Before coming here to Kew, over 3 years ago now, we lived in a small village with a church that was part of a Benefice with 6 other rural churches. I have, I am sure, mentioned this before. Although we were one Benefice there was very strong local feeling in each of the 7 villages towards their own churches. So I suppose that I should not have been surprised when I became part of Father Peter’s team, to find that there was not always great cohesion between the Barn Church and St. Luke’s, divided as they are by a railway line. I believe Peter told me when I once asked that it was ‘historical’.
It is both interesting and perhaps reassuring, that in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, that even Jesus at the outset of his ministry was selective with whom he wished to deal.
For when the Canaanite woman called on Our Lord for help to cure her daughter who was ‘tormented by a demon’, Jesus did not even answer her.
When she persisted he said to her, “ I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In other words, I am here to save the Jews, my own people, and as you are not Jewish then you do not qualify. Gasp, shock, faint in disbelief, this cannot be our Lord Jesus Christ speaking? … Matthew must have got it wrong. Well actually if he did get it wrong, then so did Mark who tells much the same story in his Gospel, Mark 7 verses 24 to 30.
The truth is, that in fact it even took Jesus a little time, and encounters, like the one we have just heard with the Canaanite woman, to come to understand that his Father’s purpose for Jesus’ time here on earth was to be the saviour of all peoples, to be as his Father, a loving and inclusive God of all who called upon His name.
It is a lesson that is so very important for all of us here today and for the world we live in at this present time. Not always being able to see ‘eye to eye’ with our fellow church, or churches, is something of importance to guard against during a vacancy. However, this actually falls in to insignificance when we are unable to see ‘eye to eye’ with our neighbour, be they Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Seiki, Buddhist or even Roman Catholic, or any other creed or race.
But then it has been a well-known fact for years that God is white, British and after the Queen the head of the Christian Church, or was that before Her Majesty? I only jest in part, for it is a failing of us all that we too often envisage our God to fit our own specifications, and even Jesus had to understand that God is not like that. Jesus very quickly turned from a mission of saving just “the lost sheep of the house of Israel“, to saving all who turned to him and followed his path.
The Apostle Paul was for most of his life and in all of his letters, as with today’s letter to the young church in Rome, at great pains to hammer home the point that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God was available to all peoples without distinction, even those who once rejected Him.
“For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”
God does not call people in order to dismiss them later, and he does not give gifts and then ask for them back. If people do not at once respond then He always lives in the belief that if they see the joy and love in others who have accepted His gifts then they to will want to share in that joy and love as well.
We as Christians too often try and tie God into our own small parameters, fit Him into our life styles and even our own faith. God is so, so much bigger, so, so much more inclusive and expansive. Yes, our faith is important, our church, be it the Barn or St. Luke’s, is important, but only as a very small part of a much, much larger and encompassing belief and faith that has room for all peoples and for all of God’s great and mighty creation.
So perhaps in the weeks and months ahead we all need to remember that we are working for an inclusive Maker, who never rejects but always accepts, even if at times that requires great patience and love, and dare I even say compromise.
I can remember back in those days when we as parents, used to take our children to Fun Fairs or Adventure Parks, how they used to love the rides, especially our daughter, Mary, the higher, more exciting, or downright scary, the better.
Neither Carolyn nor I were great enthusiasts, but as long as I could be safely strapped into the ‘said ride’ I was reasonably happy. It was those ‘white knuckle’ rides that I disliked, where the bar came down, as it does on the big dipper, and you held on for ‘dear life’ with your eyes tightly closed. I simply lacked faith in the fact I would survive the ride.
That is something that as Christians we are also very good at, ‘Lacking faith! It is nothing new as we have just heard from our Gospel reading, in which dear Peter, so certain to begin with, but then…
Another fault that I, and perhaps some of us have, in trying to be good Christians, is that we often try too hard. Perhaps, rather like the Pharisee, who followed the letter of the Law, even doing good deeds, giving away a tenth of his wealth, but showing no humility in the house of God. At times, possibly we try too hard to prove our Christian faith, both to ourselves and to others. God does not keep scores.
Paul, once more in today’s reading in his Letter to the Romans is saying that all who follow Christ will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him”.
Paul respects, and fully understands Jewish Law and the teachings of the Torah. He himself was trained in that Law as a Pharisee. But he is saying again and again that through Christ’s death and resurrection there is a now a new way, a new beginning. That the Laws relating to Sacrifice, Purification, and Circumcision have now been replaced by Christ’s teaching, his ‘New Commandments’ of Compassion, Gentleness, Understanding, Faithfulness, all under-written by Love.
There is often something very resistant in us about accepting the grace of God. We always seem to return to the idea that it is something to be earned, or achieved, that like the Pharisee in the synagogue, we have to continually prove ourselves worthy of receiving it. God is seen by some, like a schoolroom teacher, whose respect and understanding have to be won by their good works.
Christianity is not a ‘pick-and-mix counter’ from which to choose the parts that we may want, or those things we wish to do. It is a relationship offered by God, opened up to us by Jesus, and constantly available and present through the Holy Spirit.
Peter saw our Lord walking on the water and when called by Him, went towards Him. But then we heard how very hard it was for Peter, like myself on the big dipper, to hold on to that faith in what we know to be safe and true, when we actually come to the test.
Peter, as I am sure the rest of us would do, panics, and in so doing begins to sink. For none of us are perfect, and indeed, our Lord never expects us to be so. It is not by some magic power that we will become good Christians, but by having a simple straightforward faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and a love of God. We too have to stretch out our hand, like Peter, to our Lord, to open our hearts and minds to the ever present, ever-constant love of Jesus Christ.
As Jane Williams writes in her reflection on today’s readings, “Christianity is not a system, which some people can use easily and some can’t, and each person can only reap the rewards accordingly. Christianity is a relationship, offered by God, in which our place is opened up by Jesus, and in which we are constantly tutored and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.”
Faith is an acceptance of what God has done in sending Jesus Christ, His Son to be our salvation, not us gaining salvation by anything that we have done, purely on our own part, but by what God has done through His son Jesus Christ for all of us. Faith is the acceptance of that grace of God, shown to us all through the love of His son, who came to be our Savour.
We just need the belief to hold on to our faith, and like Peter, to reach out ‘our hand’ to Jesus each and everyday, in good times as well as in times of trouble and sorrow.
Well Good Morning everybody on this the first Sunday of the Interregnum.
2nd August sermon audio
When Peter gave his final sermon at the Barn last Sunday, he used the various parables in St Matthew’s gospel Chapter 13 to give us advice and to present us with challenges for the interregnum. None of us know how long the interregnum will be for, but it will probably last for the rest of this year and well into next.
Peter reminded us that God cares for everyone and, through the Parable of the Mustard seed, encouraged us to make space for everyone and to continue to be welcoming to all. He used the parable of the Yeast to remind us to nurture potential and to look for future possibilities. He talked of the buried treasure to remind us to give everything up for a better outcome and the Pearl of Great price as a reminder to us to really think what we want to achieve during this very strange time. And finally, he used the parable of the net of good and bad fish to urge us to strive for excellence over the next few months. Never to think “Oh this will do” but to always do our absolute best for the church and for God.
We may be unique in that we are a joint benefice of two churches entering into a period without our own Vicar in the middle of what is still very definitely a global pandemic. Our two churches are wonderful much-loved places, but it is true that one of them lends itself to socially distanced Communion services more than the other. So even our spiritual homes present us with challenges at this present time.
The next few months will be lots of hard work for everyone – in particular the Church wardens and Irene and Guinevere in the parish office, but for lots of other people too. The pulling together and the imaginative thinking that will be needed to meet the challenges Peter has given us will involve us all in whatever way we can contribute. It will be a time of experimentation and compromise – sometimes things may not work as well as we expected and, sometimes, we may be surprised at how well things do work out. Some of us will have more roles than others, but all of us will have the role of praying for each other, for asking God’s blessings and guidance for our fellow members of these two churches. We will need to be tolerant, supportive, doing things together as they did in the very earliest days of the Church.
And one of the earliest experiments is this one – returning to Morning Prayer. It is only in fairly recent times that the services in the Church of England have become particularly focussed on the Eucharist, which of course is the central and pre-eminent service of the Church. But not so long ago many churches held Morning and Evening Prayer as a regular part of their worship. My grandfather, for example, who did not get confirmed until he was nearly eighty, attended Morning Prayer nearly every Sunday of his adult life.
We are using a modern version of Morning Prayer, but the practice of praying to God throughout the day has its origins in pre-Christian Worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus himself would have been familiar with regular prayer throughout the day in the Temple and perhaps some elements of this service might have been familiar to him during his life on earth. From at least the fifth century AD, and up until the reformation, the Christian round of worship in Monasteries and for clergy revolved around seven daily services throughout the day starting with Matins and ending with Compline in the evening and, on some occasions, with a night vigil as well.
When the original Book of Common Prayer was written in 1594 it was decided to combine the first three services of the day – Matins, Lauds and Prime into one service to be called Morning Prayer. The language of the liturgy may have been more archaic then, but the essence was not very different from what we are using today.
So, while we are experimenting, we are experimenting with a form of service that has had a prominent role in the history of our faith. It is a service to which all are welcome and in which all can participate fully. We may be a little out of our usual comfort zone for the moment, but I think it is a good start to striving for the best, being inclusive and looking to the future. And it is one step along the road of fulfilling the challenges Peter lay before us last week.
There is lots to do, there are many souls to feed, the fields are ripe for harvesting and we must not be found wanting. To refer to another parable that has always been important to me, let us not bury our talents, but make use of them to continue to build and develop our church community for the glory of our God – as Jesus, and it has to be said Peter, would wish us to do. Amen
