I'm going to the mountain to kneel down and pray... (Transcript of Sermon St Bartholomew Norton lee Moor 07/02/16)

St Bartholomew Norton le Moor 07/02/2016

Exodus 34.29-35 2 Corinthians 3.12 - 4.2 Luke 9.28-36

It has been said that over time some people begin to look like the pets they own.

Now whether that is true or not, I do not know, although I must confess to having seen some people particular in the horse world….

What I have noticed however, is that in some photographs how much my wife and I are beginning to look alike after thirty years of being married.

The idea being of course is that we become like that which we worship, adore or someone or something we spend a lot of time with.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that when Moses had been in God’s presence something of that radiant glory would rub off onto Moses.

However, notice that Moses was not aware of this. Therefore, it is no good looking in the mirror trying to discern if you are looking holy or full of God’s presence.

That is for others to notice and hopefully not to puff us up with pride but to mention it to us to give us encouragement.

I have it said of me recently that I looked like a man of prayer and indeed in my home church in Stafford I have been drawn into a small group who plan our regular Parish Prayer Days.  

1 Thessalonians 5.11

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Moses was to encounter God in quite a different way on top of a mountain with Jesus and Elijah.

One of those mysterious moments when the curtain of heaven is pulled back and we get a tiny glimpse of the reality of life and of God.

C.S. Lewis referred to this world as it currently stands as ‘shadow lands’ – the really real world is just beyond, yet not in some distance way up the bright blue sky, here among us but in a mostly unseen dimension.

I love the story of Elisha, Elijah’s successor, battling it out with the Syrians and particularly this part of the story we find in 2 Kings 6.

Elisha’s servant wakes up one morning to find the enemy surrounding them and is just a tad concerned – well, in modern parlance we might say he was wetting himself.

The story continues like this…

So, Elisha answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

You may say to me, as people often do, Gordon this world is so full of wickedness and people have given up attending church and believing in God, what hope do we have? We are struggling to pay our parish share let alone tell people about Jesus.

That is why we need to go the mountain – that is why we need to spend time and more time and yet more time in God’s presence.

However, please do not think I am saying you should be in this building 24/7 – for God is as much out there in the world as He is in here.

That was a mistake made by the Jews of Jesus’ day. They could not imagine God operating outside of the Temple and their sacrificial system.

St Paul writing to the Corinthians says, ‘a veil lies over their hearts whenever the old covenant is read.’

He goes on to say, ‘but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.’

Of course it is good to remind ourselves that the first ones to ‘turn to the Lord’ where Jews, like Paul himself who had a veil removed and saw the glory of God on the road to Damascus.

A few years ago, my wife and I climbed up Mount Tide in Tenerife. We got our timing all badly wrong and by the time we reached the top, the cable cars taking people up and down had stopped operating. However, we needed to get off the mountain, we simply could not stay there, and the prospect of a six-hour walk back through the gathering darkness was not overly appealing.

If we are to spend time with God on the mountain then equally there is a time to get off the mountain and take the message out to the people.

This what Moses did, coming down from the mountain and proclaiming the Law.

If you read on a few verses from our Gospel passage, we have the story of the young epileptic boy whom the disciples could not heal. Down the mountain and into ministry.

When Paul was knocked off his donkey on the way to Damascus and had a vision of Jesus, he did not simply tuck it away as another good after dinner story.  It changed his life and turned him around 180 degrees. A veil indeed was lifted for Paul, all the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Prophets he had studied so assiduously suddenly found a completely new illumination. 

My own life was completely knocked of course when I became a Christian at the age of 24 on the 1^st January 1975. It is a story for another time save to say that within eighteen months I found myself having been squeezed out of my job, divorced for being a Christian and having to leave the family home that included our two-year-old daughter.

Let me ask you this, what is your story?

Have you been the mountain top, met with Jesus, and seen things in completely new way, the way you do when you are high up and above everything.

Like Elisha’s servant, we need to learn to see with the eyes of faith – and through the eyes of faith we can say along with Mother Julian;

‘All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.’

Why? 

Because of another mountain Jesus climbed, and became glorified in a very different kind of way.

He climbed the hill of Golgotha taking all the ills and the evils of this world.

He climbed the hill of Golgotha and took your sin and my sin and all the wrong things we do or say.

He climbed the hill of Golgotha so that the numerous sacrifices of the old Temple system could be wonderfully fulfilled and find their completion as the pure sacrificial Lamb of God was slain.

We go to the mountain and we come down again not with the Law of Moses and the Old Covenant but with the new and living way offered by Christ.

‘I have come, said Jesus, that you may have life and life in all its fullness.’

In his book ‘The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis said, ‘why do Christians look like they are going through Lent rather than celebrating Easter?’

Well, from this coming Wednesday we will be going through Lent.  Much in the same as we sought to travel in heart and mind to Bethlehem to  celebrate the birth of the Christ child so we now  seek to journey in heart and mind as Jesus sets his face like flint towards Jerusalem.

As Jesus travels purposefully towards Jerusalem, many of his disciples begin to fall away.

Then Jesus said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9.23

How does that work out for you and for me on a daily basis?

A person going to the cross has nothing at all, not even a veil to cover their nakedness and shame.

Have we truly handed over to God everything?

Lent provides us with a good opportunity for a stock take. To give back to God anything we may have been holding on to, or even handed over at one time only to take it back later.

St Augustine said, if Jesus is not Lord of all then he is not Lord at all.’

Lord of our finances, Lord of our relationships, Lord of our work, Lord of our homes and our cars, Lord of each and everything that makes up our lives.

Again, from the passage we read from Corinthians…

‘Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit is there is freedom.’

Those of us who have had the veil lifted, who have seen a glimpse of God’s glory, we who have tasted and seen and know that the Lord is good and have found freedom in Christ.

Those of us who reflect the Lord’s glory and are being transformed into Jesus’ likeness, with an ever-increasing glory – we are called to be Christ’s ambassadors.

We are those who speak out and demonstrate a different way of being in the world.

We are those who as St Paul says in Romans 12.2

“Have not let the world squeeze us into its mould, but instead have allowed ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

We are those who have been to the mountain and caught a glimpse of the glory of Jesus and the really real world that one day will be fully revealed when as we read in the Book of Revelation, heaven will come down to earth, the two will become conjoined and God will reign for evermore.

Therefore, if we consider the world is full of darkness, sin, and wickedness then maybe it is because as one Christian songwriter put it, ‘the world is living in the dark because the Church is asleep in the light.’

Are you ready to climb that mountain?

Let us pray…

O Saviour Christ, in whose way of love lays the secret of all life,

and the hope of all people, we pray for quiet courage to match this hour.

We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age;

but let its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us,

its injustices anger us, it possibilities inspire us, and its vigour renew us.

Pour out upon us a fresh indwelling of the Holy Spirit;

make us bold and courageous in sharing faith

in both word and deed for your Kingdom’s sake we ask. Amen

Candlemass 2016 St James' Barton under Needwood

Benefice Service Barton under Needwood

St James Candlemass 2016 (31^st Jan)

Ezekiel 43.27-44.4 Luke 2.22-40

Today we celebrate the end of the Christmass season as we anticipate the Feast of Candlemass sometimes called The Presentation of Christ in the Temple,which 

is this coming Tuesday, 2^nd February.

This is the occasion when according to Luke, Mary and Joseph traveled to the temple in Jerusalem with the infant Jesus. Mary was to undergo the rite of purification and Jesus was to be offered to the Lord as the first male child according to the Law of Moses.

Should you be interested you will find the instructions in Leviticus chapter 12.

What is interesting to note is that Joseph and Mary brought an offering of a pair of turtledoves.

Much is made of Jesus’ humble birth.  Remembering that of course most people at this time were either rich or poor and living at subsistence level.

Two turtledoves or pair of pigeons was the acceptable offering if you could not afford a lamb.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I 

have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5.17

Now as we consider this story get out of your heads any pictures of a parish church and a baptismal family coming in.

You can even put to one side a cathedral.

The Temple was a huge, bustling busy place.

Devout Jews who longed for God’s Shekinah Glory to inhabit the Temple would have studied passages of Scripture like the one we heard from Ezekiel, alongside 

other prophets, principally Isaiah.  

Despite how it all appears, no matter who rules or who doesn’t rule, there will come a Day of Righteousness when all the Faithful Covenant Keepers will be vindicated and God will rule over all, and other kingdoms, nations will pay homage to God and recognise the Israelite's as God chosen instruments of bringing light to the world.

It is worth spending some time considering this, because it wasn’t a half-hearted hope, it was in the very blood stream, woven into the warp and weft of every Jew, male, female boy or girl.

So just how big was the temple?

Well try the size of six football pitches with walls to the height of a twenty stories with some stones weighing in at 400 tons.

The Temple was massive and the temple was busy, very busy with thousands of people coming and going - and not forgetting all the sacrificial animals being slaughtered.

It was the very heartbeat of the Nation.

So hold that picture in your head and imagine Joseph, Mary, and Jesus turning up to follow through the proscribed law.

Luke’s Gospel says that there was a man named Simeon who was in Jerusalem. We do not know if he was a visitor or a resident. However, we know that he was righteous, devout, and looking forward to the consolation of Israel.  That great and wonderful time I mentioned earlier.

The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

(Note the work of the Holy Spirit who was very active well before the Day of Pentecost.)

This man Simeon – well God appears to have a way of picking people for no particular reason, just as he picked out Mary to bear the Christ child or Zechariah and Elizabeth to bear Jesus’ cousin, John.

Btw – there is no indication given as to the age of Simeon, although it is often suggested he was an old man, but we cannot say one way or the other.

Notice that it says that the Holy Spirit guided him.  Remember all I have said about the size of the Temple and the busyness of the place.

That is why we need to get out of our heads a picture of a parish church and a baptismal party.

He was guided by the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine his heart quickening, his feet skipping, his mouth dry and eyes scanning through the crowds, trying to see, trying to listen and trying to follow the Holy Spirit promptings.

Who would this be, what would he look like, a warrior perhaps, a teacher, one of the ascetics from the Qumran Community.

A baby boy only forty days old!

Lord, you have to be messing with me…

In obedience, Simeon goes forward, takes the child in his arms, and sings a most wonderful song that echoes down the years. ‘The Song of Simeon’ used regularly at Evensong and at the time of death.

It is my fervent prayer that when it comes to the time for me to shed off my own mortal frame that I can sing this most wonderful song.  ‘Lord, let your servant now depart in peace – because I have seen the glory of your presence, I have seen your Kingdom come upon earth, I have seen people healed and restored, and in your most gracious mercy you have allowed me to participate in this most wonderful Gospel work.

In Simeon’s proclamation, he grasps the height, the depth, and the full measure of God’s forever intentions and purposes. The Messiah would bring salvation and that Messiah would come from God's chosen people.

God’s special and particular people of whom St Paul was to say, ‘I would be accursed if they be but saved.’  God’s people who would be glorified if they lived as God intended, as a light to the Gentiles.  Yet within his words of prophecy, there are those dark undertones, ‘the rising and falling of many, and a sword piercing Mary’s heart.’ Did she think back upon that on the day she watched as her son was lifted up against a darkening sky?  

Let me ask you this.

How attuned are you to the Holy Spirit?

Do we merely go about our daily business, shopping, working, picking the kids up, paying the bills, going to the cinema or out for a meal or a coffee, watching TV – do we simply do this and forget to be listening out for the prompting of the Holy Spirit?

We are Christ’s Ambassadors wherever we go and whatever we do – 24/7.

Recently, on our cruise holiday the waiter asked if we were okay if a single man joined us at the table during the evening meal.

Never having met him before we quickly discovered he had lived in Stafford, where we now live. He now lives in Cornwall, where we lived for ten years and have family, He worked as an Animal Health Officer and we both knew a mutual friend who works for the NFU in Staffordshire.

He was recently retired and has no family at all. He was lonely and felt life had no real sense of purpose – and whilst he respected people of faith it was not for him. He joined us regularly every night after that and we saw him begin to relax and engage with other people as well.

Before going away, I had invited some people from my home church to pray for my wife, daughter and myself as we prepared to travel. We prayed for safety and a good time and should the opportunity arise that we might be of some particular service to God in the people we met.

We need to foster the holy habit of being attentive and obedient to the prompting of the Spirit wherever we go and whatever we do- even on holiday!

At the recent launch of a Churches Together initiative called ‘Love Stafford we were encouraged to cast blessings over any churches we pass or over our neighbourhood and especially over the houses where we know the people who live there.

So we have Simeon, attentive, attuned, on the lookout and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Then we have Anna, whom we do know was of a great age. We also know she was very devout and fervent.

The last time I visited my Spiritual Companion we got to talking about those older people from whom the light of Christ shines brightly. Those men and woman who seem to ooze Jesus out of every pore and every fibre of their beings.

It is my fervent prayer that I become like that, like Anna here in this story. Soaked in prayer and worship and attentive to God’s prompting.

Might I suggest that if Simeon speaks to us of attentiveness and then action, then Anna speaks to us about waiting, praying, pondering? The ‘going into your secret place’ and being in prayer and quiet meditation before God.

Next Tuesday, the 2^nd is Candlemass and the Tuesday following is Shrove Tuesday.

Therefore, we are moving swiftly on from the Crib to the Cross, which is always only a matter of time. To try to have one without the other is utter nonsense.

As we begin our Lenten journey, could we seek to learn from Simeon and Anna?

Could we begin to be more attuned and attentive as we go about our daily business?

Perhaps asking, ‘is there someone Lord you would like me to speak to, or help, or even to offer a smile and a kind word, or to pray for them quietly and to cast a blessing over them.

Then could we set time aside to sit in God’s presence.  Maybe leaving the Church open with some simple prayer guides.

Simeon and Anna knew their Scriptures and had read the prophecies of promise. Could we endeavour to gather around God’s word? Seeking to discern how we can be a light to the Gentiles.

Using that word not in any pejorative sense, but simply to denote those who do not yet know the saving love and grace of Jesus. 

Mary, Joseph along with Simeon and Anna, all were faithful in their own time and used of God in His great purpose to bring about the redemption of the cosmos – but perhaps in way they least expected.

What about you and what about me in this year 2016 – how faithful are we going to be?

Let us pray…

O Saviour Christ, in whose way of love lays the secret of all life,

and the hope of all people, we pray for quiet courage to match this hour.

We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age;

but let its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us,

its injustices anger us, it possibilities inspire us, and its vigour renew us.

Pour out upon us a fresh indwelling of the Holy Spirit;

make us bold and courageous in sharing faith

in both word and deed for your Kingdom’s sake we ask. Amen

Living in the Light! (Transcript of 'Address')

St Peter’s Alton Nine Lessons and Carols 

December 2015

Christmas is for Children

Christmas is really
for the children.
Especially for children
who like animals, stables,
stars and babies wrapped
in swaddling clothes.
Then there are wise men,
kings in fine robes,
humble shepherds and a
hint of rich perfume.

Easter is not really
for the children
unless accompanied by
a cream filled egg.
It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition.
They would do better to
think on rabbits, chickens
and the first snowdrop
of spring.

Or they'd do better to
wait for a re-run of
Christmas without asking
too many questions about
what Jesus did when he grew up
or whether there's any connection.

© Steve Turner

Have you been to see Star Wars yet?

I went last night and if you have not seen it yet, you are in for a real treat.

The big motif of course is a very familiar one that has echoed throughout all the ages.

We heard the very same motif in our reading from John’s Gospel.

The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. (1.9)

Many homes are festooned with lights both inside and out at this time of year. Towns, cities and some villages are lit up with all kinds of light.

There is something deep within our human make-up in the depth of winter, which wants to banish the darkness even if for a moment, for a few days, to bring us hope of brighter days to come.

However, our current darkness is caused by much more than the weather.

We have the darkness of the deformed ideology of IS or whatever name you care to give them. Whose bloody tyranny has embroiled most of Europe as we have seen countless thousands fleeing their ancient homelands in fear for their lives and violence and carnage brought to the streets of Paris.

In our own country, we continue to have the dark scourge of Food Banks and the scandal of them becoming normalized. Moreover, we are seeing the return of some previously eradicated diseases such as cholera, scarlet fever, rickets and malnutrition.

Although Christmass is celebrated as a time of light, it does have its own dark undertone that is very contemporary. 

We have the refugee family fleeing into Egypt to get away from a brutal, tyrannical leader.  

We have the same leader ordering the slaughter of innocent children. 

Arising from this story, we have that incredibly poignant phrase, originally from the book of the prophet Jeremiah…

"A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

Rachel still weeps, weeps over every child slaughtered whether knifed to death in a gang fight in London or Bristol, or killed in one of the many war zones around the world or by a terrorist attack.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 

However, for that to happen we need to consider that this child in the crib will become the Christ on the cross; it is only a matter of time!

Let me read to you another short poem called Ex-Mass.

EX-MASS

Christmass parties,

 Mince pies,

 Carols,

X number of shopping days to Christmass,

School Nativity play,

And out of a dark and dusty corner of the church

   the crib is found.

Baby Jesus (blond hair, white face and blue eyes)

Is placed once more with dignity

In a place of honour surrounded by tinsel

Fairy lights and Father Christmass

The babe of God slips into the world,

And into the hearts of all who love babies.

(Even Herod’s are kept quiet today)

Then back goes the representation of Jesus,

Along with all the other trimmings,

Back to a dusty corner in people’s lives.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, Perpetual Babe

 Save us from our madness.

© Gordon Banks 8/12/83

Is that what you will do – finish with Jesus on the twelfth night?

You will enjoy all the fun and festivities, all the lights and the joy and there is nothing wrong in any of that at all.

For at this time of year we often get a tiny glimpse of how things should be, how God intended things to be.

We saw a glimpse of this on the cold winter battlefields of Belgium and France on Christmass 1914. When the men emerged from their trenches and played football.

We know that it is stupid and ridiculous to kill, maim or injure another human being.

We know that adultery is wrong and child molestation is wrong, that robbery is wrong. We know instinctively that families ought to be happy, loving and caring for each other.

We know this and get such a tiny glimpse and glimmer of hope as we focus, for all to brief a moment, on the Light of the World squeezed into human form and coming to live as one of us.

But what if you took a longer view?

What if you did not put the baby Jesus away along with all the other trimmings on the twelfth night?

What if you tried to make the connection between the child in the crib and the Christ on the cross -made the connection between Christmass and Calvary.

What might happen in your life and in the life of those around you?

The winter darkness will eventually slip away, however the darkness in our world and across our towns, cities and villages will continue.

People will continue to sleep on our streets because they have no home of their own. People will continue to be killed, bombed, blown up and maimed, continue to be trafficked and stabbed and shot.  

All of this will continue to happen.

However, however, however – Jesus came to save us from our warring madness by showing a different way. He demonstrated that until the very breath was beaten out of his body on the cross.

But death was not the end and death was defeated as in glorious triumph we celebrate God raising Jesus from death.

And just in case you are struggling to follow this I am still talking about baby Jesus – only now grown to manhood.

In our reading from John, we hear of John the Baptist of whom it was said…

He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

Jesus followers continue to bear witness to the light.  The dark side will not prevail. 

Again, from John’s Gospel ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.’

Therefore, here is a challenge.

Will you take one of these cards and write on there your contact details. Email is best.

(You will not be contacted by C of E PLC and bombarded with numerous offers!)

The challenge is that you pledge to walk alongside God’s people for one year so that you can hear the full story, to help you make the connections.

You will be contacted a few times throughout the year and invited to come and be alongside God’s people as they remember some of the key points of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

Or, you can simply wait for a re-run of Christmass without asking too many questions about what Jesus did when he grew up or whether there is any connection.

Jesus said, "The Light is with you for only a little while. Walk while you have the Light so that darkness does not overtake you. Those who walk in the darkness do not know where they are going.  As long as you have the Light, believe in the Light so that you might become people whose lives are determined by the Light."

Walking in the Light or stumbling around in the dark - it's your choice!

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From the Crib to the Cross - it is only a matter of time...

Listen to this fabulous modern Christmass worship song that makes the connection...



https://youtu.be/YksTeR61O1I