Sunday, 23 January 2022
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
This morning we met at 10am on a dull and overcast day for our Parish Communion service. We continue our Epiphany readings and today the Gospel recounted the story of Jesus teaching in the Synagogue, which Father Roger reflected on in his sermon, you can read the lesson and the sermon below.
We were delighted to welcome back Joanna and to sing with the organ. The Choir sang the Ave Verum in the setting by Gounod as the anthem, visit our Music Blog to find out more about this piece of music and its composer.
Unfortunately we had no children in church today as the local school has seen an outbreak of corona virus.
There was coffee after the service.
Next week we will be celebrating Candle mass, with christingles, If you have a Children's Society box please bring it along. We will be joined by Fr John Hall, who is going to help us during our interregnum, along with Fr Roger and Archdeacon Luke. Fr John is retired and lives in Chichester, and has kindly offered to help us. We look forward to seeing him.
The following week, the first Sunday in February, We shall be having a service of thanksgiving and celebration for the 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Second to which all are welcome.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
Just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ.
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—
Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—
and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.
If the foot would say,
“Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,”
that would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear would say,
“Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,”
that would not make it any less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye,
where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing,
where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is,
God arranged the members in the body,
each one of them, as he chose.
If all were a single member, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many members, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,”
nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
On the contrary,
the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
and those members of the body that we think less honorable
we clothe with greater honour,
and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect;
whereas our more respectable members do not need this.
But God has so arranged the body,
giving the greater honour to the inferior member,
that there may be no dissension within the body,
but the members may have the same care for one another.
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it;
if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.
Now you are the body of Christ
and individually members of it.
And God has appointed in the church first apostles,
second prophets, third teachers;
then deeds of power, then gifts of healing,
forms of assistance, forms of leadership,
various kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets?
Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
Do all possess gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
But strive for the greater gifts.
Luke 4:14-21
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit,
returned to Galilee,
and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.
He began to teach in their synagogues
and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up,
he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day,
as was his custom.
He stood up to read,
and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
He unrolled the scroll
and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
And he rolled up the scroll,
gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them,
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Address
The tale is told that Archbishop Michael Ramsey, when he was old, went to the Church where he had been baptised, and was much moved to see the font where his journey had started. Some years’ ago, I was asked to take a funeral of someone I’d known since childhood in Gosport. In fact, it was the man who’d worked in the Portsmouth Harbour Master’s Office who had planned the mooring positions for the large number of naval vessels in the Solent for the Queen’s Review of the Fleet shortly after the Coronation. This funeral put me back in touch with the Church where I grew up in 1940s and 50s, and had been a Cub and a server, and they asked me to preach there, after of an absence of nearly forty years. Happily, we were able to see the old font, but only in the nick of time, as they were to remove it to install something more trendy.
So, we read that Jesus returned home for a Jewish Sabbath morning service, on the Saturday. Our own Sunday eucharist is a game of two halves, and this story of the synagogue service might remind us of how we got the first half of our service. Our second half is clearly the stuff of Jewish meals, the Last Supper and the Resurrection. But our first half, is based on the synagogue service with its readings and sermon and prayers and hymns.
In New Testament times at the synagogue there probably wouldn’t be a Rabbi about. There would be a Caretaker, who doubled as the Schoolmaster teaching the local boys at the synagogue school during the week. At that time, they had not quite got round to educating the girls in the Law, and in Hebrew.
For the Saturday service at the synagogue, they would look up the correct reading from the Torah for the day, bring the right scroll from the special place at the front of the synagogue and read it. That would be from the first books of our Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, - the Law. For the second lesson, they were more flexible. They would find a man there who seemed to have a clue, let him choose a passage from the books of the prophets, let him read it, and then he would sit to speak about it. So it was, that when Jesus was gaining a reputation as a teacher, and went back to his home synagogue at Nazareth, it was pretty inevitable that he would be called on to choose a passage, read it and speak.
He would sit to speak. That was the custom. Jesus, later, would sit in boat near the seashore to speak to those on the shore, - sit where they couldn’t jostle him. From this we get the idea of the bishop’s chair. The bishops won’t always use them much these days, for instance to confirm people, as they probably did when some of us were confirmed. But diocesan bishops always have their special seat in their cathedral, and the word ‘cathedral’ means ‘where the bishop’s seat is’. The bishop’s chair is perhaps ‘a seat to teach from’, rather than a throne! Some new bishops ask to be ‘installed’ not ‘enthroned’.
The Epiphany season is when we are meant to be discovering whom Jesus is. He caused a lot of controversy when he chose the Isaiah reading at the synagogue. “God’s promises in Isaiah are now being fulfilled, with me, - now”, he claims! What follows is, that those who reckon Jesus does have something very special to offer, say, “we’re his old neighbours, if he’s amazingly important, we demand special benefits, because we knew him first.” Jesus then replies to the effect: “No chance, - it doesn’t work like that. God is even-handed, you don’t get priority!” Things then got rather nasty, and Jesus left.
The first half of our service has obviously moved on from the synagogue service, although we might well still use their hymns, - the psalms. For the readings, we have gained the Christian epistles, Acts, Revelation and so on… and especially the Christian Gospels. The Gospels are central for us, rather than Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
So what about the Jewish readings, from the Law and the Prophets? We can have up to three lessons on a Sunday, but usually have less, and no Old Testament reading at all, although sometimes that might have had more interest than the epistle that day. Many parishes do more, and that ought to be under review by a new priest here. Jesus’ life and background and vocation, and the conflicts he met, were all rooted in the Old Testament, and we lose a grip of that to our detriment. This could, of course, be also addressed with Bible study groups. In Wales, I objected that Readers, licenced lay ministers, in their training, studied no Old Testament at all, which was bizarre. The leader of the course was promptly promoted to Archdeacon, and I was in the doghouse yet again! But a minority is not necessarily wrong.
Looking back to the women in my family long ago, one thing they seemed to like was remnants. Cheap left-over ends from expensive rolls of cloth. Remnant is a theme in the Bible. The future very often seems to lie with a minority. Nearly 4000 years ago, at the start of the People of God, Abraham was one ageing man from a small, and not very advanced nation. “How odd of God to choose the Jews”, as the saying goes. Later, it was often a lone prophet who had the right idea.
When the Jews had their 12 tribes, the northern 10, the majority, were eventually lost to the main story, overrun by the Assyrians. Only the minority, the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah, around Jerusalem’ became the focus. And when they went into exile in Babylon, only a remnant of them returned to Jerusalem. And Jesus was the ultimate remnant of those.
So, God can work through remnants and minorities, and majorities at meetings do not necessarily have the answers. A vote at a meeting doesn’t decide the will of God! The 39 Articles of Religion are encouraging when they ask us to accept, not just that church meetings can be wrong, but that they sometimes have actually been wrong.
But when a lone individual does take a lead, it has to be discerned whether it is because they are in tune with God, who is urging them. Or, less happily, whether they are led by a wrong vision, personal ambition or concern for power.
In the end, God’s activity in the nearly 2000 years of Old Testament times, became focussed in Christ, who was sometimes very much alone. But when light is focused by a lens to a point, it will immediately start to spread out widely again, which is what we in the Body of Christ are meant to be about and need to have a vision of where we have come from. And that has to mean knowing the Old Testament.
And we still have important remnants – very possibly minority figures in the Church who have the right way forward. The role of a parish priest is not just to have some of the answers, but also to be to be able to spot them when others have them.
Fr Roger
Sunday, 16 January 2022
This morning our 10 am service was a said Matins, conducted by Father Roger. We were able to sing some hymns, thanks to our stand in accompanist Sylvia, but the Canticles and the psalm set for the day were said. Father Roger spoke about the second lesson, and the Women of Macedonia including Lydia, who used their talents to make purple die, he made the point that work, paid or voluntary brings us closer to reflecting the glory of God. You can read the full text at the bottom of this entry.
There was coffee after the service.
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| We have had some frosty mornings in the churchyard! |
8 am Holy Communion
1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters,
I do not want you to be uninformed.
You know that when you were pagans,
you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.
Therefore I want you to understand
that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!”
and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of activities,
but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good.
To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom,
and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy,
to another the discernment of spirits,
to another various kinds of tongues,
to another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are activated by one and the same Spirit,
who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
John 2:1-11
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?
My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants,
“Do whatever he tells you.”
Now standing there were six stone water jars
for the Jewish rites of purification,
each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.”
And they filled them up to the brim.
He said to them, “Now draw some out,
and take it to the chief steward.”
So they took it.
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine,
and did not know where it came from
(though the servants who had drawn the water knew),
the steward called the bridegroom and said to him,
“Everyone serves the good wine first,
and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.
But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee,
and revealed his glory;
and his disciples believed in him.
10am Matins
Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;
3 And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.
Acts 16:11-15
11 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;
12 And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.
13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
15 And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
Homily
In Acts 16, St Luke is talking about the missionary work which he and St Paul were doing:
On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.
A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.
Lydia is a rather special person in the Bible. When St Paul and St Luke came to Macedonia, Lydia may well have been the very first European to be baptised. She was head of a household, which means she had probably lost her husband, and the household would be family and servants and slaves. The tone was set by the head of the household. A whole household would be baptised and become Christian together.
Roman Emperors and kings wore purple clothing, which was thought of as special. Lydia sold purple cloth. She was, it seems, a high-powered businesswoman, in a world where men tended to dominate.
Purple dye was very expensive, you got it from some sort of gunge coming from certain sea snails when they’re cross. So it was not easy to get the dye in quantity and it cost a lot. Emperors and Kings and rich people wore the purple cloth to show off their wealth. And one great thing about this dye was said to be that it is that it didn’t fade, but it actually got brighter over time. Bishops also took to purple.
Lydia showed St Paul and his friends hospitality. After that Paul got into bother, as good Christian leaders tend to, and was put in prison for a bit, but, when he got out, he went back to see Lydia and her folk again before he moved on.
I remember a happy occasion baptising a child called Lydia at Donnington. I also remember, less joyously, a certain bishop’s wife called Lydia! Passing swiftly on…. we must focus on our Lydia, the one in our reading. A businesswoman. It is said to have been Napoleon, but quite possibly another Frenchman, who, in 1700s, spoke of the English as a nation of shopkeepers. Une nation de boutiquiers. The point seeming to be that strength and security can be built on trading, and there is something good about providing for yourself, and perhaps others, by running a thriving business and using your energy and your range of skills to do it.
My ancestors were certainly not short of such people. On my Father’s mother’s side there were bakers in Sidlesham in Victorian times. But my mother’s folk were also active, in Kent and Hampshire. Like many others around 1915, in the first world War, my mother, aged 11, passed – not, in those days, the 11+ exam, to go to Grammar School, - which would have suited her – but the exam to show that you had learnt enough to leave school and were ready to enter the world of work. When fully grown my mother was 5’1, 155 cm, and doubtless much less, aged 11 in 1915. But she was enterprising, went straight to night school, learnt cooking, won a prize of Mrs Beeton’s Cookery Book, and got jobs. By the second war she was running a grocery shop. Her mother and her aunt had each been doing the same. In due course she gave up the shop and got married, and I was born. My grandmother’s shop was bombed, but I knew my great aunt’s shop in the 40s and 50s. My Mother never lived to see either of her grandsons, or to know them, also being enterprising, as internationally active CEOs!
At the Crib Service on Christmas Eve, there was a telling of the Adam and Eve story for the children. Mankind was disobedient, was thrown out of the beautiful garden, and then had to work in a harsh world. What we didn’t tell the children, at the time, was that – even in the beautiful garden – people were meant to be working! Adam and Eve were put in the garden to tend it and work it, not to relax all the time!
The point being that we have skills and abilities, time and energy, and will not exactly be humans reflecting the image of God if we don’t use those things constructively. We surely owe that to God, we owe it to ourselves to create, and to enjoy achieving something, and owe it to others whom we can benefit by doing something useful.
All this has no firm connection with whether work is paid or not. A lot of useful work is voluntary, often including childcare and housework. And anything we might do as a hobby, like golf, might well be a paid career for someone else. A scientist might see ‘work’ as something we use our energy on, quite regardless of whether it’s paid. I remember, long ago, talking to a trade union leader who seemed to see work as a necessary evil, but I and the Bible saw it as part of being human. Complete retirement from worthwhile activity isn’t something to aspire to, and it is sad if disability tends to force it on us. But come what may, we can probably manage to pray for, and encourage others, which is a useful job of work.
Fr Roger
Sunday, 9 January 2022
This morning our 10 am service was a parish eucharist, and we were very happy to welcome Archdeacon Luke as the celebrant. Today we were reading and thinking about the baptism of Our Lord in the river Jordan by St John the Baptist. In his sermon Father Luke reflected on the fact that we are all joined by baptism into God's grace.
We were without Joanna this week, and were very happy to welcome Sylvia to play the piano for us for this service. The Choir returned to its 'Covid' position in the South Transept near to the piano, and sang the hymns and the Ave Verum in the setting by W.A.Mozart as the anthem.
There was coffee after the service.
Next week we will have a said matins with hymns.
Acts 8:14-17
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles
When the apostles at Jerusalem heard
that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent Peter and John to them.
The two went down and prayed for them
that they might receive the Holy Spirit
(for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus).
Then Peter and John laid their hands on them,
and they received the Holy Spirit.
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
In the wilderness John proclaimed a baptism of repentance.
As the people were filled with expectation,
and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John,
whether he might be the Messiah,
John answered all of them by saying,
“I baptize you with water;
but one who is more powerful than I is coming;
I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand,
to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary;
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Now when all the people were baptized,
and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased.”
Sunday, 2 January 2022
This morning our 10 am service was a Family Communion, and we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. As Father Roger pointed out in his sermon, this marks the arrival of the Three Wise Men, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel. Using some very clever visual aids he demonstrated the amazing story of God putting his glory aside and becoming human like us and subject to all the problems that humans must bear.
We sang 'We Three Kings' as the offertory hymn, and the three wise men paraded to the crib with their gifts, thanks to the Sunday School!
There was no anthem as the Choir is in recess until next week. There was coffee after the service.
This coming week we go back to 'normal' with choir practice and Sunday School at their usual times.
Next week we will have the Archdeacon with us at 10 am.
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| The wise men arrived at the crib, they parked their Camels outside! |
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| The Star precedes the Wise ones with their gifts to the Crib |
Isaiah 60:1-6
A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
Matthew 2:1-12
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
In the time of King Herod,
after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking,
“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?
For we observed his star at its rising,
and have come to pay him homage.”
When King Herod heard this, he was frightened,
and all Jerusalem with him;
and calling together
all the chief priests and scribes of the people,
he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea;
for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men
and learned from them the exact time
when the star had appeared.
Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying,
“Go and search diligently for the child;
and when you have found him,
bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
When they had heard the king, they set out;
and there, ahead of them,
went the star that they had seen at its rising,
until it stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw that the star had stopped,
they were overwhelmed with joy.
On entering the house,
they saw the child with Mary his mother;
and they knelt down and paid him homage.
Then, opening their treasure chests,
they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they left for their own country by another road.
Address
Jesus came as a baby at Christmas. The Epiphany season is about everyone seeing what Jesus is really all about.
Today we have the Wise Men, following a star to find baby Jesus. It doesn’t say there were three Wise Men, it doesn’t say they were actually kings, but it says that they were from the East. That means that they were not Jewish, not from God’s people, they were outsiders. So we learn that Jesus has come for everyone! They were a group of Wise Men, bringing three gifts.
If the Wise Men saw the star and then undertook a long difficult journey, baby Jesus would have grown up a bit before they arrived. In fact, we read that Mary and Joseph had moved out of the stable and into a house by the time they arrived. The Wise Men, it has been thought, were scholars from the ancient Zoroastrian religion of Persia. Astronomers or astrologers, studying the stars, but they were people trying hard to get to the truth, and that’s normally a very good thing.
These days we have Professor Brian Cox studying the heavens. He points out that the stars have made us what we are, and our star, the sun, keeps us alive. At one level that is doubtless very true. But he has said that we don’t need to invent any other gods apart from the stars, and we would certainly argue with that. A star will not inspire us to love and morality, good behaviour, and hope for the individual, or anything non-technical. Allan Jenkins, who used to be the priest-in-charge here, and I, both studied Physics at a certain college in London, and our professors and teachers contained a surprisingly large sprinkling of Godly people.
You may remember that before Archdeacon Luke came, we had a temporary Acting Archdeacon. He was called David Twinley, and he gave us an address on the Greek concept of kenosis. I’m sure you recall it - vividly? That idea is in St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2. It is about God wanting to come among us on earth in Jesus’ life, and so the second person of the Trinity, (who is the Word of God) had to ‘empty himself’, and ‘lay aside his heavenly glory’, to do the job. The Father is the first person of the Trinity, and the Holy Spirit the third. The second person, the Word of God, would ‘empty himself and lay aside his heavenly glory’ to be alongside us in Jesus.
Before this gets boring, we’ve found a use for the star. It can be a sort of picture.
Long ago, God could sometimes seem to be a bit like our star, the sun. God there, but far away, having made us, loving us, but a long way away. Giving us life…. but a long way away.
To get close, God must lay aside his glory and empty himself. How do we show that? Well, we can chop off the spiky bits of the star, and we get….. Doesn’t that look nice? What do you mean, ‘No?’
We’ll have to try again, chop more off, so that the star can really come down among us. There’re still some little bumps on it. We’ll chop them off! You can’t see very well so I’ve coloured in where we’ve chopped them, to make it clear.
I think that some of you children are the sort to give a good kicking to a truncated icosahedron. Does anyone want to confess?
Well we’ll chop the bumps off. Can anyone guess what we will get? A football. That is really down-to-earth. In fact, it hits on the ground rather a lot, it has a rough time, it gets kicked around.
That can remind us that God coming down to earth was costly. Jesus would get hurt and killed when he came to help us.
Even while Jesus was still a baby, Mary and Joseph had to become refugees in Egypt to save him from nasty King Herod. But it would all end well, and if it hadn’t, we wouldn’t be in church today, and there wouldn’t be a Church!
(We went from stellated icosahedron to icosahedron to truncated icosahedron.)
Fr Roger
Sunday, 26 December 2021
Acts 7:51-60
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
Stephen siad to the high priest and the council:
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit,
just as your ancestors used to do.
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?
They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One,
and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.
You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels,
and yet you have not kept it.”
When they heard these things,
they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.
But filled with the Holy Spirit,
he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
But they covered their ears,
and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.
Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him;
and the witnesses laid their coats
at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
When he had said this, he died.
Matthew 10:17-22
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Jesus said to the twelve:
"Beware of them,
for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;
and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me,
as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say;
for what you are to say will be given to you at that time;
for it is not you who speak,
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will betray brother to death,
and a father his child,
and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;
and you will be hated by all because of my name.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Address
God came to us in Christ in a world full of tensions and divisions. In fact, the sort of world we live in now. Jesus was born in temporary accommodation when his parents were travelling.
When Jesus was taken to the Temple at six weeks’ old, there was the prophecy that he would shake up many lives and that a sword will pierce his mother's heart. That seen as referring especially to Mary’s pain at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Before long, Jesus’ family will be refugees heading for Egypt to escape the murderous Herod.
About thirty years’ on, after the Resurrection, in the early days of the Church, in Jerusalem, the Christians initially behaved much as the Jews did. They tried to provide regularly for the needy, who were largely the widows, who would probably not have a stable income. The Christians there were of two sorts. The majority had been born as Jews, and probably spoke Aramaic, as did Jesus. Then there were a smaller number, mostly, - but not all, - born as Jews, but who normally spoke Greek. It was the widespread language in the ancient world, and – you will remember – that the New Testament was written in Greek.
The Greek-speaking Christians at that time in Jerusalem felt that their widows weren't doing so well in the food distribution, as the Aramaic-speaking widows, so seven men were chosen, and indeed ordained, to sort it out. Stephen was the most prominent one of the seven, who were called deacons. Besides having those administrative responsibilities, deacons were also to be preachers, and, in those very early days, Stephen managed to upset the local synagogues and the Jewish leaders by his preaching. He was accused of being against Moses and the Temple.
But Moses, Stephen was actually very keen on, and the Jewish Law. Probably the Temple not so much - it was not around in Moses’ time, and Stephen might have been unconvinced about some of the activities going on in the Temple in his day. Stephen was quite a young man, possibly under thirty when he died, being killed after giving a speech to the Jewish leaders, outlining the essentials of Jewish history, and pointing out that God's great prophets had usually been persecuted by the Jewish leadership, and that they had done the very same thing to Jesus, the greatest of all. They had messed up to the ultimate degree.
Stephen courageously said what he was moved to say and paid the price. One of the leading Jews who opposed him was Saul, who looked after people's clothes for them during Stephen’s stoning. The outcome, of course, was that before long, Saul would change - from being famous as a violent persecutor of the Church, - to become St Paul, himself enduring all sorts of hardships, and becoming the most famous of all for spreading the faith around the ancient world. Stephen's witness must have played a big part in triggering Paul's conversion.
So, what does all this say to us? The Church now, when there are serious differences and divisions, seems often to choose the route of papering over divisions, very politely, and with very pretty paper. Confrontation and hurt to be avoided at all costs. Anything leading to painful change for anyone, to be dodged and side-stepped. But is the Church of England thriving like that? I think Stephen and Paul would want us to ponder. Like Christ, they never rushed to take the easy way, and it was their courage and leadership and examples and sacrifices which brought many others to God.
Fr Roger
Saturday, 25 December 2021
Christmas morning and our service of Holy Communion with carols was at 10 am. Father Roger was the celebrant and we had families of all generations in the congregation! The Choir sang Away in a Manger (Kirkpatrick, arr Wilcox) after communion and we see the Magi are approaching our crib! Father Roger thanked Joanna, the Choir, those who decorated the church, Chris and Janet our wonderful Curch Wardens, and everyone who helped make Christmas so special and beautiful at St Mary's. We would like to thank Father Roger for all his help during our Interregnum, for keeping us going, and for all his work in the parish, and his excellent, informative and thought provoking sermons each week!
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| On their way to the Manger! |
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| The shepherds have lots of sheep! |
Titus 3:4-7
A reading from the letter of Paul to Titus.
When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done,
but according to his mercy,
through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
This Spirit he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
so that, having been justified by his grace,
we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Luke 2:8-20
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid; for see—
I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
who is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign for you:
you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,
“Let us go now to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us.”
So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the child lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known what had been told them about this child;
and all who heard it were amazed
at what the shepherds told them.
But Mary treasured all these words
and pondered them in her heart.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
as it had been told them.
Address
We read the familiar story, a warm and colourful scene, and something portrayed on countless Christmas cards. But, of course, many, - surely most, - Christmas cards these days, may be wintery but not seriously religious and often not in the least religious. But, for us, the issue this morning might be that the colourful picture in our gospel reading is probably not the cosy scene we thought it was!
The reading begins, 'shepherds on a hillside'. Shepherds. A rough lot. They may be doing a vital job, but ... shepherds... Some of the greatest Jewish heroes had been shepherds. Moses, King David...the prophet Amos.... But, many hundreds of years later, in Jesus' day, shepherds were looked down on by the religious leaders. How can you keep your meat kitchen properly separated from your dairy kitchen when you’re camped out on a hill? How can the lady of your house light your sabbath candles at sunset on Fridays saying or singing the correct Hebrew blessing, and you stop working for a day, - when you're stuck out on a hill, and the sheep need as much care on the sabbath as on any other day? As a shepherd, you might be sleeping across the entrance of a sheepfold keeping wild animals out. You just can't manage to keep the rules as a respectable Jew if you’re a shepherd.
Then, the Angels. Terrifying. God is right on your case. And there's a host of angels - a host is a formidable army… help! The shepherds go to the stable. The stable is emergency temporary accommodation for travellers, not normally for human habitation.
God's love to us in Christ is announced to the less respectable end of society, and Jesus is born in less-than-ideal circumstances. God reaching out to all sorts, and in all situations.
Rather than just see the nativity scene as decorative, we can see it with a different lens. The star leads to the one who is THE star. The Angels, messengers of God, point to the one who is THE messenger of God. The shepherds come to the one who is THE good shepherd of his people. The wise men, later, will come to the one who will grow up to be THE wise man. The wise men's gifts will be for the one who is THE ultimate gift to us.
And, perhaps, saying ‘thank you’ for that gift should turn our thoughts to the less comfortable fringes of our society and to serving God and finding God, there.
Fr Roger
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