The first US President that I remember was Richard Nixon. I’m sure many of you will remember Nixon and some who don’t remember him will have heard of him because of the nature of his downfall, his resignation to avoid impeachment for of his attempted cover-up of the Watergate affair. Perhaps because he is the first President I remember, and the nature of his demise, I’ve always had something of a fascination with Nixon. Here was a tenacious, hard-working man who came back from the political wilderness to achieve the highest office. An extremely talented man but a man with many deep flaws. Nixon once said, 

“The greatest honour history can bestow is that of peacemaker.” 

And he earnestly sought greatness in that way. And yet, at the same time, he was jealous of the success of others, even those who helped him achieve great things. He was mistrustful of others perhaps to the point of paranoia, so much so that he wouldn’t even confide in his closest aides. He hated the press and what he called ‘the establishment’ who he truly believed were out to put their collective boots into him in an attempt to bring him down in any way they could. He longed to be loved in the way that John F Kennedy was loved and deeply resented the fact that he wasn’t. And in the end, these were the things that brought him down, his own inner demons and what they led him to do. 

And yet some of Nixon’s words can, I think, be quite inspirational and perhaps none more so than those towards the end of his farewell address to his staff shortly after his resignation from the presidency. They’re quite ironic words given his own nature and the manner of his downfall, but they are nevertheless words well worth hearing and remembering. He said, 

“Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.” 

Whatever our opinion of the man who spoke them, I think these are good words which we’d do well to remember in whatever we do, and not least as we go about the business of being disciples of Christ in the world.  

I don’t think anyone can doubt that these are difficult days for the Church, for the Christian faith, and for us as Christians. A 2024 World Watch report on Christian persecution stated that in 2023, Christians in 50 countries were subjected to “the most extreme persecution” and that, worldwide, 365 million Christians are subjected to “high levels of persecution and discrimination” on account of their faith. But this report deals with severe persecution. As we know only too well, in this country, we can be subjected to all kinds of abuse and ridicule for our allegiance to Christ. At times it seems almost like open season on the Church, the Christian faith, and Christians as all are openly derided and treated with a disdain that simply would not be tolerated or, dare I say, allowed if it was directed against any other faith.  

Unless we keep our faith secret, and I hope we don’t do that because one of our essential duties as Christians is to proclaim and share our faith, I’m sure we must all have had to put up with some kind of abuse on account of our faith. It might have been something as simple as people taking the mickey, but it might been something much more abusive and hurtful. And because of this it’s all to easy for us to become discouraged and not to give of our best when it comes to proclaiming our faith.  

Not long after I’d been ordained I was at a clergy meeting at which the then Archbishop of York, David Hope, urged us to go into the pubs and clubs of our parishes because that’s where the people go and that’s where we’ll meet them. Well, I don’t mind going into pubs and clubs but whenever I do go into such a place wearing a dog-collar, I’m never quite sure of the reaction I’ll get. At the very least it’s usually a few strange looks, occasionally it’s a bit of mickey taking, but on occasions people, usually once they’ve been fuelled with a bit of liquid courage, can be quite aggressive and abusive, not often about me personally, but certainly about the Church and the Christian faith. I’ve been ordained over 20 years now so it doesn’t really bother me too much, it can just be a bit tiresome at times. But I have known priests who’ve stopped going into certain places in their parish because of the constant barrage of abuse and criticism they’ve received there.  

These things happen, and when they do, it’s easy to be discouraged and to stop giving of our best; it’s easy to do these things because these are usually the easiest ways for us to deal with the problem. But as disciples of Christ, we are both called and sent out by Christ, so we can’t allow ourselves to be so discouraged that we give up or stop doing our best.  

Jesus never promised his disciples an easy time. We know that, at times, he openly told them that they would be hated on account of their faith. And in this morning’s Gospel, as Jesus sent his disciples out ahead of him, he tells them tacitly that they will meet with both acceptance and rejection: 

“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say,‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’” 

We have to be clear here about the symbolism of the disciples going into the streets and shaking the dust of the town off their feet. This is not symbolic of wishing harm on those who reject the kingdom of God; that is not what the disciples are called to do. We saw that in last Sunday’s Gospel where we read of Jesus rebuking James and John for wanting to call down fire from heaven to destroy those who rejected Jesus. Jesus says that those who reject the disciple’s message will suffer a worse fate than the people of Sodom; but that is for the Lord to decide, not for us. What shaking the dust of one’s feet is symbolic of is a distancing of the disciples from those who reject the Gospel. It’s like saying,  

‘Christ has sent us to proclaim the Gospel to you, but you have rejected it. So be it. But in rejecting the Gospel you have also rejected Christ, and we want no part in this, on your own heads be it. We have been given our task, and we’ll carry on with it, regardless of your hostility and rejection of Christ, the kingdom of God and the Gospel.’ 

So we can see here a lesson about not being discouraged by hostility and rejection but continuing to give of our best in spite of these things. But we must also see a warning not to repay those who hate us in kind.  

It’s not easy to proclaim the Gospel in the face of hostility and rejection but it is what we’re called to do as disciples of Christ. But if we can stick to our task without becoming so discouraged that we give up, or stop doing our best, Jesus promises us a great reward, and tells us to  

“…rejoice that (our) names are written in heaven.” 

We read the same thing in that most beloved of Jesus’ teaching, the Beatitudes: 

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” 

Whatever hostility or rejection we face on account of our faith, we need to remember who it is who called us and sent us out into the world to proclaim the Gospel. We need to remember that his love for us is greater than any hatred the world might have for us. So, as we go about the business of being Christ’s disciples in the world, let’s never be discouraged by the opposition we face but always give of our best. And let’s never be so petty as to repay the world’s hostility and rejection by hating those who hate us because if we do that, we risk destroying ourselves by losing the heavenly reward Christ promises us.  

Amen.  

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Propers for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 6th July 2025

Entrance Antiphon 
Your merciful love, O God, 
we have received in the midst of your temple. 
Your praise, O God, like your name, 
reaches the ends of the earth; 
your right hand is filled with saving justice. 

The Collect 
O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, 
fill your faithful with holy joy, 
for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin, 
you bestow eternal gladness. 
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 
Isaiah 66:10-14  
Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20 
Galatians 6:14-18 
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 

Prayer after Communion 
Grant, we pray, O Lord, 
that, having been replenished by such great gifts, 
we may gain the prize of salvation, 
and never cease to praise you. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.  

One of the problems I’ve spoken about in the past is that of trying to really understand what’s going on in a Sunday Gospel reading when we read them as we do, that is, taken out of the context of the Gospel as a whole. And I think today’s Gospel reading is a good example of that. 

On the surface, today’s Gospel reads a little like four short, stand-alone incidents taken from Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem. His rejection by the Samaritans, which includes a short discussion with his disciples, and then three separate discussions with three unidentified people who say that they want to follow Jesus. But why do these incidents appear where they do in the Gospel and why did St Luke put them together as he did? To understand what’s going on, the first thing  we have to do is to put these stories back into context.  

A little earlier in the Gospel, after Peter had confessed his belief that Jesus was “the Christ of God “, Jesus had begun to teach the disciples that he would be rejected by the religious authorities and be put to death but that he would rise again on the third day. And he warned them,  

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”  

And it’s important to remember these words when we read this morning’s Gospel.  

Immediately after this in the Gospel is the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration. We know that, at that time, Jesus appeared in glory with Moses and Elijah who discussed with him the ‘departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.’ And it’s in that context that we have to read this morning’s Gospel because it’s full of allusions to the stories of Moses and Elijah. There are allusions to the story of Ezekiel too and it’s that context we read that Jesus’ ‘face was set towards Jerusalem.’  

We read this morning that it was because his face was set towards Jerusalem that Jesus was rejected at the Samaritan village. But that’s not surprising. We know there was a long-standing religious enmity between Jews and Samaritans. As we read in St John’s Gospel when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman said,  

“Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”   

And so, just as it wasn’t surprising that the Samaritans in the village wouldn’t accept Jesus, it’s perhaps equally unsurprising that, in response, some of Jesus’ disciples at least, wanted to call down hell-fire on the village! And that shouldn’t be surprising because how many times have religious people and do religious people still want to destroy those who don’t agree with them? And not just people of different faiths. The so-called Wars of Religion that raged for about two hundred years following the Reformation in the Western Church are now, thankfully, over but how often do we still today act in ways that are very, very far from loving towards those of different denominations and traditions within the Church? But Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples for wanting to harm the people of that Samaritan village should tell us how wrong it is to wish, seek or do harm to others simply because they don’t agree with us. How much happier a place would the world be, and would the Church be, if a few more people would hear that message and take it to heart?  

Jesus’ rejection at the Samaritan village should though cause us to cast our minds back to his warning about the cost of discipleship, his warning that to be his disciple is to take up our cross each and every day. The need to set our faces towards Jerusalem, so to speak. That’s not to look to the city in the modern-day state of Israel, but to make being obedient to God and God’s call on our lives our priority in life. And that’s really what the three brief discussions that follow are all about.  

The first person we read about tells Jesus that they’ll follow him wherever he goes. But in response Jesus speaks about having “nowhere to lay his head.” And this is a warning that being a disciple of Jesus means getting out of our comfort zone. To be a true disciple of Jesus, we have to take up our cross and follow his example. We can’t be a true disciple of Jesus if we’re not prepared to follow his example and set our faces towards Jerusalem for the sake of the Gospel.  

But how many people really are prepared to do this? How many times when people in the Church are asked to do something for the Church do they respond with something along the lines of,  

“I’ve never done that before.” 

Or “I don’t know how to do that” 

Or even, “Well that’s not really my thing.” 

And decline the invitation to help out? 

The second person Jesus speaks to says he will follow Jesus but first wants to go and bury his father. That seems a very reasonable thing to do and is in keeping with the commandment to honour one’s father and mother. But Jesus responds by telling the man,  

“Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  

That seems a very harsh thing to say but we have to bear in mind here that in Jesus’ time burial was very different to what we mean by burial. In those days, the newly deceased would be buried but after the body had decayed until only the bones remained, the bones would be gathered up and buried again in an ossuary, or bone box, and that might be up to a year after the person had died. In this second encounter, Jesus asks the man to follow him, and he says he will, but he has something else to do first. And whilst the reason he gives seems a good one, what it amounts to is, ‘I will, but not yet.’ So we can read this as a warning to stop making excuses for not taking up our cross and following Jesus. But how many people do just that? How many people, when they’re asked to do something for the Church say,  

“Oh I will but I don’t really have time at the moment, I’m too busy with…” whatever it might be. But how much of it really is genuine and how much is just excuses? I remember very well, for example, once asking someone to help out at a parish event who told me that they’d like to but couldn’t because they were working that day. That’s fair enough, but according to the photos and post that appeared on Facebook, what they were actually doing that day was having a day out in the Lake District! 

The third person Jesus speaks to says that they will follow Jesus but wants first to go and say goodbye to those at home. Again that seems a very reasonable thing to ask. But Jesus replies,  

“No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  

Unlike the request to bury their father, saying goodbye to the people at home wouldn’t take very long so there’d be no real delay in this person following Jesus; they could probably have gone home, said their goodbyes, and caught Jesus up further along the road to Jerusalem. But Jesus implies that even this short delay in following him isn’t acceptable. Or at least that what he seems to be saying. I think rather, what Jesus is really talking about here is the problem of not being able to move on, of not being able to leave our old ways behind but of constantly being drawn back to the things we did and the way we were before we heard the Gospel and accepted Jesus as our Lord. And this is a problem we must all know about and be familiar with because it’s a problem we all have to deal with in our attempts to follow Jesus. Those of us who’ve been confirmed have promised to follow Jesus, in that sense we’ve all set our faces towards Jerusalem. But we can’t help looking back at times can we, to things we did before, things that we now know aren’t in keeping with the teaching and example of Jesus, but that we’re still drawn back towards because we enjoyed doing them. It’s a constant battle for us; it’s one I hope we usually win, but it’s one we sometimes lose, if that wasn’t the case we wouldn’t be the sinners we all accept that we are.  

Taken out of context, as it is, this morning’s Gospel might not be the easiest to understand but when we put these four brief episodes from Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem in the context of what comes before, we can find a lot of teaching that’s as relevant to us today as it was to those Jesus spoke to 2000 years ago. So as we follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem and we feel like calling down hell fire on someone, whenever we think the road is getting a bit too difficult for us to walk, whenever we feel like taking a break from the journey or delaying the next part of the journey, and whenever we look back and feel like retracing our steps and going back to where we were before, we’d do well to think about these few short stories from Jesus’ own journey towards Jerusalem and try to hear him calling to us, pointing us in the right direction and telling us to keep our eyes on the road ahead.  

Amen. 

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Propers for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 29th June 2025

Entrance Antiphon 
All peoples, clap your hands.  
Cry to God with shouts of joy. 

The Collect 
O God, who through the grace of adoption 
chose us to be children of light, 
grant, we pray, 
that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error, 
but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. 
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 
1 Kings 19:16, 19-21 
Psalm 15:1-2, 5, 7-11 
Galatians 5:1, 13-18 
Luke 9:51-62 

Prayer after Communion 
May this divine sacrifice we have offered and received 
fill us with life, O Lord, we pray, 
so that, bound to you in lasting charity, 
we may bear fruit that lasts for ever. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

One of the most well-known of all prayers is the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

This is a quite modern prayer; it was only composed in the 1930’s, but it has become a very well-known, much loved and often used prayer. And that’s understandable, what’s being asked for in the prayer is very much in keeping with the teaching of Jesus, and I’m sure people would be much happier if they could have the serenity, courage and wisdom mentioned in the prayer. And yet whilst we pray for these things, we often seem to find them very elusive and difficult to practice in our lives.

I remember very well, for example, a time when one of my fellow ordinands at the College of the Resurrection at Mirfield was looking very troubled about something and when I asked him what was wrong he said he’d just submitted a piece of work and was sure he’d left something really important out of the essay. But, as I said to him;

“But you’ve already submitted it?”

“Yes”, he said.

“So can you do anything to change it now then?” I asked,

And he said, “No.”

To which I replied,

“Well there’s not much point in worrying about it then is there?”

That’s just one example from my experience, but I could give others as I’m sure we all could because, at times we all lack the serenity to accept what we can’t change, the courage to change what we can and the wisdom to know the difference. But as we look at the world around us, these are qualities, gifts, that we really do need to have and to practice.

We live in a very troubled world, a very dangerous world, at the present time. If we read a newspaper or watch the news on television, about our own country we seem to hear about nothing but trouble; the cost-of-living crisis, the grooming gang scandal, the problem of illegal immigration, rising crime rates, two-tier justice to name just a few things. And news from the wider world is even worse; war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and now fighting between Israel and Iran that’s threatening to involve many more countries in a much wider and far worse war. People are worried, very worried about the state of the world, they’re frightened about what may happen, and that’s understandable. But really, can we change any of these things? We may be able to influence things in this country by raising our voices in protest, but are the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Iran, the United States, or any other nation going to listen to what we say and allow what we say to change what they do? I think that’s not even a remote possibility. So these are things we can’t change but, whether we like it or not, have to have the serenity to accept. That doesn’t mean we have to like what’s going on in the world and we shouldn’t. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned with what’s going on in the world, because we should and we should have the courage do whatever we can to help the victims of what’s going on in the world. But we have to accept that the reality of things is that we can’t change much of what’s going on in the world.

In our Gospel reading this morning, we heard St Peter’s great confession of faith that Jesus is “The Christ of God.” And we’re here in church this morning to make that same confession of faith, the Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God who was sent into the world to show us the light, to lead us out of the darkness of the world and its ways into the light of God and God’s ways. So what does Jesus have to say to us in the face of so much trouble and danger in the world?

One thing Jesus tells us is not to worry about the things of the world, the things of this life because we gain absolutely nothing from worrying about these things. He asks,

“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” 

He tells us not to worry about what will happen in the future: 

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 

Jesus was speaking here about our own comfort, clothing, food and drink, but he spoke in the same way about great events in the world too: 

“And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”

But while Jesus tells us not to worry about things we can’t change, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about them and especially for the people involved in and affected by troubles. We know that, while Jesus accepted that the destruction of Jerusalem was coming, he still wept about it. He had compassion on crowds and individuals; we read that a number of times in the Gospels. We know he wasn’t immune to personal anguish because we read how he wept at the grave of Lazarus and suffered in Gethsemane. Even in his own darkest time, as he carried his Cross to Calvary, he still felt compassion for others, as his words to the women to weep for themselves and their children rather than for him tells us.

Jesus’ own example shows us that we should feel compassion for those affected by the world’s troubles but that’s not surprising given his commandment that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. And according to that same commandment and Jesus’ own example, if we can do anything about their suffering, we should. But Jesus also tells us that there are things we can’t change. Things can and do and will happen that we can do absolutely nothing about, but he tells us not to worry about these things. In fact, the only thing that Jesus really says we should be worried about is not being ready to meet him when he comes.

In this morning’s Gospel Jesus tells us that, if we truly want to be his disciples we have to take up and carry our own cross every day. And to carry our cross means to stop thinking about ourselves and our own pleasure and comfort in this life and put seeking the kingdom of God first. It means to stop worrying about worldly matters and concentrate on heavenly matters, eternal things. Time and again in the Gospels Jesus warns us that we have to be about this constantly. He warns us to be ready at all times, never to be found sleeping from this work is the way he often puts it. And he says this is what we must do even when it seems that the world is coming to an end.

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” 

And this is something we should worry about because this is something that does lie in our own hands to change. Many things, many terrible things happen in the world that we can’t do anything about, we can’t change those things. But we can change ourselves so that we’re more Christlike and if we don’t make those changes it’s our own fault. Of course we can’t do it without God’s help, without God’s grace, but we have to want that help and we have the courage to use the grace of God to change our lives so that we are living as Christ’s disciples each and every day of our lives.

Many people are looking at the state of the world today and coming to the conclusion that the end times are here, that the end of the world is nigh. Que sera, sera, what will be, will be. There’s very little, if anything  we can do to change the great events of the world, there’s nothing at all we can do to change God’s mind if he has decided that the end has come. What we can do though is ask ourselves if we’re ready to meet Lord. I’m pretty sure that answer for all of us will be something along the lines of.

“No, not really. Can we have a bit more time?”

Well, we may have more time but who knows how much. We might be run over by a bus tomorrow and then what the world does on Tuesday won’t matter to us at all will it. None of us know how much time we’ve got until we have to stand before the Lord so let’s make good use of the time we do have while we have it. Let’s try to have the serenity to accept that there are things we simply can’t change, no matter how much we might want to so that we can worry less about these things than about the things we can change. Let’s ask God for the wisdom to know the difference between the things we can and can’t change. And let’s ask him for the grace to help us change the things we can change and need to change and for the courage to make those changes so that whenever it happens, we will be ready to stand before the Lord. 

Amen.

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Propers for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 22nd June 2025

Entrance Antiphon
The Lord is the strength of his people,
a saving refuge for the one he has anointed.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage,
and govern them for ever.

The Collect
Grant, O Lord,
that we may always revere and love your holy name,
for you never deprive of your guidance
those you set firm on the foundation of your love.
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
Zechariah 12:10-11, 13:1
Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9
Galatians 3:26-29
Luke 9:18-24

Prayer after Communion
Renewed and nourished by the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of your Son,
we ask of your mercy, O Lord,
that what we celebrate with constant devotion may be our sure pledge of redemption.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.