Sermon St E 8am 15 May 2022          Easter 5 Year C
Acts 11vs1-18                  Revelation 21v1-6                           John 13vs31-35
I am sure you have noticed that there will always be those who criticise the work we do as Christians, and that was just what St Peter found in the primitive Church. Our reading from Acts shows how the early Jewish believers in Jerusalem seemed rather reluctant to accept that the gospel message of freedom and forgiveness, was meant for all of humanity. The Gentiles were as much a part of God’s plan of reconciliation as were they.

So Peter describes to them the vision he had from God when staying in Joppa, present day Jaffa just south of Tel Aviv. Peter himself had been reluctant to broaden his practice of strict adherence to the Jewish purity laws, but God showed him the broader picture, and fortunately for us Peter accepted that, and so he took the Gospel to the Gentile Roman centurion Cornelius.

When those back in Jerusalem heard how God had also given the Holy Spirit to Cornelius, and to his household who believed, just as he had to the 3000 at Pentecost, they could only accept like Peter, “that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him”. So they were silenced, praised God, and rejoiced saying “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life”. And is that not good news for all of us here?

It is such good news that St John, when writing his revelation many years later, could describe for us what Jesus showed to him concerning the new heaven and the new earth, that coming abode that we shall eventually share with our Lord Jesus.
It will be a place that we are only given a brief glimpse of, but a place where we are promised there will be no more death, no more mourning and crying, no more pain, and where we are promised elsewhere that we shall have new bodies. The place God intended for humanity from the beginning of creation where we shall have dominion over the earth and reign with the Lord.
But did you notice anything else substantial in our reading? John says that “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them”.
Have you ever considered that before, it seems so important to John that twice in these few verses John says, ‘God will be with us’.

Does that remind you of another time when that situation prevailed?
It was when God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evening. We seem to have forgotten the amazing position that we human beings hold in the eternal plan of God and that was lost through our disobedience.

We also read that the Lord himself called those disciples with him at the last supper, ‘Little children’. Yes, we are God’s children, we are part of God’s intimate family, we have been reconciled to our Holy Father through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Through his obedience to the will of God, and through the precious blood Jesus shed on Calvary’s tree, we have been reconciled and brought back to Father God. Our disobedience, our sin, no longer proves a barrier to our close and personal relationship with God. We can again, metaphorically, walk with God in the cool of the evening.

And that relationship should show in our lives. Jesus plainly said to those disciples with him at supper, “I give you a new commandment. That you love one another, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples”.
We may say we ‘love God’, but God’s will is also that we ‘love one another’.

If you have ever asked, ‘why people do not accept the gospel’, perhaps one reason is that they see the divisions and disharmony between those of us in the universal church. How it must grieve the heart of Jesus that his prayer that they-his church may be one, just as he and the Father are one, is so far from being the reality it was meant to be.
So as our Eastertide draws to its close, and we await the deluge of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, let us work to bring joy to our Saviour’s heart as we love one another and work to further his kingdom.

Let us pray, the shorter Collect for this 5th Sunday of Easter
Risen Christ, your wounds declare your love for the world and the wonder of your risen life; give us compassion and courage to risk ourselves for those we serve, to the glory of God the Father. Amen

Sermon St Mary 8 May 2022 Easter 4 Year C
Acts 9v36-43 (Psalm 23) Revelation 7v9-17 John 10v22-31
Let us pray Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Have you ever asked the question, “Why do people not believe in the Christian message?” Or perhaps an even deeper question than that would be, “Why do people not believe in God?” Yet both of these questions are so essential if we are to accept that this present life is not just all that there is, there is something far more extensive in store for us all, and for us who do believe we know that is eternal life with our God and Father, with our Lord Jesus Christ, and with all the saints and believers who have gone before us.

Well that is rather like the situation that Jesus found himself in described in our Gospel reading. We read that it was winter, around November to December time, when the Jews, as they still do today, celebrate Hanukkah, the festival of light. It remembers the re dedication of the Temple some 100 years before after it had been desecrated by the pagan Greek king Antiochus IV.

Jesus was walking in the Temple, and the sceptical people were pestering Jesus to tell them plainly if he was the true Messiah. They may have been remembering that Antiochus had made a ‘blasphemous’ claim in the Temple during his time in Jerusalem so was this just another imposter?

As Jesus pointed out in his reply to their question, He had told them and the very works that He had been performing for the previous two years testified to that truth. But they really did not want to believe, and why? Probably for the very same reason as today, they would have to acknowledge that their ways fell short of what God required and they were not prepared to make the significant but life transforming change of submission to God.

They were not of his sheep, they had not learnt to hear God’s voice and to follow after God as their shepherd. Not only is that so true for much of today’s people in our wider society, but sadly it can be also true for us within the Church. Do we know the voice of our shepherd, of Jesus, and do we truly follow after Him as committed disciples?

But there is great joy, and that so comforting a promise ahead for those of us who do. What did Jesus say? If we hear His voice, and if we choose to follow after Him, then we shall indeed inherit eternal life, and that life is guaranteed, we shall never perish.
Jesus then really gets himself into some very hot water as he further explains to the people that not only was he their true Messiah, but that He and God the Father were one. For that presumed blasphemous identification the people took up stone to throw at Jesus.

The right and proper response would have been for the people to ponder the works that the Lord had been doing. He had been healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, making the deaf and dumb to hear and speak, and even raising the dead. Who but God’s anointed, the Christ, the Messiah had such authority?

Well, it was an authority that Jesus clearly passed onto his apostles in the early church, as we read that Peter raised up Tabitha in Joppa, modern day Jaffa just south of Tel Aviv, just a short time after Jesus resurrection.

So what did Jesus do as the people picked up those stones to throw at him? He left Jerusalem, not to return again until Holy week and his crucifixion, and he went back to the North, to Bethany beyond the Jordan from where he had called his first five disciples two years earlier. There, feeling safe from the Jewish authorities Jesus could continue his remaining ministry, and during those few months early of AD 30, we read that many came to believe in him.

But we cannot stop there without some quick reflection upon the wonderful words from John’s revelation. We really do not have much of a picture of what our new life with the Lord in Paradise will be like, although John, and some other scriptures do give us brief glimpses.

Despite any prejudices’ that some of us may hold, there will be a great multitude drawn from every nation, tribe, peoples and languages, standing before our Lord Jesus and worshiping Him.
All of us there will acknowledge that it is to Jesus and to God our Father that we awe our salvation. And with us will be angels and others from the host of heaven also declaring God’s praises.

There is more that we could say especially of that time relating to the coming new creation that God has in store for us when all shall be made new, but not now. May we just be encouraged once again in our most ‘holy faith’, and in the great and eternal promises that God has made to us who do believe.

Let us pray: The shorter Collect for this fourth Sunday of Easter. Risen Christ, faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep: teach us to hear your voice and follow your commands, that all your people may be gathered into one flock, to the glory of God the Father. Amen

Sermon St Mary 3rd April 2022          Passiontide begins                  Anointing at Bethany
Isaiah 43v16-21         Psalm126 Responsory         Philippians 3v4b-14         John 12v1-8
Let us Pray:

Today, in the Church calendar, it is the start of Passiontide, that time when we follow the events in the life of our Lord Jesus that build up to his crucifixion and resurrection, that pivotal turning point in all of history. This morning we shall focus on that most lovely of stories, the anointing of Jesus by Mary in the house of Simon the Leper at Bethany.

Bethany is located about 2 miles from Jerusalem and I have walked that short distance when visiting friends. Bethany seems to have been a very special place for Jesus as he welcomed the friendship of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, as well as their hospitality. I guess Jesus used to stay with them on many occasions when he visited Jerusalem. We know how fond Jesus was of the family, and how he shared in the sister’s grief when their brother Lazarus died, when we read those heartfelt words “Jesus wept”.

Mary and Martha must have been very thankful to the Lord for raising their dead brother, so no wonder they wanted to give him a meal and show their devotion to him. When Mary anointed Jesus’ head and feet, she became the first of his followers to acknowledge his impending death. When some criticised her Jesus says, “leave her alone for she bought it-the anointing oil-so that she might keep it for the day of my burial (Jn 12v6 NRSV). And for this beautiful and costly act Jesus recognised that Mary would always be remembered for it.

Have you ever asked yourself what was that costly Nard that Mary used?

It is a hardy herb of the Valerian family that grows in the foothills of the Himalayas from which an aromatic amber-coloured essential oil is derived. It would have reached Jerusalem via Persia, either as a dried root or as an oil extract. It would have taken a long time to extract the volume of nard that Mary  had in her alabaster flask, so no wonder it was very costly. Some estimates equate the cost to a years wages for a working man, such was Mary’s great love for Jesus as she symbolically anointed him for his impending burial.

It has been said that “you can sacrifice and not love, but you cannot love and not sacrifice”. Within just a few days Jesus was to make the most costly sacrifice that the world has ever, or will ever, see. He was to shed his most precious blood on Calvary’s tree so that, as the psalmist puts it (ps103), “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us”. That is the ‘gospel’ and that is indeed ‘good news’ for each one of us.

Perhaps this should wake us up, and especially during this time of Lent, to ask “What have we sacrificed for Jesus?” And further, “what may we still need to sacrifice for our Lord in order to walk as one of his faithful disciples?”
But for many here the sacrifices that you have made over the years out of your love for the Lord Jesus, will have released the beautiful fragrance of Christ to those around you, and that will have touched their lives deeply.

As disciples we are all called to take up our cross, whatever that cross may be, and to follow our Lord and Master, knowing that he will ever be with us along our pilgrim way.

But not all those at supper shared that same deep love that Mary and Martha had for our Lord Jesus. “Why was this ointment wasted?” was the cry from some there with Jesus at supper. Have you noticed that in his gospel, Saint John shows a considerable dislike for Judas who was soon to betray Jesus. Perhaps this strong dislike stemmed from John’s intense love for the Lord, and so he found it difficult to comprehend just how anyone could not share that love. This especially after having spent so much time together with Jesus over the previous two to three years.

Perhaps this reminds us of that time just a few months earlier in Jesus ministry, when at Jerusalem for the feast of dedication-Hanukah, during December of AD 29, Jesus and the disciples had to make a quick escape after Jesus healed the man born blind for some of the ‘religious’ people wished to stone Jesus for blasphemy. Then, sometime later, when Jesus wished to return to Jerusalem to raise Lazarus, and knowing that he could be stoned, Thomas said those wonderful words to the other disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (Jn11v16)

A really close fellowship had developed between Jesus and his disciples, and between most of the disciples themselves. We should ask ourselves this Lenten time, “how close is our walk with our Lord?” And “how close is our fellowship with our fellow believers?” Searching and difficult questions I know, but what did Jesus say to the disciples at the last supper? “If you love me you will keep my commandments”. And how did Jesus sum up those commandments? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbour as yourself”. We are to ‘Love God and love neighbour’, and that is not the easiest part of being a Christian, but it is what we are all called to do. Learning the difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’ can help us with this struggle.

But let us praise God, He has not left us to do that on our own, He has given to us believers the comforter, the Holy Spirit. We have to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to fill our lives, and then God enables us to do the seemingly impossible.