In my sermon last week, I spoke about the problem of people who call themselves ‘Christians’ but who don’t come to church, and I want to stress again today that by that, I don’t mean those who can’t come because of ill health or work and so on, but those who could come and don’t, whether those people have stopped coming to church and won’t come back or they simply don’t and won’t come at all. Today I want to talk a bit more about why people stop coming to church and won’t come back and why they won’t come to church at all because this is a problem, and a question that links very easily to this morning’s Gospel.

In last Sunday’s Gospel, we heard that when John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness,

‘…Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him…’

and this morning, we hear Jesus speaking about John, and as he does so, he asks the people a question:

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?”

And I think we can ask a similar question of those who have stopped coming to church, and who won’t come to church today; ‘What do you come to church to see? What do you, or did you expect to find in church?’

I think that is a very pertinent question to ask because I’m sure that one of the great problems we have in getting people to come to church and to stay in the church is that so many don’t see or find what they expect to. But if people come to church looking for what they want, then in many cases, perhaps most cases, they’ve come to the wrong shop. The problem isn’t with what they see and find in the Church and in church, the problem is with what they want from the Church and from coming to church.

How often have we heard someone who used to come to church say that they stopped coming because they weren’t getting anything out of it? The usual response is to ask what they were putting into it, and the answer to that question, on the whole, is probably not very much – they were simply turning up and expecting to get something from it. But what is it they were expecting to get?

From the many conversations I’ve had with people like this, and with many other people in the Church over the years, I think the answer, and the problem, is that so many people come to church expecting nothing more than comfort and reassurance.

Not the comfort and reassurance that we can and do find when we come to church, the comfort and reassurance that comes from faith in Christ and trust in his promises, but the comfort and reassurance that comes from being told that they’re nice people, good people who lead good lives, that they’re a bit better than people who don’t come to church and so, by extension and implication, that they don’t need to do anything more or change anything about themselves and their lives to be right with God and assured of heaven.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean. I was once taken to task by a churchwarden because people had objected to something, or perhaps a few things I’d said, in my sermons. The problem wasn’t that people disagreed with what I was saying from the point of view of theology or faith, but because my sermons were ‘too pointed’, they were too challenging for people and made people feel uncomfortable. He said that people didn’t want to come to church to be challenged and go home feeling uncomfortable, they come to church to be told how good they are already so that they could go home feeling good about themselves and that that’s what I, as a priest, was there to do. He actually said that he thought I’d missed the point of what being a priest is all about!

People don’t want to be challenged; they want to be told how good they are so that they can feel good about themselves. Well, if that’s what people who come to church want, they’re not going to find it and so they’re not going to get anything out of coming to church. The Gospel is the most challenging thing we can ever read, let alone try to live out. The Gospel was so challenging to those to whom Jesus first proclaimed it, it made them feel so uncomfortable, that they nailed Jesus to a cross so that they didn’t have to hear any more. And if the Gospel is not proclaimed in church, if people don’t want to hear it because it’s too challenging and makes them feel uncomfortable because they don’t live it out well enough then, I’m afraid, that it’s they who’ve missed the point because the only people who won’t be challenged by the Gospel and who won’t feel uncomfortable about what they read and hear in the Gospel are those who’ve perfected their faith and who live out the Gospel to perfection.  And how many people like that do we know? I know of only one, Jesus Christ himself.

It must be said that not everyone in that parish I’ve just spoken about felt the same way as that churchwarden and those who’d complained to him about my sermons. One person there once said to me that he came to church to be challenged; that he didn’t come to church because he thought he was perfect or because he thought it made him better than those who don’t go to church; he said he went to church because he knew he wasn’t perfect and that he wasn’t any better than anyone else and that he knew he needed help to be better.

And so he came to church because he knew that’s where he’d find the help he needed; my help, as a priest, and above all, God’s help. And that brings us to a second problem with what people expect to see and find in the Church and don’t.

To hear them speak, most people expect the Church to be full of perfect people who always live out their faith perfectly. But if that’s what people expect to see and find in the Church then, again, they’ve come to the wrong place. If you want to see perfection, go to an art gallery and look at statues. They’re perfectly formed and never do anything wrong, but that’s because they never do anything. If you want to see perfection in a human being, you can find that in church, but only in the Gospel, in the person of Jesus Christ. If you expect it in the people who make up the Church and come to church then you’re going to be disappointed.

We know that people in the Church argue and fall out. We know that these disagreements and arguments cause people to stop coming to church and they’re often given as the reason they won’t come back to church. We also know that those outside the church see these things and call us hypocrites because of them. They call us hypocrites because we don’t practice what we preach. But these things don’t necessarily make us hypocrites.

The word hypocrite is thought to stem from the Greek word for a stage actor, so a  hypocrite is someone who is pretending to be something they’re not. We call ourselves Christians because we’re disciples of Jesus Christ, but we also confess that we’re sinners. So when we act in ways that aren’t in keeping with the Gospel, when we act in un-Christian ways, so long as we confess to doing that, we’re not being hypocrites, because we’re not pretending to be something we’re not. What it makes us is weak, flawed, but at least truthful, human beings. If we call ourselves Christians but act in un-Christian ways, so long as we own up to what we’ve done, what we’re really saying is that we are Christians, because we try to follow the teaching and example of Jesus Christ; but we’re not always as good at doing that as we could be and should be; we don’t always get things right; we make mistakes. What would, and does, make us hypocrites is if we say that we’re Christians whilst making no attempt to be Christians. We’re hypocrites if we say that we’re Christians and wilfully act in un-Christian ways; if we plot and scheme to deliberately carry out un-Christian deeds. And we’re hypocrites if we act in un-Christian ways and deny it because that is to deny our sinfulness and, as St John says in his first letter,

‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.’ 

But if we say we have no sin, who are we trying to deceive? Not only ourselves but others too, surely? So, if we can’t own up to our sins, our failures to live out the Gospel, we’re deceivers, we’re not really Christians but simply people pretending to be Christians; actors playing a part, hypocrites.

So what do people come to church to see? What do they expect to find? If they come to church looking for that burning truth that God calls us to live by, which we call the Gospel, then they will find that, and if they don’t, there’s something gone very, very wrong in that church. But if people come simply looking to find comfort and assurance from being told how good they are so that they can go home feeling happy about themselves and carry on living their lives in the same way they always have done, they won’t find that where the Gospel is proclaimed because the Gospel challenges everything the world says about goodness and what leads to happiness. Where people hear the Gospel proclaimed they will be challenged and they will often be made to feel uncomfortable, deeply uncomfortable at times. And if people look at the Church and come to church expecting to find and see perfect people who are perfect examples of Christian discipleship, they won’t see or find that either, apart from in the pages of the Gospels. But neither will they see a Church or a building full of hypocrites. Only those who call themselves Christians and who make no attempt to be Christians are hypocrites and, in my experience, those who call themselves Christians but who won’t come to church, or won’t come back to church because of what they see as the hypocrisy of the people in the Church, could do a lot worse than take a good look in the mirror and call to mind these words of Jesus;

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

The Church is not full of perfect people but those who do come to church are, at least, willing to be challenged by the Gospel to be better than they are. They’re not afraid to be made to feel uncomfortable by their failures to live out the faith they profess, and hopefully they’re willing to see themselves as sinners in need of repentance and forgiveness as they try to become and be better. And if what I’ve said today has challenged you, good. If it’s made you feel uncomfortable in some ways, so be it, you know what to do about it. But I hope what I’ve said has also helped you and made you feel a bit better about yourselves because you and I, and all Christians are still sinners, but that doesn’t necessarily make us hypocrites.

Amen.

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The Propers for Advent 3 can be viewed here.

I’m sure many of us, if not all of us, will have seen the recently reported figures regarding religion from last year’s census. Those figures show that, for the first time since census records began, those who regard themselves as Christians, are now a minority in England and Wales. But if we look a little deeper into these figures, I think they really do beg the question, what do people really mean when they say they’re Christians?

According to the census, 46% of the people in England and Wales say that they’re Christians. That is a minority, but it still relates to 27.5 million people, and we know that church attendances are nowhere near that high. Whilst it’s quite easy to find up to date statistics about church attendance, it’s not easy to find actual figures for church attendance, the number of people who are going to church on a regular basis. In 2019 church attendance in the C of E is reported as having been just over 850,000 per week but it’s also reported that post-pandemic attendance is about 2/3 of pre-Covid figures and if we spread that across all Christian denominations, we’re probably looking at church attendances of around 1.8 million per week which only equates to around 3% of the population.

That probably doesn’t mean very much, it’s just a lot of statistics, but let me put those figures into a local context. Looking at the figures I could find, and taking the demographics of this benefice into account, the population of the parishes, the number of people who may be of other faiths, of other Christian denominations or of no faith. If all those people who say that they’re Christians actually came to church we could have congregations of around 250 at St Mark’s and over 900 at St Gabriel’s. The reality is, we have average congregations in both parishes in the 30s. Those aren’t great figures, but they’re somewhere near the average for C of E attendances these days. So where are all these other people, the other 43% who say that they’re Christians but don’t come to church?

I think what these figures show is a number of different problems that all come under one overarching problem. One problem is that of people who used to come to church but don’t or won’t anymore. I’m not talking here about people who can’t come to church because of ill health or work commitments and so on, but those who could come to church and don’t.

I’m sure each and everyone of us knows more than one person like this. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve met since I’ve been vicar here who’ve told me that they used to go to one of the churches in this benefice but don’t anymore.

But when I’ve asked them why they don’t come to church anymore or why they don’t come back, I’m often met with silence or evasion. I don’t get an answer, people change the subject and on the few occasions I do get an answer it’s almost  invariably to do with something that’s gone on in church in the past; an argument with another member of the congregation, or with the vicar, and because of that, they’ve stopped going to church. And even though the other person or people involved very often don’t go to that church anymore, the person I’m talking to still won’t come back. And yet, also almost invariably, these people still consider themselves to be Christians.

There are 3 problems here. One is the absolutely appalling, un-Christian way in which Church members can, and at times do, treat one another. Their lack of love for one another. Another problem is the un-Christian bearing of grudges against other members of the Church. Their lack of forgiveness. These things really show a complete failure of members of the Church to take to heart the kind of thing we read in our Epistle this morning when St Paul urges the Church in Rome to

‘…live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.’

Yet another problem here is that these things feed belief in that old chestnut, that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. Really? Says who? Says people who don’t want to go to church but who still want to regard themselves as Christians, nevertheless. Well, I’ve got news for those people; yes you do have to go to church to be a Christian. Who says so? Jesus Christ himself says so. If we can be a Christian without going to church, why did Jesus call a Church into being in the first place? For the sake of it? Because it seemed like a good idea at the time? No, he called the Church into being to carry out the Great Commission he left his disciples to go out into the world, teach people all the things he’d taught them and to baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The very name ‘Christian’ means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, to follow his teaching and example and don’t we read in the Scriptures that it was Jesus’ custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath? So, to those who say you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, I say, you are not a Christian if you don’t go to church because, you’re not only failing to follow Jesus’ teaching and example, but also, by your words and actions, you’re saying that Jesus was wrong. 

Speaking of baptism brings us to what I think is the biggest group of people who say that they’re Christians but don’t come to church.

In fact, most of them have never come to church on a regular basis and those are the people who believe themselves to be Christians simply because they’ve been baptised.

Most people call baptism, ‘Christening’ don’t they. But the word ‘Christening’ gives the impression that being baptised makes someone a Christian, and that’s simply not true. Being a Christian means to devote your life, every day of your life to at least trying to live according to the teaching and example of Christ. Being a Christian isn’t something you suddenly become, ‘Hey Presto’ as if by magic because you’ve stood or been held over a font while a priest has poured water over your head in church. Being baptised, being Christened, makes someone a member of the Church, and it’s as a member of the Church, in church, where people learn to become Christians by learning about Jesus, his teaching and his example of life. Unfortunately, I think the C of E itself undermines that understanding of what baptism is about, and itself feeds the misunderstanding that you can be a Christian without coming to church.

At baptism, people promise, or parents and godparents promise on behalf of children to repent of their sins, to turn to Christ and follow him. They promise  to take their place within the life and worship of the Christ’s Church. Those who can answer for themselves promise to continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and prayers. In other words, at baptism, people promise to become and remain members of the Church, in church. And yet on the C of E’s own website we see a distinction between ‘Adult Baptism’ and ‘Christening’ which is for children too young to answer for themselves, as though these were two different things. But there is only one sacrament of baptism whatever the age of the person being baptised. And in the section about ‘Christening’, regardless of the promises parents and godparents will have to make to be part of the worshipping community of the Church, in church, we read that ‘Christening ‘ is, in part, about helping children

‘… to learn more about their Christian faith, through their church and in other ways.’

And in other ways? Is it really any wonder that people think they don’t have to come to church to be a Christian?

So we have all these problems when it comes to getting those who call themselves Christians to actually come to church. But I think there is one problem that overarches all these, and that is the problem of what it really means to be a Christian.

I’ve already answered that question in part when I said that to be a Christian means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and to try to live our lives in accordance with his teaching and example. But that means asking some soul-searching questions of ourselves about how well we do that. It means being completely honest with ourselves about how well we do that. And it means being prepared to put in some hard work to amend our lives accordingly so that we can put ourselves right with God and having the discipline to do that each and every day.

But people seem to think they can be Christians without doing this. People want to live their lives on their own terms and still call themselves Christians. They don’t want to live their lives on Christ’s terms because that means they’ll have to admit their faults, their sins, and change. They’ll have to repent as John the Baptist called people to do in preparation for the coming of Christ. And perhaps they don’t want to come to church and won’t come to church because they know that they might hear there that they must do these things if they really are going to be Christians.

To be a Christian means to live, in so far as we can, in the same way that Christ himself lived, and to strive to do that each and every day of our lives. So, as we prepare for Christ’s coming, let’s look at our own lives and ask ourselves what more do we need to do? What do we need to change about our lives so that we really can call ourselves Christians? Let’s try to be more loving towards one another and more forgiving of each other. Let’s be more willing to accept our faults, to confess our sins, and to repent so that we can be the Christians we claim to be. Let’s do this so that we can proclaim our Christianity with confidence because we’re good examples of what it means to be Christians. Let’s do these things so that we can call people to the church by saying that this is where we learned to be the truly Christian people we are. This is where we learned what it means to call ourselves Christians and to be those Christians in our daily lives. And let’s do these things so that we can help others to learn how to be Christians too. Not just for our good because it’s what we’re called to do as Christians, not just for the good of our churches, so that we can keep them open, but for the good of everyone who does come to church and for the good of the world, as Christ intended and commanded the Christians who make up his Church to do.

Amen.

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The Propers for Advent 2 can be viewed here.

Today is Advent Sunday and so, once again, we’ve come to the season of Advent and the start of a new Church year. For us in the Church, just like for everyone else, this is the time when we make our preparations for Christmas which, for us in the Church at least, means preparing to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the ways we do that during Advent is through our readings in Church when we hear from and think about the great figures of Advent. The prophet Isaiah who was commissioned by God to be the prophet of the Advent, the one who foretold the coming of the Messiah. And about some of the other people whose coming Isaiah foretold too. John the Baptist, the messenger who was sent by God to prepare the way for the Messiah, for Christ, and Mary, the virgin who was chosen by God to be the mother of his Son. And of course, we think about Christ too, about Jesus, whose birth we’ll celebrate at Christmas.

But during Advent, our readings call us to prepare for the coming of Christ in two ways. We’re called to prepare to celebrate his first coming when he was born as a human child just over 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, but we’re also called to prepare for his second coming too, the time when Christ will come again, this time in great power and glory to judge all things and all people and finally bring the age of peace that was promised at his first coming all those years ago.

This is how we’re called to spend Advent every year, by hearing from Isaiah, and from and about John, Mary and Jesus, in preparation for these two comings of Christ. But today, I want to speak to you about another character we associate with Christmas. Not one we read anything about in the Scriptures, although one that is based on a genuine 3rd Century saint of the Church, and that is that jolly old fellow with glasses, with white hair and beard, who wears a red suit, Father Christmas (and I absolutely refuse to call him by that American name which is a corruption of the Dutch name of the said saint, Sint Nikolaas).

It’s a sad, but inescapable fact that, in the popular culture of our society, Christ has been largely removed from the feast that bears his name, Christmas. In fact, these days, we’re just as likely to hear the season referred to as the ‘Festive Season’ or the ‘Holiday Season’ as we are to hear it given it’s proper name. And we’re even less likely to hear any mention of Jesus during the secular build up to the secular celebration of Christmas. But we will hear a lot about Father Christmas, even if he often won’t be called that. That is very sad, but it is a sign of the times and the society we live in. And there’s no point in burying our heads in the sand; we have to deal with things the way they are rather than the way we’d like them to be. But, if we can find a link between Jesus and Father Christmas, we can be reminded of the real meaning of Christmas, and what Advent is really all about, regardless of the absence of Jesus in the secular preparation for and celebration of Christmas. If we can find that link, we can be reminded of Jesus, and of the true meaning of Advent and Christmas each and every time we see an image of or hear the name of the jolly old fellow in the red suit. And I think that link is there and it’s one we can all see and understand.

If we think back to our childhood, I’m sure we can all remember being told, probably by our parents, something like,

“If you don’t behave, Fr Christmas won’t come, and you won’t get any presents!”

Those of us who are parents ourselves will no doubt have said something like that to our own children too. It’s a way to keep children well-behaved, or at least, not too badly behaved. It’s a warning, perhaps even a threat, to stay in the good book and off the naughty list, or else! But isn’t that, to all intents and purposes, one of the central messages of Advent? Not to be good or Jesus

won’t come, but to be good so that we’re ready when he does come, or else! Just think about this morning’s Gospel.

The passage we read this morning comes shortly after Jesus had spoken about his return in glory when he will send out his angels to gather together his chosen people. We know that when this happens, those who are chosen will inherit the kingdom that God has prepared for them, a place in which those who are chosen will live for eternity in love, happiness and peace. But this morning’s Gospel makes it clear that not everyone will be chosen, only those who are ready for Jesus’ return will be chosen.

Jesus tells us in a number of parables that being ready for his return means to be busy doing the Father’s will, but, as we read this morning, because we don’t know when Jesus will return, we have to be ready at all times. As Jesus puts it,

“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

So, if we want to be chosen to receive the good gifts that God has promised to those who love him, to those who do his will, we have to be ready to receive them at all times because Jesus may return with them at any time. In other words, we have to be good, or else! We have to be in God’s good books and stay off his naughty list, or else! Or else we won’t get the good gifts that God has promised to his chosen people and which Jesus will come again to bring. In fact, if we’re not ready for him, when Jesus does return, it might not even be the case that we get nothing at all, but that we might get something we really don’t want – the punishment reserved for those who aren’t faithful to God and who aren’t busy doing his will, the

“…eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

as Jesus puts it a little later in St Matthew’s Gospel.

It might seem a little flippant to speak in terms of staying in God’s good books and off God’s naughty list, but I’m only borrowing here from that book so beloved by generations of Anglicans, the Book of Common Prayer where, in the service for the ordination of priests, we find those who are about to be ordained being exhorted to,

‘… seek after Christ’s sheep who are dispersed abroad and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever.’

So stay in good books and off the naughty list. Be good or Father Christmas won’t come, and you won’t get any presents. Be good or when Jesus comes you won’t get the good things that God has promised to his chosen, faithful servants.

It is very sad that our society has largely succeeded in taking Jesus out of Christmas and, in a sense, has replaced him with Father Christmas, but if we can see and remember this connection between them, we can be reminded of Jesus every time we see Father Christmas.

If we can see and remember this connection, we can be reminded of the real meaning of Christmas and the reality of what we’re preparing for during the season of Advent every time we see the jolly

old fellow in the red suit, whatever he may be called when we see him. If we can see and remember this connection, then no matter if we never hear Jesus’ name mentioned nor see his image outside the Church during our Advent preparation for Christmas we can be constantly reminded during this season of our need to be about God’s work and to be doing his will. Not just during Advent, as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth in Bethlehem just over 2000 years ago, but each and every day of our lives as we await his return in glory so that we will be ready to be chosen and receive the good gifts he will come to bring us.

Amen.

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The Propers for Advent 1 can be viewed here.