Sermon St Eustachius  Sunday 15 March 2020 ‘Peace’          Revd. Mike Loader

Readings         Exodus 17v1-7         Psalm 95         Romans 5v1-11         John 4v5-42

Once again the Lexionary has presented us with a beautiful and powerful set of linked readings from which we can barely scratch the surface this morning.

When Jesus, and his first five disciples, came to Jacobs well near Sychar, they were on their way back to the Galilee following the Passover feast in Jerusalem during the spring of AD 28, and little did they realise that new beginnings for them were soon to occur.

Although we read that Jews and Samaritans have nothing in common, they did not mix or interact, Jesus and the Samaritan woman met at the well and talked, and she was to become the first Gentile evangelist for Jesus ministry when she went back to her town and told the people there of her encounter, “can this be the Messiah”.

While the disciples had gone looking for food, Jesus broke with tradition in speaking to this foreign woman, and he sensed that her heart was not at peace, particularly being in her present relationship.

And peace is what I want us to reflect upon this morning. I believe ‘Peace’ to be particularly relevant at this time with much fear over the current corona virus pandemic.

There are many types of peace, peace between individuals, or communities or nations, and how we need to pray for all of those when we look around at the disturbed and desperate state of our world. But I wonder what do you understand and expect for the peace that we as Christians should be experiencing?

When we greet one another with those beautiful words of Paul, “grace, mercy and peace”, how do you envisage that peace?

What is the peace that we call for in that greeting? It is a peace that is to be the expected experience of us as believers in the one true and living God, and in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ.

As the Israelites journeyed with Moses during the exodus from Egypt, they saw and experienced the visible presence of the Lord God journeying with them in the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, but they still did not seem to know peace, and they were continually grumbling to Moses.

So what should peace be for us Christians who have God, by His Holy Spirit, journeying with us?

Let us start by asking what do we mean by peace? Peace can be defined as ‘harmonious relationships’ or as ‘a freedom from mental stress or anxiety’. How does that sit with each one of us in our everyday pilgrimage as Christians?

Maybe one of our first responsibilities as Christians, if we are to know true peace, is to be in ‘harmonious relationships’, not just with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but with any and all of our neighbours. And that is where we may need the help, support and prayers of one another, and also of God’s grace, and of the Holy Spirit.

Paul reminded the Galatians (6v2) that we should bear one another’s burdens, and in so doing we then fulfil the law of Christ.

And do you Remember the words of our Lord from the sermon on the mount (Mtt5v9), “blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God”. Do you, do I, want to be found as one of God’s precious children? Then we are called to be people of peace.

Jesus then goes on to tell us how peacemaking is to be practiced (Mtt 5v23), “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there and first go and be reconciled to your brother”. That reconciliation may not always be possible, but in as far as it is up to us, that is what is required of us to peruse as disciples of our Lord, and if it is not possible to effect a reconciliation, then we are discharged from our responsibility and can move on.

So where does true and lasting peace come from? We read in Luke (1v79) that John the Baptist’s father Zachariah prophesised of Jesus that he was to be the one “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet”, our feet into what, “into the way of peace”.

Some 600 years before Zachariah, the prophet Isaiah (Is 1v79) described God’s coming Messiah, our Lord Jesus, in these lovely words, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace'”.

So I believe that it is only through Jesus that we can know real peace.

We Christians await the coming of Jesus to rule and to reign, that is our hope.

So we now await with anticipation the peace that he, the Prince of Peace, will bring to us and to our hurting world.

But Isaiah also goes on to say, (Is 26v3) “God will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed-or focused, on God, because he trusts in God”.

So Isaiah gives to us this promise, set your heart and your mind fully upon God, and God in return will give you ‘perfect peace’.

From Isaiah’s perspective, peace comes from a purposeful decision on our part to set are minds upon God, to chose to have God always at the forefront of our minds.

And that same message was conveyed to the Roman Christians by Saint Paul (Rom8v6) when he wrote, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Holy Spirit is life and peace”.

You may say, but how can I do that in troubling circumstances? Well here is a wonderful story that may help. How many of you have heard the lovely hymn, ‘When peace like a river, attendeth my way’?

An American lawyer, business man and committed Christian, Horatio Spafford, penned the words of that hymn following a great family tragedy. In 1873 he had planned to travel to England with his wife Anna and their four children, but sent them on ahead. Their ship was sunk at sea after a collision, and only Anna survived. Shortly after Spafford sailed to join his grieving wife, and when his ship passed near the spot where his daughter’s had been lost, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these words:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Those words could only have come from the heart of a man who was at peace, and knew the peace of God in his heart.

Another person to my mind whose heart was indeed ‘stayed upon God’, was the old man Simeon in the Temple, when Mary and Joseph presented the 40 day old Jesus according to the requirement of the Jewish law. We often say the words of Simeon, the Nunc dimittis, at funerals to bring great comfort to those who have lost a loved one.

Simeon could see that this baby Jesus that Mary gave him to hold, was the Messiah, the one sent by God to bring Salvation and Peace with God to us all.

As Christians we can, and should know, two types of peace that those outside of the household of God, those of the world, can not, and do not know. ‘Peace with God’, and ‘the Peace of God’. I believe old Simeon had both of these, and so he could come to the end of his life in peace, and die without fear.

So the searching question we have to ask is, ‘Do I have peace with God’?

Peace with God comes when we confess our wrong doings, our shortcomings, our sins before God, and ask for His promised forgiveness, and put our trust, our faith, in Jesus. We then know that those transgressions have been forgiven, forgotten, and as the psalmist says (103v12), removed from us as far as the east is from the west, by our faithful Heavenly God and Father.

As Paul says to the Ephesians (2v13-14), “You who were far off have been brought near through the blood of Christ, foe Jesus himself is our peace”.

And Paul has a similar message for the Christians in Rome (5v1) who have put their trust in Jesus, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Because we then have ‘Peace with God’, we can also experience ‘the Peace of God’. So do you, do I, also experience that peace of God dwelling in our hearts day by day?

It is a peace that quietens our hearts and minds; a peace that helps us to overcome our fears.

Jesus described this peace to his disciples at the last supper (Jn14v27) when they were clearly anxious as to what was about to come, he said to them, “my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid”.

When writing to the Christians at Philippi (Phil 4v7) Paul said that, “the peace of God passes all understanding”. So it is a peace that we cannot describe, explain or understand, but we can know and experience God’s peace deep within our innermost being. It is a peace that guards our hearts and minds as we walk our pilgrim path with our Lord and Master, Jesus.

When writing to the Christians in Galatia (5v16) Paul says that they, and we, should ‘walk by the Holy Spirit’, that means we should follow the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives, for there can be no deep peace without God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is graciously given to us as we humble ourselves, and as we allow the ‘fruit’ of God’s Spirit to become evident in our lives, those fruits of ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’.

It is God’s passion that we should each know the ‘fruit of His Holy Spirit’, and that we each experience that peace which the world cannot give, so let us be sure that today we are rejoicing in that peace.

Let us pray Give us honest hearts, O God, and send your kindly Holy Spirit to help us confess our sinsand bring us the peace of your forgiveness; in Jesus Christ our Lord.         Amen

Where to Worship?

The woman at the well famously discussed with Jesus where was the right place to worship (John 4:19-24). Which mountain was the right one, the Temple Mount of Moriah in Jerusalem according to Judaism or Mount Gerizim according to Samaritanism? In this time with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic when church services have been put on hold, where should we go to worship?

I know from my own experience that I feel closest to God when I am in my garden or out running or walking across the fields near my home. I can praise, pray, grieve and argue with Jesus as I feel the wind on my face and mud beneath my feet.

Connecting with God and being inspired to praise Him can be much easier in nature. Many people of no or little faith will talk of the awe and wonder of a sunset, a forest glade or the intricacy of a flower or beetle. Indeed the whole of the cosmos has been made by and for Jesus (Colossians 1:16).

So it should not surprise us to find ourselves draw into worship when we are in nature. Indeed all of the rest of the created order is praising God all of the time, not by choice as we do, but because it has been created to do so. The birds sing God’s praises, the trees lift their branches in adoration and the flowers lift their heads in love.

In this time of self-isolation, when we need to keep our physical distance to keep ourselves and others safe, we still can join with the whole communion of creation in worship. For some this may mean looking out the window or taking some time in the garden, for others, this could be going for a walk or getting to the park.

But what next? How can we turn a walk in the park into a journey of worship?

1. Join in. Take time to notice nature. See how it is revering Jesus, its maker. Join in with your own praise and adoration, either silently or out loud (with physical distancing, this may be less embarrassing!). You can use the words of the Psalmists, hymns, liturgy or your own words as the Holy Spirit prompts you.
2. Give thanks. Find 5 or 10 things that you can show gratitude to Jesus for in your surroundings. Remember that we are all completely depended on our relationship with creation for our everyday needs: air, water, food, mental health etc. And therefore, dependent upon our creator God.
3. Surrounded by the beauty and creativity of nature, the shortcomings of humanity are often clearer, but so also in the power and timelessness of God. Bring before Him your own concerns and the needs of the natural world, suffering from our misuse and abuse.
4. Be tactile. When we are having to be careful about our person to person contact, taking time to touch and connect with other parts of God’s creation can be enriching. Feel a sticky bud of a horse chestnut tree, smell a bluebell, let a woodlouse walk across your hand. (Be mindful of not touching surfaces than others may have touched). Rowan Williams once wrote, “Receive the word of God. Go for a walk. Get wet. Dig the earth.”
5. Let the joy flow. God’s character is displayed in nature: good, creative, generous, humours and fun. Allow yourself to be playful in nature. Use a spotters guide, challenge a friend to a bird watching competition, play Pooh sticks, run and skip!

You may find it helpful to use outdoor prayer resources, such as those from the Sanctuary Centre www.thesanctuarycentre.org/resources/prayer-stations-god-revealed-in-creation.pdf

Paul saw how Jesus has revealed himself as creator and redeemer, writing in Romans 1:20 “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

Our church doors may be closed, but God’s sacred house is the whole of His creation and we can all find Him there.

Jemima Parker, Diocesan Environment Officer, Leeds Diocese. March 2020.

Christ came down to earth from heaven, born for us on Christmas Day.

On a side table in our sitting room is a small host of Angels. The Angels were presents given to me when I was ordained, first as a Deacon and then as a priest. These angels are beautiful, all different but each one a reminder of God’s messengers. Angels, heavenly beings created by God. Cherubim and Seraphim. The word “an.gel.os” (angel) comes from a basic word that means “message- bearer”.  An angel is a messenger from God.

In the Bible only two angels are specifically named: the archangel Michael who is mentioned in Jude 9, Revelation and Daniel, and the angel Gabriel whom we find mentioned in the book of Daniel and who comes from God to speak to Daniel. The angel Gabriel is God’s messenger in the incarnation story; it is Gabriel who tells Zechariah “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you good news (Luke 1:19). Gabriel prepares Zechariah for the birth of his son, John, to his wife Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin.

It is Gabriel who was sent by God to Mary to tell her of God’s favour upon her. Mary received God’s message and reassurance, and accepted God’s message, ‘Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’ (Luke 1.38). In Matthew 1 Joseph, described as a righteous man and unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, giving him God’s message: this baby will save God’s people from their sins. Joseph did as the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.

And so God’s plan for the world was put into place, aided by his angels. Mary’s baby, the Christ child, was born in Bethlehem and was called Jesus, the name given by God, told by the angel.   It was an Angel (thought to be Gabriel) who visited the shepherds in a blaze of God’s glory, the light of God’s presence and power, accompanied by the Heavenly Host praising God and saying ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven’ (Luke 2. 14).  To the least of earth’s inhabitants, the shepherds, the poorest of God’s people, to them first came the sound of the Christmas angel, a song of Good News.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor,

To bind up the broken hearted

To proclaim freedom for captives and release darkness for the prisoners

To comfort all who mourn

And provide for those who grieve in Zion

(from Isaiah 61:1-3. Luke 4. 16-21)

The sound of the Christmas Angel was a chorus of Good News, and what good advice for us all.

What is the meaning of the Good News of the Christmas Angel? Is there a difference this Good News will make in our lives?

The good news spoken by the Christmas angel means that God has heard the cries of the world.  God has heard, and He has given, and because of that we can find meaning and hope, and our lives can be filled with peace and assurance.  No matter what crisis we face, Jesus Christ born long ago, God who became man and lived and died among us, knows us and how to meet our needs.

Mary said yes to the Angel, Mary said yes to God.

May we all say yes to God and make space to stop, to pray and listen and hear the Angels sing this Christmas tide. The sound of the Christmas Angel was not just Good News; it was the very best of News this world has ever heard.  Out of love God came down to earth from heaven, born for us on Christmas Day.

May God bless you this Christmastide.

On the 27th October, the hour went back, and darkness closed in around us as the nights became longer. It is too easy to look on the end of October and beginning of November with a touch of despair; fallen leaves, dampness, fog, and rain. The church has traditionally associated the end of the year with the end of life.

At the beginning of November, we commemorate the faithful departed and also celebrate All Saints. All Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows’ Day or Hallowmas) is the day after All Hallows’ Eve (Hallowe’en). It is a feast day celebrated by both Anglicans and Roman Catholics. It is an opportunity to remember all saints and martyrs, known and unknown, throughout Christian history.

Remembering saints and martyrs and dedicating a specific day to them each year has been a Christian tradition since the 4th century AD, but it wasn’t until 609AD that Pope Boniface IV decided to remember all martyrs. Originally 13th May was designated as the Feast of All Holy Martyrs. Later, in 837AD, Pope Gregory IV extended the festival to remember all the saints, changed its name to Feast of All Saints and changed the date to 1st November.

The festival of All Saints’ and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed are meant to shed light at the beginning of these dark days. All Saints’ helps us to call to mind the ordinary people from ages past who lived a Godly life. Few of them held important positions in life and their names do not appear on any official role of honour. They are not canonised saints. Many lived in obscurity, died unknown, and all memory of them has faded. Their lives are not marked by any great occurrence. God alone remembers them and the good works they have performed. They are the ordinary people of life. People who in their daily lives have tried to live the Christian life to the full. Like each one of us, they experienced the trails of growing up, the tensions and frustrations of living with others, and the normal difficulties and uncertainties of life. They had to cope with their own personal problems and weaknesses. But, however great their difficulties and faults, they accepted that God loved them and they relied on the strength of that love more than anything else; the way they lived their lives was more important than the recognition they attained.

The Festival of All Saints’ and The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed should give us fresh inspiration to continue taking up our cross daily, and to follow Christ. We too can strive to live the Christian life to the full.  Heaven is within our reach.

The book of Revelation uses symbolic imagery to paint a picture of heaven which the saints enjoy, and the celebration of All Saints invites us, in a particular way, to turn our eyes toward heaven and to remember that we are all called to be saints. In doing this, we look at all the great saints of the Christian faith for inspiration and guidance. In the book of Revelation the saints are described as the ones “marked with the seal.” This language draws on an account found in the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel where the holy ones were marked on their foreheads with the Hebrew letter taw. This letter is shaped like a cross (similar to the English “t”). Thus, the saints are the ones marked with the sign of the cross. We can easily make the connection with our Christian life including our baptism (where we are signed with the cross), and our confirmation (where we are sealed with the Holy Spirit through the cross being traced with holy oil on our foreheads), and the sign of the cross itself. The book of Revelation also describes “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” In other words, Heaven is not exclusive to one people group. Rather, there will be people “from every nation, race, people, and tongue”.

These festivals remind us that holiness of life is not for the privileged few but what God expects of all of us. Holiness is about bringing the Spirit of Christ into our lives; it is about doing ordinary things well. The command of Jesus, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” is addressed to everyone. We are called to reflect something of the holiness of God himself in the way we live our life.

Christopher Hardwick

“Lord, teach us to Pray”.

What a summer we have had, one of the hottest months on record and yet times of torrential rain; yes, but this is Tavistock! So as we move on and into Autumn, perhaps we could reflect upon that most significant of questions that the disciples posed to our Lord Jesus, “Lord, teach us to Pray” (Luke 11v1).

Jesus had been praying ‘in a certain place’ and his disciples must have observed that, and realised just how significant prayer was to their Rabbi, how it was an integral part of his life, and they were probably being convinced that they had better follow suit. The disciples would have been familiar with the regular Temple routine of prayer at the morning and evening sacrifice, but clearly could see that for Jesus prayer was a much more personal and intimate relationship shared with God, his Father.

I do not know about you, but giving prayer the proper place and time in my Christian pilgrimage has perhaps been the thing that I have struggled with most of all. So what may we learn from the prayer life of Jesus that may help and encourage us to pray? Why should we anyway?

The American attorney, Methodist minister and civil war chaplain E M Bounds considered “conversation with God as fundamentally vital to the Christian life as physical breath”. The Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard said, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays”. I certainly recognise that there is still much that God needs to change in me as He fulfils his promise through the Holy Spirit that we are to be transformed into the likeness of our Lord Jesus (2Cor 3v18), and perhaps those early disciples could see that need as well.

We can see in the prayer life of our Lord Jesus a number of pointers from which we can take note. The American pastor Charles Stanley (www.intouch.org) draws our attention to at least seven of these.

Early on in his busy ministry schedule Mark tells us (1v35) that Jesus ‘got up early to pray’. Not easy for some of us who are not ‘early birds’, but to start the day with God through prayer, as Joy constantly reminds me, is to set all of its activities in their proper context. Maybe this is another call to our 8am service of Morning Prayer?

Mark then goes on to tell us that Jesus ‘went out to a lonely place to pray’. Distractions so easily take us away from our intimate time with God so maybe we need to find a place where we can pray and not be easily distracted.

Later Mark tells us (14v35) that during the final days of his earthly life in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus ‘fell on the ground to pray’. Perhaps we can take that to mean Jesus prayed on his knees or lay prostrate. We each need to find a posture best fitting to our prayers. But it maybe that when ‘we are on our knees’, and so humbling ourselves before our great and Holy God, we become open to God and can pray like our Lord “not my will but yours be done” (Mk14v36), surely one of the hardest prayers to make. But it is at such a time that we are more open to hearing God speak to us, and our intimate relationship as a ‘child of God’ can grow and be perfected.

Luke adds to our understanding of Jesus’s prayer life (6v12) by telling us that before choosing his twelve disciples Jesus spent ‘the whole night in prayer’. I wonder how many of us can make that claim? But prayer is a wise move before making life’s significant decisions.

John goes on to inform us that at the ‘last supper’ (17v15) Jesus prayed for his followers to be ‘delivered from the evil one’. Informed prayer for one another should be an essential part of each of our lives as members of ‘the body of Christ’.

We also learn from Matthew (14v23) that Jesus ‘went up into the hills by himself to pray’. I wonder how many of us take ourselves off into the beautiful Dartmoor countryside that surrounds us to do just that. Although it is good to have a ‘prayer partner’- someone else to pray and share with, there are times when we need to bring our innermost feelings before our heavenly Father God alone, and to leave them with him as we await his response to the promise that he will indeed hear and answer us (1John5v14-15).

I pray that these thoughts may spur us on and into a deeper prayer life as we journey along the path set out before us.

Every blessing,

Mike.