This morning’s Gospel reading is one that I know a good number of people have some difficulty with. For one thing, Jesus appears at first to be reluctant to help the woman who’s come to him with her troubles; initially he seems to completely ignore her, in fact. And then there’s the language that Jesus uses when he does speak to her. To us, in our culture, calling someone a ‘dog’ is not a very nice thing to do. When we call someone a dog, we usually mean it as an insult and we’re saying that person is morally or ethically a bad person. We might use it to imply that a woman is unattractive too. So Jesus’ behaviour and language in this Gospel story seems quite out of keeping with our image of him as the Good Shepherd, the loving, caring Saviour of the world.

But, as with so many things that Jesus said, we can’t take this story at face value, have to read between the lines, and if we’re not going to be offended by Jesus’ behaviour and language in this story, the first thing we have to understand is that, when he speaks about not giving the children’s food to the dogs, Jesus is speaking metaphorically. The clue is in his statement,

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

So when Jesus then goes on to say,

“It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”,

he’s not insulting the woman, and nor by extension is he implying that non-Jews, that we, are dogs in any derogatory sense; he’s simply using metaphors to make a point. The house of Israel, the people of Israel are God’s children. The woman was a Canaanite and so she wasn’t one of God’s children, at least in the sense that she wasn’t of the house of Israel. So all Jesus is really saying here is that his mission was to seek out and save the lost children of Israel, not to seek out and save those who weren’t of the house of Israel, and he had to stick to his priorities.

And once we understand that, we shouldn’t have any difficulty with the language Jesus uses because, actually, it’s a very good way of making his point because it’s a situation that most people can relate to from their own experience. Lots of people have dogs don’t they? People love their dogs and often even regard their dogs more as members of their family rather than pets. It’s also quite common in homes where there’s a pet dog, for the dog, or dogs, to sit by the dining table at meal times in the hope, or perhaps the knowledge, that they’ll be given some food. But I don’t think even the most ardent dog lover would dream of snatching a child’s plate, a child’s food, from in front of them on the table and putting it down on the floor for the dog to eat would they? It just wouldn’t be right to take a child’s food away and give it to even the most beloved pet dog. It’s a matter of priorities. The dogs can have some food, but they can have what the children don’t want, or what they leave after they’ve eaten. The children come first; the dogs come after. So all Jesus is really doing here is using a very common real-life situation to make his point.

But once we get over our discomfort at Jesus’ language, there’s still the question of why the lost sheep of the house of Israel came first and to answer that question, we have to look at what’s sometimes called the history of salvation, God’s plan for how the world was going to be saved. And in answer to that question, the simplest thing we can say is that the Jews came first because that’s the way God chose to do things.

The Scriptures tell us that salvation comes from the Jews; Jesus himself said this in another encounter with a non-Jewish woman, the Samaritan woman at the well whom we read about in St John’s Gospel. But really, it’s quite obvious that it does. God chose Abraham to be the ‘father of many nations’ and promised that, because of his faithfulness to God, all nations would be blessed through Abraham’s descendants. In other words, all people would be blessed through the Jews, the people of Israel. Later, through Moses, God gave the law to the people of Israel so that they’d know how to be his people, how to live as his children should live. But as we know, the people didn’t keep the law and so the law became something of a double-edged sword.

One of the most puzzling phrases we find in all the Scriptures is St Paul’s term, the ‘curse of the law’. We’re not quite certain of what St Paul really meant by this but it seems to have something to do with the law bringing an awareness of sin. Of course there is sin even where there is no law because sin is sin, but without the law, how can people know that they’re sinners? So even where there is no law people still sin, but they don’t necessarily know that they sin and so they can’t be punished under the law. The people of Israel though, can’t plead ignorance of sin. They have the law, and they know that they’re sinners and so they can be punished under the law. These are some of the arguments that St Paul uses when he’s trying to explain the relationship between law and faith and how the Gentiles, who don’t have the law, can be saved through faith in Christ. We find them especially in his letters to the Galatians and the Romans and they are quite complicated at times.

So as the law and the awareness of sin that goes with it were given to the Jews, and because they can be punished for their sins in a way that Gentile sinners can’t, it’s quite obvious that the problem of sin under the law had to be dealt with first. So saving the lost sheep of the house of Israel had to come before the salvation of the Gentiles. Let me put it this way. If a school is getting consistently bad exam results year on year, there’s no point in blaming the pupils every year, you have to sort out the teaching and the staff first before you turn your attention to the pupils. One Forrest Gump in a class doesn’t mean everyone in that class will underachieve; one Forrest Gump stood at the front of a class trying to teach something they can’t really do or understand themselves, probably will mean everyone in the class will underachieve. It’s a matter of priorities, and common sense too if we’re honest. You deal with the root cause of a problem first, not the symptoms the root problem causes. God’s blessing was given first to the Jews so that, through them, all people would be blessed, but the Jews had got things wrong so how could they tell or show anyone else how things should be done?

And this is what we see in Jesus’ ministry and especially in his Passion and  Cross, him dealing with the root of the problem. How often do we read that something Jesus said or did or something that happened to him was said or done so that Scripture may be fulfilled? But the Scriptures that are being referred to in every instance are the Hebrew Scriptures, the sacred writings of the Jews. There were no Christian Scriptures at this time, they wouldn’t start to be written until after Jesus’ Resurrection. Jesus came to fulfil the Scriptures of the people of Israel, to fulfil the law and the message of the prophets and he came to do that, first to save the Jews themselves, and then, so that the blessing that God had promised to all people through the Jews, through Abraham’s descendants, could finally be given to them. Jesus’ message and ministry and his death and Resurrection confirmed him as the Messiah of the Jewish people. But it was his Resurrection that brought the Gentile world to faith. So he had to be the Jewish Messiah first before he could be the Saviour of the world. He had to save the people of Israel by dealing with the curse of the law before the Gentiles could be saved through faith.

In this morning’s Gospel, the Canaanite woman finally gets what she wants from Jesus because of her faith. And this is something we find a few times in the Gospels, Jesus granting the wishes of Gentiles on account of their faith, individual cases if you like of God’s promised blessing being given to non-Jews through the Jews in the person of Jesus. And we stand in that same tradition.

We’re non-Jews who’ve been given God’s promised blessing through the Jews in the person of Jesus and through our faith in him. The difference for us is that now Jesus’ ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel has been carried out. The children have been fed and we’re no longer dogs who have to wait for the scraps to fall from their table. By faith we’re God’s children too so we don’t have to wait for others to finish eating before we can be fed, we’ve got our own seat at the Lord’s table where we can sit and eat together with all God’s children whether they are Jews or Gentiles.

Amen.   

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Propers for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Trinity 11) 20th August 2023

Entrance Antiphon
God, our protector, keep us in mind.
Always give strength to your people, for if we can be with you even one day,
it is better than a thousand with out you. 

The Collect
O God,
you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
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
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8
Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Psalm 67
Romans 11:1-2, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

I’ve no doubt that most of us here will have seen a film, or perhaps a cartoon, in which a character in the story is faced with a problem, usually some kind of moral dilemma, and as they ponder what to do, two small characters suddenly pop up on their shoulders. One, usually on their right shoulder, is an angel who whispers into the ear of the main character, urging them to do the right thing, which is what’s best for others. The other small figure is a devil, who usually pops up on the left shoulder, and urges the main character to do the wrong thing, that is, to ignore the needs of others and do what’s best for the main character themselves, the selfish thing. Perhaps they even urge the main character to do something that doesn’t just ignore the needs of others but to do something that’s positively harmful to them, perhaps to take revenge on them for something they’ve done in the past or to sabotage them in some way that’s to the advantage of the main character.

I’m sure we’ve seen this kind of scene on screen, but I’m also sure we’ve actually experienced it for ourselves too. I don’t mean that we’ve had little angels and devils popping up on our shoulders speaking to us, I think it would be quite worrying if that had happened or we thought that had happened, but I’m sure we’ve all had that kind of discussion with ourselves as an internal dialogue, that voice in our own heads that urges us to first one course of action and then another as we ponder what to do when we have a decision to make, perhaps especially when that decision is a difficult one that involves other people and their welfare.

These situations can be difficult for us to resolve. Sometimes it can be hard for us to know what the best course of action to take actually is. And that’s often the case when we lean towards one course of action, probably the one our natural inclination is towards, perhaps that our first instinct leads us towards, but then, somewhere in the back of our mind we hear a word of caution, and we start to question whether our initial reaction is the right one. I think that often is the case when we have to make difficult decisions because experience has taught us that we have to be careful before we decide what we’re going to do in these cases. Experience might not have made us cynical, although it can do that, but we at least want to weigh up the pros and cons of a situation before we decide what to do, and certainly before we actually do anything about the situation. This can be a problem for us whenever we have a decision to make, and it can certainly be a problem for us when we try to bring our faith to bear on our decision making.

As Christians, our first instinct when we have to make a decision should be to do what’s most in keeping with our faith, in other words and to use a saying that was common a few years ago, we should ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?” and then, in so far as possible, we should do likewise. But it’s not always so simple. Sometimes there may be many people involved in a situation and who’ll affected by what we decide, and we can’t possibly please everyone. That’s a situation parish priests are often faced with. But all any of us can do in those situations is weigh up what’s best for the common good and do that, even if that means, as it almost always does, that one or more individuals are disappointed, or perhaps even upset and angry with the decision we make.

Another problem we can have when it comes to making decisions is that experience can cause us to question whether our first instincts, our natural feelings as Christians, really are the right things to go on in making a decision. I’ll give you an example of what I mean.

A few years ago, when I was serving in another parish, I was asked to inter someone’s ashes in the churchyard, but I was asked by the previous vicar of the parish if I would mind asking the family for only those fees that were due to the diocese, and waiving the PCC and parish fees because the family were struggling financially. (He’d carried out the funeral shortly before he left the parish, and it seems he’d done the same with the funeral fees). So I mentioned this to the PCC and the other people involved, the verger and gravedigger and, very reluctantly it must be said, they agreed. I spoke to the family and told them what we’d decided and what we were obliged by the diocese to charge them, they thanked me and said they’d bring the money to church on the day of the interment. The day came round, I interred the ashes but when I asked for the fees, the family said they hadn’t had chance to get them because their benefits hadn’t been paid into the bank that week and they’d bring them to church the following Sunday. With that they jumped into what looked like a brand-new car and shot off like they were making a getaway after just robbing a bank. Needless to say, they didn’t come to church the following Sunday, nor any other day. We never saw them again, they never answered any of my calls nor replied to any of the messages I left for them, and we never did get the diocesan fees from them. I’m sure that says more about that family than it does about me or the people of that parish, but because of that, the PCC said they would never waive fees for anyone in the future, regardless of the situation. The verger and gravedigger, meanwhile, blamed me for the whole situation, and said they’d never waive their fees again either and if they were asked to, I could get someone else to be verger and gravedigger for those services. Personally, I have waived fees in similar situations on a few occasions since then, but I’ve been very reluctant to do that and I’ve wanted to see some evidence that the families concerned really are in financial difficulties before I’ve agreed to do that, and I’ve insisted on those fees that I can’t waive being paid in advance, before I’ve carried out the service in question.

I think this shows how a bad experience can cause us to question ourselves when we have a decision to make. Some people do struggle financially and might well struggle to pay things like funeral fees. And in those situations, our natural Christian instinct is to do what we can to help them in some way. But experience can cause us to draw back from making that decision. On the basis of once bitten, twice shy, to question whether we’re doing the right thing in helping out, or perhaps even cause us to refuse to help out. Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t cast our pearls before swine, so we’re under no obligation to help those who don’t need our help and indeed, we should be wary of doing that, but he says that we should give to those who beg and borrow, in other words to those who are in need. And he also urges us not to respond in kind even if our generosity is abused, he tells us to turn the other cheek and not to demand our goods back from those who take them and so on. But how many truly needy people have we as individuals and have the Church missed out on helping, or even refused to help because some undeserving swine (Jesus’ word, not mine) has abused our Christian generosity in the past?

So experience can lead us to question ourselves and question our Christian instincts when it comes to doing the right thing. What goes on in the world around us can cause us to lose sight of Jesus and his teaching and example. And really, isn’t this exactly what happened to Peter in this morning’s Gospel reading? The disciples were out at sea in rough weather, they were battling against heavy waters and perhaps had been for many hours. No doubt they concerned for their own safety and well-being, and experienced seamen that they were, perhaps they were even starting to become a little afraid. Suddenly, they see Jesus walking on the water and now they’re terrified. We read that they thought they were seeing a ghost, but the Greek word here means something more like an appearance or apparition of a spirit, so perhaps they though they were seeing an evil spirit, perhaps one that had come to lead them to their deaths? But Jesus called to them that it was him. And Peter, the impulsive, instinctive one reacts by asking Jesus to command  him to come to him on the water. That’s an act of faith. If it was the Lord, Peter had faith that he could walk out on the heavy sea to meet Jesus. And so he does. But when he gets out on the water, he realises what he’s doing and starts to become more concerned about what’s going on around him, the wind and the waves, he takes his eyes and mind off Jesus, and he starts to sink. And it’s only when he turns his thoughts back to Jesus and calls out to Jesus to save him, another act of faith, that he is saved.

We can be just like Peter in this morning’s Gospel. We have faith, faith enough, I hope, to turn to Jesus for help when we’re in need. Faith enough to turn to Jesus for help when we have a decision to make. But we can become so concerned with what’s going on around us that we take our mind off Jesus. And that’s when we can get into trouble because then we’re not letting Jesus help us. Just like Peter who could walk on the rough seas as long as he kept his mind on Jesus but started to sink when his mind turned to the wind and the waves, we can be blown about by the winds of doubt and sink into a sea of doubt and indecision when we take our minds off Jesus and start to think about other things. We might think about what’s gone on in the past; what if this happens? What if that happens? What will such and such a body think if I do this or don’t do that? And when we get into that situation, we can find  it hard to make any decision, let alone the right decision. We might not actually have an angel on our right shoulder and a devil on our left, whispering competing and conflicting things into our ears, but we might as well have.

As Christians, what we do should always be, in so far as it possibly can be, in keeping with the teaching and example of Jesus, and that means that we have to be guided by him when we have a decision to make. So when we’re faced with a decision, we have to keep our minds on Jesus. If we don’t do that, if we allow our minds to wander to other things, what’s going on in the world around us, what’s happened in the past and so on, we’ll find it all the harder to make the right choices and decisions. Just as Peter started to sink into the waves on the sea when he took his mind off Jesus, we’ll start sinking into a sea of doubt and indecision if we take our minds off Jesus. But if we can keep our minds on Jesus then we might even find ourselves able to walk on water too, or at least find that we can rise above the sea of doubt and indecision that stops us from making the best and most Christian decisions we can.

Amen. 

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Propers for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Trinity 10) 13th August 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Lord, be true to your covenant, forget not the life of your poor ones forever.
Rise up, O God, and defend your cause; do not ignore the shouts of your enemies.

The Collect
Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions,
make them to ask such things as shall please 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
Missal (St Mark’s)        
1 Kings 19:9, 11-13
Psalm 85:9-14
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
1 Kings 19:9-18
Psalm 85:8-13
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33

I’m sure that we must all know from personal experience how difficult it can be to learn something new, and that the more difficult the thing we’re trying to learn is, the longer it takes to learn, the more difficult it is to become truly proficient in that activity and the harder we have to work to become proficient at it. And if we want to be good at this thing we’re learning we know that we have to learn from someone who’s already mastered that particular activity. We can be self-taught, of course, but that usually takes longer and there’s always a danger that we don’t pick up on small errors in what we’re doing and then those faults become ingrained in us, and they stop us from becoming as good at something as we could be. 

For example, I’m sure some of us here will have learned or at least tried to learn to play a musical instrument at one time. So we’ll know that when we do that, we start with simple things; we learn where the notes are on the instrument, and we usually learn how to read music so that we know what note to play when we see it on the music score. And once we’ve done that, we start to play tunes, simple tunes at first and then, as our ability improves, more difficult tunes until, if we work hard enough and for long enough, we can become good enough to play really difficult pieces, perhaps even good enough to play anything, no matter how difficult it might be.

And whatever we learn to do, we usually follow that pattern, we start simply, learn the basics and then practice, practice, practice, usually under the guidance of  a teacher or coach, so that we can become better and better at what we’re doing. And if we want to become better, we have to constantly push ourselves and test our ability. If we’re learning a musical instrument, for example, we do that by playing progressively harder and harder pieces of music. If we’re learning a game or a sport, we do it by competing against people who are better than we are at that game or sport, we test ourselves and our ability against harder opposition. And no matter how good we become at something, nevertheless we still have to work hard at what we’re doing. If we want to keep our performance up to the high level we’ve reached, we still have to practice, practice, practice; we have to play the instrument or the game regularly if we don’t want our ability to perform slip back.

For example,  I remember once watching a TV programme in which a concert pianist was speaking about his need to practice regularly when he wasn’t performing, even though he was such an outstanding pianist. He said,

“If I don’t play for a day, I notice. If I don’t play for two or three days, my family and friends notice. If I don’t play for a week, everybody notices.”

Something else we all need too when we’re serious about some activity is a teacher or coach. And that’s true regardless of how good we are at something. We need that in the early days, to teach us what to do and how to do it but, as we progress, we still need that guiding hand to fine tune our skills and to stop any bad habits we might be developing from becoming ingrained in us. Even people who are experts at what they’re doing still have coaches, not so much to teach them new skills or improve the skills they already have, but to pick up on and point out those little errors that, if they’re not picked up on and put right, can become bad habits, things that stop us performing to the best of our ability time and time again.

Something else that’s very often important to us when we’re learning something new is a role model, someone who’s already very good at this thing, and whom we want to emulate. We very often hear, do we not, people who’ve become very good at something saying that they were first inspired to take up the things they’ve become successful at by hearing or seeing someone perform and wanting to be able to do that themselves.

So when we want to learn some new activity or skill, all these things play a part, especially if we’re serious about wanting to learn and become good at what we’re doing. And the same thing applies when it comes to the practice of being a Christian (and being a Christian is a practice, it’s not simply something we think about and believe, it’s something we have to actually do). And we can see all these things I’ve spoken about in the Transfiguration of the Lord.

In the Transfiguration, we see what we want to be. We see Jesus in glory and ultimately, that’s our goal, to be so good at being a Christian that, when we come to the end of our earthly lives, we enter into glory with Jesus. So Jesus is our role model. He’s the one we want to emulate. We hear his words, we see what he did, and we want to be just like him, well I hope we do anyway. But we know that we’re not at his level. So we have to start simply and then work our way towards being more like him. As St Paul puts it in his Second Letter to the Corinthians,

‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit’

But if want to do that, we have to practice, practice, practice. We can’t really afford to take time off from trying to be like Jesus because then we’ll just slip back and have to start again from farther back on the road to glory.

We know what we need to do if we want to be like Jesus, both now in our earthly lives and then, after, like him in glory. We know because we’re told what to do in the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration. We have to listen to Jesus. In other words, we have to listen to what Jesus said, and then we have to put his words into practice. As I said earlier, being a Christian is something we do, so listening to Jesus and agreeing with what he said but leaving it at that isn’t enough; that simply will not get us anywhere along the road to glory. But, for want of a better phrase, Jesus is the best there is and so we can’t simply go from where we are to his level of performance in one step. That would be like having a few  piano lessons and then picking up a copy of one of Beethoven’s sonata and trying to play that. So we have to take it step by step and that’s where the Apostles come in.

As we know, Jesus spent three years teaching his disciples how to progress along the road to glory, and he chose some of them to take those lessons out into the world to teach other people how to progress along that road too. We hear about that in this morning’s reading from the Second Letter of Peter. So the Apostles were the first coaches, if you like, they were the first to teach people how to listen to Jesus and so, as well as listening to Jesus, we should listen to them too.

Of course the Apostles are no longer with us, they joined Jesus in glory long ago, but not before they appointed teaches to carry on that work that Jesus had entrusted to them. And that’s a process that’s gone on throughout the history of the Church. We still have teachers today. Ideally, the master teachers are the bishops, that’s one of their primary roles in the Church, but there are other teachers too. Priests are called to teach the faith. We have Spiritual Directors to fine tune our skill at the practice of Christianity. Some people might think the Spiritual Directors are simply there to hear confessions but whilst they do that, just as importantly, they’re there to offer spiritual counsel and advice, to point out little faults in the way we’re practicing our faith so that we can put these things right before they become bad habits that we can’t shake off. And we can have role models in addition to Jesus too; saints whose lives and example have inspired us in some way, or even other Christians whom we can look up to because they’ve progressed further along the road to glory than we have. We have all these people to help us to listen to Jesus more attentively so that we can progress in the practice of our faith; so that we can improve as Christians and take that next step towards Jesus on the road to glory.

But we have to use these people. We have to be willing to let them help us, and that seems to be something that so many people seem to be reluctant to do. Many people today won’t listen to bishops because they think the bishops are far too concerned with politics and financial matters. But that shouldn’t detract from what they say about the practice of the Christian faith. Many people only listen to priests up to a point, and that point is reached when the priest says something they either don’t understand or don’t agree with. As I said in my sermon a couple of weeks ago, whenever a priest says something that someone doesn’t agree with, it’s always the priest that’s got it wrong. I know very few people in the Church who have a Spiritual Director. How many of us have one? I’ve also mentioned, recently, the practice of people moving from church to church and denomination to denomination. There may be good reasons for that at times, but how often does that happen because people aren’t really looking to progress in the practice of their faith but simply looking for somewhere or someone who’ll confirm them in their own belief that they’re already well on the way to glory and don’t really need to change or do anything more or differently? How many are looking for affirmation rather than the truth that will help them be better Christians? 

We all know what we need to do to be like Jesus both in this life and to join him in glory when this life comes to an end – we have to listen to Jesus and put his words into practice. We all want to emulate Jesus, but we know that we’re only ever going to be able to do that fleetingly at best. We know we’re never going to be as good as Jesus. So no matter how long we’ve been coming to church, no matter how long we’ve considered ourselves to be Christians, we’re all still learning, and we always will be. So let’s keep our eyes on Jesus because he is our role model, but let’s also make use of the tools we have available to us to help us to be better Christians. The teachers of the faith, the bishops and priests of the Church. Spiritual Directors, those coaches who can help us fine tune the practice of our faith. And those lesser but still important role models, the saints and our fellow Christians whose ability to put Jesus words into practice can so often be better than ours. Let’s make use of all these things and above all, listen to Jesus and then practice, practice, practice.

Amen.

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Propers for the Transfiguration of the Lord 6th August 2023

Entrance Antiphon
In the shining cloud the Spirit is seen; from it the voice of the Father is heard:
This is my Son, my beloved, in whom is my delight. Listen to him.

The Collect
Father in heaven,
whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,
and spoke of the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem:
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross,
that in the world to come we may see him as he is;
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)        
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
2 Peter 1:16-19
Matthew 17:1-9

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalm 97
2 Peter 1:16-19
Luke 9:28-36