live in a world that, as St Paul described in Romans 8.12-25, is groaning because of its enslavement to decay and futility. What the Bible describes as the effects of sin impacts the world in terms of: our propensity to engulf the nations of the world in conflict; our greed which leaves some nations and individuals with too much by way of resources and others with too little; and our thirst for energy which has changed the climate in ways that threaten sustainability.

St Paul says that the solution to this is to be found in the reality and realisation that we are children of God. The creation, he writes, ‘waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God’ and it is only as the children of God are revealed that ‘the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God’.

This is because we naturally tend, as human beings, toward living life selfishly by putting ourselves first and looking after No. 1. This is what scientists describe when they talk about us having selfish genes which get us ready to live in a world that is about the survival of the fittest.

Jesus shows us a new and different way of being human, however. He gave his life so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. Jesus allowed his own life to end so that all people could know what it is like to really live. Not to live in the old, selfish, self-centred way of being human but to live in his new way of being human, loving God with all our being and loving our neighbours as ourselves.

It is this way of life that we enter when we realise we are God’s children and are baptised. When Jesus was baptised (Mark 1.9-15), he saw heaven opening, the Spirit coming down on him like a dove, and he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” As he was baptised, he was immediately affirmed as God’s Son.

It is easy for us to think that that only applies to Jesus. That it was a special word spoken by God the Father especially to him and, on one level, no doubt it was. But the Bible makes it quite clear that Jesus came into our world and laid down his life to make us one with God so that, as Christians, we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, members of the same family – God’s family – and co-heirs with Jesus of everything that he has.

Let’s remind ourselves of what St Paul says about this in Romans 8. 14-17: “Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, Father! my Father! God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him …”

So, baptism is about moving from the old way of being human to Jesus’ new way of being human. It is about dying to the old purely materialistic way of life and taking up the new way of life which Jesus shows to us. We ask those who are baptised to: continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers; persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord; proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ; seek and serve Christ in all people, loving our neighbour as ourself; acknowledge Christ’s authority over human society, by prayer for the world and its leaders, by defending the weak, and by seeking peace and justice; so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, that we may be rooted and grounded in love and bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. We ask this because, as Jesus said, it is by their fruits (their deeds) that true Christians will be known.

When we do these things we begin living the new way of life to which Jesus calls us and we are revealed as the children of God. As we live differently, selflessly, we impact the planet in different ways that are positive, not negative. This is why St Paul says the world is waiting ‘with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God’.

James Thwaites has written about this passage in Romans suggesting that the creation is crying out: ‘for its goodness to be fully realised and fully released. The creation cannot be good apart from the sons and daughters because we alone were given the right to name it; we are the image bearers who were made to speak moral value and divine intent into it. We were created to draw forth the attributes, nature and power of God in all things.’

He writes about the cry of sonship, pointing out that, because Christians have received the Spirit of adoption, they are sons and daughters of God who cry out "Abba, Father". He argues that this identity releases believers from fear and calls them into an eternal inheritance. 

He also notes the cry of creation and suggests that the physical creation is actively crying out for the full realization of its goodness. He argues that humans were made to be image-bearers who bring out the inherent possibilities and divine intent of the world through their everyday work and creativity. This is the task that we all have as human being and the calling on our lives our baptism. 

Then, he writes about the divine purpose in "all things". He looks at the phrase "all things work together for good" as proof of God's intimate involvement in the physical world and God's call for believers to engage with creation to bring it to its fullness. Ultimately, Thwaites uses Romans 8 to argue that followers of Jesus should stop treating the physical world as something to be abandoned. Instead, he believes Christians are tasked with noticing and nurturing God's goodness in their everyday lives and vocations.

This is the purpose for which we were created and for which the creation itself is crying out. Instead of the selfish and wasteful exploitation of creation’s resources – the domination and abuse – which characterises human engagement with the world, we are intended to creatively realise the inherent possibilities, the essential goodness, of creation through our imaginative ability as those who notice and name. We are able to do this because we have left our old, selfish way of life behind and have been adopted by God as his children, becoming brothers and sisters of Jesus, co-heirs with him of all he possesses. This is what we celebrate today and what we are challenged to be and to become as we begin to live the new way of being human that was first shown to us by Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Steve Scott - Different Kind Of Light.   

A theology of welcome

Here's the sermon I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Jesus called his 12 disciples to an itinerant ministry which involved going ahead of him to prepare people for his coming and his message. As a result, they took nothing unnecessary with them, they weren’t distracted by small talk along the way, and they welcomed hospitality when they received it but simply moved on to the next place and the next person whenever they were not made welcome. We’ve been listening to and reflecting on the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples in our Gospel readings for the past couple of weeks (Matthew 10). This passage (Matthew 10.40-42) comes as the conclusion to Jesus’ teaching. His concluding words are all about the importance of welcome.

Before the disciples go Jesus warns that those who fail to welcome them are not only turning God’s messengers away from their homes and lives but God himself too. As he says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” and earlier, “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” When the disciples return to him, he rejoices at the welcome which they have received and the sense that the Gospel has been received from “the diverse and motley group he has chosen as his associates.”

The emphasis in these passages is on the hospitality provided by others to Jesus’ disciples. We tend to think of ourselves as being called like them to take the good news of Jesus to others, so we naturally identify ourselves with the disciples in the passage and think about the response we receive from others when they know that we are Christians. But to really get the force and challenge of what Jesus is saying in this passage we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those the disciples went to and ask ourselves how well do we receive others? The challenge in this passage is about the quality of the welcome provided to others. The great sin here is to be inhospitable and to be inhospitable is actually to reject the divine in our lives.

John Bowen is one who has offered a brief theology of welcome beginning with God welcoming us. God’s posture, as Jesus shows it over and over again, is one of welcome towards humankind. Thus, Jesus welcomes the crowds (Luke 9:11). In particular, he welcomes “sinners” – to the discomfiture of the Pharisees. “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!” they say in amazed disgust (Luke 15:2). How can he open himself to such people? The story Jesus tells in response, of course, is all about a father who is also a welcomer.

The most frequent Greek word for welcome, or receive, is dechomai. Twice, when describing those banquets which are foretastes of God’s eschatological banquet, Luke uses an unusual word for “feast”—doche—-which is related to dechomai. Welcoming, it seems, is most naturally followed by feasting!

As God welcome us, so we are called to welcome God. God’s hope is that humankind will reciprocate by welcoming his banquet invitation. In fact, the word dechomai becomes almost a technical term in the New Testament – the equivalent of receiving or believing or trusting in God’s salvation. So, when the New Testament observes anyone engaged in “welcoming”, it is not just a sociological statement but also a theological one. The welcome means the welcomer has welcomed God’s grace.

Thus when Zaccheus “welcomes” Jesus into his house, it is almost Luke’s code way of saying, “Look! Do you get it? Zaccheus has entered the kingdom.” It is not only receiving Jesus which has theological significance, however. As we have heard this morning, when Jesus sent out the twelve, he explained to them, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me” (Matthew 10:40 cf. John 13:20). Paul too understands that the messenger stands in for the speaker. When he recalls how the Galatians first welcomed him, he says, “you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus” (Galatians 4:14). Their welcome of God’s messenger was the beginning of their opening the door to God.

Finally, then, there is our welcoming of one another. The work of God’s Spirit in us can be summarised as making us like Jesus, restoring the image of God in us. Part of that renewing is to turn us into welcomers in just the way that God is a welcomer. Jesus urged us, “When you give a feast [doch], invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind…” (Luke 14:12-14) Paul says much the same thing, only in different words: “Welcome one another, as God in Christ welcomed you.” (Romans 15:7) God is the standard by which we are to measure the warmth of our welcoming.

For Paul, as for Jesus, this was not a matter of mere words. When Luke records at the climax of the Book of Acts that Paul “welcomed all who came to him”, we recognise this to be a Christ-like kind of welcoming, not least because Luke adds pointedly that Paul entertained “at his own expense” — just as God’s welcoming is at God’s own expense. (Acts 28:20)

When we welcome strangers into our churches, then, like Paul we are agents of God, representing the God who has welcomed us without reserve. The hand of welcome we extend is God’s hand. There is thus something sacramental in the act of welcoming. It is, as the BCP says of baptism, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”: the sign of the grace God has shown to us. Is it costly? Is it disturbing? Naturally. That’s the way grace is. But it is also deeply divine, and deeply human.

So, how do we rate on that basis? We think of ourselves as a friendly, welcoming church but it’s important not rest on our laurels and instead ask ourselves how we can be more welcoming, more hospitable to those who come for the first time and those that we don’t know well. When we are here in church, let us make those people our priority, always seeking to speak first to those we don’t know, don’t know well or haven’t spoken to for some time.

Whoever welcomes, welcomes Jesus and welcomes God. If we truly want to see and hear God, then all we need to do is to welcome those we encounter as we will see the face of God in them. God calls us not just to be those who follow him but also to be those sent out to prepare the way for him to come into the lives of others and challenges us, too, to be those who are always welcoming, always hospitable towards others.

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Let Us Build A House.

The action learning cycle of discipleship

Here's the sermon I shared at St Mary’s Langdon Hills and St Catherine’s Wickford this morning:

Last Sunday, our Gospel reading was the beginning of Matthew 10 where Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and sent them out to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim the good news that ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’. In my sermon on that reading, I reflected that, contrary to popular belief, we do not have to be perfect to do God's work because Jesus chose ordinary people - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weaknesses into strengths.

This week’s Gospel reading (Matthew 10:24-39) continues Jesus’ instructions to his disciples before they leave for their mission and this portion of Jesus’ teaching reflects his sense that he is sending them out into difficult, conflicted times to be like sheep into the midst of wolves. Jesus gives the disciples radical instructions for a difficult time. 

Being a disciple of Jesus in today’s materialistic and conflicted world is not an easy choice. It means going counter to the culture in we live and opposition sometimes results, as Bob Dylan described in a song called ‘Property of Jesus’:

‘Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt
Because he has denied himself the things that you can't live without
Laugh at him behind his back just like the others do
Remind him of what he used to be when he comes walking through

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone’

Dylan experienced that for himself when, for a time, he took the decision to only sing his new Gospel songs in concert and experienced vitriol from many long-standing fans as a result.

So, we bear in mind the challenges of following Jesus in a culture that is focused on other things but rather than being focused on our relationship to the world, I want us instead to focus on what Jesus says about our relationship with God and how those things relate to baptism.

In the middle of today’s passage, we heard Jesus say: ‘Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.’ As Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism, he saw heaven opening, the Spirit coming down on him like a dove, and he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” As he was baptised, he was immediately affirmed as God’s Son. It is easy for us to think that that only applies to Jesus; that it was a special word spoken by God the Father especially to him and, on one level, it was. But the Bible makes it quite clear that Jesus came into our world and laid down his life to make us one with God so that, as Christians, we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, members of the same family – God’s family – and co-heirs with Jesus of everything that he has.

Listen to what St Paul says about this in Romans 8. 14-17: God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him …” We are reminded that we are, each one, a child of God, a brother or sister of Jesus, we are loved, we are valued, we are blessed.

Next, Jesus said that those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. This, again, is a reminder of how salvation comes and an insight into baptism. As the baptism liturgy reminds us Jesus has told us that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must be born again of water and the Spirit, and has given us baptism as the sign and seal of this new birth. Here we are washed by the Holy Spirit and made clean. Here we are clothed with Christ, dying to sin that we may live his risen life.

The symbolism of baptism is of being submerged under water as a sign of dying to our old way of life in which we live for our purposes and ends and then of being raised up into a new way of life with God where we are focused on God’s ways, rather than our own. That is what Jesus is saying here. If we find our life by living life our way and for ourselves, we will lose all that is precious and eternal in life but if we lose our life by giving our life to God, then we discover all that is precious and eternal in life. Baptism is the beginning of that way of life but it is also something that we need to practice day in and day out repenting and returning to the Lord whenever we fall into sin.

Finally, Jesus says it is enough for disciples to be like their teacher and slaves like their master. This is a reminder that we are those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus and are to be his body – his eyes, ears, hands and feet – in this world. We are to be those who are led by Jesus’ Spirit to ask what would Jesus do in every situation that we encounter and do the kinds of things that Jesus would of have do, remembering that we cannot simply repeat what he did, as every situation is different and needs a different response, but are to respond to each situation we encounter in his Spirit.

To do this, we need to spend time in his company speaking with him in prayer and to sit at his feet to hear his teaching by spending time in the Gospel stories which show us what he did and what he taught. Having do so, we then go to put into practice what we have seen and heard, before then returning to sit at Jesus’ feet once more in a cycle of action learning where we reflect, learn, plan and act before repeating the pattern of learning and growth.

While disciples may do greater things than the teacher, in that they may do more and different things, they themselves will never surpass what Jesus has to teach because Jesus is God and has an infinite store of wisdom.

This is how our lives are to be lived as Christians (with baptism showing us how this begins and is sustained). Foundational to our Christian life and understanding is the realisation that we are loved by God and are precious – of value – to him. This is why we come to God and why we stay with him. Then, in response, we lay down our lives on his behalf through service of others and by dying to self through repentance and return. As his disciples, we begin an ongoing action learning cycle in which we look at and learn from Jesus, practice what we have seen and heard, then return to learn more. May it be so for each of us. Amen.

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Bob Dylan - Property of Jesus.

Ordinary, fallible and failing followers

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning in St Andrew's Wickford and St Gabriel's Pitsea:

When I go into school’s I often tell a part of my testimony. How I am fundamentally quite a shy, quiet person and how that was very much the case as a child – the sort of child who always held back from answering questions in class because I was afraid of giving the wrong answer (even if I knew the right answer). As a shy teenager, very aware of my own shortcomings, I doubted whether I was good enough for God but, in my late teens, I was shown Romans 5. 8, which says “while we were still sinners Christ died for us,” by a youth group leader and, as a result, recommitted my life to Christ.

I realised that if Jesus died for me, while I was still a sinner, I was accepted and loved by him as I was. That took all the anxiety and worry out of my relationship with God and it transformed the way I felt and thought about myself. If God loved me so much that he had died for me, it didn’t really matter what other people thought about me, even if they didn’t think much of me.

I came to God as a very ordinary person who felt under-confident and inadequate. Contrary to popular belief, we do not have to be perfect to do God's work. We need look no further than the twelve disciples whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Jesus chose ordinary people - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weaknesses into strengths (Matthew 9.35 - 10.8).

While Jesus had a large number of followers including women as well as men and those who remained at home to support those who were on the road with Jesus, this passage focuses our attention on the 12 who were amongst the first that were called to follow him, were amongst those closest to him and who became apostles following his Ascension.

Their names, as given here, are: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew (Nathanael); Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus (James the Less), and Thaddaeus (Judas, son of James); Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. (Matthew 10:2-4, emphasis added)

What do we know about them? Peter and Andrew were fishermen in the town of Capernaum working alongside James and John. Peter and Andrew were early followers of John the Baptist. Andrew was the first to follow Jesus and his enthusiasm was evident as his desire to introduce his older brother to Jesus revealed what was already in his heart—a deep love for God. Once Peter was introduced to Jesus, they left John and became followers of Jesus. Peter is portrayed as impetuous, always speaking his mind and acting on impulse. He is well known for denying Christ three times after Christ was arrested but became one of the key leaders of the early church after Jesus’ ascension.

James and John were both known for being men of intense passion and fervour. Because of this Jesus nicknamed them the Sons of Thunder. They asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy a village which failed to show them hospitality and also asked if they could sit on either side of Jesus’ throne in heaven. Philip was the one who suggested that Nathanael come and see Jesus and who brought a group of Greek people from Bethsaida to Jesus. Nathanael, also known as Bartholomew, expressed some local prejudice about Nazareth but was recognised by Jesus for the sincerity of his love for God from the beginning of their relationship. Jesus said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Matthew was a tax collector; tax collectors being the most despised people in all of Israel. They were known for taking extra money from the people of Israel to pay off the Romans and to pad their own pockets. Thomas is best known for his moment of scepticism after the Resurrection which earned him the nickname “Doubting Thomas,” a term for anyone who needs proof before they believe something.

James the Less is the son of Alphaeus. His mother’s name is Mary and he has a brother named Joseph. Except for a few details about his family, there is nothing more mentioned about him in Scripture. Maybe that is why he is referred to as James the Less in Mark 15:40. Simon the Zealot was probably a political activist in his younger years. Some have suggested that the fiery enthusiasm he once had for Israel as a Zealot was now expressed in his devotion to Christ. Judas, son of James, is the eleventh name on the list of disciples. Also known as Jude, Thaddeus, and Lebbaeus, he lived in obscurity as one of the Twelve. He is recorded as asking Jesus the question (in John 14:22), “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?” Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver but, by doing so, enabled the events of Christ’s Passion to occur as Jesus knew they would.

So, amongst those that Jesus chose are one who denied him, another who betrayed him; while all of them abandoned him at the last. Some were ambitious and some revengeful. Some had complicated and morally dubious backgrounds. They were primarily ordinary working people; none of whom held influence or power. Some were so obscure, even among the disciples, that we know virtually nothing about them.

They are, therefore, great encouragements to us ‘because they exemplify how common people with typical failings can be used by God in uncommon, remarkable ways.’ John McArthur writes, ‘What we know to be true about Jesus is that He chose [those who were] ordinary and unrefined … They were the commonest of the common. They were from rural areas, farmers, and fisherman. Christ purposely passed over the elite, aristocratic, and influential … and chose mostly … from the dregs of society. That’s how it has always been in God’s economy. He exalts the humble and lays low those who are proud.’

All of them were chosen, trained and used by Jesus. Even those who were in the background as disciples were valuable team members. This was so despite their personal failings and failures. None of those things were barriers to being called by Jesus, trained and used by him. That remains true for each of us.

In my parish we use a course called ’Being With’ to prepare people for baptism and confirmation. The wonderings we use in the course take me back to my teenage experiences and the shyness that impacted my personal development. An experience summed well in The Smiths song ‘Ask’, which begins ‘Shyness is nice / and shyness can stop you from doing all the things in life that you’d like to.’

Realising that God loved me unconditionally and as I was, with my shyness and reserve, was key to finding my way through life and using the mix of gifts, skills and interests I developed. Like Jesus’ disciples I wasn’t an obvious candidate to be called to ministry. But none of us are; that’s the beauty of the way God values each person as a unique creation, calling us to be with him so that, over time, our gifts, skills and interests are all utilised in his company.

Baptism is the beginning of that journey when we first realise that God loves as we are and wants to be with us as we journey through life. In baptism God invites us on a life-long journey together with him and, as that journey begins, we hear him say to us, ‘You are my beloved son or daughter, with you I am well pleased’. When we know that in our hearts then we can grow into the people that God wants us to be. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

(This reflection draws on material from https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/who-were-the-12-disciples-and-what-should-we-know-about-them.html and https://overviewbible.com/12-apostles/)

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Josh Garrels - A Long Way.

A never ending flow of love from God

Here's the sermon:  (11.00am, 08/03/26, St Catherine’s Wickford)

In baptism we use the symbols of oil, light and water. Here’s a reflection on the significance of these three things.

Oil …
bleeding
from the pressurised
crushed
and wounded
to
free us up
lubricate
our rusting
static lives
and
facilitate
our ever moving
onward
forward
Godward

Light …
revealing our past
lighting our future
shining like a lighthouse
in our storms
burning like a warning beacon
in our wars
warming like the sun
on our journeying
glowing like a fire
through gaps and cracks
in shattered, splintered lives

Water …
cleansing our grubbiness
reviving our tiredness
refreshing our thirstiness
nurturing our liveliness
babbling communication
rippling out our influences

May we -
baptised in water,
anointed by oil,
lit by the Spirit -
live and move freely
like a babbling brook
speaking life
to parched ground
leaping boulders and barriers
sparkling in the ever present
light of the Sun.

The poet Malcolm Guite describes the font as ‘A wide womb floating on the breath of God’ because through baptism God is ‘calling us to the life for which we long, yearning to bring us to our birth again.’ Just as at creation when God’s Spirit or breath moved on the waters, when we are baptised the breath of God is again on the waters. 

Malcolm Guite writes:

Come, dip a scallop shell into the font
For birth and blessings as a child of God.
The living water rises from that fount
Whence all things come, that you may bathe and wade
And find the flow, and learn at last to follow
The course of Love upstream towards your home.
The day is done and all the fields lie fallow
One thing is needful, one voice calls your name.

Take the true compass now, be compassed round
By clouds of witness, chords of love unbound.
Turn to the Son, begin your pilgrimage,
Take time with Him to find your true direction.
He travels with you through this darkened age
And wakes you every day to resurrection.

In this poem Malcolm Guite identifies the living water of which Jesus spoke (John 4. 13 & 14) when he said: ‘Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life’ (John 4. 14) with the love of God seen in Jesus. The water of life of which Jesus spoke is his love filling us and welling up with us in order to overflow to others. Jesus said, ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back’ (Luke 6. 38).

This is how God’s love comes into our lives. We drink in a never ending flow of love from God. It is like a tap which is never turned off and always running. As there is no end to God’s love it can fill us and overflow from us to others. As we give love to others, so we can be filled all over again with God’s love. Giving and receiving in God’s economy are intended to be simultaneous events; as we give out, so we receive more. This is why Paul writes in Ephesians that we should go on being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5. 18) by drinking in huge draughts of the Spirit of God.

Sometimes, though, we cut ourselves off from the flow of God’s love. We can do this in at least two ways. Firstly, by our attitudes if we become selfish rather than generous; this is why the Bible gives us so many lists of contrasting behaviour. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, so the reverse is hate, complaint, violence, frustration, meanness, evil, inconstancy, harshness and uncontrolled. Any or all of these will cut off the flow of God’s Spirit in our lives and church. Secondly, we can also cut off the flow of the Spirit by separating ourselves from some of the channels through which God’s love can regularly reach us – such as social action, church fellowship, Bible reading and prayer.

All this means we need to ask ourselves, what if our job as a follower of Jesus is not to try harder or run faster or get up earlier or rev up your emotions? What if God really is at work in every moment; in every place? What our job is to learn simply not do those things that close us off from the Spirit? Instead of needing to do something else, what if it’s actually about how we keep ourselves aware and submitted so that rivers of living water are flowing through our being? Paul puts it like this and, in some way, the spiritual life is that simple. Just don’t quench the Spirit. The Spirit is already at work. He is bigger than you. He is stronger than you. He is more patient than your failures. He is committed to helping you 24/7, so just don’t get in His way. Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t grieve the Spirit. We are always either opening ourselves up — walking in the Spirit — or quenching the Spirit. (John Ortberg – ‘A river runs through it’, http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/uploads/files/lyfev2/extra_resources/a_river_runs_through_it.pdf)

If we open ourselves up to God, we can have the raw material of Jesus himself – which is love – flowing out of us. His human body and mind and spirit, alive with the Spirit of God, in us and flowing from us (Stephen Verney, ‘Water into Wine’, Fount, 1985). It might sound a bizarre image; to have a river of life flowing out of you, but it is a big deal to God. The image of a river is used about 150 times in scripture, most often as a picture of spiritual life. And there is good reason. Israel is a desert country where rivers mean one thing: life. To desert people, the river is life.

We sometimes sing the opening words of Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Next time you sing it, remember that Israel is desert country. The waters are dried up. This deer is going to die if it doesn’t find water — and that’s you and me. That’s every human being.

To be cut off from the Spirit of God means a life of perpetual unsatisfied desires, spiritual dryness, emotional death. Jesus is saying that receiving from God in this way and giving to others in this way is vital to our life and survival because where the river flows, life will flourish but where a river dries up, life does as well. The river is gift, the river is grace, the river is life, the river is love. It is what we need and all we need, so are you getting and giving all you can? Are you open to God or quenching the flow of his Spirit?

Remember, ‘One thing is needful, one voice calls your name.

Take the true compass now, be compassed round
By clouds of witness, chords of love unbound.
Turn to the Son, begin your pilgrimage,
Take time with Him to find your true direction.
He travels with you through this darkened age
And wakes you every day to resurrection.’

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As The Deer.

The Father’s call and the Spirit’s empowering

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Andrew’s Wickford:

Jesus’ baptism marks the point at which he was commissioned for his public ministry (Matthew 3. 13-18). Through his baptism, he is publicly affirmed by John the Baptist, who says that Jesus is the one for whom he has been waiting, and by God himself, as the dove of the Spirit descended on him and the Father said, This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased.” Following his baptism, he goes into the desert, where he is tested by the Devil, before returning to begin his ministry by quoting Isaiah as his public manifesto in the synagogue at Nazareth.

In the contemporary paraphrase of the Bible called ‘The Message’ we read of Jesus saying to John the Baptist, who questioned the need for Jesus’ baptism, “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” In his baptism, Jesus was equipped by the Spirit to carry out the work of putting all things right and he was affirmed in the rightness of this work when the Father said, “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” Following his baptism, Jesus knew he was in a partnership with God working to put the world to rights.

Let’s explore those two aspects of Jesus’ baptism – the Father’s call and the Spirit’s empowering – in a little more detail this morning.

The Father’s call is about the question, ‘Who am I?’ The answer to that question was given to Jesus as soon as he came up out of the waters of baptism. As he did so, he saw heaven opening, the Spirit coming down on him like a dove, and he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” As he was baptised, he was immediately affirmed as God’s Son.

It is easy for us to think that that only applies to Jesus. That it was a special word spoken by God the Father especially to him and, on one level, no doubt it was. But the Bible makes it quite clear that Jesus laid down his life to make us one with God so that, as Christians, we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, members of the same family – God’s family – and co-heirs with Jesus of everything that he has. Listen to what St Paul says about this in Romans 8:

“Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, Father! my Father! God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him …”

Take a moment, to let those words sink into your hearts and minds. You are a child of God, you are a brother or sister of Jesus, you are loved, you are valued, you are blessed. This is the Father’s call to us, as it was to Jesus. It is transformative to know that we are loved and accepted by our Father God.

The Spirit’s empowering is to do with the question, ‘Why am I here?’ and that question too is answered in this reading. After he is baptised, Jesus has a time of preparation in the desert and then begins to preach the Good News from God. He had a God-given task to complete, a reason for his existence and a meaning for his life. The same is true for us. Listen to St Paul again, this time from 1 Corinthians 12:

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service. The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.”

For each one of us, the Spirit’s presence is shown in us in some way for the good of all. Take a moment, to let those words sink into your hearts and minds. You have been given the abilities you need for your particular service. The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in you for the good of all. Your life has meaning and purpose because God has work that only you can do.

These two aspects of his baptism were vital for Jesus because he then experienced significant testing in the wilderness when he was tempted by the Devil. He was able to go through that experience and emerge victorious because he had been affirmed and equipped by God through his baptism. Re-emerging from the desert to begin God’s work, he could then explain what he was about to do in words taken from the prophecies of Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

These words describe what God’s work involves, the work of putting the world to rights.

As those who follow Jesus, we are the body of Christ – the hands, eyes, mouth, ears, feet and hands of Jesus in our world. Therefore, we have the task to undertake. We are called to the same job of work and need the same resource. Whatever our role in life, we are called to work together with God in our shared task of putting the world to rights. Each of us can consider how our day-to-day lives could contribute to this task – for example, through care for family and friends, through visiting those who are unwell or elderly, through consistent prayer for people and places in need, through generosity in our giving to those in need, and so on.

To do this we need to know that we are loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father and also to be equipped and led by the Holy Spirit. Led by the Spirit, our work can involve creativity, care and collaboration; biblical signs that work is undertaken in partnership with God. Jesus says to us what he said to John, “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Duvall - Gimme Some Light.

Look at what my people do in my name

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Gabriel’s Pitsea at a Parade Service that included a Toy Service and a Baptism:

A major new art installation at Canterbury Cathedral in which ordinary people pose questions to God split public opinion ahead of its official launch, with visitors reporting visceral reactions to the bold graffiti-style graphics and thought-provoking questions displayed on the ancient walls. Whilst many reported their delight and intrigue, others have been discomforted by encountering the artworks.

Featuring questions including “Are you there?”, “Why did you create hate when love is by far more powerful?” and “Does everything have a soul?”, the “Hear Us” installation is the culmination of poet Alex Vellis and curator Jacquiline Creswell’s collaboration with marginalised communities and a team of skilled artists to create vibrant handwritten literature responding to the question “What would you ask God?”.

“Surely we have all wondered about the mysteries of the universe, the meaning of life, or in times of uncertainty, sought advice?” Jacquiline Creswell says. “Within a theological context, posing a question to God is viewed as a form of prayer, meditation, or contemplation, in return receiving guidance and solace from a source believed to be all-knowing and compassionate. By reaching out to the Divine with personal inquiries, individuals may find comfort, clarity, and direction amidst life’s uncertainties.”

I wonder what questions you would like to ask of God as we gather here today. Rather than responding to questions with intellectual answers, Jesus often asked those with questions to look and see what God is doing in their lives and times. That’s what we see him do in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 11.2-11) in response to the questions brought to him by the disciples of John the Baptist.

Jesus says to John’s disciples: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” Then he says to the crowd, “Look at John the Baptist, at what he has done and said, and see a true prophet from God”.

When we have questions, God still directs to look around us and see what He is doing through his people. When we question whether God is there and whether He is loving or not, He continues to say look at what my people are doing in my name. If we do so in this Deanery, we will see churches organising food banks, supporting those who are homeless or migrants, working intergenerationally with people of all ages to enhance wellbeing and encourage creativity, reducing their carbon footprint and setting up environmental initiatives that show care for creation, going into schools and care homes to minister to people at the beginning and end of their lives, coming alongside people at key moments in their lives including birth, marriage and death.

God continues to answer our questions by saying look at what my people do in my name. That is why when children or adults come to baptism into the family of God supported, in the case of children by parents or godparents, we talk to them in the service about their actions.

We ask those who are baptised to: continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers; persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord; proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ; seek and serve Christ in all people, loving our neighbour as ourself; acknowledge Christ’s authority over human society, by prayer for the world and its leaders, by defending the weak, and by seeking peace and justice; so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, that we may be rooted and grounded in love and bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. We ask this because, as Jesus said, it is by their fruits (their deeds) that true Christians will be known.

In baptism, God touches us with his love and gives us a place among his people. God promises to be with us in joy and sorrow, to be our guide in life, and to bring us safely to heaven. In baptism God invites us on a life-long journey. Together with all God’s people we then explore the way of Jesus and grow in friendship with God, in love for his people, and in serving others. That is the invitation made to James, his parents and godparents today, as to all who have been baptised, and not simply for ourselves and our benefit, but that we might reveal to love of God and the reality of God’s love to others through our lives and example. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace.

Big questions

Here's the sermon from this morning's service of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion at St Gabriel's Pitsea:

Two of the biggest questions we can ask in life are ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ Both questions get answered in this story of Jesus being baptised and the answers that were true for Jesus can also be true for us (Mark 1.9-15).

First, ‘Who am I?’ The answer to that question was given to Jesus as soon as he came up out of the waters of baptism. As he did so, he saw heaven opening, the Spirit coming down on him like a dove, and he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” As he was baptised, he was immediately affirmed as God’s Son.

It is easy for us to think that that only applies to Jesus. That it was a special word spoken by God the Father especially to him and, on one level, no doubt it was. But, the Bible makes it quite clear that Jesus laid down his life to make us one with God so that, as Christians, we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, members of the same family – God’s family – and co-heirs with Jesus of everything that he has. 

Listen to what St Paul says about this in Romans 8. 14-17:

“Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, Father! my Father! God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him …”

When those being baptised are baptised, God will be saying to them, “You are my dear sons and daughters and since you are my sons and daughters you will possess with Jesus the blessings I keep for my people.” This is true, not just for those being baptised today, but for each one of us who have been baptised. Just stop for a moment to hear God saying those words to you, “You are my dear daughter or son, you are my child and since you are my child you will possess with Jesus the blessings I keep for my people.” Take a moment, to let those words sink into your hearts and minds. You are a child of God, you are a brother or sister of Jesus, you are loved, you are valued, you are blessed. Take it in and say thank you to God your Father for who you are.

The second big question was ‘Why am I here?’ and that too is answered in this reading. After he is baptised, Jesus has a time of preparation in the desert and then begins to preach the Good News from God. He had a God-given task to complete, a reason for his existence and a meaning for his life.

The same is true for us. Listen to St Paul again, this time from 1 Corinthians 12. 4 - 7:

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives him. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service. The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.”

The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all. So, the Spirit’s presence is shown in those being baptised in some way for the good of all. It is one of the tasks that God gives to the baptised person, to identify and nurture the gifts and talents they have been given.

And, again, this is also true for all of us who have been baptised. For each one, the Spirit’s presence is shown in us in some way for the good of all. Take a moment, to let those words sink into your hearts and minds. You have been given the abilities you need for your particular service. The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in you for the good of all. Your life has meaning and purpose because God has work that only you can do. Take it in and say thank you to God your Father for why you are here.

As we celebrate baptism today, may we realise afresh the way that our deepest needs - for love and significance – are fully met through baptism into the family of God. Who are we? We are the beloved sons and daughters of our Father God. Why are we here? To use our God-given abilities to do work for God that only we can do. Take a moment to truly take it in and then say thank you to God your Father for who you are and why you are here.

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Hannah White - Good Questions.

Tempted to live independently of God

Here's the sermon I shared at St Mary’s Runwell this morning:

Jesus’ baptism was a mountain-top experience for him. Through his baptism Jesus was commissioned for God’s work; for ministry. Jesus said to John the Baptist, who questioned the need for Jesus’ baptism, “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism” (The Message).

Jesus was equipped by the Spirit to carry out this work and affirmed in the rightness of this work when the Father said, “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” Jesus then knew he was in a partnership with God working to put the world to rights.

Immediately after the high of his baptism, he has the low of forty days in the wilderness being tempted (Luke 4: 1-13). This is a common pattern in scripture and one that mirrors the story of the Exodus. Moses and the Israelites have a mountain-top experience at Sinai where they are commissioned by God to be a nation of priests then they have a wilderness experience for forty years.

We too can expect to experience times of great closeness to God – spiritual highs – followed by times of temptation, struggle and wandering. Both are part of living authentically as Christians and the season of Lent is almost an attempt to institutionalise that pattern; to set a period each year in which each of us deliberately set out to use experiences of self-denial or sacrifice in order to refocus or faith and commitment.

Talking about Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews says in Chapter 14 verse 5, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.” Jesus is in touch with our reality when it comes to temptation because, when Jesus was tempted, the temptations with which he was confronted were the same temptations to which we, in our culture, regularly succumb.

Jesus was tempted to provide for his own material needs himself by turning stones into bread. He was tempted to gain prestige and celebrity for himself by throwing himself from the highest point of the Temple and surviving; in other words, to boost his own ego. Finally, he was tempted to gain all the power and wealth of the world for himself; tempted to pursue his own ambitions.

In all these ways he was tempted to live independently of God, to refuse to view life as God’s gift to him and to refuse to live out God’s purpose for his life. Jesus knew that he had been commissioned at his baptism to put this world to rights but was then tempted to see his work as something for himself and not for God. He rejected these temptations; continuing to thank God for the gift of life itself and living his life to fulfil God’s purposes.

We are continually tempted in the same and similar ways. The temptations to provide for ourselves, boost our own egos, and pursue our own ambitions are likely to be or to have been familiar ones for us; particularly in our workplaces. And, as Tom Wright has pointed out, these temptations “are not simply trying to entice us into committing this or that sin ... they are trying to distract us, to turn us aside, from the path of servant hood to which our baptism has commissioned us. God has a costly but wonderfully glorious vocation for each one of us. The enemy will do everything possible to distract us and thwart God’s purpose.”

As those who follow Jesus, ultimately we are called to the same job of work. Whatever our specific work role or ministry, we are called to work together with God in the shared task of putting the world to rights. This is what Paul means when, in Romans 8.21, he says that the world is crying out for the children of God to be revealed.

To do this we need the same resource as Jesus; the equipping and leading of the Spirit. Led by the Spirit, our work can involve creativity, care and collaboration; biblical signs that work is undertaken in partnership with God. The five marks of mission also indicate what we are to do: tell the good news of the Kingdom; teach new believers; tend human needs by loving service; transform the unjust structures of society; and treasure the integrity of creation.

“As God’s children,” Tom Wright says, “we are entitled to use the same defence” as Jesus himself. “Store scripture in your heart,” he writes, “and know how to use it.” When we do, we are able to see through the temptation to think of all that we have as our own and, instead, to view our lives and all that we have as a gift from God.

The Bible tells us that we are stewards and stewards have the job of looking after something that belongs to someone else. As Christians, we are stewards of all that God has given to us – our life, our talents, our time, our money, our possessions, our family, our community, and the world in which we live. God has rescued each of us from sin and gifted us with time, talents, treasure, people and the world in which we live. After Easter, we will be reflecting more together across our three churches on these themes of stewardship.

For now, let us view life as a gift, let us give back to God generously and joyfully, let us remember our calling to partner God in putting this world to rights and, in and through these things, “say a firm ‘no’ to the voices that would lure us back into darkness.” May it be for each one of us. Amen.

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Mark Heard - Treasure Of The Broken Land.

Coming to Christ and going on with Christ

Here's the sermon I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Jesus teaches and demonstrates the abundance of God. People realise their need of God. Jesus calls them and they follow him with all their lives. This is a common pattern for many in coming to faith and also to baptism.

In this story (Luke 5.1-11), Jesus teaches from a boat, his demonstration of God’s abundance is in the amazing catch of fish after the fishermen had caught nothing during the night. Peter responds by saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ but Jesus calls him, and all those with him, including James and John, to follow him by giving them a task - ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ They give their lives to him by leaving everything and following him.

Today, those being baptised are becoming part of this story as a result of the way God has been at work in their lives and in their family. Telling our stories of encountering God is a key part of preparing for baptism. Within this parish we use a course called Being With to enable people to share their stories and see how those connect with the story of salvation that we see in the Bible. Being With is a life changing way to help people explore the Christian faith because it helps people consider Christian faith in new and refreshing ways, without needing prior knowledge, but a simple willingness to share what you do know or feel. 

However, baptism isn’t just about coming to God, it is also about going on with God, recognising that we all have God-given gifts and talents that we can use in his service and God-given tasks that only we can do for him. That’s why when Jesus called him disciples, he also gave them a task to fulfil – to be fishers of people; those who share the good news of God with others and bring them into the family of God.

That is why, after our baptism candidates have been baptised, there is a part of the baptism liturgy called the Commission in which they will be asked: Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all people, loving your neighbour as yourself? They will reply, With the help of God, I will. Each of us is also called to serve God by using our gifts and talents in his service and by taking on specific tasks to bring into being signs of the kingdom of God in our time and our communities.

So, first we need to identify our particular gifts and talents, then get practice and support in using them, and ask God’s guidance on the tasks and roles he wants us to fulfil. Later this year, we will be organising a Stewardship Month to encourage all of us in the Parish to reflect on the various ways in which we can use our time, talents and treasure in God’s service. Each of us has special qualities, skills and talents. How could your talents and gifts be used more fully for the work of God through St Andrew’s? Each of us has time, talents and treasure which could be given out of gratitude and to help this church. Will you help in some way? Can you use your gifts to share in God’s plan for his kingdom and for the work of ministry here at St Andrew’s?

Could you offer your time and talents for tasks such as Administering Communion, Contemplative Commuters, Campaigning on issues, Children’s work, MU Committee, Choir member, Musician, DCC member, Odd jobs, Committee member, Painting & decorating, Church officer, PCC member, Cleaning, Toddler Group helper, Coffee Morning helper, Prayer for others, Reading the Bible in church, Sidesperson, among other tasks? I encourage you to reflect on how you use your gifts and talents currently and whether you could give us of your talents in new ways out of gratitude to God and to help this church.

Ministry belongs to the whole people of God. Every person, because of their baptism, has a ministry. We must nurture an expectation in our churches that every Christian gives expression to this ministry in their daily life and in their participation in the life of the Church. To see our churches grow and flourish there needs to be a huge flourishing of lay ministry here including youth and children’s workers, authorised preachers, pastoral visitors and evangelists.

Contrary to popular belief, we do not have to be perfect to do God's work. We need look no further than the disciples Jesus called whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Jesus chose ordinary people - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weaknesses into strengths. Jesus had a large number of followers including women as well as men and those who remained at home to support those who were on the road with Jesus, as each of us have different circumstances and different roles to play.

John McArthur writes, ‘What we know to be true about Jesus is that He chose [those who were] ordinary and unrefined … They were the commonest of the common. They were from rural areas, farmers, and fisherman. Christ purposely passed over the elite, aristocratic, and influential … and chose mostly … from the dregs of society. That’s how it has always been in God’s economy. He exalts the humble and lays low those who are proud.’

All such were chosen, trained and used by Jesus. Even those who were in the background as disciples were valuable team members. This was so despite their personal failings and failures. None of those things were barriers to being called by Jesus, trained and used by him. That remains true for each of us.

Realising that God loved me unconditionally and as I was, with my shyness and reserve, was key to finding my way through life and using the mix of gifts, skills and interests I developed. Like Jesus’ disciples I wasn’t an obvious candidate to be called to ministry. But none of us are; that’s the beauty of the way God values each person as a unique creation, calling us to be with him so that, over time, our gifts, skills and interests are all utilised in his company.

As Rick Warren has said: ‘God has given you unique abilities, talents, and gifts … If you think your talents are simply for you to make a lot of money, retire, and die, you’ve missed the point of your life. God gave you talents to benefit others, not yourself. And God gave other people talents that benefit you … We’re all a part of the body of Christ, and each part matters. There are no insignificant people in the family of God. You are shaped to serve God, and he is testing you to see how you are going to use the talents he gave you. Whether you are a musician or an accountant, a teacher or a cook, God gave you those abilities to serve others … You are a manager of the gifts God has given to you.’ May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Joy Oladokun - Dust/Divinity.

Immersed in the story

Here's the sermon I shared at St Mary’s Runwell this morning:

The favourite Christmas story of the Archbishop of York concerns a two-year-old called Miriam at a church on the edge of Chichester where he was then parish priest.

The red brick rectangular church seated about 80 and was full to overflowing for the Christmas Day service. As every space was taken, the crib scene had been placed under the altar. During the service Miriam wandered into the sanctuary and stood for a while observing the nativity scene. It was a large nativity set and so the characters in the scene were about the same size as the two-year-old. After observing the scene for a while, Miriam carefully climbed in under the altar making her way around the characters to sit in a space within the crib scene where she then remained for the rest of the service.

What she did was essentially an acted parable to the congregation because she became part of the story. That is what happens – it is what we are doing – when we become Christians. In other words, for many of us, it is what is going on when we are baptised.

Baptism is our immersion in the Christian story; a story which begins with God’s creation of the universe and life on earth. It continues with our rebellion as human beings. Our saying to God that we know who we are and what we need to do and, therefore, will go ahead and do our own thing. We all live with the consequences of that right now.

But in the story which the Bible tells, God does not leave us simply to do our own thing. First, he chooses the people of Israel and through his special relationship with them seeks to call all people back to their true identity and purpose and then he sends his own Son, Jesus, to reach out in rescue and return us to him. He does this so that each one of us can find our identity and purpose in God and play our part in bringing the kingdom of God in full on earth as it is in heaven.

When Jesus was baptised, he was saying that he would immerse himself in this story and play his special, unique part within it (Luke 3. 15 – 17, 21 – 22). As he made that commitment, God the Father affirmed him in his identity and purpose by saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”

As we do what Miriam did and enter the story, then we are also affirmed by God in just the same way. St Paul writes in Romans 8. 14 – 17 that:

“Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.”

What he is saying is that as we enter the story we are adopted by God as his children and become brothers and sisters of Jesus, co-heirs with him of all he possesses.

You may remember the wonderful words of Philippians 2. 6 – 11 which say that Jesus gave up the equality he had with God the Father in heaven in order to be born as a human being, living and dying as our servant in order to save us:

“For this reason God raised him to the highest place above
and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.
And so, in honour of the name of Jesus
all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below
will fall on their knees,
and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”

That same glory, St Paul says, is shared with us as we enter the story, join the family of God and play our part with the story. The incredible message of Christianity is that our rightful identity as human beings is that of being God’s own dear children with whom he is greatly pleased.

How do we play our part? That all depends on our coming to know the story and what happens within it. New Testament scholar Tom Wright has described Holy Scripture as being like a five-act play containing the first four acts in full (i.e. 1. Creation, 2. Fall, 3. Israel, 4. Jesus). “The writing of the New Testament,” he says, “would then form the first scene in the fifth act, and would simultaneously give hints (Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, parts of the Apocalypse) of how the play is supposed to end ... The church would then live under the 'authority' of the extant story, being required to offer an improvisatory performance of the final act as it leads up to and anticipates the intended conclusion ... the task of Act 5 ... is to reflect on, draw out, and implement the significance of the first four Acts, more specifically, of Act 4 in the light of Acts 1-3 ... Faithful improvisation in the present time requires patient and careful puzzling over what has gone before, including the attempt to understand what the nature of the claims made in, and for, the fourth Act really amount to.”

So, we start by looking at what we know of the story to date – the things God has done in and through Israel, Jesus and the Church – and we also look at the hints we have about the way the story will end with the coming in full of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. Then we say to ourselves, ‘What is it that people do in this story? How do they act and behave? And then we start to do and say similar things, as we have the opportunity. As Christians we are never given a script which has all our lines and actions printed on it. Instead, we have to improvise our part on the basis of what we know of the story so far, on the basis of the example provided by those who have lived in the story before, and on the basis of the opportunities provided in the places where we are and among the people that we know.

Living in the Christian story, therefore, is a challenge – something we should know anyway from looking at the life and death of Jesus – but it comes with the affirmation that we are part of God’s family; his dearly loved children, brothers and sisters of and co-heirs with Jesus himself. When we know this, we can relax because whatever happens to us we are accepted, forgiven, loved and gifted by the God who created all things and who will bring all things to their rightful end.

When we do that, we are like Miriam climbing in under the altar to become part of the crib scene. When we do that, we become part of God’s story which makes us his children and gives us identity, purpose and meaning. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Iona - Edge Of The World.

Church Times: Enid Chadwick brought colour to the Shrine

My latest article for Church Times is about the artist Enid Chadwick, whose painting 'The Baptism of Christ' hangs in St Mary's Runwell:

'ST MARY’s, Runwell, is the most historic and Anglo-Catholic of the three churches in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry, where I minister. The unusual but beautiful interior of St Mary’s — principally the result of decisions made by a collection of interesting former incumbents — is enhanced by a large painting, The Baptism of Our Lord, behind the font.

With its flat, outlined style and use of gold leaf, this image has the feel of an icon. Christ is seen in the waters of the Jordan, depicted as a cleft in the rock, a reminder of God’s provision of water to the Israelites in the wilderness. Christ is framed by John the Baptist on the left, angels on the right, and, above, the hand of God the Father and the dove of the Spirit.'

For more about artworks in the Parish of Wickford and Runwell click here and for more about artworks in the Basildon Deanery here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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Ladye of Walsingham.

Who are you?

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Catherine’s Wickford this morning:

Who are you? That was the question that the priests and Levites asked John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading (John 1. 6-8, 19-28). Think for a moment about the way in which you answer that question when someone asks it of you.

Often when we are asked who we are, we answer by saying what we do and tell the person asking about the job that we do. For many of us, our work seems to be the thing that we think is the most significant thing about us. If we don’t talk about our job, then we might talk about a role we have, perhaps being a parent, or we might talk about our family; so, I might say to someone who knows my family that I’m Phil and Pauline’s son or Rachel’s brother. Another tack might be to talk about our interests, so I might say that I’m a painter or a writer or an Oxford United fan. Whatever we say in answer to the question ‘Who are you?’ the answer usually involves saying something about ourselves.

So, it is surprising that when John the Baptist is asked who he is, he doesn’t say anything about himself at all. Firstly, he is asked whether he is one of the great figures of the Jewish religion; the Messiah, Elijah or Moses. We’ve probably all at some time pretended that we are one of our heroes, whether we’ve played at being our favourite pop star looking into our bedroom mirror and singing into our hair brush or have wanted to be Pele or Bobby Moore or Kevin Keegan or Ronaldo when we have been playing football with our mates. We all have delusions of grandeur! Even as Vicars, maybe wanting to be the next Billy Graham or Justin Welby or Tom Wright!

The temptation for John the Baptist to claim his place in the pantheon of Jewish heroes must have been strong but what he actually says is just ‘No, I am not.’ Nothing about who he is, just statements of what he is not. And yet these denials have huge significance.

On one level they are a way of saying that what he is part of, what he is pointing towards can’t be explained by the usual ways of understanding things. The priests and Levites were looking for a category that they could use to understand John, perhaps so that they could label him and file him away and forget about him. If we can fit someone into a neat category – he’s a Hammers fan, she’s single mother, he’s Irish or she’s a computer programmer - then we feel as though we’ve got them sussed and we know all about them. John doesn’t allow that to happen and by doing so says that what is going on here does fit any of your categories; it’s ‘outside the box’ and, if you’re going to understand then you’ve got to have your way of thinking about God expanded and changed.

On another level, his denials are also a subtle way of pointing to Jesus as God. Throughout John’s Gospel Jesus makes a series of I AM statements about himself. He says, ‘I AM the living water, the bread of life’ and so on. In doing so, Jesus is using the very name of God who responded to Moses by saying ‘I AM who I AM.’ John by contrast says, ‘I AM NOT.’ By framing his denial using the ‘I AM’ statement he is pointing his listeners to the one who will come after him who will be able to say ‘I AM,’ who will be God himself.

This is John the Baptist’s sole mission and purpose; not to point people to himself by saying look at me aren’t I wonderful? Instead, it is to point away from himself in order to point to Jesus. That is what the writer of this Gospel says in verses 6-9: “There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”

We see this also in what John the Baptist does say about himself. When he is asked, “What do you say about yourself?", his reply is to say ‘I’m not the significant person here, I’m actually only a voice calling out to prepare the way for the one who is to come. Don’t pay attention to who I am instead listen to my message and look for the coming of the Lord.

The same thing is there in what he says about baptism. John is asked why he baptizes but he doesn’t answer the question. Instead, he again points beyond what he is doing to the one who comes after him, the one who is so much greater that John feels unworthy even to untie the thongs of his sandals.

In his commentary of this passage Lesslie Newbigin says that this is the mark of a true witness; “the function of a witness is not to develop conclusions out of already known data, but simply to point to, report, affirm” the new reality that the witness has seen and heard. This is also what John’s Gospel sets out to do and what it wants those who read it, like us, to become. Newbigin writes:

“[John] points his hearers to Jesus (e.g., 1:29ff., 36ff.; 3:27ff.); Jesus draws his hearers to himself. But these hearers will in turn become witnesses through whom others may believe (15:27; 17:20; 20:31), for the purpose is that not some but all … may come to faith. This book in its final form is based upon the testimony of one of these witnesses (21:24), and its purpose is that it readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing may have life in his name.”

So, we are to be witnesses like John, this is our calling as Christians. And this is essentially a simple task. We are not asked to become fluent in all the doctrines of the Christian faith or to have an answer for every question that people ask about Christianity. Instead, like John we are to be witnesses to what we have seen and heard about Jesus. The focus is not on us and our lives but on him and what we know of him and have experienced of him in our lives. So instead of needing to memorize a Gospel presentation like ‘2 Ways to Live’, all we need to do to be a witness is to tell our story; this is how I came to know Jesus and this is what he has come to mean to me.

Christmas is a time for preparation and then for sharing. The example that John the Baptist sets is one of preparing people for the real Christmas gift; the coming of Jesus. Can we do the same this Christmas by sharing the best news of all, the good news, with those around us – our family, friends, neighbours, and work colleagues – simply by being witnesses and pointing others to Jesus by telling our story of knowing him ourselves? 

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Hail to the Lord's anointed!

Meaning, significance, shape and purpose

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Andrew’s Wickford this morning:

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who is best known for creating a hierarchy of needs. ‘This is a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.’ At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic needs of human beings; needs for food, water, sleep and sex. Maslow’s model works as a hierarchy because a pressing need must be mostly satisfied before someone will give their attention to the next highest need, which includes our need for our lives to be given meaning and significance.

The stories of the feeding of the four thousand and the five thousand (Matthew 15:29-37) are stories of Jesus meeting the basic needs of the people with him but are also stories about that action having a deeper level of meaning and significance.

The people who were with Jesus had been with him in the wilderness for three days without any significant supplies of food. While some may have brought small supplies of food with them, in essence they had been fasting for much of the time Jesus had been teaching them and, for those of you who have visited the Holy Land, you will know that the Wilderness is unforgiving terrain in which to be without sustenance.

Jesus is concerned for these people and, out of compassion, meets their basic need for food in that testing environment but, just as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that once our basic needs have been met then our needs for meaning and significance come into play, Jesus’ actions here also have a deeper level of meaning, if we and they are alert to it.

We can see this if we think for a moment about the outline of this story and the extent to which it reminds us of another story. A group of Israelites are in the wilderness and are hungry because they have too little to eat. In response God provides them with bread to eat. That is the outline of the feeding of the four thousand but it is also, in essence, the story of God providing manna in the wilderness to the Israelites when Moses led them from Egypt to the Promised Land. The similarity is deliberate, whether on the part of Jesus or Mark, because through this action Jesus is seen as the new Moses for the people of Israel.

Following the parallels between these two stories through means that the people of Israel are to be seen as being in slavery once again – whether that meant the political oppression of their Roman conquerors or, as St Paul suggests, under the bondage of sin. The Exodus – the salvation of the people of Israel - began with the death of firstborn sons and, in the story of Jesus, our salvation comes through the death of God’s only Son. Jesus leads his people through water – in the original Exodus that was the path through the Red Sea, but, for Jesus’ followers, it is the rite of baptism. They go on a journey through the wilderness – where, as we have seen, they are fed and provided for – and end their journey when they enter the Promised Land – which Jesus spoke about as being the kingdom of God that he initiated but which is still to come in full.

The parallels are plenteous and very close as the people of Jesus’ day were intended to view him as the new Moses. At this deeper level of meaning and significance it is possible, from this one action, to understand the whole of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

God is also at work in our lives to bring and to reveal meaning, purpose, shape and significance to our lives too, if we are alert to this deeper level of life and our not solely focused on the meeting of our basic needs. We all have a need and a desire for there to be more to our lives than simply the survival of the fittest; the scramble to meet our basic needs. As Maslow’s hierarchy of needs recognises, when we are in genuine need and poverty, it is very difficult to think about anything else other than survival. But, when we are in the fortunate position of having our basic needs met, we have the time and space and inclination to look around us to see the way in which God can bring meaning, significance and purpose into our lives; with that purpose including the development of a compassion, like that of Jesus, which sees the needs of those whose basic needs are not being met and responds to that by sharing at least some of what we have.

Your life is not simply about having enough to survive; the meeting of your basic needs. God wants you to see a deeper level of meaning, significance, shape and purpose to your life. Are you open to see the meaning and significance that he brings or does a focus of getting prevent you from seeing and receiving what he is already giving?

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Neal Morse - The Temple Of The Living God.

The connection between heaven and earth

Here's the sermon I shared this morning at St Mary's Runwell where we had an adult baptism:

John’s Gospel is very different from the other three Gospels in the Bible. One of the reasons why, is that there are no parables or stories told in John’s Gospel and, instead of Jesus’ teaching being done through stories, in John’s Gospel his teaching is done through conversations. In this way, John’s Gospel suggests that God wants to enter into conversation with us. God wants to talk with us, to be in dialogue with us, in part because that dialogue can be one which transforms us; just as happened for the Samaritan woman in this story.

This conversation (John 4. 5 - 42) takes place by Jacob’s well. Jacob had a vision of a ladder between earth and heaven with angels ascending and descending on the ladder. In conversation with Nathanael (John 1. 51), Jesus has already described himself as the ladder, the connection between earth and heaven and that is what we see happening in practice in the conversation Jesus has with this Samaritan woman.

In this conversation Jesus continually connects every aspect of division between him and the woman and within her own life. For this woman, he brings heaven and earth together. What divisions do I mean? Firstly, there was division between Jews and Samaritans. A history of division going back to the split between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and involving the Samaritans building a rival Temple to that in Jerusalem and the Jews tearing down the Samaritan Temple. With that kind of history we can understand why Jews would not use the same cups and bowls as Samaritans.

Then there were divisions of gender. “The rabbis taught that a man should not talk to a woman in the street. Some even refused to acknowledge their wives in public, while certain Pharisees sported bruises from bumping into things when their eyes were shut to avoid looking at a woman!” (R. Burridge, John, BRF 1998).

Finally, there were divisions of purity. The woman has come to the well during the hottest part of the day, which can only be to avoid others, implying that she was immoral. Later we find out that she has had five husbands, when Jews at that time only permitted marriage to three husbands, and the man with whom she is now living is not her husband.

So this conversation is “a real meeting of opposites – of Jew with Samaritan, a man with a woman, a rabbi with a sinner, the one ‘from above’ confronting the lowest of the low. It sums up all the bitterness of human separation by race, creed, class, sex, profession, status yet Jesus, alone, without even his disciples to protect him, asks her for a drink … this is what it means for him to be the ladder at Jacob’s well, bridging not only the gulf between God and the world, but also all the barriers human beings put between themselves. It was for this reason that God sent his Son into the world, and for this reason there is hope for us all, from modern Samaria on the West Bank to our daily petty differences.”

“As the conversation unfolds … Jesus gently leads her through levels of misunderstanding from the earthly and literal to the heavenly and spiritual.” Jesus begins with the actual situation (being beside a well), an everyday action (drawing water), and with what the woman can give to him (a drink of water). From the everyday, the earthly, the ordinary, he makes connections with the heavenly, the spiritual, by offering life-giving water that will never run out. He is not saying that the two are separate, distinct and different. Instead, he is acting as the connection between the two, bringing them together so that what is heavenly can be seen in what is earthly and vice versa.

There is a contrast throughout this conversation between the old and the new. Jesus is saying that if you drink from Jacob’s well, in other words, if you drink of Jacob’s religion, you will be satisfied temporarily but will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water Jesus gives will not thirst for all eternity. Jesus’ words, “they will not thirst” literally means ‘into the new age.’ Jesus brings a new age into the world, in him heaven/eternity are breaking through time and entering into our present moment now. In Jesus heaven and eternity are here now and begin in our lives now as we receive his love, forgiveness, and acceptance into our lives now. “The water which Jesus offers to give is the raw material of himself. It is his human body and mind and spirit; but it is alive with the Spirit of God. What flows out of him for this Samaritan woman, if she has faith, and asks for it, will be water alive with Spirit, and this will activate a similar spring of water and Spirit within herself.” (Verney, Water into Wine, Fount, 1985)

Once she has become captivated by Jesus’ offer, then there is a moment of personal challenge. In speaking about her personal relationships, Jesus “confronts her with herself so that her impurities can be cleaned out and the living waters flow freely.” (Burridge) But we need to understand with love and acceptance with which this challenge comes. Stephen Verney describes it in this way:

“Jesus says to her, “You have answered beautifully ‘I have no husband’. For you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. In this you have spoken truthfully.” Some years ago I was reading these words with a woman whose marriage had broken up, and she said, “Look! Jesus is complimenting the Samaritan woman.” I had never seen it until that moment. Jesus says to her “You have answered beautifully … you have spoken truthfully.” Your sexual life is chaotic and you have one man after another – that is the reality of how you are in the flesh. But because you have brought this out into the light and recognised it, the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. , the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. Our flesh can come alive with Spirit. You are just the very person who is able to receive the living water. The self-righteous cannot receive it, because they do not know that they need it.”

The question the woman then asks about the place to worship God may have been a distraction, a sign that this conversation was getting too close to home for the woman, or it may have been a sincere question about where she should go with her sinful life in order to find God. Jesus says that the place is not important. God’s heavenly future is breaking into our earthly realm now and those who know this, worship in his Spirit and in truth. Jesus then reveals himself as God, the one who connects heaven and earth, the living water, when he uses the Old Testament name of God – I AM who I AM – in saying I AM he, who is talking with you.

The woman has changed through talking with God. “She came to the well in the hottest, quietest part of the day to avoid people – but now she goes to find them and tell them what has happened to her. Now the fact that Jesus knows all she has done is not something to be avoided with a theological hot potato –but the hottest news to be shared – ‘can this really be the Christ?’

The fields are white for harvest Jesus then says to his disciples and this is proved by the many in Sychar who came to believe in Jesus. The fields around us are also white for harvest and people will hear and respond if we are able to learn from the way in which Jesus connects faith with everyday life. He sits with ordinary people, listens and talks with them. He starts with ordinary life, with the things that others have to give and then reveals how the spiritual and heavenly can be seen in the everyday. He is not afraid of challenge, but his challenges come couched in encouragement, understanding and acceptance instead of condemnation. The challenge is to move on, to grow beyond the point that we have reached. This challenge is profoundly life affirming.

That challenge is for each of us who have been baptised. The water that is literally poured over us when we are baptised is a symbol of the living water that is heaven in the here and now. Today, Jesus comes to challenge us to grow beyond the point of faith he has currently reached and to experience, ever more deeply, love, forgiveness, acceptance, and heaven in the here and now. If we respond, to that challenge, then we will be like the Samaritan woman and will be able to say that Jesus is truly the Saviour of the world.

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Stand up, stand up for Jesus.