Last Tuesday, 29^th June, was the feast day of St Peter and St Paul. Because of the date of that feast of the Church, this time of year is often referred to as Petertide, and it’s the time of the Church’s year in which ordinations to the sacred ministry usually take place. Ordinations do take place at other times too, at Michaelmas which is in late September and gets its name from the feast day of St Michael and All Angels on 29^th of that month, but most ordinations will have taken place over the past week during Petertide.

Part of the service of ordination involves those being ordained taking sacred vows and one of the things the clergy are asked to do during Holy Week, is to attend a Chrism Mass where they renew their ordination vows on an annual basis. But in addition to that, the anniversary of their ordination is a time when the clergy often like to think about their ordination vows and to perhaps reflect on how well they have, and are, keeping them.

That’s certainly something I’ve done this week and having done that, when I read this morning’s readings in preparation for this morning’s services, it brought the difficulty of keeping one ordination vow in particular, very much into focus. It’s the vow, or declaration as they’re now called, in which those being ordained are asked by the bishop, “Will you endeavour to fashion your own life and that of your household according to the way of Christ, that you may be a pattern and example to Christ’s people?” To which they answer, “By the help of God, I will.” The greatest difficulty with this vow is that, in addition to the help of God and our own endeavour, keeping it also requires the understanding and cooperation of our household and, as I’m sure we all know, our families can very often be the hardest of all people to proclaim the Gospel to because they know only too well how often we fail to fashion our own lives on the way of Christ.

The way of Christ, of course, is the way of God, and so to call people to fashion their lives on the way of Christ is a prophetic call. When we speak about prophecy today, we usually mean some kind of fortune telling or prediction of the future. But whilst the biblical prophets did make that kind of prophecy, their main role was to call a people who’d gone astray and who were neglecting God and his ways, to turn from their sins and live as God intended them to live. But, when we try to fulfil that prophetic call by urging people to turn to Christ, and it’s a calling that all Christians share, not just the ordained, we’re quite likely to be met with the response that the prophet Ezekiel was warned to expect, by God, in this morning’s first reading: it’s very likely that we won’t be listened to.

There’s no sense in Ezekiel that he wasn’t listened to because of his own previous life or behaviour. Ezekiel was a priest, albeit a priest in exile in Babylon, but a priest nonetheless and so he was probably a respected member of the Jewish community and faith. It seems that the people’s unwillingness to listen to him was rather a matter of hard-heartedness, stubbornness on their part, and a refusal to listen because they preferred their own ways to God’s ways. But if we ask members of our own family to change their ways, it’s quite likely that one of the main reasons they won’t listen to us, is because they know all about our own un-Godly ways. I certainly remember an occasion, not too long after I’d returned to Church in my late teens, when I was witness to a few members of the parish congregation taking part in some really quite nasty name calling and gossiping about other members of the congregation. When I pointed out that this wasn’t the way Christians should be carrying on, I was told very bluntly, by a member of my own family, to shut up. I was reminded that I’d only been going to Church for ‘5 minutes’ whereas they’d been going for years and so I was told that I had no right to tell them what to do. And that was followed by a litany of un-Christian things I’d done during my teenaged years when I wasn’t going to Church!

If we’re honest, we all know about the un-Christian things we’ve done in the past, and we’re all aware of the un-Christian things we incline towards in the present. Like St Paul, we might call our un-Christian inclinations our ‘thorns in the flesh’. We all have them. No doubt we all wish we didn’t because we’d be able to fashion our lives more closely on Christ if we didn’t. We might think that, if we could get rid of our thorns in the flesh and be better Christians ourselves, perhaps then people might be more inclined to listen to us when we ask them to fashion their lives more closely on Christ. But would they really? God’s warning to Ezekiel that people might not listen to him tells us that there’s no guarantee that people will listen to us, no matter how closely we fashion our lives on Christ. And the Lord’s answer to St Paul, suggests that it’s for our own good that we’re not perfect ourselves.

For one thing, it stops us from being too proud of ourselves and it also allows those who want to listen and see, to understand that the Gospel life we proclaim is from God, not from us. Our faults and failings, our thorns in the flesh, allow those who want to see and hear to understand that the Gospel life we proclaim isn’t about urging them to follow our example, but about urging them to follow the example of Christ.

And urging members of our own household to fashion their lives on Christ, in spite of any difficulty or opposition we may face from them, is in itself fashioning our lives on Christ because it’s something Jesus himself did. We read about it in this morning’s Gospel when Jesus tried to teach the people of his hometown. Rather than listening to what he had to say and taking it to heart, the people there, the people who thought they knew him so well, responded by saying what amounted to ‘Who does he think he is? He’s just a carpenter! We know him.’ In a way, that’s a similar response to the one I received when I questioned those people from my own parish and family about their name-calling and gossiping but it also reminds me of a story I was once told by a now retired priest. A good number of years ago, he’d been asked to consider becoming the vicar of the parish in which he’d grown up but, after he went to have a look round the parish, as you do when you’re asked to consider taking a parish on, he decided against it. And the reason he gave was that he didn’t think he would be able to command enough respect to be the vicar in a parish where so many people knew and remembered him but, where so many people had reminded him during his visit, they only knew and remembered him as a ‘cheeky young lad’. 

The Christian calling to proclaim the Gospel is the call to a prophetic ministry. But, as Jesus said in this morning’s Gospel,

“A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 

And so the most difficult people to proclaim the Gospel to, are the members of our own family, not least because they know us so well and know all about the times and the ways that we have and do fail to fashion our lives on Christ. But, whilst they may not want to listen to us, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t still try to proclaim the Gospel to them. As God told Ezekiel, whether people want to listen or not, they still need to know that there are prophets amongst them. And so we need to be those prophets and proclaim the Gospel to them. Our families might well know all about our ‘thorns in the flesh’, and we might well wish they didn’t. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t still try to proclaim the Gospel to them. As St Paul found, the fact that we’re not perfect ourselves can actually help us to proclaim the Gospel because our own faults and failings give us humility and allow us to point people away from our own example and towards Christ and his example. And, as it is Christ’s example we’re called to follow and on him we’re called to fashion our lives, regardless of who we are, our background and what people know about us, or think they know about us, regardless of the lack of faith we might find amongst our own household and family, we should still proclaim the Gospel to them because that is Christ’s example.

The question, ’Will you endeavour to fashion your own life and that of your household according to the way of Christ, that you may be a pattern and example to Christ’s people?’, is one that those who are about to be ordained to the sacred ministry of the Church are asked to answer in public, and in a formal way. But it’s a question which all Christians should ask, at least of themselves, because it’s something that all Christians are called to do. And it’s a question that all Christians, both ordained and lay, should answer in the same way. Regardless of the attitude of our household, our family, towards our endeavours to do it, the answer is, and always should be, “By the help of God, I will.”

Amen.

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The Propers for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.

In my sermon last Sunday, I spoke about the prevailing attitudes in the Church of England and questioned whether the current secular business model, woke agenda driven road the Church seems intent of following at the present time was the road the Church ought to be on. I asked whether this road would actually solve any of the Church’s current difficulties and suggested that the Church would do far better if, instead, it had the faith to turn, or return, to Christ and the Gospel for answers to its problems. Today’s readings give further evidence, if indeed any was needed, that this is indeed exactly what the Church ought to be doing.

Our first reading is from the book of Wisdom. As I’m sure you know, in scriptural terms, wisdom has very little to do with secular knowledge and the amount of information we have, but is about knowing the right thing to do, in God’s eyes, in any situation. And what wisdom tells us, or reminds us, in our first reading this morning is that God created us in his own image, and he created us to live in health and happiness. And wisdom tells us that it’s only through the devil and his followers that death and destruction have entered the world. So, the wise person knows that they’re made in the image of God and knows that, to live that good, happy, healthy, and ultimately eternal life God intended us for, we need to live in God’s likeness. The wise person knows that, to follow the devil leads to unhappiness and death. For us, as Christians then, the path to health happiness and life lies in following Christ and not in following the world and its ways.

Another book of the Bible that’s regarded as wisdom literature is the Book of Psalms and the wisdom this morning’s Psalm gives us is that it is the Lord our God who rescues us from our enemies and raises us up. It tells us that, if we call on the Lord, he will hear us and come to our help. It also reminds us that it is to God that we should give thanks for our salvation. So, what this morning’s Psalm tells us, is that the wise person knows that, when they’re faced with problems and difficulties, they should turn to God, in faith, for answers and solutions, confident that the Lord will hear and answer them. And it tells us too, that the wise person then thanks and praises God for his grace and goodness. It tells us too, that the wise realise that they do need God’s help and that they can’t solve every problem and overcome every difficulty without it. And they are thankful, not proud and self-congratulatory.

Usually when we think about wisdom literature, we tend to think of the books of the Old Testament, but I think we’re quite justified in thinking about the New Testament as wisdom literature too. If wisdom is about knowing the right and Godly thing to do in a situation, what is Jesus’ teaching other than wisdom? And if large parts of the Gospel are concerned with wisdom, aren’t the large parts of the rest of the New Testament that urge and encourage people to follow Jesus’ teaching and example concerned with wisdom too?

And so we can see this morning’s reading from 2 Corinthians as imparting wisdom because, in encouraging the Church in Corinth to be generous, St Paul reminds them that this is only following Jesus’ own example. We know that the cause St Paul was asking the Corinthians to be generous in supporting was a collection to help the Church in Jerusalem and Judea. And St Paul explicitly identifies the generosity of Christians in this cause as a manifestation of the grace of God in their lives. The message, I think, is clear. The wise do not hoard up treasure for themselves whilst others are in need. The wise do not hoard up treasure for themselves and then pat themselves on the back for how worldly wise they are in accumulating their vast riches. And most especially, the wise do not do these things while their brothers and sisters in Christ are in desperate need of help. Rather, the wise show the grace of God in their lives by following the example of Christ and letting their own example of generosity be like his. And the wise don’t share their riches and good fortune grudgingly, but willingly, and they give thanks to God that they’ve been so blessed that they can be generous in helping those in need. 

And we see these all things come together in this morning’s Gospel. The leader of the synagogue, Jairus, turning to Jesus, in faith, to heal his dangerously ill daughter. The woman who’d suffered for so many years, a woman with so much faith that she believed the mere touch of Jesus’ clothes would be enough to cure her of an ailment that no amount of human assistance had been able to cure. And Jesus who, despite the crowds that were pressing in on him, knew that someone had touched him. Not the touch of the pressing crowds but the touch of someone who’d come to him in faith, to be healed.

I think we have to consider here the situation Jesus found himself in. Jesus was every bit as human as you or I. How easy it would have been for him to be so taken in by the attention and perhaps adulation of the crowd, that he would have become more concerned with his own importance than with the needs of a few individuals. But rather than the selfish pride that might be expected in that situation, we see the completely selfless generosity of Jesus who was more concerned with the problems of two individuals in need than with the attention he was receiving from the crowd.

What we also see contrasted in this morning’s Gospel, are the differing rewards for those who have faith, and those who don’t. The woman who came to Jesus in faith, and who fought her way through the crowds to reach him, was healed. But when Jesus arrived at Jairus’ house and told those who were there that the little girl was not dead but sleeping, he was greeted with scepticism and laughter. No doubt that scepticism and laughter would have come from people who were worldly wise enough to know a dead person when they saw one. Their reward, the reward for their worldly wisdom and lack of faith was to be turned out of the house by Jesus. But the reward for those who did have faith, and who came to Jesus in faith, was to have their prayers answered and to witness the great miracle of the little girl being raised from the dead.

In his Letter to the Romans, St Paul asks,

‘If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?’

This morning’s readings should leave us in no doubt that God is for us. We know that God sent his own Son to teach us his ways and gave him up to death for our salvation. But if we want to have everything else, all that God offers us, we have to have faith, and turn to him, in faith. And if we have that faith, the only people who can be against us are those who put more store in human wisdom than in heavenly wisdom and who have more faith in themselves and the ways of the world than in God and his ways. In particular, those who are against us are those who, as Jesus put it, say ‘Lord, Lord’ but who do not do the will of the Father. And those who are most against us are those who say ‘Lord, Lord’ and say that they act in God’s name and to his glory whilst they do the will of the world and encourage others to do the same.

This morning’s Gospel tells us though, that the reward for those who are worldly wise but have no faith and for those who laugh and scoff at the faith of others, is to be turned out of the house by Jesus himself. So with that in mind, let’s be the wise people we’re called to be and remain faithful to God and to Jesus. If we can do that, then we can rest assured that the opposition of those who are against us, is only temporary, it is for this life only. And so, as difficult as those who oppose us can make this life, let’s never forget that, as long as we are wise and have faith, God is for us, and with us, and always will be. If we can do that then we can have faith too that, when the time comes for us to enter God’s house, Jesus will not turn us out, but take us by that hand and invite us to rise up and eat with him in his heavenly home.

Amen. 

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The Propers for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.

It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that for many years now the Church has been adopting an increasingly secular business model of operating. One way we see this in the way the Church treats and staffs parishes. When a parish church goes into interregnum these days, there’s no guarantee that it will get another parish priest. Instead, it’s on the cards that it will be put into a united benefice or team ministry and have to share a priest with one or more other parishes. It could be, especially if it hasn’t paid parish share in full, the PCC of a parish church may come under pressure to close their church, for the good of the wider Church. And doesn’t this mirror the way unprofitable branches of secular businesses are treated?  Because aren’t they subject to staff cuts, amalgamations and closures, and told it’s for the good of the business as a whole?

We see it too in the way the Church adopts policies taken from secular society. These days, it seems, if society sees fit to have a policy for something, the Church follows suit and produces one too. In the society we live in of course, some policies are required by law, but does the Church have to follow secular models when it produces policies? And how much does the Church pay people to produce them? And it seems that the Church isn’t only concerned about statutory and business practices when it comes to adopting policies because to many people in the Church today, it seems that the Church is far too keen and quick to jump on the bandwagon of every agenda item that today’s ‘woke culture’ throws up, and to produce a policy on that too.

Perhaps, before the Church goes any further down the secular, business, woke culture road it seems intent on following these days, before it goes so far down that road that it can’t turn back, it needs to stop and take some time to think and reflect. To take the time to think about what the Church is, what it is called to be, and what it is, in truth, becoming.

The Church is very keen to tell ordinands preparing for ordination to sacred ministry in the Church, and to tell the clergy too, that they must have, and practice, self-awareness. Ordinands and clergy are told repeatedly that they must strive to see themselves as others see them, and especially to try to see themselves in the light of Christ’s teaching and example. We’re told to seek the help of others to help us to do that. We have to complete Ministerial Development Reviews to help us to be more self-aware and Christ-like. And it’s expected of us that we have a spiritual director to help us to do these things on a more regular basis than the bi-annua MDR. But perhaps now is the time for the Church herself in the persons of those who lead the Church to practice some self-awareness and to seek help too. 

Many people in the Church, both lay and ordained think it’s high time that the Church remembered that it is a Church and not a business. It’s high time that the Church remembered it is a Church and not a community aid organisation with Christian origins and religious trimmings. It’s high time that the Church remembered that it’s purpose for being is to call the world to the ways of Christ and not to lead Christ’s people into the ways of the world.

As important as finances and policies for people’s safety and well-being, and for justice and equality are, and those things are important, it’s high time that the Church remembered that it doesn’t need to follow the world’s lead in dealing with these things.  It’s high time the Church remembered that it already has a policy for dealing with all these issues. The Church has had a policy for dealing with these things for 2,000 years. The Church was founded on that policy and it’s a policy that’s superior in scope and understanding to anything that human society has devised, or can ever devise, because it’s a policy that’s been given to us by God. The policy was given to us, in person, by God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, and it’s called the Gospel.

In our Gospel reading this morning we read the well-known story of Jesus calming the storm, not to mention the disciples fears. And we could liken the disciples situation in the Gospel to the situation the Church is in today. The disciples were out in a boat in stormy weather and rough seas, and they were frightened that the boat was going to sink. And we could say that the Church is in stormy weather and rough seas today, and many people are afraid that the Church is in danger of sinking. But I think we really do have to ask the extent to which the Church’s problems have been self-inflicted because, whilst in the Gospel, the disciples turn to Christ for help and salvation, can we really say the same has always been true of the Church? Isn’t it the case that often, and far too often, that Church has, and is, looking to the world for solutions to its difficulties?

The Church, certainly in our time and place, is obsessed with money, and I don’t think obsessed is too strong a word to use. The Church is quite open today that the way it operates is driven by concerns about money. But isn’t the Church supposed to follow Christ’s example? And didn’t Jesus drive the money men out of the temple saying that they had turned his Father’s house, a house of prayer for the nations, into a marketplace and a den of thieves?

These days, the Church is quite open in saying that the way it treats and staffs parishes is driven by concerns about money. This coming week a local parish priest will be ‘welcomed’ as the incumbent of 2 parishes in north Manchester, though I should say as incumbent of 2 more parishes because he already has one parish in this diocese. 3 years ago, when my wife, Diane, and I were on holiday, we visited a well-known, world-famous, in fact, medieval market town in the West Midlands. When we visited the parish church there, we noticed the ‘Who’s Who’ board in the entrance which showed that, in addition to a parish priest and a curate, they also had 1 assistant priest and 8 associate priests attached to the parish. World famous medieval market town: 1 parish – 11 clergy. North Manchester: 3 parishes – 1 priest. And yet don’t we read in the Gospel that Jesus and his disciples had a common purse? And don’t we read that in the Acts of the Apostles that the early Church shared all things, everything they had, in common? The Church has a lot to say these days abut justice and equality, is that situation I’ve just described just or equitable?

One of the most shameful things that has gone on in the Church is the way people, especially young people have been abused over the years. What’s even more shameful is the fact that those in authority in the Church have known about it and covered it up. And so, understandably now these things have come to light, the Church is very keen on safeguarding, and all parishes have to have a safeguarding policy and safeguarding officer. But hasn’t the Church always had those things? Aren’t we all, each and every one of us, safeguarding officers? And haven’t we always been? Because didn’t Jesus say,

“… whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Doesn’t the core of the Gospel, the great commandment to love your neighbour as yourself more than adequately serve as a safeguarding policy to prevent these things happening? It does as long as it’s observed. That the Church’s little ones have been abused, that the Church has known about it and done nothing except try to cover it up, is ample evidence that the Church has had total disregard for this, its own God-given, Gospel safeguarding policy.

And doesn’t the commandment to love your neighbour as yourself also more than adequately serve as a policy on justice and equality? How can there be injustice and inequality if we really do love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves? And if the Church needs that to be explained more clearly, then it’s simply a matter of reading St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians where he writes,

‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’

I think the truth of the matter is, that many of the Church’s problems are, to some extent at least, self-inflicted because they stem from the Church’s own hypocrisy. They stem from the Church ignoring or paying little more than lip service to Christ’s teaching and example. At one time, because the Church was held in such high regard and with such respect, the Church could get away with that. But these days, it isn’t and can’t get away with it any longer. And because the world is criticising the Church and holding it, and its leaders especially, up to the light of the world’s scrutiny, the Church and its leaders are trying to appease the world by doing what the world wants it to do. But the Church can’t do that without further compromising the Gospel.

This morning’s Gospel reading calls to mind another story about a time when the disciples were at sea in stormy weather, the time they saw Jesus walking on the water. St Matthew tells us that Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus but, as soon as he saw the wind, in other words, as soon as he became more concerned with the things going on around him than with Jesus, he took his eyes and mind off Jesus, and began to sink. Then, when he called on Jesus again, Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and out of danger. Perhaps that is a lesson the Church is in urgent need of being reminded of and taking to heart. That the answer to the Church’s problems doesn’t lie in concentrating on what’s going on in the world and copying the world’s ways and policies, but in turning back to Jesus and to the Gospel.

If the Church continues as it has been doing in recent times and continues further along the road towards adopting a secular business model of operating; if it continues to adopt secular policies and a woke culture agenda; and especially if it continues to do these things in preference to returning to Christ and the Gospel, I think there are many people, both inside the Church and outside, who will feel perfectly justified in echoing the words of Jesus we read in this morning’s Gospel. They will feel, and indeed will be, perfectly justified in asking he Church and its leaders, ‘Why are you so frightened? Where is your faith? And they will also, those in the Church especially, be perfectly justified in expecting the Church and its leaders to give them an honest answer.

Amen.

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The Propers for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.