Sermon on Passion Sunday 2012 text: John 12: 20-33

I remember the time not so long ago when you used to book a holiday without really knowing what you were going too.

You may have seen the odd picture in a brochure but you were never really sure if this was going to be the apartment you were having or even if the picture was of the right hotel.

Nowadays though you go onto your computer and google it to have a look.

If you go into google earth you can also pin point apartments and villas round the world if you want to have a good look at where you are going.

Its difficult for us in our world not to see things, in a way with computer access we can all see the world- nothing is particularly hidden from us.

Why start with this- because our gospel reading starts with the request of some individuals to see something.

And that something is Jesus.

And I want to think this morning as we enter the time of passion tide as we approach Easter to think how Jesus is seen in the world.

how in a world where we can see things from around the world at a click of a button- how Jesus can be seen and experienced in the world in which we live.

So we start our gospel reading with the request of these greeks to see Jesus.

We see them coming up to Philip and asking him.

Perhaps they had heard about him, or may even have seen him from a distance and decided it would be good to see him closer.

We are not sure why they ask but this request is pivotal to Jesus then beginning to teach the disciples further about what was to happen that first Easter.

It’s odd perhaps that Jesus doesn’t seem to want to see these Greeks.

He doesn’t appear to welcome them with open arms and invite them in.

Odd when we know that the good news of Jesus is shown not to be just for the Jews but also for the gentiles.

Of course he may have welcomed them in and we are just not told- but Jesus appears to use this incident to speak of how his death is going to open up to all the possibility of being part of his kingdom.

As well as speaking of how the world will see Jesus throughout the generations.

This is the glory that Jesus is talking about here.

So let’s think for a moment about what Jesus was saying here.

In verse 32 Jesus says: “And when I am lifted up from the earth- I will draw all people to myself”

What does he mean lifted up?

It seems to me that he is speaking not least of being literally lifted up when he was put on the cross to die.

He was literally again speaking of his death.

So he is saying that if the Greeks want to really “See” Jesus, if they want the full benefit of what he was sent in to the world to achieve.

Then he had to carry on and complete the task for which he had been sent.

He had to go to the cross in order to open the way for all men to come to God for themselves.

He had to go to the cross in order for man to gain a deep and true access to God.

If he carried on then these Greeks wouldn’t just be able to literally see Jesus- but they would be able to come to him, to know him for themselves through the amazing love of God.

This is a clear picture that Jesus was doing on the cross what he intended to do.

This is important to remember as we face people in the world arguing against our faith.

Some would say he was just a good person – who ended up dying and people just thought they saw him again to give a happy ending to a tragic story.

But this speaks against this strongly

This wasn’t just some accident that had a quirky ending where all was not lost.

This was a deliberate act- Jesus knew what he was doing.

As he entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey- Jesus knew what was to happen.
He knew that his time had come to draw all men to himself through his cross.

And in this way he was to be truly glorified- not how we think of glory but in a completely different way.

So the role of the Greeks in this little scenario in Johns gospel are key.

They enable Jesus to speak of the way that he will be seen for the whole world.

That to see him fully – for us to know him fully - he must die in order for us to reconciled to God.

But Jesus does not only in this passage speak of himself.

We are aware as we read this passage that this has a message to us too as his followers.

Although Jesus is speaking of how he alone will stand for our sin on the cross.

How this means that we will no longer have to take the punishment for our sin.

That he has won the power over sin and death through his death and resurrection.

He is also speaking of how this is a route which we his followers- his servants must follow.

This is a challenge he makes to his followers then, to the Greeks who came to see him and to us.

That if we really want to “see” him, to get to know him and understand what he is about for ourselves,

Then we must be ready in his words to be “Planted”- and to risk all for his service.

How does a plant grow- first the seed must die in order to break down and bear fruit- to grow into a healthy plant.

How do we grow as Christians- by loosing our life and following him.

Quite a tall order.

In some parts of the world the challenge is huge and individuals literally loose their lives or livelihoods to follow Christ.

We don’t face that challenge here – in many ways it is too easy for us to be Christians in England today – it doesn’t really challenge us at all.

And yet if we want to like Jesus show God’s glory then we are called to do this.

And this challenges me about the complacency of my faith.

What would I be prepared to bear- to loose – to give up because of my Christian faith.

And it was here as I was writing this that I began to feel quite uncomfortable.

That I got up and wondered around because I wasn’t sure what I should say.

Because this is really quite a challenge to us all- this is uncomfortable stuff, because it can take us out of our comfort zone and into unknown territory.

Because being a Christian does not make you immune from problems, it doesn’t keep you safe and wealthy and well fed.

Following Christ may lead us to have to do things where we are going to be ridiculed, laughed at, where it may have a detrimental effect on our bank account.

In our country it is unlikely that we will ever face the things of those Christians in other parts of the world.

But are we willing as Christians in this country to go against the grain of society to stand up for things that are wrong.

Are we willing to take action that leads us to be labelled fundamentalist or loony Christians- just because we stand up for what the bible tells us clearly.

Are we willing to do something that means giving up our time and money to follow Christ.

I ask this question because it asks a bigger question - Are we prepared to follow him fully or do we often put limits on what we are prepared to do.

These are the challenges I think from this passage.

The challenges that this gives us of dying to our selves and following Jesus.

And yet as we do this- as we serve others- as we begin to be an authentic witness to Christ in this world, this answers another huge question –

We began with thinking of seeing- of the Greeks question – can we see Jesus.

And it is in our witness that Jesus is seen in the world today.

If we went onto our computers and did a google search for Jesus – it may give up some interesting websites but it wouldn’t give us a true picture.

But how Jesus is seen in the world today is through us.

Jesus reveals himself now in the world through changed lives, through our experience, through us modelling his life of devotion and service.

If someone came into our church and said – can I see Jesus what would we say.

Would we point to some picture of him, would we invite them to see the Vicar-

Or would we say- here’s my life- this is what he has done for me- this is how he died on the cross- and this is how I now spend my life serving and following him.

Perhaps as we enter this last bit of Lent and into Holy week as we begin to look again at the cross- lets ask ourselves the question – not how do I see Jesus, how do I see his true glory- but how do I show Jesus in my life, how does his glory shine through me.

Invitation to come and see

This is my sermon for today - based on Phillips comment to Nathaniel in John 1: 43-end.

I received an invitation this week to go to the party of a good friend who I haven’t seen for a long time.

It was good to hear from her and really nice to be invited to her party but unfortunately I am not sure I can go or not – you see the date is on our wedding anniversary and I had already made Andrew change something else he was doing that night!

For me I am not being forced to accept the invitation and I have to make a choice as to whether or not I want to accept it – I guess I need to think what would be my priority for that evening.

Invitations can be lovely to have can’t they but always they come with them a choice – will I accept it or not.

I start with this because I think the gospel reading for this morning comes with it a question to us all – the question that is posed by Phillip to Nathaniel,

Philip says – Come and see…..

Come and see – the invitation to come with Philip to see Jesus.

And as we see this invitation I think actually we can take this invitation for ourselves and it is my invitation to us all to hear this morning – come and see….

Come and see – what God wants you to- this morning, tomorrow, and so on and so on.

Because this is an invitation that goes on and on to us, no matter how many times we hear it.

And just like any invitation we can take it or leave it – we can accept it or not.

Nathaniel accepted the invitation to Come and see – and the reward was a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

What is our reaction to the invitation this morning.

Last week I spoke about the Kings noticing the star  and therefore noticing God at work in their lives.

(We have thought again this morning about how we notice God in our lives and in the lives of others.)

Because coming to see is actually taking time to notice.

When we look through the bible we see countless times that God appeared to people in unusual ways.

For a very few we see dramatic “theophanies” or encounters with God – such as we see in Isaiah 6 or Paul’s Damascus road experience.

For most though an encounter with God is in more gentle different ways –

For Samuel it was the voice calling in the night.

For Elijah it was the still small voice in the calm after the storm

For Abraham it was in welcoming the visitors – who he later realised were angels

For Joseph it was the angel in the dream.

For the Kings it was in the reading of the stars.

And then with Jesus each day people encountered God – in sharing bread and fish on a hillside, drinking wine at a wedding feast,  in homes of ordinary people and those who were outcasts.

On a fishing boat and even in a synagogue.

People met Jesus – they met God’s son and were able to come and see for themselves what he had to offer.

For those of us who are here today – I am certain we have in some way heard that invitation to come and see,

But I wonder in many ways whether or not we are uncertain how to really take up that invitation.

Perhaps it is a bit like hide and seek – often when you play hide and seek with small children you always know where they are going to be hiding – because most of the time they have just a few places which are there special favourite places to hide.

So as the adult playing with very little children you end up going through the pretence of looking for them in unexpected places before you finally go to the obvious place where they are waiting excitedly.

Perhaps we have favourite places but not to hide but to find – to see God.

Perhaps we go back to those places time and time again – expecting this is where we are going to find God – and I am sure we do….

But I am sure also that the God who poses the question Come and see is actually wanting us to look for him – to come and see him in those unexpected places too.

This week as I have been thinking about what this and what to say to you all – I have been struck by two very different examples of perhaps seeing or even hearing God in different ways.

I want to share these with you to perhaps get us all thinking about where God may be calling us to come and see him.

Firstly is the story in the papers this week of the lady who baked a cake every day of the year.

I read this because I love baking as some of you know and was intrigued by the idea of making a cake each day.

Where they different cakes – no they were the same cake, using the same recipe and she didn’t bake them to eat – she baked them to give away to others.

It started apparently when she began to make cakes for those she knew who were going through a rough time.

And then it just grew until she had set herself this challenge to bake a cake each day – and the recipients were those in the community in need, or going through difficult times.

In the newspaper article I read she commented on how this had made her feel to give so much to others in a very positive way,.

And how she was going to miss it when it ended.

Now I don’t know as it wasn’t said if this lady had a faith or not.

But as I read it I wondered if when she was doing this and saw the result was she noticing God – was she aware of  his creativity as she used hers,

Was she aware of God’s sense of love as she shared with other people as she saw there faces of appreciation.

Perhaps God was revealing himself – inviting her to come and see in that situation as she helped others.

And the question for us all is this – would we have seen God in that too….

And then the second thing that struck me this week was in reading a book by the American contemplative – Richard Rohr,

He lives in a community, and as such has taken monastic vows.

This couple in their later working lives act as foster grandparents – and still regularly take in young children.

He writes of talking to the man – Hugh

“I often ask him who much sleep he has had, and he’ll answer. “oh they woke me at two and four – another chance to learn how to love.”…..it’s important for me to hear that. We who are celibate and have time for silence, living alone and shutting a door can give the impression that we are the ideal. That others should really be more contemplative like us. Hugh and Anne teach us that life itself is the necessary school for contemplation. Life is the best teacher of true prayer..”

Is he talking about the invitation to come and see?  - well that is part of what prayer is, time to come and see and recognise God.

Here we see how our daily lives can be times when we interact with God in how we learn to deal with life situations.

How we encounter God in our relationships, in learning to love as well as showing love.

God will reveal himself to us through his written word but he enlightens this when we encounter the reality of his teaching in relationships.

God’s word is living and active as we read in Paul’s letters because it has impact on our lives.

But we see the outworking of his word as we learn to be open to God pointing it out to us in our daily lives.

To see what it means to truly love as Jesus loved.

To see what it means to put to death the old self and to clothe ourselves in righteousness.

God invites us to come and see as we interact with others.

I started in talking about invitations to something and said that God gives us the invitation to come and see.

There is however once big difference between His invitation and most others we receive.

Because His is not for one – one off event or even a series of different things – the invitation he gives us is to Come and see each day.

And like any invitation it is up to us to respond.

He calls us each day to come and see – to see Him at work in our own live and in the lives of others, to encounter him in our surroundings through creation, though his written word,  through our relationships, to hear him speak to us in the still small voices and through the noise of life.

All we need to do to accept this invitation is to be open to “See”- not to necessary always go to the familiar places to see but to see where else he may be wanting us to see Him.

To pray for God to Open our eyes to see him in unfamiliar places.

Epiphany reflections

This is what i will be preaching this Sunday as we celebrate Epiphany. It isn't really about the wise men but about being open to how God may want to talk to us. You really need to listen to the Army Wives recording, "Wherever you are" during this as we will be on Sunday. Thanks to my dear old Dad who spoke of this last week so movingly!

I wonder what would have happened if the wise men hadn’t noticed the star?

We would have missed out on a huge part of the Christmas story.
The wise men teach us so much and at the heart of their story is the fact of God’s love in the baby Jesus being open to all – men from the East Gentiles  - a pivotal fact of our faith is that – the gospel of Jesus Christ being open to all – no matter what race or social status, whether jew or gentile, shepherd or magi.

But as I was reflecting on the wise men I thought also about their openness to receive from God.

They were willing to follow the star because they knew it was going to lead to something amazing.

They were open to what God might reveal to them through this star and in turn brought costly gifts for the new born King.

They saw this in their study of the stars, where do we see God revealing himself to us.

Perhaps we think that it’ll be only on a Sunday in Church, but in my experience and in the experience of Christians down the ages – God shows himself to us in unexpected places, if we are open to how he may speak to us.

Perhaps there is a message for us in 2012 to be open to how God might want to reveal himself to us, through all of life, through film, music, relationship, creation and so on and so on…..

This morning I want to reflect with you on some thoughts from what was the Christmas number 1 single, and what God may be saying to us through this.

(you may want to listen to the song now!!)

 This unlikely song was  No1 Christmas song, putting the X factor out the way – this song caught the imagination and the emotion of the nation.

I have to say I find it difficult not to get emotional when I hear it and I think about how it was made.

It is an amazing story and one of the best T.V. programmes we have enjoyed for a long time.

Imagine it is the New Year, last year for those Army wives and girlfriends.

All they were probably thinking about as the New Year came in was ‘this is the year when he will be leaving me and the kids for 6 months and he may not come back’.

This year for me will be about counting those days until my husband/boyfriend returns.

Then along comes a man who says let’s sing, let’s form a choir, and after much persuasion, they do.

When they started they had no idea how it will end

The men leave, the choir is formed. Then Gareth contacts a composer by the name of Paul Mealor to write them a song. The words used for the composition are taken from their own personal letters that go backwards and forwards to Afghanistan.

Person letters are so much more meaningful that text messages.

I remember as a child finding the personal letters that were sent between my parents before they were married when he was a young RAF officer stationed at various places and she a  young nurse.

We had a childhood laugh at some of the content – which had a lot to do with the words darling and darning socks.

But as I look back on reading those – they have long since been destroyed apparently! – I do think how personal they were and actually how it was probably wrong of my sister and I to sit giggling at them.

The result. The choir perform before Officers at the passing out dinner at Sandhurst, then at the Royal Albert Hall before the Queen, and they end the year as the No 1 Christmas song. Amazing story, A year that started so bleakly, ends so amazingly. Perhaps there is a message here for us as we begin another new year.

Look at the words passed between the couples,

Wherever you are, my love will keep you safe,

My heart will build a bridge of light, across both time and space,

Wherever you are, our hearts will beat as one,

I hold you in my dreams each night, until your task is done.

They are lovely words, personal, from the heart. You could almost think it was a modern Psalm with Jesus singing those words to us. ‘Wherever you are my love will keep you safe’. God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah(31:3) and He said ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, Jesus said ‘Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’. If we wanted proof how much God loves us, look to the cross.

Apparently when Gareth Malone does a programme like this and sets up a new choir he gives up his own home, moves into the area where he is going to form a choir, rents a house and lives among them for 6 months

Remember the beginning of John’s Gospel where, talking of Jesus, he wrote ‘the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’, from the Greek you could translate it as ‘pitched his tent among us’.

Jesus came alongside us to bring us back to God, so that one day we can be part of the Heavenly Choir.

Jesus said before He returned to His Father in heaven ‘and surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age, and through His Spirit, He is with us now.

It is sometimes thought that being a Christian is about going to Church occasionally, trying to do good etc.

But is a bit more than that, it is about having a relationship with Jesus. 

Summed up by the first line of the second verse ‘Wherever I am I will love you day by day’. Just as we reciprocate our partners love, so we love God in return for His love for us.

Just as the love these army couples have for each other sustains them through the dark times, so the knowledge God’s love for us can sustain us when we face an uncertain future. T

heir response is to cling to faith along the dark, dark way and to pray each day a safe return.

We have to hang on to our faith, even though at times it seems like we are hanging on by our fingernails, and we can pray.

I and  I know many others have been very moved by this choir. The way these women facing an uncertain future have become special because together they shared music, and the whole country have enjoyed seeing and hearing them.

By this I don’t think we glorify war but I do feel they can teach us something as we face a very uncertain New Year, I do feel God can talk to us through this. J

ust as the wives and girlfriends shared their music and blessed countless millions, let us as a Church ‘share God together and use this New Year as an opportunity to get closer to God in our own personal relationship with Him.

I want to finish with a few verses from Psalm 62: 5-8

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;

My hope comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

He is my fortress, I shall not be shaken.

My salvation and my honour depend on God;

He is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times, O people;

Pour out your heart to him,

For God is our refuge.

Christmas Eve 2011

Happy Christmas. Here is what I will be saying at Midnight tonight as we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ as the baby in Bethlehem.

At this time of year – we hear a great deal about tradition.

The celebration of Christmas brings with it traditions from different countries – like the Moravian christingle we had this afternoon,

Those from Germany will have likely celebrated Christmas and their gifts this evening rather than wait until tomorrow.

And then I am sure in your own home you have your own traditions and ways that you celebrate – whether it be what you eat,  when you open your presents, what you watch on TV, these traditions are part of our celebrations.

And then there are traditions which are like folk lore – everyone knows for example that Father Christmas is a jolly fat man, wearing a read coat with a big white beard.

Or is he? – actually he didn’t appear like that til 1931 when Coca-Cola used this imagery in their advertising campaign, so you could say that Coca-Cola made Father Christmas what he is today!

Tradition I think is good though as it gives us a focus and a sense of group identity – particularly in a family.

It helps us to know what to expect, but I guess it could also stop us from doing things in different ways – but perhaps that doesn’t matter too much as we celebrate together.

If tradition influences how we celebrate Christmas I wonder too if tradition has influenced what we think about the whole Christmas story.

Each year we hear it again but can we get away from our imagery of the story that we have learnt at school and by watching nativity plays, even by singing carols.

We have the image of the nativity in one way – the traditional way but actually has this stopped us seeing the truth at the centre of it all.

If we take away the tradition what are we left with?

Let’s look at the story again and see.

Well Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel and told she was going to have a baby – that’s fact that’s what is written in the bible.

But what we don’t know is what that Angel looked like- we see him with wings and a halo, because that is what the pictures we have seen look like.

But other accounts of angels in the bible where of visitors who looked quite normal – in fact it was only after they had come that it was realised they were angelic.

But behind the traditional angel is the truth – Mary was to have God’s son.

And then they go on a long journey to Bethlehem- and we are told on a donkey.

Or are we?- no mention of the donkey in the bible.

Makes a good carol though doesn’t it, we don’t know she didn’t but we also don’t know she did.

We do hear mention of another donkey in the bible though – when Jesus rode into Jerusalem to show he was the King of Kings, riding in to Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week in triumph and to is death on the cross.

The donkey the sign of his humility.

And then we have this wonderful picture of the Inn, perhaps in our mind some 1^st century Travelodge or Premier Inn.

The likely hood is though although the city was full because of the census the Inn wouldn’t have looked as we imagined.

The word for Inn used in the bible is the same as the upper room, it was likely to be just an extra room for lodging in an ordinary house.

And then what about the stable, well we imagine again – or tradition dictates a nice wooden structure.

The likely hood is though that Jesus would have been born in a cave under the house, that is where animals would have been kept.

And all we are told is that Jesus was born and laid in a manger – because there was no room in the Inn or upper room.

And then we are told that Magi – wise men from the East came to visit the new family.

Three of them? No three presents were given but we don’t know how many and we certainly don’t know their names.

We do know though that they followed the star which led them to see the Prince of peace lying in a manger.

So you see even in our celebration of the nativity we have added tradition to help us see the story.

Perhaps that is not a bad thing – but sometimes we need to take that away and see what is left.

Take away the images of tinsel angels, take away the donkeys and the wooden stables and three Kings in crowns and see what we are left with.

And actually we don’t need the extras because what we are left with is still an incredible story – an incredible picture of love and peace.

Here we have the young Mary willing to take on one of the most important roles in history, and heavily pregnant with her new husband beside her they make the long treck to Bethlehem.

There she gives birth and lays her new baby in a trough which is used to feed animals, likelihood in a cave.

And to announce the baby angels do visit Shepherds – the lowest of the low and the star does shine to show the way for he visit of those of more high esteem – wise men from the East.

This is the eternal truth of the incarnation – of God coming to earth to be with Man.

When you take away all tradition this is what we are left with – the miracle of God’s birth, the baby in the Manger the Christ child, God’s son.

The angels said these words to the Shepherds we hear in Luke’s gospel:

“Today in the town of David, a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

The saviour of the world born without a huge fuss, born in the lowliest of surroundings but born to change the world forever.

When we strip back the reality and just see the miracle of the birth we see the incredible truth for ourselves – that Jesus crept into the world, with no amazing fuss.

He crept into the world, not demanding our attention, but awaiting our response.

He crept into the world, and showed us God’s love.

He crept into the world to be our Saviour, Mary may not have ridden on a donkey – but we know that Jesus did on his way for our salvation.

And as he creeps in to the world today – what is our response to him.

Just a nice story, something we traditionally read this time of year.

Or are we willing to strip back the tradition and be open to see the baby for who he truly is

–       and what is our response to him?

–       he may not demand a response from us, but he wants us to respond to him.

And if we do he can offer to us true Peace on earth, peace in our hearts and lives,  as we let him take a place in our lives and as we let his truth into our hearts and minds.

Sermon on Mary - 4th Sunday in Advent Luke 1: 26-38

One of the joys of my role as Vicar in Eton Wick and Dorney is going at this time of year to the nativity plays at the various schools I am associated with.

One of them I went to was truly wonderful this year – with the songs and actually the way the story was portrayed – but it did have a little hitch when Mary had been visited by the angel and was standing on her stage with her broom calling out to tell Joseph – who was no where to be seen and to the side you could just see a little Joseph on the side of the stage sat on his teachers lap – crying because he didn’t want to go on.

Quite often though it is the other way around – I heard the story of the Inn Keeper who had really wanted to be Joseph when Mary and Joseph knocked on the door and asked for a room he said quite loudly – well you can come in Mary but not Joseph cause I wanted to be him.

And then my friends little girl who dressed as a shepherd cried refused to go on the stage crying to her mum – But I wanted to be Mary.

I start with these stories because when we look at Mary and this story from Lukes gospel we can learn so much about calling and faith – and yet very often we can be like all these little children.

We can either not want to do it at all – or we can think for some reason we should be doing something else not really what God wants us to do.

So what can we learn from this account about faith and calling and how can we apply some of this to our lives today.

Well firstly we see in Mary an openness to hear what God was saying to her.

Tradition dictates that the Angel was a big very bright creature with wings and a tinsel halo!

But was he?

In our accounts of Angelic visitation we see angels appearing quite normal and often it is only afterwards that the individuals realised they had met with an agel.

When the angels appeared to Abraham – they looked just like ordinary people, in fact Abram and Sarai didn’t recognise who they were at first did they.

It seems to me that Mary must have been open to listen to God to be able to recognise that this was God speaking to her through the angel.

I think this tells us quite a lot about Mary and her faith in the God of Israel.

She was ready to hear and to respond to his word.

We don’t know what Mary was up to when the angel appeared to her- but we do know that she listened – the likely hood is that she was quite a busy person working in her home and getting ready for her wedding and yet she listened..

Mary must have had a life of prayer in some way to have listened to the angel.

She allowed time to hear the message amidst the noise around her of wedding plans and life.

So today what about us – would we be open to hear what God has to say to us even now in the midst of all the noise of Christmas.
And if God tried to talk to us  would we hear him.

It always amazes me who God can speak to us in so many different ways – but often it is like we are safely in our homes watching the TV ignoring the constant ring at the door bell – hoping it will go away.

Do we take time to switch off the noise and actually be open to how God may speak to us – through his word, through his creation, through that still small voice, even through an angelic word from someone else.

And when we do take time to listen are we prepared to hear even if what he has to say is quite a difficult thing for us.

What he said to Mary wasn’t an easy thing to hear.

But she listened and obeyed.

Is God trying to say something to us and are we open to listen.

And secondly not only did Mary recognise God’s voice- the voice of the angel but she also was willing and open to do God’s will.

I think this is incredible when we know the context that Mary found herself in and the implication of finding herself having a child when she was not married.

She would have laid herself open to all sorts of problems if Joseph too had not been willing to accept her pregnancy.
At the very least she would have been a social outcast in her society, at the very worst she would have been stoned to death for conceiving out of marriage.

But we have no account of her arguing with God’s messenger, no account of pleading for it not to be her put under this pressure,

Not she simply says – I am the Lord’s servant.

In many ways she had a trust in God which we can all learn from.

She entrusts her life into God’s hands to be used in whatever way he wishes.

And we see her used in the most extraordinary way – a journey to Bethlehem, giving birth in a stable, fleeing to Egypt with a young baby away from all her family support network.

And then of course later she was to stand by the cross and weep as she saw her son dying for the good of mankind.

Perhaps she had no idea what I am the lord’s servant was going to lead too in the future – but she said it and she entrusted her life into God’s hands with the faith that he would be with her to help and protect her.

Does this challenge us at all?

The little girls who want to be Mary in the nativity have really no idea what it’s all about do they – they want to be centre stage – and yet the reality of Mary’s life is fat from being the glamorous mother of our Lord.

Mary was open to God and God used her in amazing ways – her journey of faith must I am sure at times been tested to the limit but she was open to being used and willing- I am the Lord’s servant – can we say that, entrusting ourselves to be used by God in whatever way he wants.

And then finally I think we can learn from Mary in her ordinariness.

Often we do not think we are particularly good at anything and we compare ourselves to others in the church.

Perhaps we feel not so educated as others, or gifted in different ways.

Yet I think that Mary speaks to everyone of us here today.

I wonder what she would have answered if someone asked her what she was good at?

I am sure like many of us she may have said well I’m not very good at anything really – I’m just an ordinary person.

Possibly she did say this – we don’t know much about her – but we can surmise that she was probably not very well educated- that she came from a humble background – otherwise she wouldn’t have been marrying a carpenter.

In human terms she was very little- but God used her for one of the most important jobs in the history of mankind, to grow, develop and give birth to his Son.

What does Mary teach us – to be open and receptive to use the things that God has given us for his purpose.

God can use us as we are

In fact the more we are the people that God wants us to be the more he will use us.

When we are open to seek God – to listen to him and then to be open to what he may ask of us – then he will surprise us as he uses us for his service.

Mary teaches us this and we can learn so much from her.

So in the midst of all the noise this Christmas what is God asking of you, are you open to him and able to say – like Mary – I am the Lords’ servant – I am willing.

Amen

What we can learn from the prophets - Amos

With our present global financial crisis perhaps we can learn something from the Old testament Prophets. Here is my sermon from Sunday when we were looking at Amos. Particularly referring to Chapter 8.

Amos:

This is the third sermon in our short series of looking at the prophets and seeing what they have to say to us today.

In many ways the prophets are quite hard to come to terms with, they appear quite strange people even to their society of the day and yet, when we look at prophecy we see so clearly God speaking not only to the people of that day but to us now.

Think for a moment what you think is the key to the problems we have in our society today and in the financial system?

I’m not talking about complicated fiscal issues here – I am just thinking about basic human issues – what do you think?

Answers included: Greed,  materialism, spending more than you have etc.

Then look at that reading we had from Amos this morning – verse 4-5

The basic problems of society, stem from the same problems centuries on – greed and the desire for more and more…

So when we look at Amos and the other prophets we see some basic similarities between people and we can be challenged from what they have to say to us.

So lets think for a moment who this person Amos was.

Well what we do know about him is that he was probably quite an ordinary person, he wasn’t amazingly well educated, he wasn’t one of the prophets officially associated with the temple,

He grew up within an agricultural community and it is likely that he worked on the land in some way – some argue that he was infact a shepherd.

But we do know he had a call from God to speak out to the people of the time over a period of some 2 years, in around 750 BC.

So what is his key message in this small book.

Well it seems that a key theme within the book is that of the justice and righteousness.

He speaks to the people clearly on these subjects, and as he speaks to them there is a sense that they should know what he is talking about.

He doesn’t have to spell out why these themes are important – they just are.

The people should know why – because the need for both is so steeped within the history and experience the Israelite people have in their relationship with God.

The people of Israel knew their relationship with God was based on the covenant they had with him.
And this covenantal relationship was based upon the principles of justice and righteousness, they were central to this relationship.

And particularly the themes of justice and righteousness in the book of Amos are seen with reference to how they treat each other.

In many ways in this book we see God’s anger and it appears like his patience is wearing thin with the people of Israel.

The passage we read this morning speaks very clearly like this. – the time is coming says the lord, when things will change..

And of course we have the ability of hindsight and know that it was not long after this book was written that the people of Israel were taken off into captivity by Assyria.

What is important though when we look at this book and other books where we see God’s judgement clearly indicated is that we see this also in relationship to God’s forgiveness.

When we look at the old testament we see it through the eyes of the new testament and the love and forgiveness shown to us by Jesus Christ on the cross.

So within the book of Amos generally there is a  sense of God getting very inpatient with the people because of their constant falling away from him.

And in response to that he speaks of the consequences.

One of these is clear from chapter 8 and I think this speaks very clearly to us today as well.

God says through Amos in verse 10:

The time is coming says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the lord.

A famine of hearing God’s word – let’s think about that for a moment.

If we did not hear God’s word what would that mean to our society or world.

Not hearing God’s words would mean that there would no longer be a moral compass with which to guide our lives.

What would that result be:

            Breakdown of family life,

            Breakdown of community life

            Lack of concern for others,

            Self- interest abounding.

            Distrust of each other and violence,

            An individulalistic culture  and the list would go on and on.

And as we look at that list we see how much of that sort of thing goes on today.

Has God given us a famine – or actually are we causing a famine of God’s word.

If we live without reference to him then how is God going to speak out- will there be a famine of God’s word in our world.

God calls us to be his body on the earth and we have a duty then to also speak God’s word to others.

That’s not by standing on street corners – though some of us may be called to do this.

But by living our lives in such a way that God speaks out through our actions and through our words.

How often do we give a Christian viewpoint on a situation?

How often are we led to write a letter, to speak out in a conversation, to go and do something that we know is right.

If we are called to be Christ’s body on earth then we are called to be his voice box as well.

If we don’t speak then just as in Amos there will be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

So for me this is my first challenge from this passage today in Amos.

Then there are a few more that I want to suggest to us.

And the next concerns our worship.

            Verse 3 Amos says- the Songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day…

            Chapter 5: 21- I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

It seems quite strange to us that God seems so anti – worship,

After all is that not what we are called to do.

But God recognises that the worship is not truly of the heart because it doesn’t inform their behaviour.

This comes back to what worship is truly about.

Worship is not something we do once a week – but worship is about our whole lives.

We worship together to draw close to God and to encourage each other, to spend time with God,  but this is just one day one hour even of the week, for the rest of the week then our worship is in different ways.

We worship in how we serve God in serving others, we worship in our quiet times of prayer, we worship in how we have that conversation with another person who is in need, we worship in how we support each other and our families.

As we grow in our relationship with God we begin to see more and more of our lives as worship – we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice we say in the post communion prayer in our common worship liturgy.

For the people of the time of Amos they were getting it wrong because they were seeing worship as something separate – do we fall short in the same way.

Then we also see a challenge concerning justice and self interest.

The people were criticised for their attitudes to the less fortunate in their society.

Verse 6: buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.

What is our attitude to justice.

We may say we care for the poor and marginalised in our society in the world but do we actually do anything about it.

We hear a great deal of talk about justice in our society – we hear talk of what I really want is justice – when some injustice has been done to someone else.

But actually do we really care about justice.

If we did then we would care about fair trade,  we would concern ourselves with issues of human trafficking, of the plight of the homeless, and many other issues.

Do we need to be reminded like the people of Israel of God’s concern for justice and act accordingly.

And how do we fare on a scale of one to ten of self interest?

What about how we view our money – do we give away to charity at the start of the month as a priority of our spending or the end when we see what is left.

I am sure we could all be challenged in many ways when it comes to thinking about self interest rather than thinking what God would want from us in principles of justice and self interest.

So we can see how even a book written to a people many thousands of years ago is still just as applicable today – we need to let Amos speak to us and challenge us once more.

Harvest sermon 2011

This was the sermon I preached for Dorney Church Harvest festival on 25th September. The reading was John's account of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

I was commenting to someone the other day that this Sunday was harvest here at Dorney;.

And the response was quite interesting – he said: you celebrate harvest but there isn’t much farming around here.

My response was such that actually there is a fair bit as we look around at the various things that are grown locally.

But in reflection I thought about the importance of us celebrating harvest generally.

I have never lived truly in the heart of a farming community – I was on the edge in the village we lived in when I was a curate –but I remember throughout my life that the celebration of harvest was important no matter whether we lived in the town or the country.

So why do we year after year celebrate.

And actually I think there are three clear reasons why which I want to point to this morning – firstly we celebrate because it shows our dependence upon God, and secondly we celebrate because it reminds us of our own harvest in life, and lastly we can use this time as a time of remembering our own part in God’s plan to meet the needs of others.

So firstly we celebrate because it reminds us of our dependence upon God.

When I was growing up one of my favourite television programmes was the good life.

If you remember it we saw the antics of a couple – tom and Barabara who gave up work to try to live the rural idyl, the only problem was that they were in suburbia

And they had to contend with their snooty neighbours.

For many as they watched this the idea of self-sufficiency seemed quite attractive.

Self- sufficiency – living off your own produce, and to an extent many of us do this today – we have wonderful examples in this church of home grown produce.

But self-sufficiency as an attitude rather than a lifestyle is something which has pervaded our culture and society.

Self- sufficiency – we live in our own homes, we work hard so that we can have the comforts that we enjoy.

We have the use of amazing technology invented by man which helps us to enjoy these things.

And in the midst of this we create an attitude that actually it is our right to enjoy these things because we have earned them.

A self-sufficiency that man is sufficient.

And in the middle of this self-sufficiency we forget to see anything about the person who has enabled us to reap these benefits, who has enables us to have all the blessings that we have.

We forget to see the God who has given us the intelligence to create technology, who has given us the created world to enjoy.

The God who enables the harvest of not only the land and sea, but also the harvests of mine, of factory, of the creative art of research.

So Harvest bring us back to that God – it brings us away from our self – sufficiency to once more see our dependence upon God

Our reading from John -= the feeding of the five thousand is a wonderful story in so many ways.

And in this story we see Jesus’s concern not only for the spiritual needs of the 5,000 but also his desire for them to be filled in the physical way as well.

So he takes what is offered and in response is able to meet the physical needs.

God cares for the whole person and he is the one who provides for all our needs, phyiscially, emotionally and spiritually.

And then secondly as we celebrate harvest we can be reminded of our harvests – what we produce ourselves,

What was your harvest like this year?

Ours was pretty lacking – we tried to grow things in the vegetable patch but because of lack of time and attention the only things we managed to grow were sunflowers and they were self seeded from the seeds we put out for the birds.

Our harvest was appaling.

Or was it?

When we think of our harvest we can think beyond just producing crops and fruit.,

The little boy offered what he had and Jesus used it amazingly.

We may not produce a harvest of fruit and vegetables but we do produce a harvest in what we do in our lives.

We can not separate our lives into the spiritual and the not so spiritual.

The Christian life is all about integration – we don’t just do our Spiritual bit on a Sunday when we come to Church or even occasionally mid week if we come to a prayer meeting or bible study,

Our Christian life impacts on all our lives.

So for each situation we face, each reaction we have to make, each conversation we are caught up in, we are aware of how our faith may impact and influence and determine how we react, what we say or do.

And if we see life in this way then at harvest we can offer too what we do to God to be used for his service.

We may not have very spiritual or vocational occupations, we may be retired but never the less we have a harvest in our daily life.

In some working lives it is easy to see what your harvest may be, if you work in schools your harvest could be seen as the development of those in your care.

For others it may be more difficult to see a harvest in this way, but if we think of the integration of our lives then how we react at work or with others then will be our harvest.

We can sow seeds of good will, we can sow seeds of understanding and of respect for others, seeds of grace as we do something we would rather not do, or we can sow seeds of distrust, seeds of begrudgingness as we do an activity we would rather not do.

The biblical principle of we reap what we sow is clear here.

We have choices about what we sow- just like the farmer can choose what plant to sow in his field, or we choose which vegetable to grow in our vegetable plot.

And thirdly harvest reminds us of our responsibility to share what we have and meet others needs.

Perhaps we think this is a token venture as we bring a few tins, and other bits.

But we forget how God can use what we have given to support and help others.

And in the same vein too this story of the feeding of the five thousand challenges us to think of how we can be used to meet the needs of those around us.
 a little detail that often gets overlooked in this story is this Jesus needs the little boy and the five loaves and the two fish.
How often do we pray for something – God do this, make this to happen, stop this happening. We pray for wars to cease, we pray for the hungry to be fed, and we pray for the sick to get better. 
But in this story Jesus doesn’t just magic up food out of thin air – he needs something from the 5000 – he needs something from us to work on. 
We pray for wars to cease – God will do great things in answer to our prayers – but we need to offer a loaf and a fish – what are we doing to make wars ceasing. Have we written a letter, supported a peace project, have we even found out what is really going on?
We pray for the hungry to be fed, and God will do great things in answer to our prayers – but we need to offer something ourselves. Have we given something away, have we supported one of the hundreds of charities which feed the starving, have we even found out where the starving are?
We pray for the sick to be healed, and God will do great things in answer to our prayers – but what do we do in support, care, understanding the medical profession, backing research. 
“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat” Jesus says to Philip – or whenever we’ve prayed for this or that “And what are we going to do about it” Jesus says to us! Five loaves and two fish was not very much, but it was just enough for Jesus to work on! 

So this harvest we give thanks once again to God for his love for us and his provision of all our needs, we also offer ourselves to be used thinking of our own harvest and of how we can help to meet the needs of others too.

Amen