There’s no doubt whatsoever that one of the most urgent problems facing parish churches at this time, is the lack of willing volunteers. And the most pressing problem of all in this respect is the lack of people who are willing to take on any kind of responsibility for the church they attend. And by that I mean the lack of people who are willing to serve on PCCs, act as churchwardens, PCC Treasurers, PCC Secretaries and so on. I speak to many clergy and there are very, very few who don’t have this problem. In fact, it is such a widespread problem that it’s not too much to say that it’s a problem not just for individual parish churches, but for the Church itself.

To some extent, I can understand why this should be such a problem, partly because of the things people say to me when they’re asked to take something on for the parish church, and partly through my own experience. I know that people can be very busy already and would really rather not take on anything that would add even more to their already busy lives. And I do understand that. I haven’t always been a priest; I’ve had what people might call a normal job, although it was anything but normal in many ways because it involved travelling the length and breadth of the country and being away from home on a regular basis, sometimes quite unexpectedly. In any year, about 25% of my annual salary came from unplanned overtime I’d had to work to attend breakdowns at sites across the country. At the same time I was a married man with two school aged children. So I know exactly what it means to be busy with everyday life because I was busy myself, very busy, often. But that didn’t stop me from also being at church every Sunday and, if at all possible, for every major feast day of the Church that we celebrated at our parish church. It didn’t stop me from being on the PCC, being the head server at the church, running fundraising activities for the parish, nor did it stop me from leading non-Eucharistic worship in the parish. I was busy already, without doing what I did in and for the church, but I did that too. I did it because I wanted to do it because I knew it needed to be done and somebody had to do it. I did it because either I, or other people in the church, thought I had the ability to do it. And I did it because I saw it as my Christian duty to use those gifts and talents I had in the service of the Lord and his Church. 

And that brings us to another reason that people often don’t want to do things for the church, they don’t think they have the ability to do the things that are needed. Again, people say this to me; “I’ve never done anything like that before”; “I’m not very good at things like that.” Well, again, I know exactly what that’s like. I’d never been an altar server before I did it; and I became the head server at my parish church. I’d never run fundraising events before I did that; but I ran them successfully and raised a lot of money for the church. I went to church already, but at one time I would have walked barefoot over hot coals rather than stand up and speak in public, rather than read the lessons and lead intercessions in church, and yet I didn’t only do those things, I was often asked to stand in at very short notice to cover for people who should have done them and weren’t in church. And that includes leading intercessions with no time to prepare. When the person who should have done them didn’t turn up, I was asked to stand in when I got to  church that day. And I would never, ever have thought that I was capable of standing up front and leading public worship, but I did. I didn’t believe that I had the gifts to do some of these things, but others thought I had and asked me to do them. And all these things that I thought I couldn’t do in a million years, I suddenly found that I could do. Unfortunately, for them and the Church, there are so many, far too many, people who never discover what gifts and talents they’ve been given simply because they won’t even try to do something they’ve not done before or don’t feel comfortable about doing.

But we all have gifts and talents. Each and every one of us has been given some ability that we could use in the service of God and the Church, but we have to be prepared to find out what those gifts and talents are by putting them to the test. And to do that we have to be prepared to actually try to do something, even if that’s something that we’ve not done before, even if that’s something we’re not even sure that we can do.

We have a saying don’t we, that says “God loves a trier”. Usually when we say that of someone it’s a comment that they meant well, they’ve tried their best, but failed. We can often use it in a rather sarcastic way. But what this morning’s Gospel tells us is that God does indeed love a trier. The parable tells us that three servants were given a number of talents, each according to their ability. We have to bear in mind here that in Jesus’ day, a talent was a measure of weight, usually of some precious metal like gold or silver. The point is, that everyone was given something. The difference is that whilst two of the servants tried to use what they’d been given in their master’s service, the third didn’t. And when their master returned, it didn’t matter that one servant had made five talents and another had made only two, what mattered was that they’d both used what they’d been given in their master’s service. They’d both made something of what their master had given them, and so both were rewarded. The third servant on the other hand had made nothing from what he’d been given by his master – he hadn’t even tried. And so he was punished. And the meaning for us is quite clear; we’ve all been given some talents, some gifts and abilities by God. We haven’t all been given the same talents, or even the same number of talents, but we have all been given something that we can use in God’s service. And what’s required of us is that we do use our talents, whatever they are and however many they might be, in God’s service. If we do that, then no matter what we make of our talents, we will be rewarded. But we can’t expect any reward if we don’t even try to use the talents we’ve been given by God, in God’s service.

I do know that another reason people don’t and won’t do things for the Church is that they have a problem with the Church or with another member of the Church. They might not like what the wider Church is doing, and don’t see why they should do anything to support the Church from that point of view. They might not like the vicar and on that basis don’t see what they should do anything to support their parish church, at least as long as that vicar is there. They might have a problem with other members of the congregation and won’t support the parish church because the don’t see why they should help “them”, “that lot”. But to those who feel like this, I have to say, if you won’t use your gifts and talents for the Church for any of these reasons, you’ve completely misunderstood what using your gifts and talents in and for the Church is all about. If you won’t use your gifts and talents to support your parish church because of some personal issue with the vicar or anyone else there, you’ve not only misunderstood what using your gifts and talents in and for the Church is all about, you’re also risking the very future of your parish church. If you won’t use your gifts and talents to support your parish church as long as that vicar or that person or those people are there, you might not have a parish church to support when those people aren’t there.

Using our gifts and talents in the Church and for the Church isn’t about using them to support any person or group of people, it’s about using them in God’s service. We call the Church, the Body of Christ, and so using our gifts and talents in and for the Church is about using them for Christ. Again this is something that’s made blindingly obvious in the Scriptures. In his Letter to the Colossians, St Paul spells it out for us in unmistakable terms:

‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.’

So what we do in and for the Church, we don’t do for anyone but Christ. And the inheritance St Paul is talking about is the reward Jesus speaks about in this morning’s Gospel; to join our master in his happiness, to join Christ in heaven.

God has given all of us, each and every one of us, talents, gifts and abilities that we can use in his service and in the service of Christ and his Church. But it’s up to us whether or not we use those talents in that way. So we have a choice to make, are we going to ‘bite the bullet’ and at least try do those things that we’ve not done before, the things we think we might find hard, or perhaps even think we can’t do? Or are we going to carry on making excuses and letting other people bear the burden of supporting Christ and his Church for us? I’m sure we all want the reward promised to good and faithful servants, the reward of eternal happiness with Christ, our Lord and Master, but why should we expect other people to earn it for us by their hard work while we sit back, do nothing, and let them do it all? Or, to put it another way, Jesus asked us to take up our cross and follow him; why should we think it’s OK to let someone else carry our cross for us? Do we, especially those who won’t use their gifts and talents to support Christ and his Church, think that’s fair?

Each and every one of us has a choice to make; are we going to use our gifts and talents in God’s service and in the service of Christ and his Church or are we not?, in which case we might as well bury them in the ground. It’s a choice between whether we want to be happy with Christ, or to weep and grind our teeth in the darkness? God has given us that choice, but it is ours to make and it’s a choice we do have to make.

Amen.

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Propers for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (2nd before Advent) 19th November 2023

Entrance Antiphon
The Lord says: my plans for you are peace and not disaster;
when you call to me, I will listen to you,
and I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.

The Collect
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil,
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory,
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he 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)        
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Psalm 128:1-5
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
Psalm 90:1-12
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

Without doubt, the greatest upheaval, though some would say the greatest tragedy, to happen in the Church in the last 1000 years, is the Reformation, the schism which separated the Catholic Church into what’s now become the Roman Catholic and what are commonly, though in many cases quite erroneously called, Protestant Churches. Though there had been reformers in the Church for many hundreds of years, the instigator of the Reformation proper was the German priest and theologian, Martin Luther and it’s from Luther that one of the central tenets of the Reformed Churches come; justification by faith, the idea that irrespective of what good works we may do, salvation is a free gift of God which is given to us on account of our faith.

This idea is one that Luther developed over quite a long period of time. In 1505, 12 years before what most people regard as the start of the Reformation, Luther narrowly escaped death when lightning struck a tree as he was riding past it. And this terrified Luther, quite understandably. But what terrified him in particular was the thought of judgement and the prospect of dying unprepared to meet God. He wondered how he could be prepared for death, how he could be certain that he’d shown enough penitence for sin and how he could be sure that the good works he’d done were enough, or good enough. And as he thought about this he became more and more depressed because he decided he could never be sure of these things. And in the end he came to the conclusion that, as he could never be sure that he’d done enough to be ready to meet God, to be  justified before God, all he could rely on for justification was the grace and mercy of God. And so he  came to the idea of justification by faith alone. 

Many people in the Church hold to this belief, but actually, it’s incompatible with another central tenet of the Reformation, the idea of scripture alone,  that scripture is the sole source of authority in the Church and that all the Church teaches and does must be in full agreement with scripture. We simply cannot hold these two ideas together because Jesus himself said,

“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.”   

These are undeniably words of scripture, they’re the words of Jesus himself, and they, also undeniably, tell us that faith alone is not enough; we must also do something about that faith, we must do what the Father wants us to do, just as Jesus himself did.

Unfortunately, this idea of justification by faith alone has led many people to believe that simply saying “I believe in God” or “I’m a Christian” is enough and that they don’t need to do any more than that. And we only have to look around us in church to see that. I don’t mean at what those here say, or do or don’t do, but at the empty pews, to look at how many people aren’t here, the number of people whom we know who say that they believe in God and say that they’re Christians but who won’t even do so much as spend an hour in church on Sunday morning to show that. People who, in fact, don’t think they even need to do anything more than say “I believe” or “I’m a Christian” to be right with God. But that simply will not do, it is simply not enough and not good enough.

We call Jesus the ‘Light of the World’ and, as Christians, we’re called to carry that light with us in the world and to the world. We do that by proclaiming the Gospel. But we have to do that by both word and deed. The will of the Father is that we love our neighbour as ourselves and to do that, we have to actually do something more than talk. Let me put it this way. If we see somebody in need, do we think it’s enough to simply say to that person, “I’m a Christian”? If we were in need and that was the extent of the help we got from someone in the Church, what would we think? Would we think that was a Christian thing to do? Would we think the person who said that cared about us at all, let alone loved us as much as they loved themselves? I doubt it very much.

Jesus said it’s not those who call him ‘Lord’ who’ll get to heaven, but those who actually do the will of the Father, and what is that but loving our neighbour as ourselves because we call Jesus ‘Lord’?

So faith and deeds, good works, go together.

Those who think talk is enough are like the foolish bridesmaids in this morning’s Gospel. Those bridesmaids were there to provide light, but they did nothing about providing light, they just turned up and then went to sleep. And so when the bridegroom arrived, they weren’t ready and by the time they were, it was too late. And so it will be for us if we’re not ready to meet the Lord at a moment’s notice. And the only way we can be so prepared is by making sure that we’re always ready do what’s required of us. Being a Christian means doing something to bring light to the world. We can’t just say “I’m a Christian” and then sit back and do nothing more, we might as well go to sleep as do that.

To be fair to Luther, and those who hold to the tenet of justification by faith, they’re not entirely wrong. Justification and salvation are a gift of God, and one that we don’t deserve on our own merits. But as Christians, we don’t rely solely on our own merits, but on the merits of Jesus Christ who bore our sins on the Cross. But that doesn’t mean that we’re saved by faith alone, the Scriptures tell us that isn’t the case and Jesus himself tells us that isn’t the case. We’re saved through faith in Christ and our obedience to Christ’s teaching and example. And to be obedient to his teaching and example we have to do more than simply say “Lord, Lord”, “I believe”, “I’m a Christian.” We have to do something about those words. And if we don’t then, just as Martin Luther feared he wouldn’t be, and just like those foolish bridesmaids in the parable weren’t, we won’t be ready to meet the Lord when he comes. That is the undeniable word of our Lord as revealed in scripture:

Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Amen.

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Propers for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (3rd before Advent) Remembrance Sunday 12th November 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Let my prayer come before you, Lord; listen and answer me.

The Collect
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
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)        
Wisdom 6:12-16
Psalm 63:2-8
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Wisdom 6:12-16
Psalm 70
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

On Wednesday of last week, we celebrated one of the great festivals of the Church’s year, All Saints Day. I say All Saints Day is one of the great festivals of the Church’s year because both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church regard All Saints Day as a day of eucharistic obligation, that is, as far as the Church is concerned, all confirmed Christians are obliged to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion on that day. But All Saints Day is a day the Church’s year that should be important to each and every one of us from a very personal point of view too.

Saints, as I’m sure we all know are holy people, but that doesn’t mean that saints are perfect people. According to the Scriptures, anyone who is dedicated to God is a saint and dedication to God includes humbling ourselves before God and asking his forgiveness when we get things wrong, and even saints get things wrong. So there are as many saints as there are people who’ve dedicated their lives to God. There are famous saints who have their own day in the Church’s year, people like the Evangelists, Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but, as we read in the Book of Revelation, there’s a vast multitude of saints which no one can number. Most of those saints are not well known to anyone except God and those who know or knew them personally. And some of those saints will be people who were, or are, known to us personally, people who’ve helped, encouraged and inspired us on our own Christian journey, hopefully towards sainthood. These saints don’t have their own day in the Church’s calendar, so All Saints Day is the day we remember and give thanks for their lives and examples too. And so All Saints Day is a day that should be important to all Christians from a very personal point of view, and so it’s a day that all Christians should celebrate.

Having said that, I do know that there are people who do have some difficulties with celebrating All Saints Day (and by that I don’t mean the difficulty of dragging  themselves away from home, the TV, the football or whatever else it might be and actually coming to church on a dark November evening!). Some people do have difficulties with, and at times even objections to the very idea of celebrating the lives of saints, and perhaps especially with the idea of praying to the saints.

As we know, we in the Church are called Christians, and we’re called that because we’re disciples of Jesus Christ. As disciples of Christ, our aim is to follow, as closely as we possibly can, the teaching and example of Christ. And our purpose in doing that is to grow more and more like him until our lives mirror his life, in so far as that’s possible for us. In fact we could say, and many have and do, that to be a Christian is to be Christ-like. So why is All Saints Day, and the saints themselves, so important in and to the Church? If we’re called to be like Christ, why do we make such a fuss about the saints who were, after all, simply Christ’s disciples just like us?

Actually, one of the reasons we regard All Saints Day and the saints themselves as so important is precisely because they were just like us. They were just like us because they were people who tried to the best of their ability to follow Christ’s teaching and example in their lives. Just like us, they often had problems being as Christ-like as they wanted to be. But the saints were people who persevered in trying to be Christ-like – they never gave up no matter what the difficulties, and for many of them, that meant persevering unto a martyr’s death. And this is one reason the saints are important to us. Because they were just like us, their perseverance in times of difficulty and danger can encourage us to persevere when we go through difficult times in our discipleship. Because they were just like us, their lives and example can inspire us to be more Christ-like by being more like them. And because they were just like us, their teaching can help us to follow Christ’s teaching more closely. So the saints are important to us and it’s right that we should venerate their memory, especially on All Souls Day.

I’m sure you know these things already, but another question that’s asked from time to time, even by people who would agree with what I’ve said so far, is why do we pray to the saints and ask the saints to pray for us? After all, Jesus’ prayer was always addressed to the Father and we believe that we have only one Advocate with the Father, and that’s not the saints, but Jesus himself. Scripture also tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. So if both God the Son and God the Holy Spirit intercede for us, why do we need the prayers of the saints too? To answer that, I think we first need to take a step back and say something about prayer itself.

We believe that God knows all our needs, so we don’t need to tell him what we need or ask him for what we need. Jesus himself told us this;

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

So why then, do we need to pray at all?

That’s often answered by saying that prayer is helpful in building up our relationship with God, it’s about spending time with God and talking to God in the way we do with friends and loved ones. And that’s true. But more than that, prayer is about faith. Prayer is a demonstration of faith. If you think about it, when we pray, aren’t we expressing our belief in God? Otherwise, what are we doing? Who are we talking to? Also, when we pray to the Father through Jesus Christ, as we usually do in church, aren’t we expressing our faith in Jesus, not only as our Lord and Saviour, but as our heavenly Advocate? And when we pray in the power of the Spirit, and we invariably begin our intercessions in church by saying this is what we’re doing, aren’t we expressing our faith in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s presence with us too? And when we pray, aren’t we also demonstrating our belief that God does hear us and can and will answer us? So prayer is a demonstration of faith, and this is something that’s expressed very clearly in Scripture.

Jesus told us that faith, even faith as big as a mustard seed, can move mountains. And yet we read in the Gospels that when a young boy possessed by an unclean spirit was brought to Jesus’ disciples, they couldn’t cast the spirit out and Jesus, clearly exasperated by their lack of faith, had to cast the spirit out himself. Then we read this;

‘…when Jesus had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

The implication of Jesus’ words here are that the disciples couldn’t cast out this unclean spirit because they lacked the faith to do it, and their lack of faith was manifested in a problem with their prayer. So prayer is a very powerful demonstration of faith. But what are we expressing about our faith, what are we expressing our belief in, when we ask the prayers of the saints?

First of all, and perhaps most important of all, we’re expressing our faith in the Resurrection. If we ask the prayers of the saints, we must believe that the saints are still living, there’d be no point in asking their prayers if not because they wouldn’t be able to hear us. So in asking their prayers we’re expressing our faith that the saints have been raised to eternal life and that they now live in God’s presence in heaven.

One of the core beliefs of the Christian faith is the Communion of Saints, that spiritual, some would say mystical bond between all God’s holy people, both living and departed. This is something that’s alluded to in Hebrews 12 in the “great cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us, the

‘…innumerable angels in festal gathering, … the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and  … the spirits of the righteous made perfect…’

who dwell with God and Jesus in the “heavenly Jerusalem”.  Then, in the Letter of James we’re told that,

‘The prayer of a righteous person has great power..’

whilst in the Book of Revelation we find an image of

‘… golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints’,

an image of the prayers of the saints, the prayers of the righteous, being presented to “the Lamb”, to Christ, in heaven.

We can see in these words and images an understanding of prayer, and of our asking the prayers of the saints as an assent to our belief in the Communion of Saints, our belief that we never are truly alone but are always surrounded by a multitude of angels and saints, and that’s very important  because, as Jesus said,

“…where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

So our belief in the Communion of Saints gives us the assurance that Jesus is always with us. He is always with us because we are never alone; we are always surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. These words and images can also help us to see asking the prayers of the saints as an expression of our belief in the power of prayer. We can also see in these words and images that our prayers to the saints are not in any way an attempt to bypass Christ in his role as our Advocate with the Father, but simply asking the saints to assist us in our prayers. In effect, we don’t pray to the saints, we ask the saints to pray for us, just as we pray for others and ask people to pray for us – to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The saints are a great help to us in so many ways. They can encourage us when being a disciple of Christ is hard. They can inspire us to be more Christ-like in our own lives. And they can help us, not only through their teaching, but also through their prayers. It would be wrong to worship the saints, even on All Souls Day, but it’s right to venerate them, so let’s do that. Let’s venerate the saints by giving thank for their lives and examples, and let’s ask them to help us show the faith they lived, and very often died for, by asking for their prayers.

Amen.

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Propers for All Saints Sunday (31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – 4th before Advent) 5th November 2023

Entrance Antiphon for All Saints
Let us rejoice in the Lord and keep a festival in honour of all the saints.
Let us join with the angels in joyful praise to the Son of God.

The Collect for All Saints
Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship,
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living,
that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through 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 for All Saints
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
Psalm 24:1-6
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12