2007/08 Sermons

Year A sermons from Bideford can be found here.

In your hearts enthrone him - Christ the King Sunday

LUKE 23: 33-43

One of the first politicians I heard speaking at a public meeting was Tony Benn. He has always stimulated me even if on once occasion he firmly put me in my place after I asked a question on a subject we disagree with.

One of the areas in which I find him interesting is in the sphere of Christianity. You see, his great grandfather was a clergyman and his mother was a leading figure in the denomination to which he belonged. Benn’s thinking on such matters is as one might suspect highly independent. And one of the areas of concern I have heard him speaking on is his discomfort with language such as “Lord” and “King” in reference to Jesus. Indeed, Benn sees one of the themes of the Old Testament as being the heroic stand of the prophets against the Kings.

Now I have some sympathy with Benn on all of this. Today we live in a constitutional monarchy in which the Queen has the trappings of power but the real power in effect lies with the government which is sort of elected and occasionally with Parliament itself. In real terms it is Gordon Brown and company who decide the big issues whilst I suspect that at times the Queen’s family wish they had a bit of the old power when it comes to the likes of invasive tabloid journalism.

But of course, power can be exercised cruelly and in past generations this would normally be done through the King of the time. And of course, we know the stories of Henry V111 lopping off heads and the doings of for example the Russian despot Ivan the Terrible. And so the list could go on. Of course, in the 20th Century, the great tyrants were not Kings but commoners who rose thrugh the ranks , people such as Stalin, Mao tse tung, Hitler and Pol Pot. Not of royal blood but holders of a Kingly power that they wielded to deadly effect.

So how can we liken Jesus to those who have exercised great power?

Well for a moment let’s look back at how Christ the King Sunday originated. Its roots can be found in the Italy of 1925. Mussolini had been in power for some three years. The world was recovering for that monumental misuse of power that was the First World War. And in the Vatican as Pontiff named Pope Pius X1 wanted to assert that there was a different way to see the world. Rather than look at those who were manipulating the instruments of power, he sought to point to a greater loyalty, a loyalty to Jesus who was a King but so unlike the greedy power hungry leaders that were in abundance. And so Christ the King Sunday came into being, a Sunday that is now celebrated on an ecumenical basis.

But is Jesus a King? Well we certainly find him pointing to a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is at the heart of his words and deeds, a Kingdom that breaks into our world and which is pregnant with possibilities. And certainly in the account of his crucifixion, this is parodied by his opponents who sarcastically put a notice above him on the cross proclaiming;

“This is the King of the Jews.”

And yet you know whilst this was done in mockery it inadvertently pointed towards a profound truth. For when Pilate and Caiaphas breathed their last, their ability to influence the world came to an end. Yet Jesus has gone on influencing people through his message and the good news that we find embodied within him. After all as James Allen Francis puts it in a well known piece of prose;


“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn't go to college. He never lived in a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned--put together--have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.”

But in affecting this earth, let us be clear that Jesus challenges our notions of power. There is no clunking fist telling us what we must believe in or do under threat or coercion. Far from it, Jesus turns our understanding of Kingship upside down for his Kingship is that which rejects the models of domination.

Let me use just a few examples.

The first is that most of the rulers attract a circle around them. In Britain we have harmless acolytes such as Silver Stick in Waiting and Grand Carver. I guess this is part of the decoration of life. But power attracts those who want something of its reflection upon themselves or those who in “Yes Minister” style wish to climb the greasy pole. And inevitably those with power seek to attract those who might be of help to them. Yet contrast this with Jesus who surrounds himself not with the “Good and Great” but with those devoid of status or wealth and even those who are branded outsiders. Yesterday, someone claiming to be a Christian implied that another person was an “undesirable.” Well let’s be clear that to Jesus whilst some of our actions may be undesirable, no human being is of themselves “undesirable.”

Secondly to those whose lives are in tatters Jesus gives priority. Far from pouring holy water upon the injustices of his time, Jesus challenges the wrongs of his day and it was for doing that that he attracted the hostility of the powerful elites of his day. His Kingship is that in which those who are least become first. It is that which opposes structures and actions that oppress. For here is a Kingship which brings a transformation in favour of those whose lives are in greatest need.

Thirdly, mercy is at the heart of this Kingship. Back in the days of capital punishment, the last hope for the condemned person was that the Home Secretary would recommend the Queen to exercise mercy. Mercy is very much an option in traditional understandings of power. But when it comes to the Kingship of Christ, mercy is at the heart of all things. Indeed when a condemned man on a cross next to Jesus recognises that his deeds have earned him his place on the cross and says to Jesus;

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom”

The reply of Jesus is;

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Do you see it? A man whose life has taken him to a place of public execution, becomes the first to share in paradise with Jesus. For mercy with Jesus is not just about letting us off. More than that it is an encounter with love and acceptance.

So the Kingship of Jesus is a liberating Kingship. We are not called to follow Jesus out of fear for the consequences if we do not. For this Kingship is not about armies or coercion but it is about being drawn into a new way of being by a Kingship that is deeply rooted in love. So we see before us in Jesus a total subversion of traditional ways of seeing Kingship. For the word that Tony Benn associates with the dominance of one poeron over others with Jesus becomes about servant hood and an assertion of the values of all. Drawn into a circle of love we are feed to do as the hymn writer encourages us to do;

“In your hearts enthrone him.”

Aaagh yes, here is no self serving Kingship but that which enables us to be truly free.


This sermon was preached at Alwington Methodist Church on Sunday November 25th 2007

Dragons or Dreams - 25th Sunday afterPentecost

Isaiah 65: 17-25
Luke 21:5-19

Back in the 1960s Bob Dylan wrote a song entitled “The times they are a changing.” And certainly we are living in an age of unprecedented change be that change seen in economic, scientific or cultural terms. Truly, they times they are a changing.

Of course, change can be seen as beneficial. The only people who tend to disagree with that possibility are those who would wish to look back to some golden age or other. But of course all such golden ages when explored turn out to be mythical.

Look for a moment to an article from the American publication, “Harpers weekly.”

“It is a gloomy moment in the history of our country. Not in the lifetime of most men has there been so much grave and deep apprehension; never has the future seemed so incalculable as at this time. The domestic economic situation is in chaos. Our dollar is weak throughout the world. Prices are so high as to be utterly impossible. The political cauldron seethes and bubbles with uncertainty. It is a solemn moment of our troubles. No man can see an end.”

It could be today when economies built on debt and inflated property markets such as both the American and British economies are, are facing a time of reckoning. But hold it! Those words were written 150 years ago back in 1857. So if things seem a bit worrying with all the talks of a banking credit crisis, such anxieties are not exactly new.

But sometimes there is good reason to be concerned at what is going on around us. There is no grounds for a facile optimism that buries its head in the sand and pretends that all is well when it patently isn’t. Certainly any form of religion that ignores dark realities isn’t worth the time of day. But thankfully, the revelation of God that we find in the scriptures in no way ignore dark realities.

There most certainly are dark realities lying behind our reading from Isaiah. Now the Book of Isaiah is probably the product of 3 Isaiahs or centres of such thought. This morning we have heard from the third and last of these Isaiahs. The first has warned of dark times coming. And come they most certainly have. The land of Judah where he was based, has been destroyed and whilst those left have faced the struggle to eke out a subsistence existence in a devastated economy, the movers and shakers have been taken far away into a distant land, traumatised by the loss of all that was familiar. And from this land comes the voice of the second Isaiah. But now with the exiles having returned to the land from which their ancestors were taken, we hear the voice of a third Isaiah who sees the immensity of the task before the people and who accordingly has words both of hope and at times of despair.

Now let us move on for a moment and we find Jesus speaking in the grounds of the Temple in Jerusalem. And in his words, we are powerfully reminded of the dark side of life. Not only does he speak of imminent destruction of the Temple but he also speaks of a future of wars, natural disasters and persecution. Now, sometimes, people do a great violence to these verses. They have become the happy hunting ground of cranks and extremists who are desperately seeking clues as the end of the world and sometimes even of a mind to give events a push in favour of such a direction. But let’s just pause for a moment. When Luke produces his meditation of the life of Jesus, he did so for a community who were no so much looking at these events in the future but living through them in the present. You see, by the time that Luke’s Gospel was written, Jerusalem had paid the price for lsitening to its false Messiahs who preached rebellion, for after a 4 year war Jerusalem with its Temple had been raised to the ground. Elsewhere, Vesuvius had erupted and Pompei was no more. And an emerging community of followers of Jesus were paying a heavy price in terms of persecuton both from their relatives and friends who had remained within Judaism and from Roman power which had no time for communities that were less than wholehearted in their commitment to Rome and the imperial cult. So the things that Jesus was speaking about belonged not to the realms of fortune telling but to the realities of life for Luke’s readers.

Given that life has its dark side, how are we to respond without going into denial? Well, I think there is a clue as to what should not be our approach that can be discerned by looking at Jesus’ words in so far as they imply the destruction of the Temple. Whilst we venerate great buildings today and part of the horror of September 11th 2001 was to see those seemingly indestructible towers crumble to the ground, we can still lose sight of the significance of Jerusalem’s Temple. For this Temple was the economic centre of Palestine as well as being the religious centre of the Jewish faith that even then had spread to many cities through the diaspora. But more than that, it was seen as the very place where God dwelled and where God could be encountered by the High Priest. But more than that it was a whiz of a building upon which great resources had been invested since the project was begun by the baby killing Herod the Great 40 years before Jesus stood there. It was in short one of the great marvels of the world. Listen for a moment to this description of the Temple offered by the contemporary historian Josephus;

“The outward face of the Temple … wanted for nothing that was likely to surprise either men’s minds or their eyes, for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a fiery splendour, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun’s own rays. But the temple appeared to strangers, when they were at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow for.. those parts… that were not gilt they were exceedingly white.”

No wonder that the religious establishment and many of the crowd would have been shocked at the words of Jesus for his words of destruction could only mean the end of the world as they knew it.

And here is a warning to us. It is too easy to think that we can keep the dragons at bay by relying on great institutions, building or traditional ways of doing things. For if the time are a changing, these things are but temporary. Long after these events, in 410 the unthinkable happened. The Visgoths invaded and ransacked the city of Rome that had dominated the world for many centuries. A story is told that across the sea in Africa, three scholars looked out on the Mediterranean Sea and saw a boat coming from Rome. With its arrival, a messenger ran to bring the earth shattering news,

“Rome has fallen.”

The three scholars stood in shocked silence. Then one of them said;

“If Rome has fallen, what will become of civilisation?”

The second said;

“If Rome has fallen what will become of the Christian faith?”

And the third scholar, the Bishop of Hippo, whom we know today as St Augustine, wisely observed;

“Brothers, perhaps we have loved Rome too much.”

And in those words our attachment to the familiar is challenged. It is this that lies at the heart of the emphasis on seeking fresh expressions of being church for the tools of a past age may not be those for the present. After all the symbols of God can never be a replacement for the reality of God. Rather than be a people who hold on to the familiar, perhaps we need to slay the dragons by daring to dream some dreams. After all, Isaiah looking at a need for a new beginning after over half a century of tears, cries out a God given message;

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they be brought to mind.”

And he dreams on about a time of being settled and finding the peace that is shalom where the wellbeing of all is promoted - a dream that needs indeed to echo into our age. Meanwhile Jesus, encourages his followers not to be distracted by the turmoil all around them and to hold on to their faith even when the going is at its hardest. How do we respond? Jesus' answer is found in later verses;

“Stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

In other words, we are to keep our eyes on the big picture that is to be found not so much in the temporary things but in the unending love and grace of God as revealed in Jesus.

Of course, there are many a dragon in this world but our calling is to confront the dragons that destroy life by being a people who dream dreams and see visions. We are called to be a people who see the possibilities that come from God to confront the dragons of our age be they;

Despair

Poverty

Warfare

Persecution

Denial of humanity.


In a fortnight, on the first Sunday of Advent we shall begin the journey that will take us to Christmas. At Christmas we shall be reminded again that in Christ light has come into the world that darkness can never put out. And Christmas wil reveal that ultimately it is the dreams and not the dragons that will prevail.


This sermon was preached at Bideford Methodist Church on November 18th 2007

Different family values here - Twenty fourth Sunday after Pentecost

LUKE 20: 27-40

I wonder how many of you watched "The Vicar of Dibley." It was a great series even if being told by a former District Chairman that I was fast on the path to becoming a Father Jack sort of character, made me more of a "Father Ted" fan. Anyhow Anglican priest, Joy Carroll Wallis is reputedly the inspiration for Dawn French’s wonderful creation, Geraldine Grainger in “The Vicar of Dibley.” She tells a story of how back in the days when she was serving in Brixton, a woman in her congregation underwent surgery that was life threatening. Fortunately the woman survived. Coming round, she saw the blurred image of her doctor dressed in the typical doctor’s white coat. With a contented smile, she spoke to the apparition saying;

“Hello God! My name is Mary!”

Clearly Mary was a woman with a real faith that she would meet with God after her death.

This evening, however, we have met with a group of people who had no such belief in resurrection. These people were the Sadducees, a party with influence amongst the wealthy elite. Well represented amongst the Sanhedrin who would condemn Jesus at a show trial, they were greatly influenced by Greek culture and all too aware when it came to the Romans that accommodation was in their interests. Yes, these Sadducees were at the top of the pile. And Jesus certainly had a rocky relationship with them, his parable about Dives (who had all the hallmarks of a Sadducee) and Lazarus showing just what Jesus made of these people.

Now the issue of the Resurrection was one which emphasised their distance from those other antagonists of Jesus, the Pharisees. The Pharisees were strong believers in the concept of the resurrection of the dead. To them, it was a reason for hope. After all life would seem to be full of injustices. Only resurrection accompanied by judgement would seem to put wrongs right. Whilst those who perpetuated injustice would be brought to account, those who had lived righteously would be rewarded. It all made sense and could be reconciled with their understanding of a God who offers a hope that is just.

But for the Sadducees, things looked different. From their perspective, a belief in resurrection was linked to a belief that the present age was in the grip of dark powers which necessitated a vindication of the righteous who suffered in this world. But this would imply that the present age was corrupted and in the view of Sadducees would put the continued existence of the covenant between God and Israel in question. So this group of society’s winners rejected the resurrection, suggesting that Jews were free to influence their own destiny by right actions. To paraphrase Many Rice Davies;

“They would say that wouldn’t they?”

Anyhow, the Sadducees ridiculed both the idea of resurrection and those who propagated it. And so it is that we find in our Gospel Reading an approach to Jesus in which they sought to expose what they saw as the absurdity of resurrection.

In the scenario which the Sadducees put to Jesus, a man who is married to a woman from whom he has had no children, dies. In accordance with what was known as the levirate rule, she was married to the next brother whop die. And so the story goes on until all seven of the brothers have died leaving the woman with no children. It is as if marrying this woman is the kiss of death. Anyhow at this point, they come to the big moment, the question that they have been building up to;

“Whose wife will she be since the seven were married to her?”

Can’t you imagine the self satisfied smile son their faces? Can’t you imagine their joy that they have just asked the unanswerable question? Surely the trick question will silence the Galilean!

But the tables are about to be turned. And they are turned in two ways. Firstly, Jesus makes a contrast between this age and that age. Let’s look at it in terms of the levirate rule. The rule which dates back to the time of Moses had reason behind it. It certainly protected widows to a degree but more than that, it also fitted in with the ancient Israelite’s understanding of eternal life as being about producing heirs who would continue the family’s ownership of the land through sons. It may have had validity in its time but I suggest that it is not quite what we mean today when we speak of “family values.” And in this we find a good reference point in how we should do our theology today. Just quoting scriptures is an unsatisfactory way of addressing God’s revelation. That is precisely what we find the Sadducees doing here. Surely, if we are to take Scripture seriously rather than doing violence to it, we need to seek the reason for the revelation in question. This means the context of its time needs to be considered and how the principles might best be applied to the in many ways different world in which we live today - for otherwise whilst being true to the literal word we may depart from the spirit of a given scripture.

But when Jesus talks in terms of different ages, he means more than that. We can like the Sadducees only see things in the light of this world but there are the times when we need to see things in the light of eternity. That which is beyond this world is hardly to be seen as a mere continuance of what we know in this life. And in this encounter we find that in the suggestion that marriage as we know it may not be for the age that is to come.

If for a moment I may stop here on this one, there will be some of us who are uncomfortable with this scripture. Many of us have happy attitudes to marriage and we want to see it in the beyond. Certainly, I have to confess that I am less than enamoured with the last Pope’s suggestion of a celibate Heaven. Of course we do not fully know the picture on these things. After all, marriage as known at the time of Jesus was less about love than it was about an exchange of two rights - the rights of a man to a woman and a woman’s right to a man’s support. How different is marriage at its best in today’s world even though today in our country marriage is all too often about control. That there is love in the beyond is not in question. How it is, is something that belongs to the realm of speculation. For us to try to know all the answers is an arrogance that is best avoided.

But finally, Jesus uses Scripture to make his second response. He reminds them that Moses has spoken of God as the God of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Long dead were these men yet God reveals himself to Moses as their God. Surely God can not be the God of what is no more. They must surely still be for God to speak of being their God. As Jesus puts it;

“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

Do you get it? God goes on being our God when our earthly life comes to an end. As Paul recognised in his letter to the church in Rome, no extremity separates us from the love of God, not even death itself. God goes on being committed to us and so we continue to have life.

Tonight, we have encountered the world of speculation and petty points scoring. We need to move from that place. Like the woman from Joy Carroll Wallis’ church we do well to simply trust that God’s purpose of love is unending. And as for the details, let us not waste time in the here and now. After all we have all eternity for that.


This sermon was preached at Alverdiscott Methodist Church on Sunday November 11th 2007

We will remember them - A sermon for Remembrance Day

Micah 4: 1-5
Matthew 5:43-48


My father has never been one to talk much about the Second World War in which he fought from 1943. I know that he was wounded on two occasions. And whilst he always attended Remembrance Day services, he chose not to claim those medals to which he was entitled.

Now with Parkinsons Disease, his memory and communication skills are diminished. And so it is too late to ask the questions which I wish that I had asked. So it is that yesterday morning I found myself looking on the internet for information about a battle that I know he was involved in - actually wounded in. It was the Battle over Hill 112, known by some as Cornwall Hill, a battle that was seen by many as of great significance in the struggle for Normandy. It was a battle that had a dreadful level of casualties with one regiment about which I read coming out of the battle with only 75 survivors from an original 900 combatants.

Certainly the BBC has put together an impressive collection of the memories of people who were involved in the Second World War. For surely history is best discovered not so much through official documents or sanitised versions but through the testimony of people who lived through momentous events, telling of what they witnessed, felt and did.

In one of these accounts, a survivor of Hill 112 named Frank Sumsion tells of a book written by a John Stirling who was a tank commander of the 4th/7th Hussars. Sumsion suggests that Stirling expresses his feelings with the following words;

“In company with millions of other young men I have spent five of what they say are the best years of my life learning and practising a profession which has destruction for its raison d’ etre

I do not doubt for one moment that we were right to do this or that our cause was just and true; of that I am convinced, and without that neither I nor the others could have ever seen this thing through.

But equally I am convinced that should this situation ever arise again, it will represent our failure to fight for peace with those same magnificent qualities which have shone through the dross of war, and it will spell the doom of all civilised existence and progress on this earth.”

Words of a man who was committed to the conflict in which he was involved but who believes that the honourable way to honour those who have died is to direct the same level of commitment that is used in war to ensure that it is not repeated. For let there be no doubt that those who have been through the mill of war, know that it is to be dreaded rather than glorified. Listen to the words of the Canadian war hero Brigadier General Dollard Menard who in his younger years had been wounded 5 times at Dieppe and who had won the DSO for his efforts. Responding to an article about Dieppe, he responded;

“War is Hell. In war there are no winners. They have produced nothing but misery. I hate war.”

And if those who have been through the fires of warfare know its inherent evil, they find echoes in the Scriptures. One of the uncomfortable realities in the Hebrew Bible is the occasions when writers seek to identify God with the violence of their time. Doubtless, you know the stories where God is portrayed as approving of the most shocking cruelties. The question is all too often put as being about whether God is on our side when it should be a matter of whether we are on God’s side. But thankfully, there are the moments when God is discovered as being on the side of peace. We see this in our Scripture Reading from Micah. Prophesying at a time of darkness when Israel has been overrun by the armies of Assyria, he dares to suggest that this is not how it must always be. And in so doing he offers a vision of a time when under the guidance of God, people will follow the ways of peace;

“They will beat their swords into ploughshares
And their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
Nor will they train for war any more.”

A dream you may say but if humanity has lost the capacity to dream, then we are greatly impoverished.

In Jerusalem at the Yad Vashem Holocasut Museum ther is an inscription that proclaims;

“In remembrance lies the secret of deliverance.”

These words are true regarding the possibility of moving on from the dreadful crimes of the Holocaust, concerning which Jews were the largest victims numerically. These words are also true for us on Remembrance Day for if we are not prepared to take time to honour those whom we remember today, we are unlikely to attain deliverance from the scourge of war. Indeed the haunting words at the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial speak to us;

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

But how can the dream of Micah find fulfilment? After all, does not history suggest an inevitability of war? Well, it may not surprise you but I see the hope coming in the message of Jesus. In the sermon on the mount he makes the astounding proposition;

“Love your enemies.”

What? Surely he can’t be serious! Well, yes, he is. But take note. This is not about the love which is rooted in our feeling. Still less is it about the sort of love that we feel for members of our family. On the contrary, the Greek word that we find in the early copies of Matthew’s Gospel is the word “agape.” And this word has been translated as being “an intentional response to promote well-being when responding to that which has generated ill-being.” Still a tough call yet a clear call to be a people who break the tendency to ever increasing circles of hatred, bitterness and violence by instead embracing ever increasing circles of reconciliation, understanding and the peace that promoted well being. And this is surely a counter cultural way which offers hope to a world that at times seems to be heading at great pace on a one way journey into destruction and ultimately oblivion.

And you know there are examples of this happening. Let me for a moment say just a few words about three such examples.

Look first to New York, a city that suffered so grievously on September 11th 2001 when the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers took place with the loss of nearly 3,000 lives. Soon afterwards, there came the military attack on Afghanistan with once more considerable damage. Amongst the buildings damaged was a mosque some 40 miles from Kabul, the Afghan capital. It had been occupied by Taliban fighters against the will of local villagers. But hope was at hand in the form of the Episcopalian Bishop of New York Mark Sisk who promoted a scheme costing $37,000 dollars to help repair the mosque.

Then let us travel to South Africa, a land where many predicted civil war with the fall of apartheid. And here we can see Desmond Tutu with his Truth and Reconciliation Commission, not ignoring the past as happened with the amnesty given to the Pinochet regime in Chile but instead facing up to the wrongs of the past in Tutu’s words;

“getting victims and perpetrators to talk together to seek to find the truth, forgiveness and reconciliation as the basis for an amnesty and a new start.”

And finally, let us look to Northern Ireland where far to many service people and civilians alike lost their lives in the troubles. And here we can see a Methodist minister called Harold Good who only last month won the 2007 World Methodist Peace Award. A Methodist minister in the Shankhill Road at the beginning of the troubles, Harold Good became a calming influence who went on to be a director of the Corrymeela centre for Reconciliation before pressing for the recent Peace process and even serving as a Protestant witness alongside a Roman Catholic priest in verifying the decommissioning of IRA arms.

And of course the list could go on. And today, more than anything we need peacemakers to build understanding between those whose worldview is Christian and those whose worldview is Muslim.

A story is told of the Prophet Muhammad standing in respect of a dead person as a funeral procession passed through the streets of Medina. A companion said to him;

“Oh Prophet, that was the funeral of a Jew not a Muslim and yet you stood up in respect.”

The Prophet answered;

“Was he not a human being.”

Today, we remember so many human beings, all children of God as well as precious to their families, who had their lives cut short in the conflicts of the last century. Many of them were amongst the finest of their generation, seeking to respond to the call of their nation. Today, we honour them and resolve that they will not be forgotten. And as we do so, we resolve to be true to the debt of honour that is owed to them. For as we remember those who have given their all, we seek the deliverance that can only come through the Peace that seeks the well being of all.

We will remember them!


This sermon is being preached at an Ecumenical Remembrance Day service in Littleham on Sunday November 11th 2007.

Oh for trumpet voice! - Non lectionary sermon to commemorate 300th anniversary of birth of Charles Wesley

1 John 4: 7-12

Matthew 6: 28-34

Just three miles from where I was born there is a hole in the ground which has been shaped into a great amphitheatre. It is Gwennap Pit. Now with neatly layered rows of seats, it is a venue held in great regard in Cornish Methodism. There in the 1740s both John and Charles Wesley were to preach, the former returning many times.

My ancestors , it seems from family history research, were followers of the Methodist movement at quite an early stage of that movement. And so like many other Cornish miners, they would have travelled to the Pit to hear John Wesley. But more importantly they would have sung the hymns of Charles Wesley that would have enabled them to learn so much of their understanding of their faith.

Of course, Charles Wesley was not just a hymn writer. He was a very capable preacher although his greater leaning for family life than shown by brother John ( not difficult), meant that subsequent to his marriage he did not travel as widely as his brother or as he had done previously. He was at the centre of many of the debates within early Methodism and certainly was less than happy at the course of action taken by John when it seemed to make a break with the Church of England inevitable. He was at the heart of the social vision of Methodism having been disgusted by the practices of slavery that he had witnessed in America, as well as being a consummate visitor of prisoners right up to the moment of their executions, seeking to bring comfort in the darkest of situations. But, for all of that, it is as a hymn writer that Charles Wesley is best remembered. And as a hymn writer, Charles left quite a legacy. Indeed such was his legacy that the congregationalist scholar, Bernard Manning no not the Bernard Manning you’re thinking of), had these words to offer to Methodists;

“Your greatest - incomparably your greatest - contribution to the common heritage of Christendom is in Wesley’s hymns. All the other things which you do, others have done and can do as well, better or less well. But in Wesley’s hymns you have something unique, no one else could have done it, and unless you preserve it for the use of the faithful, till that day when we are all one, we shall all lose some of the best gifts of God.”

Amen to that! For at a time when Methodists are sometimes apologetic about their emphasis on these hymns, it is worth noting that growing evangelical and charismatic movements are discovering these treasures for themselves and putting them to good use.

Now, this morning I don’t want to be particularly nostalgic - I’m no good at that! The message that I want to share with you is that the hymns of Charles Wesley are a powerful spiritual force for today just as they were a powerful spiritual force in ages past. Why? Because rooted in Scripture, they bear witness to the incomparable love of God in Christ for all humanity. And with that emphasis comes the challenge to be a people who live for God.

From his experience of God at Pentecost 1738, Charles’s hymn writing displays a great excitement at the wonder of God’s love. We see this in the hymn that he wrote to celebrate the first anniversary of that Pentecost experience “O for a thousand tongues” when he writes of the change that God brings into our lives in the verse that proclaims;

“In Christ our Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven,
Anticipate your heaven below
And own that love is heaven.”

What a transformation! But Charles is not one to wallow in a “Me, Me, Me” religion. Far from it! His conviction from the very beginning is that what he has experienced of God is something that is available to the great ocean of humanity. Think back for a moment to that great Conversion hymn, written but 3 days after his Pentecost experience. Already, he is fired with the vision that the grace of God which has touched his life is something that can be for all. No religious priority for the respectable can be found in his thinking for Charles is already grasping the principle that God can save those who might be seen as the furthest away from him. Hear it in these words;

“Outcasts of men, to you I call,
Harlots and publicans and thieves!
He spreads his arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone his grace receives;
No need for him the righteous have;
He came the lost, to seek and save.”

Wow! Here is a message of good news and it is good news for all. Thoroughly based in the love of God, it is the love that makes somebodies out of nobodies. It is the love that brings hope to the very darkest places of despair. And it is a love that calls in turn for a response. It is a love that we need to respond to in loyalty. The hymn, “Love Divine” both takes us into the immensity of God’s love for us and cries out for that love to be at work within us. Yet it is based on a patriotic poem by John Dryden found in Henry Purcell’s seventeenth century opera, “King Arthur.” But Charles transforms Dryden’s “Fairest Isle, all isles excelling” into “Love divine, all loves excelling.” This doesn’t mean that the Wesley’s were anti patriotism - far from it in fact! But it does mean that the highest loyalty for the Christian is God rather than nation - something that I wish those telling Muslims to put Britain before their faith would take notice of for the Christian is called not to my country right or wrong but to the God who is the God of all nations.

Back to Gwennap Pit. Historical records suggest that people were greatly moved there as they sang the hymns of Charles Wesley. Some wept . Some even fainted. For Charles Wesley (unlike brother John) was never afraid to touch the emotions. One of Charles’ greatest hymns was “Jesus, lover of my soul.” Its level of intimate language was such that it earned the disapproval of John Wesley to such a level that he excluded it from his 1780 Collection of hymns. It has within it the language of the great mystics with that beautiful last verse about “plenteous grace.”

Let me tell you a story about the effects of this hymn. It come against the backdrop of the American Civil War. A group of former soldiers from the once opposing Union and Confederate armies were reminiscing. A former Confederate told the story of how one night he had been ordered to shoot an exposed sentry. He had crept near the target and had taken aim when he heard the sentry singing “Jesus lover of my soul.” As he heard the words;

“Cover my defenceless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.”

The confederate said to himself ;

“I can’t kill that man.”

And so he slinked away.

Listening to this was an old Union soldier who asked;

“Was that in the Atlanta campaign of 64?”

“Yes.”

“Then I was that Union sentry."

And the Union sentry went on to say how knowing of the danger of his post that night, he had been greatly depressed and had sung that hymn to keep his spirits up.

Would that in more battles “Jesus, lover of my soul” was sung with similar results!

The wonder of Charles Wesley is that his hymns speak through different times of year and to differing situations. Yet always the message is of God’s love. In one of his hymns he cries out ;

“O for a trumpet voice
On all the world to call.”

Well Charles Wesley was that trumpet voice and for what a message! Hear him as he continues regarding the message of that trumpet voice;

“To bid their hearts rejoice
In him who died for all.
For all my Lord was crucified
For all, for all my saviour died!”

And that is the essential message of Charles Wesley. An emphatic - “For all!” For all are loved by Christ to the point of self giving sacrificial death. And in a world of outcasts and directionless people, a world of people who have all too often lost the capacity to hope, the “For all” of Christ proclaimed by Charles Wesley needs to be heard loudly as if from a trumpet voice.

So, as we look back on All Saints Day, giving thanks for that great cloud of witnesses, we remember with thanksgiving Charles Wesley’s life, his example and his hymns.


This sermon was preached at Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday November 4th 2007

"Perfect in every way?" - Twenty second Sunday after Pentecost

LUKE 18: 9-14

Several years ago, a novelty song got close to the top of the charts. . It chorus proudly proclaimed;

“O Lord it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
‘Cause I get better looking’ each day.

Well on first reading we have a character who fits into that song’s lyrics in the story of Jesus that we have heard this morning. So let’s take a look at the two characters that Jesus provides us with.

The first character was a Pharisee. Pharisees don’t get the best of presses in the Gospels - you can’t help but feel that they are people in need of spin doctors. And yet in the time of Jesus, they were greatly respected. After all, they took the Law that had been given to Moses very seriously indeed and they made every effort both to live by it themselves and to help others to do so. Certainly Jesus spent time with them and not of all of that time was spent adversarially. Later Paul defending his Christian faith would speak of his being a Pharisee in the present rather than the past tense. So whilst today, we too easily ridicule these people, they were at the time of Jesus generally respected for the devout lives that they led.

The other character was toll collector. They were certainly not well though of in Jewish society. Oh, they may at times have been rather well off. But the problem was how they had amassed their fortunes. And this was not a pretty story. For they were the traiors of their day who raised money from their localities on behalf of the hated Roman occupying forces. And in so doing, they were given the powers to extort extra funds on their own behalf . Traitorous fraudsters was in essence what they were - Quisling and Robert Maxwell made one!

Certainly Jesus’ audience would have seen the Pharisees as being much closer to God than these toll collectors.

But wait, Luke recounts this story to a divided church. Luke’s church was made of followers of the Galilean Jesus On that they were united. The problem is that they were also divided. And their division was between those who had a Judean worldview and those who were now being drawn into the church who has Gentile and Hellenistic worldviews. This was the controversy that rocked the early church and without doubt there were those on both sides who looked down on others. The vibrant Gentile Christian communities looked down on the Jewish communities from which the Gospel had come. Their demands for circumcision and the observance of ancient Jewish dietary rules, suggested to these people that the Jewish Christian communities were hung up on superfluous regulations rather than the grace of Christ. Equally, there were those amongst the Jewish Christians who held that the Gentile Christians were showing an arrogance by refusing to be grafted into the Israel from which the Gospel came.

I cannot help but wonder if Luke shapes this story around a need for both Gentile and Christian communities to place their emphasis upon being passionate about the things that really matter such as their prayer lives rather than by claiming a superior righteousness over those who thought and acted in a different way. If so, I suggest that there is a relevance to the diverse body that is the Christian church today.

Anyhow back to the story that Jesus told. In this story both have come to pray. The Pharisee prays;

“God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

It’s a pious prayer. Sure it contains an element of truth in it. After all what is wrong with thanking God for being at work in one’s life? The problem of the prayer is that in his thanksgiving to God, this Pharisee can be seen to be looking down on another person and denying the possibility of God’s grace being at work in that person’s life.

And in so doing, the Pharisee is denying a reality of God’s work. Sure, the toll collector has been no better than he ought to be. But his saving grace is that is aware of and acknowledges this reality. He knows that he is not all that he should be and so his prayer reflects his sense of need. Looking down out of shame and beating his breast, he prays;

“God have mercy on me, a sinner.”
He has understood something that the Pharisee has missed out on, the reality that in our relationship with God, none of us can come with entitlement but we can only come depending on God’s grace and mercy. We do not come before God on the basis of our attainments but as those who know that God is a debtor to no person.

And it is because the toll collector realises this as his situation and because he goes on to let the reality dwell within him, that Jesus ends this story with words which would have caused a sharp intake of breath from his listeners;

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Oh does not this turn our expectation of the world upside down? Does it not challenge so much of what we have been brought up on? Well, that is the wonder of grace, the word that is at the heart of hope for humanity.

But there is something more. I pointed out at the beginning that Luke’s community would have encountered this story at a time when the temptation within the church to exclude those who were different was at its strongest. We can understand that because the temptation to exclude continues to exist today. So here we see a picture of how religion can be distorted. For surely, the offence of the Pharisee was not that he lacked religion. He had plenty of it, enough to make him a man of virtue. And yet, in sense he had not enough. He lacked enough religion to be inclusive. And religion that makes us virtuous but not inclusive cab be a hateful thing which creates hurt to so many. For as we are all made in the image of God, we all marr the image in some way or other. Within ourselves we do not have it all. We are none of us perfect in every way. So each of us as we look into the mirror need to see that we as much as others need the gift of being included - a gift that comes through Christ’s grace.

So this morning, may we celebrate God’s gift in including us and may we live lives of radical inclusion of others.


This sermon was preached at Gammaton Methodist Church on October 28th 2007