Month: December 2023

Serving together

For New Year’s Eve 2023. Text: Colossians 1:9-20

Fireworks above Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey. © david cameron photographer licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence

Today, starting in about an hour’s time, TV screens across the world will begin to show fireworks being set off, first in the easternmost territories of the Pacific ocean, then westwards all around the world as the spinning globe turns once more on its axis, taking us into what most of the world counts as the two thousand and twenty-fourth year of the current era. It’s a festival that brings together people of many religions and ethnicities, a celebration that knows no boundaries other than those of time zones, a rare moment when the whole world can party together in recognition of our common humanity.

Last week I explored what it meant for Christ to come as a light into the darkness, and for us to welcome Christ into our individual lives, bringing light into whatever dark situations we and our families may find ourselves in. This week I want to widen our horizons and think about what it means to welcome Christ into our church community, here and around the world. So I’m going to ask you to spend a few minutes sharing your ideas and experiences with the person next to you.

Later, I will invite you to share in the covenant prayer, an annual act of commitment that started with the Methodist church but now used by many different churches. It’s a prayer said, not at home as individuals, but together as a community. Many people each making the same promises, and being accountable to each other for living up to the promises that we make. Paul wrote his letter not to one person, but as it says in verse 2, to “the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Colossae”.   So my first question for you to spend two minutes sharing with your neighbour is:

Does your experience of being a Christian feel more like a personal journey, or of being part of the journey of faith of the whole Church?

The nature of Christian churches does, of course, vary widely, and those different types of congregation will be held together by different common purposes. Consider these different groups and what it is that binds them together:

  1. A traditional Orthodox, Catholic or Anglican church centred around the weekly or daily liturgy of the Mass or Communion service.
  2. A village church centred around the activities of the village: farming, school terms, summer tourists, annual fairs and shows.
  3. An inner-city church responding to its deprived neighbourhood through foodbanks, counselling, teaching and other ministries, that involve most of its members in some way.
  4. A small house church that centres around regular gatherings for prayer, worship and Bible study.
  5. An intentional community of Christian families living together, each with its own daily work to bring money into the community, but sharing most of their resources and often eating together.
  6. A ‘gathered’ urban church where people come from all over the city to share a particular style of worship and preaching.

So my second question to discuss in pairs, as we prepare to renew or covenant with God, is this –

  • Which of these have you experienced in your Christian journey? And which is most like St Peter’s as it is, or as you would like it to be?

None of these types of congregations with a common purpose come about overnight, as Christian culture like any other is built up over the years as people come together and find common purpose. Working or worshipping together slowly builds connections. It also builds confidence in each other as members of the church come to see each other first as strangers, then as people with something in common, then as friends and finally as part of the one body.

In verse 18 of the reading from Colossians, Paul says something important: “Christ is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy”. Great though it is to have a committed Rector like Julia, and for all the benefits of our Church of England’s system of bishops and parishes, we must never forget that the Head of the Church, ultimately, is not an Archbishop or Pope, but Christ himself. If a Church splits over some issue of doctrine or practice, what matters is not so much which side has a better argument, but whether they can continue to accept each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, engaged in different forms of ministry.  As Paul puts it in verse 20, “God was pleased … through Christ to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven”.  That ministry of reconciliation is also ours: to be reconciled to other Christians whose idea of what a successful church looks like is different from our own, in order that together we can act as Christ’s family in the world, doing his will to the glory of God. And also to be reconciled to the people around us who for whatever reason may feel that the church is  ‘not for them’. So the last question for you to share, before we sing our next hymn, is this:

  • What might a ‘ministry of reconciliation’ look like in our community?

After the Party

Sermon for Christmas Eve at St Peter’s, Bramley

Text: John 1:1-14

Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

It was a wonderful Christmas party, perhaps the best they had ever organised. The room was candlelit. Everyone who had been invited turned up, along with some friends who hadn’t. Some of them were dressed to the nines and brought gifts of champagne and flowers, some less well dressed with just a bottle of cheap wine, and some, well, we can overlook the jeans and work boots, but to bring nothing?  Never mind, the house was full, Christmas lights were twinkling, music tinkling, glasses chinking, conversation flowing. The hosts enjoyed every minute of it, even if they never sat down themselves.

After midnight people started drifting away. Soon, the party was over. Then, the morning after. Not just the hangover, the piles of washing up, the tidying. It was the darkness. The darkness outside of another dismal December day, but also the darkness inside. The unpaid credit card bill. The new neighbours with their antisocial behaviour (who of course hadn’t been invited). The recently diagnosed illness that  they hadn’t dared talk about to the guests. And most of all, the depression that so easily settles when reality hits and problems that won’t go away have to be faced.

Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

In some ways, it was the same for Mary and Joseph. What a party they had that night! The glory of the Lord shone round about the stable, the angels sang, the wise men came in all their finery with gold, frankincense and myrrh, the shepherds came, underdressed and offering a symbolic lamb, and maybe the innkeeper even turned up with a flagon of the best Galilean wine. Everyone praised the newborn baby, to add to the prophecy Mary had already received. They were, that night, the most blessed family on earth.

But the shepherds returned to their fields, the magi hurried away for fear of  Herod, the angels ceased their singing and the star faded. It was just another cold winter’s night in the unheated stable, far from home and with a newborn baby to care for. On top of that, the Magi’s warning of Herod’s wrath was weighing on their minds, and before long they were to become asylum seekers in Egypt. It must have felt a very dark time for them, when the party was over.

All these details of the familiar nativity story come either from the first three gospel accounts: Mark, Matthew and Luke, or later traditions. John starts his gospel in a very different way. It seems unimportant to him exactly when and where Jesus was born, or who visited him. This unique event was not to be limited to just one night in Bethlehem, or even the few years from the annunciation to Mary to the return from Egypt. The coming into the world of the very Word of God was, no, is, an event that ripples through space and time, affecting even this night our understanding of the world.

So how, on this Christmas night, does this cosmic event speak to us? Where is the darkness that threatens us, that will still be there when the Christmas celebrations are over? Our circumstances are all different. The darkness may be within our own minds, within our families, within the community we live in, or the problems of the world at large. As we walk through life, certain events will seem to cast a dark shadow over us. In my own household this year, we’ve had to cope with illness, injury, unemployment and expensive building works.

The apostle John wrote for people who were Jews by birth but, unlike their leaders, believed Jesus was the Son of God. Religious disagreement led to division, division to separation, and separation, for some, to martyrdom. A very dark time for the early Church, and no doubt one reason why John writes his prologue in terms of light versus darkness: the light of faith in Christ expressed in the love of the community, versus the darkness of unbelief and persecution from both Jews and Romans1.

A beacon of fire blazing on a dark night
© Copyright Tiger and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Yet at the heart of this familiar passage is verse 5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”. This last phrase has been translated in many ways: the darkness “has never put out” the light, “could not overpower it”, “has not understood it”, “did not comprehend it”, “has not seized it”2 , or “has not welcomed it”.3.  Taken together, these give us the powerful idea that the light is something that may be opposed, but is stronger than what opposes it, and ultimately cannot be stopped. There is no suggestion in the Gospel that the darkness ceases to exist when the light comes. Rather, the light prevents the darkness from having power over those who come to the light.

Later in his Gospel, John records Jesus saying “Believe in the light, that you may become children of light”, and again, “He who follows will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life”. 4 What John’s declaration to his community tells us is that whatever form darkness takes, the fact that God sent his son to become a man, born of a woman, has turned on a light that the darkness cannot turn out. And that light can be within each one of us.

This light is not about self-fulfilment. It’s a tapping into the glory of Christ who is ever present, connecting us with the rest of his community. As if the Star of Bethlehem rises within each of us whenever we turn, as it were, to the east: engaging in worship and prayer, paying attention to the divine source of that light. Just as a light turned on in a room gives light to that room even though it’s still dark outside, so the inner light of Jesus can help us to feel the brightness, the warmth, the comfort of his presence and of being part of his community, even though life’s circumstances may seem dark around us.

I therefore encourage you all to rejoice this night as we remember the birth of Jesus, and to celebrate the festival with your friends and family. And when the parties are over and normal life resumes through the winter, don’t forget that the Church keeps the season of Christmas right through January, finishing with the celebration of Candlemas on 2nd February. May you take this Christmas season to find the light of Christ within you. A light that can never be extinguished. Thanks be to God.

  1. Ashton, John, “Understanding the Fourth Gospel”, Clarendon 1991, pp 166-170
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  2. German: “die Finsternis hat es nicht erfaßt” ↩︎
  3. French: “les ténèbres ne l’ont pas accueillie” ↩︎
  4. Ashton (op.cit.) p.209, quoting John 12:36 and John 8:12
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Stick with Love: giving

Sermon for Bramley St Peter, 3 December 2022

Readings: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 ; Luke 14:12-14

The congregation were first of all asked some questions, which set the scene for the rest of the talk…

  1. What do the following have in common: the City of Aberdeen, the Royal School of Church Music, the Duchy of Lorraine, and the Greek Navy? Their patron saint is St Nicholas.
  2. When is the feast day of St Nicholas? 6 December.
  3. Who visited this church last weekend and has recently written a book that features St Nicholas? Bishop Arun. His book is titled “Stick with Love”
  4. Here’s the last question, which may seem unrelated but isn’t, as we’ll see shortly. I read something recently about a woman who was criticised on social media for (quote) ‘only’ spending a hundred pounds on each of her children at Christmas. We don’t have children ourselves, and I’m a bit out of touch with these things. So, I looked online to find out the average amount that British parents do spend on each child? According to a recent survey, is it (a) £35, (b) £70, (c) £100 or (d) £190?  Answer either (c) or (d): Median £100, Mean £190. In other words,the woman in the story was being criticised for being average, and that’s what commercial pressure does to us – it pushes up expectations.

Let’s draw those threads together. Arun’s book takes us through the season of Advent, which starts today, looking at a famous Christian each day to see what we can learn from them. Some are historical saints; others have become famous in our own time. Saint Nicholas appears of course on 6th December. He was a real person, a Christian bishop in what is now Turkey about three hundred years after the time of Christ. Historically he was one of the most widely celebrated Christian saints of all time.

What he was most known for was his generosity to the poor. One famous story about him is that there was a man who had lost all of his money. The man could not afford proper dowries, that is wedding gifts, for his three daughters. This meant that they would remain single, unemployed, and living in poverty. Hearing of the girls’ problems, Nicholas decided to help them, but, bearing in mind Jesus’ advice to do good deeds in secret, he went to their house under the cover of darkness and threw a purse filled with gold coins through the window (windows didn’t have glass in them, in those days). The father could then afford for his daughters to be married. It was only later he found out where the money came from. (So now you know where we get the idea of hanging bags of gold coins on the Christmas tree!)

I think Nicholas may also have been motivated by what Jesus taught in today’s reading about being generous to those who can’t repay us, rather than giving only to those who we expect to give us a present in return. That’s something to bear in mind this Christmas. How do we decide who we give presents to, or what particular present to give?

 Think particularly about gifts for children. Our motivation might be their pleasure – what are their hobbies and interests? It might be education – what books, toys or games will help them develop useful skills? It might be to develop talent, if they are into sports, arts or music.  But there’s nothing wrong with adding something just for celebration – sweets or other food as a treat, for example.

This year, as the environmental crisis looms ever larger, more people are thinking not only of how their gifts might help the person who receives them, but also the human and environmental impact: where was that present made and who made it, how long will it last, and can the materials and packaging be recycled? Now’s not the time to go into this in detail, but you may want to look up A Rocha’s ‘twelve tips for a greener Christmas’ – the suggestions include cooking or buying a meal for that person who has everything, or a gift of your time.

But going back to the season of Advent, what we are really doing in this season is not just decorating our homes and wrapping presents to celebrate Christmas with our families, important though that is. Advent is about preparing our hearts to receive God’s greatest gift.  Another question (clue in the title of the book!)

Final question: What is God’s greatest gift to us? His love!

God’s greatest gift to us is not measured in pounds (or if you must, it was about seven pounds, give or take). And like Nicholas’s gift of a wedding dowry, it was given at night, to a family in a poor home. God’s greatest gift is his welcoming, forgiving love, shown most clearly in coming among us as Jesus Christ: baby and man, teacher, healer, prophet, and through his death our Saviour and Lord. Look again at that reading from the letter to the Corinthians: six times in those seven verses Paul mentions Christ.  Four of those times he is given his full title: Our Lord Jesus Christ. It was so important to Paul that his Christian hearers understood this. In calling Jesus ‘Christ’ we recognise that he is God as well as man, and in calling him ‘Lord’ we recognise that he has a claim on our lives.

St Nicholas understood this. Leaving aside the legends, we do know that he attended an international conference of bishops in his day that agreed the words of the Creed. Nicholas stood up strongly against those who said Jesus was only a man, and also those who said that being a Christian was just about being good. Nicholas knew that Jesus was also God in human flesh – as we sing in a well-known Christmas carol, “Very God, begotten, not created” – and that it is through his goodness, not our own, that we are saved.

Which brings us, at last, to the question of baptism. Mary and Jimmy have brought their children to be baptised, or christened, in recognition that Quin and Joy are indeed God’s gifts to their family. Unique gifts, each to be treasured for how they are, as God made them. They are christened in recognition that God gave his own son, Jesus, as his greatest gift to each one of us. Together as a family they pledge themselves to come to Christ, to turn to Christ for his guidance, and to follow Christ as part of his family, so that as the children grow, they can receive and grow the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit wants to give them. 

What about the rest of us? Well, this Christmas, the best presents we can give to our children, or indeed anyone we care for, are our love and faith. As the Bishop titled his book, let’s ‘stick with love’. That is the most precious and lasting gift of all. If we offer presents as well, let’s choose those that reflect our love for God and family, and our care for the world he has given us. Thoughtful gifts that don’t cost the earth, or break the bank, or expect anything in return. But don’t forget the treats!

And finally, this Advent we’re hanging decorations on our tree each week as we mark the themes of the season. Today we have this one representing ‘GIVING’, with an icon of St Nicholas on the back.