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!

 

On middle age

 

You’ll say I am far too young! But believe it or not, I have begun to think about middle age. It’s a moving target of course. The middle aged tend to be those five or ten years older than me! I recently went to some seminars on the subject at the Bible by the Beach Conference in Eastbourne, and I did wonder if some of the grey-hairs around me had wandered in geriatric confusion into the wrong venue. But then whenever I go to the barbers’ I am shocked to see all that silver falling from my own head. I still basically imagine myself to be the same age as the wedding couples I see, whereas some of them now have dates of birth implausibly into the late 1990s or early 2000s.

 

Anyway, I digress. Perhaps a failing of the middle aged!

 

No doubt each phase of life has its own characteristic temptations. Parents of teenagers might have much to report.

 

Sorry, I’m rambling on again like Shakespeare’s justice:

 In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part.

(Jaques in As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)

 

It has been suggested that one danger of this phase of life might be spiritual middle age spread – taking our ease to a selfish degree. Perhaps the kids have left home and we’ve done our bit. We may be modestly comfortable. There’s a lot to be said for sabbath and rest, for enjoying God’s good gifts with thankfulness. But maybe some of us need a challenge to fresh or renewed ambition. How could we serve and encourage future generations? We might be wise to look up to Christ, not back to past achievements, for our sense of identity and worth. Maybe there’s no retirement from Christian service. How can our time and financial independence benefit the Kingdom?

 

Or perhaps we’re inclined to be a bit world-weary. Do we need to seek the renewal of our delight in Christ and our hope in him? We’ve seen it all. We tried that. The young are so naïve and foolish whereas we are experienced, mature, wise. And so we can easily be jaded and cynical. But perhaps God hasn’t finished with us yet! The Lord’s Prayer might still inspire us: “Hallowed be your name, Your will be done, Your kingdom come!” Even if we don’t have the energy of a twenty or thirty year old, perhaps we can have different forms of passion for Jesus?

 

Suggested reading: The Bible, obviously, perhaps especially Colossians and Romans 8 for some of the points above.

 

An explicitly Christian book: Paul David Tripp, Lost in the Middle: Mid-Life Crisis and the Grace of God (Shepherd Press, 2009)

 

Arthur C. Brooks, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (Green Tree, 2023) – Brooks grew up in an evangelical home and became a Roman Catholic

 

Marcus Berkmann,  A Shed Of One's Own: Midlife Without the Crisis (Little, Brown Book Group, 2012) – as far as I know, Berkmann is not a religious believer. I don’t remember being wowed by this book when I first read it but I would have been too young! It’s worth going back to, I think.

 

(Some of the above draws on Lewis and Sarah Allen’s seminar at Bible by the Beach 2025)

                                                                                                                

The Revd Marc Lloyd

Psalm 30 - a handout

 

Psalm 30 (page 558)
Praise God for bringing his anointed King back from death!

 

·       Title: of David – the great Old Testament king – cf. The Son of David

·       for the dedication of “the House”

 

·       A praise sandwich: The Psalmist praises God (v1, 12) – gloating = joy v1, 11

·       The Psalmist calls on all God’s people to praise God (v4) because of the way God has saved him and what God is like and does

·       Probably the same experience described twice (vv1-5, 6-12)

 

(1) The Psalmist’s experience of distress and dismay - Mk 15:34

 

·       Self-confidence? – vv6-7 – 2 Sam 24?; 1 Cor 10:12; Dt 8

 

(2) The LORD’s deliverance from the depths

 

·       A story of healing / salvation / rescue / resurrection! / triumph over enemies and of contrasts and transformation from wailing to dancing, sackcloth to joy, silence to song, evening to morning etc. – Jn 16v20  

·       A moment of God’s anger (the twinkling of an eye) / of dismay / (apparent?) abandonment by God

·       A life time / an eternity of favour / grace / mercy / help / rescue / rejoicing (only fully and finally beyond death in the New Creation) - Rm 8:18; 2 Cor 4:17 – Look to the Final Resurrection Morning!

·       A resurrection: God lifts up from the depths and saves from death – Good Friday and Holy Saturday lead to Easter Sunday Morning!

 

(3) Our response of dependence, dedication and delight

 

·       The necessity of trusting in God and calling on his mercy (not complacent, proud, self-sufficient etc.) – Heb 5:7

·       An implication of living for God’s praise and glory as long as he gives us this life (v9): If I die I can’t…; If I live I will live to proclaim your fame

·       Jesus – the rebuilt temple - Jn 2:19-22 Where Jesus the Head goes, his body the church will be sure to follow! 

 

English law and Christianity

 Oxford educated barrister, Bijan Omrani begins chapter two of God is an Englishman with the case of the snail in the ginger beer bottle, Donoghue v Stevenson. In 1928 Mrs Donoghue ended up in Glasgow Royal Infirmary after a friend bought her the drink in a café, and though the law at the time held she had no legal relationship with the manufacturer, the law Lords established a general duty of care. Lord Atkin of Aberdovey said in 1932 that “the rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbour… [To] the lawyer’s question, Who is my neighbour? [Luke 10]  … The answer seems to be – persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to he acts or omissions which are called into question.” (p43)

Atkin said in a lecture: “I doubt whether the whole law of tort could not be comprised in the Golden Maxim [given by Jesus] to do unto your neighbour as you would that he should do unto you.” (p44)

Sadly in 2011, Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson found that “the laws and usages of the realm do not include Christianity, in whatever form.” (p45)

Though in the 18^th Century, Lord Blackstone had written that “the Christian religion… is part of the law of the land.” And his contemporary, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke agreed. In 1729 Chief Justice Raymond said that “Christianity in general is parcel of the common law of England”, repeating a dictum of Chief Justice Lord Hale from 1676.

Similarly in 1651, Lord Keble had said, “Whatsoever is not consonant to the law of God in Scripture, or to right reason, which is maintained in Scripture, whatsoever is in England, be it acts of Parliament, customs, or any judicial acts of the Court, it is not the law of England, but the error of the party which did pronounce it; and you or any man else at the bar, may so plead it.” (p45)

Lord Denning was surely right to say in 1989 that “the common law of England has been moulded for centuries by Judges who have been brought up in the Christian faith. The precepts of religion, consciously or unconsciously have been their guide in the administration of justice.” (p45)

Easter Ed and Tolkien

 John 20:1-18.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the reality TV show, The Apprentice, with Lord Alan Sugar.

Lord Sugar gives the young hopefuls business tasks to complete.

And perhaps part of the fun of the series is that often they turn out to be numpties and get fired.

We can enjoy laughing at their disasters and the stupid suggestions they make.

 

One of the recent tasks in series 19 was for the candidates to have a crack at creating a new Easter egg, before one or more of them eggs-itted the process.

 

The candidates discussed that Easter lacked a hero character.

Where was the Father Christmas of Easter?

They mused: “We don’t really have a main character for Easter.”

The Easter bunny might have felt rather slighted by this, but Frederick suggested having a mascot called ‘Easter Ed’ – who I think also turned out to be an astronaut, obviously.

It was a rather confused pitch for an Easter Egg based on the Space Man Easter Ed who is going to be the Father Christmas of Easter who gives nice well-behaved children chocolate, and takes the market by storm by becoming the new hero of Easter.  

 

But, of course, Christians around the nation were screaming at their TVs that Jesus is and ought to be the hero of Easter – and Christmas come to that!  

Jesus is the real true hero of Easter.

 

The historical case for his death and resurrection is compelling.

The evidence of the empty tomb and Jesus’ resurrection appearances have transformed countless lives.  

 

The story of Jesus is, as the film title put it, The Greatest Story Ever told.

In fact, all our stories could be called echoes of the gospel story, which is the story of fall and redemption – of paradise lost and regained.

 

Tolkien once suggested that we could think of Jesus’ story as a true fairy story.

It has the sudden joyous turn – the opposite of a catastrophe - the happily every after which we associate with the fairy story.

And that ending which we all long for, which we dare to hope is true, is what Jesus’ death and resurrection secures.

 

As Tolkien has Sam say in The Lord of the Rings:

“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?"
A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land.”

 

The Easter story is the ultimate reversal:

It is life from death.

 

Jesus’ story is also the ultimate journey story and quest.

He has come from heaven and gone back again – but now as the God-Man.

He has gone, as it were, from riches to rags to riches again.

And it was all a rescue mission for us.  

He who was rich beyond all measure yet for love’s sake became poor.

He lost everything and gave his very life, that we who were poor, through his poverty, might become rich – that we might live – that we might gain heaven and eternal life.

 

That first Easter death was defeated.

The monsters of sin and death were slayed.

The sting of death was drawn as sin and death were overcome.

The ogre death was tamed.

And death is now a servant who brings Jesus’ people into his nearer presence.  

 

You may know that in classic theatre – in Shakespear for example – there are tragedies and comedies.

In tragedies, everyone dies.

In comedies, they get married.

 

The death of Jesus, the promising young preacher, certainly seems like a tragedy.

The apparent tragedy of Good Friday is overcome.

The universe turns out to be a Comedy – and there’s even the wedding supper of the Lamb, the marriage of the people of God, the church, the bride, to Jesus the bridegroom.

Jesus is our victorious champion who has killed the dragon and got the girl.  

 

In the most surprising reversal ever, the crucified one is risen as the Lord of Life.  

 

The Easter story even had a case of mistaken identity.

Mary thinks that Jesus is the Gardener.

And in a way he is.

Jesus is the New and Better Adam who will restore Eden, only better.

Where Adam sinned, Jesus undid our sin.

Jesus is the human being who will rule the world faithfully.

Jesus plants the word of the gospel in us which grows and bears fruit.

And our bodies become seeds which are buried in the ground in death and then flower in New Creation.

 

Easter, it turns out, is not just for good well-behaved children who have been kind, but for all of us.

Jesus in fact came for sinners like you and me on a rescue mission.

 

So Easter already has the ultimate hero: The crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

 

And this is more than a story to entertain or sell chocolate.

We’re not just to admire Jesus or even to seek to emulate him.

We’re to trust him.

 

The true story of Jesus can be your story and mine.

It can give meaning and purpose to the story of our lives.

Easter is the great reality – the story of the cosmos and all God’s purposes – in the light of which we can make sense of our world and our lives.

 

Will you make Jesus your own?

Will you live in the light of his story?

Will you accept the new resurrection life he has won for all who will trust him?

 

And so we can rejoice afresh in Jesus the Hero of Easter and this greatest story ever told today – and perhaps even eat chocolate to the glory of his name.

Amen.