Fifth Sunday of Lent

The Tale of the Magic Pomegranate - A story to listen to, together with this sermon. Click on the title to hear it read.

If you wish to hear the sermon as preached click here

Hebrews 5.5-10; John 12.20-33

After coming to the half way point in Lent last week and the rest from our thinking about the demands of the season in our Lenten discipline, today we begin to focus on the way ahead. And that way ahead leads us to the cross and beyond. From today we focus more and more upon Jesus' own journey in the last weeks and days of his earthly life. It's a journey through the pain and horror of death on a cross, to the mystery, wonder, joy and celebration of resurrection. And if we don't learn anything about the Christian journey and its meaning for each of us over the next couple of weeks then we are very unlikely to learn it at any other time of the year.

Today's gospel reading gives us, in just four sentences from Jesus, the whole meaning of the Christian life. If we miss this, we miss it all. And I have to say that outside the Sermon on the Mount, here we have perhaps the most important words of Jesus for us as his would be followers.

"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Those words and that simple image of a seed giving rise to a plant, so graphically convey the process of becoming a Christian, and we see that we might call it a whole of life process. When we look at a wheat grain. It is in every respect wheat. It contains the whole plant, in embryo. It's as fully a wheat plant as the plant itself. But to become the plant it has to become so transformed that it in effect goes out of existence, it 'dies' Jesus says. We can say that the grain, in growing, becomes what it is. And to do that, something of itself has to gave way to something else.

Every one of us is born in God's image and likeness. And when we are baptised we are given the Holy Spirit and we are 'made' Christian. At baptism we are made followers of Christ and members of the Church. But we are like that grain of wheat, that seed. We are in every respect a Christian after our baptism. But like that seed growing into the plant, we have to become what we are. As we grow in our Christian life, we become more and more like Christ. And in doing so, the way were has to give way to what we are becoming. Something of us has to pass away to give way to, as Jesus says, 'much fruit'.

And what has to die, what has to give way to something else, is usually our own will. In becoming a Christian, our own will has to die. Our own will has to give way to the will of God. And it is a dying. Jesus himself experienced this especially before his ministry began, in his temptation in the wilderness; and towards the end of his life in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was facing arrest and execution. It was his Father's will that he continue his journey to death. And his own will would have made him flee. And Jesus alludes to this further on in our gospel reading today: "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say - 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.'" Jesus gives up his own human will, puts it to death so to speak, to do his Father's will. And it's only then that Jesus becomes what he is, the Saviour of the World.

This is tough stuff. One of the recent Eastern saints is recorded as saying that there is no Christian life, only a Christian death. It makes being a Christian sound like a very sombre, painful and sorrowful way of life. But Jesus says that the life he brings is life in all its fullness. So we look to his promise. He says in this gospel reading this morning. 'Those who love their life, lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.....Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.' So just as the grain of wheat in giving up its life, goes on to become the full fruitful plant, so Jesus says, we do the same as his followers. We become fully what we are. And in that sense, in giving up our life, we get our life back. This time, it's the life God intends for us all along, intends from the beginning.

But we have to go through this process. There's no escaping it. To become what God intends for us, we have to go this way, this way of dying to our self, this giving up of our own will for God's will. In doing so we become like Christ himself, we become fully what we are. There are no half measures too. To gain all, we have to give all.

So this is the way we are following. Its the way of Christ, the way of the cross. But it leads to resurrection. It leads to what Jesus promised - life in all its fullness. And to know what that is, to know what it means, we have to travel the way ourself. Nobody else can do it for us. Each and every one of us has to make the decision to go the way of Christ and then to follow it if we are to become what God intends for us.

The good thing for us though is that there are those who have done it before us and those who are doing it alongside us. So we are not alone. We can share the journey and learn from one another and help one another along, if we will. That's what the Church is here for, this blessed company of faithful people. So we journey together with Jesus over the next two weeks, to his death and beyond. And as we look at his giving himself over to his Father's will, let us also try and do more of that sort of thing, remembering that it's only in giving that we receive, and in giving up our own self to God, he gives us of himself.

Mothering Sunday

Colossians .12-17; Luke 2.33-35


If you'd like to hear the sermon as preached click here

So we come to be half way through Lent today and arrive at Refreshment Sunday. Refreshment Sunday if indeed we do need to be refreshed in our Lenten fast. Lent is a personal journey as much as anything, with God. And each of us will do with it as we decide. Today gives us the opportunity to look back on the last three weeks and a bit, and then to rededicate ourselves in the season, especially if we haven't really got into it as we'd liked to have done.

So we can take those three disciplines we've been looking at over the past three Sundays, prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and recommit ourselves to those principles in whatever way we would like to with renewed determination; remembering of course that the whole exercise is to bring us closer to God and to prepare for the celebration of Easter.

On this day also we are overtaken a bit by Mothering Sunday. Or should I say we are more overtaken by Mother's Day. We all know what Mother's Day is and no doubt we'll be remembering our mothers one way or another today.

But as last year I'd like to make a plea for bringing back into its rightful place in the Church calendar, Mothering Sunday. Because I think it helps us think about things in a more rounded way. For decades we've been reminded that there's an imbalance in our Church, that it's a patriarchal society where men hold all the authority and women are a sort of second class. Whilst it's true that men in the Church have had authority and power within the structure of the Church, I've never underestimated the presence that women have or have had in the Church down the centuries and especially over the last 50 years or so. You don't have to be in a position of authority to have an influence. And it's a fair bet that behind most influential men there have been women who have been even more influential.

Jesus himself was surrounded by women; and although he chose men for his immediate disciples, it's significant that he appeared first to a woman after his resurrection. Indeed, Mary Magdalene is often regarded as the first apostle, as she took news of the risen Jesus to the disciples themselves. And since then, despite this feeling that men have shaped and led the Church down the centuries, there are many women saints who provide an example of Godly life to both women and men, right up to this present day and age. And we remember many of them in our weekday services here at St. Andrew's. So women do figure very prominently in the history of the Church.

But I think this subject goes deeper than that and it's enshrined in what we are celebrating today. Jesus told us to call God, our Father. But the Church is referred to as the Bride of Christ. So the Church is very much our spiritual mother. God is our creator and the Church is the one who nurtures us in Him. In fact the imagery is taken further. The baptismal font is seen as the womb of the Church through the waters of which we are born again to life in Christ.

I think we tend to lose touch with this imagery, this great archetype. And because we've lost touch with it our picture of our spiritual origin and development is skewed towards seeing the whole process in terms of the male - God the Father and God the Son, with very little reference to the female. I was taught that in the Old Testament, in Hebrew, the Holy Spirit is female. If that is true then that adds more balance too to the whole creation process. Through God the Holy Trinity and mother Church we are born and re-born into relationship with God.

Had we kept these reference points down through the centuries I'm not sure that we would be so hung up by the notion of equality in the Church as we are today. I think that successive generations have painted and repainted the picture of the Church so much in their own colours that we've lost touch with the fundamental imagery constructed so well by the apostles and the early Church. Reading of those early days of the Church in the bible, we hear of men and women living together, seemingly happily with the roles ascribed to them and not wishing they were doing somebody else's job. Maybe it was because it was early days, long before the rot set in. And maybe we shouldn't be so eager to take a rosy view of those times.

But history is as it is, and whatever the influences of men and women down the centuries, we have inherited the Church as she is today. And we should celebrate all she does for us in bringing us to and holding us in the Faith. It's in the Church that we find our spiritual nourishment, here above all. It's here that we meet with God, as it were, face to face. And we meet him in the face of one another, in Him in whose image and likeness we are made, male and female, both.

So today, on this Mothering Sunday, as we remember and give thanks for our own mothers, let's also remember and give thanks for our Mother Church who has nurtured us in Spirit and Truth so faithfully, for however long that may have been.

Let's Do Lent Properly - The Journey Home - Almsgiving

Listen to the story of The Two Pickpockets before you read or listen to the sermon. The story is read from 'Favourite Folk Tales from Around the World' edited by Jane Yolen and published by Pantheon.

If you prefer to hear the sermon as preached rather than reading it click here.

I'm sure we usually associate almsgiving with the giving of money. And so the gospel reading for today from St. John's gospel provides a good backdrop to what we have to think about. There's such a lot of emotion and movement in that scene, of Jesus wildly swinging a quickly improvised whip back and forth as he drives the animals and people out of the temple. You can fairly hear the tables going flying and the piles of money falling to the floor and rattling and rolling all around. If anyone thought that Jesus was the wimpy, meek and mild pushover that so many people imagine him to be, this scene puts the lie to that.

But that's not the point. Jesus was angry here for a number of reasons it seems. All the activity that was going on in the temple was an abomination, even a blasphemy. What was once honourable had become dishonourable. A bit like the activities of the financial sector over recent years. And they are having a hard time pulling themselves out of it because they still can't see the abomination of self interest yet at the heart of that sector. 'We are the best so we deserve more than most' seems to be the driving principle behind the top earners. It's nothing more than self-inflated grasping and greed. And that was one of the reasons Jesus got angry in his day.

Grasping and greed. Selfishness and self-interest. Mortal sins because they choke and kill the Spirit. They choke and kill the Spirit because they turn us away from that which gives us life which is God. It's as simple as that. And it usually begins with money and often ends with money. When I was in Environmental Health, we used to give grants for home improvement. And my experience there showed me that if anything turned the hearts and minds of people from peace and love to bitterness, grasping and hatred it was money. The nicest of people would become the nastiest, when money was involved. It's no wonder Jesus said that the love of money is the root of all evil.

And this reveals why almsgiving is regarded as one of the spiritual disciplines. Gathering money closes and clenches the heart, and mind. Giving money opens and extends the heart, and mind.

We've been over this so many times in the past and the point is made. But we do need to go over it time and again because we so easily go off track, as we do when it comes to those other disciplines of prayer and fasting. We lose attention and forget and then eventually lose interest and lose heart, so very easily. What is true of prayer and fasting is also true of almsgiving.

Almsgiving isn't just about money. It's about that spirit of giving that extends our heart and mind and soul in other peoples' direction and in the direction of creation at large. It's about giving back some of what we receive, in every way we can. Jesus himself says early on in his ministry that whatever measure we give out will be returned to us. (Mark 4.24) That's how life and love and the universe work. It really is that simple. But we simply disregard it most of the time, because we are fallen creatures. To both give and receive we have to unclench our heart and mind and soul. Grasping hold of all we've got, as I said earlier, closes us off to God and others. And so giving opens us up in all sorts of ways.

Almsgiving is love in action, whether it be in giving money, or time, or a helping hand, or service to another given freely from the heart. And that's why it opens us up; love opens us up to others, God and ourselves.

So these three disciplines of prayer, fasting and alsmgiving; there for our spiritual health and well-being, provided by the Church especially at this time of year, in Lent, are nothing more than what is ordinary life for the true Christian.

I was raking up and breaking up all sorts of dead stuff in the garden yesterday; clearing away so that new shoots could grow through. As well as reminding me how physically unfit I've become of late, it reminded me of a line in a book I read years ago entitled 'Compassion'. In it there's a section about 'discipline' in the spiritual life, where it considers the sorts of things we've been thinking about over the past few weeks. And one line in that section says that 'discipline is like raking up the leaves on the pathways in the garden of the soul'. I think it's a beautiful line; maybe that's why it's stayed with me.

What we've been considering over the past three weeks and what Lent is all about is that clearing away of all the deadness of sin in the garden of our soul, so that we can grow anew in love for God and for one another and for ourselves. In Lent, we simply make a special effort in what should be the normal way of life for a Christian.

Let's Do Lent - Properly! - The Journey Home - Fasting

If you prefer to hear the sermon as preached, please click here

Over these three weeks at the beginning of Lent we are thinking about the three spiritual disciplines that we can use to make the most of Lent i.e. Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. And so today we come to think about Fasting.

Last week, one of our adult confirmees was telling the group about her attempt during Lent last year to fast from bread. Things went well except when it came to making toast for her daughters' breakfast in the morning. And then the delicious aroma of the warm and gradually browning bread became almost unbearably tempting.

And that sort of hits the nail on the head. What use is fasting? Mostly to help us develop self-discipline. And that in itself is something that seems to have become rather alien in our gluttonous, lustful western world.

We discovered too last week in our confirmation group, as we were talking about St. Paul's list of the fruits of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians, the list that contains fruits such as love, joy, peace, patience etc, that the very last of the fruits is - self-control. And that rather puts a different layering on the words self-discipline and self-control. And it connects fasting, right away, with the Holy Spirit and the movement of God in us.

But why do we need self-control or self-discipline anyway? Well, I think we can make another connection here with what Jesus says in our reading from St. Mark's gospel this morning (Mark 8.31-38) Here Jesus is rebuking Peter for thinking on worldly things and not on divine things. He lets his thoughts and imagination run away with him when Jesus foretells his death. He says that theirs is an adulterous and sinful generation. And I guess you could say that of our present generation. In this case Jesus is using those words to emphasise what he's just said to St. Peter. We prefer to think about other things than about God. It's in that way that we are unfaithful and falling short. And so to keep our minds on divine things we have to be disciplined in mind and heart.

And then Jesus pushes home his whole point by saying that what he demands of you who would be his disciples, is giving up your life as you know it and understand it, and taking up life with God. He says it's denying yourself, taking up your cross and following him. And denying yourself demands self-discipline and self-control.

It's hard, it's like being crucified, Jesus says, but it's the only way to life in all its fullness. And that's what Jesus means when he says that strange thing that you have to lose your life to gain your life.

Every single one of us is a slave to our bodily wants, needs and desires. We crave stuff that's bad for us or crave so much of the good stuff that it becomes bad for us. And we show all those, what are known as passions - pride, avarice, lust, envy, hatred, bitterness, and so many other qualities of self-interest and self-centredness. All of which close us off to God and to one another. Isolated we become in our sin, completely cut off from God and totally self-absorbed. Quite the opposite of what God intended us to be. And therein lies our spiritual, psychological and our physical disease and ultimately, death.

But it needn't be like that and God doesn't want us like that. He created us to live in communion with him and to grow and flourish and become light and life and love and peace and joy. But that brings us back to where we started. It brings us back to being tempted by that slice of toast and finding the strength within us to make the right decision, to leave one way and take another; to find the strength to leave the world's way and to take God's way. And that simple giving up in Lent, that fasting from whatever it is has, amongst its foremost benefits the developing of that self-discipline that helps us say yes to God, yes to the Holy Spirit working in us and developing more of that fruit of the spirit which is self-control.

Fasting as a discipline, in the western Church has become only a shadow of what it was and what it really should be or could be again. The rules are there and I'll tell you what they are if you are interested. But suffice to say that to be meaningful, I believe that we should give up something that we normally find essential in our day to day life. We are only going without for 6 weeks. But even that short time is a real test if we give up something that makes a real difference for having given it up. The traditional foods to give up are meat and dairy products. For we who aren't used to fasting, we should just go a little way and then each Lent add to it if we can. It does make a difference and it certainly makes a difference when the fast is over.

Whatever you give up, if you do indeed fast during Lent, as is the Christian way, remember that the giving up is symbolic of giving up your life in the world and taking up the way of God, the way of Jesus, the way of the cross; of giving up your life, of losing your life to gain your life.