During my years in the Church, and through many conversations with both clergy and lay people, one of the things I’ve found that many people really struggle with about the Christian faith is the idea of judgement. I’ve heard so many people, both clergy and lay people, say that they simply can’t get their heads around the idea that God, the loving God of Jesus’ teaching, and whom we proclaim as Christians, will condemn people to hell, to eternal punishment. But, whether we like it or not and whether we want to accept it or not, judgement is both an inescapable part of scripture and an undeniable aspect of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus speaks quite plainly about judgement in this morning’s Gospel, for example. So whether we like it or not or whether we want to accept it or not, I think it would be a very wise thing to do if we were all to live our lives in expectation of judgement, in expectation that, at the end of our lives, we will be judged on how well we’ve conformed to the teaching of Christ and our ultimate fate – eternal life, or eternal punishment, will depend on that judgement.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. It’s the day in the Church’s year when we acclaim Christ as the King of all creation, but I think part of the problem people have with the idea of judgement is tied up with a problem in thinking of Christ as King. We acclaim him as the King of all creation but we ourselves are part of creation, that’s why we’re called creatures, we are created beings, so Christ is our King too. But do we actually treat him as our King? I think, in many ways, we don’t.

Perhaps that has something to do with the kingdom we live in, the United Kingdom. As we all know, we have a king who, in constitutional terms at least, is our ruler. I’m sure it won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that in law trials, the two parties are often described as ‘the Crown’ versus whoever the defendant may be and that’s because our laws, whilst they’re proposed, voted on and passed in Parliament, have to be given the royal seal of approval before they become law. So whilst in theory we all have to obey the king, because he’s represented in and through the law of the land, in practice, what the king says makes little difference to us and to the way we live because the king doesn’t actually make the law, but only approves it. So whatever King Charles himself may say, we don’t have to take any notice of him, or do as he tells us we should.  And because that’s what we’re used to in our everyday lives, I think we can easily treat Jesus’ Kingship in the same way.

But Jesus isn’t that sort of king. Jesus isn’t a constitutional monarch. He doesn’t simply ‘rubber stamp’ what human beings think is right. He is the King  through whom the ultimate law of the universe, God’s law, is given and through whom ultimate justice, God’s justice, is administered. So when we get into a dispute with God, when we do what God’s law forbids, the Crown we’re going up against is God’s Crown as represented by God’s law given to us in and through Jesus’ teaching and commandments. And the one who will judge us is the whom God, the ultimate authority in the universe, has appointed as King, Jesus.

But in addition to our lack of familiarity with a King who must be obeyed, I think we also have a problem with judgement because of some of the imagery we associate with Jesus, and for many of us, perhaps with the way we were brought up to think about him.

I’m sure we all know the hymn, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, and if we know it well, we’ll probably remember that the fourth verse of that hymn goes like this;

Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,
my Prophet, Priest and King,
my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
accept the praise I bring.

Those are lovely words, very comforting words in fact which in many ways is what the hymn is all about, the sweetness and comfort the name of Jesus brings to a believer. But I think we can focus so much on Jesus as shepherd, brother, and friend, as one who cares for us as one of our family and as a  friend, that we can forget the meaning of those other titles and attributes the hymn ascribes to him. Our prophet, the one who calls us to obey God’s law. Our priest, the one who offered himself on the Cross to atone for our sins and who still intercedes for us with the Father because we don’t obey God’s law. Our King, the one who rules over us because God has appointed him as our King. And we forget too that as subjects of Christ our King he is our Lord, the one we must obey. He’s our life because our lives must be like his life. He’s our Way because his Way must be our way. And he is our End both because we want to be with him in heaven at our end and because he is the one who, in the end, will decide whether we can be with him in heaven or not. 

I think both through our unfamiliarity with what in earthly terms is called absolute monarchy, kings and queens who must be obeyed because they do hold ultimate authority over our lives and giving so much of our focus to the kindly images and attributes of Jesus, that we can’t imagine that someone so loving and so good and kind and gentle as Jesus could or would possibly judge us harshly and deny us entry into heaven. And yet, this is exactly what Jesus says will happen if we don’t obey him. We know too that Jesus told us that God does not desire anyone’s death, much rather that they repent, turn from their sinful ways, return to his ways, and live. But nevertheless, judgement and the punishment that awaits those who don’t repent and obey Christ the King is so much a part of Jesus’ teaching that it can’t be left out or ignored.

I’m sure some of you will have seen the Kenneth Branagh version of Shakespeare’s Henry V. In that film there’s a scene in which King Henry is happy and smiling because he’s received good news about a battle in which his troops have held a bridge and in which there has been only one casualty, and that a man who was to be executed for robbing a church. Looting was expressly forbidden under pain of death, and to rob a church was the most heinous form of looting. So the king’s mood is not changed by the news until he’s given the name of the man who is to be executed – Bardolph. And then the king’s smiles disappear because Bardolph, though he was and is a dissolute fellow and thief, is an old friend. And as the king looks at Bardolph standing, beaten and bloodied and a noose about to be put around his neck, he recalls happier times when he was Prince Hal rather than King Henry, and the two were drinking and laughing together amongst other friends. And amid the smiles and laughter, Bardolph says to the Prince,

“Do not, when thou art king, hang a thief.”
The Prince’s smiles slowly disappear, and he replies,
“No, thou shalt.”

The scene returns to the present and the two men look at each other without a word, Bardolph with a pitiful, pleading look on his face, the king with tears in his eyes. But nevertheless, through the tears he gives a nod to the executioner to proceed.

This scene isn’t strictly true to Shakespeare’s play, but it is nevertheless, one of the most powerful scenes in the film and it works both to show Henry’s transition from playboy prince to sovereign Lord and King, and to show that to be a king, Henry must do what is right regardless of personal feelings and loyalties. That he must be impartial in upholding the law and administering  judgement and justice. It also implies that, although Henry gives the order for the executioner to proceed, the fault lies not with the king, but with Bardolph himself, the thief who’d wilfully disobeyed the king’s law. And as we think about this scene, it’s not so very different from what we read in the Gospels is it? This, for example:

And when Jesus drew near Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade round you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Or this;

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 as we read in this morning’s Gospel, believing in the Son of God is not simply a matter of calling him Lord and King, but of living as his loyal subjects and doing as he commands us to do. 

If we struggle with the idea of judgement, of a loving God and of Jesus, gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Jesus our shepherd, brother and friend, sentencing us to eternal punishment, perhaps we can imagine it in this way.  As something Jesus doesn’t want to do, as something that, if he had to do it, would bring tears to his eyes, but as something that, if he had to do it, he would because he must, as our judge, and our King. So let’s not make it necessary for him to judge us worthy of condemnation. If we love Jesus as we say we do, let’s not do anything to bring tears to his eyes but treat him as our Shepherd, Brother and Friend, our Prophet, Priest and King, our Lord, or Life our Way and our End so that he might not only accept the praise we bring him now but, at our end, judge us worthy to be accepted into his Father’s heavenly kingdom.

Amen.   

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Propers for Christ the King 26th November 2023

Entrance Antiphon
The Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive strength and divinity, wisdom, power and honour; to him be glory and power for ever. 

The Collect
Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven,
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
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)        
Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
Psalm 23:1-3, 5-6
1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Matthew 25:31-46

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 95:1-7
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46

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