Monday 30 January 2017

Jesus - Light of the World (transcript of Sermon 29/01/17

Church Army Preachment St James’ Barton-under-Needwood
29th January 2017 – Candlemass & Church Army Preachment 












Candlemass – that takes its name from the time when all the candles that were going to be used in the church for that year would be blessed. This was tied in with the Feast of the Presentation when Mary and Joseph according to the Law of Moses consecrated their first born to the Lord.

This is outlined in Exodus 13 and ratified in Leviticus 12.8 ‘If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.’

Jesus – Light of the World

‘A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’

Now what is your image of this scene – of Mary and Joseph with Jesus going into the Temple?

Have you got a picture of something like a parish church, perhaps like this one, maybe a baptism party type thing.

On the other hand, maybe you go a bit bigger and think of a cathedral.

That is still nowhere near big enough.

The Temple Mound was the size of six football pitches having been greatly extended by Herod.

It rose in some places over twenty stories high and had blocks of stone over a 100 tons and one a massive 400 tons.  The whole complex could accommodate 1 million people.

You have to think of thousands of people coming and going, the animals being brought for sacrifice, the Levites singing and music blaring out, the Rabbis in the porticoes with their disciples debating and discussing as only Jews can – loudly and with passion.

Into this melee, first Simeon and then Anna led by the Holy Spirit declared this one child of these particular parents to be the one who would bring salvation to all and be as a light to the Gentiles.

Nothing indeed short of a miracle.

And men and woman filled with the Holy Spirit have continued to point out Jesus to others – something the Church Army has been doing for the last 135 years since our foundation in 1882.

Wilson Carlile the Founder of Church Army and known affectionately as The Chief was a charismatic clergyman who had been involved with the great Moody and Sankey Rallies alongside William Booth.

Carlile's life as a young and successful businessman and subsequent conversion are fascinating – but a story for another time.

His first curacy was at St Mary Abbots in London where he began outdoor preaching and drew such a crowd as the police asked his vicar to stop him because the crowds were blocking traffic.

In 1882, his energies and evangelistic zeal found a ready outlet as he was invited to draw together some small and failing home mission charities.

His vision was to create a mass movement – he wanted to see men and woman fired up with the Gospel and able to speak out that Gospel in their places of work and at home. 

Outdoor gatherings continued as he declared war on sin and reckless living.  

There are some very exciting tales of his being shot at and beaten up and very regularly had eggs thrown at him and his brave stalwarts standing alongside him.





The Church Army much like the Salvation Army that had started a few years previous took the military discipline seriously.  

However, the Salvation Army expanded this much further as William Booth took the SA out of its Methodist roots.

Carlile was a radical and wanted the Church Army to remain firmly with the Church of England, to remind the Church of its obligations to share faith in words and deeds.

Initially this was for laymen – but shortly after, in 1889, his sister Marie Carlile joined him, and the woman’s work began.

Because there was no place for woman in ministry in the Church of England at this time the woman trained as medical sisters at hospitals – hence their title ‘Sisters’.

Captains, and we have only the one rank, were so called because ideally they had a 100 soldiers under their command who would engage with the Captain in the battle against, sin, the world and the devil.

Unlike the SA, the Church Army never grew to much more than a thousand Officers and although autonomous sister societies sprang up around the world it remained a home based mission.

The CA has shifted and morphed a great deal over those 135 years and in particular since 2006.

In an unprecedented and bold move, the Board appointed a Youth Minister from Christ Church Chorleywood, 31-year-old Mark Russell, to become the Chief Secretary. Mark soon styled himself CEO, just one of the many things he would change. 

Mark cherished the charisma of Carlile but recognized that for the most part Church Army had dwindled down to a core of elite Officers, all doing fantastic work, but with very few troops and with a real need to change our  modus operandi.

One of the most significant changes came in 2012 when after several years of consultation and review the Church Army became an Acknowledged Mission Community. A special Service to mark the occasion was held in September in the Crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral where Wilson Carlile is buried. Carlile died in 1942.

The Church Army now has four pathways –

  • Commissioned Evangelist
  • Covenanted Evangelist
  • Co-workers
  • Companions


During the process of discernment, we also reviewed our policy of taking away someone’s Church Army Commission when they became ordained, the Church Army being principally a Lay organisation. This policy was rescinded and subsequently a number of clergy, men and woman, have received back their Commission and been accepted as members of the Church Army Mission Community.

Today we now have around 600 members of the Mission Community scattered across the UK, including Scotland, Wales and Ireland both North and South.

One of our new ways of operating is in Centres of Mission. Here there will be a Lead Evangelist, who will have alongside them two or three other Officers, possibly an Evangelist-in-Training and maybe engaging with local Companions.

The aim is to bring people to a living faith in Jesus Christ. In line with our DARE strategy, our Centres of Mission have the following vision:

      ·     Doing evangelism
  • Advocating evangelism
  • Resourcing evangelism
  • Enabling evangelism
This vision sees our Centres of Mission collaborating closely with the host dioceses and local churches to offer their expertise and provide training to help other Christians share their faith through words and action.

We now have over twenty of these with an increasing number of dioceses asking to host one in their diocese.

One opened last year in Tuam in the far North West tip of Northern Ireland – in partnership with help from the Roman Catholic diocese who offered the use of Offices in their Diocesan House as base.

We do still have a few residential Centres and one in particular could take up a whole story itself – the Marylebone Project. Do go on line later and check it out – it is amazing. They take woman in danger off the streets and as refugees and offer them emergency shelter. Then they are able to support and walk alongside the woman until they can be housed in a flat of their own. The Marylebone Project offers the only Day Centre dedicated to woman in London. 

Last year, the Marylebone Project settled 86 formerly homeless women into independent living. The project also provided more than 40,000 bed nights to vulnerable women and supported some 300 women a week through its day centre during 2016. 

There is lots more I could tell you – about my own work, or the Amber Project in Cardiff working with young people who self-harm.  


Come and chat to Jane or me and visit our display and take some material with you.  The Church Army is a charity and needs to raise funds to help in its work of going out to the margins of society engaging with the least, the last and the lost. 

Therefore, I thank you for your gift and your prayers.

And in all of this let us not forget where we began – with the infant Jesus being proclaimed as the Light of the World and the bringer of salvation.

Through the work of Church Army thousands upon thousands of men, woman, boys and girls have found that Jesus is their friend, had their dignity restored, their lives renewed and discovered a personal relationship with God that sets them on a new course.  Salvation indeed in its fullest sense – new life now - and a hope for the future.

Church Army Commissioned Evangelist, Covenanted Evangelist, Co-Workers and Companions are servants of the Gospel.

What about you – how are you responding to God’s call, which comes to each and every one of us as Baptized believers, how are you serving the Gospel day by day in all the places you go and in all the things you do and with all the people you meet.

You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work in this particular place and at this particular moment in history.’

Michael Quoist in his book ‘The Christian Response’



Sunday 15 January 2017

Behold - the Lamb of God!

St Bartholomew 15th January 2017


At the danger of making this a three-point sermon, there are in fact three points I would like to draw out from our Gospel reading for this morning.

Verse 29 – ‘The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’

Note if you will that, it says the sin of the world, singular, not sins plural as often misquoted.

So – what exactly might the sin of the world be?

I have been pondering this and looking at commentaries and various video clips. 

The common understanding is that it is rejection and rebellion against God.

However, I am still puzzling over this and in particular when it says, ‘sin of the world.’

Could it be that the world, the created order is somehow caught up in sin?

Is this what lies behind Romans 8.22…?

‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.’

In Mark 16.15 we read, 'Jesus said to them go into all the world and preach the Gospel...'

That is certainly something St Francis took to heart.


Graham Tomlin in his 2014 book ‘The Widening Circle’ - priesthood as a way of blessing the world, argues that the role of the Priest is to model Christ as the Great High Priest. Their call is to mediate and enable creation to give glory back to God. In this task, the priest reminds the people of God of their role in enabling humanities role in enabling creation to give glory back to the Creator.

In short – we need an expansive view of sin and salvation that includes not only the sin of the individual but also the sin of the world.

Maybe the Holy Hill vision of Isaiah chapter 11 is the true destiny of creation.

 To remind you that chapter begins with…

‘A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord.’

It then goes on to say…

The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 


The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah prophesied that, The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

‘Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.

Our Gospel account continues…

 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.  When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”  When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

And here I want to say something about discipleship and being disciples, my second point. 

Matthew closes his Gospel with a command from Jesus to his followers to go and make disciples of all the nations.

He does not tell them to build or establish a church, so people can become ‘churchgoers’ – he doesn’t ask us to encourage people to be good people, he commands us to make disciples.


Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”  “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

This tells us something about how being a disciple was understood in the 1st century – the way of Jesus’ disciples.

Let me put it like this. If you decided to become a disciple of Fr Stuart, you would want to hear his teaching and so you would gather around him to listen to what he taught. However, you would also want to know how he lived, how he ate, drank, and how be conducted himself in day-to-day life. You would want to follow him everywhere you possibly could. In short, you would want to mirror everything Fr Stuart did and become a carbon copy because you believed he offered the best way and model of being in the world. 

As Disciples of Christ we are called to be ‘little Christ’ – to be as Christ in the world, to be the ongoing incarnation – Emmanuel through us. 

Ephesians 4:11-13

Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong. This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God. Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him.

One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.  The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.” Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter

My third point – disciples make disciples, how could it not be so.

If we have found and been captivated by the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and know our sins have been forgiven. If we have found in Him Good News – then surely, as night follows day we would want to share that with others wouldn’t we.

Not in a preachy, constantly Scripture quoting judgmental sort of way… 

‘But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.  1 Peter 3.15

To win some we need to be winsome.

To summarize…

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and invites us to become His devoted disciple making disciples who proclaim in word and deed the Good News that God will bring everything into good order with a redeemed and conjoined heaven and earth.

Therefore to quote Mother Julian, ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.’

Let me close with a short Mediation from His Holiness Pope Benedict XV1

And only where God is seen does life truly begin.
Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.
Each of us is the result of a thought of God.
Each of us is willed,
Each of us is loved,
Each of us is necessary.

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,
By the encounter with Christ.
There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.







Sunday 8 January 2017

The Journey of the Magi - transcript of Sermon Epiphany 2017


Epiphany 2017 St Anne’s, Brown Edge

 
Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-12.

 Reading 'The Journey of the Magi' – T S Elliot
 
 

 

In this classic poem, Elliot paints a colourful picture of the hardships and the journey of the magi.

 
 

It is only in later traditions that we will see them named as kings, which is extremely doubtful. They also gain names, Belshazzar, Melchior and Caspar that denotes three wise men, or kings or magi.

The Scriptures do not say anything of this at all.

However, these ‘traditions’ all add to the drama and in and of themselves are no bad thing. As long as we bear in mind the Scriptural birth narratives of both Matthew and Luke.

This is what Paula Gooder seeks to explore in her excellent book ‘Journey to the Manger.’

The danger of overlaying later traditions was wonderful demonstrated by a drama group in Stafford prison during their Carol Service. (The drama group are all inmates)

They had the traditional crib scene, with Joseph, Mary, and a crib in front of them.  In the sketch, they were being interviewed for a magazine article with a reporter and a photographer. They were lined up ready when the photographer noticed a donkey who was then brought into the scene. Gradually more and more animals joined the picture, then some shepherds, the wise men, and angels. All the while Mary and Joseph are getting pushed further and further back. A big picture of a turkey dinner, presents and a Christmass tree all crowded in and crowded out Mary and Joseph. Then as they were about to take the shot the photographer noticed the crib - no, he said, that’s no good, it is too scruffy and spoils the picture - away with the manger. With Jesus, Mary and Joseph pushed out of the picture the photo was taken – a traditional Christmass.
 
That is the danger; we forget the importance of why Matthew tells us about the magi. He certainly did not have in mind future generations of children dressed as kings and trying to remember which gift they had, gold, frankincense or myrrh.

Our reading from Ephesians get us close to the heart of it all.

Verse 6 …‘that is the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel.’

Then from Isaiah did you hear mention of Sheba and apart from cat food what else did that bring to mind?

 Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

 Of course, it is the account in 1 Kings 10 of the visit to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba…

 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions.  Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind.  

Always remember that Matthew has a Jewish readership in mind and so is constantly referring back to the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition.

Matthew will go on to say that Jesus Messiah is Israel personified.

 He comes to fulfil the calling of Israel who failed to deliver on their God appointed task and calling. One of which was to be a light to the Gentiles.

They will also fail to see in Jesus the Messiah…

 Luke 11.31 ‘The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

Therefore, what can take from all of this?

Several things, beginning with this passage from Galatians 4.4-7…

But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage.

You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

Let me ask you if you know that you are child of God, heir with Christ, filled with the very Spirit of God.

To quote Elliot the magi had a long and arduous journey…

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'

What about your journey to worship Jesus, to acknowledge him as King, and as Lord?

King and Lord not only over Israel but over all the universe and over all the times of men and woman. 


Has your journey been long and arduous, perhaps taking several years.

On the other hand, you may have been like the shepherds and only had a short distance to travel to worship the Christ.

My own journey to faith in Jesus ended 42 years ago when I made a New Year Resolution to become a Christian on the 1st January 1975.

Since then I have been on the journey of faith – learning all the time what it means to proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord and King of my life.

For that was Herod’s problem – that is why he tried to have Jesus killed. There is no room for two kings, he did not want to have his kingship and his dynasty challenged.

However, Jesus will be Lord of all or he will not be Lord at all.

If there are two kings then there will be conflict not peace.

If you are still on a journey to faith you can conclude that this morning and I will gladly pray with you as you kneel and accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

If you are on the journey of faith then can I encourage to remain steadfast and faithful.

Can I encourage you to…

’let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’

Let us pray…

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

 
The work of Christmass begins;


 To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release prisoners,

To rebuild the nation,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart.

 

Amen

 

 

 

 

Friday 6 January 2017

Why are we here?


Why are we here and why when we are being good do we still suffer?
 
 
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
Paul Gauguin 1897 - 1898
 
 
How would you answer this question I was recently asked.
 
I had to respond in written form in under 500 words by
electronic communication.
 
Here is my answer...
 
Your question is one that has been asked since the dawn of time and the subject of songs, plays, films and more books than you could possible read in one lifetime!

Therefore, in answering I can give but a few brief pointers for further consideration.

Let me begin with a word that you used ‘good.’

What is goodness is a fascinating question.   If, as some atheist claim, we are nothing more than a random collection of atoms reacting to various stimuli, then on what basis can you declare anything good, bad or indifferent – things simply are as they are.   

It is worth teasing this word ‘good’ out in the creation story of Genesis, when God created and declared things good. Indeed in Genesis 1.31 we read, ‘God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.'

We also have built into this story the choice of the first human pair to be obedient to God or to seek after knowing good and evil – or maybe better to say good and non-good.  We can assume up until this point and their subsequent knowledge from the ‘fruit of the tree’ they knew neither good nor bad – things simply where what they were.  The choice is made and knowledge once gained, cannot be ‘un-gained.’

The choice that now lies before every human person is between the good and the bad.  However, how do we begin to make choices when those choices have a multiplicity of effects on an ever-increasing scale as more and more people are involved? 
A deep philosophical question with a wide range of ideas put forward over the years.

From a Christian perspective if we go back to the creation account and see there the creation as a natural result of the reciprocal love of God as a Community (we call this the Trinity) – then has God given up on this idea?  Is there a plan B – a fresh start perhaps in a new way?  
The Christian is no – and a very loud no at that.  God is redeeming and restoring his good creation and one day, as we read in Revelation 21 and elsewhere, (see for e.g. Romans 8.18-25) there will come a time when heaven (God’s realm) and earth (humanities realm) will be conjoined and become as one.

Our role, our purpose, why we are here – to be co-partners with God in bringing about the redemption of the cosmos.
The God uniquely revealed in Christ, the God whom we can get to know personally, the God who invites us to partner with him in building God’s Kingdom upon earth by way of presaging the coming new heaven/earth. 
Wow – what a calling!!!
 
‘You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work in this particular place and at this particular moment in history.’
 
Michael Quoist ‘The Christian Response’