Corpus Christi

Thursday 23 June – Holy Communion at St Giles

Reading 1 Corinthians 11.23-26

I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Gospel John 6.51-58

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord.
Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever.
Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you can eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live for ever.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Corpus Christi – lit. Body of Christ – Day of Thanksgiving for Holy Communion. Held on Thursday after Trinity. Thursday – because of association with Last Supper and events of Maundy Thursday.

Many parts of Catholic world there are processions in the streets. Dates back to 13C when an Augustinian nun from Liege petitioned her bishop for a feast associated with veneration of blessed sacrament.

Last year, Vicky and I walked through part of Italy about 2 hrs. N of Rome. Came to place called Bolsena, where in 13C said to have been a miracle when bread used for Mass started to bleed. Association with this alleged miracle that Corpus Christi became firmly established.

Differs from Maundy Thursday, in that before Easter the liturgy commemorates Christ’s new commandment -"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you." John 13:34, also the washing of the disciples' feet, the Garden of Gethsemane. For this reason, the Feast of Corpus Christi was established to create a feast focused solely on the Eucharist.

Corpus Christi might be associated mainly with RC and Anglo - Catholic parishes, but to dismiss it for that reason would be a mistake. Our understanding of Holy Communion and what it means to us has always been a struggle for many of us. What is going on? Is it a commemoration of certain events commanded by Christ that we should re-enact and remember, or is it much more than that? The answer depends on your church tradition. The answer is probably all those things, but our outlook and background tends to make us lean in one direction rather than the other.

Whatever our tradition, Holy Communion has in recent decades moved from a monthly service to a liturgy that is central to our worship, so for that reason alone we should think about what we are doing, what it means to us, how we are changed by it, and why it is so special. If we don’t pause and think on these things, for example today, then attending a weekly communion risks becoming routine, a liturgy so familiar that we can cruise through it, like I was saying about the Lord’s Prayer last week – it’s import can be submerged by sheer familiarity.

So after our prayers, let’s try this week to experience afresh and anew the Eucharist, to find new meaning and significance in it, and to make it truly special once again. Amen

William Tyndale

View from the Vicarage

Cheddington Village Newsletter June 2011

One of my heroes from history is a man called William Tyndale. You may never have heard of him, but Tyndale, born in 1490, taught himself 8 languages and was the first to produce an unauthorized version of the New Testament in English. At the time, churches in England only had a 1000 year old Latin version of Scripture which even most priests could not understand. Tyndale paid with his life. He was charged with heresy, half strangled then burned at the stake in Belgium. He was killed on the orders of Thomas More who was later made a saint. Ironically, only three years later, Henry VIII commanded there should be an English Bible in every church, and the version issued was largely Tyndale.

Other versions followed, but they were of variable quality until exactly 400 years ago the King James or Authorized Version was published. This was the only Bible I had when I was young. We knew no other. It was still the version I was given when made a priest in 2004. The language, of course, is unparalleled. 75% of the material is still largely Tyndale. The words and phrases have entered our collective consciousness. They have a unique beauty. The language is concise and clear. Instinctively we use phrases such as a stumbling block, kill the fatted calf, holier than thou, money is the root of all evil, physician heal thyself and so on. All from the King James Bible.

Just as you would not read an instruction manual for your iPhone in 16th century language, it is unwise to rely on such a translation for your whole reading of Scripture. For one thing, many of the words are outmoded, and many important manuscripts have been discovered even last century that correct many errors. That does not mean we should resort to some of the truly awful modern translations, several of which are still produced each year. There are beautiful, poetic, and accurate versions like NRSV and NIV you can buy which combine majesty of language, even read aloud, with good scholarship.

Likewise we should not rely solely on services from the Book of Common Prayer. They have their rightful place, although I for one, whilst admiring everything else about last month’s Royal Wedding, was sad the couple chose the 1662 service which hardly reflects a modern view of the equality of both partners in marriage.

So, whilst rightly celebrating the stupendous achievement of the martyr William Tyndale, and his legacy found in the King James Bible, we should remember that Scripture is for our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (II Timothy 3:15-17) and that, despite numerous movies, God does not exclusively speak to his world in Shakespearean English.

The Revd. Robert Wright

Holy Spirit

Sermon in the Methodist Chapel 29 May 2011

Reading Acts 17.22-31

²²Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.”
²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’

Second Reading 1 Peter 3.13-22

¹³Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, ¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; ¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. ¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Gospel John 14.15-21

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the first and the last, says the Lord, and the living one;
I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.

All Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.

All Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus said to his disciples: ¹⁵‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. ¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’

Sermon
Holy Spirit – what do we associate with the Spirit – what is the Spirit like? – what experience have we of the Spirit? – how does relationship between members of Trinity work?

Spirit-filled worship – does that sound attractive to you? Or do you associate it with people falling down, speaking in strange sounds, waving arms in air?

In Scripture – many pictures of HS. Spirit broods over water in Creation. Psalmist asked God not to take HS from him. Mary became pregnant by HS. HS appeared as dove, as cloven tongues of fire, and as wind.

In preaching, HS is not often named or described in detail. Somehow we are afraid to do so. Our knowledge is so sparse. And what we do see, we are often very dubious about. We talk about the HS at Pentecost, but only to try and explain the Trinity. That’s hard enough. Easier to talk about a God who is creator and sustainer, or Jesus as redeemer, the incarnate God. But somehow talking of the Spirit is to tread on dangerous ground.

At Last Supper, Jesus talks about separation. Disturbing prospect. But there is comfort. He will send the Holy Spirit.

The disciples will be bereft. They will feel abandoned. But Jesus says he will not leave them as orphans. He promises to come to them in a different form. Where he is, they will be also. Because I live, you also will live he says to them.

That’s all very well for them, but what about us? They have seen and experienced the Lord. They have spent time with him. They have seen and heard him with their own eyes and ears. We have not.

So what does he promise after the resurrection? Something or someone who is present but absent. A paracletos – which is translated Advocate. παρακληπός

Does this strike you as odd? An advocate is someone who appears for you in court. It may be someone called to your side when you need help. A professional who advocates a particular cause. A person who pleads your case with authorities when you cannot act effectively for yourself.

From this you might think the Holy Spirit brings up our case before God in the hope he will be merciful. Isn’t that what an advocate would do? But that can’t be right. Think about it. Isn’t God already merciful? Has he not through abundant grace offered us the way of redemption, freely, without measuring our sins, through faith in Jesus Christ alone?

No – I believe the Advocate works in the other direction. The Advocate is the Spirit of God. He sits alongside God. The Spirit mediates God to us, not us to God.

God has already given the gift of love unstintingly through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and such love is what creates genuine life. The Spirit is the Advocate who brings the truth of that love and life to people in this time after Easter.

Didn’t Jesus do that as well? Didn’t he speak to us of the love of God? Didn’t he show us what God is like? Yes, he did. And that should not surprise us. Jesus made it clear, the Holy Spirit could not come to us until he had gone to the Father. Even in today’s reading, he says:

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

The functions might be the same, but the Holy Spirit is not Jesus, and he is not the Spirit. Jesus glorified God, but the Spirit glorifies Jesus too. Both bear witness to the truth and expose the world’s wrongs, but the Spirit did not die for our salvation. The Spirit continues the work of Christ, but cannot replace him or what he did for us.

The Holy Spirit is rejected by the world, in the same way that Jesus himself was. The world here means those people who are alienated from God. So the Spirit acts as advocate, filling our hearts, teaching us what to say and how to act, disclosing to the world the truth about the life and death of Jesus and what it means, if the world will only pause and listen.

This picture of God’s advocate is closer to the still, small voice, the sound of sheer silence, than it is to the tongues of fire or the noise of Spirit-filled worship. It’s closer to our needs – the advocate who will be with us forever. It’s more like having Jesus alongside us, inside our very being, guiding us, convicting us, speaking to us of God, than an influence that affects many people at the same time. Both, no doubt, are valid. Feeling the Spirit in our worship is important, even where only two or three are gathered together.

How will be know? How can we be sure? First, because that is the promise of Christ in John 14. Second, because as Christians we will know him, even though the world does not recognise the Spirit or the Spirit’s influence. Third, because the Spirit lives in us all the time, to be with us. All we have to do is be silent and listen. Listen for the Spirit who is there.

¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

Amen

Our Emmaus Journey of Faith

Cheddington St Giles – Easter 3 – 8 May 2011

First Reading Acts 2.14a,36-41

Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:

“Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Gospel Luke 24.13-35

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the first and the last, says the Lord, and the living one;
I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.
All Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.

All Glory to you, O Lord.

That same day two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognising him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going further. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Acts – written by Luke – both about surety and conviction. Acts starts

¹ In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach ² until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

Luke wasn’t there – not eye witness. His gospel begins:

I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴ so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

That you may know the certainty... Peter – denied Christ 3 times – after crucifixion has no doubt. What we heard is end of his Pentecost sermon. States boldly what he saw. “Brothers, I can tell you confidently...” “Therefore let all be assured...” “We are all witnesses to the facts...”

How did apostles who denied, hid, and betrayed in such a short time come to this conviction of certainty? It was by faith, bestowed on them through Holy Spirit.

Peter’s outspoken conviction confronts the crowd who plotted Jesus’ death. They themselves are convicted. Blood on their hands. Complicit in their guilt. They were cut to the heart, and asked ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Greek verb for repentance is metanoeo. Combination of meta meaning with or after, and noeo meaning perceive or think. Repent is having second thoughts. Changing your thinking. Criticising yourself, then coming to a new conviction. This follows from inspiration of Holy Spirit in our lives and hearts.

It was a very different picture during and immediately after crucifixion. Road to Emmaus – many people’s favourite story. And mine. Like a road movie – disciples meet a stranger – turns out not to be what he seems – has a profound effect by what he says and does – brings about a turning around, metanoeo, repentance, thinking again, new conviction – whatever – but profound and complete.

It was the same day when Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty. First day of week. Two men in gleaming clothes like lightning meet the women. ‘Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen! Remember what he told you in Galilee?’

The way Peter and apostles acted could not, I think, be down to faith. Not so profound a change. Not so soon. That’s not my experience. Faith ebbs and flows. Takes time, prayer, hard work. Pitfalls. Setbacks. Revelations. Ups and downs.

Two frightened fugitives escaping. They know something of what Mary found. But 3 days have passed, and Jesus has not reappeared. They are full of despair, shattered dreams, forlorn, all hope lost.

Walking a couple of hours out of Jerusalem. Lying low. Going home. Away from the heat of retribution. Outlaws going into hiding.

Who is Cleopas? We have no idea. Except he is probably in outer circle of followers of Jesus. His companion isn’t even named. Odd. But they had close knowledge of events, and were welcomed back when returned from Emmaus with their news. So must be more than observers.

The story is full of movement. They go. They walk. They go in and eat. They turn back. Why? Because, like us each week, they have recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

You see, it’s not just a road movie, an account of what happened in real time, a turning again – back to Jerusalem where the Messiah was meant to appear. No – it’s more than that. It’s a parallel of what happens in our lives. It’s symbolic of our journey of faith.

How often do we doubt? Faith grows cold. We question. The hope of redemption grows cold. We slowly walk away, back to reality as we see it? We endlessly talk. Try to make sense of it all.

But then a chance encounter. No one special. Just passing the time on the road, waiting for a plane, on a ferry, just hanging out. The stranger has to be almost forced to stay for dinner. He is keen to be getting on, but it’s night and the road is dangerous. It almost seems like the revelation is unplanned. But something makes them insistent, and he stays to break bread with them.

It wasn’t his place to break bread. That was for the host. But Jesus naturally takes the role of Good Shepherd, providing for them, feeding them, caring for his own, the lost ones who were bereft after all that had not come to pass as they had hoped.

In Luke, Jesus spends a lot of time feeding others, eating with them, spending time with people who would not be given house room by the respectable. Us, in other words. Us, in our sin.

Or you might say that Cleopas and his friend are also us. Frightened. Hiding. Weak in faith. Saddened by our diminished hope. But suddenly, our eyes can be opened. We can’t control the Holy Spirit, who opens eyes when we least expect it. And sometimes, alas, closes them.

But from this story, today, as we are about to break bread together, we may find that Jesus walks with us, and reveals himself to us. We might have a glimpse of the Lord, as we reflect on the Road to Emmaus – our road – our journey of faith. Amen

Unbelieving Thomas

Easter 2 – St Giles Cheddington

Gospel John 20.19-32

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the first and the last, says the Lord, and the living one;
I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.
All Alleluia.

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

You may wonder
2 great readings – Holy Spirit – preachers tend to go on about Thomas. Or ask curate to preach. Why? We want to save Holy Spirit for Pentecost on 12 June. That explains why you hear sermons on Thomas on Easter 2. I don’t want to get stuck on him, but I do want to use the opportunity to ask what it means to believe.

Thomas is stuck with moniker ‘Doubting.’ For centuries. Who can blame him for doubting – he wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to other disciples. They told him about it afterwards ‘We have seen the Lord!” Would you have believed? Or would you want more proof?

Unbelieving Thomas
More correct translation of apistos - unbelieving. Favourite word in John’s gospel. Verb not noun. Says something about what it is to believe.

When we say “We believe...” e.g. Creed – we then list number of doctrinal statements. In one God. Jesus the Son. Holy Spirit. Maker of heaven and earth. Death and resurrection of Jesus. etc

Likewise – Thomas asked to believe in resurrection of Jesus without any evidence of his own eyes. No wonder he was apistos. But there came, through Grace, a second chance. Like Lost Sheep Thomas was not abandoned. Jesus, Good Shepherd, sought him out. Then Thomas entered into relationship with risen Christ for himself. Not because of what he was told to believe. But his relationship directly with the risen Christ himself.

Instead of second chance let’s say there were two stages to Thomas’s belief. First, what he was taught to believe. We have seen the Lord. That resulted in his unbelief. Then second, he entered into a relationship and saw with his own eyes. Then he believed.

What then happened is Thomas’s testimony. Not You are the Lord. Or You are God incarnate. Instead “My Lord and my God.” Thomas’s response is personal.

Two stage belief
Thomas was not the only one to doubt. When Jesus first appeared to Mary in the garden, she tells the disciples “I have seen the Lord.” Did they immediately accept her word? Did they at once respond with That’s wonderful – now we believe Christ has risen too? No – like Thomas, they wanted more proof. Seeing is believing – then they were persuaded. Again, a two stage process.

Then there was the Samaritan woman at the well. She left her water jar, and went to tell the other villagers she had found the Messiah. It was only later, after they entered into their own relationship with him, that they truly believed.

"It is no longer what you said, but we have heard for ourselves." That was the second stage.

I am the Door
Back in chapter 10, Jesus described himself as Good Shepherd. Thomas had his second chance. So do we – and a third, fourth, fifth and so on to infinity. God’s grace knows no bounds, no limits, no last chance. But Jesus also said he was the Door, or Gate to the sheepfold.

In chapter 20, disciples behind locked doors. Same word in Greek. Thura. Jesus was the door to the sheep. And Jesus miraculously appeared in the Upper Room even though the doors were secured. He became the door to the sheep, his disciples, us.

Thomas may have thought about his previous appearance in chapter 14, when he said “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus gave him a similar answer. This time, not the Gate or the Door but “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Here again we have the second stage of belief. To really know the Father through his incarnate Son.

Challenge
On this first Sunday after Easter, the real deal is all about belief and not doubt. The belief that comes from the Holy Spirit, poured out into our hearts. Through that Spirit we can pass from the first, academic, doctrinal stage of belief to the second, personal, relational.

You can believe in the resurrection all you want – and belief in the empty tomb is an essential if you are to be a true Christian. But that’s not the point.

Like any doctrine, the resurrection is just the resurrection. It’s incredible – which is another way of saying unbelievable. It could end there, except for the second stage. This is to be in that personal relationship which accepts Jesus as the Resurrection, the Door, the Gate, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Jesus says to us the same as he said to Thomas. Stop doubting and believe. Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

That means us. Amen

Intercessions for Palm Sunday

INTERCESSIONS – Richard Foster

Let Us Pray

On this Palm Sunday, as we celebrate our Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, we ask that he may triumph also in our hearts. Let your grace and mercy enter us and let us give joyful thanks to all that he has done for us, this week and for ever more.

Lord,
In your mercy
Hear our prayer

Let us pray for Our Church

Dear and Merciful Lord,

As we enter Holy Week we pray for all those who minister to us at this special time – especially Derek, Robert and Roger. We thank you for their hard work and commitment, and pray that those who attend special services will receive your spirit and be filled with your love.

As the mystery and beauty of your love for us becomes revealed through the death, resurrection and triumph of your Son, our saviour, Jesus Christ, help us all to proclaim your word and to use this time to demonstrate the meaning of your gospel message to all we meet.

Lord,
In your mercy
Hear our prayer

Let us pray for Our world

We pray to you, Dear Lord, for the world around us, for your creation and for all humanity.

We pray for the work of everyone who strives to bring love, safety and comfort to other people.

Our world seems at time to be utterly without peace or sanctuary. We are forever assaulted by images and stories of war, terror, injustice and fear.

So we pray to you, merciful God, that you will help us see the good in all things

To see the peace that is possible in situations of violence and conflict

To see the love that can triumph over hatred

To See the hope that comes from doing your work

And to see the beauty of your creation in situations that seem to be only dark and forgotten.

In the war-torn parts of this world, in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Palestine, in the Ivory Coast and in Libya and many other places we pray that you will send your spirit and your light to those who cannot yet see it, and that you will guide those who have the power to act, to act in your name, for the sake of all humanity and not simply for their own benefit.

Strengthen our faith that your Kingdom will come, that we can build a peaceful and harmonious world through proclaiming your name and acting according to the message you taught us through the Gospel.

Lord,
In your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Let us pray for our village

All knowing, all seeing Lord, we bring before you the hopes and fears of our own neighbourhood, that you may bless our lives and give us all strength and inspiration as we go about our daily lives.

Guide us as we grow and have to make choices.

Sustain those who's jobs may be under threat.

Help our young people as they embark on a period of exams: we ask that you help them all focus on their revision and encourage them in their hard work at this important time for then

Shine your light on all our lives as we seek to know you and share your love. We pray that you will help us live and work in our diverse culture and to include everyone in proclaiming your name.

Lord,
In your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Let us pray for The sick and departed

Dear and gracious God, we pause to think of those in our lives who experience suffering, ill health, isolation and loneliness.

Help those in difficulty feel your love in their hearts, that they may not fear the future.

Comfort them and sustain them in their need.

We pray for                                                               .

And for any others we know

Let us pray for the souls of those who have died and for the bereaved

Dear Lord,

You sent your son to shine as a light in our lives. Help us to see that this light shines eternal, and that death cannot extinguish it.

We remember those who have died and who now see your light in its full glory, and our prayers go to those who grieve for their loss. Help them to see your light

We think especially of                            and family as they mourn the death of                                  .

And for any others we know.

And also those for whom this is the anniversary of their death

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Dear Lord,

As we celebrate Palm Sunday,

Inspire us to see hope in ourselves and our lives and to glorify your name

As we struggle to make sense of the choices life lays before us, guide each one of us and teach us that the future is filled with potential, that what may seem futile can bring forth beauty and love, and that there is always a light shining for us, even when our lives can seem darkened by worry or fear.

That with your light and in your name we can build your kingdom.

Merciful father
Accept these prayers for the sake of your son, our saviour
Jesus Christ.

A new command I give you

Liturgy for Maundy Thursday – St Giles Church, Cheddington 8pm

Gospel John 13.1-17,31b-35

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

¹ It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

   Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.

¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Sermon notes

Maundy Thursday – two primary traditions in Scripture. One – Jesus took bread – institution of Eucharist. Two – a new command I give you. Year of Matthew – synoptic gospels recount last supper – familiar words echoed in Eucharistic prayers. Matthean gospel read in full during Easter, so Johannine account set by lectionary for Maundy Thursday.

Meal John describes – not a Passover meal. In John – Jesus dies on Day of Preparation for Passover. This is when Passover lambs are killed. Chronology is less important than what is being said.

Lovely phrase – offers comfort to us. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Jesus knows time has come. Return to Father. Prepares disciples for crucifixion. John prepares readers for death of Christ.

New command – mandatum. Derivation of Maundy. This new command only understood in context of Jesus’ relationship with disciples. Us.

John says Jesus knows all power given to him by Father. How does he wield? …so he gets up from table and takes off outer garment. Fastens towel and washes feet. Like – receives all power, divests, becomes servant of all. Acts as only a slave could. Not even a servant would touch feet, let alone a master.

Deliberate. Hour has come – but John is clear Jesus is in control. His actions measured, meaningful. Told in the way we can learn from the symbolic act – and put what we learned into practice for ourselves.

A new commandment I give you. Acted out. What is it? Love one another – but in special way. His actions all dictated by love. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Meal is a love feast. Agape. Love does not stand on ceremony. Does whatever needs be done. Service. Humility. Debasement, even. Ultimately, the cross.

The is salvation played out before our very eyes. Arms open wide on the cross. God’s arms embrace hostile world. Everything turned upside down. Power displayed through weakness. Authority and dominion through humiliation. Grace – the word we use for it. Amazing grace.

As one theologian has said:
This night, then, not only introduces to the meaning of the Lord's Supper, but indeed the whole Passion and is therefore worthy of remembrance and proclamation as we listen to, wait, and watch for the promised deliverance of the nations that Jesus' death and resurrection are about to accomplish. Amen

Palm Sunday

First Reading Isaiah 50.4-9a

The servant of the LORD said:

⁴The Lord GOD has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens –
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
⁵The Lord GOD has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
⁶I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
⁷The Lord GOD helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
⁸he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
⁹It is the Lord GOD who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

Gospel Matthew 21.1-11

Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.
Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him
and given him the name that is above every name.
All Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:

“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Palm Sunday.
How many Palm Sunday sermons have we all heard? How many times have we sat in the pews, at the start of Holy Week, hearing a story we have heard so often, yet wondering if, this year, God will say something new to us?

For me, I try not to look back at what I said last year, or the year before. It doesn’t help, and it doesn’t encourage me to start afresh and see the Triumphal Entry from a new angle. So I thought I would do two things: one – forget about what we now know, and think about what seemed to be happening at the time; and two, look at the events from the point of view of the minor characters, like the man who owned the donkey, the disciples told to go and fetch it, or the onlookers.

Invasion
Why do we the events of Palm Sunday seem cosy, non-threatening, almost like a street carnival with a donkey for a float, a cheerful man waving to the crowds, and everybody cheering? Is it our sheer familiarity with the narrative, the presence of the donkey, the chant-like shouts of Hosanna, or the absence of any mention of opposition? What were the Romans doing? What about the Temple police and the authorities?

This was no carnival. This was a demonstration by rebels who wanted to overthrow the unholy alliance between Rome and the self-serving Jewish authorities. This was an invasion.

We’ve heard of many invasions in our lifetimes, however old or young we might be. In fact, since WW2 there has been an average of one major invasion a year. Jerusalem, the heartland of the Roman province of Judaea, the boiling cauldron of dissent, the tinderbox of uprising, was being invaded by a troublesome faction of religious fanatics.

Or perhaps you might prefer to call it an uprising. Like Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, or China. Think of how repressive regimes deal with threats to their power. Then consider that many of the world’s most cruel modern day powers don’t even approach the worst excesses of Rome, where thousands of crucifixions took place in a single day.

Jesus and his followers were already condemned. They were marked men. It was only that, in the full light of day, a worse insurrection would have resulted from his arrest as they entered Jerusalem peacefully that held the authorities back from intervening.

Suddenly the story of the donkey and the Hosannas doesn’t sound so friendly, does it?

Minor characters
Just think of the risks taken by anyone in any way associated with the one who claimed to be Messiah, the anointed one, who would overthrow the occupying forces and return Israel to its former glory.

The man who owned the donkey, and secretly provided it for Jesus’ use in fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah. Someone might have recognised whose animal it was. If the disciples had been stopped, they were to declare that it was Jesus who wanted it.

Think of the words of the prophet. “See, your king comes to you...” Everyone in Jerusalem would have understood the symbolism of the colt. No one would have been in any doubt about what Jesus and his followers were claiming to be.

The inner circle of disciples were fired up to expect war. A war the prophets had predicted would be won. It was only a day or so beforehand that the wife of Zebedee had come to Jesus asking for her sons to sit at his right and left hand in his new kingdom.

The people who shouted hosanna and lined the processional route into Jerusalem risked arrest if things turned nasty. There must have been guards and soldiers on duty. What happened in Parliament Square was nothing compared with the might of Rome turned against a factious mob.

The dark side of the gospel
The trouble is, and always has been the way Easter falls, many of us who faithfully attend church on Sundays but miss out on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday pass directly from the hosannas of Palm Sunday to the light and clamour of Easter Day. From rejoicing to rejoicing. From light to light – without any of the darkness in between.

This tends to distort our perspective on the dark side of the gospel. The Passion of the Christ came close to pornography in my view when it spent so long graphically depicting the scourging and torture of Jesus prior to his execution, but still I can see what Mel Gibson wanted to achieve, and the balance he sought to redress.

My challenge this year
So my challenge this year is that we should all try and come to one of the Holy Week services, in addition to today’s service or Easter Day itself.

There’s a short communion service at 8pm on Maundy Thursday. On Good Friday there’s the all-age service with a dramatized gospel play told from the perspective of Claudia, the wife of Pontius Pilate. Then in the afternoon there’s the wonderful choral offering by the Camerata Choir made up of 16 – 18 year olds that had such an impact on us all last year.

Jesus the prophet
The main point of this all is to move us on from where we are to where we might be. Like the crowds who shouted on Palm Sunday. When asked who this was, they said “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. “ By Thursday, they were calling for his execution.

Today we are celebrating Jesus the coming one, the Messiah. How will we move on come Thursday or Friday? And what will we say, in answer to the same question, by next Sunday? Amen

Love and Death

St Giles Cheddington 10 April 2011 LENT 5

First Reading Ezekiel 37.1-14

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me to and fro among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.

Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”

Gospel John 11.1-45

Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.
Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him
and given him the name that is above every name.
All Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Death
Our society obsessed by death. News. Detective, crime series. CSI. War.

Ezekiel little read. Full of macabre stories. Strange, violent, incomprehensible, even offensive. No wonder that Christians are mainly only aware of Dry Bones. Even immortalised in song. Dem bones hear the world of the Lord.

Ezekiel also misunderstood by contemporary audience. Spoke in parables and riddles. And in Valley of Dry Bones God poses his own. “Can these dry bones live?” Ezekiel sounds exasperated. “O Lord God, only you know.”

Why these bones?
We ask – why is valley full of bones? What did they die of? Why unburied? Ezekiel’s time desperate one. Famine, torture, despair. Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem – 2 years. Destroyed city, Temple, carried off into exile.

Bones belonged to those slain – described as sufficient for a vast army when life returned to them. May have been massacred, or ambushed, or confined in a defile and starved.

Horrifying picture – but, like Lazarus, symbolic – illustrates that, to God, new life can come about even in the face of total loss and despair.

Lent
Appropriate readings for Lent. We have to experience the troughs of seeming hopeless abandonment before we can appreciate and understand rising to new life.

Trouble is, many of us come to worship on Easter Day, having not attended any services on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. We rejoice in resurrection and salvation without ever experiencing the anguish through which that new life came to fruition. Surely unless we go through the pain of loss and take up our cross with Christ during Holy Week, we have no contrast between the darkness of degradation, humiliation and pain and the light coming into the world post-resurrection? Maybe we can do better this year? Maybe we can sit for a short while in vigil as we contemplate the enormity of what we as a human race have done?

Lazarus
In John’s gospel, death and love woven together. John 15 for example:
¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command.

Or this from John 3:
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Story of Lazarus illustrates this. Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters. Yet seems to have deliberately delayed return when message came about his serious illness. Seems to have let them down at time of worst need.

Mary and Martha both love Jesus. Berate him each in their separate ways.”If you had been here, our brother would not have died.” They mean that Jesus could have healed him, had he returned in time.

Delay is understandable. Disciples did not want to return to Jerusalem at all. 2 attempts had already been made on his life by stoning him. Love and death inextricably linked. By coming to Bethany to visit his friend whose life is threatened, Jesus risks his own death.

But death did not overcome love. Jesus himself travelled in the light of day, and no one sought to arrest him. Nor did Lazarus remain in the tomb. Like Ezekiel’s dry bones, against all the odds Lazarus is called back to life.

Lazarus will die again. So will all humans. Jesus will not. In response to Martha, he says:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
I AM – the name of God. Blasphemy to the Jews. Jesus is not only asserting what he will be, but claiming divinity. Do you believe? He asks. Yes, says Martha, you are the anointed one, the Christ.

This same love in the end leads to the cross. After this miracle, bystanders report Jesus to authorities. From this point, they start to plot his death. So love leads to death. One tomb to another. That’s the way of the cross.

Death and Life
Like Martha, Mary and Lazarus, we are in our own relationship with Christ. This means facing grief and death with him. Being there in the week before Easter, not just on Easter morning.

Yet we know, like Ezekiel and Lazarus, nothing is final, even in the complete absence of all hope. Nothing is ever dead for good. For the Christian, there is always hope in the future. Abundant life is always there in the end.

But we still have to endure. Endure the garden of Gethsemane. The torture. The cross. Knowing that if we endure with him, Easter will surely come. That’s our assurance. That’s our comfort. For if we walk with him in the garden of our own griefs, we will in the end meet with him again. Amen

Mothering Sunday

First Reading Exodus 2.1-10

¹A man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. ²The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. ³When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. ⁵The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’

⁸Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Gospel John 19.25-27

Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.
The Lord is a great God, O that today you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts.
All Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

²⁵Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Mothering Sunday
What new to say that has not been said before?

Today we affirm the importance of motherhood, not only in our own lives but as the essential building block our family life, our society and our wellbeing and our flourishing as human beings.

Few things could underline the importance of motherhood as much as today’s gospel reading. John 19 – virtually last page of John’s gospel. Last para. before the one headed The Death of Jesus. It witnesses to his very last act on this earth. His last thought before saying “It is finished. “

Seeing his mother Mary standing near the cross, with her sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene and John – Jesus provides for her future by asking John to take her into his home and care for her. This would have been vital, since the fate of a widow unprovided for and without the protection of a husband or son was a bleak one in those days.

We all have mothers. Their relationship with us is bound to be closer than any father, however dear. Their commitment to us spans many years and is especially intimate. Their sacrifice to give us life and sustain it is unmatched by any other human being. So it’s right we should celebrate and mark Mothering Sunday. It’s appropriate we give thanks for our mothers.

Mother God
These very characteristics of motherhood mean that for many of us the love of a mother for her child is the closest human love we will ever know that is truly like the love of God for us, his children.

You may be shocked and recoil when occasionally some Christians refer to God as Mother. Of course, there’s no reason for the divine to have any gender assigned. In fact, there’s every reason for us not to think of God as either male or female for that matter.

But sometimes, our understanding is helped by making the link between God and the love of a woman, whether as mother or wife, sister or friend – whatever. The Bible does it often. There are far too many to list each one.

In Genesis, the Spirit of God broods over the waters in creation. In fact, the Holy Spirit is feminine throughout Scripture. In Isaiah, God is likened to a nursing mother. In Hosea, God is a mother caring for a difficult child. The Psalms are full of allusions to feminine characteristics for God. In one, we are portrayed as slave girls whose eyes are fixed on their mistress who is God.

Throughout Proverbs, Job, and in the Apocrypha and elsewhere God is Wisdom, and wisdom (Sophia) is feminine.

It’s not just the OT. In the gospels, Jesus likens his Father to a mother hen gathering her chicks, or a woman who sweeps the room to find her lost coin.

Fatherhood
Some observers have suggested that whilst motherhood is honoured, it’s the traditional role of fathers that is under threat. In the UK, over 90% of lone parents are female. Psychologically, so much of what we become depends on the quality of our childhood, and for many of us the predominant role model is that of our mother.

In the church’s calendar, Mothering Sunday is a religious festival, whereas Father’s Day is merely commercial. It explains why most churches seek to make Mothering Sunday into much more of a family celebration than one centred on motherhood alone. It also seeks to involve those of us who no longer have mothers who are still living.

Mother and Father
Much of the Bible’s teaching applies equally to fathers and mothers. Honour your father and mother is 5th commandment in Exodus 20. Jesus repeated this commandment in the gospels – honour your father and mother, and love your neighbour as yourself.

Even so, Jesus’ own mother was not allowed to divert him from his mission. In Mark 3:

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mother Church
Coupled with our celebration of motherhood, and refreshment at the mid-point of Lent is our place in the mother Church of which we are members. This is the church that is both the bride of Christ, and our spiritual mother. Today we honour both, as we gather round the table in our shared communion.

Let us pray
“O Lord Jesus Christ, Who came to live among us as the child of an earthly mother: Bless us, we pray, as we gather in your house, the mother Church, to worship you and to give thanks for our mothers. May all our children be nurtured in your love, and our homes be havens of peace and joy, filled with your presence. Amen.