Rev elations

‘He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him’. Corporately and individually humans persistently and consistently reject God. We are pretty good at choosing what is bad for us- being tempted by any number of false desires. We can become addicted to all sorts of bad behaviours, like alcohol, social media, pornography or self-hatred. The simple ways that we choose to spend our time every day determine the sort of people that we become; the minor details of our lives matter to God – he has given us each moment of every day. As a modern poet, Malcolm Guite puts it: O king of our desire whom we despise, King of the nations never on the throne, Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone, Rejected joiner, making many one Take the Biblical tale of the rich man at his gate. He ignores the daily pleas of the poor and sickly man, Lazarus, and after a life of selfi...

Many of us do something, not because we make a choice everyday to do it, but because it’s become part and parcel of our lives, one of the things that we do. Church going can be like that, but then Advent turns up in the church year to unsettle and challenge us; to wake us up and out of our routines into some serious re-engagement with the fundamentals of our existence. Advent reminds us that all this ritual, prayer and worship isn’t just a routine that we’ve gotten used to and quite enjoy, but actually is about our eternal destiny and about the things that matter most: truth versus darkness; goodness versus evil; judgment and end times. Wake up we are told, be watchful, get ready, be alert! Jesus might have left but He will come back; the things that you have been taught and promised are realities; God is not some dream that was imagined a good long time ago; the search for truth, the work of goodness is real. John the Baptist is a serious prophet – not one to allow us to fall...

This week has been one full of the conflicts and tensions of o ur contemporary world, for example: the continuing aftermath of the Paris shootings and the war in Syria; the re-occurrence of Black Friday; the Lord’s Prayer advert ban; more child sex-abuse investigations and further revelations about racism in the police force not to mention the upcoming climate summit in Paris.   All of these complex problems define our contemporary world – how we respond to them as faithful Christians is a matter of debate and concern. Take the Lord’s Prayer advert-ban – questions have rightly been raised about its impact upon the right to freedom of religious expression.  It also reflects the way that religion and prayer has become highly politicised – which isn’t just about a secular, political-correctness.  We are faced with jihadist terrorism, which uses Islam for its own violent ends. Should we then bomb Syria ? What of Syrian refugees and the radicalisation that happens in the UK...

Our reading from Matthew (11:20-end) today begins with Jesus’ strong chastisement of what are called ‘the unrepentant cities’: Chorazin and Bethsaida as well as Capernaum . His words directly relate to the previous passages in which Jesus praises John the Baptist and expresses his frustration at the way the people speak about both him and John; verses 11. 18-19 ‘for John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say ‘look a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ Jesus’ strong criticism of those who reject both him and John the Baptist is in stark contrast to the second half of our reading in which Jesus prays a prayer of thanksgiving to his Father. In it he praises his Father that his wisdom and truth is revealed to infants; and then Jesus makes a call to those who are weighed down with burdens, offering them an alternative way of life, a way whi...

Did anyone see the Go-between on the BBC last weekend? It is a novel written by L.P. Hartley, in which a 13 year old boy becomes the go-between or messenger for two young lovers. The lovers, who belong to different social classes cannot openly meet, communicate or marry.   The ‘Go-between’ exploits the idea or theme of the innocent messenger, for Leo the young boy, becomes caught up in an affair he doesn’t understand: he is used by the two desperate parties, who exploit his ignorance and willingness to please. He gets too close to their fire and gets burnt. The story reminds us of the dangers of being a messenger. Yet, the Bible is littered with God’s messengers or 'Go-betweens'. How do they fare in contrast to Leo, the child-messenger? Moses is one of the archetypal 'go-betweens' in the Bible - mediating Yahweh’s message to His people, the Israelites. For Moses, the delivery of the message and the negotiation with both the giver of the messages and the receive...

After the Bank Holiday weekend last August, we arrived home as a family from the Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival, to a front garden (and more specifically a front garden hedge) that had been pruned, somewhat enthusiastically, by some helpful parishioners! We were, to say the least, a little taken aback. Where were our beautiful rosehips and our hedge that provided some privacy from the neighbouring cars and residents? All gone!! This summer the beautiful rosehips have flowered again magnificently, thanks to the pruning; but it took us some time to get used to them not being there. It is always hard to cope with things being cut back and things being taken away: what we focus on is what we are losing. But what we need to have eyes to see is- what will be, what will grow in its place. Jesus often used horticultural imagery to describe the kingdom of heaven and in St John’s Gospel, the extended imagery of God as the vine grower is utilised: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is th...

In the readings for Sunday 13th Sept 2015 (see below) we are encouraged to seek wisdom. In the New Testament, the suffering of the cross is presented as a new kind of wisdom, which centuries of Christians and theologians have tried to understand. Some time ago, St Francis for example, said that he felt called to be ‘ a new kind of fool in the world’ and that ‘ God does not want to lead us by any other knowledge than that’ . St Paul similarly talks of Christ crucified: ‘ a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,   but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.   For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength’ (1 Corinthians 1 23-25). How do we interpret the suffering of the cross as wisdom for today? If we are to take Jesus’ teaching and his action seriously, then we have to understand that the wisdom of the cross is all about letting go – and that i...

One of the most obvious things about our society and about any society is that the poor are generally treated badly. To be poor means to experience objectification and rejection; it is to experience blame and judgment. ‘The poor’ experience other people’s fear of them as hatred and attack; poverty on the outside is to be feared and judged, because it represents human failure and suffering. None of us really wants to be poor and so the poor are on one level always to be feared. The flip side of this is that most of us are drawn towards success and wealth, as success and wealth project the image of human happiness and well-being. Wealth and status are attractive. The wealthy are seen to be good because they represent our dreams about what human happiness looks like; wealth and all that it can bring: learning, friendship, autonomy, choice, status, power, influence and control are the things that we as humans seek and desire. So, why are ‘the poor’ God’s chosen ones? (Has not Go...

‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead’. One of the elements of life that the majority of us who live in England are protected from on a day to day basis is violence; yet Jesus makes it a matter of fact element of this story which he tells. A man is stripped, beaten, robbed and left half dead. It’s the kind of story we are used to reading in our newspapers and seeing on our televisions, stories of violence happening to somebody else. But, Jesus asks the lawyer to consider that violence coming closer to him. What would happen and what would his response be if he found someone left like that half dead on the road? Jesus is fully aware that violence lies just neatly under the surface of civilised communities and nations, a violence that can erupt equally in our homes, on our streets and through war. Jesus will confront that violence in a more profound way on the cross. ...

One of the things that Christianity has struggled with is how to hold with integrity- unity in diversity . With Roman Catholicism unity is powerfully enacted through the figure of the Pope and through the catholic creeds and sacraments. With Protestantism diversity is practiced, through personal interpretation and access to God and a plethora of denominations and creeds. Yet, it seems that both full short of ‘unity in diversity’. It is harder to enable unity in diversity than it is to practice one or the other. It is harder because it requires a creative interplay which involves risk, freedom and discipline. Such a creative interplay of unity in diversity is revealed in the Trinity: the unity yet diversity of the Three allows creativity and difference, whilst never allowing controlling subjection of one over the other. In absolute trust and unity of will each plays its part. At the heart of the Trinity is loving relationship, trust and fidelity. No church can opera...

Sermon/ Address 2015 APCM Reform and Renewal in the Church of England We have three very clear objectives at St Andrew’s Church, set through the PCC-led consultation last year, to focus on Prayer, Teaching, Children and Young people. These objectives sit alongside the Coventry diocesan mission of worshipping God, making new disciples and transforming communities . The Church of England is finding a new sense of direction and purpose, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop has focused in his reforms on growth: spiritual and numerical and the directing of resources to the most deprived communities. National funds will be directed to dioceses for these mission priorities. The reports are clear that decline will not be subsidised, only targeted mission work and innovation; in the same way, wealthier communities will be expected to resource themselves. At the same time more resources will be targeted at the most deprived parts of our country. This see...

Holy Week is a mysterious week of both dreadful and glorious imaginings; as we walk the way to Jerusalem with Jesus and his disciples, we find ourselves drawn into an extraordinary narrative where anything could happen. Rev’d David Houghton spoke on Maundy Thursday of the unexpected quality of Christian discipleship; the parts we end up playing are likely to be a surprise to us. Was Judas surprised that he was the one to betray Jesus? Was Mary Magdalene surprised to find herself the first to see the Risen Lord? Undoubtedly all who encountered Jesus were deeply surprised to experience themselves in a new way. In encountering God we are given our real selves, and that is both dreadful and awesome: God gives us insight into our own sinfulness; at the same time God kneels down and washes our feet. Together as we learn from one another in the journey of faith we are encouraged to take steps of trust, where what we had previously known dissolves into a broader and altogether more myste...

Lent is a really good time to consider spiritual practices of silence and of renunciation. Fasting and silence help us to understand Jesus’ experience in the desert or wilderness. We think of Jesus in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights as a metaphor for our own need to strip away in our life unnecessary distractions. Desert spirituality is about raw encounter, with ourselves and ultimately we hope with God. Sara Maitland writes in A Book of Silence about her own journey into silence as a modern day, somewhat alternative hermit. In one particular chapter Sara describes some time she spent in the Sinai Desert and this leads her into some specific insights. In an engaging paragraph she writes: I started to think that perhaps silence is God. Perhaps God is silence – the shining, spinning ring of ‘pure endless light’. Perhaps God speaking is a ‘verb’, an act, but God in perfect self-communication in love with the Trinity, is silence and therefore is silence. God is silen...

It’s been a week for me of thinking about money. It has of course for the nation as well as we listened to the detail of the Chancellor’s budget. How much money we have got, how we get it and how we spend it are questions that every household has to ask; every business and charity too. The questions are the same for the nation, if on a much larger scale. This week in my church we have been looking closely at our finances and the resources available to us. It has been challenging, making all of us vulnerable. For questions of finance and money get right to the heart of things. They ask us to seriously reflect upon what is important and who is important. In so doing they reveal our deepest values. Jesus taught unequivocally that we cannot serve two masters – we can serve either God or wealth. Yet I suppose the temptation is to think that we can divide our loyalties. We can blur the line and keep our feet in both camps. I was inspired to read this week about the Sikh t...

I wonder if you can imagine yourself in your daily life. What do you do Monday to Friday? - work at a check out, in a factory, teaching students, cooking the dinner, shopping, gardening, reading a book? Imagine that into your domestic or work space Jesus appears - Jesus is there just a few metres away and he’s calling you ‘Follow me’.   Imagine Mary before she was surprised by the annunciation, what was she doing? Imagine Joseph as Mary came to talk to him to tell him the news, what was he doing; imagine the inn keeper who opened the door; imagine the shepherds as they were out on the fields tending their sheep; imagine the wise men before they saw the star. They all had a ‘normal’ before something strange and mysterious happened to them. And they are judged on how they respond to that mystery and that invitation. -‘be it unto me according to your word’ These narratives tell us, as the incarnation reveals to us, that Jesus/God appears in our normal ordinary world. Jes...