Those of us who’ve been coming to church for a long time will have heard the Gospel read in church hundreds or even thousands of times over the years. But how many of us can recall a particular instance of hearing the Gospel read, in church, on a particular day? How often has a reading of the Gospel been so memorable, that we’ve never forgotten it? I’ve been an adult member of the Church for well over 40 years now, and in all that time, of all the thousands of times I’ve heard the Gospel read, or read the Gospel myself, there are only a handful of times when I can actually recall one particular reading. And one of those times was a reading, many years ago now, of the Gospel we read this morning.

So what made it so memorable? Really it was the reaction of the parish priest to what he’d just read. At the time, I was a server in church and one of my duties was to carry the Book of the Gospels in the Gospel Procession and hold it for the parish priest as he censed it and then read the Gospel. It was something I did every Sunday so there was nothing especially memorable about that. But as the priest came to the end of the reading, he immediately, and very audibly, added,

“Mmm, what a strange Gospel”

Took the book from me, lifted it up and said,

“This is the Gospel of the Lord.”

I’m not sure what that said about his sermon preparation that week because quite a few people had the impression that he certainly hadn’t read the Gospel of the day before he read it in church on Sunday, but it was very funny, and for that reason, I’ve never forgotten it.

Having said all that though, my parish priest did have a point, this morning’s Gospel reading is strange. We think about Jesus as someone who spoke about love and peace don’t’ we? In fact we call Jesus the Prince of Peace. And yet here Jesus is talking about casting fire on the earth, when only a little earlier in the Gospel Jesus had rebuked James and John for wanting to call down heavenly fire to consume a Samaritan village that wouldn’t receive Jesus. Jesus says that he has not come to bring peace on earth, and that stands in stark contrast to what we read earlier in Luke’s Gospel when Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesies that Jesus will,

“… guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Jesus says that he’s come to bring division, or a sword as St Matthew’s account of this saying puts it. That he’s come to set even members of the same family against one another. None of this fits in with our image of Jesus as the loving, and peace loving, good shepherd does it? So what is going on in this strange Gospel reading.

One of the problems I’ve spoken about in the past, as indeed has Fr Alex in his sermons, is that because of the way the lectionary is structured, when we read the Gospel in church, we view it like a series of snapshots rather than as a panorama, so it’s often difficult to see where the particular Gospel we’re reading an any given day fits into the wider picture. It’s a bit like trying to understand the plot of a film when all we’re watching is a trailer. Or trying to listen to a piece of music when the radio keeps drifting off the station (and those who are old enough to have tried to listen to the charts on Radio Luxembourg will know exactly what I mean by that!). So if we want to understand what’s going on in this morning’s Gospel, we have to read it in the context of the Gospel as a whole, rather than as a stand-alone section of the Gospel. And in this instance, that means going back to the very beginning of the Gospel.

At the birth of John the Baptist his father, Zechariah, prophesied that the Messiah would guide us into the way of peace. And, as we know, at the birth of Jesus, the angels sang to the shepherds,

“Glory to God in the highest! Peace on earth, goodwill to men!”

Except that’s not what the angels sang at all. The earliest versions of the angel’s song translate as something more like,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to those with whom he is pleased.”

And that’s a very different message indeed. The angels didn’t bring a message of peace and goodwill in general terms and to all people, but a more specific message of peace and goodwill simply to those whom God is pleased with. So Christ did not come to earth to bring peace in the sense of an end to conflict and division among people. He came, actually, to restore the peace between God and humanity that had been destroyed by sin. He came to bring God’s peace to people by showing them how to be pleasing to God. And as we read on through the Gospel we know that the way to please God is by listening to the one he sent, by listening to Jesus, his incarnate Son. That is the peace Jesus came to bring and that’s the peace he guides us into in fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah.

But it is a peace that we do have to be guided into, through listening to Christ and living in obedience to his teaching. It’s not a given. And the reality of the world, and people being people, of course, means that some people will listen and some people won’t. Some people will hear Christ’s teaching and follow him, and some will hear but refuse to follow. And wherever Christ is not heard or listened to, there will be division and conflict because there, sin, the way of the world holds sway, and division and conflict is the way of sin and of the world. There will be division and conflict between those who do listen to Christ and those who don’t, even between members of the same family because the way of Christ and the way of the world clash. It’s a clash between light and darkness, the Spirit and the flesh, good and evil, but however we describe it, it is a conflict; it’s spiritual warfare, in fact, and the god of this world does not want to lose.

So while this Gospel reading might well seem strange, and is when we read it as we do as a snapshot of Jesus’ teaching, mission and ministry, it actually makes perfect sense when we read it as part of the panorama of the Gospel as a whole. Jesus did not come to bring peace on earth in earthly terms, but rather to lead us into being at peace with God by showing us how to be pleasing to God. But the reality of the world and of the condition of fallen humanity meant that his coming would, inevitably, sow division and conflict between those who will listen and follow him and those who would rather follow the way of the world. In fact we could even say that his coming fanned the flames of that conflict, that spiritual warfare that in the end only God could win but yet still the god of this world did not want to lose. Hence Jesus words;

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!”

Of course Jesus was speaking here, in part, of what lay in the future, the fulfilment of his mission on the Cross and his ultimate victory, his victory over sin and death, on that first Easter Day.

Christ’s Passion and Cross, and his Resurrection, assures us of his victory and God’s victory in the spiritual warfare being waged all around us, but the war is still rages on because the god of this world baulks at accepting or admitting defeat, and the god of this world has many disciples, many soldiers. And so in spite of Christ’s coming into the world and in spite of his victory over sin and death, there is still division and conflict and no peace on earth.

As we look at the state of the world around us, I’m sure that none of us can be happy at what we see; division, conflict, unrest and war, a world in flames. And people are asking where is God in all this? Well, God is in all those who suffer for the sins of those who follow the god of this world, as Jesus did as he endured his Passion and Cross. God is in all those who weep for the world as it rushes to its own destruction, as Jesus wept for Jerusalem as it did the same. But the state of the world is not God’s fault. God sent his son into the world to offer us the means to be at peace with him by showing us how to live in a way that’s pleasing to him. It was an offer prophesied to be rejected, and by many people, it was then and still is now because many people have and still do prefer to follow the god of this world. Is that God’s fault or theirs and ours?

This short Gospel reading may seem to show a Jesus who’s out of character, a Jesus quite unlike our usual image and understanding of him but, if we read it as part of the Gospel as a whole, we find that it’s not so strange as it might seem at first. In fact it’s a statement of what God sent his Son into the world to do. That, in Christ, God has done what he can for the world. But also of the trouble that will bring when reality of the way the world is and will be is that people prefer to follow the god of the world rather than follow Christ.
Amen.

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Propers for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 17th August 2025

Entrance Antiphon
Turn your eyes, O God, our shield; and look on the face of your anointed one; one day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

The Collect
O God, who have prepared for those who love you good things which no eye can see, fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love, so that, loving you in all things and above all things, we may attain your promises, which surpass every human desire. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen

The Readings
Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Psalm 40:2-4, 18
Hebrews 12:1-4
Luke 12:-49-53

Prayer after Communion
Made partakers of Christ through these Sacraments, we humbly implore your mercy, Lord, that, conformed to his image on earth, we may merit also to be his coheirs in heaven. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

We all have interests in life don’t we? If I were to ask what your interests are, I’d expect to get lots of different answers because our interests can be as varied as we are. I’d expect a lot of people to say football, others might say music, some might say films or perhaps the theatre. Others might say reading or knitting or cooking or eating or drinking. Some might say walking or the countryside or animals, and I’m sure that some would say dogs. So we all have interests, and perhaps more than one interest, and whatever our interests are, we indulge in them, that is, we spend time and effort and often money on these things because they give us pleasure.

There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with having interests in life, in fact it’s a very healthy thing to have interests in life. And yet there have been, and no doubt still are, many people in the Church who actively try to discourage Christians from having interests outside the Church. There are people in the Church who say that outside interests, or certain outside interests at least, are sinful and are things that Christians simply should not be indulging in and , if they are, they should desist from them immediately. And I’ve met a lot of people over the years who’ve been lost to the Church for this very reason; that someone in the Church has told them that they must stop doing something they enjoy doing because it’s a sin. But the simple fact has often, and even usually been, that there’s been nothing sinful at all in what that person’s been doing, it’s just that the one pontificating about it doesn’t share their interests and, for whatever reason, doesn’t approve of it either.

For example, as I’m sure you all know, my great sporting interest in life is speedway racing, I’ve followed it all my life and I’ve raced too. But after I was ordained, a priest told me that I should give that interest up, partly because it would take my attention away from my duty to God, and that I should especially give up racing because it was sinful to compete against other people because that was simply about wanting to prove yourself better than another human being. I’ve rarely heard such complete and utter rubbish in all my life quite frankly, which is an opinion I expressed at the time. Speedway racing was, and is, an interest of mine, but a pastime, something I indulge in in my spare time and to the best of my knowledge, it’s never adversely affected my ministry; whenever there’s been a clash of dates, even when I was still racing, the Church has always come first. And whether I beat someone on track or lost to them, it never affected my opinion of them, or myself, as a human being.

To be fair to them, I think people who do pontificate about the sinfulness of people’s interests are often well-meaning in that I’m sure they think that they’re simply trying to help people be better Christians – to bring people closer to God. But what they’re often doing in fact, is conflating their own opinions with the Christian faith, and confusing simple interests and pastimes with the kind of earthly desires that St Paul speaks about in this morning’s reading from his Letter to the Colossians. Perhaps especially, they’re confusing simple leisure interests with that ‘covetousness which is idolatry.’

I’m sure we all know that to covet something is to want it, but covetousness is a particular kind of wanting; it’s an excessive desire to have something that’s often accompanied by envy and greed: covetous people want something so badly that they’re prepared to go to inordinate lengths to get it. And one of the driving forces behind covetousness is often jealousy; covetous people see what someone else has and want it for themselves. And these things can, and do, lead to idolatry, to making the object of our desire the be all and end all of life. In effect, making

the thing we want our god by loving it with all our heart and soul and mind. And of course that is sinful. It’s sinful because it’s contrary to the Great Commandment and wanting something so badly that we’re prepared to go to any lengths to get it can, and almost certainly will, lead us into all kinds of other sinful activities too. So one thing we do always have to be careful to avoid is allowing our interests to become overwhelming passions. We need to avoid allowing something we do because we enjoy it from becoming something that we want it so much that it takes over our lives.

This is something we often find in people who excel in something. I don’t know if anyone here watched the Prom concert on TV last night but between the pieces of music we heard from a musician and a conductor who said, “Music is life and life is music” and “This (playing music) is what we live for.” There may be some hyperbole in those statements, but equally there may not be. I’ve mentioned my interest in speedway racing, and what I heard last night reminded me of some word written by Ivan Mauger, who I’m sure some of you will have heard of. In terms of individual world title wins, he’s the most successful speedway rider ever, and in a book he wrote shortly after becoming the first man ever to win three consecutive individual world titles he wrote,

‘To win a Word final you have to be dedicated. You have to give up some of the pleasures of life. This means you give up absolutely everything in your quest. You must want it badly enough to give up everything.

You must have only one thought on your mind …how you are going to beat the rest of the world. And you must be prepared to work to that end.’

What is that but a covetousness which is idolatry, of making a god, in this instance, of a world championship gold medal? I’m sure that kind of mentality is quite fundamental to becoming the best in the world, but what is the cost? We know, for example, that many athletes have used performance enhancing drugs to win Olympic gold medals. And we also know that not a few have died young as a result. But isn’t that the lesson of the parable of the Rich Fool? And in using drugs to achieve success, how many other, perhaps younger, athletes have been encouraged to do the same, or even felt that they had no choice other than to use them simply in order to compete at a high level? And how many people have become wealthy by supplying those drugs? So the sin of making a god of success can so easily lead to more sin that in turn can so easily draw other people into sin.

We might think that there’s not much danger of us becoming so single minded about our interests that we’d be prepared to give up absolutely everything for them. So there’s no chance of us becoming covetous to the point of idolatry or of our interests leading us into sin is there? Well, to be honest, it’s actually something we all do perhaps without even realising that’s what we’re doing.

One of the things I’ve often found wryly amusing over the years is when people apologise that they won’t be able to come to church because they’re ill or have to work, or have some other important business that they simply have to attend to, only for me to find out that they’ve actually gone to the seaside or for a walk in the country or to visit some tourist attraction or other, in effect, they’ve indulged an interest rather than come to church (and in this day and age if people are going to do things like this, they really should be more careful about what they post on social media!).

Now, you might say that’s not really anything too serious. But, if people really believe they’re not really doing anything wrong when they do this kind of thing, why do they feel the need to be dishonest about it? Is lying in order to make an excuse not to be in church worshipping the Lord not a sin? It’s certainly not loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and mind is it? And when the people who do this are supposed to be taking some part in the worship, reading, leading intercessions, even being on sidesperson’s duty, aren’t they then expecting someone else to do something for the Lord that they said they would do and so should have done? Is that not a sin?

But perhaps the most common way people put their interests before the Lord is when it comes to supporting the Church with their time and money. We’re always looking for people to take on roles and responsibilities in our parish churches, and in almost every parish I’ve been in either as a lay person or since I’ve been ordained, we’ve always been in the position of needing to raise more money. And yet people often say that they don’t have time to take anything on for the Church and can’t afford to give more than they do. But people can still usually find time and money to indulge their interests. Of course that’s not the same as being covetous and idolatrous, but nevertheless, it is putting earthly things before heavenly things. We’ve all done it at one time or another, and when we do it, what are we being but rich fools?

As I’ve said, there’s nothing wrong with having interests outside the Church; in fact, it’s healthy to have those interests and to indulge in them. And despite what some people say, there’s nothing inherently sinful about the interests that most of us will have and indulge in, so we don’t need to lose them. But we do have to make sure that don’t indulge those interests in a sinful way, and that’s simply a matter of getting our priorities right by setting our minds on heavenly things rather than earthly things. That means making sure that our interests don’t become overwhelming passions that we pursue at the expense of everything else, that we don’t want anything earthly so much that we make a god of it. That might bring us some earthly reward but at the end of the day, while I’m sure a world’s championship or Olympic gold medal is a very nice and wonderful thing to have, what good will even those things do any of us when God makes the demand for our soul?

Amen.

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Propers for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 3rd August 2025

Entrance Antiphon
O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! You are my rescuer, my help; O Lord, do not delay.

The Collect
Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created, and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Psalm 95:3-6, 12-14, 17
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21

Prayer after Communion
Accompany with constant protection, O Lord, those you renew with these heavenly gifts and, in your never-failing care for them, make them worthy of eternal redemption. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.