This morning we have two different Gospel readings in the benefice. The rest of the readings are the same, but the Gospel readings are different. At St Mark’s, the Gospel is the story of the woman taken in adultery who’s brought to Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees to test him, to see if he agreed that the woman should be stoned to death. At St Gabriel’s, the Gospel is the story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with very expensive perfume and in the process earning the disapproval of Judas Iscariot. So we have two very different Gospel readings in the benefice this morning, readings which at first glance perhaps, might not seem to have much in common. But are they really so different?

One obvious similarity of course is that both stories are about a woman who, either because of her actual sin of adultery in one case, or her perceived sin of profligacy in the other, earn the disapproval of others, the scribes and Pharisees in the first case, Judas in the second, who then bring their disapproval of what the women have done to Jesus. The second obvious similarity is that in response, Jesus rebuts their accusations against the women. But as well as these obvious similarities between these two Gospel stories, if we look at them a little deeper, and especially if we take them together, what these two seemingly different stories do have in common is in having something to tell us about fulfilling the Great Commandment to love God with all our heart and soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. And as both Gospel readings are about accusations made about one person by another or by others, I’ll start with what these stories have to tell us about loving our neighbour.

In the Gospel story about the woman taken in adultery, I think there is one glaring omission; where is her partner in crime? As the saying goes, ‘It takes two to tango’, so where is the man who must have been involved in this sin? Why was he not also brought before Jesus? So the first thing we can say about this Gospel story is that it’s about double standards, it’s about seeking to punish one person for doing wrong whilst letting another person get away with doing the very same thing. And how often do we see that in the world? I think double standards of this kind are perhaps one of the most common ways we fail to love our neighbour as ourselves because it’s something that happens so often in the world.

We don’t know anything about the man involved in the background to this Gospel story so we can only speculate about him. Was he was a man of some importance in his community whom the authorities wanted to keep out of the affair, if you’ll pardon the pun? Or perhaps it was simply a case of sexual inequality; it was OK for a man to have a bit of fun in this way but not for a woman. What we do know is that these things have and still do go on in the world. We also know that using double standards is something that we’re all tempted to do at times, and do at times. How often have we criticised or condemned another person, or other people, for doing something wrong but then turned a blind eye to, or even excused the same wrongdoing if it’s been committed by one of our family or friends? Indeed, how many times have we ourselves done wrong and tried to excuse or justify it in some way? But have we or do we ever stop to think about the way in which the wrong we do, or excuse, affects others, our neighbours? Because it always does and so if we do these things, if we use double standards, we can’t love our neighbour as ourselves.

Both of these Gospel stories are also about hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees in the story of the woman taken in adultery is quite obvious from their response to Jesus’ challenge,

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

They all went away and left the woman alone, with Jesus. It’s also clear from this story that Jesus doesn’t condone the woman’s sin because he tells her not to sin anymore, but neither does he condemn her for her sin. Quite the opposite in fact, he forgives her:

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

The implication of this is that Jesus is more critical of hypocrisy, of sinners who condemn sinners, than of the individual sinner and their sins.

Hypocrisy is quite easy to see in this Gospel story, but we can also see hypocrisy in the  story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus, in this case, the hypocrisy of Judas.  

When Judas saw Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, he said,

 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

And at first reading, Judas seems to have a valid point. Three hundred denarii was about a year’s wages for the kind of day labourer Jesus mentions so often in his parables. So it was a lot of money to spend on something to pour on someone’s feet, even Jesus’ feet. So surely this was a sinful waste of money, money that could have been put to better use. But we’re then told that Judas

‘…said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it.’ 

So what we have here is someone criticising the sin of profligacy to mask a sin he wanted to commit himself, that of getting his hands on some money so that he could steal it. And to make matters worse, trying to cover up his intended sin by telling lies about his motive. And how often do we see this happen in the world? How often do people shout about other people’s wrong doing or falsely accuse others simply to cover up their own sins? How often do we hear about corruption amongst those who run charities, people who raise money for good causes but then take vast sums of that money for themselves ? Jesus’ fiercest criticism was of the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of people who criticise and condemn sinners whilst turning a blind eye to their own sins. But it’s something we all do because we all want and try to take the moral high ground in arguments about who’s right and who’s wrong. But we can’t do that and love our neighbour as ourselves because we’re all sinners. In fact there are only two ways we can speak about sin and still love our neighbour as ourselves; one is to be sinless ourselves so that we can condemn sin, and the other is to condone our neighbour’s sins just as we condone our own.

The Gospel story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet also tells us something about loving God with all our heart and soul and mind. Jesus defends Mary against Judas’ criticism by saying,

“Leave her alone, so that she may keep it (the perfume) for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

Jesus’ words leave us in no doubt that far from being a sinful waste, Mary’s use of the perfume was right and proper. He acknowledges the poor and, in the context of the conversation with Judas, his words confirm that it’s right to help them. But that’s something that can always be done, at any time. In the context of Jesus’ own situation, this anointing is something that had to be done now because, in the context of his earthly life, Jesus wasn’t going to be with his disciples and friends for much longer.

In our context of course, we believe that Jesus is always with us, as he promised he would be. We believe that we meet him in other people, especially in the poor and needy, and we believe that in helping them, we help him, again as Jesus himself said we do. But we also meet Jesus when we come to church to worship God, and it’s in this context that this Gospel story speaks to us most vividly about loving God.

How the Church spends its money is, and for a long time has been, a controversial subject. For many people, Judas’ criticism of Mary’s profligacy is one that could be levelled at the Church. Over the years I’ve met quite a few people who’ve been very critical of the Church for spending vast sums of money on magnificent buildings, and lavish furnishings to go in them. I’ve met people who’ve said that the Church ought to be ashamed of itself for filling churches with gold and silver, expensive vestments and the like when there’s so much poverty in the world. I’ve heard the Church accused of hypocrisy for doing this. But our churches aren’t just buildings; they’re not just places where we happen to meet to sing a few hymns and say prayers. Our churches are holy spaces, they’re places dedicated to the worship of God; they’re supposed to glorify God, and the things we put in them and use in them are not just things, they’re holy things that’ve been blessed and consecrated to God to help us glorify him in our worship. And as holy places full of holy things dedicated to God, our churches should be places in which only the very best will do because only the very best of what we can give is a right and proper offering to God.

Perhaps we can put it like this. If we we’re told that Her Majesty the Queen wanted to join us for worship one Sunday, I’m sure we’d do everything we could to make that Sunday a very special occasion. We’d do a deep clean of the church, we’d sort out any problems we had with the building, a touch of paint here, a bit of replastering there. We’d have the vestments we were going to use cleaned, we’d use the best chalice and paten and make sure those were sparkling. We’d clean and iron all the altar linen. In short, we’d spare no expense to make sure the church was fit for a queen to come in to. And when it came to the liturgy, we’d practice and practice and practice again until it was spot on so that it would be fit for a queen too. But if we’d do that for our Queen, shouldn’t we do that much for God and Jesus too who, no offence to Her Majesty, are far more important than the Queen? The answer can only be, ‘Yes, we should’. Our churches, what we put in them and use in them, and what we do in them in worship should be the very best we can offer and the very best we can do, because only the very best is good enough for God and for Jesus. We need to remember that every time we use our churches for worship, we come into them to meet God and Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit and that is our chance to be with Jesus and it’s our chance to do as Mary did, to pour out the very best that we have to offer on and at his feet.

Jesus gave us a Great Commandment to keep. It’s a commandment in two parts; to love God with all our heart and soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, and we need to keep both parts if we’re going to be true to Jesus’ teaching and example. This morning’s Gospel readings teach us a great deal about keeping both parts of that commandment. They teach us about how difficult it is to love our neighbour as ourselves if we use double standards and are hypocritical in our dealings with others. They tell us how difficult it is to love our neighbour as ourselves if we can’t see ourselves as sinners. But they also tell us that offering the very best we have to God in worship doesn’t mean that we’re failing to love our neighbour. It’s simply showing that we love God with all our heart and soul and mind when we have the chance to do that. And it’s simply giving to God and to Jesus the honour and glory that they’re due and that we owe them in return for their love of us. 

Amen.

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The Propers for the 5th Sunday of Lent can be viewed here.

Perhaps one of the most difficult problems we have in the Church, and always have had in the Church, is knowing what to do when members of the Church act in ways that members of the Church shouldn’t. To be more specific, we have a problem of knowing what to do about, and with, those people who act in ways that Church members shouldn’t act and, by doing so, cause harm to other members of the Church and the Church herself.

Not adhering to the norms and expected codes of conduct is a problem for any human institution, from small clubs and businesses to nations, but it’s a particularly difficult problem in the Church, and for the Church, for a number of different reasons. First of all, we are supposed to be a forgiving people. So, if someone steps out of line, our first response should be to forgive them. But forgiveness is not the same as allowing people to carry on doing wrong so we have to urge those people concerned to return to the straight and narrow. That’s especially important when what those people are doing is causing harm to others. But, as I’m sure we all know, those who are doing wrong, especially if it’s to their benefit to do wrong, can be very pig-headed in their wrongdoing; they usually don’t want to stop. That means that they have to be confronted about what they’re doing which is another particularly difficult problem for the Church. Very few people like confrontation with others, but Christians are called to be loving and peaceable people so for us, confrontation is something we should want to avoid if at all possible. And what do we do if those who are doing wrong are causing harm to others and won’t stop? However hard it might be for us, as forgiving, loving and peaceable people, to take some kind of action against another person, sometimes we have to for the good of those who are being harmed, and for the good of all the members of the Body of Christ.

No matter how hard it might be for us to do these things though, we do have Jesus’ own very clear teaching about how to deal with these situations:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” 

At that time, Gentiles were not part of God’s people and tax-collectors were outcasts from God’s people because of their sinful ways. So this teaching of Jesus very clearly implies that if someone in the Church is doing wrong, we are quite justified in taking action to try and stop them and bring them back into fold. But, if they won’t listen, and won’t stop then, in the end, we’re to treat them as though they are not part of the Church.

But of course we are also called to be loving, forgiving people so we then have the problem of what to do if those who have done wrong in the past,  even those whom the Church has had to take action against in the past, come to their senses and want to return to the right path and to the Church . How do we then deal with those people? Should we accept them back into the Church? To what extent should we make them welcome? Should we welcome them back with open arms or should we take only them back with reservations? Should we put them on some kind of probation until they’ve proven that they can be trusted before we welcome them back fully? As difficult as it may be for us to actually do, this morning’s Gospel reading, the parable of the Prodigal Son, leaves us in no doubt that the Christian thing to do in these situations is to welcome such people back into the fold not only without reservation, but with joy too.

The parable of the Prodigal Son of course, is a parable about God’s love for us. It’s a parable that explains God’s joy in seeing a sinner come to their senses and return to him and God’s own ways. But Jesus said that to have seen him was to have seen the Father and so this is the same kind of love with which Jesus loved and still loves us. And, as Christians, that’s the same kind of love with which we’re called to love one another. So if and when people who’ve done wrong in the past come to their senses, change their ways and want to return to the Church, we’re called to welcome them back with open arms and with joy because that’s the Godly thing to do, it’s the Christlike thing to do and so it’s the Christian thing to do.

When we think about this problem, and in particular what Jesus said about treating those who won’t listen and won’t change their ways like Gentiles and tax collectors, it’s very easy, and perhaps even tempting to say that means we should simply kick them out of the Church and have nothing more to do with them. In fact, I have come across people who do think this way and take this line with those who cause problems in the Church. But we have to remember two very important things before we’re tempted to go down this route. The first is that none of us are wholly without fault; we’re all sinners so we’re in no position to take such a high-handed approach when we’re dealing with the sins of others. The second thing we have to remember is how Jesus himself dealt with Gentiles and tax-collectors.

Jesus said he’d come to save the lost sheep of Israel and, on the whole, that’s what he did; the mission to the Gentile world was one he largely entrusted to his Church. But we also know that, when Gentiles came to Jesus in faith, he treated them with same love and compassion he showed to Jews who came to him in faith. And we know too that Jesus actively sought out people like tax-collectors, if fact, he even chose one, Matthew, as one of his  twelve core disciples. But we see this most clearly perhaps in the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus if you remember was the rich, chief tax-collector  who climbed into a sycamore tree so that he could see Jesus as he passed through Jericho. Jesus saw him, called down from the tree and went to stay with him in his house. A lot of people were unhappy about that because Jesus had gone to be the guest of a sinner. But, the result of this encounter was that Zacchaeus repented, he changed his ways. He said,

“Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

To which Jesus replied,

 “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

So when Jesus told us to treat those who sin against us and who won’t listen to anyone and won’t change their ways, as Gentiles and tax-collectors, he wasn’t telling us to simply have nothing more to do with them. He may very well have been telling us to treat them as though they were no longer part of the Church, but he was also telling us to treat them in the same way that he did. To seek them out and try to bring them back into the fold. And if we can bring them back to their senses, and they are prepared to change their ways and act as Christians and members of the Body of Christ should, we shouldn’t only welcome them back but rejoice in having them back.

It’s always very sad when we have problems like this in the Church. It’s very sad when members of the Church act in ways that aren’t compatible with the Christian faith, and cause harm, great harm sometimes, to other members of the Church by what they do, but who won’t listen when they’re told what they’re doing is wrong and who won’t stop what they’re doing and won’t change their ways. It’s very sad, but it does happen. And when it does, we have to do something about it.

We are called to be forgiving, loving and peaceable people, but that doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye to the wrong that people sometimes do and simply allow them to carry on doing it. That in itself is just as wrong as the thing we’re allowing to happen. We have to stop wrongdoing for the sake of its victims. And, if we think about it from a spiritual point of view, we have to stop it for the sake of the perpetrators too, to stop the harm their doing to themselves. And we have to stop it for the sake of all the members of the Body of Christ.

But we always have to give those who are doing wrong the chance to come to their senses and change their ways. We have to try to bring them back onto the right path and we have to carry on trying to do that even if we do reach the point where we need to treat them as Gentiles and tax-collectors. And if they do come to their senses and come back to the right path, we should welcome them back in the same way that the Prodigal Son was welcomed by his father, with open arms and with joy. That’s not easy but we have to try to do that because that’s the way God our Father welcomes us back each and every time we sin then come back to our senses and return to him and his ways. We need to remember that we’re all sinners and we all do things we shouldn’t do at times and that the things we do can cause harm to others. And if we think about that honestly, how many times do we think, or do we know that we’ve been that prodigal one who’s needed to be welcomed back by God and to God’s ways?

Amen.

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The Propers for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Mothering Sunday) can be viewed here.

It’s now just over a year since my great friend and colleague, Fr Neville Ashton, died. I know that most of you knew Fr Neville too because he came to St Mark’s and St Gabriel’s numerous times to cover for me when I was on holiday. So I know too, because many of you have told me, just how well-liked Fr Neville was. That’s not surprising because he was a very friendly and approachable person, not to mention a very good pastoral priest, he was a good listener, especially when people came to him with problems. I also know that Fr Neville was well-liked for his preaching.

I knew Fr Neville for over 40 years and so I know that his style of preaching changed over the years. At one time he’d hand write or type out his sermons and preach from the pulpit. But over the years he stopped doing that and started preaching in front of the people. He also stopped preaching from a text and started giving short, homely talks that didn’t tax people too much either by their length or with complicated, academic style, theological arguments. But however Fr Neville’s preaching changed over the years, one thing about it remained constant and that was that there was a recurring theme in his sermons. And that theme was death. 

Death was a theme in Fr Neville’s sermons so often in fact that, when he was my parish priest, there was often a conversation in the vestry before Mass about how far he’d get into his sermon before he mentioned death; because he almost always did. Typically, he’d use the Gospel of the day to make a point about following Jesus’ example more closely and then he’d go on to say something like this:

“And you need to start doing this now because you never know what’s going to happen. The only thing we do know is that we’re all going to die. But we don’t know when. You might not be here tomorrow. I might not be here tomorrow. So you need to start doing this now because tomorrow may be too late.”

At which point, the servers in the Sanctuary and the choir in their stalls would all look at each other and smile.

To be fair to Fr Neville, he was making a very good point, and one that needs to be made. The trouble was, he made it so often, that it lost its impact and became something of a running joke.

And that’s a shame because what Fr Neville said so often does need saying from time to time. I’ve mentioned it today because, to all intents and purposes, it’s exactly what Jesus is saying in this morning’s Gospel.

When we read this Gospel story, we have to bear in mind the understanding of the people of Jesus’ day. To them, personal sin had a direct effect in and on life. So, if someone was ill, or if something bad happened to them, such as with the people mentioned in the Gospel, it was regarded as the result of their sins; the punishment if you like, for their sins. And that’s what Jesus is referring to when he asks if people think those Pilate had killed and those who died when a tower fell were worse sinners or more guilty than other people. In the popular understanding of the day they probably were but Jesus tells them, ‘No’, they weren’t. These people were no worse than anyone else and so if they could die so suddenly and unexpectedly, it could happen to anyone, at any time. And Jesus says that his listeners will die in the same way unless they repent.

We also need to think here about the circumstances of these people’s deaths. We’re told that the Galilean’s blood was mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. We can only assume that the blood of their sacrifices refers to the blood of the animals they were sacrificing to God. So these Galileans must have been killed whilst they were at worship. The tower at Siloam that fell killing eighteen people must be associated with the Pool of Siloam in which Jesus told a blind man to wash, in the course of restoring his sight. We know that the Pool of Siloam was adjacent to the Temple Mount and that water from the pool was used in temple worship at times. So these eighteen may have either been leaving the temple or making their way to the temple when the tower fell and killed them. In other words, all these people probably died either shortly before worshipping God, while they were worshipping God, or shortly after worshipping God.

That gives an added dimension to Jesus’ words. These people who died were, to all appearances, good people. They were good Jews who worshipped God. And yet they died, suddenly and quite horrifically really. And Jesus tells those he’s speaking to that they are no better than these people. He’s telling them that, if this can happen to people who worship God, people who are no worse than anyone else, it can happen to you too, at any time. These words of Jesus suggest that those who died, and his audience were all in the same boat, they worshipped God, but they were all unrepentant sinners too. Does that also apply to us? Those who died were no worse than those he was speaking to, but they were probably no better either. They worshipped God but they died, suddenly, and if it can happen to them it can happen to anyone, it can happen to you, and me, too. And they, and we, might not be here tomorrow so the time to repent is now. Which is the warning Fr Neville gave people so often in his sermons.

Of course, we believe in a God who is loving and merciful. We believe that the price of our sins has already been paid, in blood, by Jesus on the Cross. So we don’t have anything to worry about do we? But, as I said in my sermon last Sunday, we have a covenant with God, a deal, a deal sealed in the blood of Jesus. We can be forgiven and have eternal life, but we have to believe in Jesus and follow his teaching and example. Part of doing that is to be repentant. We have to accept that we are sinners but do our very best not to sin. We can’t think that Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross means that we can do as we please and we’ll be OK because Jesus has already suffered for our sins and paid the price of them. We have to keep our side of the covenant. And this is what the parable of the unfruitful fig tree we heard this morning is telling us.

The fig tree had been unfruitful for three years, so the owner decides to cut it down. But the man who tended the fig tree wanted to give the tree another chance, one more year to see if it would bear fruit. In the context of his ministry, what Jesus seems to be saying here is that the people have had three years to repent and bear fruit; they’ve had the three years of his ministry to do that. But that ministry is now coming to an end because he’ll shortly be making his final journey to Jerusalem where he knows he’s going to be betrayed, arrested and put to death. At this point, there’s still time to repent and bear fruit, but there’s not much time left.

And isn’t that always the case for us? We’ve had a lot more than three years to listen to Jesus, to repent and bear fruit, in fact, we’ve had our whole lives, or at least, the whole of our lives from the time we first heard the Gospel, to do that. And for most of us, there’s still time, plenty of time hopefully, to repent and bear fruit. But we can’t ever be certain of that because none of us know exactly how much time we’ve got left do we. We may live another ten, twenty, thirty years. Some of us may live a lot longer than that. But on the other hand, we may walk under a bus tomorrow and then our time will be up. We simply don’t know.

What we do know is that one day our time will be up and then our future will depend not on what we could do or could have done, but on what we did do. And we never know when that time will come. You might not be here tomorrow. I might not be here tomorrow. So if we’re going to repent and bear fruit, the kind of fruit that we’re called to bear under the terms of the deal we have with God, the time to do it is now, while we still can, before it’s too late.

Amen.

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The Propers for the 3rd Sunday of Lent can be viewed here.