I’m sure we’ve all met people who like to speak their mind. In my experience of people who speak their mind, one thing you can say about them is that you tend to know where you stand with them but as for what they say, well that’s another story. I’m sure we all know that people who speak their mind can be very offensive, and they don’t seem to care if what they say upsets someone. And in those circumstances, those who speak their mind tend to justify what they’ve said and done by saying something along the lines of, 

“I’m just telling it as it is.” 

But very often people who say that aren’t telling it as it at all. What they’re really doing is telling it as they see it, which is not necessarily as it really is. If you think about the people you know who speak their mind and tell it as it is, how many of them actually find out the full story before they start making pronouncements about it? In my experience, not many. Rather, what they’re far more likely to do is view a situation from the outside and, without ever taking the trouble to find out the inside story, come to a decision about what’s going on, apportion blame and then shoot their mouths of about it. They might be speaking their mind, but that doesn’t mean that what’s in their mind is right. Far from telling it as it is, what they’re really doing is being judgemental.  

We find people like this is all walks of life, and in spite of the warning that Jesus gave us about the danger of judging others, we find them in the Church too. And often, when someone leaves the Church, the root cause can be traced back to the offensive, judgemental way they’ve been spoken to, or about, by someone who will claim to have been simply speaking their mind and telling it as it is. But when this happens, it leaves us with a bit of a problem. Not simply the problem of un-Christian behaviour causing hurt and upset within the Body of Christ, and not only the problem of such behaviour leading to someone being lost from the Church, but a problem of how to understand what’s happened in the light of Jesus’ own words.  

In our Gospel this morning, Jesus says that no one can snatch his sheep away from him. So when people leave the Church, does that mean they were never part of Jesus’ flock in the first place? And what of those who cause others to leave because of their un-Christian behaviour?  

Jesus said that his flock hear his voice and follow him, but those who cause hurt and upset by their un-Christian behaviour are neither hearing Jesus’ voice, nor are they following him. So in spite of the fact that they still come to Church, are they really part of Jesus’ flock?  

It’s true that some people can be overly sensitive and take offense very easily, but there may be reasons for that that we don’t know about. It’s also true that some people can be outspoken and offensive, but there may be reason for that too, reasons that we’re also unaware of. So how can we decide the rights and wrongs of these situations so that we can deal with them in the right way?  

Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks again about his flock in similar words to those we’ve heard this morning. There, as he prays to the Father,  he says,  

“…I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”  

The Greek here can be interpreted in different ways and sometimes, Jesus’ words are translated so that he says the one lost was ‘the one destined to be lost’, and it’s usually assumed that he’s speaking about Judas. Twice in the Gospel, John writes that Satan had entered Judas and given him the idea and desire to betray Jesus, but if Jesus is speaking about Judas here, we could interpret this as implying that, when someone leaves the Church, they were destined to be lost, destined to leave Christ’s flock of their own free will and so, regardless of why they’ve left, the blame lies with them. But is Jesus really talking about Judas here?  

The only other place in the New Testament where we find the expression, ‘the son of destruction’ is in 2 Thessalonians, and there it quite clearly refers to a Satanic figure, an anti-Christ perhaps, but certainly someone who will lead the faithful astray. And we know that Judas was led astray. So who does Jesus mean by ‘the son of destruction’? Does he mean Judas? Does he mean Satan, the evil one, the devil who put it into Judas heart and mind to betray Jesus? But as we know, Satan is simply the accuser, anyone can be Satan because anyone can lead people astray. So does Jesus mean the one who actually did the deed of leading Judas astray, the one who tempted him with the 30 pieces of silver and gave them to him? And if Jesus is not talking about Judas, it might imply that when someone leaves the Church because of the actions of others or another, the fault actually lies with the one who drove them away. In that case it might not be the one who’s left the Church who’s lost at all. It’s the one who’s un-Christian behaviour has caused them to leave; they are the one who’s lost.  

We know that people leave the Church. We know too that very often the reason people leave the Church is because of the behaviour of other people in the Church. We may be able to work out who is most responsible for what’s happened, but when it comes to deciding who is lost – well that’s not our decision to make is it? All we can do is be the members of Christ’s flock that we’re called to be, hearing his voice and following him. Loving one another as he calls us to do, and that most definitely includes keeping a curb on our tongues, even if we do think we’re simply telling it as it is. We may well only be speaking our mind, but our mind is far too often not the mind of Christ, and as Christians, it’s his mind we should be speaking rather than our own. And it most definitely too includes not rushing to judgement about situations and on people. We very, very rarely, if ever see things as they really are. Only God can do that, so judgement is most definitely something that’s best left to God.  

Amen.  

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Propers for the 4th Sunday of Easter, 11th May 2025

Entrance Antiphon
The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth;
by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia.

The Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
lead us to a share in the joys of heaven,
so that the humble flock may reach
where the brave Shepherd has gone before.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Acts 13:14, 43-52
Psalm 100:1-3, 5
Revelation 7:9, 13-17
John 10:27-30

Prayer after Communion
Look upon your flock, kind Shepherd,
and be pleased to settle in eternal pastures
the sheep you have redeemed
by the Precious Blood of your Son.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

Last Tuesday, we celebrated the feast day of St Mark the Evangelist. In my sermon then, I spoke about how St Mark can be a shining example to us in these difficult times for the Church. I said that because, as we read St Mark’s story in scripture and in the Church’s traditions, we find echoes of our own story. St Mark’s story is one of someone who was filled with enthusiasm for the Christian faith but who, after experiencing hardship and persecution on account of the faith, turned back from the work of mission and evangelism. But St Mark’s story is also one of someone who, in the end, found the courage to go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel again. I said that St Mark is such a shining example to us because most of us will have gone through the first two stages of St Mark’s experience, an initial burst of enthusiasm, which will have subsided when we realised just how difficult proclaiming the Gospel really can be. The problem for us, and for the Church, is that we seem to find it so difficult to find the courage that will allow us to go out again and proclaim our faith so openly as we did at first. I suggested that many of us reach that turning- back stage of our faith journey and become stuck there, and the Church too seems to be stuck in that turning-back stage because of what amounts to a lack of courage.

If we think about the Church today, and individual Christians too, we can’t help but come to the conclusion that they’re filled with fear. Not fear of the Lord, as we should be, but fear of everything and everyone else. We’re afraid of people of other faiths. We’re afraid of people of no faith. We’re even afraid of each other. We must be. How can we conclude otherwise when so many people in the Church are prepared to turn a blind eye to un-Christian behaviour in the Church, or even collude with it, rather than challenge it? Every single one of us must have come across someone in the Church acting in ways that are incompatible with the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. But how many of us have had the courage to challenge that behaviour? To tell that person, or people, that what they’re doing and saying is wrong? The example I gave on Tuesday evening was that of the anti-Roman Catholic bigotry in the Church of England that so many people are willing to collude with. But that denominational bigotry exists in every denomination of the Church and goes equally unchallenged in every denomination. But there are so many other examples of this kind of cowardice. During my ministry, I, personally, have been on the receiving end of all kinds of un-Christian behaviour from people in congregations.

People have known what was happening was wrong and yet so many times they’ve simply looked away and said nothing. Or they’ve spoken to me privately about how appalled they were about what happened, but still didn’t challenge it. And so many times too, people have said that they couldn’t say anything because the other person was their friend. But how many scandals in the Church have been caused simply because people have been unwilling to challenge un-Christian behaviour when they’ve known about it because the perpetrator was a friend?

It seems to me that people are more afraid of each other than they are of the Lord. But Jesus said, 

“…do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

In other words, disciples of Christ, Christians, we, should fear God more

than we fear other people, whoever they are. And this is what we see in our readings this morning.

We can start with our Gospel reading where we read the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples on the sea shore after his Resurrection. Just like St Mark, and just like us, the disciples had been through that great rush of excitement and enthusiasm, probably even more so because they were eyewitnesses to all that Jesus had done. And yet, when it all seemed to go wrong on Maundy Thursday, most of them had run away in fear, and they’d been hiding, for fear, since. And what must Peter have felt as he came to shore and found Jesus by a charcoal fire? He must, surely, have been reminded of that Thursday night when, as he warmed himself by a charcoal fire, he’d denied three times that he even knew Jesus. Certainly, he was overcome with excitement to see Jesus because he threw himself into the sea to get to shore more quickly, but he must have been apprehensive at least as he came to Jesus, wondering, worrying what Jesus might say to him about his lack of courage. But he needn’t have done because Jesus simply asked Peter three times, to mirror Peter’s three denials, if he really loved him. And because Peter could answer,

“Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

Peter’s failure was forgiven. He was given another chance, as were all the disciples.

And our reading from Acts tells us that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, they were able to find the courage to go out and proclaim the Gospel no matter who opposed them.

It’s a pity that we don’t read more of Acts 5 this morning to help put what we do read into context. But as we only have this short excerpt, we need to remember that Peter and the Apostles had already been imprisoned for going into the temple to teach people about Jesus. We need to remember too that they’d been imprisoned by the very people who only a few weeks earlier had arrested Jesus and condemned him to death. And yet, having escaped from prison they went straight back to the temple to proclaim the Gospel again. And their fear had gone, or at least their fear of what other people could do to them had because, as we read;

‘…the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.’

And that so enraged the High Priest and the council that they wanted to put the Apostles to death. But a rather wiser Pharisee, Gamaliel, urged caution in words that we’d would do well to listen to as well;

‘…keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”’

And so the council were content to have the Apostles beaten and then let them go with another warning not to speak about Jesus. Which the Apostles took no heed of whatsoever, In fact,

‘…they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.’

There is so much in this morning’s readings that we, and the Church, need to take note of as we look to proclaim the Gospel today. The need to be courageous in proclaiming our faith in the face of opposition. The need to fear God rather than being afraid of other people, whoever they are. But perhaps especially the words of a Pharisee, Gamaliel. Because if what we do is of God, it will not fail. And what we do is of God, it must be because we’re proclaiming the Gospel of his Son. So if what we’re doing isn’t succeeding, it must be because we are doing something wrong. To be more explicit; the Gospel we’re proclaiming can’t be wrong because it is of God, so our proclamation of the Gospel should succeed. So a lack of success in proclaiming  the Gospel must be down to human factors. So perhaps the problem is that we, both as individuals and as a Church aren’t proclaiming the Gospel as we should be. And I think that is exactly what the problem is, we’re not proclaiming the Gospel as we should be, and as we’re called to. And we’re not doing that because we’re too frightened to do it. We’re too frightened of people of other faiths, of no faith, and of each other, of the un-Christian elements within our own ranks to stand up for our faith, to even defend it and speak up for it, let alone shout it from the roof tops. And when we don’t defend our faith from attack, when we don’t stand up to those who drag our faith and the Church into the gutter because of their un-Christian behaviour, when we keep quiet about all these things for fear of other people then, to all intents and purposes, we’re opposing God, so is it any wonder that we fail?

I’ve been quite forceful in what I’ve said this morning, but I don’t intend it as an admonishment, but rather a wake-up call. The Church has had things far too easy for far too long in this country and we’ve become lazy. I went to a state school, but we had Bible lessons in class, daily prayers and assemblies with hymns. The only faith we were taught was the Christian faith. But I’m probably of the last generation who had that kind of Christian teaching in school, at least in a state school, and I’m now a grandfather. We can’t rely on the state to take responsibility for teaching the Christian faith anymore; that party is over. Now, it is up to us, both individually and collectively, to proclaim the Gospel as we always should have done because it’s what we’re called to do as Christians. But we won’t do that unless we can lose our fear of other people, including those un-Christian elements within the Church itself, who may well be our friends and neighbours, but who do our faith and the Church so much harm.

In his Letter to the Romans, St Paul asks,

If God is for us, who can be against us?

We have Christ’s assurance that God is for us, what we have to decide is whether we are for him. To put it another way, who do we fear, God or man?

Amen.  

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Propers for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, 4th May 2025

Entrance Antiphon
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth;
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise, alleluia.

The Collect
May your people exult for ever, O God,
in renewed youthfulness of spirit,
so that, rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption,
we may look forward in confident hope to the rejoicing of the day of resurrection.
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
Acts 5:27-32, 40-41
Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19

Prayer after Communion
Look with kindness upon your people, O Lord,
and grant, we pray,
that those you were pleased to renew by eternal mysteries
may attain in their flesh
the incorruptible glory of the resurrection.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.