17th December

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” -Luke 2:13-14

The heavenly host appear, providing an x-factor esque gospel back up to our main angel? Possibly. It's a timely reminder of the need for back up- a team of folk behind you who have your back, look out for you and who you do likewise for. This might be in your work (essential in healthcare!), your family, your friendship groups or your church.
I'm blessed in all these areas. I work in an acute and stressful healthcare setting where the cohesion of the team is essential, I'd be lost without my family- especially my parents, my friends always come through when I need them, my church family are amazing and my college mates keep me just the right side of sane.
What I'm not good at is remembering all this. As a bit of a control freak I always try to deal with stuff on my own, not always very successfully. When I remember that I have back up and use it amazing things happen, and I see God at work in the people I'm so blessed to have in my life.

9th December

And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.” -Luke 2:3-4

Joseph makes his appearance today. The interaction between Mary and Gabriel has been spread over several days but here there's no mention of Joseph's struggle and his own angelic encounter. We see him in a functional role, here because he was descended from David, helping form those all-too-neat genealogies that don't quite add up.
I think Joseph's often pushed out a bit, we hear almost nothing of him after the nativity story. I want to know more about him and how his son affected him and changed his life.

8th December

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) -Luke 2:1-2

I'm the first to admit Luke's history is a bit wonky here. The census of Quirinius was about a decade after the death of Herod the Great, but as Luke was writing so long after the fact I'll let him off. It's probably a bit of dramatic or literary licence to link Jesus birth to that particular govenor- trying to tie things neatly down, or maybe just a mistake. We have our reason for Mary and Joseph to need to up sticks and shoot over to Bethlehem, despite her late stage of pregnancy.
So here we have the gist of many an Internet meme of the last few weeks- a Palestinian family in need of shelter due to the political situation. My daughter's RE homework this week was to discuss similarities is the current refugee crisis and the Christmas story. I'll share a little of what she wrote:

"Mary and Joseph had to travel a long way to Bethlehem, just like the refuges from Syria fleeing from the war.

Nobody wanted to take in Mary and Joseph in their time of need. People here would help refuges but the government don't agree with the public."

When is Faith Not Enough?

I delivered this sermon on the 6th Sept at our main morning service. I was a little concerned as we had a surprise baptism but it was really well received by the family.

The readings it's based upon are Isaiah 35:4-7a, Psalm 146, James 2:1-10, 14-17 and Mark 7:24-end

Thursday morning was a pretty emotional one for several reasons. For many of our local children, including my son Jacob, it meant a return to school. For several of our St Michael’s family- George, Amelia, Sarah-Jane and Amber- it was their first day at secondary school.

When I clicked on to Facebook, as I often do first thing in the morning, my timeline was filled with photos of my friend’s children in smart, clean, new uniforms all ready for the school run. I always find this emotional- seeing children I’ve known since being babies starting school, moving on to the next year group and moving on to new schools. It’s particularly poignant this year as my daughter Faith starts high school tomorrow.

There were however two things which contrasted with the flurry of new term activity. The first was from my friend whose son started reception this week. He has an as yet undiagnosed developmental delay and my friend’s one wish for her son’s first year at school is for him to be able to say his first words.

For me this put into context all the worry we go through over which school our children will be going to, where they’ll get the best opportunities, what their SAT results will be, when all my friend wishes is to hear her son speak.

It’s a reminder that every child is beautiful, unique and to be valued and loved. They each grow and develop in their own unique way and all that perhaps really matters is that they know they are loved and valued and that we enable them to love and value others in return.

But there was another picture of a child that filled my computer and TV screen on Thursday. It was of a three year old boy called Aylan Kurdi whose body had washed up upon a Turkish beach after he, along with his five year old brother Galip and mother Rihan, drowned when the dingy they were fleeing the Syrian town of Kobane in capsized.

I’m sure many of you have seen these pictures- and there’s an argument to be had about whether they should have been shared. If you haven’t seen the pictures you may have read or listened to this family’s story and felt the same emotions I felt- dis-ease, dis-comfort, sadness, helplessness and some guilt as well.

Every child should be valued and loved. As I was expressing my love for my children by readying them for the new school term, Rihan Al-Kurdi was expressing hers by fleeing from Syria. That decision cost their lives but as I’ve heard repeated so many times this week- you would only put your child in the boat if it was safer than staying on the land.

These pictures have given a name and a face to the continuing refugee crisis in Europe which has often been portrayed in a very different way by the mainstream media.

If anything even remotely positive can be taken from such a devastating loss of young lives it will hopefully be a shift in our national perspective to see these families in a different way- not as migrants moving west in search of jobs, affluence and a better standard of living but as people forced to flee or face horrors in their daily lives that we can only imagine.

In our church we’ve prayed many times for the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. We’ve prayed for those who are trying to live with it daily and for those who, like Aylan and his family, have died trying to escape from it.

Our reading from James today outlines a key theme of his epistle, one which has caused a lot of friction over the centuries in its apparent contradiction of the writings of Paul. When is faith not enough? Paul writes that faith alone marks us out as belonging to Christ, but James is passionate in his belief that if faith is genuine it will outwardly change us and our behaviour, leading us to perform good or charitable works. He asks us what’s the point of our blessing someone when what they really need is food because they’re starving to death. He goes as far as calling it sinful to bless a starving person instead of feeding them. It’s strong stuff.

James writes to a congregation showing favouritism to the rich, clean and healthy yet God does not show favouritism- a belief shared by the woman who approaches Jesus in the gospel reading. Jesus is quite alarming – even rude- in his first response, comparing gentiles to dogs, evoking the superiority of Israel’s claim to God’s blessing, but I can’t help but feel he’s trying to get a response from her, which he does. She has faith that God’s blessing is for her too.

In the passage just before this Jesus has been teaching about pulling down the barriers between Jews and gentiles, and here he puts it into practice. This is Jesus not just talking but acting- doing the thing he’s previously preached about.

A gentile is blessed by Jesus’ action- given equality with God’s chosen people. Jesus goes on to heal a deaf man. We’re not told if he’s a Jew or a gentile but the area he’s in is mainly non-Jewish.

Isaiah tells us what God has in store for those he blesses- eyes opened, ears unstopped, lame leaping and speechless singing. Whether these are physical or spiritual disabilities what’s promised is the restoration of wholeness to those deprived of the fullness of humanity- both physically and spiritually.

This restoration to wholeness is developed further in the psalm- Our God executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down, loves the righteous and watches over the strangers.

In the Gospel Jesus in fulfilling this by his actions and God’s blessings are poured down upon all equally. We’re all equal and we all deserve God’s blessings and to be able to enjoy the beauty and diversity of His creation, whether we’ve been born into a comfortable and peaceful life in England or a dangerous and war damaged one in Syria.

My dilemma this week has been is MY faith enough, are my prayers enough? And if not what can I do? What action is in my power that reflects the weight upon my conscience as I look at the pictures Aylan? What can I do for the refugees who ARE the oppressed, the hungry, the bowed low and the strangers whom God blesses?

There are practical things that can be done such as supporting charities who work to help refugees, donating money and supplies and asking questions of those in power as to how we as a nation can realistically respond to the crisis.

Politically this is very complex – but I’ve been reminded many times this week of our national response to the post second would war refugee crisis, where richer countries came to an agreement on supporting the refugees the war had created. We acted out of compassion, we acted because it was the right thing to do. 

A chaplain once told me that James was the epistle of chaplains, which might be why today’s reading really resonates with me. James urges his congregation to treat the poor, dirty and sick with equity to the rich, clean and healthy. He urges them to meet the bodily needs of those who are suffering before their spiritual ones.

Is this how we should think about the refugee crisis? Are there times when we’re called to offer more than our prayers?

Prayer is important, it connects us to God. It develops our relationship with God. Intercessory prayer connects us to the world around us. Sometimes it’s the only way we can respond to the painful things we see in the world. We pray because we have faith that God responds. But faith is more than prayer, it’s more than what we do here on a Sunday. Being here refreshes and sustains us but what our faith does is take us out of here into the world to respond to what we find there.

When we see people deprived of the fullness of humanity, like Jesus we must back up what we pray for by our actions, remembering God’s blessing is for each one of us equally.

When God’s blessing is at work in the world, through us, we’ll see justice for the oppressed, the hungry fed, prisoners freed, eyes opened, the bowed down lifted up, and the strangers watched over.

Bad things happen to good people

Sermon preached 12th July 2015 at St Michael's Flixton Summer Wholeness and Healing service. Based on Mark 6:14-19 and Ephesians 1:3-5

The section of Mark’s gospel that we’re reading through over the summer is so rich in scripture that helps us celebrate the ministry of Wholeness and Healing.

If we just remember back over the last 2 weeks we've had the story of the haemorrhaging woman and healing Jairus’ daughter. Last week the 12 disciples were being sent out in mission, and whilst it appears elsewhere in the gospel one of the few things Jesus directly commanded them to do was heal the sick. Spoilers for what’s coming over the next few weeks include feeding the 5000, Jesus walking on water and more miraculous healings, all of which would provide fantastic endless material for an uplifting sermon on Wholeness and Healing. These stories reveal to us God’s healing power, abundant love and give us clues to the relationship between Christ’s humanity and divinity.

But placed in the middle of all this miracle and wonder is a flashback to the Death of John the Baptist. A moment of defeat, and pain. A moment which caused Jesus to withdraw (when you look at the narrative in Matthew’s gospel). It seems out of place amongst these other tales of miracles- all these overwhelming displays of God’s love and power.

In John’s death we see frailty. We see a bad thing happening to a good person. We probably don’t remember that it comes in this section of Mark’s book, because of the narrative that surrounds it.

Why would it be in this part of the gospel? What purpose does it serve? And what can it tell us about Wholeness and Healing?

Whilst the stories either side of today’s reading are full of some of the most famous and miraculous events from Jesus’ ministry, it may be rare or perhaps even completely unimaginable that we would experience something even close to those miracles in our own lives. We may feel that whilst we hope for miracles, what we experience in our lives is much more mundane, and often the reality of the lives we lead is we’re faced with difficulties and sometimes sadness. It can be easier to relate to bible stories of people going through tough times, or the psalms which cry out in lament, than relate to the miraculous.

In stark contrast to the miracles pouring out from the gospel narrative, with this one story of sadness in the middle, If we watch or read the news the opposite is true- economic crisis in Greece, commemorations for lives lost in the 7/7 bombings, abuse inquiries within our own church. I think it’s safe to say that neither the miracles of the bible or the sadness in many of the media stories we read give the true picture of what we experience in our lives.

We can’t however deny that we do have to deal with difficulties more often that the miraculous, and at those times we may ask ourselves “where is God in this?”

Over the 15 years I’ve worked at The Christie I’ve prayed for hundreds, maybe 1000s of patients in my care. Some have got better and some haven’t. I’ve wondered if some of those who recovered, despite the odds, were miracles or simply the result of really good medical care and a lot of luck?  And I’ve wondered why were some not physically healed?

The church is very reluctant to claim healing miracles but there’s also no satisfying answer as to why God doesn’t intervene in the way we would want him to when we or someone we love is suffering or ill.

This must all sound a little bleak so far, not at all like “Good News” but John the Baptist’s death reminds us that even with huge amounts of faith bad things happen to us.

Yet sometimes the worst things we experience are often those which are the most important in forming the person we are or will become. During the ministry selection process one of the things I had to do was list the most significant events in my life up until that point.

When you look back at a lifetime of significant events you realise it’s often the things that have caused you pain, or caused you or those you love to suffer, that’ve had the most influence over the person you now are. The painful stuff shapes our faith, moulds our relationship with God and helps move us towards that wholeness we wish for. Would you be the person you are without some of the more difficult things you’ve experienced?

My friend Dave, who was a lay Methodist preacher, told me his cancer had given him the opportunity to talk to new people about God, making him feel he was drawing nearer to that relationship of Wholeness, despite his cancer not being treatable.

Something else we see in the Gospel reading is Herod’s brokenness. It’s too easy to see him as the pantomime villain, or a man manipulated into action, here what we see is a man broken by guilt. The reason the flashback to John’s death is here is because Herod, hearing about Jesus through the miracles and healing he'd performed, is driven by his uneasy conscience to think Jesus could be a resurrected John the Baptist. His murder of John wasn’t a great defeat or triumph, his marriage, to the wife who had wanted John dead, broke down and his own actions pushed Herod further away from being able to have a relationship with God. We see a man in desperate need of Healing and Wholeness but completely unable to ask for it.

There’s another purpose in recounting John’s death. It acts as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death, a reminder at the height of his active ministry that Jesus too will die, shattering the lives of those around him and causing them to believe that all is lost.

When I wrote my ministry application form, reflecting upon those significant but painful events, one thing I realised was that whilst in the middle of it all it was almost impossible to see where God was in it, or how it could ever bring me closer to a whole relationship with him.

Yet years later, writing it all down, God’s presence in each part of my life became clearer. I think it’s true that sometimes God is so close we can’t see him. The theologian Leonard Sweet describes this closeness as being like asking a bird to see air or a fish to see water.

If you’d asked the disciples the day after the crucifixion where God was in it all I doubt they’d have had an answer for you, but ask them later, in the light of the resurrection and how that shaped their lives and relationship with God, They would hopefully tell you that what had seemed like the worst day of their life was actually the greatest, even though each of them subsequently suffered for it.

The bible is full of stories of bad things happening to good people, what counts is how those people respond to what has happened to them and if they are able to keep trusting in God.

The good news teaches us that good things can come from bad, we’re reminded of this in the Ephesians reading-

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”

Our inheritance from God is through Christ’s blood.

Here we also see God’s plan for our healing, by making our relationship with him whole-

“He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth”

God wants to gather us to him, maybe so close that at times we lose sight of him. He wants us along with all the things, good and bad, that’ve made us who we are. He wants our brokenness, if, unlike Herod, we’re able to offer it to him.

Our wholeness may not come in the form of a physical healing, a miracle, or the resolution of things which have hurt us, but from us being willing (during our good times and our difficult times) to let God gather us in and draw us nearer to him. 

I Will Write it on Their Hearts

I had a tricky task this morning- it was only my second sermon since starting ordination training but the gospel reading I had to preach upon was one of the most challenging and troubling. Here's how I tackled it:

Matthew 5:21-37

 ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

 ‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.” But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

(Other passages referred to below are Psalm 119:1-8, Deuteronomy 30:15-20 & Jeremiah 31:29-34)

As most of you will know I’m very new to preaching so was unsure how to feel when I began to study today’s very challenging gospel reading. It’s probably something I would have preferred to reflect upon with a bit more experience behind me. Yet, as I spent time with the scripture I was challenged and inspired by what Jesus had to say.

I’ve come to realise that, whilst the passage is difficult, I have the privilege to preach on a Gospel passage that thousands before me have preferred to gloss over, talk around or even worse, the scripture has been used to justify violent punishments and oppress abused wives. So where to begin…

How many of us have friends who whilst they don’t come to church, or even identify themselves as Christians, have told us how marvellous they think Jesus was? That they may not consider him the son of God, but he was a wonderful moral guide and teacher? Love, peace and loveliness was the business of Jesus. Standing up for the oppressed, the marginalised, standing up for women. Even when he got angry in the temple it was to make a stand against hypocrisy. Jesus was a moral crusader- and a gentle listener-“let the little children come to me!” we hear him say.

He spoke of lilies and sparrows. We like this Jesus. Non Christians like this Jesus. Stand up Comedian Eddie Izzard in a very tongue in cheek skit calls this version of Christ the “Anglo-Saxon Hippy”. This Jesus is often depicted in art as a fair haired European surrounded by children, birds and animals. St John’s in Old Trafford has a beautiful window depicting the risen Christ as decidedly blonde and Scandinavian looking. It’s nickname, I’m told, is Bjorn Again.

So, then we meet the Jesus of today’s gospel reading. More fiery tele-evangelist than Anglo-Saxon hippy. There’s potential eye gougings, hand choppings and our gentle saviour informing us that he hasn’t come to abolish the Jewish law, but to make it even more difficult to fulfil. Who is this version of Jesus- and do I know him at all??

The answer to that lies in the knowledge that most things we read in the bible cannot just be taken at face value. Everything has context. To address the issue of the violent imagery Jesus uses we need to understand some of the traditions used by Hebrew orators. Hyperbole was used then, as now, to emphasise the importance of what was being said. These extreme metaphors we might paraphrase as “look- just don’t even think about it!” They’re deliberate exaggerations to hammer the point home. At times, with our lack of knowledge about pictorial style of speech used by the Jews of the time, we Christians can fail to see the reality behind what is figurative.

Even the fires of hell are figurative as the translation is not Sheol but Gehenna- where the cities rubbish dump burned day and night.

So what about the issue of divorce- it can still be very divisive in the church even though it’s widely accepted in secular society. Divorced people may be allowed to marry in church, and train for the priesthood, but here it is- Jesus plainly stating don’t do it. There are issues dividing the church which many would love there to be such clarity about.

You can only divorce your wife if she’s unfaithful. But this is also not quite so clear, and rather than oppress women Jesus’ words are to protect them. Jewish men could obtain divorces for all sorts of lax reasons, abandoning their former wives and children and devaluing marriage and married love. Woman had no legal voice so could not divorce their husbands or protest if they were to be divorced.

Jesus reminds his listeners they need a really good reason to divorce, or they won’t be right with God, preventing women being abandoned and unsupported by the whim of their husband. It served as a reminder of the importance and value of marriage- that it’s not something you enter into lightly.

Of course in our modern British society women thankfully are as legally valid as men. We also realise there are other valid and painful reasons a couple may choose to divorce. Jesus chose his words to make his audience remember that if they married a woman they were responsible for her.

So what of Jesus taking the law even further? You shall not murder is extended to include feelings of anger, you shall not commit adultery to include lustful feelings, and making wrongful use of God’s name includes swearing oaths by it.

I thought Jesus was sent to fulfil the law because God knew it was impossible to keep all the laws ourselves? Yet here he makes what many found unattainable even harder.

But many of the things Jesus refers to here concern our outward actions in relation to what we feel in our hearts. How many times do we excuse someone’s actions by saying “well at least their heart was in the right place?” We learn in the gospel that what is in our hearts is far more important than our actions- but more than this, if our heart is in the right place then our actions will be correct. It’s no good if we just do all the right things, sacrifice and worship mean nothing if they are just for show. Reconciliation is more important than sacrifice, and making peace more important than worshiping God. When we have done these things we are in a right relationship with God and ready to come before him.

Psalm 119, the hymn of praise to the law, tells us to seek God with our whole heart and that if we learn and follow God’s law we will praise him with an upright heart. The reading from Deuteronomy reminds us that if our hearts turn from God we will go astray.

With St Valentine’s Day just 2 days ago there are images of hearts everywhere- beautiful red and pink sparkly outward signs of the inner feelings we have for our most dear and loved ones.

But what would a true representation of our heart look like? I think mine might sometimes look a bit saggy, and a bit ragged, and some of the glitter might have fallen off, because as much as we love and seek God, and strive to do good things, we don’t always feel it in our hearts.

How do we feel in our hearts when Jesus’ message is not always one of comfort? He was a radical and his message was, and still is, radical.

The new covenant promised in the Book of Jeremiah is this : I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me.”

Jesus has made this possible by atoning for our sins, in the most radical act imaginable, by fulfilling the law and by one other thing. He has sent us our Guide and counsellor- the Holy Spirit- who lives in our hearts. We therefore have God’s law within us. We’re not always very good at accessing it, and we may sometimes need a bit more reconciliation and peace making than at other times before we’re ready to come before God, but it is there in each and every one us.

With that knowledge, of God in each of us, maybe seeking him won’t seem so hard at times. Maybe the knowledge that God is in our hearts will help change our hearts, give us integrity between our hearts and our actions, and help us not to hide our brokenness but to bring it openly before God, who knows us, knows our hearts, and loves us.