Made Righteous through Faith

Cheddington Thursday13 October 2011 Midweek Communion

First Reading Romans 3

Righteousness Through Faith

²¹ But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

²² This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

²⁴ and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

²⁵ God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished

²⁶ — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.

²⁸ For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

²⁹ Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

³⁰ since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Gospel Luke 11

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

All Glory to you, O Lord.

⁴⁷ Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them.

⁴⁸ So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.

⁴⁹ Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.'

⁵⁰ Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world,

⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

⁵² Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.

⁵³ When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions,

⁵⁴ waiting to catch him in something he might say.

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

Sermon

Hard to overstate importance of this reading, both as a foundation text for the Reformation, but also as an aid to our understanding of what was accomplished by Jesus on the cross.

Paul starts by affirming that all have sinned and fallen short of the righteousness and glory of God. No works of the law can change this sorry state that we as humanity find ourselves in.

Yet God comes to our aid. Through the death of Jesus God accomplishes three things. He justifies, he redeems and he effects atonement. It would take too long to explore these three, but here’s a few thoughts.

Justification does not mean that God stamps ‘not guilty’ on our heavenly passport. Instead, God repairs the breach between humanity and God through his grace and the death of Jesus Christ. Justification means we are ‘made righteous’ not through anything we have done, but freely by the grace of God himself.

Secondly, redemption. Bonds can be redeemed. Slaves are redeemed. Glass bottles used to be redeemed – you took them to a recycling centre and got back a few pence for each one. Redemption is a liberation. It brings freedom, and ownership passes from one person to another. This is how God has redeemed us. Once we were slave to sin. Now we are free.

It’s not, I think, that Jesus had to die in order to redeem us. He did die, through the evil of wicked men, but still, that was the path God chose for our redemption.

Thirdly atonement. At-one-ment. A purely invented word to suit the purpose. Here we have the language of sacrifice. Like in the Old Testament when an animal was sacrificed. This is not a debt paid to an angry God. But through its action, we are made one again with the God from whom we were estranged through sin. We are at one again.

How this came about it’s hard for us to begin to grasp, and certainly too complex a notion for us to explore in a few minutes on a Thursday morning. It’s enough today for us to be thankful, as we join together in our communion with each other, and as we tell again the story of what God’s grave has done for us, freely, undeserved and abundantly.

William Tyndale

Cheddington – midweek communion

Gospel Luke 11

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.

⁵And he said unto them, If any of you should have a friend, and should go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

⁶For a friend of mine is come out of the way to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

⁷And he within should answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my servants are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give them to thee.

⁸I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he would rise and give him as many as he needeth.

⁹And I say unto you, Axe, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

¹⁰For every one that axeth receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh shall it be opened.

¹¹If a son shall axe bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he axe a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

¹²Or if he shall axe an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

¹³If ye then, which are evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall the Father of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that desire it of him?

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

Sermon

Tyndale. Translator of the Scriptures. Reformation martyr 1536. Born Gloucestershire early 1490’s. Studied at Magdalen Oxford. Moved to Cambridge – exposed to influence of continental Reformation.

Ordained 1515. Brilliant linguist – worked for a time as a tutor in a college near Bristol. But fell foul of local clergy by preaching in public on College Green.

Intention – to make truths of Scriptures available to ordinary people in own language.. Wanted to produce plentiful copies at prices everyone could afford. In a dispute with local clergyman, he said “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.”

Started work on NT, but increasing clampdown on ‘heretics’ led to Tyndale crossing channel to Hamburg where he could work in greater safety. Travelled to Wittenberg 1524 – met Luther. But even in Europe he was not safe and kept moving on.

First translation published in 1525. 18,000 copies produced. Smuggled into England concealed in bales of cloth via Antwerp. Cat was out of the bag, but Tyndale still not safe.

Continued to work. Started OT, though only published Pentateuch and Jonah. Eventually betrayed and captured near Brussels. Imprisoned 16 months, before being strangled and burned at the stake on this day, October 6^th in 1536.

Sadly, the official change in attitudes came too late for Tyndale. Miles Coverdale continued his work, and only a year later Tyndale + Coverdale published with official permission.

Today’s reading from Tyndale is almost word for word the same as the Authorised Version published in 1611. In fact, it is estimated 90% of the KJV is pure Tyndale. He was a master of beautiful language and economical choice of words – so his influence has not only been incalculable on Christianity in the world but on the English language itself.

It takes some explaining how Thomas More could be a saint, whereas Tyndale remains unrecognised, except by those who know and love him, and recognise his bravery and sacrifice for the sake of us all. A true martyr for the faith. Amen

A New Contract

Trinity 15 – 2 October 2011 at St Giles

Gospel Matthew 21.33-46

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 told a parable: “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them in the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvellous in our eyes’?

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

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

Sermon

Most of us react badly to rules and regulations. Give us a set of rules, and we try to find ways round them. There’s a whole industry called tax avoidance, seeking ways to circumvent the rules, find legitimate ways to pay less, at least until the loophole is closed and a new one exploited.

Rules are negative. Tying us up in knots. Knots are like nots. They restrain. Hold us back. We strain to break free.

On the other hand, without rules society cannot function. That was the message of August’s riots. Faced by wholesale lawbreaking police are powerless. They can only meet force with force, which is usually counterproductive. Policing – indeed law itself depends for its success on consent, at least by the majority.

Is this the way the Israelites regarded the 10 Commandments? Would they have preferred to be free from rules? Wasn’t that what they had, before God’s law was handed down to them? I can’t compete with Charlton Heston, as he came down from the mountain surrounded by smoke and fire – wind blowing through his magnificent mane of hair – but I recall he encountered chaos not order, as the people revolted against God’s law and turned on their leaders thinking Moses would never return.

Life had not been good for the people since that celebration on the banks of the Sea of Reeds, after their escape from Pharaoh’s pursuing army. They had spent years testing God by their disobedient grumbling. They quarrelled with Moses. He was in despair. He has just about ‘had it’ with the people he was meant to lead from bondage into a land flowing with milk and honey. The people even longed to be back as cruelly oppressed slaves in Egypt, so short was their collective memory.

Against such a background, the 10 Commandments are not an oppressive set of rules but a revelation of freedom. God had a contract with the people. A covenant, as Scripture puts it. A contract means you have to behave in a certain way, but in return the other party has to fulfil their side of the bargain.

Already, in Exodus 19, God has told the people that if they agree to terms of the covenant, they will be for Him a treasured possession, a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (19:5-6). The 10 Commandments in chapter 20 specify how they are to behave. Hardly onerous, you may think, in return for such favourable treatment from God.

It comes down to this. Israel becomes a treasured possession for God in return for doing two things. Worshipping, loving, and honouring the One God; and treating each other and all creation with respect and consideration.

Most people would call that freedom, not oppression. But taken out of context – divorced from the contract – painted up on church walls by the altar – the 10 Commandments are reduced back to just a set of rules. And the Christian faith looks a lot less attractive to those outside.

Of course, the chief priests and elders didn’t see it that way. They challenged Jesus’ authority, and as he often did when faced with religious leaders, he told them a parable. The first was about two sons. The first was disobedient, then changed his mind. The second was obedient, but didn’t do what his father wanted.

If those challenging him didn’t get the message first time around, Jesus immediately told them another parable. This time it’s the Parable of the Tenants.

The parable begins with a situation that was business as usual in Roman-occupied Palestine. A landowner established a vineyard complete with a fence, a winepress, and even a watchtower. He then became an absentee landowner, returning to his own country as often happened in the far-flung territories of the Roman Empire.

Familiar territory to the chief priests and elders. They probably had vineyards of their own. They naturally thought the owner of the vineyard represented themselves. So they were outraged at the treatment meted out to their servants. They would not have sent in a second set of servants. They would certainly not have put their sons and heirs in harm’s way.

We, as Christians, see the parable very differently. God is the Owner. His servants are the Prophets. His Son is Jesus himself, who predicts his own death at their hands. Jesus is the stone the builders rejected, which becomes the cornerstone of God’s new order, his Kingdom.

The rules the tenants had to follow were hardly onerous. In fact, they were freedoms. They were given the freedom to run a beautiful vineyard. They only had to acknowledge its Creator, and give him his share of the harvest. That was the deal, but they couldn’t even do that.

We, of course, hope we represent the ‘other tenants’ to whom the vineyard is given. But we also have a contract. The Son is now in control of the vineyard.

If we fail, we ourselves could become like the old tenants and share their fate. They did not fail because of an argument about religious practices in the synagogue, but their collusion with the Roman empire, and their exploitation and abuse of their position as leaders of the people.

But are we pure in our dealings with the new covenant? Do we spend too long on politics in the church? Are we too fussy about how things should be done? Do we argue with each other about matters which are unimportant in the big scheme of things? Do we collude with society and meld into its ways? Are we visible as people set apart and called to mission, or do we blend in and fail to stand up for the truth? How active are we in our faith?

This is a puzzling parable. We think we understand it, but then another interpretation comes into view. It signals a new relationship between God and his people. The terms of the contract are new. It’s for us an unknown future, in which we are richly blessed but at the end judged. It would be all too easy to focus on the blessings, and forget the judgement.

That is, unless we constantly remind ourselves to be anchored in Christ, the cornerstone that supports and holds up the entire edifice, the Kingdom of God, of which in the end we hope to be a part. Amen

Gospel According to SOCKS

On Sunday night, our Youth Club turned parables and other Gospel passages into Text, Tweets, and Haiku.

Here’s a few of their best efforts at concise rendering:

HAIKU (Japanese poetry of 17 syllables)

He finds pearl very dear
Goes, sells everything to buy
Heaven is like this

Man tossed seed all round
On path, on rocks, in thorns. Large
Crop, good soil. Hear Word.

Mustard seed small – grows big
Pinch of yeast makes big bread loaf
Faith grows – heav’n on earth.

Lamp under basket?
secrets need to be broken
haves get, have nots lose

The Kingdom of God
Mustard seed is the smallest
shrubs house many birds

Wise men build on rock
Fools build on sand. Floods destroy
Men! Listen and act!

Five thousand gather
And feeding the lot of them
Jesus has done that!

Nets are cast for all.
Fishermen sort good from bad
As will the angels

Tiny seed. Add love,
water of life, becomes a tree.
Kingdom of heaven.

Why parables then?
"Cos some can't hear, some can't see
Unless Grace allows

Twitter Edition – Parable of the Hidden Treasure & the Pearl

@beet: Found treasure in a field

@root: what did you do with it? :o

@beet Bought the field!!! :D

The Next Day

@root: I found a pearl at the jewellers! It’s v expensive tho :(

@beet What are you going to do? :o

@root: sell my house 2 buy it. It’s v special :)

@beet @root Just like heaven!#

Tweets and Texts

Oh my gosh guys! Jesus has just been baptized by John in the Jordan River! Some voice came down from the sky man!

There one was a man called Piers,
He was deaf ‘cos he had no ears
Jesus came along
And touched the man’s tongue
So now he could listen to his dears.

How shall we get Jericho?
Hmmm… how about we make 7 people march round it in 4 days carrying trumpets?
Good idea! That should work. CU 2morrow.

Wonderful Counsellor/Prince of Peace
For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given
There is a Son! He will be mighty God forever
King of the world covering it in happiness and joy

Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down
Again, heaven is like a net
Heaven is like a net that was let down into a lake with all diff. fish
Heaven is like a net

A traveller was attacked and was left no money, clothes.
Pool of his blood.
Priest came, ignored the man
Levite came, did the same
Samaritan came, bandaged man’s wounds and took him to an inn.

Don’t put new wine in old skins – the skins burst and the wine is lost. The skins are destroyed. New wine goes in new skins and both last.

Seeds on path BIRDS! Seeds on rocks. Seeds in thorns choke. Seeds in good soil.
The devil takes path ones. Rocky ones fade. Thorny ones get lost in wealth. Hear, think!

Fieshermen set their nets, but pull up good and bad fish. They sort them, like angels the good from the wicked. The good are kept and the bad cast aside – as in heaven.

Lost coin. Tragedy!  Looked for it.  Swept into corners, swept again, kept looking.  Found it! Part time (smiley face)  God's like this when we are lost.

Life turned upside down (by love?)

Thursday Midweek Communion 8 September 2011

First Reading Colossians 3

¹² Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Gospel Luke 6

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

Blessings and Woes

¹⁷ He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon,

¹⁸ who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured,

¹⁹ and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

²⁰ Looking at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

²² Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

²³Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.   

²⁴But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.    ²⁵ Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

²⁶ Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

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

Sermon

The reading from Colossians has been hijacked for use at weddings. Like 1 Corinthians 13, very often chosen by marriage couples, it’s about love. At least that reading is about love in general. It is worth re reading at a quieter and more reflective service such as this:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails.

Of course we know love does fail in one sense. Couples fall out of love. According to the Times:

Nearly half the happy couples you see walking down the aisle will divorce before they reach their 10th wedding anniversary.

One in ten of the marriages will not make it past five years and 45 per cent will, ultimately, end in divorce, if the current rate of breakdowns continue.

The United Kingdom now has the highest rate of divorce since records began, with the rate rising from 37 per cent two decades ago to a new high of 45 per cent in 2005, according to figures released from the Office of National Statistics.

Colossians on the other hand is about New Life in Christ. Clothe yourselves in love. Bear with one another. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony. Just like the C of E you may say.

This is what the followers of Jesus in the early church were like. Or that was Paul’s desire. In reality, being only human they probably weren’t, or not for long.

Jesus himself was more realistic than Paul. The gospel reading is not headed Blessings, but Woes too. You are blessed if you are poor and hungry, hated, insulted and rejected, he says. It’s not easy to love when the whole world seems to turn against you.

But that’s the true gospel. All conventional wisdom turned upside down. Blessings become woes and woes blessings. Sounds like doublespeak from Orwell’s 1984. Not that these woes are desirable, but that those who are comfortable in this world already have their reward, and to be mistreated is to be like Christ.

All of us, in this sense are comfortable. All of us by comparison are rich. So we have to work out for ourselves what this gospel reading means, and how it turns our own approach to our faith upside down. Amen.

The Real Presence

Gospel Matthew 18.15-20

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

Jesus said: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

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

Sermon

Ever heard of doctrine of Real Presence? Means in some way Jesus is present in bread and wine.

RC / Orthodox - in the Eucharist the bread and wine are objectively transformed and become in a real sense body and blood of Jesus Christ. Transubstantiation. This is my body he said. And this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.

Methodists – Jesus Christ who "is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being" (Hebrews 1:3), is truly present in HC. HC is means of Grace through which real presence of Jesus communicated to believer.

Anglican – broad range of beliefs. Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. In the Eucharist, the outward and visible sign is that of bread and wine, while the inward and spiritual grace is that of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Some say there is nothing in Scripture about Real Presence. True, you don’t find it where you expect. In Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and in 1 Corinthians 11. Accounts of Last Supper where Jesus says Do this in remembrance of me.

Rather, Real Presence is here where you don’t expect – in Matthew 18.
“For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
Jesus is present with us now. The Lord is here – his spirit is with us. A confidant declaration at the start of our service of worship and thanksgiving.

Jesus is with us – imagine him sitting in the row behind you. As God incarnate, he knows you intimately. Every thought. Every deed. Every intention. All those judgements of others. All those things left undone. Nothing hidden. All revealed.

Not very comfortable, is it? Or is it actually a great comfort? A wonderful affirmation of his presence with us? Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered together in his name. At Church. Bible Study. Emmaus. Godly Play. Church Mice. PCC. All in his name.

Hold this thought – but not everything in the church is rosy. Not everything is perfect. Not everyone behaves always in a Christian fashion. Rewind just a few verses – Jesus starts with “if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault...” And if he won’t listen, take others along, and confront him openly. And if he still persists in his sin, tell it to the church.

It’s a kind of Conciliation service. Truth & Reconciliation. Dispute resolution. Notice – this is not one person against another. We can perhaps learn a lot from this teaching when we are upset about something in the Church. Not bottling up our resentment and shunning the offender, but confronting them in love, with others if need be, just as we are commanded to do here.

The sanction is stiff. ‘...whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Sounds like the conclusion is for all time. No appeal.

But God’s mercy and grace is abundant and infinite.
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”

Do you believe that? If you and others agree on something, it will be given to you? Of course you must be able to ask ‘in my name.’ In the name of the One who is with us now, sitting in the row behind you. That certainly tempers the range of petitions that are right and proper. But even so, it’s a powerful promise – if you have faith enough to invoke it.

Perhaps most startling in this reading is not about answered prayer, or how to deal with communal or individual sin but this.

The presence of God with us, wherever two or three are gathered together. Emmanuel – God with Us. When? In our sin. Confrontation. Repentance. Forgiveness. Worship. Whatever we are doing in his name. It takes some thinking about.

I remember No Hiding Place. ITV series on TV in the 60’s. Starred Raymond Francis as Inspector Lockhart. I looked it up. They made 236 episodes. Some were live. Only 25 episodes survive, even in part. The title tells the story. There was no hiding place for the criminal from the long arm of the law. Just the same, as God sits on the row behind you, everything is revealed. He is with us, even at our worst times as people and as Church.

It’s ironic – the unrepentant sinner is to be treated as a pagan or tax collector. Yet this passage immediately follows Parable of Lost Sheep. And after it comes Peter’s question – how many times shall I forgive my brother?

Maybe irony intentional. Perhaps what Jesus is saying is that you never give up. You keep trying to bring unrepentant sinner back into fold. Don’t just search for an hour and give up. Don’t limit number of times you forgive. The eventual sanction is there – but that’s for God and his judgement, and not for us.

Also, this is a joint endeavour. We don’t act alone. We get together to face up to wrongdoing. And we don’t pray alone – the passage says we have to agree about our petitions and pray for them together. Only then will God answer our prayer. That’s a promise. God is with us when we gather together in his name. And God will grant what we ask – in his name – and when we agree together.

This morning’s topic could not be more fitting, as we look at the state of our Church, locally, nationally, internationally. We disagree. We are plagued by our inability to handle confrontation, disagreement and our sins. We find it hard to live together as sisters and brothers in Christ, precisely because we are sinners.

Jesus offers us a simple guide where God is on Mars and we are on Venus. He says no – it’s not like that. We are not separated from God, even in our sin. No, he is with us, sitting on the row behind, whether in agreement and harmony or in sin and strife.

This is surely the importance of the Real presence of Jesus, God with Us. Not a theological argument about the Eucharist and the words we use. But God’s grace. For Jesus, it was so vital he repeated his promise in the very last words he used. In Matthew 28:20 he says:

“...surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

And here Matthew’s gospel ends. Amen.

The Secret of the Parables

Thursday 21 July – Holy Communion at St Giles

Gospel Matthew 13

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.

¹⁰ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹² Those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables:

   “Though seeing, they do not see;
   though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

   “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused;
   they hardly hear with their ears,
   and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
   hear with their ears,
   understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

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

Sermon

A commentary on this chapter starts remarkably: this discourse is not a solution to the problem of evil in general, but a solution to the rejection of Christ in particular.

Striking – I thought this part of Matthew as all about Jesus’ teaching in parables. The heading is “Explaining Israel’s Response.”

I started sermon a fortnight ago with the words ‘Parables are so stupid.’ This from the lips of a teenager. It was about Parable of Sower. Why did sower broadcast his seed all over the path, rocks, shallow, choked and thorny soils with same abandon he use for good soil? Reason: it’s not about agriculture. It’s about spreading the Word. It’s about God’s grace, and how he treats all of us just the same, regardless of what soil type we are.

The Sower is one of only 2 parables with a clear explanation. Why doesn’t Jesus explain all his parables, so we can be sure to understand? Why does he use this form of teaching at all? Is it just so the memorable images stick in our mind? Or is it more than that?

The Sower is also all about rejection. It was told as opposition to Jesus’ message was growing. Even his own family rejected him. Only the crowds hung on his every word, and they would shortly turn and cry for his blood.

Rejection was illustrated by the poor soil types. They get just as much chance as anyone else to hear and accept the Word leading to God’s Kingdom, but for one of many reasons they do not receive it and accept it.

So when Jesus answers the disciples’ question and says: “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” – he’s not saying the message has been deliberately concealed, but that for those hearers who are distracted, or who ignore it, or are too worldly, or for whatever other reason they reject it, - to them it is a secret.

When my mother used to teach me there were jolly unfair bits in the gospels, taking them out of context they were a secret to her because she had not fully understood what they meant. For her, the workers in the vineyard were treated unfairly and should be unionised. For her, it was wrong that: ¹² Those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” – but that was a literal interpretation, and not an explanation about the revelation of God’s word through parables.

What is all means is this. Only those who hear the word and do the will of God will understand Jesus’ parables. The so-called mysteries of the Kingdom are given by God’s grace through the parables, which is why the teaching they contain falls on closed as well as open ears. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen

The Sower

trinity 3 – Sunday 10 July 2011 at Cheddington

Gospel Matthew 13.1-9,18-23

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 went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.”

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

It would be a mistake to think of the Parable of the Sower as teaching us anything about agriculture. Like all parables, the narrative contains messages for each of us. Teaching that applies to each of us individually. Messages that vary according to when we hear the parable, how old we are, and what is our state of mind when we engage with them. That makes the preacher’s job very hard indeed, because what I learn from this parable, here and now, will be different from what you do, and what you learn from it may be very different next week or next month.

Perhaps I can help a little with the background to the telling of this parable, without saying too much about what it means for me.

Hostility to Jesus at this point in the gospel is increasing. Here we are in chapter 13 of Matthew’s gospel. Chapter 12 contains accounts of Jesus’ conflicts with the Pharisees. The Pharisees are now plotting to destroy him. They claim Jesus is working on behalf of Satan. By the end of chapter 12 we hear that Jesus is at odds with his own family. By the end of chapter 13, he will be rejected by his own native people in his hometown.

So we have this picture of almost universal hostility. Only his own followers support him, together with the poor, outcast, sinners and those on the margins of society.

The authorities and those who matter might have turned against Jesus, but the masses are still interested in his message. Large crowds follow him. So many people that he has to climb into a boat and teach them from the lake.

Jesus dresses up his message in pictures, allusions and allegory. Still, his teaching is literally down-to-earth. It’s all about seeds, growing conditions and farming. He speaks in a language that ordinary people can relate to. Most of them till the soil. Most of them are sowers of seeds themselves.

For the time being, these crowds are interested in hearing what he has to say, but we must remember that all this hostility from everywhere else is preying on his mind. So it’s not surprising the story he tells is about hostility to his words, and the many ways in which the message of the Kingdom can be neglected, misunderstood and opposed.

Did the message get through? We can’t be sure, but if the disciples didn’t understand, it’s likely many of the crowds didn’t get it either. Jesus’ immediate followers had the chance to ask for an explanation, but the crowds at large didn’t.

The clear explanation Jesus gives seems to leave little room for interpretation, unlike most of the parables which have never been interpreted definitively. But there are still questions left unanswered.

The seed is the word of God. That’s very clear. But what is the meaning of the different types of soil? Who qualifies as good soil? Soil cannot change in character, so if a person represents rocky, thin, hard or thorny soil, how can they become good soil? No amount of composting of stony ground will ever make it rich, dark and productive.

So, for example, take those who hear but don’t understand. Let’s say they are the Pharisees. They hear the word of the Kingdom but are antagonistic towards it. How can they change soil, and become receptive? Or how about the crowds? The rejoice in the Word. Through faith they respond positively, only to reject it shortly afterwards when they call for Jesus’ crucifixion. Let’s say their soil is shallow so they put down no roots, or maybe thorns sown by the Pharisees choke their immature shoots and destroy them before they have a chance to mature. How can their soil type change?

Don’t forget even the disciples themselves are shallow soil. After 3 years of hearing the Word and witnessing miracle after miracle, they fall away and desert their master when danger threatens and at his time of greatest need. So where is the rich soil? Who is faithful to the end? Are we? Is anyone?

When Jesus explains the parable, he asks the disciples whether they have understood the Word? They say ‘Yes’ but subsequent events witness to how shallow that undertaking was, and how quickly they all melted away to save their own skins. We might think we are rich soil, but in our heart of hearts wouldn’t we have done the same?

So this is where God’s grace comes in. It is unmerited. Undeserved. Unearned. The one character in the parable who says nothing and seems to play little part is the Sower. He is God. He is Jesus. She is Holy Spirit. The sower broadcasts the seed over a wide area. The sower sows much more than is required, and throws the same amount on all soil types regardless.

God, being outside of time, already knew the disciples would fail in their promises. Peter will not become a Rock until after he has denied Christ three times and repented. The other disciples will fail by making themselves scarce, so Jesus says “But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee" (26:32). Jesus does meet them in Galilee as promised, and with all authority in heaven and on earth given to him, turns them loose on the world to carry out his mission (28:16-20). So through grace, and not by any of their own efforts does the thin, shallow and rocky soil of the disciples become deep, rich and productive. 30, 60 and even 100-fold.

It’s not hard to find modern parallels. We can be distracted from hearing the Word by the cares of the world. Wealth. Possessions. Activities. Busy-ness. Responsibilities. The pursuit of goals. Providing for a comfortable future. Building barns. Making investments. Buying and selling cars. Improving what we own. Wanting more. Feathering our nest. Playing it safe.

The Parable of the Sower invites us to look again at our lives. Jesus invited us to seek his freedom. Freedom to take risks for the gospel. Emulating the Sower in his extravagant provision of seed, regardless of the likely outcome. Sowing the word in perilous places.

Our worldly assessment is that this is a waste of time. Unproductive. Inefficient. Unwise. But the Sower promises in the end a bumper crop against all the odds. 30-fold, 60-fold, even 100-fold.

⁵¹ Have you understood all these things? Jesus asked. Yes, they replied. May we, asked the same question, answer likewise and grasp the grace of God, in all its extravagant abundance, becoming good soil conditions for His Kingdom. Amen

Thursday 30 June – Holy Communion

First Reading Genesis 22.1 - 19

Abraham Tested

¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied.

² Then God said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

⁵ He said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,

⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, Father? Yes, my son? Abraham replied. The fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

⁸ Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them went on together.

⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, Abraham! Abraham! Here I am, he replied.

¹² Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time

¹⁶ and said, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,

¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.

¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.  

Gospel Matthew 9. 1 - 8

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 Heals a Paralytic

¹ Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.

² Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.

³ At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, This fellow is blaspheming!

⁴ Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

⁵ Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?

⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . . Then he said to the paralytic, Get up, take your mat and go home.

⁷ And the man got up and went home.

⁸ When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

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

Sermon

Near sacrifice of Isaac same reading as Sunday. Quite a shocking incident, prompting us to ask whether God could possibly ask Abraham to kill his first born son – one he had waited for until old age, and the son in whom the promise given to Abraham he would be the father of many was to be fulfilled.

In the end, God provided the alternative in the form of a ram – an alternative that was not made available at the crucifixion – but the difference was that Isaac was an unwilling potential victim whereas Jesus was not.

The gospel reading however comes from just after the Sermon on the Mount. There are several miracle stories – cleansing of a leper, healing centurion’s servant, and stilling of the storm. Now Jesus leaves the neighbourhood of Gadara where he healed the man possessed of demons which entered a herd of swine, and crossed in a boat to his own town.

This is Capernaum – and the boat crossed the sea of Galilee from Gentile territory (hence the pigs). Immediately he sees a man suffering from paralysis being carried on a litter by friends of his. Presumably they are seeking out Jesus in the hope of a cure for their friend.

Jesus does not just heal the man, but pronounces forgiveness of his sins, to the consternation of the religious leaders who accuse him of blasphemy. To the scribes, Jesus has tried to do what only belongs to God.

Jesus does not at first tell the paralysed man to get up and walk. Does this mean he ascribes the cause of his infirmity to sin rather than any physical origin? It seems to indicate the suffering has a spiritual cause. We do not know, but after absolution, there is an exchange with the scribes where Jesus indicates it is as easy for him to forgive sins as to heal the man in any more conventional or expected manner.

Why does he say this? Not, I think, only because he is God incarnate and has God’s power to forgive. But more simply Jesus is saying that if he pronounces healing and the man gets up and walks, the result is easily verified. Everyone can see for themselves, and so this is a hard thing to do. Pronouncing forgiveness of sins is easy, because no one can tell whether the absolution is effective or not.

The story does remind us, though, that despite all our modern scientific knowledge, sickness is not just physical, but can have a complex web of causes and influences. Sin itself is a sickness from which we all need to be healed, and confessing our sins as we do at each and every church service is necessary and good for our souls, just as it is effective when we have wronged one another and offer contrition and restitution to them for the hurt we have caused.

Child Sacrifice? – the story of Isaac

Sunday 26 June 2011 – Trinity 1 – St Mary’s Mentmore

First Reading Genesis 22.1-14

God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

Gospel Matthew 10.40-42

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: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

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

Sermon

How many flinched as they heard the story of the near sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham? It’s told in chilling detail, building frame by frame like a TV reality drama unfolding to our horror before our very eyes.

The long journey to make a burnt offering. The wood laid on the back of a donkey. The servants left waiting as father and son journeyed on. Isaac’s question about where was the animal to be killed. The slow motion as Abraham reaches out his hand to grasp the knife.

We know it’s just a test. We are told at the outset that God tested Abraham. God knows, and we know, but Abraham doesn’t.

You probably are aware of the background, but I’ll just remind you of it. Back in Genesis 15, God made a contract with Abram. He was childless, yet God promised to make him the father of many nations, as countless as the stars in the heavens.

Abraham and his wife Sarah were well advanced in years and had given up any hope of starting a family. They had waited decades for the birth of Isaac. In this young man rested the hope of the promise given to Abraham by God, yet he seemed quite willing to take instructions from God and sacrifice his only son.

Isaac had no choice. He had no idea what was happening to him, until the point he was tied up and placed on a bonfire with his father about to plunge a dagger into his heart.

Is this the sort of God we can believe in? One who will test us to this degree of cruelty? Wouldn’t we say nowadays the whole event would leave both father and son scarred for life?

Over many years, the narrative has been preached as teaching us about Abraham’s great faith and obedience against all odds, and God’s response which is to reward him by his provision at the last moment.

Does the fact Isaac’s life is saved make the horror of the narrative any more palatable? What if Abraham’s obedience had been tested to the ultimate, and Isaac had died? What is Abraham had misunderstood what God was seemingly asking of him?

It’s a rhetorical question, because Isaac did not die, and one might say God would have stayed Abraham’s hand to save him anyway. Still we ask ourselves, must we accept the story as a lesson in ultimate obedience and faith, or do we have permission to find the whole thing troubling, because it portrays God as capricious at the very least in the way he goes about testing his creation?

One of the most pressing questions of any age – something that is constantly asked by those who have suffered a tragedy – is why did God allow this to happen to me? Why did he not prevent it? What have I done to deserve this suffering when others do not? Why do these things always seem to happen to the best of people?

There is no ready answer – none that I know anyway. All one can do is offer support and a ready ear. It doesn’t even help to say the world is the way it is, and we don’t always understand it. We just don’t have any satisfactory answers.

There’s a song by Bob Dylan about Genesis 22 that makes an connection between fathers sacrificing their children and the countless young sons who were sent to fight and to die in Vietnam by the leaders of the United States. The song illustrates the helplessness we sometimes feel but it’s not a very good comparison because Isaac did not die as God provided an alternative. But grieving parents will quite rightly ask why God did not do so to save their sons and daughters.

There is so much we don’t understand, but still our questioning faith inhabits a space framed by our underlying belief in the goodness of God who does provide and does not desire the suffering of us, his children.

This event, occurring maybe 2,500 years ago, nevertheless speaks to us of redemption. Life coming into what seemed certain death. Faith in the midst of the loss of all hope. God’s goodness breaking into near despair.

Abraham’s faith was not blind faith. He still had to recognise the alternative to what he believed he had to do. He had to lift up his eyes and not only see the ram caught in the thicket, but perceive the provision made by God as a satisfactory substitute for his son.

That same God, who is himself outside of time, was the God who could have provided an alternative to the death of his own son on the cross, but did not do so. This time the sacrificial lamb was not bound. This time there was choice, but Jesus chose not to take it. This time, once for all time, the sacrifice was a self-sacrifice for the atonement of the whole human race.

If we find the near sacrifice of Isaac troubling, how much more should we grieve over the events of Easter, whilst marvelling at the abundant grace of the God who entered our realm, became like us, and consented to die for our redemption.