Catholic Contextual urban Theology, Mimetic Theory, Contemplative Prayer. And other random ramblings.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Sermon at Parish Mass Pentecost 2016


Acts 2.1-21
Romans 8.14-17
John 14.8-17, 25-27

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love.
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”, Jesus tells Philip in today’s Gospel. What does Jesus mean? Surely not that God the Father has two eyes, a nose and a beard. God has no form or appearance, for God is Spirit, as Jesus says elsewhere.
In John’s Gospel, “seeing” always means seeing deeply, seeing the meaning beyond the surface of things, seeing with the eyes of the Spirit. So Jesus explains what he means. To see the Father you need to hear the words of Jesus and see his works. Jesus shows us who the Father is through what he does. The Father is in him, working through him, and he is in the Father.
When we read the gospels, or if we are fortunate enough to visit the holy land, we can think how great was the privilege of those who saw Jesus in his earthly life and saw his works, the works the Father did through him. That has not been our privilege.
But in fact the earthly life of Jesus was a preparation for what came after. The disciples during the life of Jesus knew him as someone standing in front of them and alongside them. They knew him and saw and heard him in an exterior way. But his great desire is to dwell, not outside us, but within us, in our hearts, so that we can share in the life that he shares with the Father. He who is Son of God by nature wants us to be Children of God by adoption.
Jesus has returned to the Father through his resurrection and ascension. But we are not left as orphans. He has ascended to fill all things. He is not absent, but more immediately present. He dwells in his fullness in the Cosmos, in the Church, in the Sacraments and the Scriptures.
And from the Father’s throne he sends the Holy Spirit, so that he can dwell in our hearts by faith. So that humanity can be drawn into the life of God. The Spirit, in fact, deifies us, so that we become one with God by grace. Is that too much to say? It is what the scriptures say. The Spirit within us cries out “Abba, Father!”, and children share the same nature as their Father.
The Spirit within us draws us into the life of God, so that the Church becomes the image of the Holy Trinity, many persons sharing one Divine nature.
It is for this reason that Jesus says that the disciples “will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these”. After the Ascension the Church takes the place of Jesus as the visible sign of God’s Kingdom in the world. As the Father has sent me, so I send you, says Jesus. As we heard in our first reading, on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended visibly on the Church just as he did on Jesus on the day of his baptism. And, like Jesus, the Church then began to proclaim the Kingdom of God in word and deed.
From now on, those who see the Church should be able to see the Father, too. Not that the Church is identical with the Father. But by the Holy Spirit in our hearts we are being transformed into the image of Jesus, and so, like Jesus, the Church shows the world what the Father is like. Like Jesus, the Church must show the Father to the world through the word of forgiveness offered freely to sinners, through works of healing and mercy, through touching the untouchable, through compassion and love.
Now we might think that is a bit removed from the reality of the Church as we experience it, with its divisions and bickering, the all too evident human ambition and desire for control that we sometimes see, and the lives of its members which too often show sin to the world rather than holiness.
But the Church is an organism, the body of Christ. A body does not appear instantly perfect and complete in all its parts, but grows and develops gradually, through time. The promise of Jesus is that the Spirit will lead us into all truth, not that we will arrive at its fullness instantaneously.
This applies both to the Church and to us as individuals. Christ dwells in us by faith. His image is formed in us by our baptism, by which we are adopted as children of God. But that image needs to grow in us, and we to grow into Christ, and this is the work of the Sprit in us. 
This does not happen in us automatically, but by grace. We do not transform ourselves into Christ, this is God’s gift to us and in us through the Spirit. But we need constantly to open our hearts to that grace, and co-operate with it.
How do we do this? There is nothing extraordinary about it. It is simple: repent, pray, receive the sacraments.
We need constantly to be repenting, turning towards the Lord and away from our sins, so that Christ comes alive in us in proportion as our sinful nature withers away and dies.
By prayer we breathe the breath of God, his Spirit – the word means “breath” – praying in us and filling us with Divine life.
And Jesus himself gave us the sacraments to be the ordinary means of grace by which we grow in him, and he in us. In the Eucharist he feeds us with himself and transforms us more and more into his image. The sacraments of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick restore his image in us when it has been wounded by sin, sickness or the accidents of life. The sacraments of confirmation, marriage and ordination bring out in those who receive them some particular aspect of the image of Christ, not the same in each but so that all can work together to build up the Church, the people of God, whom St Augustine calls “the whole Christ”.
This is what the Holy Spirit does in us, the breath of God who transforms us into the image of Christ and draws us into the life of God as his children.
St Paul expresses this well in his prayer in Ephesians chapter 3. We can make his prayer our own on this day of Pentecost:  
“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

We pray this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sermon at Parish Mass Easter 7 2016


Acts 16.16-34
Revelation 22.12-14,16,17,20,21
John 17.20-26

Come, Holy Spirit, meet us at our crossroads.
These nine days between Ascension and Pentecost are traditionally kept as a period of prayer for renewal in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We remember that in Acts the infant church is described as being constantly at prayer during those nine days, the Apostles and others with the Mother of Jesus waiting in the upper room for the promised gift.
The Church always needs to be depending, waiting on God, living in expectation of the Spirit. This year the Church of England has produced these excellent little booklets as a resource to help us pray in these days. Do please take one with you if you haven’t already got one.
The theme of these short meditations is God meeting us at the crossroads, moments of choice where we move forward to a different future. There are nine short biblical stories with accompanying artwork to meditate on.
The crossroads in these stories is a point of departure and uncertainty. At the beginning of each story the characters do not know how it is going to unfold. But in one way or another the Spirit of God is present in those situations to change possibilities and open up a new future.
Going forward into God’s future means letting go of the certainties and securities that we want to hang on to, and learning to depend on God alone. The crossroads is where God meets us, and that is risky, because God changes us and takes us into a future different from the one we thought we had pinned down. But at that crossroads we also discover the true identity that Jesus speaks of in today’s gospel reading, our unity with him in the Father. That is a truth we can depend on whatever the circumstances, whatever change or uncertainty is before us.
We can read today’s extract from Acts as a story of God meeting people at the crossroads. The poor slave girl and her owners – how horrible to speak of “owners” in relation to a human being – are about to encounter God and be changed, though they don’t know it. She was a fortune teller. Fortune telling was an attempt to determine the future, and so reduce its risks. But to do so closes off God’s different, risky, future and all he has prepared for us. And in the 1st century world view of Acts this opposition to receiving God’s future is attributed to a demon, a lying spirit of oppression and bondage.
The girl is freed from her bondage by the Holy Spirit acting through Paul. Now what is going to happen to her? We don’t know, but her former owners now have no use for her. For her, the Spirit met her at the crossroads and God’s new and different future opened before her. Perhaps she’ll tell us what happened next when we meet her in the Kingdom. But her owners refuse that future. They are angry that their handle on the future, their possession and control of it, has been taken away. Not only their fortune telling girl, but also their money, which is another way of controlling the future. They resort to violence, casting out the ones who brought the message of liberation that they have refused.
Then the jailer. What a crossroads he found himself at, when he thought Paul and Silas had escaped. The only way ahead he could think of was the dead end of suicide, but perhaps he thought that a preferable option to what the Romans might do to him for letting prisoners go. But suddenly, unexpectedly, the Spirit met him at the crossroads and a new way opened up. These prisoners who do not run away and seek no revenge show him a completely new way of living in the world. Salvation, faith in God, discovering his true identity in Christ. Suddenly a glorious new way ahead from the crossroads opens up for him, filled with the light of the risen Christ, and not just for him but for his whole household.
Paul and Silas too are at a crossroads. Their situation frankly looks dire, chained in a horrible prison and perhaps facing torture or death. At that moment they don’t know where the road from this crossroads will lead them. But they do know their identity in Christ which can never be taken away. They do trust that the Spirit is with them to lead them into God’s future, filled with light, even if in this world that future seemed dark. So what are they doing? They are singing hymns. Come, Holy Spirit, meet us at our crossroads.
What about us? We are always at the crossroads, in one way or another. Choice, chance and uncertainty face us. We do not know what the future will bring. But we do know our identity in Christ, one with him in the love of the Father. We do know that the Spirit meets us at the crossroads to lead us on. We do know that God’s future, which we do not possess or control, is the path from the crossroads that leads us on in the end to the heavenly city where Christ is all in all. In our lives, especially at moments of crisis and uncertainty, come, Holy Spirit, meet us at our crossroads.
So also in our life as a church. Here at St Peter le Poer we are awaiting the new vision and strategy for the Edmonton Episcopal Area. What will be our part in that? Our parish is in some senses in a temporary state, with the living suspended and no resident parish priest. What will the future bring? Well our task is not to try and pin that down, but to trust in God. In our church, come, Holy Spirit, meet us at our crossroads.
And in our city. A city of all nations and religions, in which our newly elected mayor, a Muslim who chose to take his oath of office in a Christian cathedral, speaks of hope instead of fear, unity instead of division. Those ideas are not strange to us as Christians, either. In all the diversity of our city we find much recognition and common ground.
Jesus preached the kingdom of God in person in his life on earth. After his ascension the Church, the community of disciples, took his place as the visible sign of the Kingdom, and it is to the Church that the fullness of the message of salvation is committed. But the ascended Christ fills the cosmos. He is not confined to the boundaries of the visible Church.
What is he doing today, in our city of many faiths? Our city where there is such opportunity and culture but also so much poverty, deprivation and exclusion.  How is the Spirit working, the Spirit who renews the face of the whole earth? We may be sure he is at work; God’s future is present as possibility and gift for all. How can we as Christians best engage with others in a way that opens up for all that possibility and gift? Our city is at a crossroads. So, in our city, come, Holy Spirit, meet us at our crossroads.

Sunday 1 May 2016

Sermon at Parish Mass and Baptism Easter 6 2016

Photo: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7570177.stm

Acts 16.9-15
Revelation 21.10,22 - 22.5
John 14.23-29

Today we celebrate the baptism of Ellis and Nancy. Baptism is not something the church has invented, it is what Jesus told us to do. In Matthew 28.19 he says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
Baptism is rooted in Jewish practice, for example that of John the Baptist. A ritual bath has a symbolism of repentance and cleansing from sin. But Jesus took it further. Christian Baptism identifies us with Christ, the Son of God. We are adopted in him as children of God and made members of that new humanity which is his body, his Church.
At its heart baptism is very simple, the pouring of water over the candidate with the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.” In an emergency, that is all that is necessary, and anyone can do it. But in normal practice, as today, that very simple action is surrounded by other ceremonies, signs and declarations to bring out its inner meaning.
Baptism is what is called a Sacrament, that is an outward visible sign that coveys an inward spiritual grace.
In a sacrament the Church performs the outward action, the thing that Jesus told us to do, but it is Jesus himself who is the real minister of every sacrament, the risen Lord who stands among us and gives the inward grace that the outward sign signifies.
The Mass that we celebrate today is also a sacrament: bread and wine are consecrated with the words that Jesus gave us, and those outward signs become what he said, his body and blood conveying his life to all who receive them.
So when we are baptized it is really Jesus who baptizes us. Even before we are baptized, he has opened our hearts to believe in him. Baptism is a response to faith, the faith of adults if they are being baptized, or the faith of parents and godparents expressed on behalf of children.
When we are baptized, we are joined with Jesus in his death and resurrection. The font is a symbol of being buried and emerging to new and eternal life, the life of the spirit in God. We receive the Holy Spirit. As we heard in today’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit raises us to the life of God so that we share in the love of the Father and the Son. The Spirit creates us us anew, forgiving our sins. He is the Advocate, the counsel for the defence, who protects us from the accusation of the world. The Spirit brings peace, a spiritual peace that the world cannot give, even in the midst of all that life can do to us.
Baptism is our renewal in the Holy Spirit and looks forward to the renewal of all creation. Today’s reading from Revelation showed us our ultimate goal, the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, where all creation is filled by God. The river of the water of life flows in that city for the healing of the nations. But it flows also in the font, and baptism makes us citizens of that heavenly city. The healing of the nations begins with our own coming to Christ.
All the gifts we need to follow in the way of Christ are given to us in baptism and remain with us for life. But the grace of baptism is given as a seed that needs to be nurtured, tended and nourished, so that it can grow and bear the fruit that God intends. When children are baptized, the parents and godparents promise to help and encourage that growth. The habits of prayer, bible reading and taking part in the worship of the church, all help the grace of baptism to be nurtured and to grow within us.
With the grace of baptism each of us receives a particular calling, some task that God has for us as we follow Jesus. And God gives his people a variety of gifts and callings, so that, in the church, everyone can be built up together into the full stature of Christ.
There is an example of that in our reading from Acts, where we have the story of a baptism: Lydia and her household. A very significant moment, because Paul and his companions have just crossed into Europe for the first time, and so Lydia is the first person in Europe to be converted to the Christian faith.
So she and her household were baptized. She was a wealthy businesswoman, the purple cloth trade was the luxury end of the market, and her household would have been quite large: not only her extended family, including children, but also servants and employees. In fact, that baptized household was the first local church in Europe. I wonder if there is a blue plaque there?
Now of course Christianity is bigger than Europe, but it’s amazing to think that the Church in Europe began with the baptism of Lydia and her household. In that moment they became disciples of Jesus, his ambassadors to spread the good news of salvation in the place where they lived.
As with Lydia and her household, so with us. In our baptism we become members of Christ, ambassadors for him, and we receive in that moment all the gifts that we need to follow in the path he has for us.
There are many such gifts just as there are many kinds of service in the Church, but the same Lord is served, and all in one way or another are expressions of the love that Jesus has for us, and that we are to have for one another.
Whatever our particular vocation, we are all called to be witnesses to Christ, his ambassadors in this world that so much needs to know of his love and the peace and forgiveness he brings.

Ellis and Nancy are about to start their journey of faith. They become the newest ambassadors of Jesus Christ today. As they grow in years and walk in faith along life’s pathway they will find that Jesus is walking with them, unfolding for them their particular gifts and calling, as they discover more and more their identity in him as children of God. That is our calling too, and therefore we rejoice with them today.