There can be no doubt whatsoever that one of the most important and influential people in the history of the Church and the Christian faith is St Paul. At the time St Paul was a persecutor of the Church, and known as Saul, the Church was a small sect within Judaism, a small and really quite insignificant group of what we today would call Messianic Jews; Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but Jews none the less. But that began to change, and change very rapidly, when St Paul was called by the Lord to take the Gospel to the non-Jewish, Gentile world. By the end of Paul’s life and in no small part thanks to his own missionary work, the Church had spread from its Jewish origins and home through what’s now Turkey and Greece, across the Mediterranean world to Rome. We’re sure St Paul didn’t found all the Churches in these areas but there’s no doubt that it was his missionary work among the Gentiles that paved the way for the Gospel and the Church to spread from its Jewish origins, out into the wider world and eventually, to spread throughout the Roman Empire.

But, while there’s no doubt that St Paul is a very important and influential figure in the history of the Church and its faith, there’s equally little doubt that St Paul was not the easiest of people. We know about his time as a persecutor of the Church, a tireless persecutor of the Church in fact, and that he was equally tireless in his efforts to spread the Gospel after his conversion to the Christian faith. So St Paul was what we might call a very driven individual, and people like that can often be very difficult people. In some early Christian writings and apocryphal texts, St Paul is described as,

‘A man of small stature, of three cubits (that’s about 4’6” or 1.37m in our measurements), with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and a somewhat hooked nose with a red face’

But it seems that St Paul might have had a case of what we would call ‘little man syndrome’ because whilst we also have descriptions of him having the ‘face of an angel’ we also read that he had the ‘temper of a demon’ which may have been the thorn in his flesh that he spoke about. And if St Paul, the man, was difficult, then no less difficult is St Paul, the writer and theologian. There’s no denying the importance of St Paul’s letters, which make up a large chunk of the New Testament Scriptures, but they’re not always the easiest of things to understand and perhaps one of the most enigmatic of all Paul’s writings is the third chapter of his Letter to the Galatians.

This morning, we only read the last a few verses of Galatians 3 and that doesn’t really give us the complexity of the argument St Paul uses to make his case that we’re all God’s children through faith in Christ.

Understandably given his own background as a devout Jew, and now Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles, one of St Paul’s great concerns is how Jews and Gentiles can be brought together as God’s people in the Church. As a Jew, he had great respect for the law, but he also believed it was unnecessary for Gentiles to convert to Judaism and live according to the law, in order to be members of the Church and to be saved. And so in St Paul’s letters we have this tension between what we might call the old way and the new way, the old covenant and the new covenant, between the Mosaic law and faith in Christ. We find this particularly in Paul’s Letters to the Romans and to the Galatians and we find it in this third chapter of his Letter to the Galatians.

St Paul begins Galatians 3 by calling the Galatians, fools because it seems that some of them at least were reverting to what Paul calls ‘works of the law’, in other words, they were intent on keeping the Jewish law and no doubt encouraging others to do the same. St Paul reminds them that they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit by works of the law, but by receiving the Gospel with faith. And he points out to them that Abraham was made righteous by faith, and on account of Abraham’s faith, God had promised to bless all people, long before the law had ever been given to Moses. 

Paul then comes up with a very cryptic term the ‘curse of the law’ and weaves a quite complicated argument around some passages of Old Testament Scripture to explain what he means. He writes,

‘For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—  so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.’   

We’re not quite sure what Paul means by the ‘curse of the law’. We can get a few clues though if we read this passage in conjunction with his Letter to the Romans, which St Paul wrote about 10 years later and in which he writes,

‘For the law brings God’s wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.’

‘Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.’

The only way it can be impossible to break the law is for there to be no law. Sin is still sin though, even if there is no law, but if there’s no law sin can’t be punished according to the law. But the coming of the law brings an awareness of sin; people know that they’re sinning because they know they’re breaking the law. That makes the sin worse and invites God’s wrath and brings punishment according to the law.

Perhaps this is what St Paul means by the curse of the law, but we can’t be certain. What we can say is that, for St Paul, the law, whilst it is good because it’s from God, can’t bring righteousness or salvation because only faith can do that, and the law isn’t the same as faith. Righteousness and salvation can only come through Christ who, by his death on the Cross becomes a curse, or perhaps accursed, for us so that the promise made to Abraham, the promise that all people will be God’s people can finally be fulfilled. And this comes not through keeping the law, not by works of the law, in other words, not by anything we do or have done ourselves, but by Christ’s death on the Cross and his Resurrection which gives rise to faith in Christ.

So for St Paul, the law, whilst good, was nothing more than a temporary measure, a guardian he calls it. The law was given to keep the people of Israel on the straight and narrow until Christ came to bring salvation both to them, and to all people according to the promise God had made to Abraham. And the way Christ did this was by his death and Resurrection because these are the things that brought all people, including the Gentiles, to faith.

Whatever else we regard as important about our faith, we should always remember that these are the most important things about our faith. These are the foundational events of our faith. We’re called a Resurrection people because our faith is founded on our belief that Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, and on the third day rose again from the dead.

In the first chapter of his Letter to the Galatians, St Paul speaks of his astonishment that the Galatians are turning from the Gospel he preached to them. St Paul doesn’t say what he preached to them, but we can get a good idea of what he said from what he wrote a few years later in his First Letter to the Corinthians;

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you… For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

This is the Gospel St Paul received and this is the Gospel he preached. This is what St Paul took to the Gentile world and this is what enabled him and his companions to spread the Gospel and enable the growth of the Church. Of course, St Paul preached many other things as well, things about the Christian life, and these things have been very influential in the Church and through his letters, still are. But the basis of the Gospel St Paul preached, the basis of his success as a missionary and evangelist was his proclamation that Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead  and was seen, not by a few people, but by many people after his Resurrection. And perhaps there’s a message in that for the Church today. A message that, instead of trying to get people into our churches by any means we can, for whatever reason we can, regardless of whether they’re coming to worship the Lord or not, we might do better to take a leaf out of St Paul’s book and proclaim Christ as our crucified and risen Lord and Saviour. To stop just trying to get people into church and start trying to bring people to faith by proclaiming our faith.

Amen.

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The Propers for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Trinity 1) can be viewed here.

The very first thing we read about human beings in the Bible is that we were created in the image and likeness of God. Quite how we’re made in the image and likeness of God has been the cause of a great deal of debate over the years. It’s usually thought to mean that we, human beings, in some way reflect some quality or characteristic of God but the question of how we do that, in what way we do that, is made more complicated because we, as Christians, believe that God is a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   

That’s quite in keeping with what we read in the first chapter of Genesis because the story begins with God, God’s Spirit and creation through God’s Word, which we believe to be God’s Son. And in creating human beings God says, 

“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”  

And this is seen as a conversation within the Trinity, a conversation between Father, Son and Spirit. The problem is that we can’t really explain how God can be three distinct and separate persons and yet be only one God. We can’t explain how each of the three distinct persons of the Trinity can each be fully God in their own right and yet be only one God rather than three gods. And if we don’t have the language to explain this, to explain the nature of God, how can we explain what it means for us, as human beings to be made in the image and likeness of God? It is a problem but it’s one I think we can answer at least to some extent, by looking at what the Scriptures say about each of the three persons of the Trinity and how we are called to show in our lives, what the Scriptures say about them.  

In the creation story in the Book of Genesis, the first thing that God creates is  light. Now although both the Son, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God are active in creation, we always see the source of all things as the Father. So the Father is the bringer of light. Later in the Scriptures, in the prologue to St John’s Gospel, we read about the Father sending light into the world through his Son and incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. And Jesus spoke about the Father’s light on a number of occasions during his ministry. In teaching his disciples to love their enemies, he used the analogy of God’s created light; 

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good…”   

And urged them to,  

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

And he called on his disciples to bring God’s light, the light of truth and understanding to the world; 

 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” 

So when we love others, regardless of who and what they are or whether we like them or not, we’re being like the Father, because that’s something he does. And when we bring the Father’s light to other people we’re bringing glory to Father. What were actually doing is, by showing others what we’re like, we’re showing them something of what the Father is like. We’re showing them something of the image of the Father in ourselves. 

As Christians, our basic calling is to be like Jesus Christ, that’s what the name Christian really means. And so, if giving glory to the Father is showing others what the Father is like, then our basic calling as Christians is to give glory to Jesus Christ by showing others what he is like through following his teaching and example in our own lives. And by doing that we give glory to the second person of the Trinity because if our lives can be lived in the image of Jesus, then they’ll also be lived in the image of the Son. Jesus himself spoke about this in his prayer to the Father during what we know as the Farewell Discourse in John’s Gospel.    

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me….All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.”   

So through our faith in Jesus and our obedience to his words, we give him glory because we show to others who he really is, the Son of God. And through our faith in Jesus and our obedience to his words we show in our lives the image of Jesus, the Son of the God.  

That brings us to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, we read that, 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 

and in his First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul explicitly states that God’s wisdom is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.   

…we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: 
“What no eye has seen,  what no ear has heard, 
and what no human mind has conceived”— 
the things God has prepared for those who love him— 
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. 

In St John’s Gospel, Jesus himself speaks about the Spirit as a bringer of understanding ‘the Spirit of truth’ as he calls him, and says,  

“…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”   

So wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God’s ways, and the fear of the Lord, reverence for God’s ways, are gifts of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.   

But Jesus said that the Spirit would also remind his disciples of everything he’d said to them. And in the Great Commission he gave to the Church, Jesus told his disciples to, 

“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” 

So in and by the power of the Spirit who leads us into truth, we’re called to lead others into the truth. In and by the power of the Spirit who leads us into wisdom, into knowledge and understanding of God’s ways, we’re called to bring others to know and understand God’s ways. In and by the power of the Spirit who teaches us fear of the Lord, reverence for God’s ways, we’re called to teach others to have reverence for God’s ways. And when we do these things, in and by the power of the Spirit, what are we doing other than revealing in ourselves and in our lives something of the image of the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity?   

Of course, to show the image of the Trinity more fully in our lives, we’d have to be one as the three persons of the Trinity are one, as Jesus prayed we may be. That we, though we are many, might be one body, as we pray each and every time we break bread together in the Eucharist. Sadly, we don’t seem to have become quite that wise, or that close to the image and likeness of God just yet. But nevertheless, in spite of our failings and in spite of the difficulty we have in describing God as Trinity, we can show in our lives at least something of the image and likeness of God as Trinity, through showing in our lives the image and likeness of the three persons of the Trinity. We can show the likeness of the Father by bringing light to the world. We can show the likeness of the Son by our obedience to Christ’s teaching and example. And we can show the likeness of the Spirit by leading others into the truth to which we ourselves have been led.   

Amen. 

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The Propers for Trinity Sunday can be viewed here.

During her coronation 70 years ago, Queen Elizabeth II was anointed with oil by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Because this part of the coronation service was regarded as so sacred, it was hidden from the TV cameras and the public’s view behind a golden canopy. And so too the archbishop’s words at the anointing were said in secret. What actually happened is that the archbishop poured the holy oil on the Queen’s head with a spoon and, as he did, he whispered these words:      

“Be thy head anointed with holy oil: as kings, priests, and prophets were anointed. And as Solomon was anointed king by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, so be you anointed, blessed and consecrated Queen over the Peoples, whom the Lord thy God hath given thee to rule and govern.” 

The symbolism of this was that at the anointing and through the anointing, the Queen was set apart to carry out the role and duties of Queen, she was blessed by God with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, to do these things. And I think we have to say that, over the 70 years that have passed since that moment, Elizabeth II has been very good at carrying her role and duties as our Queen. Whatever people may think about the monarchy itself, or individual members of the Royal Family, the Queen is widely admired and respected for her hard-working devotion to her duties. In that, the Queen is an example to us all, and not only in hard work and devotion to duty, but also in what it means to be given and use the grace of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.   

One of the things we often hear said in the Church is that God doesn’t give us tasks to suit out gifts, rather, he gives us gifts to carry out the tasks that we’re faced with. And yet how many things that need to be done in the Church, perhaps in a parish church in particular, are left undone, or added to the list of duties and responsibilities of those who already have more than enough to do, because people are so unwilling to take on any role, duty or responsibility? How often, when people are asked to take on a role in a parish do they refuse and say it’s because they don’t know how to do it, or aren’t very good at things like that, or have never done anything like that before? So, as with so many things, while Christians may profess a belief that God gives us gifts to carry out whatever tasks we’re faced with, very often it’s a belief that isn’t backed up by action.   

Something we all know, and that I’ve often said in sermons, is that the Christian life isn’t an easy life. And this is one of the ways in which it isn’t easy. As Christians, we believe that at our baptism, and confirmation too if we’ve been confirmed, we were blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.  

We were consecrated to God, set apart as one of his people, and we were anointed with oil to symbolise these things. We believe too that the Spirit gives us gifts enable us to live as Christians, to live the life we’re called to live as one of God’s chosen people, and to build up the Church. But all this doesn’t really amount to very much unless we’re prepared to do our bit too. The gift of the Holy Spirit doesn’t make much difference to the way we live our lives if we don’t or won’t listen to what the Spirit says to us. We waste the grace of God, the gifts that the Spirit gives us, if we aren’t prepared to use them. And, if we aren’t even prepared to try anything new or difficult, we can’t even know what gifts the Spirit’s blessed us with.   

As the words the archbishop of Canterbury spoke when he anointed the Queen at her coronation service tell us, anointing with oil is something we find frequently in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, prophets and kings were anointed to symbolise their holiness, their call to be dedicated to God’s service, and their reception of the Holy Spirit and the gifts to enable them to carry out the role and duties they’d be chosen for. But we also know from the Scriptures that anointing was simply the beginning of what God had called them to and that carrying out the task that God had chosen them for involved a lot of hard work, and often great danger.  

One of the best examples of this is the story of Saul and David. Saul was chosen to be the first king of Israel and was anointed by the prophet Samuel. But his reign wasn’t an easy one, he had to fight frequent wars against the neighbouring nations. Later, because he didn’t do what was asked of him, Saul was rejected by God, at which point David entered the story. David was the most unlikely of people to replace Saul as king, and yet he was the one who was chosen, and he was anointed by Samuel. But David’s rise to the throne wasn’t easy and his life was often in danger because Saul recognised that David was a threat to him and plotted against him. And even when David did become king, after Saul died, his life was far from easy. He didn’t always behave as one of God’s anointed ones should and so, through Nathan the prophet, God told David that the sword would never depart from his house.   

So, as both Saul, David, and many others we read about in the Scriptures found, being anointed in God’s name is only the beginning. To be and do what God calls his anointed to be and do involves a lot of hard work and it often means making hard choices and doing difficult, even dangerous things. And as we read through the Scriptures, we find that it’s the same for anyone who’s anointed with the Holy Spirit, regardless of the means of the anointing.  

In all the Gospels, we read about the Holy Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove and coming to rest on Jesus after his baptism. We see this as an anointing because as the Prayer over the Water that we use in our baptism services today says,  

In water your Son Jesus received the baptism of John 
and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, 
to lead us from the death of sin to newness of life. 

But immediately after his baptism and anointing with the Spirit, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where he was tempted for 40 days. And we know that Jesus’ life wasn’t an easy life. On the contrary, it was a hard life, a life of hard work, a life in which he was in frequent danger from those who plotted against him. It was a life full of difficult decisions about whether to do what God had called him and anointed him to do, or to do what was easier and safer. And ultimately, because Jesus chose to make those difficult decisions and do what he knew he’d been called and anointed to do, it was a life that led to his betrayal and arrest in Gethsemane and his death on the Cross.  

And it was a very similar story for those who were anointed with the Holy Spirit in the form of wind and fire on the Day of Pentecost. Despite the fact that at least some of those who were there that day had seen the risen Lord, and had witnessed his Ascension, they must have still been frightened. And why wouldn’t they be? They’d also seen Jesus crucified and that would have been something that none of them would have wanted to go through themselves. But nevertheless, as the Spirit gave them the gift to speak in different languages, they were willing to go out and publicly proclaim Jesus as not only their Lord and Saviour, but the Lord and Saviour of anyone who was willing to come to him in faith. And we know that was a difficult and dangerous thing to do. We know that as the Apostles and others who came to faith went out and used the gifts the Spirit had given them, they had a very hard time. We read in the Scriptures that they were arrested,  imprisoned and beaten. We know that they had to flee for their lives, that they were exiled and that some of them were executed for their faith. But despite all these things, we also know that they were willing to use the grace of God, the gifts God had given them through the Holy Spirit to make Jesus’ name and teaching known, and to build up the Church everywhere they went.   

For them, as for all of us, anointing with the Holy Spirit was only the beginning. It was the beginning of a new life in which they’d use the gifts the Spirit gave them in the service of God and his Christ, of his anointed one, and of his Church. It wasn’t an easy life but a hard and often dangerous one, but it was a life that they knew would lead to eternal life and so it was a life they were willing to lead despite the hardships and dangers.  

I think, when people in the Church today are so unwilling to take on roles and responsibilities, they’d do well to think about these things. I think when people are asked to take on roles and responsibilities in the Church, before they say, “I can’t”, “ I don’t know how”, “I’m not very good at things like that”, “I haven’t got time” or any of the other reasons people often give for not doing things in the Church, they might take time to think about their own anointing with the Holy Spirit at their baptism and confirmation. They might take time to think about the lives of the people we read about in the Scriptures who were similarly anointed in God’s name, and what they did with the grace God gave them through the Holy Spirit. Perhaps in particular, they might take time to think about what those who were present in that house on the Day of Pentecost did after they were anointed with the Holy Spirit. To think about that and to remember that, if those people hadn’t been prepared to use the gifts of the Spirit to do what was hard and even dangerous then, we wouldn’t even have a Church to belong to now.  

Anointing in God’s name which symbolises our reception of God’s grace through the gift of the Holy Spirit is always, only, ever a beginning. The Queen is respected and admired because, for her, it was the start of 70 years of devoted service to the role she was called to carry out. For Jesus, it was the start of a public ministry that led through hardship, danger and death to the glory of the Resurrection. For those disciples who were present on the Day of Pentecost it was the start of a hard life of devoted service of God, Christ and the Church, and for generations of Christians since, their anointing with the Holy Spirit at their baptism and confirmation has been the start of lives of similarly devoted service to God, Christ and the Church. It’s only because these people were willing to live these lives of hard working, devoted service that have a Church to belong to today. So, when people are asked to take on a role or responsibility in and for the Church, before they say ‘No’ perhaps they should take time to ask themselves, what use then are they going to put the grace of God and the gifts of the Spirit they’ve received? And perhaps they should also try to answer these questions; if they aren’t going to do these things, who will? If they aren’t willing to do these things, who do they expect to do them? If they aren’t willing to use the Holy Spirit they’ve been anointed with for the building up of the Church today, whose fault will it be if there is no Church to build up tomorrow?  

Amen.      

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The Propers for Pentecost can be viewed here.