Homily for the 30th Sunday of Year B: Jer 31:7-9; Heb 5:1-6; Mk 10:46-52

Life is dreadful, you’ve seen the city and the country you love ravaged by war, the people you know and love taken prisoner to a foreign land. All seems lost, but in the midst of this the prophet Jeremiah in this morning’s first reading is filled with hope, that God will save and comfort his people. It may seem strange that the prophet can give such a joyous message in such an awful situation, but his trust is in a God who can heal our wounds and restore us. In the Letter to the Hebrews we see as Jesus Christ is without sin he is able to make a perfect offering of himself, upon the Cross, to restore and heal humanity.

In last week’s Gospel we saw how Jesus knew this of himself, saving humanity through his death and resurrection, healing our wounds, giving us the hope of eternal life in him, and living a life of service, fulfilling the prophesy of Jeremiah.

In this morning’s gospel we have a blind beggar, Bartimaeus. When he hears that Jesus is coming he cries out ‘Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me’. He cannot see but he knows his need of God. Jesus does not turn him away, he does not ignore him; instead he asks him ‘what do you want me to do for you?’ Bartimaeus’ faith makes him well, it saves him, and allows his to follow Jesus and walk along the right path.

We all long to be on the path that leads to God, a God who saves us, who loves us, who heals and restores us. As it says in John’s Gospel ‘I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ If we walk with the eyes of faith we will be on a straight path, to the one who heals and restores humanity.

All the world needs to cry ‘Jesus, son of God have mercy on me’. We need to know our need of God, we need to be healed and restored by him, like Bartimaeus. The world needs this to be fully alive in God, to turn away from sin and the ways of the world: living for others rather than ourselves, loving God and our neighbour. We should remember what Jesus said earlier in Mark’s Gospel (Mk 2:17) ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’ Christ came on our behalf, to bind up our wounds.

The sin which mars God’s image in us, which separates us from God, which stops us from being what we can be, is borne by Jesus on the Cross. He binds our wounds by bearing the mark of nails, he heals us with the stream of his blood which flows on Calvary. By his stripes we are healed. We are healed by him so that we may see clearly and travel along the path of faith, a straight path on which we should not stumble, journeying with our wounded healer, to live out our faith in our lives as those healed and called by Christ and made part of his body, the church, healed by his sacraments, fed by his word and his Body and Blood, to be strengthened on our journey of faith, it is why we are here today, to be fed by him and with him, that our wounds may be healed.

We are all of us sinners in need of the love and mercy of him who bled for us on Calvary and who rose again for us, that we might share new life in him. Let us be fed by him, restored and healed by him, to have life in all its fullness. For we follow the one who heals us not out of blind obedience or fear but through joy, the joy of being free and truly alive in Christ. So let us live that life and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Homily for the 29th Sunday of Year B: Isa 53:10-11; Heb 4:14-16; Mk 10:35-45

There has been a great deal in the press about the next Archbishop of Canterbury.  We’ve had rumours, leaks from the Crown Nominations Committee, a great deal of detail on the various odds offered by bookmakers, as though this where the church’s equivalent of the Grand National. Will he be a ‘liberal catholic’ or a ‘liberal evangelical’? To be honest with you, the only thing that I care about is that he looks and feels like Christ, an authentic Christian. This morning’s gospel reminds us that Christian leadership is not about lording it over people, but being like Christ. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a bishop, a priest, a deacon, or simply a baptised Christian; we all have to live up to the same standard: Jesus Christ.

          It is a big ask, I grant you, we will all of us fall short, fail to hit the mark, but we are to try, and keep trying, and we can have confidence ‘since we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God’. The author of the letter to the Hebrews encourages to do this, and to hold fast to our confession: we can be sure about both WHO Jesus is, and WHAT he does. He is truly God and man, tempted but without sin, He loves us and makes peace by the blood of the Cross. The Cross is at the centre of all this, through the mystery of the Atonement we can ‘have confidence to draw near to the throne of grace and receive help in time of need’. It is a mystery, not something to be explained, but something both to be experienced and lived out. It is a mystery prefigured in the prophets, especially Isaiah. In Acts when Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch he is reading this passage and he cannot understand it, or what it means, so Philip tells him about Jesus, and how Isaiah’s prophesy is fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus, and he is baptised.

          But in worldly terms Jesus looks like a failure: he is deserted, denied, and dies the death of a common criminal. But we are NOT to judge by the standards of this world: ‘it shall not be so among you’. We are not being counter-cultural to be rebellious, to swim against the tide; instead we are being faithful to Christ, we are holding fast to our confession, because it is TRUE, because it comes from him who is the WAY, who is the TRUTH, and the LIFE, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

          In the verses which precede this morning’s Gospel, Our Lord has foretold his suffering and death for the third time in Mark’s account. He knows the cost, he knows what will happen: ‘to give his life as a ransom for many’. He does it willingly, gladly, for love of us, a love made manifest in his birth, life and death, made manifest in the grace and mercy of God who creates and redeems the world, and who comes among us not as a king but as a servant. This changes us, and changes the world, it turns it around, and it asks us to do the same.

          In the person of James and John we see what it is to be a Christian, to live a Christian life: it is to be conformed to Christ. It is to be open to the possibility of suffering and to accept it. In worldly terms it looks like a failure, but in bearing witness to our faith we show how that we too are able to drink the cup. We are able to become an example which people want to imitate and follow because we point them to Christ, the restorer of all relationships, the healer of the world, who offers life in all its fullness. It is the most terrific news. People may not want to hear it but they need to. They prefer to ‘lord it over’ others and to go after the false gods of worldly power, money, and success: things which are empty, things which are of no value or worth compared to the love of God in Christ Jesus, the greatest free gift to humanity.

          In this all human existence, all life, all death, and all suffering find both meaning and value. This truth is unsettling, it is deeply uncomfortable, and yet it is deeply liberating. In living out the truth in our lives we live a service which is perfect freedom. In conforming ourselves to Christ we find meaning and identity. So let us lay down our lives that we may live fully and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity - Evensong: Exod 18:13–26, Mt 7:1–14 ‘which one of you, if his son asks him for bread will give him a stone?’

From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers: A brother asked Abba Poemen ‘If I see my brother sin, is it right to say nothing about it?’ The old man replied, ‘Whenever we cover our brother’s sin, God will cover ours; whenever we tell people about our brother’s guilt, God will do the same about ours.’

They said of Abba Macarius that he became as it is written a god upon earth, because just as God protects the world, so abba Macarius would cover the faults that he saw as though he did not see them, and those which he heard as though he did not hear them.

The early monks and nuns who lived in the Egyptian desert managed to get to the heart of not judging others, or of thinking that you or I are somehow a better person. The gentleness which they show when dealing with the faults of others is quite staggering. It is a truly difficult thing to do: not to judge others, but to treat everyone with love, forgiving them as we hope to be forgiven ourselves for the manifold sins which we commit on a daily basis. But to live out God’s love and forgiveness in your life is exactly what Jesus calls us to do. It is the narrow gate, and the way is HARD, and those who find it are few, but we should not let the difficult of living the Christian life authentically put us off trying to do it in the first place, or indeed persevering with it when times are hard.

It is hard, I struggle with it and fail often, but I know that as a Christian I am part of a community who can and indeed will forgive me, and so I can keep trying and failing, and trying some more. It is this through this process of trying, failing and trying again, that we as a community of Christians, as the Body of Christ, His Church, can help each other to progress in the Christian life, and in our individual vocations. We will all fail, but if we love and forgive each other, then we can live out God’s love in the world. We will have to live with upset and disappointment on a daily basis, but if we are rooted in the wellspring of divine love, fed with living water, then we can flourish.

What is more, in living out God’s love in our lives, we have an authenticity, an attractiveness which is captivating, which satisfies the deep spiritual hunger and thirst out there in the world, amongst those who have begun to see that the ways of the world are futile, empty and vain. We can offer a glimpse of the kingdom of God enfleshed in our own lives, and we can know that we are doing God’s will, that we are living as God intends to. We will be doing for others what we wish they would do for us. We have discovered the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in a field, and are freely sharing it with others, so that they may do the same.

We need to have the confidence to do this, a confidence which comes from God and not from mankind. It isn’t easy, especially when the wider church appears to be giving us stones when we as Catholic Anglicans have asked for bread. But we must judge them, no we are to love them, as there is no sin which God cannot forgive, even heresy, or opening the episcopate to women. We need to let go of the bitterness, of the pain which we feel, in the sure and certain knowledge that it is as nothing compared to the pain experienced by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, as he hung upon the cross, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. For in loving all as Christ loves us, and sharing that love with others, there is nothing which the world or even the Church of England can do to us. We have our treasure, which we keep in the clay jars of our weak, feeble and sinful lives. But our joy and our hope as Christians is in something more, something greater. If the Church is the body of Christ, wounded, and ill-treated, then we know that we await a glory, a bliss which surpasses all that we know or can hope to understand.

So, let us live out God’s love and forgiveness in our lives, filled with joyful hope as we await the coming of God’s kingdom, and in the knowledge that it is very near, it is among us, so that the world may believe and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Gal 6:11, Mt 6:24 ‘But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’

Abba Poemen said ‘There is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for his neighbour. When you hear someone complaining and you struggle with yourself and do not answer him back with complaints; when you are hurt and bear it patiently, not looking for revenge; then you are laying down your life for your neighbour.’

The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is a wonderful thing for the simple reason that it turns the world around. In the Cross we see the values of the world turned on their head. What looks like a shameful defeat and a failure, to be executed like a common criminal, naked, vulnerable, mocked, abused, and tortured, is the true victory.

It is a victory which the powers of this world cannot understand. To many people it still seems strange, that we as Christians should celebrate torture and failure; and yet we do, because we know that the Cross is not the end, that it leads to the new life of Easter. It is a cross which brings both peace and mercy. It demonstrates them in the clearest possible terms: ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do’ ‘Today you shall be with me in paradise’. This is what the love of God looks and feels like. It gives us the true gifts of God’s peace and God’s mercy. They cannot be bought with money, or power, or privilege, or status, with fine clothes, or fine words, or indeed anything of this world. They cannot be bought at all; they are pure gift, freely given, and of no worth in the eyes of the world but of infinite value.

So then, we have a choice. What will you choose? Christ, or the ways of the world? Whom will you serve? We can have a comfortable life; we can fill our barns full and build bigger ones, or we can be crucified with Christ. It may not appear quite as tempting an offer. People prefer the easy life, and the devil can tempt you to go after the ways of the world. Many do, but ultimately what they go after is vain, empty, without substance. Instead, we follow our Lord’s footsteps which will lead to the Cross in any number of different ways. But we are to do this gladly, to embrace it, and live it out joyfully. This is why our Lord summarises his teaching with advice ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ What Christ offers is TRUE life, TRUE abundance, not material satisfaction, or the absence of pain. So then let us choose to serve him who gave his life for us. Let us live out our faith in our lives. So that everything that we say, or think, or do, every last thing, will proclaim to the world the truth of Christ’s victory and his love. It’s up to us, you see, to keep proclaiming the Gospel in thought, and word, and deed, so that the world may believe and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Sermon for Trinity XIV Evensong

‘They asked abba Macarius “How should we pray?” And the old man replied, “There is no need to speak much in prayer; often stretch out your hands and say, ‘Lord, as you will and as you know, have mercy on me.’ But if there is war in your soul, add, ‘Help me!’ and because he knows what we need, he shows mercy on us”’

Prayer can be an easy and a difficult thing. The great temptation with it, just as with the writing of sermons is to use too many words. Many people get it wrong and ‘heap up empty phrases’ as though the more we say to God, the more likely he is to listen to us, and no doubt if we pester him for long enough then it’s bound to work in the end. The first monks in the Egyptian desert preferred to say little, or to use short phrases ‘O Lord open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise’ ‘O God make speed to save me, O Lord make haste to help me’. God knows what we want or need before we ask – it is the quality rather than the quantity of our prayer which matters.

The prayer which Jesus teaches us in this evening’s second lesson is a model of concision. In fifty six words of Greek (or 49 words of Latin), Jesus covers all that needs to be said in prayer. But the reason why we as Christians say it every day is not just because Jesus told us to pray this way, or that it sums up our prayers, but that as well as showing us how to pray it shows us how to live out our faith in our lives. Our lives and our prayer are not distinct; there are not separate boxes, for each affects the other. We are to go to God with the world on our hearts and to the world with God in our hearts. This is how we live out our faith in our lives, not to be seen by people, so that they can say ‘Oh look, there’s someone religious’ but so that our faith in a God who loves us, who heals and restores us, who feeds us in word and sacrament, may be something which attracts others to ‘come and see’.

 Likewise, our fasting, our abstaining from meat on Fridays, is not done for show, to show how religious we are, or done with a miserable face, but to hold our souls and bodies in check, to help us to remember that while we may have plenty, there are those who will go hungry and die for lack of proper food and clean water. The more we do such things, the more we deepen our faith, and our relationship with the God who loves us.

As people forgiven and loved by God, we are to show this love and forgiveness to each other and to the world, in a way makes our faith both authentic and attractive that the world may believe and may give Glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday of Year B

‘When blessed Antony was praying in his cell, a voice spoke to him, saying, “Antony, you have not yet come to the measure of the tanner who is in Alexandria.” When he heard this, the old man got up and took his stick and hurried into the city. When he had found the tanner ... he said to him “Tell me about your work, for today I have left the desert and come here to see you.”

He replied, “I am not aware that I have done anything good. When I get up in the morning, before I sit down to work, I say that the whole of this city, small and great will go into the Kingdom of God because of their good deeds, while I alone will go into eternal punishment because of my evil deeds. Every evening I repeat the same words and believe them in my heart.”

When blessed Antony heard this he said “My son, you sit in your own house and work well, and you have the peace of the Kingdom of God; but I spend all my time in solitude with no distractions, and I have not come near the measure of such words”

When Our Lord begins the Sermon on the Mount, he starts by saying ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God’ To be poor in spirit is not to have a false idea of who and what you are, and it is to know your need for and dependence upon God, and God alone.  That is how we are to live. In this morning’s Old Testament reading we see Isaiah prophesying about the Kingdom of God: it speaks of joy, refreshment and new life in God, it’s what the Kingdom of God looks and feels like.

This is why Jesus performs miracles, not to show off his power, but to show God’s healing love for people who know their need of God. The miracles are prophetic acts which announce God’s Kingdom among us. This morning’s second reading from the Letter of St James shows us how to live our lives as Christians in an authentic manner. Just as St Antony was not afraid to see a greater example of faith than his own lived out in the world, by a man who tanned animal hides in urine all day long, hard, demanding and smelly work; so we should not make the distinctions of which the world is so fond. If we live our lives without judging others, we can be as free as the deaf mute healed by Jesus. The ways of the world will not bind and constrain us.

To return to the desert for an example ‘A brother in Scetis committed a fault. A council was called to which abba Moses was invited, but refused to go to it. Then the priest sent someone to him saying “Come for everyone is waiting for you”. So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug with him filled with water and carried it with him. The others came to meet him and said, “What is this, father?” The old man said to them “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of another.” When they heard that, they said no more to the brother but forgave him’

This morning’s Gospel shows us God’s love and God’s healing. As those loved and healed by him we need to live out the reality of our faith in our lives, showing the love and forgiveness to others which God shows to us. So that all of our lives may give Glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Trinity XII Evensong – Ex 4:27–5:1, Heb 13:16–21

It is good that this evening’s the second lesson begins where last week's ended. The author of the letter to the Hebrews is still giving advice on how to live together as a Christian community. To put it simply we are not to neglect doing good. We are then to use each and every opportunity which we have to do good: to do the right thing regardless of the costs, or the consequences. We are to share what we have, because as Christians we are to be loving and generous people who live out our faith in our lives, who cannot fail to help those in need.

With such love and generosity comes obedience. The leaders are not specified in the letter as priests or bishops, however they ‘watch over your souls’. These then are people who exercise of pastoral care of the people of God, which is a great responsibility. Next comes the main point, they are ‘those who will have to give an account’. I suspect that you are familiar with the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14–30) . Well, those of us ordained priests and bishops are told at our ordination are consecration but we will have to answer to God on the day of judgement for our care of his flock. It is perhaps the singularly most terrifying thing which anyone says to me in life. It scared me then, over a year ago just as it does today. The fact that I will have to answer for my stewardship of God's people fills me with terror. As stewards go, I'm a pretty poor one, a miserable sinner, in need of God's love and mercy, who is absolutely not up to the task I have been given. I can but trust in God's grace, his love at his mercy and cry ‘Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner’. Given the current state of the church in England I can only hope that priests and bishops reading these words this evening will be similarly moved. St John Chrysostom once wrote that ‘the way to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops’, and I can only hope and pray that they will listen to the advice of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews and not find themselves wailing and gnashing their teeth, having been found wanting in their stewardship of Christ’s flock.

The care of Christ's flock is a solemn undertaking which I hope and pray is pondered long and hard before decisions are taken in the forthcoming months which have the potential to disfigure the body of Christ in this land. One can I suspect feel rather like Moses standing before Pharaoh simply asking ‘Let my people go that they may worship me in the wilderness’. To be in the wilderness is to be in a place upon which the world places no value whatsoever. To be in the wilderness is to be with God and to be opposed to the ways of the world, the ways of Pharaoh, and the ways of his power. To be in the wilderness is to wander, but also to be with God knowing that as Christians then is our true home, that the politics of the Gen Synod are as nothing compared to being with God, fed by his word and his sacraments, with true shepherds and not hirelings to lead us so that we may do God's will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight that we may serve God the Father, God the son, and God the holy ghost to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now and for ever

Homily for the 19th Sunday of Year B (Jn 6:41–51) 'Bread for the life of the world' 12.viii.12

I have something of a confession to make. I was somewhat troubled when I first read this morning’s Gospel. I find it all too easy to moan about all sorts of things. The Church of England is often a target, but one amongst many. It’s something which Our Lord tells us not to do, and so I pray that through God’s grace I may live a life which more closely imitates Jesus, and follows His commands. It reminds me of a passage in the sermons of St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo and Doctor of the Church: ‘“You all say, ‘The times are troubled, the times are hard, the times are wretched.’ Live good lives and you will change the times. By living good lives you will change the times and have nothing to grumble about.”’ (Sermo 311.8) It reminds us that the work of the Gospel is at one level up to us, the Body of Christ, His Church.

          In the Old Testament reading we see the prophet Elijah being fed, we see God providing food which gives strength, strength for the journey. It prefigures the Eucharist, the reason why we are here today, to be fed by God. We can have the strength for our journey of faith, and the hope of eternal life.

          In the letter to the Ephesians we see that as children of God, loved by God, we are to imitate him, after the pattern of Christ, who offered himself, who was a sacrifice who has restored our relationship with God. It is this sacrifice, the sacrifice of Calvary, which has restored our relationship with God, which will be re=presented, made present here today, that you can touch and taste, that you can know how much God loves you; that you can be strengthened and given the hope of eternal life in Christ.

          In this morning’s Gospel we see Jews complaining, ‘how can he be from Heaven, from God, we know his Mum and Dad’. It is a difficult thing to understand, especially before Jesus suffers and dies, and rises again. It can be hard to understand who and what Jesus is. The Jews see him in purely human terms, they cannot see beyond this, the Messiah whom they long for is in their midst and they fail to recognise him. The notion of consuming human flesh and blood is so abhorrent to Jews that it would represent something sinful and polluting. Jesus’ answer is simple and challenging: stop complaining. We are to accept, we are not to moan, to complain, but instead to trust him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

          Jesus is the Bread of Life, the true nourishment of our souls. It is through him that we can have life as Christians. He came down from heaven and became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. He was born as a human being, and in him our human flesh has been raised to eternal life, to glory with God. Jesus speaks of the Eucharist, the sacrament of his body and blood as providing us with eternal life, of opening the way to heaven. So we come to be fed by God, to be fed with God, to have a pledge and foretaste of the joy of heaven, of eternal life with God, to experience true love in the source of love – the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

          We can have such a hope because Jesus gives himself, to suffer and die, and rose again, for love of us. It is this life of love and sacrifice which we are to imitate. Jesus gives himself to us for the life of the world – it is through being fed by him that the world can truly live.  It is in experiencing God’s self-giving love that the world can find true meaning. Life in Christ is what true life means. Fed by him, strengthened by him, to imitate him and live out lives of self-giving love.

          We are fed with Christ’s body and blood not only as a foretaste of heaven, of eternal life and joy with God, but so that we may be strengthened for the journey – strengthened to live lives of faith, to live lives of self-giving love, so that the world may believe. In Christ, fed by him, and following his example, our lives have their true meaning when we live like him, nourished by his Body and Blood. This is how we live out our faith in our lives, so that we can be an example of Christian love and faith which attracts people and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Trinity IX Evensong: Hebrews 11:17–31

The Letter to the Hebrews was written to help and to encourage a group of Christians probably resident in Italy, and in all likelihood in Rome, who were wavering , who were losing heart, and who were about to turn away from Christianity back to Judaism. The author has spent much of the letter focussing on the unique nature of Jesus Christ, who as high priest and sacrificial offering has atoned for our sins in a way that the ceremonies of Yom Kippur cannot.

          To encourage his audience further, the author sets about giving an account of heroes of faith in the history of the people of Israel. And it is from this section where faith itself and those who are outstanding examples of faith are praised that this evening’s second lesson is taken.

          Abraham shows his faith in God by offering all to God. He does not cling on to his own son, Isaac, but willingly offers him. This sacrifice, where God provides a ram, looks forward to Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. God will not hold back, but gives his own son, for love of those he made, to restore their relationship with him. By faith, Moses leads the people of Israel through the Red Sea on dry land. He looks forward to that great Passover when Christ will pass over from death to new life, breaking down the gates of hell, and offering a promised land of new life with God, of eternal life with him.

This is our faith, this is the faith of the Church, and we should hold fast to it. It is why St Paul can single out faith, hope, and love as the three theological virtues. They should mark us out as Christians that we can have faith in God, and in his saving works, which have given us the hope of eternal life in him.

          Thus, it is the vocation of a Christian to hold fast to this faith, not to fall into error, and to live out this faith in our lives. In living out our faith we bear witness to it, and to the saving works of God. We bear witness to what God has done for all humanity, and by our example we draw others to follow our example and to follow Christ, to commit their lives to him, and to walk in his way. Thus we share the light of Christ with others and help them to walk in his light and to share that light, so that the world may believe and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Trinity VIII Evensong - Hebrews 8

The Letter to the Hebrews was written to help and to encourage a group of Christians who had lost their way, who were losing heart, and who were about to fall away from the faith. It is a work full of help and encouragement, which speaks to us, in the Church of England, today. It encourages us, it allows us to say with Job that we know that our Redeemer lives, and that we can believe and trust in him, and in what he has done for us.

The problem is one of sin, where we as humans disobey God’s law, when we do things which separate us from Him. The purpose of sacrifice then is to make amends, to restore our relationship with God. It is a relationship rooted by means of a covenant, a covenant between God and humanity, which defines our relationship.

The first covenant is given on Mt Sinai, to Moses, with the giving of the Law, the Ten Commandments. It is a covenant from which the people of Israel, God’s chosen people have fallen away. The new covenant is likewise given outside the camp, upon the hill of Calvary, where Jesus Christ as both priest and victim offers himself upon the altar of the Cross. This new covenant restores the relationship between God and humanity. It shows us in the clearest possible terms how much God loves us – that God pays the debt which we cannot. He restores us, and makes it possible for us to love God and one another. Unlike the blood of bulls and goats which must be offered again and again, here we have a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, for the sins of all time.

The Church, as the Body of Christ, continues this one perfect sacrifice by re-presenting it, by making it present at the altar, so that we may participate in the joy and worship of heaven. We can be strengthened by it, strengthened to live lives of self-giving love, after the example of Christ who gave himself for love of us. We are freed by it, to lose our lives in the service of God and one another. This then is how the church is to live, how it is to reflect the glory of heaven which was shown on earth when Christ died for us.

We are to love God and one another. Not just the people it is easy to love, but everyone, even and especially those it is difficult to love, our enemies. We are to love and serve one another so that OUR lives may mirror that of Christ. We can do this because Christ loved us first, because he gave himself, because he gave himself for us, because he has restored our relationship with God and each other, because there is a new covenant which is far superior to the earlier one.

Thus, the Church can truly change the World, by living lives of selfless love, by offering the world an alternative to the ways of sin and selfishness, nourished by the word of God, strengthened by the sacrament of His Body and Blood, to live out God’s love in our lives.

This is the message of the Gospel; good news for everyone, made possible by Christ, by his Incarnation, by his life, by his death and resurrection. It’s the greatest news of human history, so let us live it with joy, and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion, and power, now and forever.

Homily for 18th Sunday of Yr B (Jn 6:24–35)

Well, wonderful things have been happening in and around London, Team GB have been defying expectations, but something far more wonderful will happen here this morning.  Instead of a world which says it’s what you achieve that’s important, we are told by God that it’s what you believe that really matters. It sounds strange, many people will think that I am mad for saying it, but Olympic glory will fade, others will be faster and stronger. What we are to strive for is a glory which is more than gold or silver: the glory of heaven, the joy of eternal life in God, and of believing in him, and doing his work in the world.

        In this morning’s Gospel, we see people who have been fed in the miraculous feeding, the feeding of the five thousand, following Jesus around. Perhaps they’re hoping for another free lunch? They haven’t seen the signs; they haven’t understood what’s going on. Jesus feeds people not as a combination of magic trick and mass catering, but as a sign of God’s generous love. That God loves us, you and me, all of us, so much, that he longs to feed us with himself, that he gives himself to be tortured and die on the Cross for us, to show us that he loves us.

        Jesus wants us to believe in him, to trust in him, to be fed by him, with him, the Word of god made flesh, to be fed by word and sacrament, to be strengthened to run our race, and to live out that faith in the world around us. Jesus is the true bread come down from heaven which satisfies our spiritual hunger in a way which the world: success, money, possessions, what we have and what we do, cannot. He is the living water which satisfies the thirst of our souls. If we believe in Him, and in Him alone, we will never be thirsty. He gives us not what we want, but what we need: a love, a true love which gives meaning to human love, and to all of human existence. If we trust in God, and live our lives according to his will, loving God and each other, with faith in him alone, we can be victorious, and win a prize far greater than a medal of gold or silver, we can win a reward which lasts far longer than human praise or glory: the crown of eternal life and the glory of heaven. So let us be fed by him, with him, nourished by word and sacrament, let us believe in him, let us love Him and one another, and live lives which proclaim his life, his truth and his victory to the world around us: a victory which allows us to win a greater prize, a greater glory than that of the Olympics – true life, true glory, and true joy with him forever in Heaven, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.