Have you ever stopped for a moment to consider just how strange the way we construct our view of the world we live in actually is? If you’re not sure what I mean by that, just think about how we describe the world and it’s peoples; the way we divide the world and its peoples into categories. For example, we talk about the world in terms of East and West don’t we. But, in reality, East and West depend on your point of view. We talk about the USA and Europe as the ‘West’ and Russia and China as the ‘East’, for example. From China though, Russia is the West, the USA is East, and Europe could be either. So to divide the world into East and West is really rather ridiculous.

It’s the same when it comes to people. As wrong as it is, and it is wrong; both morally wrong and deeply un-Christian, one of the most common ways people are categorised is by the colour of their skin. We say they’re black, or white, or yellow. But have you ever seen anyone who’s skin actually is black, white or yellow? The only truly black people I’ve ever seen are in photographs of coal miners who’ve just come up from a shift at the coal face. The only truly white people I’ve ever seen are in paintings of people from bygone ages when women, in particular, painted their faces white because that was the fashionable thing to do at the time. And the only people I’ve ever seen who are truly yellow, are people who’ve been ill with some kind of liver disease. But nevertheless, we do categorise people according to the colour of their skin, even though it’s wrong and their skin isn’t any of the colours we say it is.

I’m sure we can all think of many other ways that we construct our view of the world by categorising things and people which, in reality, are actually quite meaningless in any objective sense. High and low in the Church, left and right in politics, Old World, New World, Third World and so the list goes on. If we thought about all these categories objectively, I’m sure we’d find them to be so ridiculous as to be laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that dividing the world and its peoples up in this way is such a serious problem. And it is a serious problem because when we construct our view of the world in this way what we’re really doing is sowing the seeds of division and conflict.

When we hold a view of the world that’s based on categories of things and people, what we’re doing in effect, is dividing the world and its peoples up and separating them into opposing camps; ‘us’ and people like us on the one hand, and ‘them’, people who are not like us, on the other hand.  And to make matters worse, we have people who are willing to exploit those feelings, to stir up mistrust and fear of those who aren’t like us in order to achieve power. People who then use mistrust and fear of those who aren’t like us to get others to follow them. People who instil their own personal prejudices and bigotry and hatred into the minds of others so that others will make those things their own.

A prime example of someone who did these things was Adolf Hitler. And he did these things so successfully that he became regarded as a saviour, a Messiah, to those he led, and his book Mein Kampf, My Struggle, a book filled with prejudice, bigotry and hatred based on racial and geo-political categories, became tantamount to scripture to his adoring followers, though we could even call them his worshippers. We know what following this false Messiah led to; a war of unparalleled suffering and devastation that engulfed the whole world and claimed the lives of somewhere between 70 and 85 million people.

And, of course, today, Remembrance Sunday is the day we set aside to remember those who died defending our own country in that war and in so many other wars that have taken the lives of our armed forces over the years.

History tells us that building a view of the world along a subjective ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality always leads to division and conflict. Can any of us actually think of any war in history that hasn’t had it’s roots in this way of thinking? But, as with so many other things, the danger of thinking in this way is spelt out to us very clearly by Jesus.

In this morning’s Gospel, we find the disciples admiring the temple. The temple itself is no longer there so we can’t be certain of what it was really like, but it’s thought to have been the biggest of the three temples that the Jews built in Jerusalem, so it was, no doubt, a sight to behold. As a symbol of their faith and identity as God’s people it was also no doubt a building the Jews were very proud of. That certainly comes across in the disciples’ admiration of the temple we read about this morning. But Jesus tells them that, as great as the temple buildings are, they’ll all be destroyed, that not one stone will be left standing on another.

In St Matthew’s Gospel, this story comes immediately after Jesus had lamented over Jerusalem’s failure to accept him and turn to God. And because of that, he says her house, perhaps the temple, perhaps the city, perhaps the Jewish state itself, would be left desolate, broken and empty. And indeed that is what happened. In the great Jewish uprising of 66-73AD, a war that set Jews against Romans, and even Jew against Jew as various Jewish factions waged a civil war at the same time, Jerusalem was sacked, looted and burned to the ground, and the temple was destroyed.

Jesus also warns in this morning’s Gospel about being led astray by false Messiahs; those who come in his name and say, “I am he.” We know that there were two more major wars between the Jews and the Romans in the century after Jesus’ Resurrection. Wars that led to widespread slaughter across the whole of the Eastern Roman Empire. Eventually, large parts of Judea, the Roman province that includes modern day Israel, was emptied of Jews because they’d either been killed or expelled, and they were banned from even visiting Jerusalem except for one day each year. At least one of the leaders of these revolts, Simon bar Kokhba, was acclaimed as the Messiah. But perhaps Jesus’ warning is more general one of not following anyone other than him for fear of being led astray from God’s ways.

And if we really do want to have a view of the world and its peoples that isn’t going to divide and cause conflict, if we want to build a world and a way of life that won’t ultimately be destroyed by conflict and war, then it is God’s ways that we have to follow.

Jesus said the greatest commandment, the most important of God’s ways, was that we should love God. If we do love God, then we’ll keep his commandments and one of those is not to covet what our neighbour has. But how much conflict in the world is caused because people do covet what their neighbour has? How many wars have been caused because people have seen what others have, want it for themselves, and are prepared to fight and even to kill their neighbour to take it?

Jesus said the second commandment was that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. If we did love our neighbour as ourselves, we wouldn’t argue with our neighbour or fight them, let alone kill them, would we? Because we wouldn’t want anyone to do those things to us. 

But how many wars have been caused because people have loved themselves far more than they’ve loved their neighbour? How many wars have been caused because, far from loving their neighbour, people have actually hated their neighbour?

We call God our Father. If God is our Father, we are his children, all of us, and that makes us all brothers and sisters. But do we regard our brothers and sisters as ‘them’? Don’t we rather regard our brothers and sisters as one of ‘us’, or perhaps even as part of ‘us’? So, if we really do follow God’s way, the way that Jesus taught us, how can we view other people in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’? Shouldn’t we rather see other people, whoever and whatever they are, as our brothers and sisters and as part of an all embracing ‘we’? And if we can see other people in that way, if we can stop dividing them into separate categories, won’t a lot of the reasons and causes of dispute and conflict be gone from our lives?

Of course, for disputes and conflict and especially for war to end, most, if not all people would have to think in these terms and that’s something people seem to find very difficult to do. And Jesus himself suggests that it’s something that is not going to happen before his return because he warns his disciples to expect wars and kingdoms to rise against kingdoms. But, while we might not be able to stop war, we can at least try to find peace in our own lives by keep God’s ways in our lives. We can try to see the world is less divisive terms and we can try to see other people as our brothers and sisters and treat them accordingly.

So today, let’s remember those who’ve died in time of war defending this country from those who wished or still wish us harm. Let’s give thanks for

the great sacrifice they made for us. Let’s pray that they now rest in the peace that war took from them in life. And in our lives, let’s try to be more like the children of God we are, and let’s pray that one day, the world will find that God’s way is a better way, a more peaceful way, and follow it too.

Amen.

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The Propers for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (2 before Advent) can be viewed here.

As I’m sure you all know, last weekend I had the privilege and pleasure to lead a group of people on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Apart from a couple of minor troubles on the journey to Walsingham, it was a very good pilgrimage and everyone who went said how much they’d enjoyed it; how physically and mentally refreshed they were, and perhaps even more importantly, how spiritually refreshed and uplifted they were after the pilgrimage. So it was, without doubt, a good pilgrimage for everyone who went on it.

Those of you who’ve been to Walsingham or who know something about Walsingham will know that Walsingham is very much in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England and the worship there is what the Church of England refers to as ‘high’. At the Mass, and it is always called the Mass, the priests wear vestments, much of the service is sung, they use sanctuary bells and incense, and the Hail Mary and Angelus are said. During the healing liturgies, in addition to the laying on of hands and anointing, there’s sprinkling with holy water and an opportunity to use the sacrament of Reconciliation, or Confession, as it used to be called. There are processions in honour of Our Lady of Walsingham and processions of the Blessed Sacrament, in fact one of the highlights of a pilgrimage to Walsingham, the highlight for many people, is the candlelit procession of the Blessed Sacrament on Saturday night. And the processions end with Benediction, a service in which the priest raises the Blessed Sacrament in blessing over the people.

Here at St Mark’s and St Gabriel’s we do some of those things, but by no means all. And one question I was asked by a number of people during last weekend’s pilgrimage was, ‘Why can’t we do all these things at our church?’ And indeed, why can’t we? The simple answer is that, in principle, there’s no reason we can’t do these things. The Anglo Catholic tradition and High Church worship is certainly where my own background and preference lies so, I’d be perfectly happy to do all these things. But, when we’re talking about the way we worship, we always have to remember that we’re not all from the same background and we don’t all like the same things. And we have to remember too that, while introducing something into our worship may please some people, it won’t please everyone. And so I think we need to tread carefully before we bring something into our worship that we haven’t done before, because the last thing we want to do is make people so uncomfortable that they decide to leave and go elsewhere, or just stop going to Church completely, which is even worse.

The arguments about tradition and about how we worship are very old, but nevertheless still ongoing, arguments in the Church of England. But, before you decide which side of these arguments you’re on, I’d like you to think about the words I’ve just used in talking about tradition and worship; my background and preference; we don’t all like the same things; what may please some, won’t please everyone. So these are subjective matters. They’re matters of personal preference, of what we like or dislike, what pleases us or upsets us; they’re personal choices based on our own preferences, likes and dislikes. They’re actually nothing whatsoever to do with what’s right and wrong in any objective sense, and yet so many people fall out about these things and, what’s far worse, form opinions about and attitudes towards other members of the Church based on these things. In effect, they fall out with other members of the Body of Christ and criticise them simply because they don’t happen to like the same things that they do.

And people do form opinions about and attitudes towards others based on what they do or don’t do in worship. As I’m sure I’ve said before, one church in which I served was excluded from the local Churches Together Group because we were too close to the Catholics and so, like them, we weren’t true Christians. At the very first Deanery Synod I went to as the vicar of this benefice, one person, someone I’d never met before in my life, refused to shake hands with me when we were introduced because he didn’t know whether I was Church of England or Catholic. I can only assume that person considers themselves a Protestant but, in fact, the Church of England has never, ever claimed to be anything but Catholic, we all profess our belief in that when we say the Creed. So I, along with everyone else in the Church of England is both Church of England and Catholic. And it goes the other way too; I well remember hearing a priest, in Walsingham actually, once talking about his vituperative hatred, his bitter and abusive hatred, for someone because they were in favour of the ordination of women. And another occasion when I heard a priest criticising a local parish for their low church ways and saying that they were ‘lower than a snake’s belly.’ I knew what he meant, but this was said quite publicly so I wonder what those who didn’t know that he was talking about their way of worship, thought he meant?  

There can’t be any doubt whatsoever that no one who claims to be a Christian should have opinions and attitudes like these, especially about other members of the Church. And these arguments are ridiculously stupid, they’re evil and destructive, both of those individuals who engage in them and of the Church as a whole; they’re sinful and, ultimately, they’re completely futile.

We simply can’t say, or hold the opinion, that our way of worship is better than another way, someone else’s way. We must always remember that the object of our worship, the one we worship, is God. And the only way that one way of worship can possibly be better than another way is by being more acceptable to the one we worship, by being more acceptable to God. And so, by extension, if we think our way of worshipping God is better than someone else’s way, we must believe that we are more acceptable to God than are those who worship differently than we do. And what is that other than the sin that Jesus condemns more strongly and frequently than any other, the sin of spiritual pride? 

Spiritual pride is the very first thing Jesus speaks against in the Beatitudes when he says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. It’s what he criticises the scribes and Pharisees for so often in the Gospels. He teaches against it in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector when he says it’s the humble, penitent tax-collector, the one who knows himself to be a sinner, rather than the proud, holier-than-thou Pharisee, who is justified before God. And this morning’s Gospel can teach us about the danger of spiritual pride in our worship.

The object of our worship is God and so what we do in worship becomes part of our offering to God. But in the Gospel, it’s not those who make a great show of what they offer to God who are praised by Jesus, it’s the poor widow who, to outward appearances offers much less to God, whom Jesus praises. The rich offer to God what they can afford to spare, but the widow offers everything she has. So, whilst to outward appearances the rich offer much more to God, in real terms, in God’s eyes, the widow offers much more and so her offering is the more acceptable even though in worldly terms it’s so little and it’s offered without show or ostentation.

What this tells us is that, in our worship, it’s not really what we do that matters, but the intention that lies behind what we do. It tells us that what’s important in our worship isn’t how much show we make of our worship, but what’s in our hearts when we worship. It tells us that worship that’s truly acceptable to God, isn’t about how we worship but that when we worship, and however we worship, we truly are offering to God the very best that we can offer. We’re putting our all, our very heart and soul into it, if you like.

We have to remember too, that our worship of God isn’t confined to the four walls of our churches. If our worship of God in church is going to have any meaning at all, if it’s going to be acceptable to God, it has to extend into our lives outside the walls of the church too. There’s no point in swinging clouds of incense in church if, when we leave the church the only thing that’s going up in smoke is our commitment to the Gospel. There’s no point in waving our arms around in ‘Alleluia’ in church if, when we leave the church, we wave our arms around as we throw the Gospel to the wind.

Whatever we do in worship, it will only ever be good enough if it’s the very best we can do. And what we do matters much less than the intention behind what we do. What really matters is that what we do comes from our hearts. So, if you’re sitting near the top of the candle, don’t look down in disdain on those on the candle stand and tell them they need to climb up because that’s where you think God is. And, if you’re on the candle stand, don’t try to cut the candle down to bring those at the top to where you are because that’s where you think God is. God is in both places and in all places in between and above and below wherever we happen to be. And God is out there in the world too, not just in church, and so we have to worship him in our lives and with our lives, not just in church and by what we do in church. And if we can worship God in lives and with lives lived in accordance with the Gospel then what we do in church will be coming from our hearts and then, whatever we do will be worship truly acceptable to God.

Amen.  

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The Propers for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.

Entrance Antiphon
Let us all rejoice in the Lord and keep a festival in honour of all the saints
Let us join with the angels in joyful praise to the Son of God.

The Collect
Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living,
that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
                                   Psalm 24:1-6
                                   1 John 3:1-3
                                   Matthew 5:1-12

RCL (St Gabriel’s)         Isaiah 25:6-9
                                   Psalm 24:1-6
                                   Revelation 21:1-6
                                   John 11:32-44