Lent 2, St Paul's Knightsbridge

Solemn High Mass (St Patrick's Day) - Reality & Ideals

Readings: Genesis 15.1–12,17–18; Philippians 3.17 – 4.1; Luke 13.31–35

You can listen to this sermon here.

“our citizenship, is in heaven.” (Phil 3.20)

Lent can sometimes be quite disappointing for us if we have been too ambitious in setting our disciplines of denial – what we’re going to give up; or engagement – what extra we’re going to give or do.

Those of us who know ourselves, know it is better to set modest goals that give us at least a little success; rather than to set goals which end in spectacular failure very early on in the 40 days.

It reminds me of the new priest in the village who started going into the pub opposite his church every evening after Evensong. He would order two Gin and Tonics, drink them both and then order another two.

After a few weeks of this the barman asked him why he always bought his drinks in pairs.

“Well its quite simple really” he said, “when my twin brother moved to work in Australia, we decided whenever we were having a drink we would always order two, as a reminder of each other.”

After a few months the priest came in and ordered just the one gin and tonic. The barman feared the worst about his twin brother.

“Is everything alright with your brother?” he asked.

“O yes” said the priest “it’s just that it’s lent, and personally I’ve given up alcohol but my brother hasn’t.”

So aim for modest success in lent.

Our three readings today, deal with this disappointment, this tension, between how things are in reality; and what we would like them to be; and the pain and sorrow which that can often cause.

The reading from Genesis tells us of Abram, who has just had a wonderful spiritual experience being blessed by the mysterious Melchizedek, King of Salem (the city that would become Jerusalem).

Yet here in his old age, no blessing or wealth could undo the reality that he and Sarai were childless and desperately unhappy and did not feel blessed.

Even in his vision he complains to God. “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…”

The reality was far from the longed- for ideal.

Then in today’s Epistle we saw how St Paul wanted the churches he had established, like the one in Philippi, to be Christlike in their love for one another and their compassion for those around.

He laments: “Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.”

The reality was far from the longed-for ideal.

In the Gospel, Jesus rails at the self-serving and self-righteous political and religious leaders in Jerusalem. He cries out in disappointment: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Luke later records how Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday: “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.”

The reality of Jerusalem was far from the longed-for ideal.

Well this is a common enough experience for all of us.

We know what we should be, what we can be, what our church should be, what our country should be, what our world should be – but the reality is far from the longed-for ideal. 

And it is in this context that Paul reminds the Philippians - who were not members of the EU, for Philippi had been a Roman Colony for nearly 400 years, named after Philip II of Macedon – no, like Paul, they were Roman citizens with all those privileges - but Paul reminded them that “our citizenship is in heaven.”

And for Christians this is the perspective from which we view the dissonance between what is and what should be.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven” – our homeland.

There is always forgiveness, hope, trust in God and one another, new beginnings, and over all, and in all, sacrificial love.

We rejoice with our Welsh friends today on their great rugby victory yesterday. I am always fascinated but bewildered when I hear our Welsh-speaking parishioners chatting together. It is a wonderful and nuanced language.

The word hiraeth is not easy to translate into English.

It is a kind of homesickness, longing, nostalgia – a yearning for a home that you cannot return to, or perhaps no longer exists, or maybe never did exist.

It may include an element of grief or sadness for who or what you have lost, what you have become, losses which make your “home” not the same as the one you strive to remember.

It was something of this Welsh word hiraeth that perhaps  inspired the Irish writer CS Lewis who wrote much about our heavenly homeland:  “All the things that have deeply possessed your soul have been hints of it [he writes] – tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ears. It is the secret signature of each soul, the thing we desired before we met our wives, made our friends or chose our work, and which we still desire on our deathbeds.” (The Problem of Pain, edited paraphrase.)

This was the vision of the saints like Patrick, of the hymn writers like John Mason – we shall sing his hymn of heavenly perspective as we come to the end of the service. (How shall I sing that Majesty - listen here.)

And this is what can help carry us through all the circumstances of life - from disappointment and tears, to an unexpected hope and belief that all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. (Mother Julian of Norwich)

For “our citizenship, is in heaven.” (Phil 3.20)

 4th Sunday Before Lent, St Paul's Knightsbridge

Ministry and Mission

Isaiah 6.1-13; 1 Corinthians 15.4-11; Luke 5.1-11

“Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.” (1 Peter 3.15)

Our illustrious former curate, The Revd Richard Coles was in touch with me last week, seeking spiritual guidance. He wanted to know what tune a good former Baptist like me would sing to “There is sunshine in my soul today!” Curiously, it’s not in The New English Hymnal. I sent him a YouTube rendition and no doubt it will appear soon on a radio near you.

It reminded me of all those choruses I used to sing as a boy in my Baptist Sunday School. I’m sure I’ve told you before that I must have been 5 or 6 before I realised that what I had been singing as “I will make you vicious old men” was in fact “I will make you fishers of men” - from Mark’s version of the calling of the disciples we read of in today’s Gospel.

Luke clearly links the miraculous haul of fish with the mission and ministry of the Church, the Ship from which Christ preaches the Gospel. You are sitting in the nave – from the Latin navis, ship.

Whether we like it or not, as far as the mission and ministry of the Church of Christ is concerned, we’re all sitting in the same boat.

We would often like to rewrite the calling of Isaiah that we heard this morning:

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send the vicar!’

So what is the Ministry and Mission to which we have all been called as faltering followers of Christ?

It is nothing less than to continue the ministry of our Lord. Jesus said to his disciples before he left them ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you…’

And what was the ministry of our Lord?

Well it was to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, release the captives, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned… all those good works, which we associate with our Lord and with his teaching and parables.

And we must never become so pre-occupied with raising money and building projects and mission action plans – that we forget that simple instruction, to do good in society, in our families, in our neighbourhoods.

Our formation programme this year at St Paul’s helps us to focus on some of these issues as they translate to our own particular time and place.

But there is another aspect of Christ’s ministry, which we could overlook.

Jesus spent three years building up his disciples, ministering to them, so that they could minister to others.

And we too are called to exercise our ministries in building up one another. We are to be responsible for one another and to use the gifts of the Spirit to help each other grow in grace.

Now in most churches that’s sometimes a taller order!

One of the reasons that Alpha and Emmaus and all those ways of introducing people to Christianity, have been such a success, not just with people on the fringes of the church, but with those of us in the church as well – is because it gives people an informal opportunity to sit down over a meal and to discuss their Christian faith. It’s a safe place to ask questions and to encourage and pray for one another.

Part of our ministry to each other must be to provide a safe space; a loving and accepting community that not only welcomes people, but helps them to grow in the understanding and practice of their faith.

We are not only the Ship of Christ, but the Body of Christ, of which our Patron Paul reminds us that: “each part, working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.”

And there is yet another aspect of Christ’s ministry and therefore of ours. Our Lord didn’t just tell people to love God and neighbour – he also upset the religious and political authorities.

He spoke out about hypocrisy and injustice and called for repentance and a change of heart. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. He was afraid of no one.

And so this is our mission as well – to proclaim the Gospel – to make Christ known, and to speak up for Gospel values among our friends and in our communities; to speak up for the powerless and those on the edges of society, for the immigrants and for the minorities. This is all part of our mission.

I’m old enough to remember that the media has been writing the church off as a spent force for the last 50 years. We were supposed to be gone by 2,000. And the latest pundits are saying we’ll be all but gone in England by 2022.

What nonsense! We know it’s not all about numbers, 

But these are interesting times to be followers of our Lord. Worldwide the church is growing at the rate of about 100,000 per day – 3 million every month.

Sadly, in Europe and North America the growth is much more limited, but it is still growth.

The Church of England in London has been growing steadily for 15 years and we are well on course to planting 100 new missional communities by 2020 and doubling our number of ordinands. Of course, you don’t generally hear much about that in the media.

We started with my text from the epistle of Peter “Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.”

Evangelism - the Evangel is the Gospel – taking the Gospel to people – is for all of us, not just evangelicals.

That doesn’t mean we have to climb on soap boxes in Leicester square, or hand out tracts to shoppers outside Harrods, or make ourselves embarrassing by asking friends if they know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.

I rather like story of Lady Helena Levy going door to door in our daughter church, St Mary’s Bourne Street, during a Parish Mission. She asked the lady who came to the door carrying a cocktail, if she would like to come to one of the services at St Mary’s and hear the guest preacher. 

“I’m afraid I’m an atheist,” she replied.

Lady Helena looked genuinely concerned and said: “O my dear, I am so terribly sorry.”

Tell people you will pray for them when they share their worries – and do pray for them.

Don’t be afraid to mention church or your faith, and indeed your doubts about your faith.

It is our certainties that divide us – our doubts unite us  - and lead us into deeper faith.

So in whatever way is natural to you:

“Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.” (1 Peter 3.15)