through a glass darkly

The lessons David learnt - a sermon on 1 Sam 24:1-22, Matt 5:38-48

2012-02-06T17:45:00.000Z

What do you think of when you hear the word "education"? I guess most of us think of teachers and classrooms and long, gloomy corridors smelling of disinfectant. Schools play a huge part in our life, and I think nearly every grown-up has some childhood memory of a special teacher, or classmate, or some misdemeanour that may or may not have gone unpunished. And whether or not our experience of school was positive, I believe we should all give thanks for the fact that in this country we have an education system to which so many people devote their lives - Education Sunday today gives us a chance to do just that.

But there are other forms of education as well. There is all the stuff that we learnt from our parents, or other carers, right from our earliest years. There is that constant flow of information that pours into our living rooms through the Internet and our television screens. And of course there is what is sometimes called the "university of life", those experiences and events that mould and shape our lives, and make us very much who we are.

And it's on this kind of education that I particular want to focus today. We're continuing with our series looking at the making of a great king, David. In our story this morning he has still not yet reached the throne. Yes, he was anointed by the prophet Samuel way back in chapter 16, but since then he has spent much of his time on the run from the current king, Saul, whom the Lord had rejected. So as I began to look at this chapter, I found myself asking why David had to go through so much before he took his rightful place at the head of his people. Wouldn't it have been simpler all round if once David had been anointed, Saul had been removed from the scene – killed by a passing Philistine, perhaps, - and David given the throne there and then. I am sure that given the choice David would have preferred that outcome to living like an outlaw.

But the more I thought about David's life, the more I realised that the Lord was preparing David for an exceptional job by taking him through some exceptional experiences.

continued

The medium and the cross

2012-02-04T12:57:00.000Z

I was asked this week to deal with a ghost someone sensed in their flat. As I sat down to talk with the young family in the shiny new flat I noticed there was a rough wooden cross lying beneath the glass coffee table. Apparently the medium they consulted earlier had left a couple of crosses around, one in the living room, and one in bedroom where the presence had been detected. Talking further, it turned out that the medium came fully armed both with a cross and a Bible, but she had been unable to deal with ghost.

So I asked the couple what the cross was all about. They didn't know really, so I explained to them something of the basics of the Christian faith and prayed in the name of Jesus for whatever it was that was troubling them to go. At the end we had a good discussion about baptism and marriage. I couldn’t help thinking there was an awful lot of spiritual confusion going in, consulting a medium, having crosses lying around to ward off evil spirits and yet wanting the baby christened.

It was a small example of the general truth, that when folk stop believing in Jesus, it's not that stop believing. It's rather that they start believing in anything. I find the task of explaining the gospel in this kind of situation all the harder because people have such a muddled view of what the Christian faith is, let alone any real understanding of who Jesus is.

It makes me realise yet again what a poor job we have done as a church in explaining who Jesus is, and what the cross stands for. More and more I am coming to the view that we can reorganise the church as much as we like, we can change who becomes a bishop, we can experiment with all kinds of novel ways of mission, but unless we return to a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the gospel we will not see the sustained growth that we all long for.

Meanwhile people remain lost in a haze of confusion, and have no idea there is power in Jesus' name. That to me is the real tragedy of our situation today.

Jealousy - a sermon on 1 Sam 19:1-24

2012-02-04T12:45:00.000Z

We started this sermon with a clip from Toy Story 3 where the toys are heading towards the flames, having been betrayed by someone they thought would rescue them. They hold hands, expecting the worst. Then right at the last minute a grab comes down and lifts them up. It seemed appropriate when preaching on this passage!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where there seemed no way out? Maybe a situation caused by the betrayal of someone you thought you could trust?

That was the situation David faced. He had entered the king's service as a harpist, to relieve Saul's troubled mind. He had won a great victory for the king over Goliath and the Philistines. But our chapter starts with Saul issuing orders for his son Jonathan and all his attendants to kill David. If I'd started by showing a western, this would be the scene where sheriff puts posters up around town and sends out his posse looking for the outlaw.

Except, of course, David is no outlaw. He has broken no rules, he has not defied the king. And that's exactly the point Jonathan makes to his father. Verse 4: Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. There is no doubt that Jonathan was a tremendous ally and friend of David, and we'll be looking at his whole example of friendship next week. But for now all Jonathan is able to do is grant David a temporary reprieve.

continued

Gospel v. Social Progammes?

2012-01-28T12:44:00.000Z

I recently heard someone say that the world expects the church to run social programmes. Churches too like to run social programmes, for the commendable reason that they become visible in the local community. Clearly at a time of economic hardship it is hard to be unmoved by the scale of need, and it is great that Christians are seen to be engaged with issues of the day. A church near us has recently received a large grant for a CAP (Christians Against Poverty) debt counselling service, and on this side of Plymouth such a service is desperately needed.

And yet, there can be some dangers if the church makes a social programme too much of its focus. When I arrived in my current post about 9 years ago, there was the remnant of a social project in one of the churches. It had been fully funded for the first three years, but the money had run out. It was taking considerable effort and energy for a team of volunteers to run, and with a scarcity of able people in the congregation it was taking away valuable resources from the task of proclaiming the gospel.

I made there and then a conscious decision not to spend my life chasing charitable grants, but focus on preaching and pastoring. Over the past nine years I have wondered if I have made the right decision. Gospel work is not often visible, and the outcomes aren't as tangible as a social programme. The results are in God's sovereignty often mixed and patchy - think of the parable of the sower. Yet I still believe in the long run I made the right decision.

I was chatting with a retired vicar this week, and he made the point that when the gospel is preached, then the social work follows, which is something that is borne out by my experience. Because when the gospel starts to change hearts and minds, you have to work out how to apply it to the very real-life situations your hearers face day by day - such as alcoholism, mental health, homelessness, pressures at work etc. It may be then that a social project needs to be launched (which is what the neighbouring church have done in setting up a CAP service), but that project is then properly understood as a fruit of a gospel ministry, and not mission in itself.

As the Ugley Vicar points out, there is after all only properly one mark of mission after all. Besides which, there are others who are paid to carry out much of the social work, and as professionals they can often do a better job. I believe it's far better to point people to those agencies, than to try and duplicate their work.

Faith v. religion

2012-01-22T17:36:00.000Z

Last week I published this article on the church website.

Today I posted a follow-up as follows:

Since the video I posted last went viral, there is been quite a deal of discussion on the blogosphere about faith and religion – for example here – mostly concerned that making quite so big a division between faith and religion is not so helpful.

In response, it’s worth making a few points.

First of all, there is good religion and bad religion. There is a word for religion in the Greek New Testament, which twice occurs negatively – Acts 26:5 and Col 2:18 – and twice positively – James 1:26 and 1:27. (The NIV also uses the word religion in 1 Tim 5:4 but it’s not there in the Greek). If there is a positive use of the word religion in the Bible, so it is argued, we ought not to be so negative about it today. To which, I would respond that words change their meaning over time. For example the word “silly” once meant “blessed”. That’s an extreme example, but it makes the point that once a word gets a negative overtone, then it’s hard to shake it off. If it’s not helpful to talk to folk about religion, then don’t use the term.

Quite understandably there is concern that by separating faith from religion, we are saying it’s OK to believe without joining in fellowship. But we need to understand properly what faith entails. To accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour is to be in Christ. And if you are in Christ then you are in His body, the church. We may cut short our gospel talks by ending on an appeal to accept Jesus as Lord. But if we do not also talk about the need to belong, then we are selling the good news short. Believing and belonging go together. That’s why – although they’re not perfect – I like use to images like being transferred from one team to another, or being adopted into a family. We have to make sure our talk about faith does not pander to the current mood of individualism.

There’s also another really important point to make about faith. The Greek word for faith also means “faithfulness”. In other words, faith in Christ also implies faithfulness to Jesus, not just in the privacy of your own home, or your own church, but being faithful to Christ and bearing witness to Him twenty-four seven. In this respect it’s worth noting that instead of asking believers to adopt a religion the letter writers of the New Testament so often ask them to follow a way of life (e.g. 1 Cor 4:17, Jam 3:13, Heb 13:7, 1 Pet 1:15), learnt by example from leaders and lived out as proof of the change Jesus has wrought in their hearts.

Of course words are difficult, but it is noteworthy that the early believers were called followers of the Way (Acts 9:2). It’s probably too late to rescue this term, but it would be helpful in making clear what the Christian faith is really all about!

The road to nowhere

2012-01-14T19:02:00.000Z

Transport is fast becoming a major political issue. A survey before Christmas showed the disparity in funding between transport in the South West (£19 per head per annum) and London (£2731 per head per annum). Plymouth is 15th largest city in the country, but it now has no airport, and is 45 miles away from the nearest stretch of motorway. The railway line is diesel, and under threat from coastal erosion and storms.

So the announcement of the HS2 link has not been received well here. Yes, I am sure there is a good economic case for better links between London and Birmingham, and onto the north. But there are over a million people in the peninsula who do not have 21st century transport links, and that can only hinder future growth and investment in the area. It sometimes seems like ministers in London do not appreciate the vast distances involved in travel down here. There must be better and more even ways of spreading £32 billion across the rail infrastructure. Or am I missing something obvious?

Leadership and prayer

2012-01-08T17:34:00.000Z

There are lots of books, seminars, courses on church leadership. I've lost count of the amount of training and reading I have received on the subject. Church leadership is a fascinating subject, as the wealth of material attests. But I am very aware that one subject that sometimes is neglected is the interaction between leadership and prayer. Maybe it's just me, but I find prayer can so often be squeezed out or rushed by the demands to do and to prepare. I'm not talking about prayer for myself or the concerns that daily feature in my quiet time, but regular, informed prayer for the people I serve. I find myself on busy days focusing simply on immediate needs and perhaps the newcomers, with a slightly selfish hope that they might stay in "my" church.

But I have recognised recently I need to pray more consistently and more faithfully for the whole people of God. The busy, healthy members of the congregation who lead a full life may not have obvious physical or mental needs, but they are still a long way short of the fullness of Christ, and they still have the challenge of living out the faith they profess. The prayers Paul prayed for the churches to whom he wrote are very different from the kind of prayers I tend to offer for the churches I serve. And I think one of the challenges I need to take up in the coming year is to model my intercessions more on his pattern. His prayers were written down, after all, to provide an example.

Having said all that, there are certain things I do already which help:

- Ever since I arrived I have divided the church members and the streets of the two parishes into a 28 day prayer cycle which is updated each year. This means that at least once a month each church member is prayed for specifically.

- The routine of daily prayer provides an opportunity to stop and think exactly what each member might be doing at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. As their situations come to mind, I often find myself praying that they would know how to be the presence of Christ wherever they might be.

- My inability to drive does at least mean that I have some time and space as I scuttle from one appointment to another. I haven't yet perfected the art of listening to God, rather than concentrating on my own concerns, but I am learning!

It will be good to come back a year later and see how well I have got on with this New Year's resolution. I typed "church leadership and prayer" into Google and found 4 results, none from the UK. For such an important subject, I found that, to say the least, surprising.

Interviewing for a king - a sermon on 1 Sam 16:1-23, Matt 2:1-12

2012-01-08T17:14:00.000Z

It was interesting just how many people came up to me after this sermon to share their experiences of job interviews this week. As I suspect with most places at the moment, there are grave difficulties in finding work in Plymouth at the moment. It was a reminder again of how important it is to ground sermons in real-life experiences folk can relate to.

How many people here have ever gone for a job interview? If you have, then you know what a terrifying business it can be. You spend the days beforehand finding out all about the business. You polish up on your CV. You try to rehearse your answers to all the questions you think you will be asked. But when the time comes, nothing actually prepares you for the moment when the door opens and you are ushered into the room before the interviewing panel. It's just you and a few strangers staring back at you. You sit down and the ordeal begins…

Of course whether you get the job or not, depends on whether you are what the employers want. I guess many of us have had the standard letter that comes through the door a few days later which says, "You were an excellent candidate in a high-quality field but…" and then they list some reason for not selecting you. So the question then arises – what is an employer really looking for? Would anyone like to make any suggestions?

Our reading this morning from 1 Samuel is all about a job interview, although it features a process of selection you or I have probably never been involved in, and a job certainly none of us will ever be called to do. But before we dive in and look at the passage in more detail, let's start with some background.

If you're trying to find 1 Samuel in the Bible, it's helpful to know that it comes about halfway between the book of Judges and the first book of Kings - not simply because that fact helps us find the right page, but also because it reminds us of the important theme that dominates the whole book. You see, in the book of Judges the people of Israel are ruled over by…guess who? That's right, by Judges. I don't mean old men in wigs and long robes, but leaders raised up by God to deliver His people from their enemies. By the time we get to 1 Kings however the people of Israel are ruled by …guess who? That's right, by Kings. Again, I don't mean someone who simply wears a crown on a big occasion, but someone with total authority over the people he governs.

So the books of Samuel cover the transition from one kind of leader – a judge – to another kind of leader – a king.

continued

Christmas carol quiz

2011-12-19T12:08:00.000Z

Here are some less well-known verses (at least to me) of familiar Christmas carols. All you have to do is match number of the verse to letter of the carol. I can’t offer any prizes, but I hope you enjoy this light-hearted challenge:

1. Come, desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to thine!

2. See how the shepherds,
Summoned to His cradle,
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither
Bend our joyful footsteps:

3. Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you – break the chains;

4. By His word was all created:
He commanded and ’twas done;
Earth and sky and boundless ocean,
Universe of three in one,
All that sees the moon’s soft radiance,
All that breathes beneath the sun;

5. He comes, from thickest films of vice
To clear the mental ray,
And on the eyeballs of the blind
To pour celestial day.

6. And ye, beneath life’s crushing load
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way,
With painful steps and slow,
Look up! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

So, match these verses to:
A – Angels from the realms of glory
B - Hark the glad sound
C - Hark! the herald angels sing
D - It came upon the midnight clear
E - O come, all ye faithful
F – Of the father’s love begotten.

The birth of a child - a sermon on Luke 1:26-38

2011-12-10T17:59:00.000Z

Some twenty years ago a bishop called John Finney set out to discover how people become active Christians and participants in their local church. So instead of writing another weighty tome or putting forward an interesting theory, he went out with a team to interview a whole range of churchgoers of different ages and different backgrounds, and ask them some very simple questions about their faith. The published research: Finding Faith Today was a ground-breaking book and it's one that's still worth reading today.

And as you might expect one question he asked was: which factor led you to become a committed Christian? There were a whole variety of responses. Some of them talked about a particular event or reading the Bible. Rather more talked about the support of a friend or a minister. But what surprised the researchers was how many people talked about the birth of a child being an important event that led them to ask questions about what they really believed.

That's something that has been borne out in my own experience. There is something about having a baby that changes the way you view the world. No matter how much you prepare for the big event, or how much you think you are ready, suddenly finding yourself in charge of a living, breathing creature 24-7 acts as a real shock to the system. I think one of the more honest cards we had when our first daughter was born read: This child will bring more joy into your life than you can possibly imagine and more stuff into your car. Having a child really does turn your whole life upside down.

And as parents learn to cope with the upheaval, it's not uncommon for them to start thinking, however vaguely. about God.

continued

Being ready - a sermon on Luke 1:5-25, Isaiah 40:1-11

2011-12-10T17:51:00.000Z

So who here is ready for Christmas? Have you got everything sorted already? Are you one of those organised people just waiting for 25th December to come along? Or are you, like me, rather surprised how quickly Christmas has come this year and have you still got loads to do?

What I thought we'd do this morning is draw up a list of some of the Christmas jobs we haven’t done yet. Who'd like to start? And how many things can we fit onto one side of paper?

…

Judging from that great long list it seems that very few, if any of us, are ready for Christmas. We know it's coming each year, and we know what we have to do. But somehow it always seems to come more quickly than we imagine, and no matter how much we get organised, there's always more to prepare.

Of course the first Christmas was a very different affair. There were no glitzy celebrations, no public holidays, no massive parties. Nobody even knew the exact date on which Jesus, the Son of God, would be born. But the Bible makes it clear that the people of God should nonetheless have been ready for this great event. For hundreds of years they had heard of wonderful prophecies about the coming of a king, and the birth of a child, Emmanuel, God with us. They might not have known how precisely these words were going to be fulfilled, but they should have been looking for, and expecting, something very special to happen.

But when the actual time came, who was ready for that first Christmas?

continued

If taxes, then taxes

2011-12-09T09:35:00.000Z

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour. (Rom 13:7).

I've been thinking a lot about this verse recently, especially with the news overnight that the Prime Minister has vetoed a "Tobin tax" on financial institutions. Paul wrote this verse in the context of a single empire (predominantly European) where there was a relatively uniform system of taxation. The choice was whether to pay the tax or not. In today's global economy, the situation is rather different. If as a large company or wealthy individual you don't like the taxation system in one part of the world, then you move to another. Hence the arguments about whether the 50% top rate of tax is in fact counter-productive (see here) - although some recent research has indicated the highest rate of taxpayers may in fact be paying more (but this could be just a "blip").

So what's wrong with moving your wealth to another part of the world? There are a couple of answers to this question. Firstly, it means that governments end up raising money from those sectors of the society least able to afford it. Indirect taxation such as VAT tends to hit hardest those with the least spending power. Equally the various national lotteries have a similar effect. It's also hard to escape the conclusion that various reforms to the benefit system have also in part been driven by the need to claw back money.

Secondly, there is a basic issue of social responsibility. It seems to me there is a big and as yet not fully worked out debate to be had about the appropriate level of taxation large companies and wealthy individuals should pay in this country. To some extent, those who pay will always say it is too much, and those who watch them pay will say it is too little. Beyond the campaigns and the tented protesters, I believe there needs to be an informed and reasonable debate between all stakeholders in society about what is fundamentally a moral issue.

At the end of the day we are coming to the question of power. As I've argued before, there are unanswered issues about how UK plc is held to account. (The BBC documentary about the Royal Bank of Scotland at the weekend highlighted this question once again). We still tend to think of governments as having the ultimate power over our lives, but - for good or ill - this power often is checked or restricted by the power of public limited companies. We urgently need a 21st century answer to this question, rooted in God-given wisdom.

So how does Rom 13:7 apply to us today?

More than a game

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000Z

Christians who say football is only a game miss the point. Football is a game where people of all ages - and particularly young men - find community and identity. The fellow supporters who sit (or sometimes stand) by you on a freezing winter afternoon with the rain teeming down in buckets aren't just a load of strangers you happen to have bumped into that Saturday. They are your fellow pilgrims in a journey of hope and despair, anxiety and joy. Even though it might cost a good part of your weekly wages to watch your team lose 3-0, you keep coming, because there is a bond with you and your club that is not easily broken. For better and for worse, it is your team, and the passions run deep.

I've seen this over the past year or so with all the tumultuous events at Plymouth Argyle. There the previous board turned a profitable club into a financial basket case with debts of ?£17millon pounds (the exact amount may never be known) - all in the space of three years. And it has to be said, the response of the fans has been magnificent. Over the past ten months they have raised over £50,000 for staff and players and campaigned for the club to have a future, when the most sensible solution would have been to have the club liquidated.

The staff and players themselves kept going without being properly paid all through this time. You have to realise the extraordinary attraction of football to understand just how everyone kept going through this most difficult phase in its history. With the loss of the club, the very identity of the city would have been weakened. I think the new owner has realised this, and we can only hope the present regime will enjoy a stable and fruitful period in charge.

And because football attracts such a deep passion, it is all the more shocking when a player you have known and admired for many a long year, all too soon, and all too tragically dies. It's far too early to comment on the death of Gary Speed (if indeed comment should ever be made). But we need to remember this morning those people who will be providing spiritual support to the shocked, the bereaved and the heartbroken over the coming weeks and months. Football needs its chaplains more than ever, and we need to uphold them in their work.

The coming of the bridegroom - a sermon on Matt 25:1-13

2011-11-17T17:12:00.000Z

Everyone loves a good wedding. As a vicar, I consider it one of the greatest privileges of my job to pronounce a man and woman husband and wife, and to share in the joy of the big day. But of course weddings don't just happen. From the day the happy couple get engaged to the actual date of the marriage, there is just so much to sort out – from where it's all going to take place to who's going to pay for it, and what to do about Great-Aunt Agatha at the reception. It's not too surprising, then, that a whole industry has sprung up to cater for every wedding need, and if you are prepared to pay silly money, all the details can be ironed out for you, from the dress to the flowers to 101 other things you probably had never even thought about.

Of course, even with the best preparation, weddings sometimes still go wrong. We had friends who got married three weeks after us. They had done far more planning than us, even down to timing with a stopwatch how long it took for Lynda to walk down the aisle. But on the day a whole series of things went awry. First of all, the reader of the lesson couldn't get past the bride and groom to the lectern. She was supposed to be reading from 1 John 4, about God is love, but judging from her puzzled expression she must have turned to John 4 instead - The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

Later on, we all had to queue outside in cold April winds to get our photos taken. An hour and a half later the photographer still hadn't finished, and we voted with our feet to get inside the reception. The reception itself was lovely, but there just wasn't enough food. Us locals in the end all went home and got fish and chips. Our friends became a lovely couple, but we still can't help smiling at all the things that happened that day.

Now today's reading from Matthew's gospel is all about a wedding that goes wrong.

continued

A terrible accident

2011-11-06T17:20:00.001Z

Anyone who lives in Devon is very familiar with the M5, and I have been travelling on it most of my life. There are only two major roadlinks out of the peninsula, and only the A38-M5 is dual carriageway/motorway all the way (at least as far as Plymouth). So the news of the horrific accident affects deeply those who live in this part of the world. Our thought and prayers go with all those affected, and with the emergency services who work so hard in such trying and trying circumstances. To think something has happened on a such a familiar and ordinary piece of road is a terrible reminder how tragedy can strike in the most unexpected places.

Holidng UK plc to account

2011-11-02T12:48:00.000Z

Much ink has been spilt about the protests outside St Paul's cathedral, by people better qualified by myself. Whether the protesters are genuine, what they are demanding, and whether the church should take sides are all highly emotional questions. But maybe we should go back to a rather more fundamental question – why do people feel it necessary to protest in this way in the first place?

The answer – and I write as a former chartered accountant – is that it is essentially extremely hard to hold large plcs to account. Many plcs have turnover greater than those of entire countries. Their activities impact on millions of lives directly and indirectly. Yet who actually controls what they do, and how does anyone wronged find redress?

There are several theoretical answers to this. There is a board of directors who are elected annually by the shareholders. But unless there is a pressing issue affecting the company, it is rare for directors to face a genuine contest, and to put forward a coherent case to explain why they are the best choice for the company. There are the non-executive directors who are meant to provide independent scrutiny of the company's activities, and I am sure some of them do an excellent job. But most are directors of other companies elsewhere, and so are part of the same financial system.

Then of course the electorate of a company's directors is the shareholders. In one sense this is right and proper, because they have ventured their capital by investing in the company and this gives them the right to hold the directors and the company to account. But shareholders are not the same as stakeholders. If, for example, a large supermarket decides to demolish the facilities in a town in order to build a superstore on them, this may make excellent financial sense which will reward the shareholders' investment. But those who no longer have a swimming pool, for example, or a venue for their children's nursery, have little right of redress. Of course it could be argued that the democratic process with all the planning laws etc. should act as a check and a balance. But even if this recourse is available, it is often perceived that the process is slow and generally not in favour of those aggrieved.

Some stakeholders try to address the issue by buying shares so they can address the annual general meeting of the company. But again these AGMs are rarely opportunities for genuine democratic debate. The shareholdings of concerned parties tend to be small, and are outweighed by institutional shareholders who are looking in the first instance for the return on their capital to be maintained.

Besides all this, it is wrong to think of each plc as a single monolithic structure. As international operations their trade spans many countries through a network of companies, and with highly sophisticated organisational structures. This is one reason why the big four auditors have a near total oligopoly of top 100 FTSE companies, because there are few other accountancy firms with the resources to audit such large and complex entities. Even then they can never provide a comprehensive assessment of the probity of a plc – merely an assurance that they have evaluated the risk of misstatement of the companies' affairs.

Now I know plcs do try and work hard to try and engage with the public, and not just for reasons of PR. But it seems to me that behind the work of a few anti-capitalist protesters there is a far larger issue. We are dealing with organisations the size of governments which are not subject to the same checks and balances as the affairs of state. Of course they have to operate within the law. They have to report on their environmental impact, and they like to stress their contributions to charity. But to someone on the outside of the company who is directly affected by their actions there seems little way to bring them to account. And until this is adequately and imaginatively tackled, then I am sure we will see increasing numbers of protests and demonstrations, informed or otherwise.

Two kingdoms - a sermon on Matt 22:1-14; Rom 13:1-7

2011-10-18T19:16:00.000+01:00

This was not the easiest sermon to prepare, and trying to make a coherent theology of a Christian's attitude to secular authority in one sermon was quite a tall order. It was also an irony that the reading from Romans was read by a political refugee from Zimbabwe. It's so easy to theorise about our attitude to the state, but you can only imagine what it must be like for believers in a country like that.

St Simon Politicus is a very busy church. Every church member is very aware of what's going on in the world. Each week the vicar stands up and preaches from the latest news headlines. There are regular meetings with local councillors, and groups from the voluntary sector. People willingly volunteer to help with all manner of social projects. At the moment its mission is to become fully carbon-neutral, and the numerous recycling bins in the churchyard have caused a fair amount of local debate.

Down the road St Simon Charismaticus is also a very busy church, but for a very different reason. Its mission is very simple and very clear – to preach the gospel and win souls for heaven. Evangelism and worship are its twin goals. No matter what is happening in the news out there, inside you know you will always get the same focus on saving people from the world. It doesn’t have any recycling bins in the churchyard, but the number of tracts the church regularly hands out across town suggest a recycling facility might not be a bad idea.

As you might image, St Simon Politicus and St Simon Charismaticus rarely see eye to eye about any issue, if indeed they ever meet at all. But the one thing that both churches claim is that they are proclaiming the kingdom of God. Both of them take seriously Jesus' message: The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news! (Mark 1:15). For one, the kingdom of God is all about activity in the here and now, and addressing the political structures of the day. For the other, the kingdom of God is not of this world, and it's only a harvest of souls that truly counts.

So which church do you think is right?

continued

God's invitation - a sermon on Matthew 22:1-14

2011-10-13T16:56:00.001+01:00

We have moved on in our sermon series from the book of James to the parables Jesus told towards the end of Matthew's gospel. We have been focusing this year on the theme of discipleship, and yet it seems to me that we often fail to put our discipleship within an eschatological framework. Jesus' simple yet powerful parables act as a necessary corrective, and force us to address an issue so often swept under the carpet - that of His return as judge and Lord. So here is a recent sermon on God's invitation which tries to take seriously both the need for faith and a converted lifestyle...

I'd like you to think for a moment about the most special invitation you ever received. Has anyone here ever been invited to Buckingham Palace? Or to attend the premiere of a film? Would anyone like to share the most special invitation they have ever received?

So how did you feel when you received that invitation? Honoured, proud, maybe a little bit nervous? Did anyone simply chuck it in the bin or say, "Sorry, it's on a Saturday and I really must catch up on Strictly"? Of course not. You cancelled dates in the diary, you made an appointment with the hairdresser, and most importantly of all you replied to those little letters RSVP. From that point on, you spent the next few months looking forward to that event, planning, preparing, even lying awake at night thinking what it was going to be like.

I want to think about this whole theme of invitation as we come to our reading from Matthew's gospel this morning. It is the story of a king who, as we read in verse 1, has prepared a wedding banquet for his son. Who is this king? On one level the king is the sort of political leader the crowds hearing this story would have been very familiar with – petty tyrants who get upset and are quite happy to burn down cities when their will is refused. That was what politicians were like in those days.

But on another level the king in the story stands for none other than God Himself. We know this because on many occasions Jesus talked about life in God's kingdom as a feast, a banquet, a party. Indeed Jesus Himself often spent time in people's home sharing food and drink, talking and laughing and telling those stories that would later be written down as great pearls of wisdom called parables.

continued

The New Testament for Everyone

2011-09-25T17:20:00.000+01:00

Over the past few years Tom Wright has worked systematically through the New Testament producing his "New Testament for Everyone" series. Each book of the New Testament has received the same treatment. He has provided his own translation of the book, broken down into manageable chunks, and then provided his own devotional thoughts on the reading. His work has helped to deepen and enrich the lives of many believers, and we are all in debt to his work.

Now at the conclusion to this work he has produced "The New Testament for Everyone" which his own complete translation of the New Testament. In many ways it is the J.B.Phillip's translation of its own generation - an attempt to translate the text into modern, readable English and re-engage folk with Scripture.

As a book the SPCK hardback edition looks superb. The print is wonderfully readable, there is no fussing with footnotes, and the paragraph headings stand out clear and bold. There are also many useful diagrams and maps that supplement the text. It looks like the sort of book that asks to be read. It is a triumph of design.

It is also, and this is markedly different from so many translations, a version of the Bible that is easy to read out loud. Tom Wright has simplified so many of the conjunctions which translators tend to trip over and produced short, fluent sentences that are easy to understand. He also adds quite deliberately certain colloquialisms to aid the flow of the text. For example, Mark 1:35: Very early - in the middle of the night, actually - helps to break up a chain of Greek time markers and convey Mark's sense of storytelling. Or again John 3:16: This, you see, is how much God loved the world:enough to give his only special son, so that everyone who believes in him should not be lost but should share in the life of God's new age. This translation should help us to engage with Scripture for what it was always supposed to be, a document to be heard, rather simply processed intellectually. (Let's not forget the practice of reading silently is a relatively recent innovation, after all).

But the quote from John 3:16 also highlights an important issue about this translation. To some degree, translation always involves an element of interpretation, and there is no one translation that perfectly interprets the original text. However this translation shows clearly the theological preferences of the writer, and perhaps illustrates why translation by committee tends to produce the best results. To have eternal life may indeed involve sharing in the life of God's new age, but it is not the whole story. Or again Rom 3:23-24: All sinned and fell short of God's glory - and by God's grace they are freely declared to be in the right, to be members of the covenant, through the redemption which is found in the Messiah, Jesus. To understand justification in terms of membership of God's covenant community reveals the theological agenda of the translator. And for a translation that is meant to be easy to read, it seems that replacing justification with membership of the covenant is simply replacing one abstract concept with another. It certainly seems to go beyond dynamic equivalence.

I for one have less issue with replacing the term Christ with Messiah, because it helps to remind us of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. But this attempt to reflect more accurately the Jewish background of the New Testament produces some unusual results. Readers of this Bible may be surprised to find the book of Judah. It is in fact the book of Jude, and while Judah may be the Hebrew rendition of the Greek name Judas, calling a book by a name other than by the title by which it is known throughout the English-speaking world is bound to cause confusion. On the other hand Judas Iscariot remains Judas Iscariot, not Judah of Karioth.

This leads to another question, of consistency. For example, the opening paragraph of Mark's gospel is entitled The Preaching of John the Baptist but then in verse 4 the prophet is called John the Baptizer. It is hard to see what is gained by renaming John in this way. Later on in Mark 2:1-12 we come across the healing of the paralutikos. The NIV translates this term consistently "paralytic" which nowadays has a slightly unfortunate connotation. To provide colour Tom Wright translates the term in three different ways - paralysed man, cripple, paralytic. It is easy to see why he has done this, but I can envisage this might well cause confusion to someone seeking to make sense of the passage.

Finally the absence of footnotes adds considerably to the layout of the book, but provides little clue to the reader where the quotes have come from. And sometimes phrases are given in quotation marks without any explanation. For example, Mark 10:45: He came to be the servant, to give his life "as a ransom for many". Those are Tom Wright's quotation marks, but the reason is not apparent.

In summary this is a thoughtful, deeply readable translation that will engage the heart and mind. It will help considerably to bring out the flow of the text. But it should not be seen as the main translation for serious study of the Bible, and sometimes the choice of concepts can raise more questions than answers, and point more to the agenda of the translator,which is unfortunate. Do buy it, but use it wisely, and make sure you have at least one other translation at hand.

Ten years on

2011-09-13T20:47:00.001+01:00

The following is a short talk I gave for some residents of a sheltered housing complex last Sunday. Since I gave this talk, I found the following fascinating, and extremely moving, article about church growth in New York after 9/11. This article then took me to an address that Tim Keller, leader of the Redeemer Church in New York, gave at the White House in 2006 which is such a powerful articulation of the Christian hope. Clearly it is not easy to answer the question, “Where was God when the Twin Towers struck?” but it does seem that not even the most terrible and most terrifying evil can frustrate the purposes of God. That, after all, is what we so often so blithely state when talking about the cross and the empty tomb. But it is the witness of those who have found faith in the aftermath that is the most powerful evidence of the triumph of Christ, and it is indeed humbling to read their story.

Anyway, here for what it’s worth, is my own brief reflection on the event.

Every generation has its defining date, one of those occasions when everyone can tell you where they were and what they were doing when some world-changing event of world history happened. I am sure some of you can remember the day peace was declared in Europe, or when the news came in of JFK’s assassination. I am too young for either of those events of course, but I can still tell you where I was when I saw the pictures of the Berlin Wall coming down, and when Princess Diana died.

And of course there’s September 11th 2001. I was in a school playground in Essex at the time. One of the parents came along, a little bit late, with some news of a plane hitting a skyscraper in New York. If I’m honest, I didn’t really believe her – at least, not until I came home and saw the pictures for myself. So hard to explain to children of 6 and 5 what was going on – there are some things it is better for them not to know at that age.

At first the casualty figures were thought to number seven or eight thousand, but the total was revised downwards until a little under three thousand. However before this was confirmed, I had to write an article in the parish magazine for the coming month, and I found myself turning to an obscure and little-known passage in the book of Revelation where John has a vision of prophets being slain, and the beasts rising from the deep, and loud voices from heaven. You’ll be relieved to know I’m not going to read it now, but as I wondered what on earth I could write that would be relevant, I found myself drawn to the end of the chapter, where John says:
At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. (Rev 11:13)

Now I’m not one of those folk who believe the book of Revelation can accurately predict what’s going to be on the news this evening. People make fortunes claiming there is this or that prediction hidden in the Bible, and make all kinds of excuses when their forecasts go wrong. The Bible isn’t a kind of chocolate box where you can take a lucky dip and find a verse that suits you.

But we shouldn’t be surprised that if sometimes there are distant echoes in the Bible of events that happen today. Human nature, after all, remains unchanged, no matter how we think we’re progressing, and God Himself doesn’t change. So, as I struggled to think what to write in that magazine, those images of buildings collapsing, and seven thousand people being killed, and terrified survivors, seemed to resonate with the events of the time.

Like so many other of those dates I listed, September 11th served to remind us of the sheer fragility of human life. We can build vast cities, and generate huge amounts of wealth, and think we are invincible. But it just takes a few mad men, fuelled by hatred and false religion, to remind us of the fact we are still frail, that our life is but a fleeting gift given by the God of heaven, that none of us know how or when our end will come.

It is, I think, significant that the President has ordered September 9th to 11th 2011 to be days of prayer and remembrance. But the question is, what we do with our memories? We can either use them to demonise those who apparently share the same religion as those perpetrators of 9/11 – or we can ourselves come humbly before our Creator God, seeking to follow His way of justice, truth and peace, for however long He grants us to live here on earth.

That’s why I’d like to read some words from the apostle Paul, which seem particularly relevant on this day:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:17-21)

Words, I believe, which we all need to take to heart, not just on an anniversary such as this, or in relation to the epoch-making dates of history, but day by day, in our own lives, as we seek to give glory to God.

2011-09-09T18:28:00.000+01:00

It's funny how certain verses from the Bible stick with you. As we've been going through the book of James, I have been particularly struck by chapter 5, verse 4: Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The application of this verse to the sorry situation at our local club, Plymouth Argyle, has been almost painful. Staff and players have not been paid in full since last December. The club itself entered administration in March, victim of owners with grand visions of hosting World Cup matches, but with little desire to fund their ambitions. A possible buyer emerged in May but every deadline for the new owner to seal the bid has failed. We are now in September, the club is at the bottom of the league, and its very survival is at jeopardy.

It's not just a case of one club falling on hard times. It's a litany of broken promises, arcane business dealings, and interested parties being, at best, economical with the truth. Meanwhile the players are wondering if they can survive any longer on their hand to mouth existence, and it's not surprising their performances have suffered.

As James reminds us, this is not just a business issue. It's also a profoundly moral one. The Bible has a lot to say about the ethics of wage payments, and with good reason. Prompt payment for work done is a basic matter of justice, and there is a serious human cost when payment, for whatever reason, is avoided.

For my part, I've joined the Argyle Fans Trust - and it's well worth visiting their website if you want any further information. We're also praying about the situation in church, because if football club goes, then the effect on the city will be profound. We've just lost our airport. To lose our football club as well would be disastrous.

Being humble - a sermon on James 4:1-12

2011-08-31T11:41:00.000+01:00

I've become rather remiss at posting my sermons on this blog lately. I preached this just over three weeks ago, on my return from holiday. I had to rewrite my introduction in view of recent news... a reminder how quickly events change even when you are away for only a couple of weeks.

It's amazing how fast headlines change. When I wrote this sermon nearly three weeks ago, the major news story of the day was the phone hacking scandal at News International. The affair had dominated the headlines for a good few months already, and there seemed no reason to believe this situation would change. Then of course came the unprecedented riots which have shifted the focus away totally from this story – at least for now.

But I want to return to the News International story because there's something Rupert Murdoch said which I think provides a suitable introduction to our theme this morning. Concerning his appearance before a parliamentary select committee he said, and I quote, "This is the most humble day of my life".

Ever since Mr Murdoch uttered that sentence I've been thinking about his use of the word "humble". Indeed, if you've visited the church website, you'll know I've already blogged on this subject. Because it seems to me that he chose the wrong word to use. After all, we can talk about a person being humble. We can talk about someone living in humble circumstances. But can a day be humble? I'm not sure it can, and I suspect that Mr Murdoch meant to say, "humiliating" rather than "humble"

continued

The need for practical faith

2011-08-31T11:36:00.002+01:00

Three scenarios that seem to play out fairly frequently in the lives of nations around the world:

An opposition party sweeps away the ruling party which is seen as inefficient, stale and unable to deliver change. A couple of years later the opposition party finds itself at an all-time low in the polls. It in turn is under attack from the former ruling party which is now seen as having a better programme for change for the country.

A nation is liberated from a repressive dictatorship. Amid wild celebrations a new government is formed, promising major reforms and rapid reconstruction of the shattered economy. But early promise does not translate into effective action. Frustrated revolutionaries begin to complain about the slow state of progress, the problems the new government face seem to be far more difficult to overcome than they first imagined.

Disaffected youth riot on the streets. Everyone agrees this is completely unacceptable behaviour and that something must be done. But a generation on, despite all the money poured into a multitude of programmes, the issues essentially remain the same.

What has gone wrong? When I first thought about this, I was going to say that it’s easier to know what you are against, than what you stand for. But actually that is wrong. There seem to be some fairly universal principles that people agree that are good things – such as peace and security and rights for all. When you are in opposition, you can afford to deal mainly in principles because you are not in power. But when it comes to taking positive action, the question arises as to how you put those principles into action.

The cry of the French Revolution – liberte, egalite, fraternite – was inspiring because it summed up exactly what was wrong with the nation at the time. But when the revolutionaries got into power, the results were disastrous. That is admittedly an extreme example. But it seems that almost any government has a hard time putting the principles they believe in into detailed, practical action. Liberte, egalite, fraternite do not directly help solve the problem of waste management, for example, or how to get traffic moving.

And there’s a challenge in all this for us as Christians. It’s easy to decry the world around us as not living according to God’s standards. Indeed we have an obligation at times to speak out directly about injustice and violence. But it seems to me that we need to go beyond that and promote a positive example of what it means to put God’s kingdom into practice. If it is true that the government is upon Jesus’ shoulders (Is 9:6), then we need to live as ambassadors of that government.

I am at the moment reading William Hague’s biography of William Wilberforce who became the great parliamentary campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade. When Wilberforce was first converted, however, he seriously considered for a time withdrawing from public life. If he had followed this course of action, so much of the social change at the turn of the 19th century would not have happened, or at least taken a very different course. How we need wise men and women today who like Wilberforce are prepared to turn Christian convictions into solid, tangible action and show the relevance, and indeed the necessity, of following Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

Who will fill the void?

2011-08-19T10:35:00.001+01:00

I can't offer anything new to add to the already excellent points many others have said about the riots. Plymouth thankfully escaped any disturbance, even if one 11 year-old did try to organise a riot outside Poundland. When it all kicked off, I was on holiday in leafy East Devon, reading Andrew Marr's personal take on politics since 1945, a History of Modern Britain.

Yet it seemed to me there was something of a connection between what I was reading and what I was seeing on the screens. Andrew Marr's description of the liberalisations of the 1960s was both thought-provoking and illuminating, as he detailed how in just one decade restrictions on obscenity, homosexuality, divorce and abortion were all lifted. At the time many of these liberalisations were the ideas of just a cultural and political elite yet over the past 50 years they have gradually been filtered down into the mainstream and many of the old norms have been swept away.

What Andrew Marr does not do – he is a political commentator, after all, not a religious one – is analyse the impact of these liberalisations upon the church. Yet it seems to me that in many ways the church is still grappling with the agenda of the 1960s. Because the response of the established church was ambiguous, with some welcoming and some resisting the changes, the church lost its voice in the public arena and was seen to have little to say about the major issues affecting society. If you didn’t like what one church said on an issue, you could always move to another. The church grew increasingly weak and divided, and hence more and more an irrelevance to public discourse.

Yet at the same time as the liberalisations filtered down into the mainstream, the effects on traditional family structures were profound and damaging. So many people in their commentary on the riots have talked about the loss of a moral compass, and the breakdown in family life. I can’t help thinking that many of the young people out on the streets are the grandchildren on the 1960s and they have never encountered a church with a strong, clear and relevant message. The church gives the impression it is essentially a club for the elderly, the middle-class and the weak.

And this situation will remain until the church abandons its insistence on listening, and starts to speak as one on issues that matter today. While I have many issues with the Catholic church, I cannot deny the warm welcome given to the Pope last year in Britain was because he had something to say, in words that people could understand and relate to, even if they profoundly disagreed.

God's love for all - James 2:1-12, Luke 14:1-14

2011-07-25T11:11:00.000+01:00

I wonder how many people have come across the children's book "Guess how much I love you"? It's the simple story of Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare who as the evening draws in try to express how much they love each other. It ends up with one of them saying, "I love you all the way to the moon and back" and then Little Nutbrown Hare falls asleep in Big Nutbrown Hare's arms. If you haven’t come across it, before then I recommend it as a present for any child or grandchild. It's a wonderful and very simple story about that most precious gift of all – love.

For a lot of people God's love is often a matter of guesswork. As they look out on the big wide world, they start to wonder, "Is there a God out there?" "Does God really love me?" "How can I sure?" Most people I come across, even if they don’t claim to be religious, have some sense there's a God out there somewhere. But who is, and what He's like, well, that's another story. I listen to a lot of music, and I find when I can make out the lyrics, so many songs are all about people hoping, wondering, praying that there's a god or some higher being who loves and cares for them.

And if you're in that place this morning, if you're wondering and hoping there might be some kind of god who actually loves you, then I have some good news for you. Because the Christian faith takes the guesswork out of God. We don't have to stand out on a moonlight night, and guess how much He loves us. Because Jesus has come and shown us what God is like. He has shown us God's love, God's mercy, God's sheer and wonderful goodness. And above all us He has shown us the power of God to change and mend broken lives by dying for us on a cross and three days later rising again.

That's the reason why we're gathered here this morning, as indeed why we gather on any morning. Because Jesus is alive. He has paid the price for all the wrong things I have ever thought or said or done. He has opened up the way back to God as our loving Heavenly Father. And He has given us the free, undeserved gift of eternal life. Not because of who we are, not because we are good enough, clever enough or wise enough to deserve that gift. But quite simply because He loves us. Because He loves you, and you, and you, and me as well.

continued

Most humble

2011-07-20T12:07:00.002+01:00

This is the most humble day of my life

This emerged as the most stand-out quote from Rupert Murdoch's appearance before the parliamentary select committee yesterday. It got me thinking about the use of the word "humble". We talk about people being humble. Someone may live in a humble abode or in humble circumstances. But can a day be humble? I wonder if Mr Murdoch, the newspaper proprietor, really meant "humble" or "humiliating".

But then perhaps we ought not to be harsh. The word "humble" is widely misunderstood. It tends to be associated with Uriah Heap who contrary to his own profession was not ever so 'umble. Or in the old days letter writers would close obsequiously "your humble and obedient servant" as if to curry favour.

In Hebrew the word "humble" is closely connected with the word for "poor". What started out as a simple description of someone's economic situation developed into a rich complex ideas, indicating poverty of spirit, recognition of God, and a reliance on His provision. In the prophecy of Zephaniah, for example, the faithful remnant of Israel are encouraged to seek righteousness, seek humility before the Lord visits the nation in judgement (Zeph 2:3). The Lord promises that after His judgement I will leave within you the meek and the humble, who trust in the name of the Lord (Zeph 3:12). There is a rich spiritual dimension to the word humble, which at its heart describes a proper understanding of your own relationship to the Lord.

In the Old Testament this concept of humility extends beyond one particular economic class. For the true test of power according to the prophets is seen in the way the rich and the powerful treat those who are themselves poor and needy. The humble are not seen as vulnerable people to be exploited and manipulated, but as those to be defended and protected, by those who themselves know their need of God.

I can only pray that all those involved in this sorry saga in the end learn the true meaning of humility. Not just for their own sake, but for the sake of society as a whole.

Why not nationalise Southern Cross?

2011-07-14T20:27:00.000+01:00

Southern Cross, I realise, is not a bank. The collapse of the company does not have a noticeable effect on the worldwide economy. It does not have a turnover equivalent to the GDP of a fairly successful state. But it is a company that provides care for 30,000 elderly people. The future of many of these elderly people is under serious threat. If the test of a society is how well it looks after its vulnerable people, then I would argue that these people are of more value than that of any bank.

OK, there are all kinds of problems with this solution, both practical and political. But the existing model of providing care for the vulnerable is hardly working well either. And the idea that a similar kind of business model can be provided to other public services would seem to be profoundly mistaken. In the article linked the prime minister believes that advocacy and community champions would safeguard the delivery of services. Sadly the most vulnerable often do not have a voice, and when they do speak, their voice is all too often ignored.

Facing many trials - a sermon on James 1:1-15

2011-07-14T20:14:00.000+01:00

It's been striking how many passages I have preached on recently have had a direct application to a particualr situation. A few weeks back, I preached on "Love your neighbour as yourself" and a member of a congregation was attacked in the street by the woman next door. As we were looking at this passage in our Bible study group last night, there was a lady sitting in the church pondering a difficult issue she had to make the next day. "If any of you lack wisdom..." says James in 1:5. I hope the verse spoke to her today!

Anyway, here is the sermon I preached on this passage from James a few days ago...

How many people here have ever taken part in some kind of endurance event? Do we have anyone here who has run a marathon, maybe, or been involved in a long-distance cycle ride? I understand that one of the biggest dangers a marathon runner faces is something called "hitting the wall". You are about 20 miles into the race when your body burns up its last supply of energy. The reserves you have built up in your liver and your muscles run out, and suddenly you are overwhelmed with fatigue, and sheer exhaustion. Unless you immediately take on more calories, the chances are you will no longer be able to complete the race. It's a serious issue which, if not recognised, can damage your health long term, and it's one of the reasons why runners and cyclists prepare for races so thoroughly and so professionally.

Now today we are starting a new sermon series on the book of James and although there is some disagreement over the date, it seems most likely it was written about 20 years after Jesus' death to various groups of Jewish Christians who were in spiritual terms in danger of hitting the wall. There is no evidence that there was any heresy or false teaching that was undermining their faith. They had been faithful followers of Jesus even in the most difficult of circumstances. But their spiritual reserves were drying up in the face of severe pressures that were threatening to overwhelm them.

continued

Towards a renewed urban ministry

2011-06-26T16:22:00.000+01:00

Occasionally you read an article which makes you realise you are not alone in your thinking. One such I read this morning was by the Bishop of Lichfield which made the same point I have making for years - that the eucharist, although valuable, tends to exclude the fringe and the young. I am increasingly coming across people who used to go to church but have been put off by the formality and ceremonial of the rites being offered. The baptism couple who witnessed a 2 hour baptism service on Easter Sunday with all the trimmings, the enquirer who left her children at home because she thought they would upset the service. I find people are quite receptive to the Christian faith, but have been deterred by the whole thought of church because what they have been offered there has been religion and rite.

However I know this view is not necessarily a popular one. I know of one bishop who believes that "the Eucharist makes the church" and teaches ordinands the same. Not only do I consider this view wrong, I also believe it serious impairs the mission of the church to the poorest and the most vulnerable. Faith comes through hearing, and I believe that we need to strip away so much in order that the gospel can be clearly heard.

This of course begs the question what model does work in an urban context. Some of course would argue the importance of pioneer ministry and fresh expressions, and I have much sympathy with the attempt to begin something fresh and new. But these models tend to work on a network model, which is less than useful when you are dealing with those who are outside networks and relatively immobile. Some would do away with the priority of preaching and concentrate on meeting social need. While they might have an impact on the neighbourhood, this model of church loses sight of the fact we are not just another social organisation, and our goal is to produce faith through hearing.

This is why over the years I have come more and more to the view that what we need is a renewed parish model. One which emphasises the unfashionable things like visiting and pastoral care, one which is deeply rooted in the word of God but communicates that word simply, clearly and relevantly, one which promotes a church culture that is open to outsiders. The trouble is, there are so few models around of what this might look like in practice in the 21st century. After nearly nine years in post, I feel like I am still feeling my way towards this goal. But if there are others out there who see urban mission in the same way, I would love to hear from you.

Witnesses to Jesus - a sermon on Acts 1:1-11

2011-06-26T15:56:00.000+01:00

This is another baptism sermon which I preached this morning. It also marked the end of our current sermon series on the theme of discipleship.

Introducing the Theme

This morning I thought I'd begin by doing a little experiment, but to do this I need about three or four volunteers, of all ages. Do I have anyone who's willing to come forward? That's great. Now I'm not going to ask you to do anything hard. In fact I'm not asking you to do anything at all. All I want to do is test your memory and see how well you remember things.

Under this cloth on the tray I have a fairly random selection of objects. I am going to give you exactly thirty seconds to look at these objects and then I am going to cover the tray up again. I will then ask you what you remember. And if that's too easy, then I'm going to ask you some questions about these objects. Do you think you can do that?

The subject I am going to look at this morning is about "being witnesses". Can any of the younger ones tell me what a witness is? A witness is someone who sees something important happen and is asked to tell what he or she can remember. For example, you have witnesses in a court of law, or when someone is making a claim on their insurance. A few months ago we were involved in a fairly minor shunt in Dorset and I had to describe to the insurance company exactly what happened. I can remember some clear details about the accident, but I have to confess I can't remember everything.

And why are witnesses so important? Witnesses help establish what really happened. Think, for example of Moses growing up in Egypt. One day he killed an Egyptian and buried his body. He thought he had got away with the crime because there seemed to be no-one else about. But actually some people did see what Moses did, and they told Pharaoh, and Moses had to flee into the desert to escape being punished. Witnesses are important. They help us to get at the truth and uncover the facts of what really happened.

continued

A Pentecost sermon

2011-06-14T17:20:00.000+01:00

Disciple or Apprentice?

How many people here watch the Apprentice? I am not a big fan of reality TV shows and I have to confess I have never managed to watch a whole episode. But my understanding of the show is that, in the original format, a group of contestants came together to compete for the chance to work with Lord Sugar. Each week they carried out a task and at the end one of them was fired, until eventually in the last episode there was one person left standing and they heard the magic words "You're hired!". Is that about right?

Over the past few weeks at St Michael's we have been thinking about the whole issue of discipleship. We have seen how a disciple is someone who recognises Jesus' authority, who seeks to follow Him and aims to live for Him. The word "disciple" itself is in fact simply the Latin word for "learner" and if we consider ourselves a disciple of Jesus, it implies that we have embarked on a life-long process of learning from Jesus as Lord and Master and Saviour through prayer, through reading the Bible, through meeting together in worship.

So the question I want to ask this morning is this: in what ways is our Christian life as a disciple different from, or similar to, being an apprentice?

continued

Loving our neighbour as ourselves

2011-06-05T16:03:00.000+01:00

I've been experimenting recently with breaking my sermons into two, to provide a simple setting of the scene at the start of the service, followed by my main talk later on. Here's an example where I retold the story of the Good Samaritan, with a picture of modern day Jericho as my backdrop.

This was the fifth part of our series on discipleship, based on Matt 28:18-20.

Setting the Scene

A journey from Jerusalem towards Jericho is a journey out towards the desert. As you leave the city walls behind and begin to descend towards the Jordan valley, the countryside becomes browner and more parched. The only trees you see are rows and rows of date palms. Camels pass by, as the favoured beast of burden. From time to time you see a nomad with a herd of sheep and goats, although what the animals eat amid all the dirt and dust is really quite unclear.

Of course nowadays you can make the journey in the comfort of an air-conditioned coach. But in Jesus' day – unless you were very wealthy – you had to make the journey on foot. Ideally you'd want to make your journey in the cool of the day. But you have to be careful you don’t end up out on the road when it is dark. The sun sets quickly in those parts, after all. And if at all possible, you'd want to avoid travelling on your own. Oh yes, the Romans try and keep law and order. But there are hungry, desperate people out there who would steal anything given half a chance – even the clothes off your back.

So here is a man on his own setting out on this journey. For some reason he doesn't have any companions. The day's getting hotter now. He's concentrating on keeping going, making sure he reaches the shade and cool of Jericho before it gets too late. He doesn't see the band of thugs coming up behind him. It's all over in a flash really. A few blows, and down he goes, half-naked, bleeding, almost unconscious.

continued

It was the end for some

2011-05-22T15:32:00.000+01:00

Over the past couple of weeks I have been following the excellent channel 4 series 24 hours in A&E - a wonderfully shot documentary which serves as a salutary reminder of the frailty of human existence. One wrong judgement on a motorcycle, one wobble on a ladder, and your earthly life is changed forever, if not indeed cut short.

I was thinking about this documentary as the media gloated over yet another failed prediction of the rapture. Of course we knew that the rapture wasn't going to happen on 21 May 2011, indeed I have huge problems with the very idea of a rapture. Yet for some people the 21 May 2011 was the end of their earthly existence. Maybe they were planning to go an After-Rapture party to celebrate the folly of human religion. Maybe they posted a message on Facebook to let their friends what they would be doing at 6pm. Yet whatever they intended, they never managed to carry it out.The Lord in His wisdom decided this would be the day their life would be demanded of them (cf. Luke 12:20).

One of the charges in the ordinal to those about to be priested is "to prepare the dying for their death". While that indeed is a proper calling, actually there is a real and urgent sense in which we as a church need to regain our mission to prepare everyone for the ultimate reality of judgement before the throne of God. I am not saying we should return to fire and brimstone preaching that aims to frighten people in faith. But I am saying that when people look at us the church they should see a group of people who are themselves convinced by the urgent necessity of a personal faith in Jesus Christ.

All too often however it seems to me that we get so hung up on the minutiae of ceremonies, and the maintenance of buildings, and advocating secular concerns we do not communicate what we are really all about. We offer the outer trappings of religion without the inner core of a living relationship with our Saviour. And when that is all we offer, we are, as J.C.Ryle reminded us in his classic book Practical Religion over a century ago, peddling unreality - a form of religion that proves ultimately useless when the Lord decides to call us home.

To quote from the man himself:

"If you want a religion to be any use to your soul, beware of unreality! If you would not be comfortless in death, and hopeless in the judgement day, be genuine, be real, be true ".

So, yes, of course there was no rapture. But did we just join in the mockery or did we think how well we are preparing others to meet the Lord when their end comes?

Wish I could play them blues

2011-05-13T20:04:00.000+01:00

We didn't listen to much music at home. If there was any, it was always light classical. I had piano lessons from an early age, and I learnt to play by sight, not by ear. My sister had some records in her room, but as she moved out when I was still young I had little idea what she was really listening to. Then when I was about 12 I remember hearing "I surrender" by Rainbow. For some reason I got blown away by this record, and this led to a brief flirtation with heavy metal, and a rather more lasting addiction to the Friday Night Rock Show on Radio 1 (taping your favourite tracks off the radio was cutting edge technology then). Gradually my musical tastes evolved, and via Eric Clapton I discovered the 1960s blues-inspired rock of groups like Free, Cream, Fleetwood Mac. But I discovered no matter how much I tried I could only play by sight, and I was firmly wedded to the classical repertoire of Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn et al. (although I have learnt a bit of Billy Mayerl along the way).

Then today I bought Let them talk by Hugh Laurie. I really wish I had learnt to play like that. But I can't. Envy aside, it's a great record. Just to thing to chill out to at the end of a day off. Now I better go off and practise some scales...

Let's pray for William and Kate

2011-04-28T14:03:00.000+01:00

Two contrasting news stories have caught my eye this week.

On the one hand there is of course the royal wedding, and it’s hard not to tune onto the TV to hear yet another story about what’s going to be happening tomorrow. We have even got to the stage where reporters are interviewing other reporters about their coverage. But notwithstanding all the hype and the wall-to-wall coverage I have to say I am looking forward to tomorrow’s big day.

On the other hand there is the rather bizarre story from the United States where it appears Barack Obama has had to produce his birth certificate to prove to the world he was born on American soil and therefore eligible to be president. It all sounds a rather silly, over the top kind of event that could only happen over there – but it seems to me it raises an important point about the difference between a monarchy and a presidency. With the monarchy you know where you stand. There is no question of the origin of the Queen or her family, and even Kate Middleton’s own pedigree has been extensively investigated. With a presidency, it always seems to me, there is always a bit of an issue of whether the person you elect really is the person he claims to be. I remember teaching in Austria with pictures of then president Kurt Waldheim in every classroom, which was a bit difficult considering all the rumours about his military service during the Second World War.

Of course the monarchy is not perfect. It is possible for traditions to harden, to become inflexible and out of steps with the time (just look at the Church of England if you want an example!). But it seems that William and Kate represent a renewal and a step forward for the institution, and they fully deserve our prayers:

- that they would be found worthy of the responsibility placed upon their shoulders as the future King and Queen of England.
- that they would keep their marriage vows and be an example of life-long faithfulness to one another.
- that the faith they profess tomorrow would be a reality for them, and they would know the guidance of the Holy Spirit day by day.

Let’s all hold them in our prayers and also remember those who are leading this act of worship tomorrow. After all, it’s not every day you have a church service broadcast to 2 billion people.

The power, promises and presence of God - a sermon on Matt 28:1-10

2011-04-24T15:46:00.000+01:00

I should just explain that the photo I used in this sermon came not from Jerusalem itself but from a first century tomb in Nazareth. Still, it was a brilliant visual aid.

I want you to think, if you can, of a moment when something dramatic, something unexpected, interrupted your life. It might be, for example, that each day you parked your car in a particular space, and one day you returned to find that it was gone. Or it might be that you worked at a particular factory for years, until one day you turned up and discovered a notice on the gates to say that it had been closed down. I guess most, if not all of us, have a particular story of when something completely out of the blue changed our life forever. And without wishing to stir up too many unpleasant memories, I am sure you can still remember the feelings of shock and anger and confusion when you realised what had happened.

continued

Photos from Israel

2011-04-20T16:18:00.000+01:00

I haven't had much time to post since I returned from Israel, but I've put some pictures and Easter meditations on the church blog - hope you enjoy them!

Not sure about this one

2011-04-02T14:11:00.000+01:00

Just a brief post before I head off to Israel for a couple of weeks, another in my occasional series "Bad hymnology".

I've noticed recently a revival of the old hymn "I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene". It's got a lovely tune and like any good hymn the words draw our focus on the saving work of Christ. But I have to say I have real problems with the second verse:

For me it was in the garden He prayed
"Not My will, but Thine":
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

It seems to me this comes dangerously close to a docetist understanding of Jesus. I cannot presume to fully understand Jesus' humanity, but I think Gethsemane was the place where Jesus had to confront His own very real and very human fears. We can so easily turn the message of the cross into what Jesus has done for me - as if me, rather Jesus, was the centre of the story. And when we do that, then the gospel becomes a kind of therapy rather than the propitiation of just and holy and loving God.

Laws LJ v. John, apostle and evangelist

2011-03-01T11:14:00.000Z

I am still mulling over these remarkable words quoted in yesterday’s court judgement against a Pentecostal couple who wished to continue fostering children…

Laws LJ in the case Islington Town Council v. Ladele

The Judea-Christian tradition, stretching over many centuries, has no doubt exerted a profound influence upon the judgment of law-makers as to the objective merits of this or that social policy, and the liturgy and practice of the established church are to some extent prescribed by law. But the conferment of any legal protection or preference upon a particular substantive moral position on the ground only that it is espoused by the adherents of a particular faith, however long its tradition, however rich its culture, is deeply unprincipled; it imposes compulsory law not to advance the general good on objective grounds, but to give effect to the force of subjective opinion. This must be so, since, in the eye of everyone save the believer, religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence. It may, of course, be true, but the ascertainment of such a truth lies beyond the means by which laws are made in a reasonable society. Therefore it lies only in the heart of the believer who is alone bound by it; no one else is or can be so bound, unless by his own free choice he accepts its claims.

The promulgation of law for the protection of a position held purely on religious grounds cannot therefore be justified; it is irrational, as preferring the subjective over the objective, but it is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary. We do not live in a society where all the people share uniform religious beliefs. The precepts of any one religion, any belief system, cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic. The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments. The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the State, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself.

So it is that the law must firmly safeguard the right to hold and express religious beliefs. Equally firmly, it must eschew any protection of such a belief's content in the name only of its religious credentials. Both principles are necessary conditions of a free and rational regime.

The best way to answer these words seems to come from John’s gospel (quoted here in the NIV from Bible gateway).

John 1:1-14

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² He was with God in the beginning.

³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Several points emerge from this passage which I think form a fitting response to the ruling of the Lord Justice:

1. First of all, the Christian faith is all about the communication of God. Right at the heart of its message is the claim that God has communicated Himself through His Son in creation and in the gospel. It is one thing to say that religious faith is subjective, it is quite another to say that it is incommunicable. What has the church been doing over the past two thousand years, if not communicating the good news of Jesus Christ?

2. Secondly, the reason why Judeo-Christian values exercised such a profound influence over such a long period in law was not the result of giving effect to subjective opinion. The Christian understanding of common grace is that, to quote the language of John, light shines in the darkness. We should not therefore be surprised if sometimes there is common ground between those who hold to a Christian faith and those who do not. In other words, many of the Judeo-Christian values enshrined in law arise not just from the opinion of a particular faith community but because they are also generally accepted by those who do not necessarily subscribe to that viewpoint.

3. Thirdly, the judge is getting into very difficult territory if he is claiming to be able to distinguish between the subjective and the objective, the irrational and the rational. If postmodernism has taught us anything, it is to approach such claims with the deepest suspicion. Again, John’s gospel teaches us that our own natural understanding is limited and imperfect because of our sin and imperfection. Yet here is someone who seems to be standing over and above “religion” – whatever he might mean by this term.

4. “The precepts of any one religion, any belief system, cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other”. Yet by the very nature of this judgement a secular belief system is sounding louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. The etymology of “religion” is that which fastens or binds, and it seems here that we are heading towards the creation of a new religion with which the state will seek to bind its citizens.

5. Finally, I wonder if there are any limits on the statement: “The promulgation of law for the protection of a position held purely on religious grounds cannot therefore be justified”. John’s gospel teaches that the whole of life is lived under the authority of God, so that there is no more a religious sphere of life than a cultural, or a societal. This ruling clearly indicates that we have only seen the beginning of clashes between Christians who seek to live their whole lives in obedience to the gospel of Christ and the state who see religion as something which should confined to the purely private and personal and have no bearing on public life. We are rapidly returning to the situation the early church faced where we will have to bear the full legal and political consequences of confessing Jesus as Lord.

The big society isn't going to work here

2011-02-24T21:17:00.000Z

More depressing headlines from the local paper highlighting the differences between the richest and the poorest areas of the city...

Who's going to pick up the slack when local public services are cut? I just can't see private businesses and charities being able to pick up the slack.

In the meanwhile, the Greek tragedy that is the recent history of Plymouth Argyle is reaching its climax with the threat of administration and the club at the bottom of the league with a ten point penalty.

This city needs so much prayer.

Church and culture

2011-02-07T21:11:00.001Z

I'm on sabbatical at the moment, so my posts over the next few weeks will probably be even more sporadic than usual, especially as I am trying to be very disciplined as to how much time I spend on the Internet. But two articles I read recently caught my eye:

A piece from Peter Ould on cathedral worship

and from that article, a piece from Nigel Scotland on the Eucharist

Nigel's Scotland piece on the Eucharist is especially thought provoking. My immediate pastoral response would be to say that where there is a congregation with a high proportion of vulnerable adults, it is probably less appropriate to share the communion service in homes. In any case, the homes of NT times were more households and micro-communities rather than the nuclear households we have today, so a small congregation of 30-40 which is roughly the size of church I lead is about the same as a household then. But his article reinforces for me several key points.

First of all, we should call the service Holy Communion because it is about discerning the body of Christ in both senses of that expression.

Secondly, we should never use individual wafers or cups. There should be a common loaf and a common cup (although this is more problematic when you are ministering to alcoholics).

Thirdly, our liturgy should stress far more the corporate aspect of our service. Not the free for all of the peace, but the solemn exhortation that "ye who intend to live in love and charity with your fellow man" (I don't have my BCP to hand so I am probably misquoting). It is actually our frequent celebration of Holy Communion that devalues it, and there's a lot to be said to revive the old tradition of announcing it in advance and expecting folk to properly reconcile themselves to their fellow believers before partaking of it.

In a roundabout way this brings me on to the one of the books I am (re-)reading at the moment - dynamics of spiritual life by Richard Lovelace. Yes, it was written 30 years ago. Yes, it is American. Yes, some of his theology is rather suspect. But his observations about church life are spot on. At one point he talks about the relationship between church and culture and observes of the church that, when basic understanding and appropriation of justification of faith is lacking, either it will suffer destructive enculturation, absorbing elements of its host cultures which it should discern and suppress as unholy, or it will try to recreate once again the Old Testament protective enculturation. (pp.191-192)

Making a sweeping generalisation we can see these two tendencies in liberal and catholic theology. Because liberalism rejects the authority of Scripture it forms some unlikely and unhealthy alliances with secular culture, while catholicism adopts an Old Testament model of ecclesiology which protects itself from the outside world, but is incomprehensible to those who want to access it. As one small example, on the day I left to go on sabbatical I was informed that an image of St Richeldis would be resting in the diocese in a few weeks time. (Reformation? What reformation?) I might also add that liberal theology seems to have adopted more and more a catholic ecclesiology so that it retains some measure of spiritual distinctiveness. That's why, for instance, a liberal church near me has adopted the mission statement "to bring people to the Eucharist and other expressions of Christian worship".

But before I start throwing too many stones from my own Evangelical glasshouse, I recognise that so often what goes on in my own Anglican circles are so often a product of either inherited church culture or culture around me that I have subconsciously absorbed. So here are few suggestions about what we ought to do with our own style of worship:

Make sure all songs can actually be sung by the congregation, and are written with their participation in mind.
Ensure that the songs have a theology consistent with Scripture.
Avoid wearing vestments ( a dog collar is useful in the same way as the badge a man wears when he calls to read the meter).
Use liturgy that accords with Scripture.
Make sure you can fit the words on either folded A5 or double-sided A4. (Haven't managed this yet for Holy Communion, but the words I give folk in nursing homes fit the bill).
Simplify collects of their Pseudo-Elizabethan language and never have any part of the service in a foreign language e.g. Latin.
Make sure that sermons focus on the Bible and treat it as the word of God
Never do anything in the service unannounced. Make sure there are clear and concise explanations for anyone new.
Make the intercessions relevant to the concerns of the folk who are there.
Above all, preach and teach with the simplicity that comes from a depth of study. Make it plain the response folk should make to the word of God being preached.

Well, that all sounds easy from the safe distance of a sabbatical. I am sure there are some points I have missed out. When I have had more time to reflect, I might refine this list. But this is enough to be going on with!

Experience or fruit?

2011-01-23T17:26:00.000Z

It is interesting that I had a comment on my last sermon which focused on this sentence: He (Jesus) wanted me to pause and reflect for a moment, whether I really was wanting to follow Him, or was just responding to the occasion and therefore likely to fall away at any moment.

We were looking this week in our Bible study group at these verses from Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV):

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

This passage always raises questions such as the final perseverance of the saints, the assurance of salvation and the doctrine of "once saved, always saved". But it seems to me that the key to understanding it comes in the next couple of verses:

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

If you look carefully at these people who fell away they had enjoyed all the experiences of the Christian faith. They had tasted the heavenly gift, they had shared in the Holy Spirit. But the writer to the Hebrews gives no indication that their experience led to obedience. Rather the following verses suggest quite strongly that for all their experience these people who fell away failed to produce the fruit that such acquaintance with the Christian faith should reasonably be expected to produce.

This interpretation is reinforced when we consider that Jesus uses exactly the same language of thorns and thistles in Matthew 7:16. There Jesus goes on to make the point that it is possible even to prophesy and drive out demons in His name but not to enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because what Jesus is looking for is the fruit of obedience that comes from faith. Despite their spectacular gifts, these prophets and exorcists were actually "workers of lawlessness" (translating Matt 7:23 literally).

This is why I get so worried when Christian media focus on dramatic experiences, or when I come across Christians who travel from one church to another in search of a particular blessing. Faithful obedience isn't the kind of stuff that hits the spiritual headlines...but it's what Jesus is looking for. Faithful obedience shows that the heart has been properly converted, and it's from a truly converted heart that good fruit comes forth.

And with that thought, I head off for my sabbatical tomorrow...

Nathanael's story- a sermon on John 1:43-51

2011-01-20T19:58:00.000Z

Behind DC1 in a deep cutting is the main London-Penzance railway line (it's where some of the first church ended up after four incendiary bombs landed on it in 1941) and it's quite possible to look out of the window and watch the local bird life flying in and out of the tops of the trees along this cutting. Whether any of the congregation heard my sermon is a moot point, as apparently there was a buzzard flying up and down the line at the time. It obligingly perched on a branch just below our coffee area after the service, although it flew away before anyone could take a photo.

Anyway, this is one of my narrative sermons which aims to give a fresh persepctive on a well-known gospel story. Best read when not bird-watching!

Hello. My name is Nathanael. You may not have heard of me before, although you may have heard of my other name, Bartholomew. Since the Simpsons came on air, I prefer to be called Nathanael. But no matter, you can call me what you like. Actually, it feels a little bit strange to be out here speaking on my own. I would much rather be in the background, not like my friend Philip who’s always out and about as an upfront evangelist. I guess it takes all types to follow Jesus – and I’m definitely the quieter, more reserved kind.

So why am I speaking to you today? Well, the other day my friend John came to see me. It seems he has this idea of writing a new gospel about Jesus, one that gives a different angle on His life and teaching. And he’s looking for material that hasn’t necessarily been covered by Matthew or Mark or Luke. I poured him a glass of wine and we began to talk. I shared a little of my background and what it was like growing up in Cana in Galilee. We put together our memories of the miracles Jesus did there, that wedding where Jesus turned all that water in wine, the occasion where Jesus met the royal official with the dying son. As we carried on chatting, John began making some rough notes and checked through some details with me. And then he turned to me and said, “So tell me, Nathanael, how exactly did you become an apostle? What’s your story of coming to follow Jesus?”

continued

Renewal

2011-01-13T11:52:00.000Z

Something I posted on the church website today:

“What makes a good act of worship?” That was the question I asked as we began our seminar last Saturday looking at the various aspects of our services – in particular, the readings and the intercessions.

It was interesting that all three groups who discussed this question came up with the importance of preparation. No matter how good the worship is, if we are not prepared to meet with the living God, then we will not receive. Unless of course God chooses to surprise us – which he sometimes does in spite of ourselves!

I suggested at the time that preparation for worship consists of three things:
- a desire to meet with God.
- an expectancy that God will meet with us.
- an openness to our fellow believers.

The more I have thought about this issue of preparation, the more I have started thinking about the whole issue of renewal. In some Christian circles “renewal” is a buzz word. “Lord, bring renewal”, “Lord, renew your church!” Now of course it is right that we pray for renewal. This country needs a renewed and revived church, and has done for several generations or more. But abstract prayers for renewal aren’t, I think, going to be the answer. We have to be bold enough and humble enough as we gather in worship to pray, “Lord, renew us”.

It’s no use desiring renewal unless we want the Lord to renew us.
It’s no use expecting renewal unless we expect the Lord to renew us.
It’s no use praying for renewal unless we want to renew and restore our relationships with our fellow believers.

And let’s be clear what renewal means. When we renew a library book, we are allowed to keep it for another few weeks. When we renew our season ticket, we can watch our football team for another year.

Renewal in a spiritual sense is not like that. It is about being open to the ongoing, permanent change of the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus. Whatever the cost to ourselves.

Dare we pray for renewal like that?

No longer public v. private

2011-01-09T16:57:00.000Z

I have been thinking a lot recently about how the effect the IT revolution is having upon our relationships. Once upon a time it was possible to draw a fairly thick line between public and private life. Whether this line was good or even desirable is a matter for debate. Politicians could claim that their behaviour in private had little or no bearing on their private role, and this divide was also often used to try and keep religion out of the public sphere. But it seems to me that as the IT revolution has gathered pace, it is harder and harder to justify this division.

For a start much private communication is conducted within the sphere of the worldwide web, and we disclose all kinds of details about ourselves. We also have to accept there are organisations and individuals who monitor what we post, and one of the major human rights issues at the moment is the extent to which governments should have access to our personal data. That’s why it will be interesting to see how far and how successfully the US government manages to retrieve the correspondence of Julian Assange – although as he seems dedicated to exposing every secret of the US government, I think he has little to complain about. The difficulty however is that once the state asserts its authority in the case of this particular individual, there may well be a precedent set for others, and Big Brother will truly end up watching us.

So how should we as Christians respond? Well, Scripture never recognises the distinction between public and private life. Yes, we need to give to Caesar what is Caesar, and to God what is God’s (Matt 22:21), but all human authority is ultimately under the Lordship of Christ. The Christian faith is incompatible with dualism of every kind, and we should resist every effort to keep faith out of the public sphere. At the same time we need to realise that much of what we communicate privately is in fact a lot less private than we often assume. That’s why I think we need some Scriptural principles when we go on the Worldwide Web. Here are three suggestions for starters:

Accountability: Jesus tells us in Matt 12:36-37: ...I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. I guess when we say in the confession that we have sinned in thought, word and deed, we more often think of the words that we have spoken than the words we have typed on our computer keyboard. I am so conscious that as churches we need to learn how to integrate our faith more fully with the virtual world we now inhabit and provide greater teaching on the subject.

Economy: Some sensible advice from the book of Ecclesiastes 5:2: Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few. It’s so easy to add to the torrent of words that out there, but it seems to me that so much of what’s written is barely worth saying, or indeed if folk had paused to reflect on what they were saying, they would never have posted what they had written. I think of too many e-mails I have sent where I have pressed the send key too quickly!

Love: I was once a member of a supposedly Christian forum which died because of the abusive and personal attacks of members upon each other. It seems to me that sometimes because we cannot see the person with whom we are communicating, we feel freer to let rip with our own riposte. Research suggests this is particularly the case when we adopt a user name. It’s as if we put on a separate identity from our real selves and act accordingly. I cannot however see how such behaviour can be justified in the light of the gospel: Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me (Matt 5:11). After all, if we are secure of our salvation in Christ we do not need to have the last word, or win the rhetorical battle.

I might well return to this subject once I have had to chance to think it through a little more deeply - because I believe that for the church to be relevant in the 21st century this is one of the biggest issues it faces. In the meanwhile, comments or observations welcome!

The Nativity

2010-12-24T10:05:00.000Z

There's been a lot of discussion about the Nativity - the BBC production of the Christmas story this week on television. Of course anyone who is charged with telling the accounts of Jesus' birth has a huge responsibility to put together the pieces of the story in a credible, lively and fresh way. It's easy to carp at this latest re-telling but the way it put frail, ordinary people at the centre was a bold and brave attempt to communicate with people who would not necessarily engage with the gospel in any other way. There were some lovely details. The way that the last episode finished off with the beatitudes, for example, was superb.

It also communicated well the stigma and shame that Mary would have experienced as one pregnant outside of marriage. We can have such an exalted view of Mary that we can lose sight of the great danger and disgrace to which she was exposed, which is hinted at in the gospel accounts in Joseph's deliberations to divorce her. Yet here I would take issue with the writer of the Nativity. Because Joseph's acceptance of Mary's pregnancy was no last minute decision. Matthew explicitly states that Joseph took Mary home as his wife - maybe even in face of all the local opposition.

I think key here is understanding the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth's pregnancies. Mary went to Elizabeth when Elizabeth was six months pregnant and stayed there about three months. Luke gives the impression Mary returned just before John the Baptist was born. There is no way of knowing, and I guess it's probably only my conjecture, but it would have been news of this birth that would have convinced at least some of the veracity of Mary's words. (This was omitted completely in the BBC series). I am reasonably certain however that Joseph had taken Mary home as his wife before they set out to Bethlehem, and it was - contrary to the BBC programme - Joseph who called the baby Jesus.

But maybe it would have too counter-cultural to show a couple committed to each other, who together defy all the whispers and the gossip and decide to remain faithful to one another and to God's purposes!?

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-21T16:16:00.000Z

If you are lucky enough to find a pumpkin in December, or manage to save one from Halloween, then it makes for a great Christingle. Ours proved a great visual aid last Sunday.

Handling disagreement - a sermon on Philippians 4:2-9

2010-12-16T12:15:00.000Z

This is one of the hardest subjects to preach on. You have to make sure you are not opening old wounds, or sounding as if you are the one who is always in the right. It's also important to mention - evein if only passing - that here Paul is dealing with the issue of disagreements among believers. His tone towards those who preach or accept a different gospel is very different - for which see, for example, the book of Galatians. This is an important and relevant distinction to be made today as we look at the state of the Anglican Communion. We are not dealing here with one gospel, but two. And I think Paul's approach today would be far more Galatian than Philippian. But that's another issue for another time.

In the parish where I served my curacy there were two churches, a traditional Victorian church on top of the hill, and a modern church plant in the middle of a housing estate. In keeping with tradition every year the Victorian church held a flower festival. For many years it had been run by a committed team of ladies who knew exactly to lay out the church in a certain way. But then another lady who was used to organising things decided she wanted to get involved. What happened next is hard to describe…except if you have the idea that organising a flower festival is a nice peaceful activity, then forget it. This was war at its bloodiest and most bitter, and the position of every vase and every arrangement became a strategic point in the battle ground. And did I mention that in the middle of it all a worthy gentleman rang up insisting that his daughter be married on the very weekend of the festival, threatening dire consequences if his wishes were not granted?

continued

A sermon on Philippians 3:12-4:1

2010-12-14T09:37:00.000Z

This sermon with a distinctive footie theme took on all the more relevance at the end of the week, when it was revealed the Argyle players hadn't been paid in November, and there was a high court hearing looming as HMRC pressed for administration. One day I might do a piece on the ethics of running a football club. It seems to me the Bible has some clear teaching about paying wages on time and paying tax when it's due, and I think with the ongoing rise in player's salaries it is becoming a moot point whether the present structures in the game are becoming sustainable. The list of clubs who have faced a winding up order is becoming ever longer, and one day a club will fold. However the performance of the Argyle players was exemplary last Saturday and I was privileged to take DW and DD1 along to the game, to see them winning 2-0, their first clean sheet since the beginning of the season. It's just a pity that their star players who were involved in both goals will probably have to be sold in January.

Anyway, back to the sermon. It certainly spoke to a few followers of the beautiful game in our churches...

How many people here have ever dreamt of becoming a football manager? Maybe as you were growing up, you had this idea you would take over your hometown team after a glittering playing career. Or perhaps more realistically after you’ve seen your side lose at home for the umpteenth time, you’ve begun to think you could do a better job. Of course I realise some people here can’t ever imagine how anyone could ever dream like this. But this morning – whether or not we love the beautiful game - I want all of us to imagine just for a moment we are in charge of a football team. The team in question is not a particularly successful team, and it’s certainly nowhere near the Premiership. It’s the middle of the season and the results so far have been mixed. Your next game is against your local rivals, whom some people like to call “the enemy”. Your task as manager is to motivate the team so they produce a match-winning performance. What do you say to them? What advice do you give them? Has anyone got any ideas?

continued

Fed up with snow?

2010-12-04T18:18:00.000Z

Tired of battling the icy roads? Looking for somewhere a little milder in winter? Then I wonder if you've ever thought of moving down to Plymouth. After all, it was virtually the only place in the country last winter without any snow - although the scenery just up the road towards Dartmoor was spectacular. This time we had a light dusting overnight on Wednesday, but it disappeared during the day. And now we just have the usual autumn rains. So if it's old-fashioned, dreary, damp weather you're after, then we're just the ticket.

And if you can bring a few millions pounds with you, please don't forget the local football club would be very grateful. What seemed a couple of years ago to be a brave new world of external investment has turned into a nightmare, and administration is a very real possibility. Plymouth Argyle is only the latest of a number of clubs who have found the financial challenge of running as a business insuperable. Quite why the new owners haven't put in the money they promised is a bit of a mystery, but maybe the High Court hearing on Wednesday will reveal who exactly is running the club, and how. Meanwhile the staff and the players haven't been paid for November, and feeling among the supporters is running high.

Knowing God - a sermon on Philippians 3:1-11

2010-12-04T17:16:00.002Z

A few months ago DW and I went to the Antiques Roadshow that was being filmed in Dartmouth and we took along some bits and pieces to be valued. As we half expected, we didn’t really have anything of great worth, and I’m certainly not in a position to retire just yet! But it was worth going nonetheless, to watch the experts at work, to hear their professional opinion and find out how exactly they came to their final valuation. Because we all want to know what something’s worth, don’t we? Is it a priceless antique or a worthless piece of junk, something you can buy on the high street or a true original? After all, if you know something’s valuable it changes the way you treat it. You might put your crockery from Wilkinson’s through the dishwasher, but hopefully not your best Wedgewood porcelain. Or you might put your umbrella in a pot from Ikea, but presumably not in a valuable Ming vase.

The only question is, how much is something actually worth? By way of a bit of fun, I have some objects up here on the screen, and I want you to guess what price was paid for them.

continued

The body of Christ - a sermon on Colossians 4:2-18

2010-11-22T14:15:00.000Z

This is a sermon I was asked to preach at another church at the end of their sermon series on Colossians.

Over the past couple of months the Sunday evening congregation here have been looking at Paul’s letter to the Colossians, and if you’ve been coming along regularly I hope you have been both excited and challenged by what you have heard. Because the book of Colossians is one that is designed specifically to stretch and expand our vision of what the Christian faith is all about. I guess if you went out and asked your fellow students or neighbours or colleagues who Jesus is, they might talk about Him as a good man, or a teacher, or even some kind of Saviour. And when you mentioned to them the word “church” they would perhaps get as far as talking about a group of people who met once a week to worship Jesus, but they would have no understanding that Jesus could be in any way relevant to their lives, or that what happened in church bore any relation to 21st century living 24-7. We live, it seems to me, in an age where most people have a small view of Jesus, and a limited understanding of what church is all about.

That’s why Paul’s letter to the Colossians is so important to us today. He begins in chapter 1, verses 15-20, by setting out the big picture about Jesus, by making the claim that He is before all things and above all things, and that the purpose of His death on the cross is to reconcile all things to Himself. Paul is uncompromising in his assertion that Jesus is Lord over all. He is not just a good teacher who lived 2000 years ago, or even someone who lives today as the Saviour for some people. He is the firstborn over everything, both seen and unseen, and unless you grasp this fact you will not gain a true understanding of who Jesus is or the reason for His death and resurrection.

continued

Lest we forget

2010-11-13T17:14:00.000Z

Where were you at the 11th o'clock on 11th November this year? Quite rightly, many people were at public ceremonies across the land remembering the armistice. Me, I was in a local nursing home. I had forgotten actually about the significance of the date when I pencilled in the service several months ago. But when I realised the time and the date, I decided to hold a short act of remembrance for the residents.

As soon as I introduced the two minutes silence, one resident burst into tears. At the end of the service, other residents shared their experiences. One explained how she had been bombed out three times, another how she was forced to deal with two hundredweight of fertiliser bags in the factory where she had been stationed. An older lady explained she was a war baby...she meant she was born in 1917. As I went round each resident, all kinds of rich memories were stirred. And yet it seems to me that we so often forget those shut away in homes, unable to attend the acts of commemoration, but for whom the memories of wars gone by are as fresh and vivid as ever. They too need to be remembered, and the price they paid acknowledged.

Introducing Philippians - a sermon on Philippians 1:1-11

2010-11-05T20:31:00.000Z

It's always said that the best sermons are the ones that you preach to yourself. I have no idea whether this is one of my better sermons, but it's certainly one that I have taken to heart. I wrote it a couple of weeks in advance, as I was going away over half-term, and at the time of writing I was struggling both with a stomach ulcer, and a course of treatment that made me feel really ill. As I wrote this, I was left wondering if like Paul I really shared the same focus on and confidence in Jesus. It's so easy as a minister to go round telling others to look to the Lord while not actually doing so yourself.

I wonder if anybody has noticed what Sunday it is today? That’s right – it’s the fourth Sunday before Advent. In other words – whisper it very quietly – Christmas is coming. It’s time to go up in the loft and find last year’s decorations, go to the Post Office and check the dates for overseas posting, and start all those difficult negotiations over the in-laws and the great-aunts who might be staying this year.

And it’s time too – at least in the church’s calendar - to start preparing spiritually for Advent and Christmas, to look back to the time when Jesus came to earth as a tiny, new-born baby, and look forward to the time when He shall come again as Lord of all. So how shall we do this? Well, traditionally Christians have done this in a number of ways. They have, for example, looked at the great Old Testament prophecies foretelling the coming of the King, or wrestled with the mysteries of Revelation which culminate in that wonderful vision of a new heaven and a new earth. And over the years we too at these churches have mined these books and found much to sustain and enrich our faith in Jesus Christ as our King, our Lord, our Saviour.

But this year we are going to break with tradition and look at the book of Philippians. Now before you run off to the bishop and complain about my disregard for the lectionary, I should explain the reason for my choice. Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. He talks in our passage this morning about his chains, and it’s almost certain that Paul was actually chained to a Roman soldier at the time of writing. Now Paul had not yet been found guilty of any crime, but he knew that at any day there could be a verdict, and he had no idea what that might be. As we shall see next week, he did not know whether he would live or die. He faced the real possibility that one door the cell door would open, the soldiers would lead him out and – to use the image Paul himself uses in 2:17 - he would be poured out like a drink offering.

So it’s not surprising that Paul’s focus in this letter is, if you like, an Advent one. His greatest longing is for that time when as he writes in 2:10-11 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. His greatest hope is that somehow he might attain to the resurrection from the dead - 3:11. His greatest concern for the church at Philippi is that they might live as citizens of heaven as we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ – 3:20.

continued

A book at bedtime

2010-10-31T16:46:00.000Z

I am always slightly envious of people who are able to read existential novels or theological tomes at bedtime. Maybe it's just me, but when it comes to the witching hour, I find it hard to pick up the plot from the day before. But I do like to read for a few minutes each night before saying my prayers, so what to read? Over the years, I've gradually worked my way through collections of letters, and diaries, and even the odd chronicle. A couple of years back I managed to get through a selection of Wordsworth letters (but I must confess I have found the Prelude too heavy going for that time of night) - not necessarily for their literary value, but for the fascinating portrait of life in the late 18th and early 19th century. More recently, having raided my late mother's bookshelves, I have read the two great ecclesiastical diaries - Parson Woodforde's from the second half of the 18th century, and Frank Kilvert's from the 1870s.

It's been a fascinating exercise to compare the two, and also see the differences and similarities in parish life over the space of a century. Parson Woodforde's diary is just that - a bare record of the day's events, with financial accounts and only the briefest description of people and places. Kilvert's diary is more obviously the work of a would-be poet, and not always a very good one at that, but shows a deep love of the people and places where he ministered. It's hard to put one above the other. On the one hand, Kilvert shows a far deeper level of faith, and understanding of Scripture. On the other, some of his descriptions of encounters with the other sex are at times embarrassing, and I'm not sure he would necessarily get a CRB disclosure today.

However both show a deep commitment to the local community in a way that is almost certainly not possible today, but which certainly made me think a little bit more about what it means to have a parochial ministry. I have always felt, and I think reading both these diaries has confirmed this impression, that amid all the new ways of doing church, and fresh expressions, we can lose sight of the fact that gospel ministry is so often rooted in the seemingly ordinary, unplanned and unstructured encounter, and that there is no substitute for knowing the flock and visiting them as much as possible.

Going against the flow - a sermon on John 7:53-8:11

2010-10-18T09:28:00.000+01:00

It may just be me, but I get the impression there are more and more news stories from around the world about floods. From the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, to the massive devastation in Pakistan, to this reservoir in Hungary collapsing and releasing a deadly wave of toxic sludge. Few of us can be unmoved by the sheer human misery that such events cause, and it is surely right that we continue to pray for those affected long after the headline writers have moved on to other stories.

But this morning I want to talk about another kind of flood, not maybe a literal one, but certainly that one has caused and is causing untold damage all around us. Let me explain. A few generations back society generally accepted the Christian teaching on families and on marriage, and it was thought right and proper that on the whole sex should be practised within the boundaries of marriage. Now it was by no means a golden age, and I am certainly not saying this morning that we all need to do is turn back the clock and everything will be all right. There were however certain norms and standards that were understood, norms and standards which over the past fifty years have been systematically overthrown.

With what result? Well, turn on the TV at almost any time of day and sooner or later there will be an item about sex. Go into most newsagents and you are confronted with row after row of magazines in plastic wrappers. Log onto the web, and if you’re not careful you will find yourself linked into sites that simply exist to purvey and make money from human filth. It’s as if there is a tide of explicit sexuality rising up into almost every corner of our society, into our shops, our living rooms, even our classrooms.

continued

At last!

2010-10-08T13:23:00.000+01:00

I had a phone conversation today about the thesis I submitted in May on the Hebrew text of Zephaniah (only six years late!). It turns out it has passed and I should be receiving a MA at Lambeth Palace next June. If there's anyone out there who is looking for a commentary or an article on this particular book, do let me know. My basic argument arising from detailed engagement with the text is - contra the assumptions of historical and form criticism - that there is sufficient evidence to see the book as a unity dating from the time of Zephaniah. I reach this conclusion from looking at:

the identity of the prophet
the relationship with the reforms of King Josiah
the wider political situation
the oracles of restoration
the linguistic evidence

And I aim to show that we need to see the book as a unity if we are to understand the message of Zephaniah properly and its significance today.

Mind you, nine years for three chapters is by anyone's standards rather slow. I am starting to look at Jeremiah, but I'll need to work a little bit faster if I am going to deal with all 52 chapters...

The bread of life

2010-10-05T20:23:00.000+01:00

I realise I have fallen behind somewhat in posting my sermons on this blog. To correct this, here are a couple of sermons I preached at the end of September, both on the same passage. You will see there is some shared material between them, but it was a good exercise to write two different sermons for two very different situations. The first was for the baptism of a child from the church family, the second an ordinary communion service.

Have you ever felt hungry? I mean really, really hungry. With that big aching feeling in your tummy, maybe feeling slightly light-headed, and definitely, totally fixated on when you can next eat. Do you know the kind of hunger that I mean? Well, if that’s how you feel right this moment, then we have lots of lovely cake to eat at the end of the service…but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait till then.

But today I want to talk about a different kind of hunger. Not a physical hunger, a feeling of “I’ve got to eat something and I’ve got eat it now” but a spiritual hunger, a sort of real craving to meet with God, a kind of inner emptiness that goes beyond mere words, a passionate desire to be filled and filled again with the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Do you know that kind of hunger?

Because, unless you do, you won’t really get the full sense of our memory verse this morning. Can anyone remember what it is? That’s right: John 6:35: I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. When Jesus is talking about going hungry and being thirsty, he isn’t talking about eating and drinking. He is talking having a deep hunger to find answers to the questions we carry around inside us, a passion to find meaning purpose in our lives.

continued

Well, may I once again extend a warm welcome to all those who are visiting this morning for the baptism of B and L’s child, C. It’s been a real privilege to be able to support B and L over the past eighteen months or so, and to accompany them on their journey into that strange and wonderful new world called parenthood, as they have experienced both the joy and – dare I say it? – the shock of suddenly being responsible for this amazing bundle of life we are baptising today.

Now I am sure there are many things that B and L have learnt about C since he was born. One of the most basic and obvious things any parent quickly learns about their child is when they are hungry, and my guess is, that as a boy, there are times when it must seem like C has hollow legs. Boys like their food, and plenty of it, and when they are hungry, there is nothing else you can do than feed them.

But there are other ways in which C is hungry as well. Sometimes, I am sure, he is quite simply hungry for attention, and no matter what else you want to get on with, he is quite insistent that you focus all your time and energy on him. And I am also quite sure there are times when he is hungry for affection, when all he wants is a cuddle and a kiss and to know he is safe and loved.

And it’s on this theme of hunger I want to focus this morning.

continued

I believe in the resurrection of the body - a sermon on 1 Cor 15:50-58

2010-09-21T12:03:00.000+01:00

This morning we are reaching the end of our sermon series on the creed. Over the past few weeks we have been looking step by step at the basics of the Christian faith and we have considered why they are so important to us today. My aim all the way along has been to show that the creed is not just an academic exercise, or an interesting piece of liturgy, but a bold declaration that should have a direct and practical bearing on our lives day by day. And so, as we’ve gone along, I hope, for example, you have reflected on what it means to say I believe in the communion of saints and thought how deeply you share your life with your fellow church members here. Or, to pick up the theme of last week’s sermon, that you have considered how far you are forgiving and loving towards other people in the busyness of each week. Because if we think of the creed simply as some words that we say each week to show we really are good, proper Anglicans, then we have missed the point. Actually the creed is a radical agenda for action. It reminds us of the wonderful truths of the gospel that should turn our lives upside down and radically affect our values, our priorities, our perspective.

And nowhere is this more the case than in the final statement of the creed this morning I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. For it is a bold declaration of hope, that is utterly unique to the Christian faith, which ought to shape and mould all our thoughts, all our decisions and all our choices.

continued

A little irony

2010-09-15T15:30:00.000+01:00

With all the fuss and furore surrounding the papal visit, has anyone else noticed the epistle set for the principal service this coming Sunday - namely 1 Timothy 2:1-7?

It has been interesting to read the Catholic Encyclopaedia and its comments on 1 Tim 2:5: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

It agrees that there is only one mediator between God and man - Jesus Christ. But it goes on to talk about special friends of God - saints, holy men and angels - mediating, or more properly, interceding between man and Christ.

I am not sure Paul would have been impressed with this interpretation of the verse.

Really?

2010-09-13T14:43:00.000+01:00

I have been on the edges of the diocesan reader training course for a few years now. I was invited to a training event last week, complete with a guest lecture. It was of course a restatement of the liberal epistemology that is so prevalent on regional training courses. What got me thinking however was the closing remark that was, quoting someone I'd never heard of, "Perhaps so and so is right when he says you cannot speak about the homosexual issue unless you have gay friends".

If I was training a group of readers and ordinands, one of my first assignments would be show what's wrong with the statement. Any offers?

First of all, it is based on a logical fallacy. I don't know any thieves, but I believe stealing to be wrong, for instance. If you were only limited to speaking about subjects on which you had personal experience then you would have a very limited ministry. And how would you know when you had enough experience to qualify you to speak on the subject?

Secondly, it places experience at the top of epistemological tree. This is of course not just an error applicable to liberal theology. It is a modern phenomenon which has manifestations in all kinds of theologies. This is my experience, therefore this is real and this is true. It leads to the postmodern blurring of moral standards, and sees criticism of someone else's stance as reactionary or fundamentalist (and yes, the subsequent discussion after the lecture posited two poles of theology - liberal and fundamentalist, as if there were no in between).

But then the whole course is overseen by an academic department of a university which has done lots of ground-breaking work in communities reading texts. Now I have no objection in, for example, a group of fishermen looking at the disciples' experience on the sea of Galilee and helping us to see the story in a new light. But - and this is the important point - there is a difference between the significance of a text, and its meaning.

The evangelical theology which I use does see the original meaning of the text as something that is recoverable using the proper disciplines of linguistics, theology, archaeology, history etc. and this meaning puts a boundary round the limits of our reading of the text as we seek to discover its significance for us. It seems to me that this emphasis on community reading comes from a loss of confidence or trust in being able to recover the original meaning, or maybe an unwillingness to accept the original meaning that is in the text. Certainly the fact the training course only has one module on Old and New Testament in one of the three years of training suggests to me insufficient attention being paid to the Bible as the Word of God.

But as I guess that because of my theological tradition I would never be invited to train on such a course and therefore such an assignment would remain purely hypothetical.

A tale of two computers

2010-09-04T10:07:00.000+01:00

Somewhere in Proverbs 32 there is a verse which says, "Never install your computer during a working week...especially when your wife's computer is bust".

I had promised myself a new computer for some time, and it arrived this week, a shiny new Dell desktop to replace my old one which was five years old and starting to slow down. So we knew there would be upheaval this week. What we didn't reckon on was DW's computer dying last Friday. DW switched it on and nothing happened, apart from two pitiful beeps (emitted by the computer, not by DW). Welcome to the wonderful world of POST error codes. Fortunately - and this really was an answer to prayer - the computer cmae to life one last time so DW could back everything up on the external hard drive.

DW's box was only 18 months old, so we phoned Dell who very generously allowed us to purchase a new warranty which would cover all the repairs to this pre-existing problem. They even sent an engineer the next day. He installed a new motherboard...and we had the same problem. So he came back the next day with a new processor...and we still had the same problem. All very prompt and efficicent, but remarkably Dell engineers are only to allowed to carry one component at a time. As he said, if he a complete kit, he could have fixed the problem on the spot. As it is, we are now waiting for couriers to take the desktop away (without the hard drive) while DW is working on her old laptop which is operating at dangerously near full capacity and emitting vast amounts of heat. The joys of modern technology.

Meanwhile my computer arrived on Wednesday. I am not a techy, but I do like my technology to work. Unfortunately with any new computer there are glitches that take an annopying length of time to solve.

I have two printers - an ancient but extremely reliable Hewlett Packard laserjet and a rather more temperamental Lexmark colour inkjet. I discovered first of all that the HP printer cable no longer connected to the desktop. I took the cable to a couple of shops who laughed and said it was a "scuzzy" - now there's a new word for my dictionary. (The Wiki link gives you more detail than you ever care to know about the subject). I think they wanted me to buy a new printer instead, but eventually we found a suitable adaptor on the web.

The Lexmark seemed to install OK,but then DD1 found it wouldn't scan properly. Much furrowing of brows, and fiddling of settings, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually searching the web I found an upgrade from the official website for the printer to Windows 7, and installed this, despite dire warnings from Windows about lack of digital signatures, and requests to install software that was already on my system. I always find it an act of faith when I click "OK" in these kinds of situations.

Then there was the e-mail. I am used to Outlook Express, but I only have it on trial on this system. So I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird which DW has used for a number of years. Only I couldn't send e-mails. Again, much searching on the Internet until I eventually found - with DW's help - a forum on my e-mail provider solving the compatibility problem of Thunderbird 3 with Windows 7. Then there was still the issues of the addresses. Despite backing my old addresses up on my external hard drive, I couldn't transfer them either onto my trial Outlook or onto Thunderbird. I have imported DW's address file, but there must be some addresses I have lost.

Still, some things have happily downloaded. Chesscat - so I can download chess games in pgn format (I know it's sad, but there are more nefarious uses of the Worldwide Web), Spotfy - which is remarkably user-friendly, and Bibleworks 4 - an invaluable tool for Biblical research (even if it came out in 1999). Playing chess, listening to music, studying the word of God. What else could a man want? (Well, BibleWorks 8 actually. I've put it on my wish list for Christmas. Either that, or an electric guitar)

I believe in the forgiveness of sins - a sermon on Matthew 18:21-35

2010-08-30T19:53:00.001+01:00

This is the text of a sermon I preached at a baptism service yesterday. Baptisms are always a bit of an issue. I have a fairly open policy, and I sometimes wonder if it's the right approach. But someone gave me some advice recently and said whatever baptism policy you adopt, it's going to be wrong. As it turned out, the baptisms went well. I hadn't seen the families much at church, and often in this situation folk turn up and make no pretence of engaging with the service. But for once they really seemed to listen, which was encouraging.

Over the past few Sunday mornings, we’ve been looking at the foundations of Christian faith, as we have taken as our text the words of the apostolic creed. We started by looking at who God is, both creator of the world, and our loving Heavenly Father. We moved on to think about Jesus, why He was born into the world, what His death and resurrection means for us today, and the difference it makes that He is now seated at the right hand of God. Last week we looked at the Holy Spirit and the way He works in our lives, both individually and as a church. And this morning we are moving on to consider the next line of the creed - I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

It’s a very simple statement, it’s not one that’s hard to understand. But I believe that if we really took these words to heart, then the effect not just on our lives, but on the world around us would be immense. Because there’s no denying forgiveness is one of the biggest issues people face. I would be surprised if there were more than a handful of people here who never felt wronged by someone else, who have been hurt by something someone has said to them or about them, or indeed who carry deep within their hearts the need to be forgiven by others for what they have done. The need to forgive and to be forgiven provides script after script for soap operas, for films, for songs. The reason for this is simple - forgiveness is a real life problem, with no easy solution.

continued

I believe in the Holy Spirit - a sermon on John 20:19-23; 1 Cor 12:1-13

2010-08-25T12:17:00.000+01:00

How many people went into Plymouth yesterday and visited the Bang goes the Theory Roadshow in the city centre? We went down around lunchtime, and it was a real treat, with Dallas Campbell illustrating the relationship between pressure and volume, and all kinds of interactive displays. Over the years there has been (no pun intended) an explosion of science shows on television, such as Bang Goes the Theory, Brainiac, and others. And I think the reason for their popularity is that they have made science come alive and fun.

I don’t know what your science lessons were like at school. But I do remember my physics classes were particularly boring. We had lots of teaching from the front, and we seemed to be forever drawing wave diagrams. I wanted to find out what happened if you set fire to your magnesium pencil sharpener, or connected the Bunsen burner to the cold water tap...

Well, today we are looking at the next section of the creed:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints

and it would be very easy to spout interesting theories or talk about dry doctrine. But actually this part of the creed is, to use a dreadful American expression, where the “rubber hits the road”. The Holy Spirit turns all our talk about faith into practice, and makes it real. So today, instead of simply talking about dry theory, I am going to something rather different. Sadly I can’t think of any experiments I can do to illustrate my points, but I can share some of my experiences of the Holy Spirit, and then aim to tie them up with the Scripture that we heard read just now. And as I do so, hopefully what I share will connect with your own experience or be able to speak directly to you.

continued

Bad Hymnology

2010-08-19T10:18:00.000+01:00

Following the success of the Bad Vestments website, may I propose (if it doesn't already exist) a website dedicated to Bad Hymnology? During our summer holidays I saw the order of service at my MIL's church as a new minister was installed at her URC church. My MIL complained she didn't know any of the hymns. Not surprising really - they were all modern ones with a secular agenda and God made in the image of the hymn writer. The one that has stuck in my mind ever since is one called "I dream of a church" about skirts pirouetting - a feminist image of a feminist church with a feminist God. Seriously though, if people learn their theology from hymns, then we better watch out. We could run the risk folk actually end up believing this stuff.

The ascension of Jesus

2010-08-15T18:20:00.000+01:00

I've become quite behind with this blog. So much to do, sorting out my Mum's flat and keeping on top of everything else. Still, we've just come back from a good couple of weeks holiday - enough to realise just how tired we are. Anyway, to get back track on things, here's this morning's sermon on the ascension of Jesus

How many people here celebrate Christmas? What about Good Friday? Or how about Easter Sunday? Well, that's encouraging...it looks like I won't have to spend too much time on the next line of the creed, “On the third day He rose again”. But what about Ascension Day? How many people here celebrated Ascension Day this year? How many went to a service on the day? Indeed who can tell me when Ascension Day fell this year?

Of all the Christian festivals we celebrate each year it strikes me that Ascension Day is something of Cinderella. Over the years I have held services at various times in various formats to attract more people, but we have only ever gathered a small handful of people in either the side chapel or the lounge. Of course, there are good reasons for this. Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday, right in the middle of the working week, and it's hard sometimes for people to attend. But I think the problem with Ascension Day runs deeper than that. If we look at the Ascension at all each year, it is normally tacked on to the end of the Easter story, almost as an afterthought. Jesus rises from the dead, appears to His disciples over the next forty days and then is taken up to heaven. Full stop. Time now to move on the next sermon series.

But as you can see from the section of the creed we're looking at today, the ascension of Jesus is in point of fact a hugely important part of Christian faith. Go through any major section of the New Testament and you will find at some point or other reference to the fact Jesus is raised and now seated at the right hand of God. The ascension of Jesus, just as much as the cross and the resurrection, shaped the thinking of the early church, and was hugely significant for their life together and their witness. So today what I would like to do is to give you three reasons why you too ought to celebrate Ascension Day.

cont...

Raiding my mother's bookshelves

2010-07-25T19:06:00.000+01:00

Although I don't remember it, there must have been a time before I put on a dog collar when I liked my tea a particular way. A certain amount of milk, a certain time for brewing, maybe even a certain type of tea. But over the years I have been offered so many different cups of tea I really don't mind any more, so long as it is hot, brown and wet (and decaffeinated).

Over the past two months DW and myself have been sorting out the contents of my mother's flat. The last items to sort out have been the books. Some of the books we have given away to charity; others to Book Aid ; some we have got for ourselves, to add to our already overloaded shelves.

As we have sorted, it has been fascinating to see the range of titles that were in my late parents' possession (both of whom were mature Christians who knew and loved the Lord). Lots of missionary accounts by people like Isabel Kuhn, Elizabeth Elliott, Corrie ten Boom and Bishop Frank Houghton (who married them back in 1959). Daily devotional reading books, many with pencilled annotations, and worn at the spine. Original paperbacks by J.B.Philips, C.S.Lewis and Oswald Chambers, often held together with Sellotape.

And I couldn't help thinking as we sorted that we don't make books like this any more. There's been a lot of discussion recently about the difficulties that Christian booksellers face, and there are plenty of reasons for their decline. The changing nature of the marketplace, the difficulty of getting Christian books published, the fact there are so many other forms of communication out there. But I wonder if there is a deeper reason behind all this. That, over the years, rather like all those cups of tea, our experience of the Lord has weakened and diluted. What comes out again and again from those who wrote these books is a deep, godly relationship with the Lord, a fervent desire to walk in His ways, a passionate longing to reach others with the gospel.

Of course there are still books about contemporary Christians which are similarly inspiring (and I could list half a dozen off the top of my head). But I sense they are far fewer and further between than in generations past. Yes, the world has moved on and we face different challenges. Evangelicals have had to adapt, and I am so thankful we have moved on from the level of scholarship found in the commentaries of William Barclay.

But I wonder if when the history of the church in this generation is written in a few decades the verdict will be, to borrow the curious phrase of an old missionary hymn, that of "zeal abating". When training courses in mission begin with modules on listening to others, or trends in post-modernism, or the latest way of being church, for example. Yes, I know there were faults and flaws in the old ways of doing things. I am not advocating a return to a mythical golden era. But I look at so much of the church, and wonder where the passion is, or perhaps more accurately whether the passion is really a true zeal for the Lord. I believe that those old titles which are now crowding in on our bookshelves still have much say to about living for the Lord, and for Him alone, and we neglect their wisdom at our peril.

Worship Outcomes - a sermon on Amos 5:18-27, Luke 13:18-30

2010-07-12T18:53:00.000+01:00

What for you makes a good service of worship?

Maybe it’s the numbers - feeling like you are part of a large crowd gathered for a common purpose.
Maybe it’s the music - and that sense of uplift you get as you sing your favourite hymns.
Maybe it’s the enthusiasm - of people who clearly who want to be there and who expect to meet with God.
Maybe it’s the teaching - and the satisfaction of hearing God’s word properly taught and preached.
Maybe it’s something supernatural - like prophecy and the sense that the Spirit is at work, moving in a powerful way.

Well, in Jesus’ day, large crowds of people regularly attended the religious festivals. You get a sense from reading the gospels, for example, that the Passover was an important and exciting occasion in the annual calendar of festivals. And as we know, the whole edifice of Jewish religion was supported by elite groups of people who devoted their whole lives to correctly teaching and preaching the law of Moses, and making sure it was honoured and upheld. Yet when an unknown person in the crowd asks Jesus in Luke 13:23, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? His answer is to all intents and purposes an emphatic “Yes”.

Or again in Amos’ day, large numbers of worshippers regularly flocked to the religious centres of Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba. The people willingly and enthusiastically brought forth their offerings, as we saw back in chapter 4. As they gathered, professional harpists strummed out the latest worship hits which everyone sang along to. And - as we shall see next week - there were plenty of prophets on hand to pass on a warm word of encouragement from the Lord. Yet what was God’s verdict on their worship? Amos 5, verse 21: I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.

continued

I have had enough

2010-07-12T18:46:00.001+01:00

Once a year about the beginning of July I set aside a Sunday evening to conduct a simple service of commemoration and invite back all the families of folk whose funeral I have taken over the past year. It never draws a large crowd, but those who come seem to appreciate it. I know that the church traditionally does this sort of thing around All Saints Day but people in my experience more likely to come out on a summer evening. This was the text of the sermon I preached this year

“I’ve had enough” “I can’t take any more” “It’s the last straw”. Have you, I wonder, ever said any of these things? Maybe you’ve been trying to do several jobs at once and your boss comes along, expecting you to do yet another assignment. Maybe you’ve been dealing with a fractious child all day long and something he does finally pushes you over the edge. Or maybe you’ve said this kind of thing as you have dealt with your loss over the past few months, and something has happened which has just become all too much to bear.

Well, if you can identify at all with this sentiment, isn’t it good to know that we find in the pages of Scripture someone who feels exactly the same way? So often folk think of the Bible as an old, dusty and irrelevant book that has very little say to the lives of real people in the real world, but when you stop and read it - at least in a modern translation - nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible is full of men and women who display the full range of emotions that we ourselves experience, who struggle with the big questions of life, who are in fact far from the plaster-cast saints we sometimes imagine them to be. And the reason why I’ve chosen this passage this evening is that it is about a person just like us who reached a point where he sat down in total, abject despair and said, “I’ve enough. It’s the last straw. I can’t take any more”.

continued

The trouble with bishops

2010-07-04T21:43:00.000+01:00

There are some evangelicals who see Scripture as prohibiting women from bishops. There are some evangelicals who hold a contrary view. See, for example, this statement from discussions held between Reform and Awesome. The fact that both sides advance Scripture for their argument should, I believe, give us pause for thought. Because this proves that Scripture has little directly to say about women bishops, for one very simple reason - it has very little to say about bishops per se. And I think the current debate about women bishops is actually obscuring far more fundamental questions about the nature of ministry and women bishops

Now if it were simply a question of sifting through Scripture to weigh up the arguments for and against women bishops, then I would be up for the discussion. However there are some for whom the whole issue of women bishops is not based on Scriptural argument, but on modern notions of equality and justice under the general heading of inclusion. This reveals that actually the debate is far more than about women bishops, it is about epistemology and the fundamental foundations of Anglicanism.

Despite the fact we are founded on the 39 articles which uphold the sufficiency of Scripture, it looks like we are rapidly moving away from any notion that our actions are in fact rooted in and stand under the authority of Scripture. My big fear with the proposal of women bishops is actually that once it is decided we can do away with this tradition, what next? The example of the TEC in my opinion stands as a stark warning to anyone who wants to know what a revisionist agenda might look like; not just in the question of sexual ethics, but also in for example theological innovations such as the admission of the unbaptised to communion, the full acceptance of other faiths and religions.

That's why if it is a choice between a doctrinally conservative church which does not ordain women and one that does, I know which one I would choose. Which, of course, it is an easy thing to say if you're the minister of a large church who can decide where your finances can go. For smaller churches like ourselves the future seems a lot more uncertain. We heavily rely on the support of the diocese for the continuance of mission and ministry in a heavily deprived area. Should that support in future ever be dependent on acceptance on a liberal, revisionist agenda, I simply do not know what I should do. As the old Chinese curse puts it, we live in interesting times.

A question of mathematics

2010-06-27T17:16:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking once again about the whole issue of parish finances recently, and there's been a question forming at the back of my mind. It's this: suppose you have a diocesan system which weights how much each parish/benefice pays according to the measure of deprivation, and you have some affluent parishes which pay, let's say, 50% more per head than some other parishes, which are not at well off. At first sight that all seems right and proper. But there is a problem - in that the cost of providing a minister is the same in any part of the diocese. So how you resolve the issue of funding ministry fairly?

You could argue that a minister in the poorer areas has to look after twice as many churches.

You tell these churches they should receive 50% less ministry.

You could decide - as many other denominations have done - that ministry in the poorer areas is too expensive and you want to focus largely on the more affluent areas.

Or you can get everyone to pay into one large pot and assure them that everything is worked out fairly in the end. Which also fails to work, because churches in the more affluent areas also tend to be larger and able to carry out a wider range of ministries wonder why they are subsidising churches in poorer areas that don't seem to be pulling their weight.

Maybe the solution is to put some of the excess that churches more affluent areas pay into a designated support fund, so that the lines of interdependence and accountability become a lot clearer. Not sure how that would work in practice - but it might just encourage churches in every area to pay their common fund more willingly.

The message of Amos - a sermon on Amos 4:1-3; Luke 13:1-8

2010-06-23T14:24:00.000+01:00

In answer to my opening question, only one person in either congregation had recently read the book of Amos - my DW! The more I go on in the Christian life, the more I am convinced of the need to teach the whole counsel of Scripture, especially those parts which are generally assumed to be difficult or hard to understand. We have to resist the urge to cherry pick those parts of Scripture we like to read.

As you will see if you click onto the sermon, I made mention of the fact that the Church of Scientology has recently bought a local landmark hotel and plan to turn it into their 11th "church" in the UK. If anyone has any experience of how local churches have responded effectively to such a development I would be very interested to hear from you

How many people here have recently read the book of Amos? Has anyone ever heard a sermon preached on it? Are you looking forward to this sermon today?

Of all the parts of the Bible, the so-called minor prophets of the Old Testament are probably among the least read and least understood. And it’s not hard to see why. They refer to events of long-ago in a distant land. They contain vivid descriptions of judgement that seem harsh and cruel. There are references to strange gods and pagan practices that belong to another age. And perhaps above all else the God these prophets portray appears very different from the New Testament God of love and peace and righteousness we find in the gospels - a point to which we shall return at the end.

So how do we begin to make sense of an Old Testament prophet like Amos? Maybe the way into the book is to look at how Amos describes the people of his day. Because despite what some idealists might believe human nature really hasn’t evolved that much over the past three thousand years, and the sins and the injustices Amos highlights aren’t greatly different from the ones we see today. A society where the rich grow richer at the expense of the poor. A society where basic rights are denied to the needy. A society where the rulers live for their own pleasures.

continued

Tombstoning

2010-06-19T17:34:00.000+01:00

I see from the Ugley Vicar that tombstoning off Plymouth Hoe has made it into the Daily Mail. I know of at least one person who has been paralysed as a result. It's something that's often done after the consumption of alcohol. (The person in question had drunk a number of vodkas). It's the sort of thrill-seeking, death-defying act often done by teenagers who don't otherwise have that much hope.I look at these pictures and wonder just what we can do as the church in Plymouth to reach these young people. We don't have the presence of national organisations like YWAM to help us (they pulled out a few years ago, but at least they were here for a while) or a strong citywide ministry reaching out into the schools. Until we do they will continue to jump, and there will continue to be casualties. Lord, have mercy.

The example of Barnabas - a sermon on Acts 15:1-21, Galatians 2:11-21

2010-06-19T17:26:00.000+01:00

As I was watching last night's match between England and Algeria, I was wondering if there is some kind of parallel between being a minister and being a football manager. Both need to have a vision for the team, need to be able to communicate that vision, and build relationships with the squad. Both need to trust the team to carry out the task set them, and know what to do when things don't go right. (Actually, I began wondering this after the match. The only point of interest in the match was the bird which landed on top of the Algerian goal - what was it?)

Anyway, a couple months back someone realised it was 125 year since the foundation stone of DC2 was laid on St Barnabas day and the church worked really hard to put together an exhibition for the local community. For a whole variety of reasons, relationships between DC2 and the local community have been very strained over the years, and we wanted to do something to forge new links, especially with long-established residents who remember the jumble bazaars and the uniformed organisations, and saw the old church being demolished. We had some very positive feedback over the couple of days, although no-one joined us on the Sunday morning - so there is still clearly a lot of work to be done.

So what I needed to do for the Sunday service was to put together a team talk that would encourage this faithful little church in its mission and witness. I think, judging from the feedback, I struck the right tone - at least I don't think the team are feeling inhibited or depressed as apparently the England team are.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth? That’s a question to which you can give a whole range of answers. I guess, if someone asked you, you’d probably mention His birth in Bethlehem, and His parents Joseph and Mary, His work as a carpenter back in His home town, and His three years of public ministry in Jerusalem and Galilee. We are all very familiar with the broad outlines of Jesus’ life. And yet perhaps there is one aspect of Jesus’ life we tend to downplay or not really think about that much - the simple fact that Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was born in the land of Israel. He was, like any other Jewish boy, circumcised on the eighth day. He was brought up in the synagogue and educated in the law of Moses. Once a year He went with His parents to the temple in Jerusalem. His first language was probably Aramaic, but He also knew the Hebrew Scriptures off by heart.

So it is not that surprising that when He began to teach and preach the kingdom of God, He did so almost exclusively in the land of Israel to Jewish people. He regularly quoted the Old Testament in His teaching. He claimed He had not come to abolish the law but fulfil it. When, for example, He cleansed a leper in Mark 1:40-45, He told him to show himself to the priest and offer sacrifices. He Himself attended all the major religious festivals in Jerusalem. In many ways Jesus’ mission was a thoroughly Jewish one and even as His earthly ministry ended on the cross, it was the words of Old Testament Scripture that passed His lips. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit - an almost exact quote from Ps 31:5.

continued

Good news

2010-06-12T17:24:00.000+01:00

This is a sermon I prepared for a baptism service. I always try to make sure I never leave anyone in doubt just what it means to ask that they turn to Christ as Lord and Saviour...

Good news! We are proud to inform you that you have won $500,000 dollars in the Nigerian State Lottery. All you have to do is forward $10,000 dollars to the following bank account and the prize will be yours!

Good news! Independent scientific research has confirmed that our revolutionary new Smear-It face cream reduces the effects of ageing in woman by on average 10, yes, 10 years!!

Good news! Thanks to the determined and rigorous pursuit of our economic goals, the country is now enjoying unprecedented growth and prosperity. This shows that it is only our party that can be trusted with running with the nation’s affairs.

There are so many people out there who try to persuade you they have good news, aren’t there? And the trouble is, so often what they make out to be good news, isn’t. Their claims, at the end of the day, are really just an excuse to get you to part with your money or buy their product or vote for their party. And rightly, we have on the whole become highly sceptical of anyone at all nowadays who is promising good news. If it seems to be good to be true, then the chances are, it is.

continued

In Memoriam

2010-05-29T15:21:00.000+01:00

It is often remarked that all accounts of history are incomplete, subjective and partial. As I stand there this afternoon on this sad yet oddly joyful occasion I can see more clearly than ever the truth of this observation. Because all of you gathered today know just how deeply our Mum touched the lives of those she knew. Mum did not achieve any great accomplishments during her life nor did she belong to the rich and famous. You will not find her name in the annals of 20th century history or read of her in any biography. Yet she possessed a broad and generous gift of friendship that encompassed an extraordinarily wide spectrum of people - from her school friends in the 1930s right through to those who were fortunate to meet her here at St Andrew’s in the past few years.

Over the past few days we have so received so many warm tributes about Mum’s friendship and hospitality and Christian faith, and we treasure every single one of them. Mum was born on 7th November 1928 in Warwick. Her father came from Liskeard so family holidays often involved an 8 hour trip down this way in the Austin 7 to visit relatives. As Mum grew up, her one act of teenage rebellion was to begin to attend the local parish church and this was the start of her journey into a full and deep Christian faith, about which I shall say more presently.

When Mum left school, her first job was in the civil service in Birmingham where she collated information about some of the very worst conditions in that city just after the war. During this time she began to study Russian at night school and so started a family tradition of learning the language that continues today.

After a few years Mum went to Shenstone College to train as a primary school teacher, and she worked for a short while in a village school. Around this time also she attended Lee Abbey in Devon for the first time, and if I tell you she has kept every single newsletter from 1956 to the present day you will begin to see just how much this Christian community meant to her.

Sadly Mum had to give up teaching to nurse her mother who was terminally ill. This was one of many difficult occasions Mum faced in her life yet as we heard in the tributes she bore them with great dignity and patience and acceptance.

Eight weeks after her mother’s death Mum’s life changed for ever when she met our father. Within a year they were married - on 6th June 1959 at St Mark’s, Leamington Spa. In the course of time three children were born... Mum was devoted to her family and we all learnt so much from her. Mum was delighted to see six grandchildren come into the world and they were the very apple of her eye.

Now there’s much, much more that could and should probably be said about Mum’s life. Her faithful, constant care of Dad during his long illness; her love of foreign travel and her insatiable desire to see new parts of the world; her constant battles to get to grips with the complexities of decimalisation. But if you really wanted to understand what Mum was like, the only real way to do it was to visit her at home. She would have already baked plates of cakes and biscuits in your honour, and she would eagerly welcome in with unfeigned delight in your arrival. Before you could ask her how she was, she would want to find out with an absolutely genuine interest how you were and what you were doing.

As you sat down, you would probably already have noticed Mum surrounded by piles of letters and newspaper cuttings and books. Mum’s favourite subject after all was people. Even though many friends were at a distance, she would frequently keep in touch with carefully crafted handwritten letters that were a joy to read. She also liked to learn about people she had never met, and it was rare a day went by without her reading the obituaries in the Telegraph or perusing another biography.

And when you finally got round to finding out what Mum had been doing, she would quite naturally mention how she had been to church or the midweek Bible study or the Mother’s Union meeting. Mum’s life revolved around the local church. Not that Mum was simply a churchgoer or someone interested in religion. Mum - although she didn’t talk it often - had a real and vital faith in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour. She had, in the words of our reading from 1 Peter a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and it was this hope that carried her through every storm of life. I remember once when I was going through a particularly uncertain time she said, “We have a firm anchor”. And I am sure that, even as we come to celebrate such a warm and wonderful life, Mum’s one desire would be that all of us here today know Jesus for ourselves as our hope, our rock, our anchor and our Saviour.

The last time we saw Mum she told us she had woken up at 3 o’clock in the morning but was disappointed to have missed the dawn chorus. I have no doubt that, after she fell asleep early the next morning, she woke to an even greater chorus - the chorus of heaven as Jesus welcomed her into His presence and said, well done, good and faithful servant.

For the person whose life we remember today was not only a mother, a grandmother - and a friend to so many - but someone loved and believed in Jesus and whose life, as the apostle Peter writes here, was filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. And although our parting is so hard, and we so keenly feel our loss, we can nevertheless rejoice that she has received the goal of her faith, the salvation of her soul. So let us today not only give thanks for Mum’s rich life, but give thanks to God for the gift of His son Jesus Christ and the hope available to those who like Mum believe and trust in Him.

Some words from our next reading, Eph 3:20-21:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

A steep learning curve

2010-05-17T20:01:00.000+01:00

Three months I hadn't heard of pancytopaenia. I had never heard of the disease aplastic anaemia and its terrible consequences. I didn't know about the drug Cyclosporin and its powerful side effects. I had no idea about healthy levels of red blood cells, and white blood cells, and platelets.

But three months later I know quite a lot about these things as we have journeyed with my mother through her illness. Today she decided not to receive further treatment (which would have involved drastic measures to treat, but not cure, a fungal infection) and instead to go to a nursing home for terminal care. She just wants to go home to the Lord and she is ready. And we're at peace with the decision. As Christians we surely don't want to prolong life at any cost. There is a greater life to come and it's when we stand before the throne of grace that we are truly and finally healed once and for all. It doesn't make the parting any easier, but it does gives us a different perspective. And for that I am so profoundly grateful.

Building a Church

2010-05-17T15:17:00.000+01:00

I posted this on the church website this morning. Not a fully formed thought just yet, but something I'll keep working on

I was showing a national organisation around our two new churches last week. I had the usual warm comments about how successful they were, and a general recognition of how hard and difficult the whole process must have been. And yes, of course, there were occasions when the redevelopment process was fraught and frustrating, and I know just how time and energy church members put in to make the new buildings what they are today. But in one sense, physically building a new church is the easy part. You arrange the finance, you draw the plans, you get the church built. You know who is doing the building, and you know the end result you are going to get. It might take a few years, and a few sleepless nights, but eventually you have a lovely new church that is there for all to see.

Increasingly however I realise that the real challenge in building a church is putting the community of believers together. There is no project completion date. You are not working with measurable, physical materials. You do not have a blueprint that contains every last detail. You are simply dealing with God and with the people that He sends to your local church community. It is a continually open-ended process where you can never be sure of the outcome, even though you know you trust Jesus’ promise to build His church.

And as I look back on my nearly 8 years in the parish, I begin to see that when I first arrived I approached this whole business of church-building from the completely the wrong angle. I had learnt all (well, most of) the big theories of church growth at theological college. I had grand plans of implementing them at the local level. But really – and this is something that I think is reinforced by the gospels – church-building starts with the small little details. Getting the welcome right at the church door. Making sure people know one another’s name on a Sunday morning. Encouraging folk to meet with one another outside Sundays. Learning to practise hospitality. Not to say that the bigger picture is unimportant, but not to try and run before you can walk.

Vote for change - sermon on John 14:15-27 and Acts 11:1-18

2010-05-09T15:50:00.001+01:00

I realise that my posting here has become rather spasmodic. This is partly because at the moment my mother is in and out of hospital with aplastic anaemia. Anyway, here is at last the sermon I preached last Sunday. Looking back at it, I can see that my first sentence was rather optimistic or just plain wrong. Maybe it would be better to say with hindsight that last Thursday the first phase of the election process was completed. It would seem that people voted for change, but not the sort of change any one political party claimed to be able to deliver. It may be this will be the last election where we can draw the analogy between putting one cross on the ballot paper and making a decision for baptism.

Well, on Thursday it will finally be over. After all the campaigning and all the party political broadcasts and all the endless debates, it will be our chance to decide who will govern us. We will weigh up the issues, decide which party has run the best campaign, consider who might make the best leader, and then hopefully we will go down to our local polling station to cast our vote. And even if politics is not your thing, and you don’t feel any particular connection with any one party, please can I urge all of you to use your vote.

continued

Easter hope - a sermon on Luke 24:1-12

2010-04-29T14:32:00.001+01:00

I realise this is rather late for an Easter sermon. But as we had a D+V big on Easter Sunday, it's taken a few weeks to preach it at both churches...

How many people here like Easter eggs?

Well, as it’s Easter, I thought I’d bring along some Easter Eggs this morning. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me nowadays there are more and more different kinds of Easter Eggs on offer, and every year the amount of space in the supermarkets devoted to them seems to grow and grow. As I don’t eat chocolate, I’m not really up on what’s out there, but I did bring along three different types of Easter Egg that I do know about.

First up, I’ve brought along some plain, little, hollow chocolate eggs. Then I’ve got some Crème Eggs. And lastly I brought along some Kinder Surprise. So, you may be asking, why have I brought along these Easter Eggs today?

continued

Let no debt remain outstanding

2010-04-23T12:47:00.000+01:00

We were looking yesterday at Romans 13 in our GIFT (Growing in Faith Together) Group because I thought we ought to look at the Biblical view of government. As I was preparing, I was struck again by how unhelpful are some of the white spaces in our Bible. The NIV - and I suspect many other translations - begin a new subject heading at verse 8: Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law. and the temptation is then to have a cosy Bible study on what it means to love another. But the phrase let no debt remain outstanding shouldn't be so easily passed over. Paul has just said in verses 6-7 that we should pay whatever is outstanding, and I think he is saying quite bluntly at this point that any form of debt is wrong.

And that seems to me a particularly pertinent message at this time. The level of personal debt in this country is astonishing - it amounts to more than the country's annual GDP yet it seems we have all too easily accepted this is the way things are.

We have also built up our economy on huge levels of government debt and of course this is an issue which is now dominating this election campaign. Debt at this level is in the long run unsustainable, and we are having to face up to the blunt fact that unfettered capitalism cannot be allowed to run riot as it has done in the past. But how we reduce the debt and improve the economic model under which we operate - well, that's a tough question.

The problem with debt from a Christian perspective is the effect it has on relationships. We no longer sell people off as slaves or throw them into prisons when they are unable to pay, but the powerlessness and despair of being unable to make the next loan repayment or pay off the credit card nonetheless affects the debtor at the deepest level, and causes untold strain to his family relationships and friendships. (The link to the Credit Action website above contains some hugely sobering statistics). That's why the advice in Romans 13:8 is so pertinent. We are called to free so that we can properly love others as ourselves. Here it seems to me is yet another example where Christians are called to live a radically different lifestyle which will truly act as salt and light in society. But - memo to self - when did you last hear a sermon about debt?

Yet another face of Jesus story

2010-04-06T14:58:00.000+01:00

Well, it is Easter, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the following story in my local newspaper. It did make me smile however...

Jesus in chewing gum

...or maybe on second thoughts despair at the idea anyone could link this to the real Easter story??

Laid low

2010-04-05T12:04:00.001+01:00

Well, after the remarkable events of the last few days, it's perhaps not too surprising things have gone downhill somewhat since then. Friday evening, DW went down with a D+V bug, and my mother went back into hospital at the same time. I felt OK on Saturday, but warned a member of our church I might not last till Sunday morning ... and I didn't! Fortunately she had already drafted a sermon during the Good Friday meditations and wrote it down on Saturday evening. And from what I hear the services went really well. Just goes to show (as if I didn't know already) that I am not indispensable. Sometimes you have to get out the way to let the Lord do his work.

On another note, the blogosphere has been full of tributes to Mark Ashton. One of my prized possessions on my bookshelves are a collection of sermon notes from the Round Church 20 odd years ago. It was through the Round Church I (and numerous others) first sensed a calling to ministry, and having the example of a faithful, word-based ministry before me provided so much inspiration and encouragement. In the days where so much emphasis is placed on fresh expressions and new ways of being church, his life serves as a reminder there is no substitute for preaching the gospel in season and out of season.

Some words of Mark Ashton from a sermon on 1 Cor 15:20-34 preached on 7th June 1992:

I don't know if you realise how different it is to be a Christian. Christians live in a completely different world from non-Christians. And that is one of the underlying ideas that Paul is undergirding his argument with. You see, being a Christian, believing there is a God, doesn't just add a little extra spice to life, make it a bit easier, a bit nicer - it makes everything entirely different. There is every difference between a world which is shut in by death and a world in which death has been defeated. And there is a Creator God whose will will reign supreme; who will eventually be all in all

An extraordinary week

2010-04-02T17:18:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know that Holy Week should always be an extraordinary week, but this week has been particularly special.

This week for the first time we had someone visit us during Evening Prayer - and not the sort of person we were expecting at all. It was a young postgraduate student from London who was returning on Friday after her course had gone badly wrong. I had several long conversations and she seemed genuinely interested in the Christian faith. The last time I saw her she was convinced prayers had been answered and she had decided what she was going to do next with her life. Although I will probably never see her again, I was encouraged by my Bible reading this morning where Jesus says to the man formerly known as Legion: Return home and tell how much God has done for you . I hope that indeed is what N is doing today.

Yesterday we had a Passover meal at DC2. It was good to see so many people enjoying fellowship together, and folk worked so hard to make it a really special occasion. But what really stood out for me was an incident at the end when about six youths came in, I don't think planning anything good. As I went over to talk to them, one of them said, "S..t, he's got a knife" and they all fled. Am I sort the person to carry a knife?? So what then did they see? I genuinely believe it was the Lord at work protecting me and the church from harm.

Then today we met at DC2 to carry the cross over to DC1. Only a small group of us, but it felt good to be making a statement of faith in this way. When we arrived at DC1, someone had already started toasting hot cross buns and making cups of tea. And what happened, not that it was particularly planned, was a lovely illustration of the church in action. A group in the main body of the church praying and reflecting on Scripture. A group in the hall area drinking tea and chatting. And a group outside giving away hot cross buns and a leaflet the diocese had produced. Worship, fellowship, mission all at the same time - a real picture of what the church should be.

Although we have a very busy road outside very few people walk past it. So the giveaway was a slow, but steady process - rather like mission in general round here. But we had the opportunity for a few conversations, and the folk who run the shop over the road couldn't get enough of the buns.

I had divided the three hours at the cross into six sections - see here. When I was not outside, I spent some time meditating on Luke 23:26 and the story of Simon of Cyrene:

What do we know about Simon of Cyrene?
+ He was forced to change direction. He was going into Jerusalem, but now found himself going out of the city.
+ He was forced to carry the cross
+ He was forced to follow Jesus (verse 26 says quite explicitly he carried the cross behind Jesus).

But something happened that day which made Simon chose to be a follower of Jesus. Why else would his name be recorded if he had not become a disciple? We don't know exactly what led to his conversion, but we can guess it must have been something to do with the fact he witnessed Jesus' death and the reactions of those standing by.

But whatever the precise reason, Simon's experience has been recorded for us as a lesson in what it means to become a disciple of Jesus.
+ To turn from an old way of life to a new one. Simon would no longer travel to Jerusalem to take part in the temple rituals. The day he met Jesus spelt the end of religion and the beginning of faith.
+ To take up the cross and die to self - which is what being a disciple is all about, according to Jesus (Luke 9:23-25)
+ To follow Jesus even to the point of identifying with His death.

Maybe next year I will develop this thought for Good Friday. For now, it has been very special time...and on top of everything else, I have just had a completely unexpected phone call from a missionary friend in Peru. It is exciting to think just how far the Christian faith has spread out from its origin in Jerusalem.

What kind of reception - a sermon on Luke 19:28-44

2010-04-02T16:33:00.000+01:00

I would like to say this was the sermon I preached last week, but that wouldn't strictly speaking be accurate. It was one of those Sundays when all the practical details seemed to go wrong. I left this sermon behind in the other church, and as I was relying on this script, struggled to remember what I had said, although I think my message was coherent. Something went wrong with the words of the first song, and when I got the Communion prayer, I realised the cards with the Easter liturgy had been given out. Still, the Lord was somewhere in it all!

How many people went down to the city centre last year to see Tom Daley’s return from the World Diving Championships? I had forgotten all about it, until I was walking down Armada Way and saw all the crowds lining Royal Parade waiting for him to go past. But there is something special, isn’t there, about welcoming home a returning hero? The open-top bus, the cheering crowds, the reception afterwards. It’s something that seems increasingly commonplace for any sportsman or team who has won a major event, and I believe Plymouth Argyle had a similar parade a few years back when they topped their division. Something tells me, however, that they won’t be holding one this year.

Now our passage from Luke’s gospel this morning is also about a welcome home parade for a hero, although, as we shall see, it was a welcome home with a difference. Of course, in those days there weren’t open top buses, but there were plenty of other ways of making an entrance. A king, for example, might ride into a city on a warhorse or in a chariot, or, rather like our own Queen going to the state opening of Parliament, he could have a magnificent carriage to ride in. But this welcome home parade began with Jesus choosing a young donkey as His choice of travel.

And at first glance that seems a very odd choice.

continued

Further thoughts on Luke 19:11-27

2010-03-29T18:25:00.000+01:00

I have after many years discovered the index of Biblical references at the back of Common Worship. It's interesting if only to show which readings occur within the three year lectionary cycle, and which ones don't. I was discussing the lectionary with a reader in training today, and we had a look at this passage. Her unfamiliarity with the passage might well be something to do with the fact it never appears in the three year cycle of readings - presumably whoever put it together thought it too difficult or the ending too gruesome to include in Sunday readings. Her comments on the lectionary readings were that "they were all over the place", and this conversation only reinforced my impression that the lectionary is not a good model for learning to read Scripture.

At Diocesan Synod on Saturday feedback from a discipleship course was mentioned. This included a comment that the Anglicans on the course found it good to look at the whole of a book, rather than isolated chunks. On the one hand, it's thrilling when people start to see the sweep of Scripture. On the other hand, profoundly depressing when people who are already walking in the faith have never been shown how Scripture fits together.

In case you're wondering the parts of Luke's gospel which never appear in the lectionary are:

4:27-44
5:12-26
6:1-11
6:39-49
7:24-35
8:16-21
9:7-9
9:43b-45
10:12-15 (the set reading skips over these)
10:21-24
11:29-36
13:18-21
14:34-35
16:14-18
17:1-4
18:15-30
19:11-27
20:20-26
21:1-4
21:20-24

An interesting list.

Jesus our King - a sermon on Luke 19:11-27

2010-03-25T19:41:00.000Z

It can be very easy for preachers to use certain passages as sticks to beat their congregations, or at least as excuses for trotting out their latest hobby horses. I know, I’ve done it myself a few times. And I guess when we heard this reading from Luke’s gospel, this morning I expect most of us anticipated a sermon about how God has given us gifts and talents and how we need to make the most of what we have given - and by the way, the Annual Church Meeting is just around the corner. Well, the Annual Church Meeting is just around the corner, and the nomination forms are out today, and there is clearly something in today’s passage about service. But before I rush in and preach the usual sermon about needing to give our gifts and talents to God, I want to ask: is this the only or even the main point of the story? Or is in fact the focus of the passage on something else? And, if so, how do we decide what this focus might be?

continued

Nine years later...

2010-03-25T09:41:00.000Z

...I have finally finished the writing of my thesis on the Hebrew text of Zephaniah. I have sent it off to my supervisor, and hopefully I can get it submitted by the deadline of 7 May to the examining committee at Lambeth.

I realise this has been a particularly arcane subject to study. But it has for me raised some interesting questions about scholarly approaches to Scripture. Historical criticism which has dominated critical thinking tends to break down the text into different units from different historical layers which have then been pieced together by an even later redactor. Indeed, when I was first interviewed about my proposed research, a rather well-known clergy person told me confidently that parts of Zephaniah clearly date from the 2nd century BC.

To some extent historical criticism has now been superseded by form criticism which tends rather to analyse Scripture into different genres, and treat the whole as a literary work rather than the product of a particular time and place.

But the problem with both approaches is that they bring prior assumptions to the text, most of which can fairly robustly challenged. It is fascinating that no two historical critics can agree which parts are authentic to Zephaniah, and no two form critics agree on the structural analysis of the text. And my modest work is simply an attempt to present the other side of the argument, that there is substantial evidence to show that the work is a unity which dates from the time of King Josiah, as the opening verse of the work claims.

Why is this so important? On the rare occasions when I have discussed what I have been studying with "ordinary" church folk, I have discovered most folk only know one small part of Zephaniah, the wonderful verses 3:14-20. This is perhaps not too surprising as these are the only verses that feature in the lectionary (apart from a small part of Zeph 1 once every three years) or are otherwise generally known. But a text without a context provides a pretext, and I would argue we need to know what comes before in order to fully appreciate the significance of these verses, and have some control over their application today. I would suggest that maybe we have unconsciously or otherwise adopted some of the historical-critical way of thinking that gives us permission to remove a slab of verses from the rest of the prophecy, and certainly these verses are generally seen in many scholarly circles as a later addition.

Yes, the first couple of chapters can be hard work, but they contain a message that is extremely relevant to our present age. A few weeks ago Anglican Mainstream quoted an article by an American pastor talking about the "practical atheism" of many Christians today. Zephaniah's message is directed precisely against such an attitude, against those who swear by the Lord, but also by other gods, who are punctilious in their religion but whose faith has no bearing on their social and ethical conduct. His terrifying warning of judgement has to be taken as seriously as the oracle of restoration in Zeph 3:14-20. Otherwise the latter simply becomes a wonderful picture which bolsters our faith, but does not help us consider what it means to engage with a righteous and holy God. And surely in this there is a lesson and a warning for us all.

The Nest

2010-03-06T17:52:00.000Z

For those faithful few who are wondering whether I have fallen off a cliff, I am still very much live. But my flu bug gave away to a mycoplasma infection which means that, five weeks on, I am still less than 100%. Anyway, I took the inside of a week to go on retreat to Stanton House which while I was still physically unfit was as always a great time of drawing close to the Lord. Let me share with you a picture that has grown and developed since a house member first shared it

The house is in the middle of open countryside and at this time of year you can see the rooks building their nests. It is painstaking work that can take hours. Sometimes the nest falls apart and they have to start again. But they don't give up, and they keep working at it until the nest is built. And sometimes it is like that with us in ministry. We may feel the nest is falling apart. But our calling is to keep going, to keep persevering, and eventually the nest is built.

How is this done?

First of all, a nest is built from things that are broken and discarded. It's easy to see how that applies in an inner-city context when you are dealing with many people who feel abandoned by society. But actually if you look at the rooks, you will see that sometimes they purposely break a particular twig off that they want. And that's a reminder that no matter what our social condition, sometimes the Lord has to break us in order for us to be useful to Him. We say glibly in Lent: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; but it is worth reflecting what that means. It means yielding to God all of our hopes and ambitions and dreams, and allowing Him to do what He wants to do in our lives. I still remember reading that old, old book by Roy Hession, The Calvary Road where he talks about the need for the proud I of self to be bent to the crooked C of Calvary. We don't, I think, preach and teach enough about brokenness nowadays.

Secondly, a nest is built one twig at a a time. That means that the existing structure has to be neither too loose so that new twigs fall out again, or too tight so there is no space to weave them in. I have thinking again about what it means to be the body of Christ. It seems to me that if say only 50 or 60% of the congregation turn up on a given Sunday then the body of Christ has an arm or a leg missing, and this is something newcomers can sense. We need to meet more regularly and have tighter fellowship, not to exclude newcomers but to so that we can link them into our structures and offer them the support and help they need in order to become disciples.

And thirdly, the point of a nest is not to be a beautiful nest, but so that it can be the home of new life, to produce more rooks that will one day grow up and build new nests. Yet so often we concentrate on the numbers or on our finances, instead of our core business of preaching the cross of Christ and life in His name. If you look at a rook's nest it is actually quite an untidy and quite a scruffy thing. But it does the job for which it is designed. What about us as the church?

Much here to ponder and to pray about...

Saved for Good Acts 9:1-19; Luke 9:28-36

2010-02-14T20:53:00.000Z

Of all the stories in the book of Acts, the one about the conversion of Saul is surely one of the best-known and best-loved of them all. There is something so exciting and so dramatic about this account of a persecutor who find himself confronted with the glory of the Lord, and something so thrilling about his total change of heart from a murderer to a missionary, that even folk who know very little of the Bible will sometimes - without perhaps realising the origin of the phrase - talk about a Damascus Road experience to describe a sudden and unexpected shift in someone’s position. For example, a player who one week vows never to play for that particular club signing up for them next week on an extended and no doubt lucrative contract. A politician who has constantly opposed a planned piece of legislation throwing his weight behind the proposals at the eleventh hour. We all know what a Damascus Road experience is, or at least we think we do.

But the question I want to ask this morning is this: why was Saul’s Damascus Road experience necessary in the first place? After all, there are plenty of examples of folk coming to the Lord in the book of Acts often in quite unspectacular and completely unremarkable fashion. The thousands at Pentecost, for example, who simply accepted Peter’s message and believed, or as we saw a couple of weeks back, the crowds in Samaria who were persuaded of the power of Philip’s preaching. Why is it that the Lord had to meet with Saul one-on-one and overpower him in such a dramatic and overwhelming fashion?

continued

Facing Persecution -a sermon on Luke 4:14-30; Acts 6:8-15, 7:54-8:3

2010-02-14T20:39:00.000Z

I actually preached this sermon a few weeks back, but the virus got me before I could post it.

It should all have turned out differently. The headlines that week should have read, “Local boy makes good”, “Amazing miracles as carpenter’s son returns” “Synagogue packed for homecoming sermon”. But what instead were the headlines in the Nazareth News that week? “Near lynching after controversial preach” “Eyewitness accounts of violence - pages 2,3,4,5” “Synagogue ruler speaks exclusively about commotion - page 6”.

So what had gone wrong? After all, Jesus had always been seen as someone special. He was well-known in the village as someone who never seemed to do anything wrong. And everyone realised He was destined to be more than just a carpenter. So when one day He upped sticks and went down to the Jordan to join in with John the Baptist’s ministry, it was no real surprise. Soon the reports started coming back of miracles in places like Cana and Capernaum, and it was clear that Jesus was no ordinary person, that God’s Holy Spirit rested on Him in a special way, and that He had a particular mission for God’s people at that time.

continued

Flu!

2010-02-11T19:48:00.000Z

Those of you who follow this blog have probably realised it's been a bit quite recently. The simple reason is that I have had flu, not man-flu but real genuine, limb-aching, mind-numbing flu that saw me off work for a couple of weeks. It all seems rather unlucky as I had my usual flu jab and my swine flu jab last Autumn. But then apparently these vaccines are only about 80% effective, according to my GP who also went down with flu despite having the same vaccinations. I don't remember in all the government campaigns promoting the vaccination a warning that you could still get flu. Of course it's still better to be vaccinated than not, but as in all things in life it doesn't provide a guarantee. As I have found out the hard way.

Follow my example?

2010-01-26T09:52:00.000Z

I have recommended before Mark Easton's excellent blog on the BBC website. Last week he wrote a piece on social engineering which was well worth reading. However the article also got me thinking. Because Mark Easton sees the three tools that a government uses to change behaviour as "carrots, sticks and sermons", and in the current climate this analysis is probably correct.

But if we go back to the New Testament we see that the way Paul and others encouraged others to adopt a new lifestyle commensurate with membership of the body of Christ was through example. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Cor 11:1). And it isn't an insight confined to the church that people learn their behaviour most by example. So the question arises, where are the positive examples of behaviour which others - particularly the young - can copy in today's society? One reason why the expenses scandal was so damaging recently was that it stripped away any remaining possibility that politicians could be looked up to as role models. So if not politicians, then who? Bishops? Teachers? Policemen? It seems we are left with Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor ... now that's a chilling thought.

It also seems to me that we are now in a vicious downward spiral, as each new scandal brings with it a greater cynicism and scepticism. So when anyone appears to be virtuous or good, their private lives are ruthlessly probed and examined. This all explains why neither carrots or sticks or sermons are likely to work. The suspicion will be that whatever stick the government uses, it has made sure that its own will be protected from the worst effects of these measures, while when it comes to sermons, there is a singular failure to practise what is preached.

Of course there is a challenge for the churches here to step up to the plate, but it seems to me we have largely forfeited our identity as salt and light in wider society. It would be easy to pin the blame on others, but as we look at the state of society around us, surely our first response should be one of confession and repentance.

Church growth - a sermon on Acts 5:41-6:7

2010-01-21T20:52:00.000Z

It was interesting after preaching this sermon to read the following article from the Times. I think the church has ended up believing the myth that preaching is neither sought after nor relevant, whereas in fact the opposite is the case and it remains the tool God uses to communicate His word. I find myself despairing of reader training courses that only require participants to preach three sermons, that contain nothing about how to do personal evangelism or run outreach courses, but are hot on spiritual formation and listening. It's like sending a mechanic out with only half the tools to do his or her job. Maybe it's just me, but I find actually my spiritual formation comes from the discipline of having to prepare a sermon each week, and I am better able to listen when I have been listening to the Lord through His word. Meanwhile there are church congregations up and down the land struggling because they are led by honest, hard-working and very godly people who unfortunately have never really been taught how to preach. Is it any wonder we see so much decline in our congregations today?

Anyway, rant over. Here's this week's sermon - with all its many imperfections...

If there’s one thing every church wants, no matter what their tradition or denomination or background, it’s growth. Church growth, it seems to me, is rather like a modern version of the holy grail. It’s something elusive, something rather mysterious that many devout believers spend years and years of their life seeking. Sometimes for good, honest, kingdom reasons, that people are brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, sometimes just so we can impress the visiting bishop or tell our friends from St Nowhere in the Wilderness just how much our numbers are increasing.

But whatever our precise motivations, church growth is something we all aspire to, and it’s little wonder that over the past 20-30 years a whole industry has grown up devoted to the subject. Yet what is so surprising is how little all the various writers and experts agree on how growth should be achieved. We’ve had cell church, we’ve had network church, we’ve had liquid church, and for the time being fresh expressions are the flavour of the day - at least if the paperwork I’m filling in for the diocese is anything to go by. Now don’t worry if you don’t understand any of these terms because this morning I’m not going to focus on any of them, and besides which, there’ll be a new one coming along any time soon.

Because instead I’m going to go back to the pages of Scripture and ask a very simple question: how did the early church grow? And the very simple, and perhaps surprising answer, is that it grew through preaching and teaching.

continued

Reaching the next generation

2010-01-12T19:36:00.001Z

On Saturday night I did something I hadn't done in years - I went along to gig in a local pub. There is a couple in our church who have a daughter who plays in one band and a son-in-law in another. I recently baptised the son-in-law's child and we found we had a common interest in rock music. So he invited me to hear him play, and I have to say I really enjoyed myself (even though it took about 12 hours for my ears to recover) - I have even put an order in for the band's T-shirt! I have promised to go along next time they play, and I think I will be invited back.

But I guess the evening also crystallised for me several reasons why we don't find 20-40 year-olds much in church nowadays on a Sunday morning. First of all, the chances are they are still recovering from the night before. Not only that, but the music they play is light years away from what they think of as church music (although, if they but knew, it is isn't that dissimilar from a lot of contemporary worship on offer nowadays). And looking at the crowd there, it is the music itself that provides them with the freedom and the spiritual uplift from the daily grind of working as teachers, nurses etc. There is a sense of community and the thrill of taking part in something live and exciting that provides a real bond. It is, in a way, their church.

So as I stood and listened to the pub singing along to "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones, whether the men and women there would still be singing it in their 50s and 60s. And the answer is probably they will. We live in a culture that romanticises youth and sees it as a time of freedom and newness we lose as we grow up. Maybe this is one reason why it remained John Peel's favourite track until the end of his life.

But I couldn't help think it a little incongruous that as I left everyone was joining in with "Back in the USSR".

The wise men's journey - a sermon on Matthew 2:1-12

2010-01-07T17:30:00.000Z

One of the greatest advances of the last century has been in the whole area of transport. Aeroplanes, helicopters, motorways, electric railways and the like were all invented in the past 100 years. So that when we decide to go on a journey, we think nothing of jumping into a car, switching on the ignition and driving for as long as it takes until we reach our destination, or, if you’re like me, walking to the railway station, hopping on a train and within a few hours disembarking safely at the other end.

But just occasionally there are circumstances when we have to think about our journey rather more carefully. You’ve probably all heard the police advice during the recent snow and ice to “only travel when it is absolutely essential” and I guess for those of us who’ve had to visit family and friends over the festive season we’ve all had to do some extra planning. We’ve had to look at the weather forecast and decide the best time to leave. On our departure we’ve had to check whether we have the right equipment with us, like hot drinks and a shovel. We’ve probably kept the car radio tuned for any travel advice. And once we have paid our visit and seen our family we’ve had to think about our return journey and when it’s been safe enough to travel back. The unseasonably cold weather of the past few weeks has perhaps reminded us of former times when a journey in the depths of winter required great planning and considerable stamina, and was something only undertaken by the hardy few.

Now despite the lyrics of some well-known carols we can almost be certain that the journey of the three wise men did not take place in the bleak midwinter or amid the winter’s snow. As Matthew’s gospel tells us they came from the east, and if you know anything about the geography of the Middle East you will be aware that to the east of Israel lies not field and fountain, moor and mountain but desert. Lots of hot, dry desert that stretches for miles and miles as far as the eye can see. And what I want to do this morning is think about why and how the wise men made their journey, and what it is we can learn from their example.

continued

Can we trust the Christmas story - a sermon on 1 John 1:1-2:2

2010-01-02T10:38:00.000Z

Can we trust the Christmas story? It seems to me that over recent years it has become big business to attack the accepted accounts of the Christian faith. We have TV documentaries that seek to undermine the traditional portrait of Jesus. Lost gospels are published which, so it is claimed, show the early church tried to suppress or even alter the truth. And then, of course, there are books like those of Dan Brown, which are terribly badly written, but attract a huge following because of their entertaining, if totally impossible, conspiracy theories.

So how should we as Christians respond?

continued

No room

2010-01-02T10:29:00.000Z

Christmas is a peculiar time of year in these parts. Many churches are full to overflowing and lay on lots of extra services for visitors and family members who join the regular congregation. Round here the regulars all go off to visit family and friends so we have only a small number on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our numbers were particularly small at DC2 because of all the ice and the snow, since most of our congregation walk to church. Still, those who did turn up seemed to appreciate my message...

One of the problems with the Christmas story is that so many of the details have to be left up to the imagination. Take, for instance, the visit of the wise men from the east. We know they saw a star and we know they came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but Scripture is silent on whether they were kings or whether they came riding on camels. Or take the visit of the shepherds. Did they see the ox and ass round the manger, and did they bring their own lambs as an offering? Again, Scripture is silent on this point. And maybe the fact there are so many parts of the Christmas story left unsaid should make us pause and think why the gospel writers wrote their accounts as they did. Was it to provide the script for a nativity play? Or provide a scene-by-scene eyewitness account of every last detail? Or was there some other purpose behind their telling of those momentous events 2000 years ago?

Maybe we can start to see something of the answer when we consider a little phrase in our reading from Luke’s gospel we heard just now, a little phrase that perhaps is easy to overlook, but one which I want to take as my text this evening there was no room for them (that is Joseph, Mary and Jesus) in the inn. Now I know that nativity plays up and down the land have the character of the innkeeper slamming a door shut in the holy family’s face, and maybe that’s what happened. After all, as we know, Bethlehem was full to overflowing with families returning to be counted in the Roman census. But the fact Luke doesn’t mention an innkeeper or describe what the inn was like surely points to the fact he was less concerned to show us what happened as to point to people’s reactions to the events of that night, that there was not only no physical room for the new parents, there also no room in their hearts to welcome them and to share in the good news.

So why might this be?

continued

Sticking to the Subject

2010-01-02T10:20:00.000Z

Over on our church website I posted the following entry as part of my blog there...

Around Christmas every year the media always carry a report about one or two vicars who preach some controversial sermon or leave children in tears because of some outrageous action. The story normally lasts for a few days, and then the news cycle moves on, although not before folk at large have generally been left with the impression that the church is led by a group of rather out of touch men who don’t really believe the Christmas story they are supposed to preach.

And this makes me sad quite really. Because, first of all, the Christmas story is a wonderful story. Although I grumble at having to preach on the same texts year on year, I know this is what I am called to do. I do wonder if a few vicars (and I am sure they are only a few) wander off message simply because they get bored and over familiar with the stunning message that God has become flesh and dwelt among us. And secondly, the fact that the majority of ministers preach a simple, straightforward gospel message is almost always overlooked. It just doesn’t make news.

But then I think we have to wake up and realise just how marginalised the Christian faith has become in this country. For many years church leaders have campaigned for more coverage of religious affairs and Sunday services in the media, but it is increasingly becoming a losing battle. We cannot therefore be surprised if faith is more and more seen as some kind of oddity, and any story which reinforces this view is bound to be seized upon. In fact I believe that in the long run the situation that the church in this country faces will become more like that in other parts of the world – a misunderstood minority that will attract hostility and suspicion – in fact almost exactly the situation the early church faced.

Which is why we need to stick to the main subject of the Christmas story and keep preaching it faithfully year on year. Because among so many other things it is about God coming to dwell in the midst of suffering and persecution and through the foolishness of the cross setting up a kingdom not of this world where the poor and the humble and the weak are blessed.

And maybe if we really took this message to heart and lived it, then we might just start to see that renewal and that revival the church in this country longs to see.

With that thought in mind, let me wish you all a Happy New Year!