Elizabeth, A Lifetime of Duty to God: Long Live the King

Sermon No 91

Elizabeth, a Lifetime of Duty to God: Long Live the King

Trinity 14 – 14^th Sunday after Trinity

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (LLM) on Sunday 18^th September 2022 at the 8 and 10 am Eucharistic Services at St. Paulinus Church, Crayford, Kent. (Based on Luke 16:1-13)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you O LORD (Psalm 19:14)

‘My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in this land’ (Jeremiah 8:18-19)

These are the words from the prophet Jeremiah written around six hundred years before the birth of Christ and are from the alternative Old Testament reading today. How many of us feel that our joy is gone, and that grief is upon us?

By coincidence, the last time I preached here was on the 6th of February this year. It was the day, as you may recall, that we celebrated our Monarch Queen Elizabeth II ascending to the throne some seventy years earlier, and therefore it marked the start of the celebrations of the platinum jubilee.

Well, today I stand here again, not in the sense of an anticipated celebration as I did just a few months ago, but in a sombre and reflective way to somehow try and make sense of what we have all witnessed and felt over the last week or so.

The sense of loss is profound. The Queen, my Queen and yours has been for most of us all we have ever known. On a personal level I recall from my childhood the importance of learning and recalling the Scout promise as I was invested into the Scout Movement,

‘On my honour I promise, to do my best, to do my duty to God and to the Queen.’ These words were embedded in my mind for evermore. Later, I went onto make further declarations to serve the Queen in both the military and then the police service, and so for me, as for you I’m sure, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been pivotal in the formation of my very being.

Last Thursday, the day that the Queen passed away, I was in central London with my wife Samantha for a two o’clock showing of the theatrical performance of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I am sure most of you know this story by C.S. Lewis? Which is just one part of a chronicle of books about adventures in a fantasy world.

For those that are not familiar with this children’s classic, it tells the story about a family of four children, who in 1940 during the second world war are sent away to a large country house as part of the evacuation and discover in one of the bedrooms a large wardrobe, which they all eventually enter, leading them into another world and time called Narnia.

The principal characters in this story are a talking Lion called Aslan, and a wicked witch called Jadis, otherwise more commonly known as the White Witch. To many, the story appears to be an allegorical biblical account of the fight between good and evil with Narnia being the world God created, Aslan being Jesus, and the White Witch portraying his dark adversary.

This analysis is true to a point, but Lewis the author, himself a credible theologian, never intended it to be a pure allegorical work in its true sense, but more of a suppositional work imagining as he stated in one of his letters, ‘what might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia? and He chose  to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours’ (CS Lewis. The Letters of CS Lewis, para six, pg. 283).

The main theme to this story is centred around when the Great Aslan allows himself to be sacrificed to save the life of Edmund, one of the children that had earlier betrayed the trust of the others. After-which, with the help of deep magic, Aslan rises to life once again and leads the decisive battle against the White Witch.

The story naturally ends happily with the children becoming Kings and Queens in Narnia and ruling for many years with peace in the kingdom.

After the show had finished on Thursday afternoon, I instinctively knew that something was not right. An emptiness was felt in my gut as though something was missing! And it wasn’t that I had just seen Aslan killed at the hands of the White Witch!

Turning to the news, it was apparent that all was not well with our real-life Queen, with reporters wearing black ties and news that her family were travelling to Balmoral. So, Samantha and I went to the only place that we both associated with the Queen, Buckingham Palace of course, a place that was synonymous with Her Majesty. The place that we had always joked about with our children as they grew up and would one day go, as long as they were able to correctly use a knife and fork and how we would be viewed with lifelong shame if we couldn’t eat properly in-front of the Queen!

As we stood there quietly in the drizzly rain and the rumours of her passing grew stronger, we looked to the sky and there above us was a rainbow that stretched all the way across in front of the palace. It was then in my heart that I knew she had gone, and it was now just a matter of time before the worst news was formally given.

Yet even in those dark moments, the rainbow, and a subsequent double rainbow gave comfort. It was I am sure, not just a meteorological phenomenon, but was a true sign from God, reminding us that that all would be well, just like in the days of Noah and He was just taking his dutiful English queen back home.

However, that didn’t take away the deep sense of sadness, and grief that we felt, when the flag above the palace was lowered to half-mast, and we knew the Queen was dead.

Turning for a moment to our gospel reading from St. Luke, we heard a parable that Jesus gave, which on the face of it appears to be un-related to our present situation as it tries to justify embezzlement by a manager of his master’s finances.

This is not an accurate understanding of the parable, but Jesus uses this example as a way of trying to explain to his disciples that the sinful are in-fact shrewder in gaining for themselves in this earthly existence than they are in gaining wealth for a life that is to come.

In other words, the disciples, as righteous people, should work just as hard as the sinners, be as shrewd and as wise in their pursuit of heavenly things.

The parable is also clearly about the use of money and how it can corrupt any one of us. (Financial wealth is a strong lure and can tempt even the most faithfully devout). In-fact the final words said by Jesus in this reading is a warning. He states that we cannot serve two masters, or as the NRSV puts it, ‘You cannot serve God and Wealth’ (Luke 16:13 NRSV) 

But bringing it back to our Queen and the royal family, how can we read this and make sense of it, when we look at the obvious wealth of the royal family.

Well, when you look at the life of Queen Elizabeth over her seventy-year reign, I think we can make some sense of it. For although the Queen was clearly very wealthy, she was grounded by her faith and her love of God and the duty that came with her role. Indeed, she has spoken many times over the years about just how she has relied upon her faith to get her through tough decisions and many a world crisis. Indeed, many have said that her Christmas messages over the years have spoken to more people about Jesus than any preacher could do from a pulpit. The Queen was never afraid to speak the name of our Lord, moreover, the name came quite naturally from her lips.

The Queen was not a person that lavished in luxury or gluttony. She came from an age where duty and care towards others were more important than selfish isolation and adorning herself with riches. She actually seemed most at home with her horses or walking her dogs across muddy fields in wellington boots.

Our Queen was a woman who had wealth, but her master was not wealth. Her Master was indeed the Lord Jesus Christ and that to me is clear to see. Our Queen was shrewd and wise throughout her life, and I guess in her quiet times she would often turn to the Word of the Lord for comfort, support, and guidance, for other than her beloved husband Phillip, who did she have to really seek advice? For as the French president described her, she was the Queen!

She of course on occasions made us laugh too, expressing her understanding of comedy as she accompanied 007 on a special MI6 mission in 2012 and made us all go aww as she produced marmalade sandwiches from her handbag with Paddington Bear just earlier this year.

Tomorrow, Queen Elizabeth II will be laid to rest following a state funeral, and I pray that we can all as a church and a community come together to offer each other comfort and support. It is a time of great sadness, much more so than many of us anticipated, so don’t be afraid to shed a tear or two! For we are in this together and we will get through this together.

Our Queen was a Christian with a strong commitment to her people and we should take heart that by her strong faith in Jesus she will be at peace with our Lord and that she would deeply desire us to be together in peace and in love too.

And finally, I would like to make mention of our national anthem, first sung in the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1745 to celebrate the bringing together of the two nations of Scotland and England under one Monarch, following the Jacobite rebellion. The same street by coincidence that I had watched the Narnian adventure on that sad Thursday afternoon when the news of Her Majesty’s death broke.

You will no doubt hear that same anthem many times in the next few days, I am sure, with the new words of ‘Our noble and gracious King’ being sung with gusto. So take heart from it, and when you hear it, perhaps stand up and remember, be proud and allow the words of the anthem to bring us all together as one under our new Monarch and Defender of the Faith, yet remember with fondness and delight that we have been so lucky to have lived in the second Elizabethan age of our own Queen Elizabeth. Rest in peace your Majesty, God Save the King.

Amen 

The Sovereignty of Faith ( A Queens Jubilee)

Sermon No 90

The Sovereignty of Faith (A Queens Jubilee)

4^th Sunday before Lent

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (LLM) on Sunday 6th February 2022 at the 8am and 10am Eucharist Service at St. Paulinus Church, Crayford based on Luke 5:1-11

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you O LORD (Psalm 19:14)

On this day in 1952 Her Majesty Elizabeth 11 ascended to the throne of England following the death of her father King George V1 whilst she was on tour in Kenya andin doing so she became the first Sovereign in over 200 years to accede to the throne while abroad.

And notably, as much as we might recognise today as the date of accession, because of the connection with the death of her own father, and the fact that today is a Sunday, the Queen herself will not celebrate in full until today has passed.

That is why tomorrow and not today will properly commence the full platinum jubilee celebrations of 70 years of service to her country, her subjects and to the commonwealth.

So fear not good people, for those of us that enjoy the sounds of gunfire, we will hear gun salutes for Her Majesty tomorrow to recognise that accession to the throne.

However, what we can do today is to talk about sovereignty and faith. For the Christian faith has been the bedrock of the Queen’s service throughout her 70 year reign, and God willing, will be for many years to come. Indeed, she herself has spoken about the importance of her faith many times and how it has steered her decisions and helped her through the most difficult of times. In-fact, in her very first Christmas message broadcast in 1952 she said ‘Pray for me … that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’ And in her millennium message she reflected on her life following Jesus and said, ‘For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.’

You will all no doubt recall the image that has so often been used over recent weeks to push political, where Her Majesty sat alone in the chapel at Windsor in her own grief at the funeral of her beloved husband the Duke of Edinburgh. A queen setting an example for all to follow in the midst of her own suffering.

As someone who has served and is still serving Her Majesty for now over thirty five years, it is indeed an honour and a privilege to make mention of our Queen today on this the day of her accession. And whether you are a royalist or not, as a Christian we have to recognise the impact and important concept of sovereignty within our own faith.

Now there are some that have suggested a direct lineage of our own royals going right back to biblical times through to King David and beyond, but while the evidence for that might be a little sketchy, at the very least we can be fairly certain of the bloodline going back a thousand years to William the Conqueror.

And this is important because our faith is based on history and those that have gone before us. The Old Testament is in essence a written history of the Jewish race, going back into the Hebrew tribal ancestry and ultimately back to the origins of man and Adam and Eve.

And it is by recognising the sovereignty of God and His earthly Kings and Queens that He bestows power upon, that we can become better Christians through our own faith. For by recognising and understanding that sovereignty, we can begin to understand His desire for us to do His will, to follow and to serve.

Some of you might recall seeing that grainy BBC footage of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, where as well as wearing the Imperial State Crown and robes, Queen Elizabeth was also handed the symbols of royal power? These material earthly articles that symbolise something which is more powerful than anyone of us could ever imagine. The Sovereign’s Orb, a cross above a globe representing Christ’s dominion over the world as the Monarch herself is God’s representative on Earth. The Sovereign’s sceptre, a golden rod, representing the temporal power of the Queen and is associated with good governance. These symbols of sovereignty that our own Queen has taken so seriously for 70 years.

Our readings today gave us also stories of faithfulness, and sovereignty. In our gospel taken from Luke, we heard that after a nights fishing that saw no catches Jesus got into a boat belonging to Simon and asks him to put out his nets into the deep water.

And although Simon would naturally have been despondent after an empty catch the previous night, he eventually put his thoughts and feelings to one side and obeyed Jesus’ request and put out the nets once gain.

And as we all heard the nets were then filled with fish, so much so they were almost at breaking point with the quantity caught. But more than this when they signalled to the others to go and fish, they also came back with an abundant catch too.

This story, although telling us of a miracle that took place, is itself  a distraction to what is really going on here, for although it is obviously at the heart of the text, it is actually about the moment when Simon Peter realises who Jesus actually is. For it was Simon that had firstly doubted that anything would be any different by setting out the nets for a second time, but yet when he saw the abundant catch, he realised his mistake in doubting, and fell to his knees in recognition of the sovereignty of Jesus and was filled with shame of his own sinfulness.

And sometimes it is only when God intervenes directly in our lives that we begin to recognise our own sin. Think back to that story of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and how God intervened in his life striking him down blind. It was then that Saul truly recognised the sovereignty of God.

Saul as we know went onto become St Paul, one of the most prolific evangelists in history and writing much of the New Testament that we have today. And so it was with Simon Peter, who doubted the sovereignty of his Master yet became that great ‘fisher of men’ and on him the Latin Roman Church was built. 

The stories of the bible are a record of the Christian faith stretching back many centuries and we all continue to be part of that story by living out our faith and telling others about Jesus. Which is a good and righteous thing to do. In-fact Jesus commands us to do it. At the end of Matthew’s gospel we hear the ‘Great Commission’ from Jesus, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:16-19)

It is Jesus that holds the key to our faith and that of our own Queen Elizabeth, and just as Jesus is God Himself, so is Queen Elizabeth the ‘Defender of the Faith’.

In the House of Lords at Parliament where I currently work there is a room called the Robing Room, within which there is a throne which tradition dictates the sovereign will sit upon prior to entering into the main chamber of the House of Peers and whilst sat she will have the Imperial State Crown placed upon her head, and it is from here where she sits that our Queen would no doubt gaze upon the paintings around her which depict the chivalric values of hospitality, generosity, mercy, religion and courtesy as represented through scenes from the legend of King Arthur.

But most importantly at the opposite end of the room above the fireplace there is a painting (by William Dyce) that would be impossible to ignore and I guess Her Majesty has herself lifted her eyes and meditated upon as she waits quietly to continue her journey through to the main chamber. For the painting depicts Jesus on His heavenly throne, reminding even the nation’s sovereign that there is always one above that even she must obey and be held accountable for her actions.

And so just as our Sovereign Queen Elizabeth bows down before her God, in our gospel reading also we see too that our simple fisherman Simon Peter also learned an invaluable lesson that day in faith and obedience through his recognition that Jesus was Lord.

The final section of this gospel reading today is particularly personal to me, for back in the days when I felt God calling me to some kind of ministry I really didn’t have a clue what to do. All I knew really about the word vocation was that if you offered yourself to ministry then you became a vicar. Now of course I know now that it not the case, but then I just didn’t know what I was being called to be?

However, what I found during that time of searching was that same text always seemed to be present, or read in my presence as I went about my daily life. You know the sort of thing that is sometimes described as when ‘God speaks’ to people. You might hear a phrase on TV, or read something in a book or listen to a programme on the radio that seems to be speaking directly to you. And that is what it was like for me as I wandered aimlessly in my own early Christian steps, it was those words of Jesus, saying directly, ‘Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matthew 4:19) These words seemed to resonate with me and set me on a course of discernment to ministry, eventually leading me be commissioned an evangelist.

Today is a time to remember, to remember the service of our Queen and all that she has done in service to her subjects over the last seventy years, but also it is a time to remember and learn from her own strength of faith in God and seek for ourselves that recognition that God is simply God and Sovereign of all and holds the world and all creation in His hands and maybe consider offering yourself in further service to Him? Because I can be fairly certain that God has a specific role for each and everyone of you, and He is just waiting for you simply to ask Him what it might be!

God Save the Queen

Amen

 

 

 

Smile and be Joyful for the Lord is at Hand

Sermon No 89

Smile and be Joyful for the Lord is at Hand

Advent 3

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Licensed Lay Minister) on Sunday 12th December 2021at the 8am and 10am Eucharist Service at St. Paulinus Church, Crayford.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you O LORD (Psalm 19:14)

Well it’s good to be back with you on this third Sunday in Advent sometimes known as Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday and I’ll talk more about that in due course.

Today, I stand before you as a Licensed Lay Minister and you can tell that because I’m wearing a blue scarf which indicates that I am licenced to exercise the office of what is known as a Reader, for canon law in the Church of England states that Readers are still the only official lay ministry within the church.

But way back in 2006 I was actually commissioned as an Evangelist, for until recently before the revamping of the lay ministries, we had Evangelists, Pastoral Assistants and Readers, all equally important, but separate and distinct in their roles.

And in many ways I still like to be considered an Evangelist, for it means ‘a bringer of good news’ and not least because it is a biblically designated ministry. In St Pauls letter to the Ephesians we read that the Holy Spirit gave ‘some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists,’ (Ephesians 4:11-12)

So to be an evangelist is a worthy and God-given ministry and I still feel proud to be a herald of the good news of Jesus Christ, which is by coincidence a good thing to be on this particular Sunday in the church liturgical calendar, as we have an opportunity to look at the ministry of John the Baptist, who was both a prophet and evangelist.

At the beginning of the service we saw Rev. Amanda lighting the third advent candle, which is as you may see a rose colour. And it is this colour for a reason, for we are at the mid-way point in advent and it is during this period of preparation that we can just take a pause and look forward to what is to come.

The gloominess in some ways of the earlier period in advent when Christmas can still seem a long way off, now becomes within reach, and the pinky rose colour sheds a bit of light and joy in the darkness of the purple as we await the birth of our Lord and Saviour, just as the people of Judea were expecting so many years ago. 

Now there can be no doubt that throughout that period when John lived, the Jewish nation were going through a torrid time caused by the Roman occupation, and for the common Jewish man and woman they yearned for a Saviour to end their suffering and unhappiness. For in the preceding 400 years God had remained in the most part silent, allowing in particular the elite Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem to become accustomed to nice living at the expense of their own people.

They had developed lavish life-styles and wore stylish robes and vestments. They ate good food and drank fine wines, and in the midst of all their rituals they had forgotten God’s desire for his people to return and worship Him alone. And this was the world that John the Baptist entered.

So who was John and what exactly was his mission?

Well he was the son of Elizabeth the cousin of Mary and he was destined to play a most important role, for he was to become an itinerant preacher and the immediate forerunner to Jesus. He was to direct the people not towards himself, but to the One who was yet to come. A sign post to God if you like, or a herald of good news and good things to come. He is known today as John the Baptist, John the Forerunner to Christianity and in some Baptist traditions, he is known as John the Immerser, and in the religion of Islam he is also revered as the Prophet Yahya.

Now throughout history royalty have always had heralds to announce their arrival and you can see it right up to our present time with our own Queen Elizabeth who has trumpeters to play fanfares on her arrival at most official engagements.

Indeed, a couple of years ago I had the pleasure myself of escorting around parliament the late King Goodwill Zwelithini of the actual real life Zulu tribe, and for those that remember the film of the same name starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine, he was the actual great grandson of the famous King Cetshwayo kaMpande from that period. And as a real life King he himself had a designated tribesman to sing praises ahead of his own arrival. Which was a little disconcerting for me when I wasn’t expecting it, as I really wasn’t sure whether the man who suddenly appeared off the street was the designated genuine herald of the King’s retinue, or just some madman singing what sounded like strange African gibberish! Thankfully it was the former. The tour went well, apart from one embarrassing moment as one of his body guards asked me whether he could strike up a deal and purchase the throne in the House of Lords! I of course replied respectively that the chair was priceless and not for sale!

So yes, John was the herald for Jesus, the true King of kings, but when John came onto the scene he wasn’t what the people had anticipated, for John did not come with trumpets or wearing fine clothing, he was a recluse, and a bit of a hermit, living in the desert eating a diet of locusts and honey. He would be what you might envisage a homeless person to look like, dishevelled, unkempt and probably a little smelly, rather than someone we might perceive to be a royal messenger!

However, John was someone that everyone found intriguing and captivating. He gathered large crowds of both rich and poor, the educated and the not so educated. And they saw in him someone quite special and deeply spiritual, so much so that many came before him to be baptised with water from the river Jordan.

Now our reading captures some of that ministry and initially it is not pleasant for the listeners. For John commences his message by calling the crowd a ‘brood of vipers’, in other words a bunch of snakes and serpents, and he even threatens that they will be cut down and thrown into the fire of hell. John was of course alluding to the Garden of Eden and to those so called elite religious leaders acting in such a wicked and venomous manner, that they might as well be in league with Satan himself.

John used language that I guess would not generally compel a crowd to stay for more! I mean how would you feel if I started shouting at you this morning and accused you of all being fit for nothing and having a guaranteed place in hell? Well of course I expect quite soon I wouldn’t have much of a congregation left for sure, and Fr Paul would be on the phone quite sharply to the Bishop requesting the withdrawal of my licence

And so I guess because of the language used by John, he is often a forgotten character at Christmas time. I mean you try finding a Christmas card with John the Baptist on it! Merry Christmas you brood of vipers it might say! Let me know if you find one? No, the images of a baby wrapped in swaddling, donkeys and gifts are much more palatable for the masses!

But of course John was primarily directing his words towards those Jewish leaders who had become too religious and blind to their faith and God. There was an inordinate number of the Jewish hierarchy believing that their Jewish bloodline alone was enough for them to have automatic communication to God.

But the interesting thing is when John is questioned about what they should do, he doesn’t continue down the route of a hell fire sermon, he responds with a message of love and compassion. He says that if they have two coats then they should give one of them away, he says that they must share their food with those that have none.

The message of John was not really what the crowd were expecting, for it was a message that had insight to what was happening in and around Judea. It was a message of love, and one could even say it might be the message of Christmas itself.

And so it was this balance between the harshness of truth and the insight of love that caused the crowd to wonder, just whether John might actually be the Messiah himself. However, John knew those  thoughts were on their hearts and answered them directly, stating that he was not, and informed them that the one they seek was yet to come and he was not even fit to untie the laces of his sandals.

Now John was the greatest prophet and we know that because Jesus later says so. In Luke chapter 7 we read, ‘I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John’ (Luke7:28). This statement by Jesus should be one to really remember, for it confirms that John should be held in the most highest regard, more so perhaps than any other person mentioned in the bible.

And if we look at the words of John, we can all learn some lessons. He was a man that wasn’t afraid to point out wrong doing, but at the same time he had that balance between the harshness of truth and the gentleness of how to make things right.

Today, we in the west seem to have lost the ability to strike that balance in wealth and charity that to which John alluded. Pope Francis once said that ‘holiness is but charity lived to the full’ And John had that same message, if you have two coats then give one to someone without. Surely that should be the lasting message of Christmas?

It is often suggested to me that as a Christian I should be a socialist, and in many ways I agree, for the concepts of that political affiliation are commendable, for in principle it should reduce the disparity in wealth, but unfortunately as we see so many times, human nature is by its very character is greedy and selfish, and so for that very reason, socialism invariably appears to fail when left to run its own course.

Indeed the deaf and blind author Helen Keller once remarked that ‘we are never truly happy unless we try to brighten the lives of others’. And, so as the people of the Judean desert came to John in search of joy and a saviour, maybe we should also search for that joy through giving, not only of material goods to others less fortunate, but also the giving of ourselves through charitable works.

I remarked at the beginning of this sermon that today is also known as Rejoice Sunday, so this Sunday we could start to be thankful and joyous too because in giving we will find joy.

Think of the word ‘JOY’ as an acronym.

J being for Jesus, O for others and Y for yourself. Smile as you go about your daily life, for we really do have a lot to smile about, contrary to what you might see on EastEnders!! And when we do, you will find it is very difficult for others not to smile back.

Just try it when you are walking around Bluewater over the next two weeks as you scuttle amongst the frantic crowds trapped in the world of consumerism and stress and just see what reaction you get…. I think you will be surprised!

And as an Evangelist who cries out in the wilderness of Crayford I say prepare yourselves for the coming of the Lord, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ and do it with joy in your heart and with a smile on your face.

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s be Spiritual Gold Medallists.

Sermon No 88

9^th Sunday after Trinity

Let’s be Spiritual Gold Medallists.

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Licensed Lay Minister) on Sunday 1^st August 2021 at the 8 & 10 am Eucharist Services at St. Paulinus Church, Crayford, Kent. (Based on John 6:24-35)

May I speak, and may you hear in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well, good morning and welcome to St Paulinus Church and its great to be back with you once again on this the ninth Sunday after Trinity, and Happy Yorkshire Day.

We are doing ok in the Olympics at the moment, aren’t we? I believe we have won more medals at these games than any other so far, with the current tally standing at 28 putting us at sixth in the world on the medal table, and hopefully we’ll get a few more before the events have concluded. Infact, I think I’m right in saying most of those medals have come from Yorkshire athletes!!

Now, when I started thinking about what I would talk about this morning, fitness seemed to be a theme that I could work with because of the Olympics obviously, but then when I started pondering about what it actually takes to be a world class champion, I soon concluded that it was not just about physical fitness. There are many people that are fit and very capable in the world, but it takes someone quite special to attain an Olympic medal, be it gold, silver, or bronze.

There is not just the physical side to a sport, but just as importantly there is the mental side. And it is that ability to harness an inner strength and utilise it to take them over the line quicker, or lift more weight, or indeed jump higher or further than the other, that makes an Olympic champion.

Now mental health is fast becoming an aspect to our well being that we are recognising as something just as important as our physical health, and quite rightly too. With suicide rates and mental illness rising at an astronomical rate throughout the world, it is good that we recognise this important area in our human make-up.

Over recent weeks we have seen the tennis player Emma Raducanu quit Wimbledon due to anxiety issues, last week we saw the gymnast Simone Biles withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics citing mental health as the reason and just this Friday, the English cricketer Ben Stokes has decided to take an indefinite break from all cricket in order to prioritise his mental health.

So clearly there is a problem in today’s society, and it is not just a specific type of person who is vulnerable, when these great sports personalities are also suffering too. Infact the pressures on the human mind are perhaps more so than at any other period in history and I don’t profess to be able to provide the answer, or reason why that might be the case now more than at any other time.

However, there is another aspect of our health that sometimes gets forgotten which supports the other two, and that is our spiritual health.

For to keep this human body functioning, and functioning well as it was designed, it is vital that we recognise our spiritual health and keep it in check, feed it and exercise it.

Now I must premise these thoughts that I am not discrediting mental health illness as being less important, or that by being a ‘spiritual’ person that it will in some way prevent mental illness, because that clearly is not the case.

There are many spiritual people that suffer from all sorts of mental illness throughout their lives, and no one is exempt from that, and neither do I know the details behind those celebrity names I have mentioned, or what, if any faith they might have, but what I do believe is that if we are spiritually well, then we have a much better chance of keeping ourselves physically and mentally well too.

So, what relevance does this have to a message for you today?

Well, firstly, as Christians we need to recognise that we have a soul, and it is through our soul that God is at work. Now I don’t know where you would find your soul, as the last time I looked at any anatomical picture of the human body I cannot recall it annotating where that might be! We certainly hear phrases such as, ‘with all my heart and soul’ and ‘my soul yearns for peace’ and other such sayings, but none has yet been able to pinpoint where the soul is actually located. It might be in our head or it might be in our little finger or it may be within our whole body?

So, let us just accept that there is a soul or spirit within us somewhere, and we have a spiritual aspect that God finds important and wants us to be conscious of existing too. I think it’s location will just have to remain one of those holy mysteries I’m afraid!

But how do we feed our soul, or spiritual self? Our reading today from John’s gospel picks up on this theme of ‘feeding’ and ‘spiritual ness’. So, let’s look at that passage and see where it takes us.

However, before I just do that, it would be useful to cast our minds back to last week’s reading which really precedes the events in today’s passage. So last week you would have heard about the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with bread and fish I believe?

And so as well as clearly performing a miracle of some magnitude, this was all about the physical feeding of many people who had come to listen to Jesus because they needed real physical food, so as to maintain their bodies with fuel, and thus they were just plain and simply hungry.

In today’s world, with convenience food shops on almost every street corner, it is difficult for most of us to remember the last time we might have felt truly hungry. I know the nearest I come to true hunger these days is when I come back from a night out in London and see Barnehurst kebabs when I get off the train and suddenly, I feel as though I haven’t eaten for a month and order a large doner, chips and of course a diet coke.  But for other slightly older members of our congregation, you might have experienced hunger during the war years as children when food was rationed.

Either way Jesus, recognises physical hunger, after-all he was human too and would have felt those same hunger pains that we all feel when our energy levels are depleted.

But this passage today is not about physical hunger in that sense, even though the crowds that searched and found Jesus wanted further miracles of bread to be produced. Infact, the whole passage refers to bread and feeding in general, but Jesus is wanting the crowds to look deeper than just physical food, he wants them to be spiritually fed with Himself.

This passage is a really interesting one to spend some time with and to meditate on, so I would strongly encourage you just to ponder on it when you get home, take your pew sheets with you and read it again, and if you will excuse the pun, ‘digest’ its content, because what you will be reading is so important to us in what being a Christian is all about.

You will hear in the passage the crowds asking questions about what ‘works’ they should do to please God and how Jesus managed to get to Capernaum without the crowds seeing how they got there, but quite frustratingly for the people, Jesus doesn’t answer them in the way they want. He doesn’t perform further miraculous signs like the feeding He had already done with the loaves and fish. Instead, Jesus guides them away from their questions because they have missed the point yet again…like we all do!

The crowds, even though having previously witnessed his power, have not understood who he really is. They do not comprehend that no actual works as such are necessary to enter the Kingdom of God, and they have not understood that it was God not Moses who had provided the bread of heaven in the desert for their forefathers.

How many of us do not fully know Jesus today and what we must do to gain eternal life? How many of us do not have our spiritual life in balance and in good health? How many of us are spiritually blind, and obtuse to the point that we have nothing more than a selfish curiosity?

I would guess that there will be some here today that will be like those crowds that were asking Jesus the questions. There may be some here today that have perhaps been coming to church for many years, but have not truly heard the message of the bible and taken Jesus into their hearts and souls.

Today is the time that you can rectify that situation if you are saying to yourself now, ‘that is me’, because in this passage Jesus is informing all the world who He truly is and what it takes to be spiritually well, content and to have eternal life.

Jesus takes the image of the physical bread with which the crowds are familiar for they can, firstly relate it to being fed with the bread from the previous day. Secondly, it would be familiar to them through the stories of their ancestors, in particular through the book of Moses and thirdly by using bread as a metaphorical image of Himself Jesus confirms beyond all doubt of His divinity and that He is God incarnate, God in human form.

Jesus says that the work of God that they seek is not by physical work or great deeds at all, but it is through believing ‘in Him whom He sent’(v29). In other words, believe that God has sent Himself as Jesus the Son.

Jesus says, ‘For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’ (v33)

Jesus said in that first of the great I AM statements, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst’ (v35) which enforces that story about the woman at the well as told earlier in John’s gospel at chapter four where the Samaritan woman is told by Jesus that, ‘whoever drinks of the water’ that he provides ‘shall never thirst’ (John 4:14)

Friends, Jesus is the answer to our spiritual well-being and health. And once accepted, there will be no need to seek anything further. Yes, of course we might gain physical worldly wealth and achieve great things through life, but if we have Jesus in our hearts then we will know deep down that we do not need them to be content, and that searching for happiness elsewhere is pointless and will ultimately achieve nothing at all. The sad accounts of those rich and famous that die so young seeking happiness and highs should be evidence enough of that if it were needed?

So, there we have it, in simple language we don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, (sorry Fr Paul) we don’t have to do good charitable deeds to get to heaven and living through the pandemic should have confirmed that we were still Christians even though we might not have attended Church as regularly as we might previously have done.

All that is required is for us to believe in Him, believe in Jesus. For He is the bread of life, and once you believe in him, I can guarantee you will almost certainly start attending church more regularly, which is good news Fr Paul (unless of course you are called to a solitary life of monastic prayer of course!), and you will by definition want to then go on and do good deeds, because Jesus will be residing in your soul, in your spirit and in your body. But remember they are not essential to being a follower of Christ. The only criteria that is requisite is to believe in Jesus.

So, brothers and sisters, go from this place and believe, for Jesus is the bread of life and if we put ourselves in Him and He in us then together we can achieve great things, even maybe becoming Olympic champions ourselves! Our health and well-being are important to God, so seek not the material things of life and as it says in Hebrews, keep ‘fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Hebrews 12:2)

Amen

What’s in a Number

Sermon No 87

3^rd Sunday of Lent

What’s in a Number.

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Licensed Lay Minister) on Sunday 7^th March 2021 at the 8 & 10 am Eucharist Services at St. Paulinus Church, Crayford, Kent. (Based on John 2: 13-22, 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25, Psalm 19, and Exodus 20:1-17)

May I speak, and may you hear in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine who shall remain nameless, suggested that my sermons were too long and the maximum amount of time that any preacher should preach should be no longer than 7 minutes he said! How dare he say that I thought!! Especially as it was coming from someone that was not even a professing Christian!! Actually, I didn’t really mind as it was partly said in jest, and I am conscious myself that sometimes I think I can lose the message I want to get across by being just too long. After-all, sermons are not just about encouraging the already converted, but to hopefully reach those that have not yet heard the Good News!

Infact, there is a current trend, particularly in the Church of England to shorten the length of the sermon, in the belief that congregations no longer have the attention span that they once did, but this was not always the case and other church denominations preach regularly for over an hour, if not more. So, in comparison 7 minutes does not sound awfully long at all.

Now of course, I am sure that you good folk are quite able to maintain your attention for 10-15 minutes, (which is how long I generally talk), but for the sake of experimentation I have aimed this sermon to end at 7 minutes… I hope anyway. And I have set my stopwatch to check to see if I can do this.

So, what am I going to talk about for 7 minutes? Well as I thought about my message for you, I was drawn to the aspect of numbers because of what my friend had said, and then that got me thinking about the significance of the number 7 in biblical terms and other numbers too like the number 3 which we heard in our gospel reading? So, it’s about numbers today 7 and 3.

Now the two main things that stood out for me from the gospel reading that I have just read is firstly, the anger of Jesus as he sees His house of prayer being turned into a marketplace and secondly, the issue over the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple, and how long it would take?

But before I go into that, I want to give examples of those numbers 3 and 7 and to remind ourselves of some facts around just those two numbers that we might want to consider?

So, the number 7? Or Seveeern as Len Goodman would say. Some of these I know, will be obvious to you studious folk, but still worth I feel reminding ourselves about.

So here we go: –

There were 7 days in the creation of the earth, 6 creating, and 1 day resting, so the 7th day is an important number right from the beginning of time, for even God rested on the 7^th day, implying that we should do likewise, or perhaps depending on circumstances, find at least 1 day out of 7 that we can rest and recuperate in preparation for the next week.

For Jews there are 7 days in their feast of Passover, which connects with our own Lent and Easter period, that being the time when Jesus became the Passover lamb of course, offering Himself as a sacrifice for the whole world. [‘Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ are the words which will be said shortly during the eucharist part of this service.]

There are 7 days in our own week following the Gregorian calendar.

In psychology 7 is associated with the maximum amount of numbers that people can generally retain in their memory at any one time.

Astrologically, 7 is also the number associated with the planet Neptune and of its deep spirituality.

And according to a recent survey 7 is the world’s most favourite number. For those of a certain age, they might well recall the great Barry Sheene, the one who ‘splashed it on all over’ always riding his motorcycle on the track with 7 as his lucky number. As a young motorcyclist myself I always liked the idea of how Barry Sheene used to drill a hole in his helmet just on the chin guard so he could still smoke a cigarette whilst still wearing his helmet! I thought that was pretty cool!

Snow white of course had her 7 dwarfs.

In freemason lodges the number 7 is considered the perfect number.

There are 7 ancient wonders of the world.

There are 7 colours in a rainbow, which is the sign of God’s covenant following the flood where Noah built his ark.

And there are 7 laws associated with Noah from that flood according to Jewish law, that you are required to follow, if you would want to be a righteous gentile.

In the religion of Buddhism, 7 is the number of steps walked by Buddha at his birth and considered not only to be the number of ascent, but as the centre of humanity with its connection to the creator.

In the book of Kings, we read that when the prophet Elisha brings a boy back to life, his return to the living is recorded by sneezing, and that was of course, 7 times. (2 Kings 4:35)

And finally, in the book of Revelation we can read of the 7 churches, 7 angels, 7 seals and 7 trumpets.

So, a few things to consider in terms of the gravity of number 7, but what about the number 3?

Well, if the number 7 was significant I think the number 3 is equally important.

The great philosopher Pythagoras, who came up with the well-known theory we all learnt at school, considered the number 3 also to be the perfect number in terms of harmony, wisdom and understanding.

The number 3 is thought to be the number of time, namely past, present, and future, but also birth, life, and death, as well as a beginning, middle and ending.

There were 3 Wise men from the east of course at the birth of Jesus, bringing 3 gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

The number 3 is the number of eternal life, it is the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and appears in the bible no less than 467 times.

There were 3 Patriarchs before the flood, Abel, Enoch, and Noah.

And there were 3 Patriarchs after the flood, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And only 3 people in the bible had permission to ask God questions, they were Solomon, Ahaz, and Jesus.

God called Samuel 3 times into His service as a prophet (1 Samuel 3:8)

Jesus prayed 3 times before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and He was put to death at the ‘3^rd hour’ of the day (Mark 15:25) after Pontius Pilate had asked the crowd 3 times ‘What evil has he done’ (Luke 23:22).

And by 3pm Jesus was dead.

At the transfiguration on Mount Tabor there were Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, observed by just 3 disciples, Peter, James and John.

Jesus repeated the phrase ‘feed my sheep’ 3 times to Peter in John’s gospel (John 21:15-17).

And there are many many more I could mention.

So where am I going with this? Well, nowhere really other than hopefully getting across that numbers are important and in particular those contained within the bible.

Our gospel reading today told us of Jesus’ anger as He entered the Temple and found it more like a ‘den of thieves’ (Matthew 21:13) than a place of prayer.

We heard that phrase, ‘zeal, for your house will consume me’ (John 2:17). Jesus is passionate about what He believes because He loves His people so much. This phrase was of course a reference to Psalm 69 where the psalmist draws our attention to the inward spiritual action not quite measuring up to the outward appearances of devotion.

Our Old Testament reading from Exodus asks us to focus on the importance of keeping things holy and in particular the 10 commandments, and it is this zealousness of discipline that gets tested during Lent as we give things up, or conversely take things up. For as the going gets tough, we naturally find ourselves becoming weaker with our minds wandering from the good, strong, and faithful intentions we had just a few weeks previous.

So, keep the faith for the remaining weeks of Lent so that on the 4^th of April together we can celebrate the risen Lord.

And so, what about that destruction of the temple and re-building it in 3 days? Jesus was of course referring to the fact that although He would be crucified and killed, He would rise again. Jesus said, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up’ (John 2:13-22) Jesus was the true most Holy Temple and it was not just about outwardly displaying faith, but it is about truly living that life from within and showing faith to others by our actions that really count. It was this that Jesus wanted from His followers, to be faithful from our very core, and not just something superficial.  

And so, it is most appropriate that on this 3^rd Sunday of Lent we talk of that fact that Jesus did rise again in 3 days just as he predicted He would do, for without His resurrection we would have no faith at all.

So where are we at in terms of time? Unfortunately, it would seem we haven’t quite made that 7 minutes that I wanted! Which comes as no surprise to me really, as 7 is the perfect number and I for one am not perfect and no one can achieve perfection.

So, don’t feel too downhearted if you too don’t quite make your targets. Just keep focused, for there is only one person who is perfect and that is Jesus. He is both 7 and He is 3, which by my maths makes Him a 10.

Amen

Passion in Perspective (Darkness)

Hello and welcome to this, the first of a series of six relatively short videos which form part of our Lenten course here at St Paulinus Church in Crayford. The course itself is titled ‘Passion in Perspective’ and aims to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic within the context of the passion story, predominately using the gospel of John as the main influence in those thoughts. If you are new to the church or do not know me then I am Roger Laing and am a Licenced Lay Minister in the diocese of Rochester and have been worshipping at St Paulinus Church in Crayford for over twenty years.

For many people, the past year has been exceedingly difficult for a lot of people. Difficult in terms of work, isolation from our normal routines and the grief that we have endured when faced with perhaps a death from a loved one or friends we might know.

And for many, this difficulty is expressed and experienced through a sense of darkness and gloom that at times can completely overshadow our very importance in this world, and for some that are prone to depression and mental ill health refer to this darkness as ‘black dog’ and can be so debilitating that in cases it has pushed people to end their own lives.

So, darkness in life generally, and particularly over the last year is something to take really seriously.  And it is to this subject of darkness that I want to reflect for the next few minutes.

The oldest biblical reference to the crucifixion in terms of darkness is recorded in Marks gospel written around the year 70 CE. Where at v33 we read “Now, when the sixth hour had come there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’”

The extent of the darkness that befell the land is not fully known, but it is believed to have extended beyond that of just the immediate area of the crucifixion as the Greek word word ‘ge’ meaning land can also mean the entire earth, but I think its fair to say that the darkness would have covered an extensive area in ancient Palestine. And this was certainly the view of early church fathers like Tertullian and Origen.

I think when we read such a passage and place ourselves in the context of the time, it must have been a very strange and frightening sight. I don’t know how many of you have experienced those strange eclipses when the sun is hidden by the moon during normal daylight hours, but it really can be quite terrifying, not quite knowing whether the full light of the sun will return, even though we are told it will by our eminent scientists and astrologists.

And I guess it would have been exactly the same for those that were present at our Lords crucifixion, but also for those going about their normal everyday business, unaware of what might have been going on in Jerusalem. Yet we are told that this darkness on this occasion lasted from midday until three pm. A whole three hours of uncertainty of what exactly was going on in the stars!

But what was this darkness, where did it come from, was the darkness from God or was it representative of someone more sinister?

A couple of weeks ago I preached on the deity of Jesus and how He was there right at the beginning of creation with God the Father, and if you want to catch up on that, you will find it on my blog site or  You Tube channel, and so I think we have to think here, also in the terms of that sovereignty, if we are to understand the darkness that was present in that passion. For God is sovereign of all and that includes Satan, the devil or however you want to refer to him? So, on that premise, it can be concluded that this darkness is not of Satan but was caused by God Himself. Now this might seem at odds to what or how we might perceive God to be, for we are used to seeing Him in terms of Light. ‘Jesus is the Light of the world’ as we so often hear. However, because God is sovereign, He is sovereign over everything, both light and darkness.

There are of course examples of God at work in both light and dark, as you would expect if I were claiming that to be true, and for the most part these biblical examples of darkness would be when God is exercising judgement. In the book of Amos we read, ‘Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it’ (Amos 5:20), or maybe look to the prophet Zephaniah who says, ‘That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness’ (Zephaniah 2:15). Infact, our old testament reading also from the prophet Joel which was read on Ash Wednesday said, ‘for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near- a day of darkness and gloom! A day of clouds and thick darkness.’ (Joel 2: 2)

And I use quotes like these not to cause unnecessary fear, although to fear God is good, but as a warning for those that are yet to place their faith in the Lord Jesus, for there is no getting around it good people, there will be a time of judgement with distress on scale that we just cannot imagine. However, running parallel with these scenes of anger, judgement and devastation is a message of real hope. For the passion of Christ is a message of hope through love, and it is hope through an unimaginable love that God has for His people to return to Him, that we can all hold onto.

For if we think about what is happening during this crucifixion it is that Jesus is being sacrificed. It is God Himself that hangs from the cross. Jesus is taking the full weight of the Father’s wrath and being sacrificed for the world’s sin, both then in the day of Jesus, for the past sins of those that have gone before and for the future sins of the world of which we here can all be included.

This picture of sacrifice is quite extraordinary when we think about it. It is a love that is inconceivable in human terms for a Father to lay down His Son for others. but imagine and believe we must.

On a personal level, when I became a Christian I had a conversion that caused me to experience both dark and light, which I suppose not surprisingly has influenced my own theology of how I see and interpret the scriptures, in particular the concept of good, evil, heaven and hell,  but my understanding may be different to others who are no less valid and true, for God moves people to convey different messages to different people in different ways and we are all subject to cognitive bias through our experiences of life. But it is to my conversion that I now turn in order to give you some idea of what I encountered.

In 1995, I was living alone in Woodford Bridge after the break-up of a relationship and having to come to terms with the fact of leaving my young daughter without a fulltime dad (or so I thought at the time) And so I began a period of living a life of being single and all that entails, and looking back retrospectively I probably did so as a sort of coping mechanism to the situation that I unfortunately found myself to be in.

However, as the months went by this way of living provided no satisfaction or real comfort. I became conscious that something was missing in my life, but I didn’t know quite what? Around that same time, I was introduced to the bible through a Jehovah’s Witness of all people. Now prior to this period I had never before considered the bible to be anything other than a famous book written an awfully long time ago, but in order to confirm my atheistic view I began to read it.

After only a matter of a few weeks, as the questions of what life was all about grew stronger and my anxiety for the future grew, as I laid in bed one night asking myself that same question, I did what I had never done before. I prayed.

Now what I said was not something elaborate or complicated it was simply asking God, if there was one at all, to show himself to me, to let me know he was real. Now nothing happened immediately from that request, which didn’t surprise me really, after-all I was an atheist, I didn’t believe in God!

But a little while later I experienced something quite extraordinary. I felt an overwhelming sense of calmness.  I saw what I can only describe as a kind of light show in-front of me, not any human depiction but simply shapes of light moving and swirling around in front of me. And this light experience was complimented by a feeling of goodness and love that I had never felt before. I felt straightaway that contrary to what I initially thought would have happened – nothing. I had in-fact been answered by God and he had revealed himself to me.

Life was all good, God had answered my prayer and that was great, I felt comfort that I had never felt before, but unexpectantly, as the manifestation of light, warmth and comfort faded, it was replaced by an increasing sense of doom and darkness in complete opposite to what I had just previously experienced and witnessed. It was a darkness that I felt was trying to consume me. It was like I had been made witness to a supernatural world of good and of evil. I cannot emphasise enough here, how real this felt, and it caused a fear that I had never felt before, it then became a mental battle that I had with the darkness in order to fight it, but I was conscious I couldn’t fight it alone in my own strength and I called once again in prayer for God to come to my aid in order to dispel the darkness that was before me.

True to his word, that all that call on his name he will answer, the darkness faded and that fear of what it contained went and the light returned, and I became calm and comforted once more.

I hasten to add I was awake through-out this experience, it was not a dream.

Following this dramatic event, I drifted off to sleep and woke in the morning knowing that I had experienced both darkness and light and chosen good over evil. I was now a believer in the God of the bible.

What followed is another chapter, but I went onto be baptised, confirmed and here we are some twenty-six years later talking with you today.

But that experience all those years ago changed my life and changed me to who I am today, to that there is no doubt. Yes, I am still a sinner, and get things wrong, just as we all are, and I need to repent for the wrongs I continuingly do. But the difference now, is that I know that God forgives me because my faith is in Him.

There is I know darkness in the world, and we are witness to evil that seems beyond our comprehension. We may sometimes question how God allows such suffering and evil, but remember, God is sovereign, He has this in hand, and He is the God of both light and dark.

As we move through our time of Lent towards Easter, we might experience hard times of darkness both physically and spiritually, but I encourage you to hold onto the true Light of God through His Son Jesus Christ for He will set free all that call on His name. Maybe, take time in Lent reading something from the bible, perhaps read through the various accounts of the last days of Jesus’ life in the gospels or follow the subsequent videos that will follow this one?

Jesus said in John’s gospel, ‘Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you, he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light.’ (John 12:35-36)

Whatever journey of reflection and repentance you make through the coming weeks I pray that we can all be rescued from the chaos of our sin and be made whole once again.

Amen

Back to the Beginning of Time

Sermon No 86

Back to the Beginning of Time.

2nd Sunday before Lent

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Parish Evangelist) on Sunday 7^th February 2021 preached live at St Paulinus Church, Crayford (based on John 1:1-14, Proverbs 8:1,22-31, Psalm 104:26-end and Colossians 1:15-20)

Well good morning. And a very warm welcome to you wherever you may be in the world on this the 2^nd Sunday before Lent. For those that do not know me I am Roger Laing, and I am a Licensed Lay Minister at St Paulinus Church in Crayford and it’s great to be with you today?

Alleluia, alleluia. The Lord be with you. Hear the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. Glory to You O Lord.

The Word Became Flesh

“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (NRSV)

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

May I speak and may you hear in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

“In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. [All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”] (John 1:1-5 NKJV)

These words from the beginning of John’s gospel really are so profound that on them linger creation itself. They are so great that within them they contain truths that are utterly beyond our understanding. Yet, they are the words of a man that knew Jesus personally, and we as mere mortals must try and understand them in our own personal lives and what they might mean in the context of the wider world.

So where do we begin? Well, a good place to start is at the beginning. Now today is not Trinity Sunday I know, but the topic of conversation today is in essence about the deity of Christ which in many ways is not unlike the question over the trinity, for it asks us to consider something that is so unnatural to our daily living that it becomes the supernatural.

It will not surprise you either, to know that the questions over the nature and deity of Jesus have been spoken, debated, and written about for over two thousand years, by much greater minds than my own, but hopefully my level of theological understanding as a laymen will in some way not be too dissimilar to your own and hopefully cause you to connect with, and enhance the way in which you might interpret these most profound words for yourself.

Now I don’t know about you but when I first came to faith in God, I did not understand the idea of God being three separate and distinct persons and to be perfectly truthful it is still hard to grasp the full meaning of that concept when you actually think about it in any detail. And perhaps it’s even harder to know for certain the nature of Jesus Himself.

But brothers and sisters, if you have ever felt like this, we are in good company, for many that have gone before us, have also struggled with the concept of the nature of God and His Son. In-fact the matter wasn’t really officially resolved even in the Church until the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE.

However, Johns gospel deems this matter of our Lord’s identity so important that he places it right at the beginning of his gospel. He doesn’t mess around with birth or genealogy narratives like the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, perhaps implying that he feels it is so critical, that if we don’t grasp that identity then there is little point in going any further at all?

So really my intention is to emphasise that understanding to you this morning if you were in any doubt? For if we do conclude anything different, then our faith is based potentially on Jesus just being a good moral teacher and nothing more, in which case we all might as well go home and have an early lunch!

Now there are lots of books on this matter of the identity and character of Jesus and where in history he might be placed and there are some denominations today outside the established church, claiming to be Christians, that have quite different interpretations on what we might acknowledge to be the truth, but really when you examine the text of which we have just heard in our gospel reading, for me there can, in the end, be little doubt for this was written by one of the closest disciples to Jesus Himself.  John would have heard and seen first-hand who exactly His Lord was. For John was the youngest of the disciples and outlived the remaining apostles. He was the only one to actually die of natural causes. John along with James and Peter were the witnesses at the raising of the daughter of Jairus and were present too at the transfiguration. There is also some evidence to suggest that John was the favourite disciple too! So, John is perfectly placed to convey the message of the identity of Jesus.

If we were to read the gospel in its original translation it would have been in Greek of course because that was the language which was used for literary work in those days, and it is through that translation that we can begin to understand how the nature of Christ became apparent to the wider world. For in that text, we would find the Greek word known as ‘Logos’ which literally translates to ‘Word’. and in this context that word ‘Logos’ is deemed to be a title of Jesus and is key to this understanding of Jesus being there right at the beginning of time.

Now logos means different things in different disciplines, but in this setting of John’s gospel and seen through the eyes of the Christian Logos, it identifies that through which all things are made as divine, and further defines Jesus as the incarnate Logos. The Word made man it can be said. For if time began before creation in the physical universe, as we know it, then it was there that the Word was. Of course, we cannot know where or when time began, but in an eternal sense the ‘Logos’ was there. And so, taking that a stage further if God is eternal then so must the Word be eternal and with God.

Simple really!! Are you still with me? Nobody said being a Christian would be easy, let alone why we call ourselves Christian!

There are of course many great theologians that have come to this conclusion through their depth of knowledge in the Greek language. However, I must confess I am not a Greek scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know that languages cannot always be interpreted in the fullest meaning that it was originally written and this seems to be the case here as it has been translated from Greek to the English language, but in summary it can be said that the original Greek word of ‘Logos’ had its meaning as a person and not just as an attribute of God. Therefore, we can quite rightly determine that Jesus is separate, and distinct from the Father, yet was with God at the beginning of time.

And so, when we examine the accompanying readings of today, we get a sense of Jesus being there right at the beginning in the creation of the universe. In Proverbs we heard of the wisdom of Christ being present in creation, and we can see how the words of the proverb run parallel with the creation accounts of Genesis. And what I noticed from this particular proverb as I prepared this sermon was at v27 where it says, ‘When he drew a circle on the face of the deep’ (Proverbs 8:27) this infact by definition alludes to the spherical nature of the formation of the earth. So, at a time that no-one understood the earth to be anything but flat, here was the bible telling us that the earth was infact curved!  I find these little facts fascinating and they are scattered throughout the bible, the prophetic nature of God… brilliant!

In our Psalm we again reference a time of creation through animals and creatures of the deep v24-26, “In wisdom You have made them all…There the ships sail about; there is that Leviathan, which You have made to play there”. (Psalm 104:26-end.)

If nobody has heard of that creature called the Leviathan before then you may be interested to know that there are some that say that it could possibly have been some kind of ancient dinosaur, just a thought for you to ponder, and so when people say, ‘What about the dinosaurs, there’s no mention of those in the bible?’ You can now reply with certainty and say, ‘There is evidence to suggest there are’. And you can read about this great mysterious creature in both the books of Job and Isaiah too.

Our New Testament reading from Colossians allows us also to trust the gospel of John as truth, for St Paul in his letter states, “He (that is Jesus) is the image of the invisible God…for by all things were created….all things were created through Him and for Him… And He is before all things and in all things consist” (Colossians 1:15-20).

Brothers and sisters there is no doubt, you can be assured that Jesus Christ the One on whom our faith is founded is God Himself and in Him we can trust.

So now that we have established (hopefully) that Jesus is the Word, and the Word was and is God then where do we go from here? For these ultimately are just written words, albeit inspired, and we claim to follow a living faith.

Well, in the context of our current times we can be assured that Jesus will be walking alongside us and through to the other side, however long that takes. And as the head of our church, He will be asking us all to look at ways we can move from this place. For me the church will be different to what it has been as we move forward, and this should be apparent here at St. Paulinus as you see the way we are conducting services for example, but there is nothing to fear from that change, it will simply be re-creating itself, just as it has done throughout its long history.

There will be things we keep from our lockdown experience and somethings we won’t. There will be new things that will come along to enhance our worship and delivery such as enabling wi-fi into the church allowing us to reach further, deeper, and wider into the community and beyond. You will note I am recording this sermon to upload to our own You Tube channel.

Jesus was, as we have heard present in the creation of everything, and He will continue to be present in any re-creation of His Church. For God is what we call omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time), omniscient (all knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful)

We may consider this period of the last year to be a period of darkness with much suffering, which is true, but take heart, for Jesus is the Light of the World and He forever glows. Sometimes He might appear to us only dimly, but He is always glowing. Think back to our gospel reading we heard in v9, “That was the true Light which gives light to everyman coming into the world” (John 1:9)  

The aspects of light and darkness have always played a huge part in the stories of people throughout the ages and within each story there is a different message, and each message will mean something different to all that we meet. Nothing can be more powerful than an individual account of one’s conversion to faith. With that in mind might I encourage you to consider taking part in the current course Fr Paul is running around the four gospels and our Lent course called ‘Passion in Perspective’ during which I will be giving a personal angle on the subject of darkness which hopefully some of you may find of interest?

Also, don’t forget that today is national Yorkshire pudding day so I wholeheartedly commend you to go from this place and celebrate this day with the finest dining that one can indulge and to think of it as ‘manna’ from heaven!

Partake in that manna and be beacons of light knowing that what you have within you has been present since time itself began. Remember and digest these words from John.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2)

Finally, I want to end today, not with that bible quote as great as that might be, but simply to pay tribute to a certain Sir Captain Tom Moore, who in my opinion  managed to harness the concept of looking forward with positivity to better times. He certainly was a remarkable man I am sure you would agree, and his life is testament of why none of us should give up, because only God knows just what is around the corner.

Sir Tom achieved more in the last year of his life than he could ever have dreamt and so could we. For Jesus stands alongside us all.

So, today I would like to encourage you all as we continue our battle against COVID-19 and in the words of Captain Sir Tom,  say to you, “Tomorrow will be a good day”.

Amen.

Wise Men and Women look to the Stars

Sermon No 85

Wise Men and Women look to the Stars.

4th Sunday of Advent

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Licensed Lay Minister LLM) at 8 & 10am services on Sunday 20th December 2020 at St Paulinus Church, Crayford (Based on Luke 1: 26-38. Other readings are 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Romans 16:25-end)

Well good morning. And a very warm welcome to you wherever you may be in the world on this the 4th Sunday of Advent. For those that do not know me I am Roger Laing, and I am a Licensed Lay Minister at St Paulinus Church in Crayford and it’s great to be with you today?

Alleluia, alleluia. The Lord be with you. Hear the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. Glory to You O Lord.

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

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

In some ways it doesn’t seem very long since we were celebrating Christmas 2019 and I suppose that is the curse of getting older, when time seems to no longer endlessly linger but speeds up at a rate that gets quite worrying!

On the other hand though, Christmas 2019 seems an absolute age away, especially for those that have suffered the loneliness of isolation, for those that have lost jobs or perhaps those that have lost loved ones, and it is to those that hopefully the Christian church and other faith groups have been able to offer a least a little comfort in these desperate times, or at least that has certainly been the intention of Fr Paul and his team here at St Paulinus.

Unfortunately, restrictions have inevitably had some significant impact on the way we have been able to operate, but I can only pray that things return to some sense of order in the New Year.

I must confess this year I have been the least prepared to celebrate Christmas that I have ever been. I really do not know where the time has gone. And so I have decided I’m just blaming it all on COVID-19 and that’s that. And if you feel the same then you just blame Covid too…… that is alright, and I think God will be alright with it aswell…. I am sure!

It is always a joy to speak of Christmas at any time but especially on this the 4^th Sunday of Advent as we make those final preparations for the big day. And today that theme of preparation continues by focusing our minds on Mary the holy mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and asks us to consider such things like the virgin birth?

Now the doctrine that Mary was the sole natural parent of Jesus is based primarily around this gospel reading from Luke which we heard today, but also from the gospel of Matthew. And it is in that gospel that the author underlines the virginity of Mary by references to the Old Testament, specifically the book of the prophet Isaiah using the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures recorded around the years 247-285 CE rather than the Hebrew (Masoretic) text from much earlier in the 7^th to the 10^th century CE. And in chapter 1 verse 23 Matthew quotes directly from Isaiah 7 saying, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” which is translated “God with us.” A reassuring name I think you will agree

Now for the modern scientific world the miracle of a virgin birth might seem a little far-fetched, but you have to remember that to the world of 2000 years ago they had no understanding of the conception process as we now know it to be, with many believing that it was the woman only that held all the ingredients to life within herself, and the male was there purely to initiate that process. Mind you some might say that is still the case today!

So, it is no surprise that this conception and birth narrative came about, especially when taken in conjunction with the prophecies of esteemed men of wisdom such as Isaiah and the cultural setting of the time

Now whether you believe the virgin birth account as written in the bible is in some way inconsequential to the salvation of the soul, for it is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that are the all-important aspects, in my humble opinion.

However, I personally happen to believe in the miracle of the virgin birth, which may come as no surprise as I tend to lean more towards an evangelical bible believing theology, but I highlight other possible views so as to not frighten people away from the bible texts. For there are many parts of the bible that are difficult to explain and even harder to perhaps convince others about, but what I have found over the years, and I speak only from personal experience, is that to understand the truth is a journey in itself, and what at the beginning of a journey might seem impossible to digest, in time, as the Holy Spirit begins to take hold, then become absolutely believable and in the end you wonder why you ever might have doubted in the first place!

And so, if you take the time to study other faith groups you will find you will not be alone in believing in such things as a virgin birth for example, for the religion of Islam affirms such a doctrine too, and holds the bible as both sacred and holy. And whilst Islam might differ slightly on the nature of Jesus, He is nevertheless mentioned in the Quran in 93 separate verses, with various titles attached to him including the ‘son of Mary.’

So historically speaking I would argue quite strongly that there is little doubt of the parentage of Jesus, but what I have always found amazing and continue to be amazed by is the prophetic nature that surrounds and holds our faith together and in particular this story of the birth of our Lord. For when you delve into the biblical text, you begin to realise that God has prepared the way for the entrance of His Son, into this world over many centuries.

It wasn’t a last-minute.com thing like my Christmas preparations, where I find myself generally on Christmas Eve wandering aimlessly around Bluewater getting more and more stressed out at the commercialism and pressure of wondering what to buy my wife!!

No, God prepared for this event a long time ago and perhaps even from the beginning of time itself. And you will find many prophetic statements written centuries before around this miraculous event from the actual birth place of Bethlehem, to riding on a donkey, or wise men from the east following stars, and so on… infact there are over 40 prophecies about the birth of Jesus alone, but countless others too that relate to His life, mission and death.

Last week for example we heard in the OT reading from Isaiah which actually was to be fulfilled by Jesus Himself in the Synagogue at the beginning of His ministry when He read aloud these words. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me; He has sent Me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners’ (Isaiah 61:1) Jesus concluded his reading by closing the scrolls and saying, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’ (Luke 4:21) and so I urge you to seek out these prophecies for yourself to discover the truth. For the truth will set you free as the saying goes! (John 8:31-32)

But what about that account of the wise men following the star to Bethlehem to find this King of kings which you will find in Matthews gospel (Matthew 2:5), well this was indeed another wonder that is worthy of pondering, for it was such a massive event that three of the most eminent minds of the time left their home country to follow a star in the belief and hope that they would witness the coming of a Messiah.

And I think that is something we all need right now… hope… hope for the future of the world and an end to this pandemic and all the misery and destruction it has left in its wake.

And so in this last Sunday before Christmas I want to give you some hope by encouraging you in looking to the stars too, and letting you be the wise men and women of 2020, expectant in the hope of the coming of Jesus.

So I have had a word with the Big Fella and managed to arrange for tomorrow the 21^st December, weather permitting, something quite similar to what the wise men saw 2000 years ago as they made their way to Bethlehem from what was probably modern day Iraq.

And the event tomorrow is becoming known as the ‘Great Conjunction’ or the ‘Christmas Star’ and it will be caused by the alignment of the planets of Saturn and Jupiter in their closest proximity for over 400 years, which was actually when Shakespeare was publishing his own works, just to give you some sense of time perspective, and it should give the appearance of a single star.

Now this event should peak around 6.37pm and so if you look to the half crescent moon, this conjunction should be apparent and may give the appearance of a smiley face, just to cheer you up!

Now I am not an expert on astronomical events and activities throughout the ages, but one theory is that at or around the time of Jesus’ birth a similar planetary conjunction took place between the planets of Saturn and Venus, so maybe what we will see tomorrow hopefully is something very similar to what those men saw so long ago. Now this won’t happen again for another 60 years and so I think I am pretty certain that none of us here will see anything of the like again in our lifetime.

Now of course I am not suggesting that planetary alignments alone imply the birth of Jesus, but taken together with the other prophetic predictions, they provide us with what is a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence that gives some serious credibility to the biblical account.  And might, as we say in the trade, conclude that the event is accurate ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’.

To some there will inevitably be theories about what this astronomical display tomorrow might mean for us in this generation in relation to pandemics and even perhaps in considering the second coming of our Lord. But it is not my role or intention to speculate on that today, but I use this as a simple reminder that the biblical story has not yet fully played out and there is still the final act to go at a time and hour that only God alone knows, so I would encourage you not to waste your time thinking or listening to those that think they know, for the bible is quite clear on that, in Matthew 24 we read,“ But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36 NIV)

Advent is a time of anticipation and I think it is good to take time out in our last few busy days to reflect and meditate on the coming of Jesus, both through the birth of Mary and in the time to come.

So, I for one will certainly be looking up to the stars tomorrow evening and wondering with thoughts of hope for the future. And I believe this simple act will reset that vision of hope for those that join me.

Our Old Testament reading from today taken from second Samuel links that same vision of hope that Jesus offers too. In summary, the passage that we heard earlier gives part of a story of how God reveals to His servant David that he will not be the one to build His temple, but that privilege and honour would be given to his son Solomon. But the story goes deeper than that because while it may be true in the immediacy that David’s descendants would be granted a temporal kingdom in the land, it was the birth of Jesus through his own lineage centuries later that would be the real fulfilment of the covenant with David. And it was that that would give David a ‘spiritual joy’ equal to and bigger than any golden temple or worldly kingdom.    

Infact, we heard this in our gospel today, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33-34)

So as we go through these dark times remember that God has got this thing in hand. He has a plan and sometimes we have to accept that what we are building is something that we may never see, and not to be embittered by the life we are given, as the theologian Fredrick Meyer once said, ‘If you cannot have what you hoped, do not despair and allow the energies of your life to run to waste: but arise and gird yourself to help others achieve. If you may not build, you may gather materials for him that shall. If you may not go down the mine, you can hold the ropes’ (Meyer)

So, brothers and sisters as I end this morning, hold onto that hope of Christmas and be the hands and voices of Jesus in these dark times. The hope is in the things to come and not necessarily in the here and now. Enjoy your star gazing tomorrow and meditate on our Lord’s birth and what it might mean to you over the coming year.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone and hopefully I will see some of you at midnight mass on Christmas Eve. That’s if you are not otherwise engaged manoeuvring around chimneys and looking after reindeer!!  

Amen  

Living with Hope through Love

Sermon No 84

Living with Hope through Love.

2^nd Sunday before Advent

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Parish Evangelist) on Sunday 15^th November 2020 via video, pre-recorded due to Corona Virus Isolation situation (Based on Matthew 25: 14-30. Other readings are Zephaniah 1:7, 12-end, Psalm 90:1-8, 12, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

Well good morning. And a very warm welcome to you wherever you may be in the world on this the 2^nd Sunday before Advent. For those that do not know me I am Roger Laing, and I am a Licensed Lay Minister at St Paulinus Church in Crayford and its great to be with you wherever you are today?

It seems along time since the last sermon I gave on the 16^th August, and like an eternity since we were all in church sat side by side with no apparent fear of what was to come.

Since that time in August, I too have fallen victim, along with my wife Samantha to that dreadful virus. I’m glad to say that we are both recovering well, but still suffering with some of the more lasting symptoms, one of which for me is memory loss, so if I forget what I am talking about today you now know why and my excuse has already been given!

But good to be back with you even if is through the ether of the internet.

Alleluia, alleluia. The Lord be with you. Hear the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. Glory to You O Lord.

The Parable of the Bags of Gold

14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest.

28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This is the Word of the Lord; Praise be to Christ.

Along with the other readings for today which you will find detailed in the introductory text on my blog site you may be forgiven for thinking that God is speaking about our impending doom as we hear such phrases like places of ‘darkness’, ‘weeping’, and ‘gnashing of teeth’ and many cite text like these and others  when wanting to criticise our faith and ridicule the God we claim as one of love.

In some ways those that seek to portray God in that way and what He teaches as something to fear are absolutely right, for fear in the Lord is something that I too would encourage and teach, but this has to be balanced with reasoning behind that truth. So, when we have a set of readings like today which are laid down in Common Worship, it would be easy for me to go down an eschatological route, that is an end time and judgement theological view, especially in preaching terms out of a self-interest as much as anything and I have to contain myself sometimes in this area for fear of concentrating too much on end times and not the here and now. I suppose I’m a bit like those early Christians in that sense, expectant of what is to come? And a little blind to what is right in front of me!

Our reading today is about both the present and the future and uses one to enhance the other in influencing the way we should live or lives now.

I don’t know about you but when I read a passage such as what we have just heard I have great difficulty in fully understanding it, especially on a first reading, and sometimes I don’t understand on a second or third reading either, and have to refer to more eminent scholars to actually have any clue at all about what it actually means!!

And when I have these moments of misunderstanding it does two things, firstly it frustrates me greatly because I think why am I being so thick that I cannot grasp the meaning behind the story, but secondly once I have reflected, researched and finally understand, it reminds me that I am just simply human and sometimes it takes a bit longer in time for the Spirit to work its magic in teaching me. So, do not be discouraged when you might read the bible and wonder what the hell something is actually saying, simply take a deep breath and ask God to help. This is especially true of the Old Testament with historical accounts that link to future events.

In some ways this reading today was one of those, when I first read it, I thought it was really a guide to trusting in God through faith by sensible living and using the analogy of investing money wisely. And while that may be true in one sense, it is much much deeper than that.

I have titled this talk ‘Living with Hope through Love’ and it is these two words ‘Hope’ and ‘Love’ that to me are actually at the heart of this passage, or at least I believe that those are the words that I believe God wants me to preach to you on today.

Maybe that is because we have all had a tough nine months or so, and we all need some hope and encouragement for the future.

For some, hope and good news came in the ‘likely outcome’ of the elections in America with Joe Biden looking more and more like the 46^th President.

This wasn’t good news for me though, as it seems likely that I will be losing a £5.00 bet for Donald J Trump remaining in office!! But on the plus side I do believe Joe Biden will give some much-needed stability and calmness, in what has been quite a turbulent and interesting four years in office!

Or it could be that hope is felt through a covid vaccine, with all countries working hard to find that remedy to this global pandemic. And thankfully one seems to be on the horizon now?

In whatever form it takes, hope is a good thing to have and keeps us going through times of difficulty and danger.

For some though, hope is non-existent, and hopelessness becomes a reality when all apparent aspirations for the future seem lost and no solution for life’s troubles can be seen. Infact 800,000 deaths a year are attributed to suicide and sadly this year I expect the number will rise dramatically.   

As Christians, our hope of course comes in and through Jesus Christ, and it is He that we should turn to for hope in all things. Or at least I have faith that we can?

You see, even as Christians we do not have an exemption certificate to the condition of hopelessness and so among those death rates I have just mentioned you will unfortunately find the names of those who also professed to have a faith in God.

So what does He say in our gospel reading about this thing of hope, well before I answer that I want you to ponder on a quote from the American quaker and poet John Greenleaf who in his poem Maud  Muller he said this, “For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been” (Repeat)

The poem tells a story of a young maid who meets a wealthy judge, and both become smitten with each other, but during their relatively short time together neither never actually express their feelings for one another and move on in their lives. Years later, inevitably both naturally reflect on what might have been and are remorseful that they never acted on their feelings for one another.

“For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been”

As you may also know by now, I am also a fan of Doctor Who and following that same theme there is an episode during the David Tennant era called ‘Left Turn’ where the narrative of the plot focuses on an alternative dystopian history simply by his companion turning the wrong way in her car at the junction. This in turn by choosing that direction then caused the death of the Doctor who was subsequently then not able to go on to save the contemporary earth from the inevitable alien invasions that followed.

The point of these examples is that they highlight the opportunities we may or may not have, determined solely by the choices we make in life.

The ‘Good News’ is that God has a plan for all of us which involves doing His work in growing His Kingdom, but we have to make that right choice for ourselves, the one God wants us to make. Failing to do so will inevitably lead to a different outcome, and not always for the better!

In the parable that we heard by Jesus we hear men receiving various amounts of money from their master and what they do with that gift while he is away. They are given the different amounts of talents, as they are referred, as it alludes to the different gifts that God has given to us to use in our own lives. And depending on whether we seize those gifts and act on the opportunities presented to us in life, it will ultimately determine the relationship we have with God at the end of our lives, whenever that may be?

And there are two things to consider here, firstly again highlighted in the gospel by the timing of the master and his return and secondly on the timing of our own demise. For both, we neither know the time or the date when either of those things will happen.

In terms of the return of Jesus we know that because the bible tells us, and there are a whole host of different texts that say so.

In Matthew 25 we read, “Therefore keep watch, because we do not know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13), 2 Peter says “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away” (2 Peter 3:10) and Revelation 16 says, “Behold I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake.” (Revelation 16:5)

And then there is of course our own mortality, which we thankfully cannot determine for ourselves. And I must say, while I wouldn’t describe myself as reaching ‘deaths door’ from Covid, because of the unknown facts surrounding the virus, the possibility of  death being sooner than anticipated becomes all the more real, as it would for anyone I suppose for a whole host of life changing illnesses and disease.

But my point is this, we do not know when life is about to change for us and we don’t know when Jesus will return for His second and final time, so we cannot afford to waste time, we cannot afford to miss those opportunities in life that God is offering. We must strike a balance on serving God in the here and now but at the same time not neglecting to look with anticipation at Jesus’ return.

And the opportunities will be different for all of us, we are not all called to be priests or leaders in a church, we are not all asked to be singers in a choir or servers around an altar. And neither should you view this just from a church perspective either, this teaching is applicable to our home and secular work lives too. So you may be called to be a doctor, nurse or a cleaner, wife or husband, but whatever we are called to be, we are called to be something from an opportunity offered by God and to do it with something called love.

Infact if you read Romans chapter 12 you will find it says, “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have all the same function” (Romans 12:4 NRSV) or perhaps 1 Corinthians where it says, “There are diversities of gifts  but the same Spirit, There are differences  of ministries but the same Lord.” (1 Corinthians 12:4 NRSV)

And when we seize these opportunities, carry them out with love, for love is at the heart of everything we do being a Christian.

Jesus himself commanded us to love. In John 13 we read, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (Jon 13:34-35 NIV)

This week as well as hearing good news like the possibility of a vaccine there was inevitably sad news too in the untimely death of a great and spiritual man, the former Chief Rabbi Johnathan Sachs. And as I listened to his daughter Gila speaking at her father’s funeral her words cemented my own previous view on this man, she said this,

“I had a moment of clarity about what my dad had given me: that single belief that nothing was inevitable, that no problem was too big for people to try and solve. That things could always be changed, and people could always change – them: that belief shaped everything else.”

Gila concluded her own eulogy by saying when her father had passed, she, “felt his overwhelming love, because that is what he gave us above all. He loved us so much”  

Love indeed is a powerful thing and can change lives, not just other people’s, but by doing things through love it will change our own.

Love for others can do incredible things, think of Captain Sir Tom Moore and the amazing amount of money raised to help others, but more than that, think of how his actions inspired others? The sight of those two little boys with crippling diseases walking on crutches and frames because Captain Tom had inspired them.

I am convinced that by doing things through and by love with Jesus in our hearts is really all what the Christian faith is about.

So, it maybe that when you leave here today you too can do something through love, don’t just read the bible, it’s just words in a book! And I don’t say that irreverently, but simply to highlight my point. Do something with love. Make that call to a relative or friend and see how they are? Make a card and pop it in the post for someone that you have been meaning to contact. Or even pop it in the letter box of a neighbour telling them that you are praying for them. Whatever you think God is calling you to do, He will give you the skill and ability to do it, no matter how insurmountable it might first appear.

And when you do things in love you might be surprised what happens, I heard this week of the example of a six year old boy called Blake Durham who in a drive through takeaway said to his mum that he wanted to do something kind and to spread happiness, so he paid for a man’s meal order in the car behind. This in turn set of a chain reaction and sent a lot of people home happy. Love for another is a powerful thing.

So, as we approach that season of hope and expectation in Advent don’t miss those opportunities given to us by God, have hope and belief in Jesus’ return and do everything you do with His love.

I’ll end with the words of St Paul from his letter to the Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13NIV)

Amen

A Church for a New Generation

Sermon No 83

A Church for a New Generation

10th Sunday after Trinity

A sermon preached by Roger Laing (Licensed Lay Minister) on Sunday 16^th August 2020 via post recorded video, due to Corona Virus Isolation situation and preached live at St Paulinus Church, Crayford, Kent. (Based on Matthew 15:10-20 and 21-28)

Well good morning. And welcome to our Sunday gospel reading and reflection on this 10^th Sunday after Trinity. For those that do not know me I am Roger Laing and am a Licensed Lay Minister at St Paulinus Church in Crayford

The Lord be with you. Our gospel reading is taken from St Matthew (15:10-20 and 21-28)

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.

11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[a] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.

17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?

18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

This is the gospel of the Lord, praise to you O’Christ.

Well good morning. We are certainly in strange times. Who would have thought a year ago coming to church would resemble something like a high dependency unit in a hospital! But here we are.

And being in this situation I find it a little hard to actually visualise how we will ever return to what we had before. So, I suppose that is where my starting point is this morning. How will we be a church for what I will call the ‘covid generation’ and beyond?

In some ways the changes we have made in order to adapt and comply with government regulation have forced us the church to take a long hard look at what we are and how we are going to function.

In-fact many of you will be reassessing your own employment situation, or perhaps the company you work for may be looking at changes that are going to have significant impact on your lives and your families.

The gospel reading this morning links nicely with my thoughts as it centres around what is actually important and necessary in order to follow the will of God and to remind ourselves who the church is actually for?

The first part of the gospel reading is a passage that follows a discussion Jewish food laws, what in essence could and could not be eaten as a practising Jew in the first century. As it appeared that what Jesus was teaching his followers contradicted the traditions of what the Jewish establishment were instructing their own to do.

In-fact when I was looking at this I thought to myself that Jesus might actually have Yorkshire roots, as there is an old saying from Yorkshire that says, ‘Tha’s gorra eat a peck o’muck afore tha dies’ which basically translates to don’t worry about cleaning your food too much as there will always be dirt remaining on it- and we need a bit of dirt! (only a joke!!)

This of course was just another thing that Jesus had said or done that veered away from what had been followed for hundreds of years. The Jews in this case on one hand argued that the Law of Moses forbid them from eating certain foods, and on the other Jesus argued that what was eaten was unimportant to God.

But as usual the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Jewish hierarchy, had missed the point, they had not fully understood the message of Jesus and were more concerned about their traditions and maintaining an affluent life style than doing what God actually wanted.

In-fact by the first century, the Jewish traditions had multiplied so much that it became impossible for any man to comply with them all, including the Jewish leaders, so much so that the rabbis dealt with the problem by developing what was known as a ‘law of intention’ which basically said that if you had the intention to be pure all day then that was good enough and waivered the need to participate in all the necessary ceremonies.

In summary I suppose we could say that at the time of Jesus’ arrival the Jewish leadership were so lost in tradition that it actually became a greater offense to transgress the teaching of a learned rabbi than to transgress the teaching of scripture itself!

And so, with that thought in mind I just wonder that in reflecting on pre-coved time, we as a Church in the 21^st century might just have got ourselves once again into a similar position, especially in churches such as our own which tend to hold tradition and ritual in quite a high regard? And I say that not to initiate anger amongst our hardened Anglo-Catholics, but simply to encourage us all to think about where we have been, where we are today and where we might be in five or more years’ time.

After-all, if we cast our minds back to pre-reformation and look at what led to the seismic eruptions in the Church both here and in Europe, it was caused by a combination of things but corruption was at the very heart of the Catholic Church at that time, and was being shielded and protected by its traditions. It was a church that had forgotten what being ‘Christian’ was all about. It was a church that was only looking after itself rather than doing what God had intended!

Now I’m not saying that we here at St Paulinus are corrupt and have lost all direction because clearly we haven’t, well I hope so at least? But what Covid has done, has opened up is the opportunity to reflect on what we are really about?

Because when you look at traditions in the church context, you soon realise that they do not require any real integrity of the heart and so it becomes easy for people to honour God with simply just their lips, when our hearts might actually be far away from God. Paying lip-service if you like?

So, I put the question directly to you, have we at St Paulinus got into a habit of worshipping God from afar by way of tradition and ritual rather than following scripture and doing what Jesus actually asked us to do?

Have we subconsciously become pharisaical i.e. do we practice an external form of Christianity without any true regard for the Spirit?

There is of course nothing actually wrong with tradition and ritual if it enhances ones faith, and contrary to the impression I might be giving I generally like and encourage it. Tradition can be a very good thing, it makes people feel comfortable, and offers structure to something that otherwise might be a little chaotic. And so if tradition causes a transformation within ourselves then it can only be a good thing, but if there is no change then we need to perhaps look at whether there is any point in carrying on that particular practice.

Here at St Paulinus during the pandemic we have tried to strike the right balance, in providing a spiritual service to the community of Crayford, and a lot of us have had to learn on the ‘hoof’ so to speak, grappling with technology, zoom meetings and risk assessing etc.

One thing I am sure of however is that community is at the heart of being a Christian, whether that is through a physical contact or through an on-line service, community has to be central to what we do.

I know Fr Paul and Rev Amanda are keen on this ethos of community and I too would be in full support of creating a closer and more supportive church through new initiatives that enhance this theology

But underpinning any such changes, is understanding what the church is and who it is actually for, which leads me to the second part of the gospel reading? Which considers this very matter. It tells the story of a Canaanite woman who initially because of her non-Jewish heritage appears not to be worthy of help by Jesus not least by the attitude of the disciples who were less than welcoming, ‘send her away they said’!

And it is this attitude from the disciples that clearly highlights the divisions between Jews and other cultures, and even Jesus Himself appears to endorse that same attitude by stating to the woman seeking help “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” A view that on face value doesn’t appear to be very ‘Christian’

But you see Jesus wasn’t a Christian he was a Jew and His mission on earth was primarily to minister to His own race.

But mixed up in this story is actually his endorsement to his followers that it is faith that is the most important thing and not who or what race we might be

So from these readings we can be confident that the Church should be for everyone by creating a loving and welcoming community, but we need to be vigilant of the ever present dangers of tradition and stagnation as so vividly displayed by the Jews of the first century.

And actually I don’t know whether the Jewish race has changed that much from those days, I recall the stark difference I witnessed on my pilgrimage to Israel in 2011when I visited a rehabilitation hospital in the Palestinian area.

For outside the main entrance to the hospital was a statue with the inscription ‘Every patient is first and foremost a human being’ an ethos that might not be so easily communicated in other areas of Israel!  It was a powerful statement that should be at the heart of any hospital, but sometimes the divide and hatred between different cultures causes us to lose our humanity.

But the Jews are not alone in this, if you look around at London for example you will see pockets of communities that have little interaction with those outside their own. And I think this is one of the sad things about the multi-cultural experiment is when you see different cultures living in this isolation with no relationship with their neighbouring cultures, which in turn creates a ‘them’ and ‘us’ attitude where crime and violence breeds. And of course WW2 saw the dehumanisation of the Jews by Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.

Encouraging community should be a vital part of our mission as a church both nationally and at a local level here at St Paulinus, and we can all play our part by reaching out our hand, elbow or foot to people that culturally appear different to ourselves. For it is only by understanding others that we will find that underneath that exterior that we are all the same. Made in the ‘image of God’ as we read in the Bible.

St Paul said, ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek’   And we all have a responsibility to break down those things that divide us and positively seek to change the perception of others.

The recent protests of BLM have highlighted deep divisions between different communities and we must all work hard to heal those wounds.

Jesus reached out beyond his own race to heal the daughter of a distraught mother who showed faith.

So I suppose from this morning I want us to go away from here to examine our lives in terms of how we go about being a Christian and how we might make changes in how we treat others.

I want us to look to Jesus as an example in being willing to talk and meet with those that may not be our usual circle of friends. In a way August 2020 is an exciting time to be a Christian as I believe that the Church is starting a rebuild programme, making itself fit to serve our Lord for the next 50 years.

So yes I hope someday soon we will be back to normal, but a new normal where tradition and ritual don’t stifle our growth in faith.

A new normal that reaches out beyond the walls of our church.

And a new normal that welcomes and embraces all people, rich or poor, black or white.

Remember our agreed common values are compassion, love and tolerance.

So lets us, the ‘Covid Generation ‘do this and build a new church together.

Amen.