In just a few days’ time now, we’ll celebrate Ash Wednesday and begin the season of Lent. I don’t know how many of you have decided to take on a Lenten discipline this year, but for those who haven’t or who haven’t yet made up their minds what their Lenten discipline will be, there are still a few days left to decide. But whatever that Lenten discipline might be, whether it’s giving something up or taking something on, I hope everyone does at least try to take on and stick to some kind of discipline for Lent because it’s important that we do.

Lent is a penitential season, in other words, it’s a time of the year when we think about ourselves and our lives to see how closely those things conform to Christ’s teaching and example. It’s a time when we’re called to show repentance for our sins, for the ways and the times when we haven’t and don’t live up to Christ’s teaching and example, and whatever our Lenten discipline is, we take it on both to express our sorrow and repentance for our failures to live as Christ said we should and to discipline ourselves so that we can be more closely conformed to Christ in the future.

It’s often said in the Church and by the Church that the aim of Lent is to prepare for the greatest of all Christian celebrations, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ at Easter. But whilst that’s true, the purpose of a Lenten discipline isn’t only that. We don’t, or at least we shouldn’t, take on a Lenten discipline for the six weeks of Lent and then, once we’ve celebrated Easter, simply drop the discipline and go back to the way we were before. The purpose of a Lenten discipline is to be more closely conformed to Christ in the future, but not just the short-term future, not just the six weeks that the season of Lent lasts. The purpose of a Lenten discipline is to enable us to be more disciplined in conforming our lives to Christ permanently and that’s implied in the words we use at the imposition of ashes at the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday;

‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Turn from sin and be faithful to Christ.’

Those words don’t urge us to be faithful to Christ just for a few weeks, they imply a continuous, unswerving loyalty to Christ throughout our lives because, as those words remind us, this life will end for all of us and what happens to us then will depend on just how faithful we have been to Christ.

We know from Christ’s own words that he didn’t come into the world to condemn anyone. On the contrary, he came into the world to save everyone. But he also told us that we do have some influence over whether we are saved or not:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

And we also know from Christ himself that belief is not just a matter of paying lip service to his teaching and example, but living our own lives according to his teaching and example:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

God wants us to be saved and so does his Son, but we can’t leave it all in their hands. We have to join in with their plans; we have to make an effort and try to meet them part of the way and this is something we see in our Gospel readings this morning.

In the Gospel at St Mark’s, we read about a man with leprosy coming to Jesus and falling on his knees pleading to be cured. But when we read this story we have to remember that, in biblical times, leprosy wasn’t seen as simply a disease in the way that we see it today. In those days, illness, disability and misfortune were seen as punishment from God for sin, or perhaps as a way that God would test people’s faithfulness (this is what the Book of Job is about). So when this leper came to Jesus he came both in faith that Jesus could cure him, but also in humility as a sinner in need to forgiveness. And so he ‘came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees.’ We know, again from Christ himself that he came, 

“…to proclaim good news to the poor … liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed..”

so healing this man would certainly have fallen under thatremit. But it was the man who had to make the first move by coming to Jesus in faith. This is something we tend to find in the stories of Jesus’ miraculous healings: the one in need of healing had to come to Jesus in faith in order to be healed. And so if we want healing and forgiveness from Jesus, we have to come to him too. As we’re reminded each Ash Wednesday, we have to turn to Christ.

But having come to Christ, we then have to go with him where he leads, and this is something we see in the Gospel reading at St Gabriel’s this morning in the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration.

I’m sure we all know the story. Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him ‘up a high mountain’ where they see him transfigured and speaking with Moses and Elijah. Those disciples were privileged with a glimpse of Jesus’ true appearance and nature, dazzlingly bright, the fulfilment of the law and the prophets and as the very Son of God. There’s no doubt that this is what Jesus intended the disciples to see because he took them with him to the mountain. But in order to see it they had to go with Jesus. We’re told that the mountain they had to climb with him and to see this wonderful thing was a high one. And these things apply to us too.

There’s no doubt that Christ wants us too, to see what Peter, James and John saw on the mountain. He wants us to see him in glory, to see him as he really is, he must do because he wants us to be saved. But to do that we have to go with him up the mountain, no matter how high that mountain might seem to be or might actually be. And if we take on a Lenten discipline that we know is going to challenge us, one we know we’re going to find hard to stick to, the journey through Lent can seem like climbing a very high mountain. But if we can turn to Christ, come to Christ, and go with him up that mountain during Lent, we’ll be rewarded in so many ways. We’ll be rewarded with a sense of achievement that we have manged to keep to our Lenten discipline and come closer to Christ. We’ll be rewarded with a greater sense of celebration at our Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Day, knowing the hardships we’ve gone through to get there. And we’ll be rewarded with a sense of joy too through a deeper assurance that we will be saved and will see Christ in glory by sharing in his Resurrection.

But all that will count for nothing, if after we’ve climbed the mountain during Lent, we allow ourselves to fall back down it again after Easter. So our Lenten discipline isn’t just about being good, or being a bit better for a few weeks, it’s about being more closely conformed to Christ permanently. It’s not just about toughing it out for a few weeks until Easter so that we can go back to normal once we’ve celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s about toughing it out until doing what we found tough during Lent becomes what’s normal for us. It’s about helping us to make that continuous turn away from sin and towards faithfulness to Christ so that we can celebrate Easter in the best way of all – by being more certain that Christ’s Resurrection is something that we will share in when we return to the dust at the end of our earthly lives.

Amen.

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Propers for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Next before Lent) 11th February 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Lord, be my rock of safety, the stronghold that saves me.
For the honour of your name, lead me and guide me.

The Collect
Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him,
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Leviticus 13:1-2, 45-46
Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9

A generation or two ago, it was very common if not actually the norm for Sunday services at an Anglican parish church to include Morning and Evening Prayer or, as they would probably have been called then, Mattins and Evensong. And at that time, if you’d have asked a member of an Anglican congregation to name a canticle, that’s a song from scripture, they would almost certainly have been able to give you one or more of three answers: the Benedictus, the Song of Zechariah which we use at Morning Prayer, and/or one of the two canticles we used to use at Evening Prayer, the Magnificat, the Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the one we heard in this morning’s Gospel, the Song of Simeon, which we know as the Nunc Dimitis, which is the Latin translation of the opening words of the canticle, ‘Now you let depart’.

The Nunc Dimitis is a canticle that works in a number of ways. It begins as a song of faith, and of praise and thanksgiving for faith vindicated. We’re told that the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he’d live to see the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, and the opening lines of the Nunc Dimitis express Simeon’s thanks and praise to God that this promise had been fulfilled. And not only the promise he’d been given, that he’d see the Messiah with his own eyes, but God’s promise to the people of Israel too, that they’d be given a saviour, the Messiah:

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…”

But having begun as a song of faith, and of praise and thanksgiving, it then becomes a song of prophesy. We know from scripture that God had promised a Messiah to the people of Israel, but Simeon extends this promise to include all people of all nations:

“…for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”

We know that the word ‘revelation’ means to show something that was previously hidden, and the word ’glory’ can mean to say or show something good and praiseworthy about who or what we’re speaking about. So if we take these two lines together, Simeon’s words express his faith and his prophesy that the Messiah, this child Jesus whom he’d just laid eyes on for the first time, this baby boy who wasn’t quite six weeks old at the time, would go on to show to the people of the world something good and praiseworthy about the people of Israel. And he’d do that so that along with the people of Israel, the people of all nations could receive salvation too. But what does all that mean? What does it mean to be God’s people, Israel, and what about that did the nations need to know so that they could receive salvation?

In the Book of Genesis we read that Israel is the name God gave to Jacob, and so Jacob’s descendants became the people of Israel. No one’s quite sure exactly what the name ‘Israel’ means. When God gives Jacob the name, he explains it this way;

“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

We know that ‘El’ is short for ‘Elohim’, which is a name for God, but what ‘Isra’ means, or meant, we’re not sure because it could have a lot of different meanings and connotations. It can be interpreted as having something to do with struggling and strength, it can be interpreted as ‘seeing’, and it can also be interpreted as standing firm, especially in the way a plant stem becomes firm after taking in water. So, whilst we can’t be entirely sure what ‘Israel’ meant, it’s generally thought that it has something to do with standing firm with God, perhaps especially after having seen God or becoming filled with God. And we could interpret that as becoming filled with the Holy Spirit or what Jesus called ‘living water,’ an abundance of goodness that flows into a person from God and flows out of a person to others.

But whatever the exact meaning of the name ‘Israel’ is, it clearly has something to do with knowing God, being filled with a desire to live as God wants us to live and standing firm in faith. This is what it means to be one of God’s people, Israel, and this is what Jesus came to reveal to all people. He came to be the glory of God’s people Israel, by showing what it means to be one of those people. He came to do that both to call the people of Israel back to what they were always supposed to be, and to show the nations, those who had not been God’s people, how to be his people so that they could receive salvation. As St Peter put it when writing to the Gentile Church in what’s now Turkey,

‘Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

To be God’s people though involves a commitment to live as God wants us to live, and part of that commitment is to allow the abundance of goodness that we’ve received from God flow out to others. If we don’t do these things then we can call ourselves God’s people until we’re blue in the face, but we won’t  be his people, except in name only. And I think it’s very important to understand that in light of what’s happening in the world at this time.

To be one of God’s people, we’re called to keep the commandments. The people of Israel whom Simeon spoke about in the Nunc Dimitis had ten; Jesus summed them up for us in the Church in two;

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

And the Scriptures are full of examples of how God’s people should love God and their neighbour. Such this from Leviticus:

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt…”

And this from Isaiah:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause.

Or this, again from Isaiah and which Jesus himself quoted as the reason he had come into the world.

‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…’

One of the great problems genuine people of faith have is that there are so many people who claim to be people of faith but who act in ways that are contrary to the teachings of the faith they profess. These people are not God’s people but because they claim to be whilst at the same time acting in ways that scripture tells us are abhorrent to God, such as these which we find in Proverbs;

‘…haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.’

they give genuine people of faith, and faith itself, a bad name because we all become tarred with the same brush. But, even in the days when this country was regarded as a Christian country, it would have been ludicrous to have regarded all the people of this country as Christians and to have seen their often very un-Christian behaviour as Christian behaviour. And in the same way, it’s ludicrous to see all Muslims as terrorists and to see what the modern nation state of Israel does, and is doing, as the actions of what Simeon and scripture call God’s people Israel.

We have to be very clear to distinguish between people of genuine faith and those whose faith is only a name to hide behind whilst they carry out acts which the faith they profess quite clearly says are wrong. Jesus came to be the glory of God’s people Israel. So when we see him and hear his teaching, we’re seeing and hearing what God’s people should be. And if people don’t do these things, they’re not God’s people. So let’s not listen to them or do as they say and do. Jesus came to show us these things so that we could be God’s people too. So when we see him and hear his teaching we’re seeing and hearing what we should be. So when we don’t do these things, we’re not God’s people. Jesus came to show us these things so that we could receive salvation. So let’s not do anything that will make us God’s people in name only, but listen to Jesus and do what will make us God’s people in reality. 

Amen.

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Propers for the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas) 4th February 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Within your temple, we ponder your loving kindness, O God.
As your name, so also your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with justice.

The Collect
Almighty and ever-living God, clothed in majesty,
whose beloved Son was this day presented in the Temple, in substance of our flesh:
grant that we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts,
by your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 24:7-10
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Malachi 3:1-5
Psalm 24:1-10
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

In our Gospel reading this morning we hear about Jesus teaching and healing in the early days of his earthly ministry. At the end of the reading we’re told that his reputation and fame spread rapidly throughout Galilee, and we’re left in no doubt that this was due in part to the fact that, unlike other people, Jesus taught and acted ‘with authority’.  

I don’t think there can be any doubt that, if you’re going to ask people to follow you and do what you tell them to do, as Jesus did, you do have to have some kind of authority. You have to know what you’re talking about; you have to know what you’re doing, and you have to show that you know these things. And we, as Christians, are people who’ve decided that Jesus did have this kind of authority and so we’re willing to follow him and do what he says.

But for many people today, the idea of submitting to authority is repugnant because many people today think that the ultimate, and preferably only  authority in their lives is, or at least should be, themselves. Many people today seem to believe that they have, or should have, the right to do exactly what they want to do. They believe that no one has the right to tell them what to do nor has the right to tell them what they can’t do. And many people try to live according to these kinds of beliefs. I’ve come across this kind of attitude in schools, especially high schools, I’ve come across it in the workplace, and I’ve spoken to people, especially in the Police Force and Prison Service who’ve come across it in their work too.

As this is a problem that people in different lines of work come across, it’s clearly a widespread problem in our society, and as it’s a widespread problem in our society, it’s a very big problem for the Church. As I’ve already said, to be a Christian involves submitting to the authority of Christ. It means doing what he said we should and not doing what he said we shouldn’t. But, if people have an aversion to authority, they’re almost certainly going to have a problem with Christianity because the central practice of the faith is living under the authority of Christ. And we see this too in the number of people who say that they’re Christians but don’t live as Christ commanded. How many people have we all met who’ve said that they don’t go to church, but they are Christians because they’re ‘good people’ who live ‘good lives’? But what do those people actually mean by that? By what standard and by who’s standard are they good? When you ask people who say these things what they mean by ‘good’, you tend to find that their ideas about what’s good and bad are very subjective because the standard they use to determine good and bad is usually their own. This doesn’t mean that they’re bad people, but it doesn’t make them Christians because the only standard a Christian uses to determine good and bad is the standard that Christ used and taught.

But if issues with authority are a problem in our society and for individuals who make up our society, I don’t think we’re alone in having this problem, because, I think, authority is very much at the heart of the trouble we see in the world today.

I don’t think anyone can help but be deeply concerned with the state of the world at this present time. There’s great unrest in the world, war and conflict in so many parts of the world, and the threat of even more war and conflict as more and more nations become involved and take sides in the fighting and the turmoil. But if we try to look at what’s happening in the world at the moment in an objective way, if we put aside our own feelings about nations and our  historical disputes with them, I don’t think we have to look too far beneath the surface of the trouble in the world to see that issues of authority are very much at the heart of the world’s present troubles. Who has authority, the abuse of authority; who wants authority and who should have authority.

As we look at the world, don’t we see powerful nations exerting authority over weaker nations, and often in a very abusive and violent way? And consequently we see weaker nations trying to break free of the hegemony, the influence and authority of those powerful nations so that they can have authority over their own lives. And, because they are weak, they look to find allies in their struggle to exert their own authority. Of course, those who have hegemony want to keep it and so they take steps to preserve their authority and influence over others. And so we end up with nations at each other’s throats issuing threats and counter threats and the world becomes an ever more violent and volatile place in which even the authority of law is breaking down as nations look to criminalise those they’re hostile towards, whilst at the same time absolving or even supporting friendly nations who commit similar atrocities against their neighbours. Any objective sense of what’s right and wrong, good and bad goes out of the window and the difference between these things becomes entirely subjective and based on nothing more than ‘national interests.’ Which in itself is a euphemism for a nation’s authority over its own affairs and/or the affairs of other nations.

To be honest, there’s probably not much we, as individuals, can do to influence what’s going on in the world today, in any meaningful way. But we can perhaps try to understand what’s going on a little better by looking at the world’s troubles in an objective way and for us, as Christians, that means looking at these things through the lens of Christ’s teaching. And, as Christians, that’s what we should be doing. If we look at the world’s problems through the lenses of past and present disputes or national interest we’ll just become subjective in our opinions about the rights and wrongs of the world’s problems and then we can be swept away with the prevailing mood of our society and time which will inevitably mean being swept away from the teaching of Christ.

Let me put it this way. If someone took something of ours without our permission and with no intention of returning it, we’d call that person a thief, and quite rightly so because that’s what they’d be. But if a good friend of ours or a member of our family took something of someone else’s without their permission and with no intention of returning it, they would also be a thief. Just because what was taken wasn’t ours and the person who took it was someone we knew and liked or even loved, that would not make them any less of a thief, and it wouldn’t make what they’d done any less wrong. As Christians, as people called to live under the authority of Christ, to live according to his teaching and example, and called to encourage others to do the same by proclaim the Gospel, we’d be obliged to point out to our friend or family member that what they’d done was wrong and encourage them to make amends to whomever they’d stolen from. That would be the objective, Christian thing to do. But if on the other hand we made excuses for what they’d done, or tried to hide what they’d done, we’d be complicit in their wrongdoing. We’d be just as guilty as they were. And that would be the subjective, un-Christian thing to do. As we look at what’s going on in the world around us today, what do you think we’re seeing? I think we’re far, far more likely to see subjective responses to the world’s problem than objective responses, let alone Christian responses.

As Christians, we’re called to be in the world but not of the world, and that’s simply another way of saying that we’re called to live under the authority of Christ and to live and judge according to his standards rather than the world’s standards or our own standards. Some of the problems we can faced with in life are very complicated and it’s not always easy to see the good and the bad, the rights and wrongs of a situation so that we can decide what to do about the problem. That’s certainly true of the problems we see around us in the world today. But as long as we try look at problems through the lens of Christ’s teaching, we do, at least, have an objective way of trying to decide what is right and wrong and to choose what the right and wrong way to respond is. The alternative is to use the subjective ways that the world looks at problems and tries to solve them, and we only have to look at the world around us to see how much worse, rather than better, that can make a problem.

Many people today are fearful about the future, they’re worried, and frightened, about what’s going on in the world and the potential for even worse to follow, and that’s quite understandable. Those feelings are perhaps made worse by the knowledge that there probably isn’t very much, if anything, we as individuals can do to influence and change for better what’s going on in the world. But no matter what is happening and may happen, we must stay true to our calling as Christians and live under the authority of Christ and his teaching. If we can do that then, whatever happens, we will have made the right choice and be on the right side.

No matter how great it seems to be in its day, all earthly power and authority and influence comes to an end, eventually, but Christ’s authority never will. As he said,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So let’s remember and submit to his authority now because, whatever happens in the world, in the end, his will be the only authority left.

Amen.

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Propers for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Epiphany 4) 28th January 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Save us Lord, and gather us together from the nations,
that we may proclaim your holy name and glory in your praise.

The Collect
God our creator,
who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
1 Corinthians 7:32-35
Mark 1:21-28

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
Revelation 12:1-5
Mark 1:21-28