One of the required elements of our services on Sundays and at major feasts of the Church, is that we say the Creed. As we know, the Creed is a statement of our beliefs which is obvious from the opening words “We believe in…” And among the things we say that we believe in is “One, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”   

We often refer to these things as the ‘four marks of the Church’ but while we say we believe that the Church is all these things, what we actually mean by them is open to interpretation and indeed there are various ways in which we can understand each of these things about the Church. But the one I want to look at today is the second mark of the Church, the holy Church. What do we mean when we say that the Church is holy?   

Perhaps one of the biggest misunderstandings about the holiness of the Church is also one of the longest running problems that the Church has faced through the years and still faces today. That is that the holiness of the Church is dependent upon the personal holiness, the qualities and the way of life, the excellence of the morals and ethics of the individual members of the Church. We know that this is a widespread misunderstanding because of the low regard the Church herself is often held in because of the sins and hypocrisy of her members. And that’s understandable because for many people holiness is about moral perfection so how can a Church that’s full of imperfect people be regarded as holy? It’s quite wrong to think about the holiness of the Church in this way, but it is understandable that so many people do think in this way.  

But as much of a problem it may be when people outside the Church think in this way, what’s been a much bigger problem, and perhaps still is, is when those in the Church think this way. And there has been no shortage of people like that in the Church over the years. I’m sure we’ve all met them: those who say that Christians shouldn’t be doing this, that or the other but who, in fact, are not preaching the Christian faith, who are not basing their prohibitions on the teaching and example of Christ, but rather on their own morals and standards. I’m sure I’ve told you in the past of my dad’s experience of this. He was lost to the Church in his late teens because he was told that all the things he liked to do, going to the cinema, going to the speedway, bicycle racing and worst of all, smoking, were all sins and that he must stop doing all of these things.    

Really what this is, is people taking it upon themselves to decide what’s right and what’s wrong and then trying to impose their own ideas of these things on others and telling them that if they don’t toe the line, they’re not Christians, at times even that they’re not welcome in the Church. It’s what happens when some people want the Church, or at least their little part of the Church, to be a holy elite, and in order to do that set themselves up as the judges of what is and isn’t acceptable, of who is and isn’t acceptable in their holy church that they have set apart for those whom they think are holy enough to belong. This is bad enough when it happens to individuals but at times this has happened on a much larger scale and it’s done immeasurable harm, perhaps in some cases even irreparable harm to  the Church.  

For example, today, North Africa is a largely Muslim part of the world, but in the days of the early Church, North Africa was very much a Christian stronghold. And some people have argued that it was just the kind of problem I’ve been talking about that so weakened the Church in that part of the world that Christianity was easily replaced by Islam as the dominant faith in the 7th and 8th Centuries.   

What happened is now known as the Donatist Controversy, and it started in the early 3rd Century. During that time the Church was being persecuted, churches were demolished and people were ordered to hand over Christian books and scrolls so that they could be burned. And many people did, including some clergy. When the persecution ended, some of those clergy returned to the Church but one group, the Donatists, were having none of this. To them, those who’d lapsed from the faith under persecution were traitors who should never be allowed to return to the Church and when one such traitor was consecrated as a bishop, the Donatists refused to accept his authority and it resulted in schism, a split in the Church. In the end, the Donatists were found to be in error, but the schism was never really healed, and the Church was so weakened by it that it couldn’t resist the rise of Islam in the area.  

What did come out of the Donatist Controversy though was a new understanding of the Church, and of the holiness of the Church. And the author of this was one of the great Fathers of the early Church, St Augustine of Hippo. What St Augustine did was apply the parable we heard this morning, the parable of the wheat and the weeds, to the Church as it exists in the world.  

Augustine argued was that the Church is not made up of a perfect holy elite but that it is a corpus permixtum, a mixed body made up of both saints and sinners and that, as we are all sinners, it is not up to us to separate them. That is something that will only be done and can only be done by the Lord on the last day. For good measure, Augustine also drew attention to the less than perfect behaviour of the Donatists themselves, some of whom were known to wander around beating up their opponents with clubs they called ‘Israels’ because they were used to ‘smite the foes’ of the Lord. They also did this in part at least, hoping to provoke an equally violent reaction so that they would be guaranteed of a place in heaven for suffering for their faith or even being martyred.  

So the idea grew that the holiness of the Church is something that can’t be fully realised on earth. Because the Church is made up of people who are all sinful to some extent, we can only ask for forgiveness of our sins and look to the day when we will be made perfect in heaven.  

But if the Church isn’t holy through the perfection of her members, can we still say that the Church is holy in the present time? Yes, we can because holiness is not about perfection. Holiness is about being dedicated to God or belonging to God, and we know that the Church, both as a body and the individual members who make up the body fit that description.  

Through our baptismal promises, the promises we take on for ourselves at confirmation and reaffirm each year at Easter, we are a people dedicated to God. Through those promises we pledge ourselves to living as God’s people. We get things wrong at times because we’re sinful human beings, but we can ask for forgiveness and try again. So we are holy in that sense. And as a body the Church is holy because she belongs to God. And this is really the great mistake that those who try to make the Church a holy place through the perfection of a holy elite make. In trying to do that, they inevitably insist on standards and patterns of behaviour that are their own rather than those based on the teaching and example of Christ. In doing that they try to usurp God’s rule over the Church by making it their church run according to their rules and filled with people whom they think are fit to be called to membership. In effect, in trying to make the Church the preserve of a holy elite, they destroy her holiness because they call for a dedication to their ways rather than God’s ways. They try to make the Church their church rather than God’s Church and the Church’s people their people rather than God’s people.  

In terms of membership, the Church is not a holy elite, it is Augustine’s corpus permixtum, a mixed body of saints and sinners, and it can’t be any other way because each and every one of us is a mixture of the saint and the sinner. So while we can profess our belief in the holy Church, we always have to remember that when we talk about the holiness of the Church it’s not a holiness belonging to us by virtue of anything we do. What we’re talking about is the holiness of God and of Christ. They give the Church her holiness, we are holy only through our dedication to them and because we are God’s people.  

Amen.  

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Propers for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 19th July 2026

Entrance Antiphon 
See, I have God for my help. 
The Lord sustains my soul. 
I will sacrifice to you with willing heart, 
and praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. 

The Collect 
Show favour, O Lord, to your servants, 
and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, 
that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, 
they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands. 
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 
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 
Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16 
Romans 8:26-27 
Matthew 13:24-43 

Prayer after Communion 
Graciously be present to your people, we pray, O Lord, 
and lead those you have imbued with heavenly mysteries, 
to pass from former ways to newness of life. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.  

Anyone who’s ever been to a Christian funeral will have heard the Prayer of Committal which is said as the coffin is lowered into the grave, or the curtains are closed at a crematorium and which begins with the words,  

Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I shall give you rest.”  

Those words are taken from St Matthew’s Gospel, and we’ve just heard them in our Gospel reading this morning. Coming where they do in the funeral service, they’re words which express  the loving care Jesus has for us, a loving care which extends beyond this life and into eternity. Those words, and the Prayer of Committal itself, express our belief that, once the troubles of this life are over, we will find eternal rest and peace with Jesus in heaven. It’s a lovely prayer intended to express a wonderful, comforting hope and belief. And yet, when we come across these words in the Gospel itself, I think they do cause us something of a problem because they really don’t seem to follow on very well from what Jesus has said only a short time before.   

These words are found at the end of Chapter 11 of St Matthew’s Gospel and yet in Chapter 10, Jesus had warned the Apostles that he was sending them out as “sheep in the midst of wolves”, that they will be delivered “over to courts”, “flogged in synagogues” and “dragged before governors and kings”. That they will be “delivered over to death” by members or their own families, and that they will be persecuted. And he went on to say that he had “not come to bring peace, but a sword”. And then in Chapter 11, just before we find this morning’s reading, Jesus speaks about how and why he and his message are being rejected: 

“…John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” 

And yet, as we’ve just heard, Jesus then goes on to say that he will give those who come to him rest, and not only that, but in what appears to be stark contrast to what he’s said earlier, that his “yoke is easy” and his “burden is light”. So what are we to make of this and how do we read it?  

At the risk of sounding as though I’ve borrowed one of Fr Alex’ sermons, we have to read this morning’s Gospel in context.  

Coming where it does, this morning’s Gospel sits in the middle of a larger section of St Matthew’s Gospel that records warnings of how difficult things will be for those who follow him which are themselves set in the midst of the rejection of Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. Earlier in the Gospel Jesus had been accused of breaking the Law, of blasphemy and of casting out demons “by the prince of demons”. And as we read on we find Jesus again being criticised for breaking the Sabbath laws, for which the Pharisees began to plot against him to “destroy him”, and again for casting out demons “by Beelzebul, the prince of demons” which Jesus equates with the only unforgiveable sin, sin against the Holy Spirit, a wilful rejection of God and attributing the work of the Spirit to the Evil One.  

When we read this morning’s Gospel in this context, it doesn’t only help us to understand why Jesus speaks about his followers finding rest and his burden being light, in the midst of all this trouble, but we can find so much more in what he says that perhaps isn’t so obvious on a simple reading.  

Jesus begins with praising the Father for giving simple people, whom Jesus refers to as “little children”, the wisdom and the faith to accept him and his message when the “wise and understanding”, the scribes and Pharisees not only can’t see God in Jesus but steadfastly refuse to see God at work in Jesus. And this is because their wisdom is human wisdom, not the Wisdom that comes from God.  

Wisdom, the Wisdom that the Scriptures refer to is the knowledge of God. We usually equate Wisdom with the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit that gives Wisdom to human beings. But Jesus is saying something else here. He says,  

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  

So what Jesus is saying here is that he has the Wisdom that Scripture speaks about because he knows God in a way that no other does. Yes, the Spirit is Wisdom and gives Wisdom always, but now, at this time and in this place, Wisdom is walking amongst you and speaking to you directly. Not in dreams and visions or through prophets as in the past, but in and through me, because I am the Word and Wisdom of God. And that leads into Jesus’ call to discipleship.  

We can see the Scriptures as a whole, and perhaps the whole of human history as the story of our search for God. Not just a search for belief in God, a search for faith, but a search for understanding, and perhaps above all a search to know God. The great Church Father St Augustine of Hippo expressed this very well when he  said of God,   

You have stirred in us the desire to praise you, for you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it comes to rest in you. 

And this is the rest Jesus speaks of when he says,  

Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

It’s not a rest from the problems associated with being a disciple of Christ in the world, it’s a rest that comes when the soul stops searching for God because it has found God and knows God.  

And it is this kind of knowledge of God that comes from Wisdom that Jesus  is referring to because what he says next is very much in the wisdom tradition. 

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

 Which parallels very closely something we read in Wisdom literature, in  the Book of Sirach which says, 

Acquire wisdom for yourselves without money. 

Put your neck under her yoke and let your souls receive instruction; 
it is to be found close by. 

See with your own eyes that I have laboured but little and found for myself much serenity. 

But Jesus hints at something else here too. He speaks of his own gentleness and lowliness of heart, and this is no doubt intended to contrast with the self-righteousness and pride of the scribes and Pharisees, something  that’s made even more evident by what he says next; 

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

The implication of course, being that their yoke is anything but easy, something that we find in numerous places in the Gospel narratives of Jesus’ disputes with them. 

We find in these narratives that the scribes and Pharisees themselves profane the Sabbath and yet consider themselves guiltless when they do. We find that they put human traditions above the Law and consider themselves justified in doing so. And yet they insist on others dotting every ‘I’ and crossing every ‘t’ of the hundreds of rules and regulations in the Law. Indeed, in Chapter 23 of St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says of the scribes and Pharisees,  

“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”  

And he then goes on to describe the many, many ways they do this. And this is something that Jesus does not do. 

When we read this morning’s Gospel in this context, we do find so much more than is apparent on a simple reading. And there’s a lot for us to take on board from this too. It reminds us that we don’t need to have great academic knowledge and understanding to gain the Wisdom that comes from God and to know God and his ways. It reminds us that the rest Jesus promises to his followers has nothing to do with having a nice easy life. It’s about knowing the kind of rest, the peace at heart, that comes when our souls are at rest because we know God and are sure that we’re walking in his ways. And it reminds us that, whatever other people say, however they say we should live and what we should or shouldn’t do if we want to be Christians, what really matters is what Jesus says because he is the Word and Wisdom of God and he is that one who calls us, and whom we follow.      

Amen.   

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Propers for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 5th July 2026

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 9:9-10  
Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14 
Romans 8:9, 11-13 
Matthew 11:25-30 

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.