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.

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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

When I was a young lad, one of the things I always wanted was a chemistry set. Unfortunately for me, I was never allowed to have one mainly, I think, because my parents were worried about what I might do with it, what foul smelling concoctions I might make with it and fill the house with, as my dad said on more than one occasion. So I had to content myself with doing chemistry at school. I did enjoy doing chemistry but, like lots of things we learn, I’ve never used or done any chemistry since I left school and so now about all I can remember about it are a few chemical formulas. Things like H2O, the formula for water, CO2, carbon dioxide, H2SO4, sulphuric acid, and NaCl, sodium chloride.

That last substance, sodium chloride, is a very interesting one. As I’m sure many of you will know, it’s a compound of two elements which, in themselves are particularly nasty and dangerous. Sodium, a metal that burns and causes an explosion when it comes into contact with water. And chlorine, a poisonous gas that was used as a chemical weapon in the First World War. But if these two rather nasty elements are combined in the right way, they form something that’s not only very useful but that’s actually essential to life because, as I’m sure many of you will also know, sodium chloride is better known as salt.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they’re the “salt of the earth”, and that’s a really good metaphor for the Church. Just like salt, the Church is a compound, a mixture of different elements, people in this case, with different properties, different gifts and abilities, who come together to give the world something that’s essential to life. In the case of the Church, the different elements come together to bring the Gospel to the world. The way the truth and the life that Jesus taught, that helps us in this life and is essential if we want to inherit eternal life. So, as I say, salt is a very good metaphor for the Church and the deeper we look it, the better it becomes.

Salt is made up of two elements which, in themselves can be dangerous. They have properties that are useful to us, but they have properties that can make them very harmful to us. And in the same way, the people who make up the Church have gifts and talents that are very useful to the Church and to the lives of others, but they also have faults that are not so helpful, either to the Church or to other people. We’re all like that aren’t we, a mixture of good properties and bad properties? But just as sodium and chlorine, when they’re combined in the right way and in the right measure can create something good and essential to life, so if we in the Church can come together in the right way, if we can combine our gifts and our faults in the right way, we can become something that’s good and essential to the world and to life.

Just think of Jesus’ disciples, those people whom he chose to make up the early Church. Peter, for example. If ever there was a disciple who was a mixture of the good and not so good, Peter must be the one. He was impetuous, he spoke without thinking, and acted in the same way. He thought he knew better than Jesus at times. He said he’d die for Jesus and was ready to take up arms to stop Jesus being arrested but then, when he’d had time to think about things and realised the danger he might be in, he said he didn’t even know who Jesus was. But he was chosen to lead the Church.

Or how about the brothers, James and John? Boanerges, Jesus called them, ‘Sons of Thunder.’ And it’s not surprising, when the people of a Samaritan village didn’t welcome Jesus, James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy them. And they were ambitious too; they wanted to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in glory. But they were both totally committed to Christ.

Or Nathanael, honest as the day is long but a sceptic. When Philip told him they’d found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael’s response was ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?’

Or Paul, perhaps the greatest of all the Apostles, certainly the one who did more than any other to help the Church grow from it’s Jewish origins into the worldwide Church it became. But, on the evidence of his letters and early descriptions we have of him, argumentative and hot-tempered.

These were the people Jesus himself chose to build up the Church and take the Gospel into the world. They weren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, they all had their good points, but they all had their faults too. We call them saints, holy people, but not because they were perfect examples of what it means to be Christians. We call them saints because they were dedicated to God and to Christ despite their faults. And because they were dedicated, even though they fell out and argued at times, and the Scriptures tell us they did that, they were able to come together and be the salt of the earth Jesus called them to be. They were able to use their good properties, their gifts and talents, and overcome their bad properties, their faults, so that they could give the world what it needed, the light of the Gospel.

And it’s the same for us today. We’re called to be the salt of the earth in the time and place that we’ve been given to live in. And we have the same problem to deal with, that we have to come together and overcome our faults so that we can use our gifts and abilities to give the world what it still so badly needs today, the way, the truth and the life that Christ came to teach us and that will lead us to eternal life.

It’s not easy though, and one of the stories I like to tell to show how hard it can be is about an argument that took place at a PCC meeting in a parish I once lived in. The Sunday before the meeting we’d had a baptism in church during the morning Mass and we’d had a problem with the baptism party. After the baptism, a few children were running around, making quite a lot of noise while the adults simply sat there talking and ignoring what the children were up to.

At the meeting, one of the churchwardens proposed that we, as a PCC, should make it a policy of the parish that, if children were being unruly during services, their parents should be asked to keep them under control and, if they didn’t, they should be told that they’d have to leave church. I objected to that, as a policy, on the grounds of the damage that would do to the Church. We were trying to encourage people, especially young people and children to come to church but if we started telling people to keep their kids quiet or leave, we’d never see them again, and they’d very likely tell their family, friends and neighbours what a miserable lot we are and tell them not to come to our church either. The warden didn’t take very kindly to me disagreeing with him and he said,

“Well, all I can say is that the Church is better off without some people and if that’s how you feel, perhaps you’re one of them!”

I really didn’t know what to say to that and I just looked at the warden, shook my head, and started laughing, which pleased the warden even less. And then everyone joined in. Everyone shouting at the same time, one or two in support of the warden’s policy but most, it must be said, in support of what I’d said, and everyone against the warden’s comments about the Church being better off without me. And after a few minutes of that, the warden said,

“It sounds to me as though it’s me you don’t want in church!”

But no one was saying that. People did want him because he was very passionate and committed to the church. What they were saying was that, in this case, they thought he was wrong; he hadn’t thought through the consequences of what he was suggesting and his comments to me were both wrong and totally uncalled for. But his response to that was to stand up and say,

“Well if people aren’t going to listen to me, as a churchwarden, and they’re not going to do what I say, I don’t see the point in being a warden, so I resign!”

And with that he walked out of the meeting. He did subsequently calm down and carry on as churchwarden, and he was much more prudent when he spoke after that, both in terms of what he thought the parish should do and in the way he responded to people who disagreed with him.

But there’s so much in that incident that’s reminiscent of what we see in Jesus’ disciples. Speaking without thinking, being bad-tempered and argumentative, raining down fire and brimstone on those who disagree with us, wanting to be in charge, and demanding that everyone else recognises that we’re in charge.

These are the bad properties that people have, and these are some of the faults that we bring to the mix when we’re part of the Church. But we have to work together to overcome all these bad properties so that we can use the good properties we have, the gifts and talents that we all have, and the passion and commitment we have, for the good of the Church, to build it up so that we can be the salt of the earth that Jesus calls us to be. It isn’t easy because one of the bad properties we all have to some degree is that

we all like to have our own way. But in the Church there’s only one way, and it’s not our own, it’s Christ’s way.

The Church is going through difficult times at the moment, we all know that, but I have no doubt whatsoever that these times are being made worse because so many people in the Church want their own way, regardless of whether their way is Christ’s way or not. And they’re prepared to argue and fall out with those who disagree with them. They’re prepared to call down fire and brimstone to destroy, in a sense, those who disagree with them, to silence them, even if that means kicking them out of the Church. As we look at the Church, I think it looks more like a dangerous and toxic jumble of elemental sodium and chlorine, rather than a balanced compound of sodium chloride. In its arguments about who’s right and who’s wrong, who’s in charge and who should either just shut up and do as their told or leave, the Church is in danger of losing it’s taste, it’s saltiness. And what will it be good for if that happens?

But we can at least play our part in making sure that the Church here, in our parishes, in that part of the world where we are, is the salt of the earth. We can do our best to overcome our faults so the we can combine our gifts and talents for the good of the Church in this place. We can, as Jesus put it,

“Have salt in ourselves, and be at peace with one another”

so that we can be the salt of that that part of the earth that God has given us to enlighten with Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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Propers for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (3 before Lent) 5th February 2023

Entrance Antiphon

Come, let us worship the Lord.
Let us bow down in the presence of our maker, for he is the Lord our God.

The Collect

Almighty God,
who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace so to love what you command,
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found;
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 58:7-10
Psalm 112:4-9
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16

RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 112:1-10
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
Matthew 5:13-20