When we were last in our churches, on 3^rd Sunday of Lent this year, I don’t suppose any of us thought that it would be another 20 weeks before we’d be able to come together in church again, to worship the Lord. But, as we know, that is what has happened. But even today, as we’re finally able to return to church, we’re still not able to do what we used to do and would like to do in church, and the one-way system, the no-entry signs, the changes we’ve had to make to our services and so on, are very visible signs that things are far from returning to normal just yet. And more than that, in our own area of the country, we’re returning to church under a shadow, the looming threat that a second lockdown will be imposed on us, in which case, our churches will have to be closed again.

Now, if we weren’t happy about our churches closing in March, I’m sure we’d be equally, if not more unhappy, if they had to close again but I think what would make a second closure of our churches even worse than the first, is the reason that it would have to happen.

The first lockdown and closure of our churches was the result of what we might call the random, unconscious action of a virus. But, a second lockdown and closure of our churches would be largely the result of the deliberate and selfish actions of human beings. Because, whilst most people have tried their best to adhere to the advice we’ve been given about social distancing, limiting the number of people we meet, and more recently, wearing masks and so on, a few people have simply ignored that advice and, with no regard to the welfare of others, and not much for their own either if it comes to that, have simply carried on as though coronavirus/Covid-19 doesn’t exist. What these people have said, and some of them have actually said these things on social media and in conversations with their family and friends, I know because I’ve heard and read them, is that they don’t care what anyone says, no one is going to stop them from doing what they want to do. But of course, as what they want to do, and actually have done, has been done without regard to the consequences, what these people have shown is that they don’t really care about anyone or anything apart from their own enjoyment; they’ve certainly shown that they don’t care about their neighbours.

And what a contrast that is with the attitudes shown in this morning’s Gospel. Today’s Gospel reading starts with Jesus hearing about the death of John the Baptist. Now, we know that Jesus and John were related, we think they were possibly cousins, and we know how it feels when one of our relations dies, so we have a good idea of how Jesus felt when he heard the news of John’s death. No doubt, what made it even worse was the way John had died, beheaded for speaking out against the king’s sinfulness: to all intents and purposes, murdered for doing God’s will. And that surely must have given Jesus a sharp reminder of what eventually lay in store for him. And so it’s no surprise that Jesus wanted to spend some time alone to grieve and to think and to pray. But that’s not what the crowds wanted him to do, so they followed him, in fact they actually headed him off because the Gospel tells us that they were waiting for Jesus when he got to where he was going. In the circumstances, it would have been perfectly understandable if Jesus had told them to go away and come back later, or tomorrow, but that’s not what he did. Despite his own situation, Jesus’ compassion for these people took precedence over his own feelings and over what he wanted to do, and so, instead of having the time alone he wanted, he went back to work, healing the sick, caring for others rather than putting his own wishes first.

What happens next is what we usually call the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand but, if we read what the Gospel actually says, we realise that there were more than five thousand people fed. The Gospel says that there were about five thousand men present, but that figure doesn’t include the women and children who were there too. So there were a lot more than five thousand people fed that day.

And all these people were fed because Jesus encouraged his disciples to show that same unselfish attitude in caring for these crowds that he’d shown in caring for them. At first, no doubt thinking in very practical terms, the disciples wanted to send the crowds away to find something to eat, but Jesus said ‘No, you give them something to eat.’ I’m sure the disciples must have looked at each other and wondered just what Jesus expected them to do with five loaves and two fish.

The Gospel doesn’t tell us how many disciples were there that day, we know Jesus had  a lot more than the twelve we often read about, but even if it was just the twelve, five loaves and two fish wouldn’t have been a great feast even for them, so they probably wondered how far Jesus expected that to go amongst such a big crowd of people. But they did what Jesus asked them to do and handed them over to him. And if we think about that, what they did was gave to Jesus everything they had. They didn’t say that they had to think about themselves or put themselves first and keep these few loaves and fish for themselves. They may well have thought ‘Well, now we’re going to go hungry too!’, but they handed them over, for sake of others, anyway. It wasn’t much, but in Jesus hands, their unselfishness and sacrifice were enough to see everyone fed and satisfied.

So in this Gospel story, we find a great contrast between the unselfishness and care for others of a few, Jesus and his disciples, working for the good of a great many others, and the situation we find ourselves in today in our own communities where the selfishness of a few is working to the detriment of a great many others. 

As Christians, we’ve chosen, or have been chosen, to be amongst those who act unselfishly, and when necessary, sacrificially, for the good of others and so it’s up to us to set an example in this present situation. I’m not saying that our example will inspire others to follow suit because I doubt that people who won’t listen to either national or local government, to health professionals or to medical scientists will listen to the Church or individual Christians, but nevertheless, we should set an example because that is part of our calling as disciples of Christ. And that means that we shouldn’t be doing anything that might prolong or worsen the present situation. It means we should do everything we can to protect others, even if that means we still have to wait a while longer yet, to do some of the things we like and want to do. And it means we should do everything we can to look after and protect one another when we come into church too. That’s why we’ve had to make all these changes, so that we can look after and protect each other when we come to church.

I’m sure nobody likes the changes we’ve had to make and it’s not what we wanted to do, but it is what we’ve had to do so that we can come together again in church to worship the Lord. The alternative is that our churches would have to remain closed.

We must all hope that the selfishness of a few people in our communities doesn’t lead to a worsening of the coronavirus outbreak in our area because not only will that lead to our churches having to be closed again, but it will lead to further suffering in our communities. As Christians, those are things we can’t want to see and should be doing all we can to avoid. We might not be able to exert much influence over those who don’t care about these things, but if we do all we can to avoid them, then when this is all over, as it one day will be, at least we’ll know and be we’ll be able to say that we did our best to protect other people and care for them and that, in very difficult circumstances, we did our best to be good disciples of Christ and to follow his example by loving our neighbours as much as we love ourselves.

Amen. 

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You will find the Propers for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Trinity 8) here.

Last Sunday, I spoke about the Donatist controversy which caused so much damage to the Church in North Africa between the 4^th and 8^th Centuries and I said that, whilst the Donatist controversy itself had ended well over 1,000 years ago, the attitudes and beliefs that led to it are, unfortunately, very much still with us, and still causing problems for the Church today. But why should that be? Because anyone who has any understanding of the Gospel must know that there is no place in the heart and mind of any Christian, at least one worthy of that name, nor in the Church, for the kind hypocritical attitudes and beliefs that I spoke about.

If we think about the attitudes and beliefs that I spoke about, they can perhaps be put into two categories. A feeling that we’re superior to others in some way or ways, which often leads to a lack of respect for others and even bullying, could be said to result from an exaggerated sense of self-importance: in our own eyes, we think that we’re better than others. A feeling that we’re superior to others in terms of our faith, that we’re a better Christian than others, which often leads to judgementalism and a lack of love and forgiveness, could be said to result from an exaggerated sense of self-righteousness: we think we’re better than others in God’s eyes. But what makes these attitudes and beliefs so very damaging in and to the Church, is that they’re usually linked to a belief about reward. Those who think they’re better than others in worldly ways usually think that they deserve to be in charge of the practical side of Church business and should have the right to decide who else can be allowed to have a say in those matters, whilst those who think that they’re better Christians than others often think that they deserve to be seen as better Christians than others and to have the right tell others how to behave. And the result is that we have people in the Church who throw their weight around and keep others down, or even out, because they think that they deserve to be in charge.

In the Gospels, Jesus warns us time after time about these attitudes and beliefs. When the disciples argued about who was the greatest amongst them, Jesus told them,

“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among all of you is the one who is great.”

 And again, when mother of James and John approached him with a request that her sons should be allowed to sit at his right and left hands in his kingdom, Jesus denied their request and told them,

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As disciples of Jesus are called to follow his example, these teachings of his should be ample evidence that no one in the Church is more important than anyone else, no matter who we are or how great we think we are: in fact none of us is any more important than the youngest child in the Church. And so there should no place in the hearts and minds of Christians, nor in the Church, for those feelings of superiority over others that lead to the problems we often find caused by those who think that they deserve to be in charge.

And neither are we any more important in God’s eyes than anyone else. That’s amply testified to in Jesus parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Here again, we have ample evidence, in Jesus own words, that there is no place in the minds and hearts of his disciples, nor in the Church, for the kind of self-righteousness that leads to the judgementalism, and lack of forgiveness that causes so much trouble in the Church.  

We mustn’t ever forget that, as disciples of Jesus, we’re called to love our neighbour as ourselves. And if we were on the receiving end of any of this kind of behaviour, we wouldn’t like it, so we shouldn’t do it to others. To do that can only be regarded as a lack of love and, no matter how good or important we think we are, if we don’t love others, we’re not very good, in God’s eyes. And if we do these things because we think we think we’re better than others and deserve some kind of reward, then we’re simply wasting our time. St Paul explains this so well in 1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

As Christians, the only reward we should have our hearts and minds set on, is the reward Jesus offered to all and promised to those who love him and keep his commandments, the reward of eternal life in heaven, and we should be doing all we can to gain that reward. The problem for us though is that, to some extent, we all crave tangible rewards, rewards we can have and enjoy now, and the reward Jesus offered and promised isn’t that kind of reward; it’s not a reward we can have and enjoy now, in this life, but one we can only receive and enjoy when this life has ended. But, as Jesus explains in this morning’s Gospel, we should be prepared to give up all for the sake of the great and precious reward he spoke about.

As Christians, we do have the Spiritual means to work for the reward Jesus offered and promised but, as human beings, we’re also creatures of flesh and blood who desire the tangible regards of this life, so we have a constant fight on our hands as these things battle for supremacy within us. But the reward Jesus offered and promised us is far more valuable than any reward we can ever hope for in this life, so that is the one we should be trying to obtain. It isn’t an easy reward to obtain, because to get it, means having to give up anything and everything that might prevent us from obtaining it, including the tangible rewards of this life that we crave so much. But, if we decide that the lure of earthly rewards is too great to resist, we run the risk of losing the great reward Jesus offers us. And if we allow ourselves to become so full of our own importance, in worldly or spiritual terms, or both, that we hurt others in our pursuit of the rewards of this life, we surely will lose the great reward on offer. A place in the kingdom of heaven might not be an easy reward to obtain, but the temporary rewards of this life pale into insignificance in comparison. So, let’s set our hearts and minds on obtaining that reward, and on getting rid of everything in our lives that might stop us from achieving it.

Amen.

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You will find the Propers for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Trinity 7) here.

I don’t think there can be any doubt that amongst the most damaging things to the Church and the Christian faith are the hypocrisy of some of the Church’s members, and the disputes that go on and divisions that exist between various people and parties within the Church. And these things are very often linked. The hypocrisy of Church members is, obviously, a failure of those people to practice what they preach. This brings not just them, but the whole Church and the Christian faith into disrepute and so it’s very often the cause of disagreements and fallouts, and ultimately, divisions within the Church. And whether that’s in a single Church congregation or a much wider dispute that leads to major divisions, and even splits the Church into different denominations, the result is the same; it shows the Church, and all Christians, in a bad light. It leads to the accusation that all Christians are hypocrites, and it makes it much harder for people outside the Church to take the Christian faith, the Church or individual Christians seriously because, if we who profess to be Christians don’t seem to take our faith seriously, why should they?  

The Church Fathers, whom I’ve spoken about from time to time, regarded this kind of dispute and division in the Church very seriously, far more seriously than we seem to do today. And I think they were quite right in doing so. For the Church Fathers, dispute and division between Christians, and especially schism, a clear split in the Church between people of differing opinions and beliefs, was the worst of all sins because it was a failure of Christians to do the very thing they’re called to do above all else; it was a failure of Christians to love one another. But, unfortunately, and as we know, this kind of thing has happened throughout the Church’s history and continues to happen today. And perhaps one of the worst examples of this, certainly in terms of the damage it did to the Church, was the so-called Donatist controversy that began in the early 4^th Century in the Church in North Africa. The dominant faith in North Africa today is Islam, so it might seem strange to place such importance on a Church dispute in that part of the world. But at one time North Africa was a very staunchly Christian area of the world and the growth of Islam in the area was in no small way aided by the damage done to the Church by the Donatist controversy.

The Donatist controversy began after a period of Church persecution under the Roman emperor, Diocletian. During the persecution, many Christians renounced their faith and obeyed the imperial order to hand over Christian literature for destruction. After the persecution had ended, however, many of these people returned to the Church but the Donatists (named after one of their bishops, Donatus) wouldn’t accept them. Things came to a head when one of these traditores (literally, ‘those who handed over’ and where we get the word ‘traitor’ from) was consecrated as the Bishop of Carthage. The Donatists wouldn’t accept his consecration, and so they consecrated their own, rival bishop. And so, a schism resulted between the exclusivist, Donatist part of the Church, and the inclusivist Catholic part of the Church.

At the height of the Donatist controversy, one of the Donatist’s main opponents was St Augustine of Hippo and, in opposing them, he came up with, what was then, a new understanding of the Church.

What Augustine said was that, rather than the exclusive society of perfect, holy people the Donatists thought it should be and wanted it to be, the Church can only ever be a mixture of saints and sinners. Augustine said this is inevitable because sin is inevitable. And he used the parable we read this morning, the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, to show that. Augustine said this parable was a metaphor for the Church, as it must exist in the world. And he said that, just as the wheat and the weeds grow side by side in the parable until they’re separated at harvest time, so saints and sinners will live side by side in the Church until they are separated by God at the end of time. And Augustine also had the extremely useful weapon of the Donatist’s own hypocrisy to aid him in his argument. Far from the perfect people they claimed to be, among the Donatists was a group of thugs, and they really seem to have been nothing more, who roamed the area beating up their Catholic opponents with clubs that they called ‘Israels’ because they were used for ‘smiting the foe’.

Eventually, and greatly helped by Augustine, the Catholic side of the Church gained the upper hand in this dispute, but it took the intervention of the Roman state to finally settle matters officially, and by then, the Donatist controversy had been a major problem for the Church in North Africa for over 100 years. Even so, the Donatist movement persisted for much longer and died out completely only when Islam replaced Christianity as the dominant faith in North African during the 7^th and 8^th Centuries.

There can’t be any doubt that the Donatist controversy was very damaging to the Church in North Africa between the 4^th and 8^th Centuries, and one of the most damaging disputes in the Church’s history. But, if we think about the underlying causes of the Donatist controversy, it’s a dispute that isn’t really confined to the early Church in North Africa; it’s still with us and it’s still damaging the Church today.  

The Donatists were exclusivists; they believed the Church should be made up of solely of the people whom they thought were worthy to be members of the Church. But do we not see that same thing in the Church today in the ‘We don’t want their sort here’ attitude we sometimes come across in Church members? Don’t we see it, in extreme cases, where we see some Church members actively trying to drive others away from the Church simply because they don’t like them or disagree with them about something? And isn’t this attitude also what lies behind the very common problem of people treating the Church as little more than a social club for themselves and their friends, and in which only they and their friends ought to have a voice in running? And isn’t that the attitude that leads to that bane of the  Church, the ‘clique’?

The Donatists also refused to accept the authority of a legitimately consecrated bishop because they thought he wasn’t worthy to be a member of the Church. But do we not see that same attitude in the Church today in places where problems are caused within Churches because one or more people disagree with, or simply don’t like, the bishop’s lawfully appointed representatives, the clergy?

Some of the Donatists, at least, were thugs and bullies who went around beating up their opponents. Thankfully, it’s very rare to come across instances of physical violence perpetrated by one or more Church members on any other, or others, but do we not see psychological and emotional bullying in the Church today? Do we not see that in cases where people use their position in the Church to throw their weight around and ‘Lord it over others’ as Jesus put it? Physical violence between Church members may be rare, but how many instances are there of people being reduced to tears, being made ill, or being driven away from the Church, by the behaviour of others in the Church. And isn’t it those who think of themselves as the most worthy, the members of the ‘club’ or the ‘clique’ and those who don’t see themselves as accountable to anyone, who are most often responsible for this kind of thing?

And, despite their own highly exalted view of themselves, perhaps above all, the Donatists were unforgiving, that after all, is why and how the controversy began. But don’t we see that same lack of forgiveness in the Church today? How many problems are caused in Churches because people are unwilling, or unable, to put old arguments and animosities behind them and so, can’t draw a line under the past and move on? And isn’t it very often those who think they’re just that little bit better than others, those of what’s often referred to as the ‘holier than thou brigade’ who are the most unwilling or unable to do these things? And, ultimately, what is a lack of forgiveness by and amongst Christians, other than that arch-hypocrisy, that worst of all sins, a failure of Christians to love one another as Jesus has loved us?

If you were to read about the Donatist controversy in a book of Church History, you’d probably read that it was confined to the Church in North Africa and ended well over 1,000 years ago. But the beliefs and attitudes that caused it, and caused so much damage to the Church, are still very much alive and with us today, and so we have to be on our guard against them at all times. We can’t allow ourselves to think that we are examples of perfect holiness, nor that we’re a member of some kind of holy elite because we’re neither. St Augustine said the Church was a mixture of saints and sinners and that’s exactly what it is. But that’s not because some of us are saints and some of us are sinners, but rather because each and everyone of us is a mixture of saint and sinner within ourselves. That doesn’t mean however, that we shouldn’t point out and try to correct obvious wrongdoing in others, the Gospel gives us ample evidence that we should do that, and Jesus gives us clear instructions on how to do it, but it does mean that we shouldn’t be too hasty, or willing, to judge others. It means we shouldn’t see ourselves as better than others. It means we should recognise our own faults and failings and wrongdoings as well as those of others. It means we should see ourselves as sinners too and, in seeing that, to be forgiving of others when they sin. And, no matter what, we must love one another. Jesus told us to love our neighbour as ourselves and, if we really do see ourselves honestly, as a mixture of saint and sinner, it means that when we look at others, we’ll see that we’re just looking at a reflection of ourselves. And, in that case, how can we think any less of our neighbour than we do of ourselves?

The only way we can be better than someone else, is to be better than them in God’s eyes. But we don’t see through God’s eyes so we have to guard against the self-righteous pride that will allow us to think that we’re better than others. If we don’t do that but instead set ourselves up as those in the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds who would go out and remove the weeds from amongst the wheat and burn them, as the Donatists and so many others have done during the Church’s history, we might find ourselves in for a very nasty surprise when the time for gathering God’s harvest comes.  Despite what we might think of ourselves, we might well find that, far from being amongst the righteous gathered into God’s kingdom, we’re amongst those who are bundled up and thrown into the fire.

Amen.

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You will find the Propers for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Trinity 6) here.