Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the start of the season of Lent which, as I’m sure you all know is one of the two penitential seasons of the Church’s year, the other being Advent. Advent and Lent are times when we’re called to prepare to celebrate a major event in the story of our salvation. In the case of Advent, that’s to prepare for the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the birth of God’s own Son as a human child, and during Lent we’re called to prepare for the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ at Easter. Christmas and Easter are the two main pillars of the Christian faith, in fact, without Christmas and Easter the Christian faith makes no sense and so it’s not surprising that the Church calls us to prepare to celebrate these two great events in a particular way, and that way is through a season of penitence.

So the theme of Lent is penitence, and penitence is to feel, and show, sorrow and regret for sin, for having done wrong. It’s closely related to repentance which means to turn from sin and wrong-doing and together, these two things tell us what Lent is really all about, and what our purpose in Lent should be. During Lent we’re called to be penitent, to feel and show sorrow for our sinful ways and to be repentant and turn from those sinful ways so that we can follow Christ’s teaching and example more closely. But if we’re going to be penitent and repentant then, quite obviously, we need to understand what we have to be sorry for and what we need to turn from. So central to our keeping of Lent in the right way is an awareness of our own sinfulness.

We speak about sin in two different ways in the Church. We talk about sin, which is the state of mind or being that causes us to do wrong, and we talk about sins, which are the actual acts of wrong-doing we commit. So Lent can be seen as a season in which we try to recognise and change our sinful nature so that we commit fewer sins. But if we’re going to do that, I think we have to understand just what it is that we’re doing wrong. In other words, we have to recognise our sins so that we can see ourselves as sinful, because until we recognise our sins and see ourselves as sinful, we won’t be able to show penitence and repentance. So what are the sins we commit?

To put it simply, sins are anything that we do that’s contrary to God’s law and will, and for us, as Christians, that means anything that’s not in keeping with Christ’s teaching and example. But that does leave grey areas at times. Sometimes it’s quite obvious whether something is a sin or not because we’re clearly told in Scripture. But Scripture doesn’t give instruction on every situation we might come across in life, so how do we know whether something is a sin in those cases? One thing we could do is look to the lists of sins that the early Church put together. The one we’re most familiar with is the list of seven deadly sins that that was introduced by Pope Gregory I around the year 590AD. That tells us that the seven deadly sins are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. We don’t actually find these things mentioned directly in Scripture, but they are based on the things which the Book of Proverbs tells us are hated by God and an abomination to him.

In Proverbs 6 we read,

There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

The way this proverb is written, six things and seven, is probably intended to draw attention to the seventh item listed. So there are seven things God hates but the worst offence, the most abhorrent to God is the seventh, in this case, ‘discord among brothers.’ And ultimately isn’t this the root cause and end result of both being sinful and of the sins people commit, that sin stems from our damaged relationships with both God and our neighbour, and sins, those concrete acts of wrong-doing we carry out, further damage our relationships with them?

If we look at the first six things on this list, they all relate to the human body, eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet, and breath, although in this case perhaps mouth or speech would be a better description. They’re all things that people do which God hates and they all lead to discord, to damaged and broken relationships, which is the most abhorrent thing of all to God. And this is the most abhorrent thing to God because discord and broken relationships reveal a failure to love. Sin is hateful and abhorrent to God because it reveals a failure to love him as we should and a failure to love our neighbour as we should.

Sin, and the sins we commit reveal a failure to love God with all our heart and
soul and mind and strength, and our failure to love our neighbour as ourselves, as he commanded and wills us to. So sin and our sins also reveal our disobedience to God.

Lent is a time for us to be aware of these things so that we can change for the better. It’s a time for us to be aware of the things we can do, and often do, that are hateful to God, and a time for us to be aware of how we can be and do things that are abhorrent to God. But we have to make sure that in keeping Lent in the right way, by identifying our need for penitence and repentance and showing sorrow and regret for sin and making a real effort to turn back to God and to Christ, our sinfulness and sins don’t creep in even to this.

We have to make sure that we don’t keep Lent in a garment rending, showy way. That we don’t adopt a ‘Look at how good I am, look at just what I’ve given up for Lent’ kind of way, nor put on a pained expression to let everyone know just how hard keeping Lent is for us. We need rather to keep Lent in a heart-rending way, with an inner and unseen heartfelt sorrow for sin and heartfelt determination to turn away from sin and to God and his ways. We also need to acknowledge that even our best efforts will leave us short of where we ought to be, and so we need to pray that God, in his mercy, will blot out our offences, our sinfulness and our sins so that we can mend our broken relationships with him and be reconciled to him. And we need to pray for the grace to mend our broken relationships with our neighbours too. And we need to do all this so that we can be ready for the day of salvation. Not just our celebration of that day in a few weeks’ time at Easter, but so that we can be ready for salvation on that day when we’re called to meet the Lord face to face in his kingdom.

Amen.

---

Propers for Ash Wednesday 22nd February 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Lord, you are merciful to all, and hate nothing you have created.
You overlook the sins of men to bring them to repentance.
You are the Lord our God.

The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made,
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we,
worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
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)
Joel 2:12-18
Psalm 51:3-6, 12-14, 17
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

I’m sure many of you will have seen the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you have then you’ve seen a film that’s regarded as one of the greatest science-fiction films, and indeed one of the greatest films of any genre, ever made. If you’ve seen it you may, like me, have agreed with that assessment, but there’s an equal chance that you may, like a lot of other people, have wondered what all the fuss is about and perhaps, again like so many others, have wondered what the film is actually about. But if you’re one of those people, I can help you out with that last problem. As strange as it may seem, the film is actually about God, or at least about the idea of God, the ‘God concept’ as the film’s director Stanley Kubrick put it, and it’s about humanity’s relationship with their God; their creation by God, their search for God and their ultimate destiny with and in God.

It’s a film that begins with the creation of human beings, or at least their primitive ancestors, through the dawning of knowledge, and that’s very quickly followed by the first murder as two rival groups fight over access to a water hole. The film then moves on to modern human beings with all their technical ingenuity and their faults. And the film ends with the human race being saved from nuclear annihilation by one of their own, a man who has become one with God. To put those things in Christian terms, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a film about creation, fall and salvation. But I think the most interesting character in the film isn’t the creator of human beings, nor any of the human beings in the film. To me the most interesting character in the film is the computer that runs the spaceship during the space odyssey, HAL.

HAL controls every aspect of life aboard the ship, he knows everything that’s happening on the ship and through his cameras he sees everything that’s going on aboard the ship. He’s omniscient, he knows all, he’s omnipresent, he’s in all places at all times, and he’s omnipotent, he has power over everything on the ship, even life and death. For those on board the ship, HAL is, to all intents and purposes, god. But Hal is a very deeply flawed god because he’s a god made in the image of human beings and so, as it turns out, he has all their faults and failings. Actually, HAL isn’t God at all, he’s a human creation but because he’s been given so much power, he thinks he knows better than his creator and turns on them, with murderous results. The reality is that HAL is a god made in the image of man and because modern humans are really no better than their primitive ancestors who killed each other for a waterhole, neither is the god they made in their own image. 

I mention this because I think that, today, we’re in danger of creating another HAL. Not a computer, although we might not be too far away from that in terms of technology, what I mean is that in the Church we’re in danger of creating another HAL because I think we’re in danger of turning God into HAL, by turning God, and Jesus, into a God of our own making. We’re in danger of turning God and Jesus into HAL by making God and Jesus over in our own image. Because that is what we’re in danger of doing when we start to change the words of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus to make them say what we want them to say rather than changing ourselves to comply with what those things do say.

This isn’t a new problem for the Church, people who claim to be Christians have always done this kind of thing. People have interpreted Scripture in ways that allow, or at least excuse, their own un-Christian behaviour. People have re-written Scripture to suit their own ideas about what it means to be a Christian. People have distorted Scripture or put words in Jesus’ mouth so that they can preach their own beliefs as Christianity. How many people have we met, for example, people in the Church, who’ve said that it’s a sin to drink alcohol? What Scripture actually says is that it’s a sin to get drunk, not to drink alcohol. If that was a sin, Jesus was a sinner because he drank alcohol. He said so himself;

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

And how many people in the Church look down on others and won’t associate with them, never mind befriend them because of their job or the way they live? How many people don’t want ‘that sort’ in Church? And what is that but turning those most in need of the Gospel away from Jesus? Did Jesus tell us to do that? No, but this is what some people in the Church do, and think well of themselves for doing it too very often!

So this is not a new problem for the Church, but it is something new, I think, for our own Church, as a Church, as a body rather than just individuals within it, to be contemplating a move away from Scriptural teaching and to be contemplating rewording Scripture to suit the beliefs and opinions of some people in the Church and in the society we live in.

As Christians, we’re called to conform our lives to Christ and his teaching and example. As a Church we’re commissioned by Christ himself to call society to his teaching and example. And if we, either as individuals, and especially as a Church, change Christ’s teaching and example to suit the teaching and example of others, are we not then remaking God in our own image, turning God into HAL? And that is a very dangerous thing to do because if we make God and Jesus fit our own beliefs and opinions and standards, we impose all our own faults and failings on God and Jesus. We make our prejudices and bigotry their prejudices and bigotry. We make our truth, their truth. We make our sins acceptable to them and anything we find unacceptable in others unacceptable to God and Jesus. If we recreate God and Jesus in our own image, we make God and Jesus the enemy of anyone who doesn’t fit our image of the way human beings should be, the enemy of anyone who doesn’t share our beliefs and opinions and standards.

Today, is another of those Sundays when the readings we have are different in both churches in the benefice, but even so, all our readings today tell us just how wrong it is to try and make God and Jesus over in our own image.

In our Old Testament readings, God calls us to be holy, to be dedicated to him, because he is holy. They don’t say God should be holy and dedicated to us because we’re holy. They tell us that God gave the law to Moses. They don’t say Moses gave the law to God. They tell us that the law is God’s instruction to us. They don’t say that the law is our instruction to God.

The Psalms we read today speak to us of God’s love and compassion towards us and yet speak of nations, rulers and people turning against God and plotting against him and Christ, his anointed. And isn’t this just what people are doing, in effect, when they turn away from God and Christ and live according to their own rules, their own law, their own truth? Isn’t this what the Church is doing when it contemplates moving away from Scriptural teaching and rewriting Scripture to suit the views of society and of some  people? Psalm 103, which we read at St Mark’s this morning reminds us that it’s neither society nor ourselves who redeems us from the grave, but God, and that’s something anyone who would make God and Jesus over in their own image would do well to remember.

Our Epistles this morning remind us that Scripture is not a matter of personal interpretation because the words of Scripture are of the Holy Spirit; they are God’s words, not the words of men and women. We affirm our belief in that every time we read in church because don’t we end the reading by saying that what we’ve just read and heard is the word of the Lord? So how can we change those words without making God’s word the word of human beings? One consequence of decisions made at the General Synod of the C of E, is that the Anglican Communion has been put in jeopardy. Some parts of the Communion are considering breaking away from the Church of England and from communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and what is this other than the kind of destruction of God’s temple that St Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians? Christ called the Church to be one and yet people within the Church are doing things which cause division in the Church, simply because they want to have their own way, even if they have to ignore or even rewrite Scripture, to have it.

In our Gospel readings Jesus tells us to be perfect, as God our heavenly Father is perfect. Through his teaching and by his example, Jesus showed us what it means to be perfect. At his Transfiguration, God our Father, told us to listen to Jesus. So how can the Church consider reworking Jesus’ teaching and example to suit the views of some individuals in the Church because their views are more in keeping with the views of the society we live in? As Christians, are we called to be like Christ and to urge others to do the same, or to make Christ like everyone else?

If we go down this road of remaking God and Jesus in our own image, we’ll be embarking on a very dangerous journey because we’ll make all our own faults and failings, our prejudices and bigotry, our lack of forgiveness and appetite for revenge, our lack of love and our hatred, part of God’s word and Jesus’ teaching and example. We’ll make God and Jesus our creation, and we’ll turn them into the kind of flawed god that we see in HAL, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. We might want that kind of god because that kind of god will let us do whatever we want to do, but in the end, that kind of god will kill us just as surely as HAL killed most of the crew of the spaceship he ruled over in the film. That kind of god will kill us because that kind of god is nothing but our own selves writ large and so when our lives end, that god will die with us and how can that god, a dead god, redeem us from the grave? There’s only one God who can do that, and that’s the God who speaks to us through the words of scripture and the rough the Holy Spirit. So let’s listen to him and to Jesus, his anointed and beloved Son.

Amen.

---

Propers for the 7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Next before Lent)      

Entrance Antiphon
Lord, your mercy is my hope, my heart rejoices in your saving power.
I will sing to the Lord, for his goodness to me.

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

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9

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

The Collect
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works,
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)
Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-3
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37

RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Genesis 1:1-23
Psalm 136:1-26
Romans 8:18-25
Matthew 6:25-34