What I actually preached at Midnight Mass

The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light.

It’s always better if you are an optimist!  If you can, and you must try hard, you must be the eternal optimist…

Now you’re thinking either…

1. Oh I don’t know about that!  He’s so unrealistic! Or

2. Oh, go on, I’ve had a few sherry’s today, I’m going to look on the bright side.

But, it’s Christmas!  And we are called to have hope, especially at Christmas…We are hearing the story a peoples journey with GOD, trusting that ONE DAY, God would put things right.  They were called to be a people of hope and not of despair!

And GOD brought it about in the most extraordinary way possible!  When his Son was born to a young woman in a far off land, in a stable indeed!…we all know the event, and because of that, we are called to have hope, we are called to live in the light and not in the darkness. 

The great reading we have at Midnight Mass, is obligatory each Christmas at one of the services, it is the prologue to John’s Gospel.  The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light.

It is presented in Greek, and is a mystical reflection on the divinity and incarnation of Christ. The Logos the Word Made Flesh and it is one of the most theologically significant passages in the Bible.  It begins and ends in eternity and has God interrupting our human history.

It tells of a light that has been lit in the darkness, a light that will never be extinguished.  It tells us to

·     Build on the foundations of the past. 

·     Look to the future with expectation, and

·     Live with hope in the present!

I can identify with the idea of Jesus bringing light to the darkest of places.  And just a few days after the shortest day midwinter, it is easy to take comfort from that image of Jesus being the light of the world.

At baptisms, as we pass over the candle to the godparents, or the newly baptised, we talk about Jesus the light of the world.  “Walk in the faith, and keep the flame of faith alive in your heart, so when the Lord comes again you may be ready to greet Him.”  These words are the commission for the newly baptised (and us all) not to have a private faith that is held in secret, not to run luke-warm with your faith, not to be a nominal Christian….but this is the call to light up the world with  Christian Hope and optimism.

Optimism!

JOKE

A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom & gloom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, at Christmas their father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist's room he loaded with horse manure.

That morning the father passed by the pessimist's room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly.

"Why are you crying?" the father asked.

"Because my friends will be jealous, I'll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I'll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken." answered the pessimist twin.

Passing the optimist twin's room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he asked.

To which his optimist twin replied, "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"

Now that’s optimism – that is hope!

Well, Christmas Day is really the start of the New Year for me.  I like to think that we can start to think about what next year will bring, but also to thank God for all he has given us this year.

This year has been sad, as we have lost some really good people, who have gone to be with God, and we are building on their legacy here. 

But it has also been a year that I have witnessed wonderful things, random acts of kindness and thoughtfulness that make this church such a wonderful place to be.  I have seen people keeping hope alive and living the Christmas spirit.

And, tonight is a celebration of that, it is the day that we thank God for giving us the courage and patience and hope and optimism, to take that light to the people around us.

It’s not easy. It’s nowhere near easy, to speak about hope when the future is sometimes bleak…

When we leave here tonight, I pray that we will all be filled with the Spirit of Christmas, that Christmas Hope, to live each day as if it were still Christmas Day, with a vision for the future, and a commitment to work in the present that comes with it.

I rarely quote Helen Steiner Rice, but she once wrote;

“Peace on earth will come to stay,
When we live Christmas every day.”

You might be saying to yourself, “Well, he says that, but that doesn’t really apply to me”, but it does!  The Christmas Spirit is what it is!

The Author Garrison Keillor, writes;

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together. 

And here we are….in the middle of the night.  We must be mad!  Well, either mad, or we believe in Christmas.  The hope of a better tomorrow, a reason to work for good, and a belief that the story of the birth of a baby 2,000 years ago still has something to say to us today.

Over the last few weeks, people have asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I said two things – world peace and a day off.  They always laughed – but that is the optimism, the Christian Hope to which we are called.

Midnight Mass Sermon 2012 - Merry Christmas Everybody!

Midnight Mass 2012

  

I started to feel quite Christmassy quite early this year.  It might have been that it's a new parish, it might have been that I've been looking forward to Christmas for months.  You see, Christmas is more than just another day for me, it is an attitude, it is a feeling that we can keep throughout the year, if we can understand what it happening this evening.

We are not just here singing and celebrating, we are actually writing another page in the story of Christmas.  We are adding to the story that is 2,000 years old…and it hasn’t finished.

We are making Christmas!

And down the generations, people have done the same.  There is no greater example of this than the carols we are singing this evening.

(14^th Century)

On the way in this evening we sang Adeste Fidelis the carol we know as O Come all ye Faithful. 

The original words are attributed to John of Reading, who wrote a book called “Prose for Christmas Day” around 1320. 

Much later, the tune (and some of the words) were changed by John Francis Wade, a Catholic Layman who fled to France during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. 

It’s suggested there’s a secret meaning to some of the words.  The return of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the secret followers of The Old Pretender Stuart are all supposedly mentioned.  The faithful are the ‘Jacobites’ who are being encouraged to return, and Bethlehem, was a code for them to mean England.  So this was a carol of rallying the people to return.

(18^th Century)

No midnight mass is complete without us leaving to Hark the Herald Angels sing.  This carol was written in 1739 by Charles Wesley.  Although he was a bit of a sober, sombre man, it’s still possible to sing this carol after a Christmas drink, as a few of you will know.   The words are triumphant!  In the last verse we sing “sing choirs of Angels”  I looked through every Bible I have, and according to them the Angels “spoke” not “sang”, but that’s fine.  It’s a good picture!

(19^th Century)

Then, before the Gospel reading we sang that calm and beautiful classic Christmas carol Silent Night.  The original lyrics were written in Austria in by a priest, Joseph Mohr.  The music was written by Xaver Gruber in 1816 and it was sung the first time on Christmas Eve 1818 in the Church of St. Nicholas, Oberndorf, Austria.

Nearly one hundred years later, in the 1914 Christmas truce of World War One, where troops stopped fighting and left the trenches to exchange gifts with the enemy, this carol was simultaneously sung in three languages (English, French and German) it was so widely known and sung.  This is the quiet colossus in the Carolling world!

(20^th Century)

Even though Christina Rossetti wrote her famous poem “In the Bleak Midwinter” before 1872, it didn’t appear as a carol until 1906, in the English Hymnal with a setting by the famous English composer Gustav Holst.  It’s got everything in – the birth of Jesus, the second coming, the simple surroundings of the birth and Mary’s love and care for her son.  It’s all there!

So we are hearing what Christmas meant to the people of the last seven hundred years, and we join with them in adding to that Christmas story!

Christmas has given us a wealth of art and music, poetry and philosophy, the story of God working with others…

And tonight, WE are adding to Christmas just by being here.  WE are part of the Christmas story, the story of God and his people, the greatest story ever told.

We are making Christmas!

That’s why I’m a Christmas person!  In Church we speak of the Incarnation – the birth of Jesus  - and at Easter, we speak of the Atonement; the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus.  I understand you can’t have one without the other, but I have to say that Christmas is for me, as C.S Lewis calls it ‘That Great Miracle’.

However, the miracle doesn’t end here.  It can be Christmas Every Day.  If we are making the Birth of Jesus Mean Something for others not just at the end of December, but throughout the year.

You might think that I’m overdoing it a bit, but I’m not!

We hear lots of talk about the church dying, and I’m pleased to tell you that it isn’t happening.  In parishes such as this one, we have outreach into the community every day of the year. Dozens of people are doing hundreds of jobs to make life a little brighter and more manageable for others.

We start every morning with prayer in this church and many work late into the evening to keep Christmas going!  To make the incarnation of Christ mean something concrete, tangible and real.

We are making Christmas!  In December, January and even June!

A newspaper reported a couple of days ago that Anglicans give up 22.3 million hours every month to work that benefits their local community. The Sunday Telegraph asked church representatives of every Diocese to say what their church did that they were most proud of, and the response was overwhelming: night shelters, food banks, credit unions, housing trusts, legal advice, street patrols and support groups were all mentioned.

We get everywhere!

According to the recent Census, 59 per cent of people in England and Wales call themselves Christian. However, separate research shows that 85 per cent of us visit a church in any given year, whether to give thanks, pay respects, mark a significant moment or seek solace. The church provides a rallying point.

So, this Christmas, I’m not worried about the future of the Church!  Down the generations it has proclaimed the birth of Jesus, the Incarnation of God, and made that mean something to the people!  This evening, we are making more Christmas!

God has put us into the Christmas story in our time, creating something good and new, we are blessed indeed to be here this evening.

May God give you a time of peace and relaxation, and the joy of understanding your part in the greatest story ever told, in the name of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Community Carol Service

This Friday at 7.00pm we have our Community Carol Service in All Saints' supported by James Summers Funeral Directors. We hope to use all donations to fund the 'Coffee and Cake Collective'. A quiet space for people who want to meet and chat.

Advent and Christmas

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

December 2012

Sun 2nd 6.00pm Advent Sunday Service at ASC
Fri 14th 7.00pm Community Carol Service at ASC
Sat 15th 7.00 pm Comedy Christmas Play ‘Rudolph You’re
Fired!’ (Free entry) at Pontprennau
Sun 16th 9.30am Christingle Service at ASL
10 am All Age Christmas Carol Service at
Pontprennau
11.00am Christingle Service at St David’s
3 pm Songs of Christmas Praise with Festive Bring
& Share Tea at Pontprennau
Sun 23rd 10.30am Nativity Play at ASC
11.00am Nativity play at St Davids
6.00pm Service of Nine Lessons & Carols at ASC
Christmas Eve
Mon 24th 10.15am Carols at Maelfa Shop
4 pm Christingle Service at Pontprennau
4.30pm Carols by Candlelight at ASL
7.00pm Carols by Candlelight at St Edeyrn’s
11.30pm Midnight Eucharist at ASC
11.30 pm ‘Carols by Candlelight’ Eucharist at
Pontprennau
Christmas Morning
Tues 25th 8.00am Holy Eucharist at ASC
9.30am Holy Eucharist at St Edeyrn’s
10.00am Holy Eucharist at ASC
10.00 am All Age Christmas Celebration with
Communion at Pontprennau
St Stephen Wed 26th 10.00am Holy Eucharist at ASC
St John Thurs 27th 10.00am Holy Eucharist at ASC
Holy Innocents Fri 28th 10.00am Holy Eucharist at ASC

Sun 30th 10.30am United service at Cyncoed Methodist

Advent Sunday - Last week's sermon

It’s ‘Happy New Year’ in church terms today, we start the liturgical year on Advent Sunday. 

I was thinking that Advent had crept up on us this year, until I read an article on the BBC website entitled ‘tis the season of ostentation’ that reminded me that the Christmas lights on Oxford Street have been lit since the 5th November, when ‘Robbie Williams was the celebrity switching the lights on…  In Cardiff, we held off until the festive 15^th of November before we turned on the lights.  I couldn’t work out whether they were turned on by Bjorn the Polar bear, or Bob the Builder and Wendy.  Someone said it was Dr. Who?

Such is the demand for a good ‘run up’ to the greatest shopping event this year.  There is nothing else that comes near…

We can go to visit Santa, we can visit a ‘winter wonderland’, we can even buy and authentic German sausage from a huge barbeque in the city centre.  We will make our own particular preparations…we are preparing in church too.

There’s the real challenge for us this ADVENT.  I believe that advent is a time of ‘great hope’  (an advertising executive might say that it ‘has great potential’). 

Potentially people might come through the doors of our churches to hear that message of hope and peace,

Potentially their lives will be changed,

Potentially we will understand a little more about ourselves and our relationship with God.

As we meet those who come through our doors this season, we are entrusted with the task of welcoming them into our family, as they share with us the Advent journey to Christ being born with us once again.

ADVENT, more than any other time in the Christian calendar, is the time when people come close to the gospel message, and the selfless love of God - that resulted in him sending his Son to us.

This Advent, we are entrusted with the task of sharing the meaning of the season with others, We need to build roads by making the Church and our worship available to all.  We also need to look for new ways to speak to those around us in our community – and all in less than four weeks. 

And there won’t be a German sausage or a polar bear in sight!

Don’t worry, help is at hand!  Through Advent, we will light candles on our Advent wreath to remember the Patriarchs of our faith, the Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary, mother of our Lord, and we then take our place in the line to be the next to remind people of the importance of these few weeks.

Last year, at the beginning of Advent our readings were a bit grim – this year we have Jeremiah speaking God’s words

‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made’

He is promising to bring a new covenant, security and safety.

This joyful theme is continued by St. Paul, writing to the new Christians in Thessalonica

“How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we feel before God because of you?”

Even though the Gospel is continuing the apocalyptic theme, there is still reason to be encouraged, because we are challenged to be joyful!  It reminds us that there is a glorious connecting between God and his people in both the first AND second coming of Christ.  Charles Wesley once wrote…

Advent is a season of expectation and preparation, as the Church prepares to celebrate the coming (adventus) of Christ in his incarnation, and also looks ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time. The readings and liturgies not only direct us towards Christ’s birth, they also challenge the modern reluctance to confront the theme of divine judgement:

Every eye shall now behold him robed in dreadful majesty.

I can’t imagine how that could be any better?  God is keeping his promises, we are being encouraged, and we are being reminded that Christmas is the past, present and future of our faith!

We might not have German sausages…or a polar bear…

What else could make church better?  Well…how do you fancy converting to become an ORTHODOX CHURCH?

The ORTHODOX CHURCH how they worship, live and celebrate, is always strangely attractive to me.  There is no ADVENT for the ORTHODOX church; there is a fast just like LENT.

Red meat and poultry, dairy products, oil and wine, eggs and fish are prohibited (there are a few exceptions – wine is allowed on a Tuesday and Thursday and meat is allowed on the weekends)

However, it gets better!

The Eve of the Nativity (24^th December) is a strict fast day called Paramony (or preparation), but then as soon as the first star is seen in the night sky the Nativity begins! It’s also called the afterfast and the celebration continues right through until January 4^th when presents are given.

This seems to be more sensible in a way - Lots of prayerful preparation and lots of celebration.

Do you think we should convert to become Orthodox Christians?

Well, I am growing a beard, and the service next Sunday will be four hours long…..

As our church prepares, this evenings Advent Carol service will take us right back to the beginning.  God is creating the light, the promise to his people and the message of the Prophets.  There will be no Little Town of Bethlehem, but there will be Hark the Glad sound!

Here are some things others have said about ADVENT;

Old-fashioned, Spiritual Christmas?. John R. Brokhoff, Preaching the Parables—Cycle C. p. 28.

"What has happened to the old-fashioned, spiritual Christmas? The cause is our disregard of Advent. The church set aside this four-week pre-Christmas season as a time of spiritual preparation for Christ’s coming. It is a time of quiet anticipation. If Christ is going to come again into our hearts, there must be repentance. Without repentance, our hearts will be so full of worldly things that there will be ‘no room in the inn’ for Christ to be born again.…We have the joy not of celebration. Which is the joy of Christmas, but the joy of anticipation."

Take Time to be Aware Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196

"Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.”

My prayer for us all is that this ADVENT we might recapture some of those things we thought long past, and get ready, once again, to hear the greatest story ever told.

advent /ˈadv(ə)nt, -vɛnt/

advent /ˈadv(ə)nt, -vɛnt/ 
▶noun
1 the arrival of a notable person or thing.
2 (Advent) Christian Theology the coming or second coming of Christ.
■ the first season of the Church year, leading up to Christmas and including the four preceding Sundays.
– origin OE, from L. adventus ‘arrival’, from advenire, from ad- ‘to’ + venire ‘come’.

ADVENT CAROL SERVICE

This Sunday 6pm

Christ the King

Christ the King

This Sunday is the end of the Church year, the feast of Christ the King today signifies that we have come to the end of another year – Next week we start our preparations for Christmas with a time of reflection building up to a time of celebration.  We have followed Jesus for 12 months through the expectation of His birth, the nativity, the ministry of Jesus, the entry to Jerusalem, the trial, death and resurrection of Jesus, the ascension to heaven.  After that we looked at the early church, the major players and the events.  And today we finish the year by putting the cherry on top of the cake by celebrating the feast of Christ the King. 

The core of Jesus’ message is the kingdom of God.  We talk about the kingdom of God, because we know that God is not disinterested in humanity, quite the opposite – he has a word for us, and an involvement of human history. 

The wonderful thing is that the God of the Bible does not stay in the book, like a fictional character of a rambling novel – God is with us, calling us, guiding us, encouraging us to build His kingdom and put Christ back on the throne where he belongs. 

In the Gospel, John focuses on this kingship of Christ – This is what we have today, echoing the accusation of the Jews, Pilate asks Jesus, “are you the king of the Jews?”  The accused prepares His answer with another question which shakes the Roman official’s ground “Do you ask this on your own, or did the others tell you about me?”  Pilate’s ignorance does not intimidate Jesus, who then gives his own answer in the well-known words.  “My kingdom is not of this world”.  At once Jesus gives the reason:  My kingdom does not use coercion – not like the kingdoms of this world.

Jesus isn’t saying that His kingdom is a sort of spiritual and religious kingdom, he is saying that the world operates values so different to the values of God, that the world is almost unrecognisable in heavenly terms. 

Kingdoms of privilege, domination, oppression, injustice and fraud, are nothing to do with the kingdom of love, justice and service that Jesus showed us.

Pilate is astute at this point, and he says “so you are a king?”  Jesus lets him off a little bit, because he recognises that Pilate is searching for answers.  “you say that I am a king” he says “because I came into this world”. 

Jesus at this point is giving us a treasure map – an idea of how to find heaven.

It is really strange in itself that a ‘KING’ is on trial, this doesn’t usually happen, and they usually rule until they die.  Although it is common in western scholarly literature to speak of Jesus as King, and this reading to be his ‘trial’ it is nothing of the sort.  Even though the Bible mentions the “kingdom” many times, and Jesus is called ‘King’ before and after meeting Pilate, this is not really how it was meant.

Rigidly hierarchical societies such as those under Roman imperial rule in the ancient Mediterranean world did not allow for trials of social inferiors; instead they had accusations and punishments.  There was no jury, no defence and prosecution, no right of appeal, and no right to speak.  The word “Trial” was rather hopeful rather than factual.  What about the KING?

“Jesus the King” – In all four Gospels this is mentioned, from the part where Jesus needed to leave because the crowd wanted to make him a king to the bit where the people put the sign above him on the cross.

Jesus is the king of what?  Well this week, as I watched the events the world unfolding, I couldn’t help thinking that he was the King of chaos and pain, the king of tragedy – as I see people suffering. 

I wondered about the King, when there is another tragedy, I ask myself where was he in this, what is his message for his subjects?

        

When I am dragged into the battles over ‘all too human’ things, I wonder why our King doesn’t make things clearer about heavenly things, and show his people the important things in life?

The feast of Christ the King!!!, I was thinking about all I have learned during the year – hopefully being able to put it into a nutshell, but the first thing I was wondering about was how we could change the name of this Sunday.

The lectionary stipulates that we break off at verse 37, with Jesus’ claim that he is testifying to the truth.  That provides a neat and satisfying ending as we come to the close of the church year.  But where we are told to stop isn’t where John stops.  The last line of this little scene, as John tells the story, is Pilate’s famous question:  What is truth?

This is the real place to stop the readings for the year.  This is the question that puts the whole scene (and dare I say it – the whole year) in context. 

What is truth? The question of Pilate is a really philosophical one, I like to think that he is suggesting that it is the people with POWER who create their own truth.  I like to think that Pilate actually hates this as much as we do.  How humanity creates truth in battles, the victors the write history.  And this is where we need to be careful.

What is truth? – One thing I I have realised is that I am not looking for a KING, I am looking for the TRUTH, small glimmers of light in otherwise dark places.

The term KING doesn’t really work, because it is wrapped up with earthly power and my expectations of people who propose to rule over others. 

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord once again, are we here today because we acknowledge the TRUTH of CHRIST?  This year have we been able to share the TRUTH with others?  And most importantly, have we allowed our TRUTH to be challenged, so that others may judge for themselves?

SO today, I propose renaming this festival to CHRIST THE TRUTH, because at the end of my days, I don’t want to be met by a KING, but by someone with the answers to the questions in my life, someone who can put the realities of life into context, someone who can BE the TRUTH to me.

It's the end of the world as we know it

Daniel 12:1-3                           Deliverance in Daniel’s apocalypse

(Hebrews 10:11-25)         The new covenant in Christ blood

Mark 13:1-8                             The beginning of Mark’s ‘little apocalypse’

Psalm 16

The Third Sunday of the Kingdom - Mark's Little Apocalypse

It's the end!  

I remember the cartoons in the newspapers that had a man with a sandwich board that read the end of the world is nigh.  And as I grew up with the third millennium approaching, I was certain that the world would end – I think that it is something about growing up – worrying that our time on earth may be cut short by nuclear war, a meteorite or a plague of aliens (something like that).  I used to think that as soon as I got a house, I would build a bomb shelter and buy tons of tinned food so that I could survive the disaster that was certain to happen.

It is, I think, part of human nature to worry about the future, and it is no surprise that although I was certain the game was up and the world would end, this (I think) has happened in every generation since time began.  It is only natural that we worry about plans that we are making – what is going to happen – will all our plans come to nothing?

And today, films and books still reflecting this part of human nature, Harry Potter fights the evil Voldemort – who is going to take over the world – the fight of good and evil fills the cinemas and our imaginations.  Judgment, good versus evil, the end of the world, and the sending of a messiah to save us all – these themes pass down the generations.  It is no accident that the Bible readings for this morning are set against this concern of the world falling apart.

Yes, thousands of years ago, people thought the world was going to end then too…

In Daniel and Mark we are told that this is the case, although we are not told when, we are told that we must change our behaviour to be ready for the judgment that is to come. 

Every generation who has read these passages has looked around at the world – perhaps seeing people and dying with poverty, war and disease, imprisonment and torture, injustices throughout the world, and then against this suffering have decided that things can’t get worse, this must be close to the end of the world.

In the book of Daniel though, rather than seeing the end of the world as a bad thing it is seen as positive, because finally all the suffering will stop and justice will reign.  Daniel longs for a time when wisdom and freedom are a common sight in the world.

Even today, people tend to argue about what is right and tend to bury wisdom in the process.  The biblical dream is of a time when WISDOM will be COMMON SENSE – a time when we won’t even argue about what is right, because it will be plain to see.  We will all agree, and see what needs to be done in the world. 

Sometimes my children as me questions, like can’t we just stop wars? Why don’t’ we fairly distribute the resources of the world?

I find myself saying, Well, it’s not that easy…and then I realise that it is that easy, but in the difficultness of the here and now people have made it complicated.

And that is the important meaning of the reading from Daniel.  One day a time will come, when people realise that it isn’t difficult…it is what must be done.

Back in Jerusalem two thousand years ago the Disciples of an upstart revolutionary from Galilee know this also.  They are sat listening to Jesus on the Mount of Olives – they are looking across the valley to the temple.  Jesus looks across and tells them that all those great buildings will be destroyed.  “When Lord will this be?” they ask? 

At this point Jesus does something quite typical.  He completely ignores them and starts to talk about how they should watch out for those who claim to be acting in His name when they are doing nothing of the sort.  Jesus is not interested in their speculation about when the end of the world will be, he is just telling them to do their best until the time is right. 

Jesus is telling them to be ready.

This part of the Gospel is usually called “Mark’s little apocalypse” - A term I rather like! 

However, unlike most apocalyptic literature, chapter 13 is NOT concerned with signs that provide clues to the timing of future events.  When the disciples ask Jesus for "the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished," (v. 4), Jesus tells them of wars and natural disasters, but then says, "but the end is still to come" and "This is but the beginning of the birth pangs" (vv. 7-8).  In other words, these are NOT really signs of the end but are simply events that they must endure before the end comes.  He cannot help them to know when these events will occur, because "about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father" (as he goes on to say in verse 32).

 

Jesus is saying – Do not worry about the end times, but thank God for the harvest of good works taking place every day – extraordinary acts by ordinary people.

This is a great theme in the run up to Christmas – extraordinary works by ordinary people!  I think that I will write my Christmas sermon on it.  Throughout the history of Christianity, it really has been the small things that have made a difference, the individual kindnesses that make links between people.

As Advent approaches and we prepare for the Great Feast of Christmas. I have been thinking a lot about these words of Jesus –

·      How do we judge the health of a church community? 

·      How do we ensure that we are looking to the future, not with trepidation and anxiety, but with hope? 

·      How do we continue being a beacon of joy for our communities?

There is no better way of finishing this sermon other than by repeating the last few verses of the reading from the letter to the Hebrews and think about our own church as we hear the words.  I have used the old translation…

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised faithful.  And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Remembrance Sunday 11.11.12

Remembrance Sunday 

The world had been plunged into war when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on the 28^th June 1914.  Germany knew that they would need to meet their enemies on two fronts.  When the conflict started, the German military commanders knew that the Russian Army would need to at least six weeks to mobilise their forces, so they concentrated on their enemies in the west by launching a strong offensive in France.  The French, Belgian and British forces couldn’t stop them, eventually in France they forced a stalemate and dug in for a long winter.  Trenches were dug a few hundred feet apart. Soldiers spent most of their day dealing with mud and cold, guns jammed and illness was rife.  If this wasn’t bad enough, the trenches were little protection from sniper fire, and the machine guns on the battlefields were making this conflict one of the bloodiest in history.

On 17^th December 1914, the first Christmas of the war, Pope Benedict XV called for a temporary truce and ceasefire on the battlefields.  Germany agreed, but the other powers refused.  The war had been raging for barely five months. 

Families had sent packages filled with cigarettes, warm clothing, gifts and medicines to the soldiers.  Some of the German soldiers had also received Christmas decorations from loved ones.  On Christmas Eve 1914, the German soldiers put candles in Christmas trees and decorated the edges of the trenches.  Eventually, hundreds of Christmas trees appeared all across the front-line.  British soldiers were told to watch closely, but not to open fire.

Eventually, the soldiers from both sides joined each other for football and singing carols.  A British soldier Private Oswald Tilley commented in a letter to his parents;

“They finished their carol and we thought that we ought to retaliate in some way, so we sang 'The first Noël', and when we finished that they all began clapping; and then they struck up another favourite of theirs, 'O Tannenbaum'. And so it went on. First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up 'O Come All Ye Faithful' the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words 'Adeste Fideles'. And I thought, well, this was really a most extraordinary thing - two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

Tilley continues his letter;

“This experience has been the most practical demonstration I have seen of ‘Peace on earth and goodwill towards men.” Tilley even empathised with the German soldiers, “We hated their guts when they killed any of our friends; then we really did dislike them intensely … And we thought, well, poor so and so’s, they’re in the same kind of muck as we are.”  He concludes his letter “It doesn’t seem right to be killing each other at Christmas time.”

The singing from the trenches eventually turned into something completely different, as soldiers disobeyed their superior officers and fraternized with the ‘enemy’, along two-thirds of the Western Front, the 450 mile line of trenches, machine gun nests and barbed wire between the sandy dunes of the borders of Belgium and the Swiss border.

When news of this reached the high command it was decided that action needed to be taken.  Popular urban legend would have it that the soldiers stopped fighting to play football, returning to battle the next day.  This was not the case, soldiers declared their solidarity and refused to fight.  On both sides, generals declared the spontaneous peacemaking as ‘treasonous’ and ‘subject to court martial’.  It did however take until March 1915 to fully suppress the fraternization.  The War continued, and by 1918, fifteen million people had died.

Then 93 years ago - On the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918 the guns fell silent and the First World War officially ended.

There was great rejoicing, and celebrations began, but for many people their lives had been devastated seemingly beyond repair.  Eventually in 1921 after many calls for the dead and seriously injured to be remembered the first Armistice day parade was held.

So where was God?

In St Paul’s 1^st letter to the Thessalonians he wrote, "The day of the Lord is coming, when the heavens will open up and we will see Jesus Christ descending through the clouds to be with us once again, for evermore. He will come to gather us up to be together - the living and the dead - and to be in God's Kingdom. Until that time, take heart, have hope and never stop encouraging one another."

In other parts of the Bible the kingdom of God is spoken of as a place of peace and justice. We are told that God's kingdom will be one in which there will be no war and no suffering. It will be a place where everyone has enough to eat and drink and a roof over their heads. No one will be a slave to another. There will be no subservience. No one will be oppressed, persecuted or marginalized.

That is the time toward which Paul and the early Christians were looking. In the face of pain, the coming Kingdom was the image that gave the people hope, and reminding people of that image encouraged the people of Thessalonica to carry on in the face of great suffering.

In an odd kind of way, I like to think that the Kingdom of God, was with those brave men in the trenches at Christmas 1914.  They, through the death and destruction, the suffering and the pain, had created a little piece of the Kingdom of God, and it shone like a beacon to justice, compassion and forbearance.  It was created in the simplest of ways, sharing the little they had and enjoying company.

As we reflect on the suffering and death caused by wars, and give thanks for the freedom for which so many have died, I like to think that in some ways those who went off to war believed in a vision of the Kingdom of God.  It might sound odd, but I like to think that those who were lost in the great battles of the last century, and in the conflicts that have marred this century, haven’t died in vain, they paid with their lives for the vision of a God’s Kingdom.  A vision of a world that is a better place for all God’s children

But, as wars continue to rage, and sons and daughters are sent to war the world is a very dark and bitter place. 

This Festival of Remembrance each year puts an enormous amount of moral responsibility upon world leaders, those who make the decisions about sending people to war, but we have responsibilities too, albeit on a much smaller scale.

That is why we must never forget, and that is why it is inevitable that sometimes people will have to go off to war to fight to preserve these things, but war is never good, and we must pray constantly and act positively to ensure that peace prevails in our hearts and in the hearts of people everywhere.

As we remember those who have died or suffered trying to build a better world, may we seek the Kingdom of God in the smallest things.

Don't forget out church council on Thursday.

Sermon for the Eve of All Saints' Day

A young man once came to a great rabbi and asked him to make him a rabbi.

It was winter time and a rabbi stood at the window looking out upon the yard while the rabbinical candidate was giving a glowing account of his piety and learning.

The young man said, "You see, Rabbi, I always go dressed in spotless white like the sages of old. I never drink any alcoholic beverages; only water ever passes my lips. Also, I perform austerities. I have sharp-edged nails inside my shoes to mortify me. Even in the coldest weather, I lie naked in the snow to torment my flesh. Also daily, the shammes [a synagogue sexton] gives me forty lashes on my bare back to complete my perpetual penance."

And as the young man spoke, a white horse was led into the yard and to the water trough. It drank, and then it rolled in the snow, as horses sometimes do.

"Just look!" cried the rabbi. "That animal, too, is dressed in white. It also drinks nothing but water, has nails in its shoes and rolls naked in the snow. Also, rest assured, it gets its daily ration of forty lashes on the rump from its master. Now, I ask you, is it a saint, or is it a horse?" (from A Treasure of Jewish Folklore, page 109)

Today is All Saints’ Day in the Christian calendar - As early as the second century, Christians gathered for worship at the tombs of the martyrs, celebrating the power of God’s grace in the lives of these faithful men and women who did more than roll in the snow and abstain from alcoholic drinks.

 From this came the early understanding that the phrase ‘the Communion of Saints’ referred to the bond between the faithful on earth and the faithful who had gone before, especially those who were killed for their faith.

The word itself ‘communion’ suggests a link, between us and the Saints – that link may be that we think of their lives, the challenges they faced and the terrible treatment they usually got from a world that was intolerant and unjust.

There are thousands of churches dedicated to ‘All Saints’ and this church is too, and this evening is the start of our patronal festival.

In our faith, the word “saint” became a title of honour referring to exemplary lives among the faithful.  The celebration of All Saints as we know it comes later, about the 7th century. Egbert of York brought the festival to Britain and by the 9th century it had become a major feast in the church calendar.

Today, we continue to celebrate Saints…

Of course we have our very own Welsh saints – generally they have fought dragons, or swam from Ireland.

Many people have favourite saints, those who we admire or seem to think would understand the difficulties we have in our own lives.

Many years ago, I had a neighbour who was dying, and I did what I could to help, we spent time talking about her life, and I think she wanted to give me some wisdom.  She was Polish, and in her life had seen some hard times and experienced many upsets. 

She told me that she had favourite saints, those, she imagined, would understand her own life, and share the journey with her, they brought her great comfort, and as soon as the valley’s chapel boy got over his natural reticence about even thinking about Saints, I have too.

When we have challenges, we need to believe that we can

We all need to believe that there is someone there to understand what we are going through. And in the saints there are these two threads that run through them all – they are both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.  Human and filled with grace, all at the same time.

The Greek word usually translated saint is hagios. Literally it is an adjective meaning: "holy" It can refer to "holy things" or "holy people". The word "holy" means "to set apart".

I frequently paraphrase it to mean "special".

·     Holy Eucharist is a "special" fellowship between God and us and each other.

·     The Holy Bible is a "special" book.

·     The Holy Spirit is the "special" breath or wind from God. God said, "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy" means to make that day "special".

·     A form of that word is used in the Lord's prayer: "Hallowed be thy name." That means to make or treat God's name as holy -- to make it a "special" name.

And today, on this special day, we remember those who have been ‘set apart’ for God’s work, and pray that in some small way we can be too.

In the name of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

For all the saints who went before us,
Who have spoken to our hearts and touched us with your fire,
We praise you,

O God

For all the saints who live beside us,
Whose weaknesses and strengths are woven into our own,
We praise you,

O God

Who challenges us to change the world with them,
We praise you,

O Lord, in every age you reveal yourself to the childlike and lowly of heart, and from every race you write names in your book of life, give us the simplicity and faith of your saints, that loving you above all things, we may be what you would have us be, and to do what you would have us do. So may we be numbered with your saints in glory everlasting.

Lord in your mercy  Hear our prayer



Father God, you have brought us near to the spirits of those who have been made perfect, and to an innumerable company of angels; grant us during our earthly pilgrimage to abide in their fellowship, and in the heavenly country to become partakers of their joy.

Lord in your mercy  Hear our prayer



Lord God, we thank you for calling us into the company of those who trust in Christ and seek to obey His will. May your Spirit guide and strengthen us in mission and service to your world; for we are strangers no longer but pilgrims together on the way to your Kingdom.