One of the staples of conversation between people must be what we watch on the TV. I’m sure if we think about the conversations we have with people, we’d probably all agree that subject crops up regularly in them. In that respect then, I’m probably something of a disappointment when people speak to me because I don’t watch TV very often. I never watch soaps, I’m not really interested in football, I really don’t see the attraction in reality TV shows, or celebrity TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing or I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, and I must be one of the very few people who’ve never, ever seen, nor has any interest in seeing, a single episode of Game of Thrones.   

Having said that, I do sometimes watch the TV. I have music channels on although in that case I tend to be listening to them rather than watching them, I watch films and I watch documentaries. And amongst the documentaries I do like to watch is one that seems to be known by various names but is actually called Autopsy, subtitled The Last Hours of… and completed by the name of the person whose death, and usually premature and often controversial death, is being investigated.   

I don’t know how many of you have ever watched this programme but if you have then, perhaps like me, you’ve been struck by a remarkable similarity between many of the people who’ve been the subject of the programme. They’re all famous people, celebrities. They’ve all been very successful in their chosen field, and they’ve gained the fame and wealth that success brings. And yet they’ve also usually been deeply flawed and unhappy people. Sometimes they’ve been people who’ve led very hedonistic lives and who’ve died prematurely because their lifestyle has eventually caught up with them. Sometimes they’ve been people who, despite their success and wealth, were wracked by self-doubt, by anxieties and insecurities and who’ve turned to substance abuse of one kind or another, and often multiple kinds of substance abuse, to help them through the bad times and who, in the end, have died prematurely because of the toll their abuse of tobacco, alcohol, various drugs, and even food, has taken on their bodies.  

It’s a programme, a documentary series, that I find very interesting but at the same time, I think it’s also quite sad and quite worrying too. It’s sad to see how so many people who, on the surface at least, had everything they ever dreamed of can be so troubled and unhappy. And it’s worrying because it shows that celebrity, success and the fame and wealth that go with it, far from being the stuff of dreams it’s usually portrayed to be by the media, can actually be the stuff of nightmares.  

It’s worrying to know that the celebrity lifestyle so many people aspire to and are encouraged to aspire to can actually be the cause of deep unhappiness and the tragedy of substance abuse, addictions and premature death.   

For a long time now, tobacco, has come with health warnings on the packaging because it’s known just how hazardous to health smoking can be. Alcohol usually comes with a warning not to drink more than a certain amount. Some drugs are illegal and those that are legal, whether they have to be prescribed by a medical professional or can be bought over the counter, come with warnings not to exceed a safe dosage. Even food comes with health warnings now in the form of advice on how much fat, salt, sugar and additives it contains. And yet, if the evidence of the TV programme Autopsy is to be taken seriously, one of the most hazardous things to our health and well-being is celebrity. And yet people are encouraged to want celebrity, or at least to aspire to a celebrity lifestyle, and this comes with no warning whatsoever about the potential dangers of such a lifestyle. Perhaps then, it would be a good idea to follow up any TV programme about celebrities, or any TV programme that encourages people to want a celebrity lifestyle, with an episode of Autopsy, just as a warning of what celebrity can do to people. Or perhaps people could just be pointed in the direction of this morning’s Gospel and the parable of the Rich Fool.   

What is this morning’s Gospel, the parable of the Rich Fool, other than a warning that success and wealth, at least in the earthly way we usually measure these things, don’t guarantee a happy life? What is it but a warning that earthly success and wealth don’t guarantee a long life? What is it but a warning that if we really do want to be happy and really do want long life, not necessarily a long earthly life which nothing can guarantee, but the long life of eternity with God, then we have to stop our striving after earthly success and wealth and make ourselves rich in other ways? What is it but a warning that if we do want happiness and long life, we have to make ourselves rich not in our own eyes or in the world’s eyes, but in God’s eyes?  

There’s no sense in this parable that Jesus condemns wealth in itself. What’s condemned here is the complacent, selfish and self-satisfied attitude that wealth can lead to. The Rich Fool is satisfied because he has enough for his own needs, more than enough in fact, and so he becomes so self-satisfied and complacent that he’s blinded to the needs of others. He thinks all he has to do is take care of himself and his own wealth and possessions. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he thought that if he took care of his wealth and possessions, if he kept them to himself, they’d take care of him. But that’s not only to be blind to the needs of others, to be blind to what God asks of us in loving our neighbour, ultimately, it’s also to be blind to our own needs too.  

It’s being blind to our own needs because only being rich in God’s eyes can bring us the happiness and long life that we all want so much.   

But as well as being a health warning to today’s celebrity obsessed society, this parable is also a very timely warning to a Church that itself is becoming increasingly concerned about wealth and status. How often, for example, when we hear from leading figures in the Church today, are they talking about politics rather than faith? How often do we hear them making pronouncements on general issues, jumping on the latest ‘woke’ bandwagon, for example, rather than proclaiming the Gospel? Of course the Church should have an opinion and a voice on all aspects of life, but its opinion should be how well any particular aspect of life and society conforms to the Gospel and the Church should leave it at that. The Church’s ministry is a prophetic ministry, it’s not called to jump on the bandwagon of popular opinion in an attempt to make itself ‘relevant’ or ‘acceptable’ to the world, but to call society and the world back to God through obedience to Christ. And it has no business and no mandate to do anything else other than that.   

And how often do we see parishes that are wealthy in worldly terms enjoying what amounts to preferential treatment over parishes that are poor in worldly terms? The Church may not want to accept that this goes on, but it does. I’ve mentioned before a parish church in a world-famous medieval market town which had 11 clergy attached to it. 1 parish; 11 clergy, and yet how many parishes are being told these days they have to share 1 priest between 2, 3 or more churches? Or a parish in an area regarded as nice and well-off that went into interregnum owing over £100,000 in Parish Share which, by their own admission they had no intention whatsoever of paying. And yet, there was never any question that they wouldn’t get a new parish priest, which they did within just a few months. And this at a time when the Church is telling parishes that they can’t have a parish priest unless they pay Parish Share in full. And sometimes, not even then.   

Whatever the Church may say, these things do go on because the Church very often does give preferential treatment to parishes and people who are rich and successful and famous in worldly terms. So the Church too, it seems, perhaps in its attempts to be relevant and acceptable to today’s society,  regards celebrity and the trappings of celebrity as something to be aspired to and rewarded. But this is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not the meaning of the parable of the Rich Fool.  

There are so many examples in the Gospel of what it means to make ourselves rich in God’s eyes, but perhaps this from the Sermon on the Mount in St Matthew’s Gospel is as good an any. 

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  

The Church though seems to be very anxious these days about the kind of worldly things Jesus tells us not to worry about. Could the reason why the Church is lacking these things today possibly be because it’s stopped seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and has turned its attention to more worldly things?    

In the parable of the Rich Fool, Jesus tells us that the way to happiness and long life, eternal life, is to make ourselves rich in God’s eyes, and what better way is there to do that than to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I’ll leave the last words though to someone who has been the subject of the TV programme, Autopsy: The Last Hours of Muhammad Ali. Ali said a lot during his life, and a lot was said about him, but perhaps among the best words are those written on his grave.   

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room in heaven. 

Amen. 

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The Propers for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.

In the lectionary that I use, and that we have copies of in the vestries of both churches in this benefice, against the Sunday readings there’s usually a few words in brackets that amount to a theme for that particular Sunday of the year. Today, those words are ‘God answers prayer’ and if we think about our readings this morning, there’s no doubt that’s a very fitting theme for today.  

In our Old Testament reading we hear about Abraham calling again and again on the Lord to spare the people of Sodom for the sake of a few just men who might be found there amongst the multitude of sinners. And again and again, the Lord hearing Abraham’s pleas and granting his request. This morning’s Psalm is a great song of thanks to the Lord for hearing the words of his faithful servant. Our reading from Colossians can be seen as an answer to the prayer that God may forgive us our sins and of course where we find that prayer is in the Lord’s Prayer which is the answer Jesus gives to his disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray, which we read about in the Gospel reading this morning. So there’s no doubt that ‘God answers prayer’ is a very fitting theme for today given our readings this morning.  

As Christians, we’re called to be people of prayer. We’re called to be people who pray regularly because we sincerely believe that God can and does answer prayer. For many people though, as I’m sure we all know, prayer is regarded as something of a last resort, something to try when all else has failed to help or to provide an answer when they’re faced with a difficult situation. But for us, prayer should be our first response to a problem or difficulty, or to any situation that’s of concern to us. We should be praying to God both for his help and for his guidance so that we can help ourselves. And as those people of prayer, I’m sure we all know what it’s like when our prayers are answered. At least I hope we all know that. I do, and I know many other people who do, including some here today, because they’ve told me about times when their prayers have been answered. But as people of prayer, we’ll know that there are times when it seems that our prayers are not answered. For all of us, there must have been times when what we’ve prayed so hard for, hasn’t happened, or what we’ve prayed so hard might not happen, has happened. So why should this be? How can we make sense of why some prayers are answered and some aren’t?    

I think a good starting point would be to think about what we read in this morning’s Gospel. Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them how to pray and, in response, Jesus teaches them what we’ve come to know as the Lord’s Prayer. But what is the Lord’s Prayer? What are we actually praying for in the Lord’s Prayer?  

One of the criticisms that’s sometimes made of intercessory prayers in the Church is that they can amount to little more than ‘wish-lists’, a list of things that we want, or at least would like, with a prayer that God will let us have these things. But in praying the Lord’s Prayer, that is, praying as Jesus said we should pray, there’s no great list of wants or wishes. In fact, what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer can be summed up under two headings; we’re  pray that we might live holy lives, dedicated to God and to his service, and for our daily bread, for what we need simply to live, and to live those holy lives dedicated to God. At the end of this morning’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples,  

“What father among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”  

So in the Lord’s Prayer, we’re praying for what we need rather than simply what we want and, as a good Father, God will give us what we need, especially the Holy Spirit so that we can be the holy people we’re called to be.  

So, for example, both parishes in this benefice are faced with financial difficulties at the moment and I know people are praying that we might find a way out of these difficulties. Some might be praying that someone might win the lottery and give the parishes vast sums of money to solve these financial problems. If they are, that prayer hasn’t been answered, at least as far as I know. But despite the financial difficulties our parishes are facing  perhaps that’s a prayer that shouldn’t be answered because do we really need the kind of money that a lottery win would bring? I’m not saying that this is always that case because I know it’s not, but in my experience generally, the wealthier a parish has been in financial terms, the more poverty stricken it’s been in spiritual terms. The more money a parish has had, the more worldly and obsessed about its money it’s become.  

And the more worldly a parish, or a person, becomes, the more likely they are to lose sight of the heavenly things we need to be God’s people. So, if you’ve ever prayed for a lottery win or something along those lines, even for a worthy cause such as helping your parish church, but that prayer hasn’t been answered, perhaps it’s not because God hasn’t heard your prayer, it’s because he knows what you’re praying for is not what’s really needed.  

That’s a slightly tongue-in-cheek way of making the point but another, far from amusing area of apparently unanswered prayers is our prayer for healing of the sick. We only have to look at the names of the sick on our intercessions list or hear them during the intercessions in church to know that many of the people we pray for have been ill for a long time; we’ve prayed for them regularly for a long time, and yet, many of them are not healed. In fact, they often get worse and some of them die while we’re still praying for them to be healed. So why aren’t these prayers answered?   

Well, again, I think we have to consider what’s needful in these situations. By that I don’t mean that illness and suffering are needful. In some certain circumstances where individual suffering happens for the sake of others you could make that case, and indeed that’s exactly what we see in the Passion and Cross of Christ. But on the whole that’s not the case. What I mean by needful is what’s needful to the individual whom we pray for, the one who is sick, the one who is dying. Whether we like it or not, and without wishing to sound too much like our dear friend Fr Neville Ashton, one day we’re all going to die. We get older, our bodies deteriorate, and we come to the end of our earthly lives. And we can, and do, eventually come to a time when, whilst we’re praying for healing as a recovery from illness and prolonged earthly life, the one who is ill is praying for a release from illness and suffering through the end of earthly life. In these circumstances, essentially, while we’re praying that they may live, they’re praying that they may die. And in these circumstances, whose prayer should be answered? What is most needful to the one we’re praying for in these circumstances. Of course, not every situation is like this but I think we always have to remember that eventually, and for all of us, the restoration to wholeness of health and life that we pray for the sick can no longer come in this life, but only in the next life and in those circumstances, whilst it may be very hard for us to bear, our prayer for healing hasn’t fallen on deaf ears, it’s just been answered in a way other than the way we wanted it to be.  

The knowledge that different people in the same situation can pray for different things also helps us, I think, in trying make sense of perhaps the other great area of unanswered prayer, our prayers for peace.  

I don’t think there’s anyone who would deny that peace is needful to all of us. I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t long for true and lasting peace in the world, and it’s something that we pray for constantly. But, as events in recent times have shown, peace is still a long, long way from being a reality, an answered prayer in the world. The problem though, I think, is not so much that some people don’t want peace, they do want peace, I’m sure they do, but they want it on their terms, and they’re quite prepared to sacrifice peace today so that they can impose their idea of peace tomorrow. But of course, because everyone has a different idea of what peace should look like, tomorrow never comes. But we shouldn’t really be surprised at this because didn’t Jesus himself say,  

“…you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” 

By Jesus’ own admission then, war is inevitable, so we shouldn’t be surprised that our prayers for peace in the world have not been answered in the way we’d like them to be. But that wasn’t the peace Jesus came to bring to the world anyway. The peace Jesus came to bring wasn’t peace between human beings but peace between human beings and God, and he gave us that peace though his Passion and Cross through which our sins are forgiven. And so when we pray for peace, we might see our prayer for peace in the world between human beings go unanswered, but our prayer for peace has already been answered in a different way because we’ve been given a peace that’s even more needful to us, peace with God himself, and that is a more needful peace because that’s the peace that leads us to eternal life.  

So does God answer prayer? Yes, certainly, it’s just that sometimes we’re praying for the wrong things and looking for the answer to our prayers in the wrong places.    

Amen.  

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The Propers for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.

 

Entrance Antiphon

God himself is my help. The Lord upholds my life.
I will offer you a willing sacrifice; I will praise your name, O Lord, for its goodness

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry,
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
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)         Genesis 18:1-10
                                    Psalm 15:2-5
                                    Colossians 1:24-28
                                    Luke 10:38-42

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          Genesis 18:1-10
                                    Psalm 15
                                    Colossians 1:15-28
                                    Luke 10:38-42