Gillhammer, Light on Darkness: The Untold Story of the Liturgy

 Perhaps towards a review (update pending):

Cosima Clara Gillhammer, Light on Darkness: The Untold Story of the Liturgy (Reakiton Books, 2025)

 

I bought this book after listening to the Spectator event on the renewed interest in traditional Christianity in which Dr Gillhammer took part. I was also encouraged to spend my cash by the fact that Dr Gillhammer is currently employed at my old college, LMH.

 

Gillhammer teaches English. She examines the Western Liturgy here, especially in the Medieval period according to the Roman rite. Her interest is not primarily historical. She sees these texts and their ritual use as illuminating universal human experience and she pays attention to the interaction of liturgy, art, music and literature. The Biblical text is quoted in Latin with English translation. The BCP Psalter is used.

 

The earliest use of the term “liturgy” in the OED is  1564. The medieval English may have referred to an office, rite or observance.

 

Eight main chapters tell stories based around life events (petition, love, hope, suffering, grief, joy, death, revelation) and then liturgy is considered in relation to time and space.

 

For those new to such things, Gillhammer provides a brief outline of the Christian year and of Christian belief (in the form of an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed).

 

There are 21 illustrations. A website https://liturgybook.com/ provides, amongst other things, YouTube videos of the music referred to chapter by chapter.

 

* * *

“Liturgy is at the roots of Western culture. Our music, art, literature and architecture are shaped by and developed out of the liturgy. Without it, Dante’s Divine Comedy would not exist, and neither would Michelangelo’s Pieta. Not even Star Wars would have its memorable soundtrack had it not been for the medieval liturgy.

 

…. Perhaps it is one of the best-kept secrets of our time that the liturgy stands at the centre of the cultural history of the West. It deserves close attention and appreciation. It is a common assumption that liturgy is stuffy and stale, but nothing could be further from the truth. The rites of the liturgy are endlessly rich and imaginative, generating in turn new artistic responses throughout the centuries.” (p8-9)

 

“The story of Jesus of Nazareth is the central story around which the Western artistic imagination has revolved for thousands of years, but for audiences in the modern secular world this tradition can seem inaccessible. The liturgy can therefore provide the key for unlocking this tradition, and with it, the story that has shaped the West.” (p19)

 

Stupid Reading

 There is obviously a tension between Psalm 51v16 and v19. Does God want animal sacrifice or not? But it would be stupid to call this a contradiction. And stupid to say that one or other of these ideas must be a later editorial addition. This would assume that either the author or the editor or both were a bit thicker than we are. Maybe the original author was as sophisticated as we are, or perhaps more so, and was making a complex point in an artistic mode. Of course God had commanded animal sacrifice. But of course he wanted those sacrifices offered with penitential hearts. Clearly the author of the Psalm knew that the more important thing is to offer up our broken and contrite hearts, and that we should also perform our external religious duties. It's almost as if Jesus had taken this Psalm to heart too (e.g. Matthew 23:23).

Temporary Assistant Archdeacon's Charge

 

Swearing in of Church Wardens

Visitation

Hastings Archdeaconry

2025

Charge

Psalm 84

1 Corinthians 3

John 2:12-end

 

It’s not every day that I find myself in a room where I’m sure most of the people are about to swear at me! [I stole this joke from Tom. At Eastbourne they didn't really seem to get it but folk at Crowborough kindly laughed.]

It’s a pleasure for me to be with you again like this.

But it’s an even greater pleasure to say that next year, God willing, if everyone stays well and avoids promotion, we should have a full cast of full full-time Archdeacons, and I can spend my summer evenings cultivating my garden, or something.

In particular, you will have heard that The Revd Russell Dewhurst has been appointed Archdeacon of Hastings.

[I said some nice things about Russell here. I won't embarrass him by posting them on the internet] 

 

I think we could perhaps add another unofficial oath to the swearing in tonight.

If you do solemnly and sincerely declare that you will read all the papers you have been given carefully, I won’t read them all out to you now.

 

Perhaps I could encourage you to take an interest in the new Parish Dashboard for safeguarding with your safeguarding officer.

This will give a live tool which will allow every PCC member to see how your parish is doing.

 

I have been reflecting on what might be a good collective noun for church wardens.

Perhaps you could tell me your ideas afterwards.

Perhaps a maintenance.

Maybe even a mission.

Hopefully a collaboration.

 

Last time I took this service, I suggested encouragement.

Today I want to leave you with a grander churchy word: edification.

Edification.

Building up.

 

When the Psalmist speaks of God’s dwelling place does he have in mind heaven, or the temple in Jerusalem, or both?

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord.”

That could certainly be said of the Old Testament temple when the Psalm was written.

One way of thinking of the earthly temple is as modelled on God’s heavenly throne room.

With the royal palace, the Jerusalem temple would have been by far the most impressive building in the nation – a bit like our Westminster Abbey and Palace of Westminster, perhaps.

You can read the elaborate instructions for the tabernacle and temple construction in the Bible, and the accounts of their making.

It would have been lovely, overwhelming.

 

I hope you can say of your parish church:

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord.

 

Perhaps you would say it’s too large or too small.

And too cold.

And leaky.

And not in the right place.

And could do with wifi and a loo and better parking and…

Nevertheless, I hope you have a soft spot for it.

 

We all have to try hard not to covet the facilities here.

 

I hope, even if your parish church has its challenges, you find ways to make it serve your mission and ministry.

And that in itself it provides a witness in your community of the priority and centrality of the worship of God.

Perhaps your church building has been a pointer to the glory of God at the heart of your parish for centuries.  

 

Let me urge you to see the building up of the church as part of your vocation as church wardens.

You may of course wish to be a benefactor of the arts and install some marvellous new paintings in the parish church, having carefully checked permissions with the DAC, of course.

Or to build a new chapel or children’s area or office.

Perhaps it will be all you can do to have the gutters cleaned.

Archdeacons always have to urge the cleaning of gutters.

It’s a kind of secret law.

 

I know a priest who used to say to his PCCs: Me liturgy; you gutters.

There’s something in that.

It would be good if the Vicar didn’t have to spend too much of her time shovelling pigeon poo out of the tower.

But nevertheless I hope we could all give ourselves together to the building up of the church, each in our own ways.

And by that I mean not only the maintenance of the parish church.

Priest and people together will care for the building.

But even more important is that we all work together to build up our life in Christ in our Christian communities.

 

The line the New Testament draws from the Temple is not so much to the parish church but to Jesus.

Jesus – not Jerusalem – is now the place to go to meet with God.

All the fullness of God dwells in him bodily.

He tabernacled and pitched his tent and dwelt among us.

Jesus was a walking temple radiating to the eyes of faith the glory of God.

How lovely is the Lord Jesus!

Let us long for him, and dwell with him, and rejoice in him.

He is the ultimate place of sacrifice.

The one to whom we come to be put right with God.

If we want to know God, we don’t have to go to a building but to the Son of God.

 

So I hope you’ll be able to introduce new people to your parish church in the next year.

But our great hope is not only that they will join the rotas and the planned giving scheme, but that they might have a life transforming encounter with the Lord Jesus.

 

The individual Christian believer and the Christian community are temples of the Holy Spirit in which God dwells.

It’s probably a cliché to say to you that in Bible terms the church is not the building but the people.

There’s no Bible verse to say that the parish church building is the house of God, but that’s precisely what you (if you’re a Christian believer) and your Christian community are.  

The dwelling place of God where he especially meets us to bless us, the new and better temple, is the gathering of the people of God around the word of God, to share the sacraments, in the power of the Spirit.

Will you value your brothers and sisters as the precious temple of God, and treat them with reverence and holiness as indwelt by the Spirit of God?

 

Will you look to build them up and to build up your life together?

 

Individually and communally, we are a house, a temple, built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, a spiritual house in which God dwells.

Each of us is a spiritual stone integral to that spiritual building.

Let us up build this precious house with the pure gold of God’s word.

 

Let us care diligently for our church buildings and see them maintained and improved.

But let us above all look to the life of God in us, the presence of Christ, the power of the Spirit.

 

Thank you for all that you have done, and do, and will do.

 

Thank you in particular to those of you who are giving a lead in your parishes in a time of vacancy.

We appreciate the demands of this and we’re especially grateful to you.

 

Let me encourage you to take advantage of the church wardens’ training that is on offer.

Afternoon and evening sessions are available.

Even if you’ve been doing this for a while, a refresher might be helpful.

We’re aware of experienced church wardens who have stood down without a great handover, for example.

 

Sometimes your work will be hard.

But may you also find it lovely.

May we rejoice in the living God even more than we rejoice in a watertight roof or a balanced budget.

May you be blessed, happy, as you trust in the Lord, the God of Armies.

Blessed are those who dwell in God’s house now and for ever.

Blessed are those in whom God dwells by his Spirit.

 

Better one day of service to the living God and his eternal purposes than a lifetime with your feet up in front of the telly, though I hope you’ll also find time for rest and relaxation, as well as your own building up in the faith of Christ.

 

May the presence and power of God in you and with you be your strength.

 

May we be an edification of church wardens and clergy in this year ahead.

 

And so to God the Father…

Peace or despair? Or a radical hope?

 

There are two equal and opposite errors. One is to say “peace, peace”, when there is no peace. That is, it is to claim that everything is fine and all will be well, when there are serious problems which ought to be faced. In fact, there are gross sins of which we ought to repent. Perhaps few today would say that all is health and blessing in Albion, so maybe we’ll address that further on another occasion.

 

Maybe we are more tempted to think we are off to hell in a hand cart. Some of us may be Eeore-ish by nature. We may see worrying signs and trends in church and state. We fear the future.

 

But we must not give in to despair. We would do well to remember that England and the West have had more than their fair share of troubles in the past. In fact, God seems to love a pattern of death and resurrection. We might think of Alfred’s founding of national life. Or some of the monastic reform movements of the middle ages. Or of the Protestant Reformation. Or the evangelical awakening. It turns out that these dry bones have been revived before. The body politic and the body of Christ can live!

 

So what are the needs of the moment? Always revival involves repentance and prayer. It involves a new sense of God and his holiness. Of the wonder and urgency of the good news of Jesus Christ.

 

But we might also mention hope. Prognostications of doom can be self-fulfilling. The gloomy and despairing are not always attractive. “Come follow me, we’re going to be defeated and it’ll be miserable” is perhaps not a great rallying cry.

 

It is obvious to even the casual observer that the West has lost its way. We have said that we come from nothing and are for nothing and it is unsurprising that teenagers don’t see why they should leave their bedrooms. We have said that all is meaningless and so there seems no point in exerting myself for anything unless I happened to be moved to do so. And I sometimes find myself moved to social media, or video games, or drink or drugs or…. So….

 

We need to say that the hope for the world, for civilisation, and for your soul is Jesus Christ. He is Lord. And you were made for friendship with him. His Kingdom has come and will come, and will triumph over all. This seed will be the largest tree in the garden in which the birds of the air may come and nest. The yeast will penetrate the whole dough. This rock not made by human hands will be the largest mountain that will fill the whole earth. The world will be full of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Jesus has defeated sin and death and hell. Love wins. The light is coming. The gospel day has dawned and we must walk in the light. Perhaps we will see its noon day brightness but this is a flame that will never die. Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

 

Christians can say to our young people: here is something good and proven. It is hard, and wonderful. And it works. Maybe Jesus will have you found a school, or a hospital. Or raise a family. Or grow a business. Or preach his word. Or win one soul. Or be a godly bin man or woman. Or perhaps die a martyr. Who knows! The options are many. But you can be sure of his grace and power. A life lived for Jesus will matter. And God sees all. Why not start today on the great adventure of following the Way, the Truth and the Life? That is really the only hope, and it is a race we can run with joy and confidence, knowing that Jesus has gone before us and is with us, and will delight to give us the prize of eternal glory which far surpasses all the baubles of this passing world.  

Assisted dying and abortion: a repaganizing culture of death?

 

 

The third week of June was a remarkable one in British public life. The House of Commons voted both to progress the Assisted Dying Bill and to de-criminalise a mother taking the life of her unborn child at any point. The old and the young are not safe in modern Britain.

 

I don’t want to cause any pointless offence. You may be completely uninterested in what I have to say about these matters and if so I invite you to enjoy the summer sunshine. These are highly sensitive matters and it is not pleasant to think about them. I said something about assisted dying on a previous occasion. The abortion numbers in the UK are such that whether we know it or not, this issue almost certainly touches us, our family and friends. I don’t want what I say here to seem horribly blamey and judgemental. And I completely understand if you don’t want to read it at all or if you strongly disagree with it. Perhaps these things are easy for me to say. I am not a 15-year-old drug addict who has been raped by her pimp. I confess these are privileged armchair keyboard warrior opinions that have not been fully tested in the grit of real life. Nevertheless, if you do want to read on…

 

Personally I think that from the point of conception we should behave as if we are relating to a human life. We should treat all human life as sacred with absolute dignity. There is no other safe and objective standard. All human life must count as worthy even if it seems inconsequential or unbearable from some points of view. Human beings are in the Image of God and we owe them the love which is proper to our neighbour. The weakest and most vulnerable have a special call on our care.

 

Certainly when an unborn child might be viable outside the womb, I cannot see how its termination can be justified. The proposed situation of decriminalisation will be absurd. A mother alone will be able to sanction the ending of her child’s life with no legal consequences at, say, 11am, before birth, but if she were to murder her baby at 12pm, after the birth has taken place, she would face a mandatory life sentence. In what universe is this sensible or coherent or good for society? I cannot see that it is good for the mother. And certainly it is not good for babies an hour before they are delivered.

 

You might say this situation will probably never occur. We shall see. But in any case our laws and the operation of our legal system ought to have a measure of logic about them. And they ought to send a message that we love life and human beings. We will never allow the convenience or the wishes of the relatively “strong” to trump the life of the weak, even in theory or in principle.

 

Taken together, the changes to the UK position at the beginning and end of life look like an embracing of a culture of power and death.

 

I am praying for repentance and good sense and righteous laws which are enlightened by centuries of reflection on our Biblical Christian inheritance which made the West great.

 

These proposed moves are a regression to the pre-Christian pagan norm where infanticide and suicide were common. Jesus taught us to love the little children and our elders. The Emperors held them to be disposable.

 

If our culture does embrace folly and death, Christians have a wonderful opportunity to love life. To have children and to care for them. To offer adoption and fostering. To sit with the old and dying and pray for them and care for them.  To take in parents and grandparents if need be or to run care homes which really care and feel like a fitting home from which to be called Home.

 

May God have mercy on us and our society.

 

Team Ministry

The clergy can sometimes feel very isolated. Perhaps you are the only clergy-person in your benefice. 

And maybe your curacy was in a larger church with a staff team. After your induction, you found you could give yourself some photocopying to do in your study. Suddenly there was no training incumbent, administrator, youth and children's worker. You had to be all those things. Or get someone else to do them, which sometimes seemed impossible or harder.

Working towards a team ministry is vital.

(1) A team within the local church

How can you build an idea of shared leadership and responsibility?

Is there any chance of an ordained colleague?  

Can you promote a culture of every member ministry? Yes, of different roles. But not just me liturgy, you gutters. Every Christian is a disciple with gifts who can serve others. Most people could say a prayer with someone (perhaps silently in their head). Many people could give a tract, or a brief word of encouragement. Or lead a Bible study. Or share the Word one to one. Maybe you could help turn up the theological and spiritual temperature just a little for everyone.

People sometimes have bright ideas for what others should do. Maybe you can encourage a shift from "you should" to "perhaps we might / could we". It's not and can't be a one man band. We're all in this together as fellow workers. 

(2) A team beyond the local church 

What support is there from your Chapter?

From the Rural Dean? Archdeacon? Bishop?

Other local ministers or churches?

Is there something you could do together?

Is there someone you could meet with say once a fortnight in term time to pray with?

Do you ask for help?

What would you like the wider church to do for you which someone might do?

Are there any quick easy cheap wins or first steps you could be proactive about?

Maybe there is some training or support you could seek at your next MDR?

(3) A team through time

Our church buildings go back to the 13th Century and they look set to be here after we are all dead and gone. Perhaps this adds to our sense of responsibility. We don't want all this (the multigeneration family business) to fall apart on our watch. But maybe also it is an encouragement that we belong to something bigger, deeper and ancient. We are responsible just for our little bit for these few years and for the circumstances and resources given to us. The baton was handed to us and we seek to hand it on. 

It is a Relay race. So is there someone who could be a reliable person you could hand something on to? Could you plot for your retirement and redundancy by always trying to do stuff we a co-leader who perhaps might one day step up and maybe train others?

(4) God as the ultimate team leader

Maybe it is right to think that in some ways the buck stops with you. You are The Leader. You are responsible. But you are not the Messiah or the Lord! Jesus will build his church. You are an under-shepherd. Seek his grace to do your bit for a time. Ultimately God is responsible for his work. Look for his well done my good and faithful servant, but don't burden yourself beyond the call of God. As the ordination service rightly said, you cannot bear this very great burden alone. Look to the team!  

Clergy resilience

 I have seen it suggested that perhaps the greatest need for an effective long term clerical ministry is resilience. 

I think there's a great deal of truth in that. 

The life of a minister has its compensations and demands. There are very often pressures, internal, external and spiritual. In a week there might be a couple of funerals (perhaps one especially tricky or emotional), meetings about buildings and finances, which are always a problem, an out of hours call to a bedside, some wedding prep and more. The Vicar is in a public role and people will voice criticism or helpful suggestions. Many will have a vision for what you ought to do. But there may be a lack of time, or money, or support. And the diocese and national church probably have an initiative with which they would like you to engage. Have you done your fees and your statistical return? Where are you on the carbon net zero journey? But you'll also have to drop everything for a safeguarding concern. The school would like you to pop in when you have a moment. And....

There can be resilience good and bad. 

The Vicar is a professional with boundaries. 

But she is also a pastor who loves her people and is called to share not only the gospel but her life with them. She is to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. She is a human not a machine.  

So we do not want clergy who are jaded, indifferent, impossible to reach. The Teflon Cleric is not ideal. 

So what are the sources of resilience?

Humanly, some space and rhythm in the week. A cuppa. A dog walk. A piece of music. A day off. Holidays. The support of family and friends. 

Spiritually, prayer. A secret inner life in which grace is received. A heart of thankfulness that offers up life to God with praise. God accepts what we bring and gives it back to us transformed. God loves to heal sick sinners. He delights to use the weak. His power is sufficient. He must pause and think and breath and pray. Some silence may help. Remember God! Remember the gospel! Remember your vocation! You are not an administrator or a fundraiser or.... but a pastor-teacher steward of the mysteries of God, a herald of good news, a watchman for the coming Kingdom.

Nothing can ultimately harm me. Not because I am insensitive and don't care. But because my life is hidden with God in Christ in the heavenly places. 

First I am a child and heir of God by grace. I am held in covenant love. 

My ministry and what I do and all I must absorb or face to day is secondary. 

Let us so look and cling to things eternal that we can pass through temporary trials if not unscarred but still heading for heaven with a measure of hope and joy even amidst the ARRGGGHHH!s and the tears. 

May God be kind to us and help us. 

And may we give ourselves and others a break!

* * * 

I forget what it says now but I'm sure The Revd Dr Kirsten Birkett will have useful and interesting things to say here: Resilience: A Spiritual Project: 84 (Latimer Studies) - 2016 - https://www.latimertrust.org/product-page/resilience-a-spiritual-project

Ritualism

19th Century evangelical Anglicans were often opposed to what they called "Ritualism". Rightly or wrongly, what might be meant by the term and why might one object to it? 

These days we are perhaps more aware that ritual is inescapable. Saying hello and shaking hands and a few rules of conversation constitute the rituals of polite social interaction. 

And there might actually be ritual where it is not always recognised or owned. If our church service begins with a Bible verse and a prayer and then we stand to sing a hymn and then sit for another prayer, and so on, this is a kind of ritual. 

Some might object that ritual is Old Testament. Perhaps the New Testament might be claimed to be simpler. Or more spiritual. Or more Word or Faith Alone. 

Versions of the Regulative Principle of Public Worship might be thought to rule out certain rituals. Is there an explicit New Testament command for clerical vestments? 

Ritual might be rejected as foreign. 

Or as alien to Reformation Anglicanism. 

Or as contrary to law. Or the formularies. 

There could be guilt by association arguments. The French are Ritualists. Papists are Ritualists. 

Ritual might be associated with a negative kind of clericalism. 

Or with fussiness. 

It might be seen as a barrier to evangelism or connecting with the young or working class or.... 

There might be objections to particular rituals. For example, Eastward facing Communion might be seen as emphasising an offering made to God rather than a gift of grace received. 

Some might be tempted to depend on some particular ritual for salvation. 

A Trinity Sunday Prayer for Preachers

 

A prayer of St. Hilary of Poitiers suitable for the preacher on Trinity Sunday:

 

O Lord, "we look to Your support for the first trembling steps of this undertaking, to Your aid that it may gain strength and prosper.

We look to You to give us the fellowship of that Spirit Who guided the Prophets and the Apostles, that we may take their words in the sense in which they spoke and assign its right shade of meaning to every utterance.

For we shall speak of things which they preached in a mystery; of You, O God Eternal, Father of the Eternal and Only-begotten God, Who alone art without birth, and of the One Lord Jesus Christ, born of You from everlasting.

We may not sever Him from You, or make Him one of a plurality of Gods, on any plea of difference of nature. We may not say that He is not begotten of You, because You are One.

We must not fail to confess Him as true God, seeing that He is born of You, true God, His Father.

Grant us, therefore, precision of language, soundness of argument, grace of style, loyalty to truth.

Enable us to utter the things that we believe, that so we may confess, as Prophets and Apostles have taught us, You, One God our Father, and One Lord Jesus Christ, and put to silence the gainsaying of heretics, proclaiming You as God, yet not solitary, and Him as God, in no unreal sense."

On the Trinity, 1:37-38.

Homily for Trinity Sunday

 

 

Psalm 8 (p546)

John 16:12-15 (p1084)

 

In the Name…

 

Trinity Sunday.

I don’t know if the clergy or the congregations find it more terrifying!

If the Vicar is good, he knows heresy lurks on every side.

 

And the people perhaps expect to confirm that the Vicar is rather like God:

Invisible six days a week and incomprehensible on the seventh.

 

So it is tempting to wax eloquent about how difficult the doctrine of the Trinity is.

We could perhaps all nod wisely about that.

Or I could try to find another cheap joke.

 

But what I want to invite you to do today is to adore the Mystery who is God himself.

Is it not wonderful that this God is revealed to us?

Of course not completely but truly.

Just pause to think about that for a moment.

You and I can really know Almighty God the Creator of all things as he really is.

 

And who is this God?

The One God is Father, Son and Spirit.

Glory!

 

It is inexhaustible and wonderful.

But you can also teach it to a 7 year old.

 

Let’s just consider our marvellous readings for a few moments with Trinity Sunday in mind.

 

Notice the majesty of God in our Psalm.

It helpfully begins and ends with that so its hard to miss.

Yahweh, the personal living God of the Bible, is Lord of all and his name is majestic.

He is the great king – glorious above all.

 

The glory of the trooping of the colour, or the state opening of parliament, or a coronation or royal wedding are faint pictures of this all surpassing glory.

The power of the greatest human empires are weak and fleeting compared to the potency of God.

 

Think of the heavens, the skies, the glory of the sun and moon and stars.

Go and look at them today or tonight.

Get yourself when you next can to the sea or the downs or the back garden.

Look up some science about them if that’s your thing:

The temperatures, the distances.

It is all amazing beyond our comprehension.

 

Or look at the art or listen to some music which reflects on creation.

 

Isn’t the glory and beauty of it too much for you sometimes?

 

Ah, Sussex in the sunshine!

Call me a sentimental Welshman but as I walk the dog around the same block or through the same field yet again I’m often astounded by the glory of creation – and therefore by the glory of the creator.

If we lift our eyes and open our hearts, we can agree on that, I think.

 

Just look at the world, the cosmos.

What a great and powerful and good God there must be.

 

He is high and exalted.

 

But he has ordained praise from the lips of children and infants.

And even from little old you and me.

This infinite God thinks of humanity.

Thinks of us.

This God cares about us and about the last and the least.

 

This down to earth God stoops.

He loves to hear the babble of the toddler who praises him.

 

No doubt he also accepts the praise of Bishops and Professors and so on.

But he has ordained praise from little children.

 

And he has made human beings a little lower than the angels but crowned them with glory and honour.

 

Human beings too are both strangely lowly and regal.

We are flesh and blood.

And we have to sleep and eat and go to the loo.

But we can split the atom.

And write King Lear.

Or play Bach.

Or paint like da Vinci.

Well, some of us can sometimes.

Or…

Pick your art form or sphere of human endeavour.

 

We can walk on the moon – but we can’t get rid of the mud, and blood and vomit.

We are capable of great wonders and of terrible horrors.

 

Can these paradoxes be resolved?

 

The answer is YES!

In Jesus, the down to earth God.

The one whom angels worship was made a little lower than the angels.

Not that he ceased to be God, who is above all and ever to be praised.

But rather that precisely this God came down.

He who built the stars lay in a manger.

The Word was made dumb.

The Omnipotent was fragile.

 

Jesus came to share our blood, sweat and tears, whilst remaining Almighty God who fills and rules all things.

 

Jesus shows us all that God the Father is.

He is God the Son, the same being or essence or nature or substance as God the Father.

Really truly God with a capital G.

God from God.

Light from light.

True God of True God.

 

The carpenter’s son turns out to be a chip off the old block.

He is not Joseph’s son (biologically speaking), but he is by eternal generation God the Son.

All the fullness of the deity dwells in him in bodily form.

Like Father, like Son.

But not only so:

Jesus is the Same God, not just a like God.

 

These things are rightly too wonderful for us, to lofty for us to attain.

 

And that is as it should be.

A God I could comprehend would be no God at all.

I am often stupid and sinful.

Of course I cannot grasp this God.

But he reaches out to me.

 

And even better, the Spirit takes all that the Son is, who is all that the Father is, and makes them known to us.

The Three in One invite us in.

 

We can have learned chat over coffee about eternal generation and spiration or inseparable operation if that would be fun for you.

But let us be silent and adore the speaking, revealing, saving God who is over all and in us all.

 

And so to God the Father…

Goliath and Golgotha

 

From The Rectory

 

We recently had BBC comedy writer and stand-up theologian James Cary come and perform his excellent show: God, The Bible and Everything in 60 Minutes. jamescary.co.uk/ Of course we didn’t do any of those three components exhaustively in an hour. But because the Bible (written by about 40 human authors over hundreds of years) has a single divine author, it is possible to speak of its plot and a single coherent message.

The good news of the Bible is first proclaimed in chapter three of book one. Sin enters the world via the snake in the Garden of Eden and in Genesis 3, God mercifully promises that the seed of the woman (a human child) will crush the head of the Satanic-serpent. That is, a human being will triumph over evil and the great Enemy of God and his people. Sin and judgement will not have the last word. Victory and deliverance are coming. The Fall of humanity will be overcome. The rest of the Bible is the search for the Serpent-Crusher.   

And of course Jesus, the God-Man, born of Mary, proves to be that Serpent-Crusher. But as James pointed out, Jesus is cleverly foreshadowed in his great ancestor, King David of Bethlehem. You know the story: unlikely lad kills the giant.

In the Bible, Pharoh, the king of Egypt who enslaves God’s people, is snake-like (check out the picture). And David’s terrifying opponent Goliath is similar. He wears scaley armour (1 Samuel 17:5), like that of a fish or snake. The Hebrew word for bronze, nehoshet, sounds like the word for serpent, nehesh. David crushes Goliath’s head with a stone from his shepherd boy slingshot and the threatening warrior falls dead to the dust in which the serpent had been condemned to crawl way back in Genesis 3. David cuts off Goliath’s head and takes it back to Jerusalem (1 Samuel 17:54).

What became of that scull? Who knows, but maybe it would have been put up on a pole outside the city, rather as the heads of traitors would be displayed in London. And then perhaps that unclean head of the foreigner might have been buried in that marginal place, without the city wall. This is speculation, but maybe the head of Goliath of Gath might have been buried at Golgotha, “the place of the scull”, Mount Calvary, where Jesus was crucified.

Jesus is the nahesh nahoshet - the bronze serpent of John 3:14 – lifted up on the cross. And all who look to him will live. For he has crushed the serpent’s head, died and risen.

Isn’t the Bible a weird and wonderful book? It deserves your time and attention. Jesus is patterned, pictured, prophesied and predicted in countless ways in the Bible. We can never exhaust it or him. But its one great message can be summed up quite simply like this: look to Jesus (crucified and risen) and you can know wholeness and life everlasting. One glance to Jesus, with faith, with trust, dependence and the spark of a desire to take him as your Lord will save and transform you for ever. Take a look! And perhaps reflect on John’s Gospel chapter 3.

See further the work of Dr Rick Shenk at: bcsmn.edu/david-and-goliath/

The Revd Marc Lloyd

Psalm 97 - a handout

 Look away now if you are coming to church this morning or prepare!

Psalm 97 p603 (John 17:20-end p1085)

THE APPEARING OF GOD, RESPONSES & RESULTS

 

The appearing of God in the Bible e.g. to Abraham (Gen 15), at Sinai (Ex 19-20)

 

-          God has appeared supremely, definitively in Christ

 

-          God is appearing in the preaching of the Gospel – God speaking and made known – you are encountering him now!

 

-          God will appear fully and finally at the Second Coming of Christ

 

(1) The majestic appearing of the LORD the glorious King of the whole earth (vv1-6)

 

-          V1 – even remote coastlands / islands

 

-          Cloud, darkness, fire, light - power, glory, righteousness, justice, somewhat hidden – holy! – awesome or awful?

 

(2) Responses to and results of God’s appearing (vv7-12):

 

(a) for those who worship false gods (v7a): public humiliation, clear utter failure (cf. v3 God’s enemies consumed)

 

(b) for God’s people – even the most insignificant - the capital Zion (Jerusalem) and the daughters (villages) of Judah (v8)

 

Ø  Rejoice and be glad (vv1, 8, 11-12)

 

Ø  Love God and hate evil (v10)

 

Ø  Trust him for deliverance (v10)

Rowan Williams Ronald Blythe Lecture

In the inaugural Ronald Blythe Lecture (available on The You Tube), Rowan Williams talks about the importance of reading, looking, seeing together, learning in conversation. We live in a place and we see what has already been looked at. Drawing on the work of Polish Nobel prize winner Olga Tokarczuk and others, he says that our society has lost a shared communal story and identity. We are surrounded by polyphonic first-person narratives, choirs of soloists. We prize the supposedly unique voice of individual experience over the shared and rooted, the communal, grounded, located fellowship of persons and world in time and space. We need to listen to the stranger and to the stranger within ourselves. The world asks to be loved and invites us in. Let us embrace the earth we stand on, look in the company of others, and share the particular which matters to us all and is universal. Only by doing so, might we rise above our own individual point of view.  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqSJcSzlEI

Ascension - a homily drawing on Ed Moll's book

 Look away now if you are coming to church this evening! 

Reading: Acts 1:1-11 (page 1092)

Gospel reading: Luke 24:44-end (page 1062)

 

What new thing to say about the ascension?

 

Well, I’m not sure I have anything new to say.

And I’m not sure that a novel take on the ascension is our greatest need.

 

But I have read a new book on the ascension.

It’s by Ed Moll, a Vicar from Somerset, and published by the Latimer Trust this February.

And I recommend it to you.

It’s only 100 pages long, so it need not take you forever to read.

 

The full title is: The Ascension of Christ – Pioneer, Priest and King

 

You may know that it is traditional to think of Jesus as our prophet, priest and king.

But Moll says pioneer, priest and king.

 

Jesus is our pioneer in the sense that he has gone before us and made a way for us.

Jesus the God-Man has pioneered the way to heaven for us.

We are in Christ by faith, and where he is, we also are and shall be.

Jesus is the head of his body the church, and Jesus the head is enthroned in heaven.

Where the head goes, the body follows!  

So in a sense we are in Christ and already seated with him in the heavenly places.

But also, of course, we are still here on earth in Dallington.

Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension show us where we are going, our destiny, our destination, our future.

Where Jesus is, all Jesus’ members – all the parts of his body - , all his people, will one day be.

Jesus shares his victory with us and brings us along with him.

 

We’ll say more about Jesus and our priest and king in a moment, but Jesus offers himself as the ultimate sacrifice and ascends to heaven as our priest, our mediator and go between with God, representing us to God and God to us, pleading his sacrifice for us he ever lives to make intercession for us in the heavenly temple throne room.

 

And the ascension is the enthronement of the incarnate Christ as the world’s true and conquering King.

 

Moll summarises the teaching of the New Testament about the ascension in ten points.

And it’s fun for me to preach a ten-point sermon, however briefly.

I have to get my enjoyment where I can!

So let me tell you those ten points.

I’ve adapted them a little bit.

(see pp49-51)

 

We’ll do them quite quickly so nudge your neighbour if he or she is having a doze.

I’ve blogged them in case you want to read them again later.

 

(1) In addition to the narratives of the ascension in Acts 1 and Luke 24, which we had read, the New Testament has much to say about the ascension.

It is a major doctrine.

 

(2) The ascension marks Jesus’ departure from earth to heaven.

It isn’t his retirement, nor is it simply a return to the way things were before Jesus came to earth.

The ascension is a new phase of the life and ministry of the God-Man.

 

(3) Jesus ascends to heaven and is installed as king, victorious over his enemies.

He receives all authority and power and gives gifts to his people, not least his Holy Spirit, empowering us to proclaim his triumph and kingdom.

 

(4) Although Jesus is bodily absent from us, Jesus’ ascension should be a cause of joy to us.

 

(5) Jesus ascends to the Father to be our advocate in heaven.

And he sends the Holy Spirit from the Father to be our advocate on earth.

The ascension means we have Jesus our advocate in heaven and the Holy Spirit our advocate with us on earth.

All these things are connected: incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, the gift of the Spirit, the mission of the church – and more.

 

(6) Jesus’ ascension and gift of the Spirit enable Jesus’ followers to do even greater things than Jesus did in his brief earthly ministry, particularly in taking the good news beyond Israel to all the nations and establishing an international church with millions of members.

 

(7) The book of Acts describes the ongoing work of the ascended Jesus on earth by his Spirit through his church.  

Acts is still the Acts of the ascended Jesus.

 

(8) The ascended Jesus ministers for us as our priest in the heavenly tabernacle, giving us confidence before God.

 

(9) Jesus ascended as man, completing the destiny of human beings and guaranteeing our New Creation.

 

(10) We are in Jesus, seated with him in heaven, and so we share his victory.

We should lift up our hearts to enjoy our heavenly participation with the ascended Christ.

 

There’s much more in this book which is well worth reading.

Moll tells us what the C of E has to say about the ascension.

And he explores the connections of the ascension with some other doctrines, but I’ll let you follow those things up yourself if you want to.

Let me finish by mentioning three areas of application which Moll gives.

What difference might the ascension make to us?

 

Moll invites us to think about the implications of the ascension for worship, prayer and mission.

I’ll just say something about those three things and the ascension very briefly.

 

(Below, see pp78ff)

 

(1) Worship

 

We rejoice to worship the ascended Christ.

As our great high priest, he leads our worship, which is really not just here in the church building but in the throne room of heaven, not in an earthly temple.

We don’t have to go off to Jerusalem to worship God but we lift up our hearts to heaven in worship.

When we come to the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is not on the table but we are joined to him in heaven by the Spirit and we feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

 

(2) Prayer

 

Jesus our great high priest gives us assurance that we are loved, forgiven, accepted and heard.

The ascended Christ ushers us with our requests into the very throne room of heaven, and brings us with our needs to the Father.

So let us pray with confidence.

 

(3) Mission

 

And let us share Jesus with joy and confidence.

We have such good news of Jesus the risen king, our pioneer and priest.

He authorises and sends us and he continues to rule his mission.

So let us go, empowered by Jesus’ Spirit, speaking his words.

 

As the Church of England’s Thirty-Nine Articles say:

 

Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things pertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, and with it he ascended into heaven, and there sits, until his return to judge all people at the last day.

 

(IV – adapted)

 

And so in the words of the Litany, we are bold to pray:

 

By your cross and passion,

by your precious death and burial,

by your glorious resurrection and ascension,

and by the coming of your Holy Spirit,

Good Lord deliver us.

 

So may God give you joy and confidence in the ascended Christ that you might live under and advance his heavenly reign.

And to God the Father, God the Ascended Son, and God the Holy Spirit, be all honour and power and glory, now and for ever.

Amen.

Psalm 67 - a handout

 You may wish to look away now if you are coming to church this morning - or get prepared! 

Psalm 67 p581 (& John 14:23-29 p1082)

Seeking God’s Blessing

 

The structure of the Psalm:

 

Vv3 and 5 are identical bracketing v4, the only three-line verse

 

A           vv1-2    prayer

B             v3                       refrain

C            v4                                      centre

B’           v5                        refrain

A’           vv6-7    prayer

 

* * *

 

What do we really want? What do we seek? Pray for?

What does the Psalmist want?

(Is our vision too small? How does it need to change?)

 

(1) Not because we deserve it, but as a gracious gift (v1)

 

(1) Not just God’s stuff (his gifts), but God’s self (his face) (v1)

 

(2) Not just for us, but for the joy of all people of all nations

 

(3) Not my ease / glory / empire, but God’s ways and salvation and justice, that he might be praised and feared – the harvest of the Word!

 

The good news of King Jesus, our Great High Priest and worship leader, for all the nations brings these blessings of justice and grace and joy!

The blessed life involves loving Jesus and obeying his words

 

Ø  Praise Jesus!

Ø  Share Jesus’ praises!