Archives for 2021

Sermon St Eustachius 9.45 26 December 2021 Christmas 1 Year C Stephen martyr
2 Chronicles 24v20-22         (Psalm 119v161-168)         Acts 7v51-60   Matthew 10v17-22         Let us Pray:

Well, I guess we have all survived. Christmas really has come and now almost gone yet again? And what have we actually achieved? Yes, an extra inch around the waist, some precious time with family and special friends, and for those of us who make up the household of God, a wonderful remembrance of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
But what next? The time for new year resolutions perhaps, but that will have to wait a few more days.

So, as we wait, I wonder what common points you found in our readings this morning?
Maybe what struck you was the significant difference in the ending of our reading from 2 Chronicles, about the death of Zechariah, and the last words of Saint Stephen as he was being martyred?
Zachariah, as he was being martyred said what? ‘May the Lord see, and avenge’. Although we know that God said very clearly, ‘Vengeance is mine’, (Deut 32v35), Zachariah’s words starkly contrast with the final words of Stephen, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’.
But do those words of Stephen remind you of anything else? What did our Lord pray as he was dying upon Calvary’s cross? ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23v34).
Such an amazing contrast, and we need to ask ourselves what made that contrast possible?

I am sure we have all heard stories after some deadly assault or murder, of such contrasting responses as, ‘I can never forgive that person’, and yet others can say despite their pain and much trauma, ‘I forgive them’. I pray that we shall never be put in such a position, but how would we respond?

Saint Paul addresses this question when writing to the Christians in Rome (Rom 12v19) where has says that as Christians we are to ‘overcome evil with good’. Does that seem possible to you? Many will say, easier said than done, true, for without the help and presence of God’s Holy Spirit that may well be the case.

But did you notice that there was a second common factor running through our readings. Zachariah, as an Old Testament saint had experienced the Spirit of God with him, but we read that Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, and of course that was supremely true of our Lord Jesus.
So is there a lesson from Stephens experience for us Christians this morning? A lesson of how to live out our lives to the full as God intended for each one us? How may we have the great hope of the gospel resonating in our hearts? Clearly, we need to be like Stephen, to be full of God’s Holy Spirit.
And that is so necessary for our persecuted brothers and sisters to survive amidst all the hostility that they so often have to experience and endure.

In our reading from Matthew this morning, that hostility was something Jesus had to prepare the early disciples for telling them that, ‘they will hand you over to councils and flog you’, and sadly that has been something which has not diminished down through the ages for true believers, for true followers of our Lord. Stephen may have been the first of our fellow believers to be martyred, but sadly it did not stop with him. The presence and witness to the truth that we Christians have always been called to declare makes us prime targets for attack in an ‘anti God’ society. It was true, and that is still especially true, in many communist and other repressive regimes today, and does not seem to be diminishing.

Saint John in his Revelation issued a call for ‘the endurance of the saints’ (Rev 14v12), and John saw under the altar of God in heaven, the souls of those who had been killed for the word of God and for the witness they had borne (Rev 6v9). In heaven those faithful believers no doubt see our Lord Jesus standing at Gods right hand, just as Stephen saw in his dying vision. They now wait in expectation of that day when they, together with us, shall all be like our Lord Jesus as we share in his glory. Can we yet even begin to grasp the magnitude of that promise? I wonder, is that your hope and expectation as another new year begins?

Joy and I have been reading a most challenging book, and if you start reading it, you will not be able to put it down. It contains the testimonies of women who risk all for their faith in our Lord Jesus in antagonistic middle eastern countries. Yet despite enormous risks, and possible death, these women have become firm followers of the Lord, living on the very edge they seek to spread the good news of the gospel.
Let us pray for strength and faithfulness, that like them we may live to declare the hope and joy that Jesus came to bring to all humankind through his birth in that little town of Bethlehem some two thousand years ago.

Let us Pray: A prayer written at the conclusion of psalm 97 in daily prayer
Most high and holy God, enthroned in fire and light, burn away the dross of our lives and kindle in us the fire of your love, that our lives may reveal to all around the light and life we find only in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily Christmas Eve/Day St Mary & St Peter          24/25 December 2021Year C
Isaiah 52v7-10         (Psalm 98)         Hebrews 1v1-4 [5-12]         John 1v1-14

On this Holy of (nights-Day), I wish to pose to you a question.
What do you regard as the most significant event in all of human history?

Would you answer with Genesis 1, ‘God said “let there be light”, or as a physicist I prefer to say, “let there be electromagnetic radiation”. Possibly, for without the big bang, the universe, you and I would have no being.
Or would your answer be with some great figure or grand event from history? Who or what would then be your response I wonder?
Or maybe you would respond with what we are here to celebrate on this holy of all (nights -days)? The pivotal and turning point of history, that time when God, the one who set our universe into being, compacted himself into the holy babe, born of Mary, in Bethlehem.

The incarnation, as we Anglicans like to call the birth of Jesus, is a far greater mystery than the physics of quantum mechanics for can you, can I, ever conceive of how God could become a human being? How could the ‘Word’, the way Saint John in our reading referred to Jesus, the Son of God, become a living human being?

Certainly God, as Genesis tells us, has amazingly created us in his own image, to be his ‘image bearers’ in this world, now there is a good topic to debate over Christmas dinner. Our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church like to express it in this way, ‘God became man so that man could become like God’, created so we could share in the future glory of the God who created all things. Now that is another good topic for conversation. But how and why did God choose to enter into this his physical creation, and at that pivotal point in human history some two millennia ago?

We may not be able to answer the question how, but we can see why. God chose to extended His grace, mercy and love to us, so that we who have rebelled against His ways and gone off along our own paths, may hear the good news of our reconciliation. In our reading from Hebrews the writer described how God decided to send Jesus to speak to us and to make His plan for our reconciliation possible.

We read in the Old Testament prophets how God made king David, despite all his short comings, a man after God’s own heart, and a prince over his people Israel. So God made Jesus, that babe born this happy morning in Bethlehem, the city of David, a saviour for all humankind. But God will one coming day also make Jesus the prince and ruler over all the nations of the world, at the time when Jesus comes again as Messiah and Lord.

St John in his gospel tells us how John the Baptist told us how to prepare ourselves for that time of Jesus coming, he called us all to repent. Sadly there is inside us humans a rebellion to God’s ways so that we need to repent, to ‘turn about’, to seek God above all else. So can we this Christmas commit ourselves to following after Jesus in our everyday lives?

If so then I hope that as we sung in our carol, ‘O little town of Bethlehem’, the truth of the words ‘where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in’, will take on new meaning for each one of us.
What God longs to see in each of our lives is a commitment to follow Him, and His ways.
If you only grasp just one thing from our service this holy (night-day), may it be that God has a phenomenal purpose for each of our lives if we will but humble ourselves and trust and believe in Jesus as our Lord and Master. God has given to us brothers and sisters, a hope that transcends anything that we can possibly desire or imagine.

Some 21 years ago, on Christmas eve, I was in Manger square in that now, not so little, town of Bethlehem. It was full of hope and expectation of many good things ahead, and much investment was flowing into the Palestinian economy. Much of the infrastructure of the town had been rebuilt, the economy was growing, and there was reasonable freedom of movement both in and out. Then came the second Palestinian intifada, and all changed.
When I returned in 2005, entering Bethlehem was then through a gap in a 6m high concrete wall, and with greatly increased security. The image of ‘O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see you lie’, was in an instant shattered.

Since then those Christians who remain living in Bethlehem, where once the Christian population were in the majority, have become and feel isolated, as there has been an exodus of Christian families from within it. Where now is the hope, the peace and the goodwill between men heralded at the birth of that babe born within its midst?

Yet we as Christians know that it is not man who will dictate the final outcome of human history, and so we can take hope even through all that we see going on around us across the world. God has a plan of redemption, reconciliation, for you, for me, and for all the nations of His world so do not lose heart or hope at all the bad news in the media. God will finally make his purpose of peace and righteousness happen for all. And that through the return of the babe born this happy morn.

The God who said, let there be light, and flung the stars into the vast expanse of space, is still at the helm of His universe despite man’s best attempts to dislodge him. Pray through all the political correctness, that once again the will and purpose of the one true and living God may be heard and impact everyone’s life.
So let us join in with the heavenly host, with all the angels, and with our countless brothers and sisters around this world as today we praise God this joyful Christmas morn.

Let us thank God for his wondrous gift of the baby Jesus, so silently given in Bethlehem, God’s own son foretold by the prophets, and soon to be King Messiah and ruler over all the world.
Let us thank God for his free gift to you and to me of forgiveness for all our wrongdoings, and of a hope that we shall enjoy a place being prepared for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. But right now God has a job for you and for me, a job building his kingdom of peace, justice and righteousness in our stumbling society. Let us work to hasten the day when that transformation will be fully realised at the return of our Lord Jesus.

Yes, the birth of that babe, together with Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection, will for ever remain, the most significant events in human history, for they provide us with hope. Hope, not just for this night, but for all eternity if we but let the holy child of Bethlehem, come to us, abide with us, and be born in us today.
Now for a suffering, weary and war-torn world, that’s what I call a real Christmas present.                  Amen

Sermon St Eustachius 9.45 12 December 2021 Year C Next Advent 3
Zephaniah 3v14-20   Responsory Isaiah 12v2-6         Philippians 4v4-7         Luke 3v7-18

Let us Pray:
More than 300 years ago, king Louis XIV of France asked Blaise Pascal, the philosopher and mathematician, to give him proof for the existence of God. Pascal answered, ‘Why the Jews your Majesty, the Jews’. And why do you think Pascal give that reply to king Louis? .. Because the Jews have survived for over 4000 years as a separate and coherent people, survived against all the attempts to destroy them. The time when Pharaoh required all the male babies to be destroyed, yet Moses escaped; the time when Queen Esther had to intervene for the Hebrew people to be delivered from the plans of the wicked Haman, a time still remembered today in the colourful festival of Purim; and of course the Shoah, the holocaust of the second world war, the pictures from which seem unimaginable. Yet today there are still regimes looking for the destruction of the nation of Israel.

You may be asking, ‘what has that to do with todays readings?’ Well, the prophet Zephaniah, prophesying during the reign of king Josiah in the late seventh century BC, denounces the arrogant leaders of the nation Judah for abandoning their worship of Yahweh, the true God, and accommodating foreign customs and false gods. They were seeking wealth and power through exploitation, violence and fraud, sounds a bit like our times to me. Zephaniah reminded them that Yahweh, their true God, was Holy and righteous, and greatly offended by injustice. But despite that Zephaniah had a message of hope for a coming time of deliverance, a time of restoration for the people.
Zephaniah’s preaching can be seen as referring to a new age of joy and liberation, a new age when Messiah would bring in a coming kingdom with God himself in their midst. A time when Zephaniah saw that God would gather and bring his chosen people home after their dispersion, a time that we are presently seeing fulfilled before our eyes today.

Is it any wonder then that many in Israel can today join with the words of  Zephaniah when he wrote, ‘Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult, the Lord has taken away the judgements against you’; and we still await the realisation of that time. Yet sadly while we wait, we see even in this country, a rise in antisemitism. Yet it is the Jew Jesus, God incarnate, whom we come together to worship this morning as our Saviour, Lord and coming King. Let us then join in that vision with a renewed hope, looking forward to a future restoration that God, in his love and mercy, has promised to all those who will today believe and trust him.
But in the meantime, as we look around and see all the suffering in our present world, and especially as we remember, and hopefully try to help, the homeless and refugees at this coming Christmas time, with Zephaniah we look forward to the time he described in our reading, ‘I will deal with your oppressors, I will save the lame and gather the outcasts, I will change their shame into praise’. So while the Lord tarries, while he delays his second advent, it falls to us, Jesus’ present day disciples, we who are the ‘image bearers of God’, to meet the needs of these forgotten folk, those at home and those abroad. As Christians our call has always been to help others, to share our resources, and to be content with what we are fortunately blessed with.

Our gospel reading this morning reminds us that John the Baptist was a very fiery preacher. I just love those words that he cried out to those coming to him for baptism, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come!’
Not exactly politically correct words for this day and age; and I wonder what would be the response from a family coming for baptism if I shouted out those words as we all moved towards the font at the back of Church?

Yet is not that same call still so desperately needed today when we look around at all the violence and heartbreak seen in much of our society?
And Jesus did not shy away from using similar words. Jesus said to the Pharisees (Mtt12v34), ‘You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil.’ Perhaps if those words ‘repent’ were needed to be said by both John and Jesus when preaching that the kingdom of God has come near, we also need to be bold as we call people to repentance. It is a call for all to stop, to turn around and make new lives, a call that God places upon every person’s life to worship and to follow after our Lord Jesus.

John had words for each group of people coming to him for baptism as to how they should put that call to repentance into practice. Perhaps you could think up suitable responses for the multitude of people who today still need to experience repentance, and accept God’s forgiveness before they can enter with us into his everlasting kingdom of love, peace and joy.

But John did not leave his preaching with just the need for repentance did he? Having made it quite clear to those Pharisees who wanted to know just who he was, and so with what authority he could preach such a demanding call for repentance, John made it quite clear that he was not the long awaited Messiah.
John pointed to one who was coming after him, to the one whose sandal he was not worthy to untie, John pointed to his cousin Jesus as the Messiah.
Jesus the one whom John was soon to baptise; the one who did not need any baptism of repentance for he was the holy and spotless ‘son of God’. John pointed to Jesus who we shall affirm in a moment is, ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’.

No, the coming Jesus was for John, and for us, more than the one who could offer forgiveness of sin, he was to be, and still is, the one who can baptise us with the Holy Spirit from God our Father. You will recall that Jesus refrained from baptising with water, he left that to his disciples, but he was the one who promised, and then sent, the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire at Pentecost. And what was the result?

The Holy Spirit transformed those timid and fearful first disciples of Jesus so that they were enabled to preach with boldness to all those that they met. And Peter was then to see some 5000 converted as he boldly preached on that first day of Pentecost. I wonder if we desire to have that same boldness that the Holy Spirit imparted to Peter that Pentecost morn?

So how are we to make sense today of these things in our own personal lives as Christians? What would be your response? Perhaps, like me, you have found it impossible to live out the commandments of Jesus, and to produce the fruits of his Holy Spirit that Paul lists in his letter to the Galatians (5v22), the fruits of, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Yet do we not all feel, and know deep in our hearts, that those fruits are exactly what Jesus has called each one of us to show and do in our lives as ‘image bearers’ of God?

And why do we find it so impossible to show forth all those fruits?
The simple answer is that we cannot produce those fruits, those virtues, through our own strength; we cannot produce them of our own accord, we need the presence of the Holy Spirit to dwell with us. It is only through the power that the Holy Spirit imparts to us that we become enabled to live the full lives that God intended for us as his ‘image bearers’.
So we need to constantly meditate and ask ourselves if we are experiencing that life giving presence and power of God within us.

Do you remember the story of Paul’s third missionary journey when he went to Ephesus which Luke describes in Acts 19? What did Paul find with those few disciples there?
When he asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ what did they reply? ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit’.

Well, none of us here this morning can say that we have not heard of the Holy Spirit, but we do all need to ask once again, are we experiencing him in our lives? If not perhaps like those 12 early disciples we need to seek the Holy Spirit through earnest prayer, for when Paul laid his hands on them Luke plainly says ‘the Holy Spirit came upon them’.

With the Holy Spirit in our hearts we know the peace of God, that peace which passes all understanding, and He brings to us a new sense of power and purpose as we live out our lives as Christians. A time when God can bring to our hearts and minds a new experience of our Lord’s presence with us day by day. A time when you can follow in saint Paul’s footsteps and say, ‘I rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice’.

Let us pray:         A form of the shorter collect for this 3rd Sunday of Advent

God for whom we watch and wait, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son: give us courage to speak your truth,
to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right.
So dear Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit today and every day, we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.          Amen