John the BaptistOur reading today is about John the Baptist and his baptism. Let’s begin by observing that John the Baptist would not have come across as a respectable character but as a madman. We do not have time to go into it in detail but, although he was from a priestly line, he was nevertheless a marginal figure – “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” – wearing a camel’s hair garment and a leather belt, eating locusts and honey.And what was his message? “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near”. “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”God himself is coming. Prepare your souls to receive him. Give him a straight path to your heart.Another way to translate the word for “repent”, metanoia, is “change your heart”. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming, so change your heart. Change your actions, your outlook, your priorities, all in the light of this.The baptism of John was a different baptism to the baptism we receive now as Christians. It was a baptism of water for repentance, a ritual washing related to a Jewish ritual called the mikveh. In other words, it was a personal response to this message, a personal response of a change of heart. It was like they were saying, “I intend to cleanse myself from sin, from the inside out, so that I might be prepared for the coming of the Lord.”This is the kind of change we are to consider in the season of Advent. We are to ask ourselves, “The Lord is coming and how do I want my heart to be when he arrives?”The Pharisees and SadduceesA key part of our text today concerns the Pharisees and Sadducees drawing near for baptism. These people represent the religious authorities of the day. Theological and spiritual experts. Memorisers of the Law. Preachers of sermons. And yet, they receive a stern rebuke from John, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in line with a change of heart. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raised up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’.What was John rebuking in these people?Let’s observe several things:No repentance – Firstly, they were not repentant. Not willing to change their hearts. They wanted to join in the ritual but they were not willing to be obedient to what the ritual represented.This is religion without transformation. Friends, this is everywhere in our world and it is everywhere in the Christian Church. This is kind of empty religion that inoculates us against the real thing. Sometimes called “nominal” Christianity or something like that. It is the process of going through the motions without really meaning it from the heart.God is not interested in occasional church going or religious observances. He is interested in your heart. He wants a transformation that occurs at the very deepest part of your soul. A transformed life follows from this. That’s why John says, “Bear fruit in line with a change of heart”. The fruit is the outcome of a changed heart. We change first, deep down within, and so we give our lives to Christ.Trust in ethnic or religious status – Again, the Pharisees are rebuked for thinking that their ethnic and religious status will save them. They think, because they are children of Abraham, that they will be fine. But John lays waste to this idea, “God is able to raise up from these stones children of Abraham”.In other words, ethnic and religious descent is ineffectual and irrelevant without a change of heart, without true repentance.Do not presume to say to yourself, “I was baptised as a baby.” Do not presume to say to yourself, “We’ve been involved in this parish church for several generations.” Do not presume to say to yourself, “I give money to the church and serve on the rota”.These are all good things but they have to be accompanied by a genuine change of heart.Religious hypocrisy that leads others astray – Finally, religious hypocrisy that leads other people astray. The phrase used by John to describe the Pharisees is “brood of vipers”. Jesus uses the same phrase to describe them in Matthew 23. There he launches into a tirade against these people.Again, there isn’t time to go into all of it but here is an idea: Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for not practicing what they preach. In other words, they preach a moral life, they preach devotion and obedience to God and yet they do not practice it.Jesus tells the Pharisees that they keep the letter of the law but they neglect the deeper parts of it and so they miss the point. They tithe their spice racks but they do not practice justice, mercy and faithfulness – all of which are a reflection of a changed heart.On the outside they look good – good clothes, good hair, good religious apparel – but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence and they are filled with dead men’s bones. They are pretending to be righteous. They are acting. This is ancient cos-play.“Woe to you Pharisees and Scribes, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” Matthew 23:13I’m not saying this because I think anyone here in particular is a Pharisee or a Sadducee. I’m saying it because something like this is a temptation for all of us. And I’m saying this because I want to make it clear that is not true religion. It is not what it means to be a follower of Christ.Let me be emphatic and say again: to prepare the way for Christ is not to change some external feature like one’s appearance or activity. It is to change the heart. It is to change not what is outside but what is inside. It is to give one’s heart to Christ in love for him.The Baptism of JesusHaving said this, let’s look at the baptism of Jesus. This was a different baptism to that of John, a new type of baptism.What is different? Well, earlier I said John’s baptism was a sign of repentance and faith. Here, there is something more: “I baptise you with water for repentance, but he who is coming is mightier that I…He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”Faith and repentance are a part of Christian baptism, as they were in John’s baptism. But all throughout the New Testament, we are told that Christian baptism is also linked to the gift of the Holy Spirit.One other example: after Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, those listening responded by asking him what to do, “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).When we are baptised into Christ, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This means that Christian baptism is not just something that represents our repentance but it is a sacrament through which the power of God works. Indeed, in Christian baptism, God himself comes to live within our hearts.This means something quite wonderful: it means that the power of God lives within us and that he gives us the power to change.This is why we do that strange ritual in which the priest flicks holy water at the people in the church. It is to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit lives in us and that He was given to us at our baptisms. It reminds us that God’s power is within us and that therefore we can live the Christian life with his help.And if you have not been baptised and would like the Holy Spirit to come and live within your heart, then let nothing hold you back.Jesus came to baptise not only with water, but also with the Holy Spirit.With the Holy Spirit and FireOne further point: when John says, “He comes to baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire”, what does the fire represent?In my view, the context of the passage makes it clear that John means here the fire of judgement. There are two other references to fire in this passage: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” says John. And, speaking of Christ, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”.Christ will baptise with the Holy Spirit and he will baptise with the fire of judgement.To put it in plain English, John’s message is therefore something like this:“Repent of your sin and start living a life that proves that you are sorry. Be baptised into Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and this will give you power to live a new life. The alternative is the fire of judgement. No amount of religious observance will save you. Choose.”Maybe this doesn’t some like an uplifting Christmas message. If not, I’d encourage you to remember that the one who holds the winnowing fork in his hand is the one who was laid in the manger as a baby. He is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the one who emptied himself of his glory and became obedient to the Father by dying for us. He is the one who rose again to give us the hope of everlasting life with God.And so, may we, by the mercy and the grace of God, in light of his appearing amongst us in Christ, change our hearts, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to heed these words.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”May I speak in God’s name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.The Coming of the Son of ManThe context for our passage today is the coming of the Son of Man, meaning the return of Christ. This is a basic part of our orthodox profession of faith: ‘He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead’, as the Nicene Creed puts it.In this passage, Christ tells us some crucial facts about what his return will look like. And if we listen to him and really take him seriously then our mindset and our lives should change. We cannot possibly hear these words and believe that Christ really spoke them and not be shaken to the core.What, then, do we learn about his return from this discourse?Nobody knows when it will beFirstly, nobody knows when the return of Christ will be: not the angels of heaven, not even the Son himself, but only the Father. The precise timing of the return of Christ is a mystery hidden deep within the Godhead. Nobody knows it. (Matt. 24:36)There have been many attempts to predict the return of Christ but such attempts are folly and lead to disaster and distraction. There is a reason that God has kept this a secret. We can speculate that the reason is because God desires us to live the kind of life that Jesus tells us to live: one of spiritual alertness and preparation. We wouldn’t do that quite so readily if we had convinced ourselves that the return of Christ would not happen for, say, ten thousand years.The fact that we do not know and that it could be now or it could be in ten thousand years means that we must always be prepared for it.It will be as in the days of NoahSecondly, the return will be as it was in the days of Noah: “…in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage…they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away” (Matt. 24:38-39).Christ could not be plainer: the ordinary course of the world will be continuing as it usually does and people will not be expecting what is to come.In those days – that is the days of Noah – people were doing all the normal things – eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. In the final days, it will be the same. People will be doing those things. In our day, we might say that people will be binge-watching TV and going to work and taking their children to birthday parties and going on holidays.All of those things will be going on as normal and most people will be oblivious.Again, we might be tempted to soften what Christ is saying here. But he is speaking of Noah’s flood as a literal historical event in which the vast majority of the human race were swept away. It will be like that before I come also, says Christ. Most people will be getting on with things as per normal and they will be taken by surprise.The Greek word from which we get “flood” in this passage is very resonant: kataklusmos. This is where the modern English word “cataclysm” comes from. Kataklusmos means literally a deluge that passes over everything. Nothing is untouched by it. It affects everything in the world.As was Noah’s flood, so will it be when the Son of Man comes.“One will be taken and one left…”“Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left” (Matt. 24:40-41).What does Christ mean by this? There is a very widespread misinterpretation of this passage that has been around for about two-hundred years. That misinterpretation says that the ones who are taken are those who are “raptured” by Christ into Heaven before a period of tribulation through which the rest of the earth’s population will pass. This interpretation did not exist in the Church until about 1830 and it is a misunderstanding.The immediate context helps us to see: “…they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.” Those who are swept away are the same ones who are taken. They are swept away or taken by the kataklusmos of the Coming of the Son of the Man. And the ones who are left are the ones who are not.The nature of this sweeping away is not entirely clear but we can speculate that it is not positive but constitutes a judgement upon the sin of the world. Like those who were caught in the flood, it is not something that we wish to face ourselves.“Stay Awake…Be Ready”Again, if we take seriously what Christ is saying then we will be shaken by these words. And we will ask ourselves what exactly can be done? Christ tells us, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not what on what day your Lord is coming” (Matt. 24:42) And, “you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt. 24:44).You must stay awake and be ready.Let’s go back to the story of the flood for a moment and draw out another implication: in the days of Noah a flood came and swept away most of the people. But God also provided a means of salvation: a warning and an ark. And everyone who stepped aboard that ark was saved from the coming judgement.As it was in those days, so it is now. God has provided a means for us to be saved from the coming judgment, and the means is Christ, the Gospel and the Church. As the second century Church Father Tertullian said,The ark of Noah was a type of the church, and Christ is the true Noah. Just as the ark, made of wood, carried within it those who were delivered from the flood, so the church, built upon the wood of the cross of Christ, carries safely through the waves of this world those who are washed in the baptism of Christ.Friends, the coming judgement is a hard reality to get our heads around. But I would like to emphasise again two things: firstly, these are the words of Christ and we should take them seriously. And, secondly, God has done everything he can to give us a way to be saved and that way is still available now.Elsewhere, Christ tells us, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). Christ is the ark of salvation and Christ is the door. The door is open still and he invites all to walk through it.How would I live in this were true?What then is spiritual this awake-ness and preparedness of which Christ speaks? It is keeping the reality of the Gospel before our eyes and living as though it were actually true.Think about this for a moment: if all of this were true – if Christ really were coming back at some point which I did not know and if a flood-like cataclysm would follow in his wake and if the Gospel and the Church were the ark of salvation – how would I live?Speaking for myself personally, I would remind myself of this reality constantly and do everything I could not to allow myself not to be sucked into the ordinary concerns of others who did not share this knowledge.I would stop sinning as much as I possibly could and I would seek to cultivate a love for God above a love for the things of this passing life.I would invest in the things of God every day and lay up my treasures in heaven – my wealth, my energy, my attention, my focus – in the expectation of an eternal reward.I would pray all the time for myself and for others and I would seek for opportunities to share this news with everyone and anyone who would listen. I would also avail myself of the other means of grace.I would turn everything I do towards this one end. I would make all of my activities serve this one purpose: to be awake, to be alert, and to be ready at all times.Let me ask you, then: What would you do, if you believed this were true? If you believed that Christ may return at any moment but that you and others around you might not be ready for such a thing? How might this change your mindset? How might this change your life?Images of Total CommitmentWhen studying this, I was put in mind of a passage from the Apostle Paul. To his young protégé Timothy, he wrote:‘No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.‘An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.‘It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.’2 Timothy 2:4-6Paul uses three images in rapid succession to describe the Christian life: a soldier, an athlete, a farmer.What do all those three lifestyles have in common? Total commitment to the cause.A soldier prepares for the battle. If his preparation is not diligent, he and perhaps his friends will die at the hands of the enemy. He therefore commits himself with total focus to the mastery of his weapons and to the tactics that are most likely to secure the victory.The athlete similarly conditions his life to the greatest degree possible: his food, his drink, his sleeping, his exercise and practice. He diligently learns his craft and gives every day to its mastery. Everything is tailored to this one end: to compete and to win the prize.The farmer rises early to spend all day wracking his body to tend to his animals and his crops. The farm needs constant attention and he can rarely – if ever – leave it. It is his life’s love and his life’s commitment.Similarly, the Christian life is a calling to total commitment, thinking to yourself: What does Christ call me to do? What does Christ call me to be? How does Christ call me to think if these things are really so?Let me be somewhat confrontational (and I ask myself the same question here): Is that how you make decisions? The athlete, when offered a tempting snack, says “No” because he is training for the event. Do you have a similar mindset when you a presented with a choice? Do you think first and foremost of your commitment to Christ or do you instead simply evaluate things according to your own judgment and the spirit of this age?Friends, let’s wake up and recognise that the reality of which Christ speaks is a far greater and more lasting reality than the one we encounter in the everyday. ‘The hour has come for you to wake from sleep,’ says Paul in our New Testame

A King Without a CrownToday, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King of the Universe. Why, then, are we given the text that we have just heard? We have just listened to a story in which this supposed king is taken to a place called The Skull and crucified by the Roman Empire between two criminals. The clothes of this condemned man were stripped and divided between the soldiers: he would not need them anymore.The religious rulers scoffed at him: for all his talk and miracles, he could not save himself. He was not the Messiah, the Christ, the Chosen One of God.The secular authorities, similarly, mocked him. They had heard that he called himself a King to rival Caesar. And, yet, if he had been a king, then surely he would have had the power to save himself. Their leader, Pilate, erected a sign which was put above his head, ironically stating, “The King of the Jews”.We know from elsewhere that his closest followers had abandoned him, that the man he had chosen to lead them had denied him three times out of cowardice.Now, one of the criminals condemned to die next to him joins in the chorus of scorn: “Are you not the Christ?” he asks, “Save yourself and us!”Truly this man appeared forsaken by all the world. How could he be a king? How could he be worshipped? How could he possess any authority, when the manner of his death was thus?The One Who Saw the TruthAnd, yet, that day, there was but one who saw the truth: the other criminal crucified alongside Christ.Speaking to the first criminal who mocked Christ, he asked him, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.” In other words, he recognised his own sin and guilt before God, and his own need for God’s mercy.“But this man has done nothing wrong,” he said. This man is sinless. This man bears no guilt as we do, but he is dying unjustly at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities.But it is really the final saying that ought most to astonish us: “Jesus,” he said, addressing Christ by his first name, intimately, in an act of loyalty and trust, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”Think for a moment what he is saying: Did this criminal believe that Jesus would escape the crucifixion and become a successful political revolutionary after all? Of course he did not. He must, therefore, have believed that Jesus was indeed the true Messiah, that he would be vindicated by God by being raised from the dead, and that he would, at some point, inaugurate the Kingdom of God in this world. And so, he asked Christ: When you become King, when your magnificent power and authority is truly revealed, remember me. Accept me as your loyal subject; have mercy upon me, even though I rightly bear the punishment for my sin here upon this cross.The Astonishing Response – Pure GraceAnd Christ’s response is no less astonishing: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”What does Christ mean by this? Firstly, let’s observe that this is a moment of pure grace. This dying criminal did not have time to amend his life through good works, to be baptised or receive Holy Communion, to attend church or carry out religious rituals. He could not do anything but throw himself upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. And the response was pure grace: an acceptance of his plea, a promise that he would be where Christ was going.Before I say more, let me elaborate on this. It is true that God has given to Christians so-called “means of grace”. These are channels of God’s grace by which he strengthens our faith and blesses us as we seek to live the Christian life. Baptism is a ritual washing of sin and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Holy Communion is our spiritual food for the journey. Prayer is the means by which we commune with God spiritually. The Church is Christ’s body, through which we encounter his presence whenever we meet. And we could name many other things. These are all tools that God gives us to grow in holiness and in our relationship with him. And all are important to live the Christian life.But what we learn from the story of the penitent criminal is that, as the great Prayer of Humble Access puts it, God’s nature is always to have mercy. That is, we are acceptable to him not because we avail ourselves of the means of grace, not because we grow in holiness, or for any other such reason. We are acceptable to him because he chooses to have mercy upon us when we ask for it.Once again, consider this penitent criminal. What does he do? Number one: he acknowledges his sin: “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds”, he cries out. This is the first step towards true repentance: we acknowledge the wrong that we have done to others, to ourselves, and before God. We experience conviction of sin, and we cry out to God for mercy.Notice, again, that we do not, at this point engage in good works to make ourselves acceptable to God. Rather, we follow the pattern of this broken criminal and of others like Blind Bartimeus and the Tax Collector of Jesus’ Parable…We cry out, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of David, Have mercy upon me, a sinner!” And we say with King David, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your steadfast love” (Ps. 51:1).He confesses his sin. He asks for mercy. And he receives it.Friends, this is what God desires for all mankind: that we all follow this same pattern. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. God desires that we be reconciled to him and that we ask for his grace and mercy. Is this truth not supremely demonstrated in the words of Christ as he was being crucified by those who hated him? “Father, forgive them,” he prayed, “for they know not what they do”.Have you come to an end of yourself? Are you in need of God’s forgiveness and mercy? Then come to him. Do you feel spiritual cold and far away from him? Then come to him. Are you fearful or ashamed? Then come to him. Come to him and you will receive the precious ointment of his grace.The Apostle Paul puts this truth beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians, ‘For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast’ (Eph. 2:8-9).All of this is embodied, of course, in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, by which we simply come to him and receive him in faith and confidence that he will make his dwelling with us. What could be a simpler act of faith than this? To approach, to believe, to kneel, to receive?The Astonishing Response – The Promise of Life with ChristAnd there is one more part to this which we must mention: “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”This is clearly a promise that the criminal would be with Jesus, wherever he was going. But where was he going? The word “Paradise” would have been familiar at the time because it was used in a Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. It was used specifically to describe the Garden of Eden, from which Adam and Eve were expelled by God when they disobeyed him. In that story, an angel with a flaming sword was placed at the east of the garden to guard the way to the tree of life and to prevent re-entry.Jesus is saying, quite simply, “I will take you back to the Garden of Eden – I will take you back to Paradise and you will be with me there.”Notice also that he says the word, “Today”. Now, in the original Greek, the word “Today” simply means, “Today”. In other words, Jesus is saying, “When you and I die upon these crosses today, we will be together in the Garden Paradise of God.”This is an astonishing statement and should not be passed over lightly. Christ is promising immediate translation into the presence of God upon death.This is an idea that is confirmed in various other places in Scripture. For example, the Apostle Paul said that to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). In the letter to the Philippians, he tells us that he desires to depart from this life to be with Christ, ‘for that is far better’ (Phil. 1:23).Now, it must be said that the Bible also tells us of a future state in which the dead are raised in glorious new bodies and at which point the whole of the universe will be wonderfully recreated without sin, brokenness, pain or death.This is not the state Jesus speaks of to the condemned criminal. Rather, he speaks of a state in-between our present lives and that final, glorious and resurrected world. This in-between state is the Paradise of God. We do not know exactly the details of that place but it is surely glorious and rich and abundant. For it is a return to the Garden Paradise of Eden where we will walk with God himself in the cool of the morning.Conversely, there is very little evidence upon the lips of Christ or the Apostles that the souls of Christian believers “sleep” upon death until the resurrection. Nor is there really any Scriptural evidence for the doctrine of Purgatory, which was developed after the time of Christ and the Apostles. That doctrine says that most believers, although their sins are forgiven, must still endure a potentially long and painful period of purification before they can enter fully into the presence of God. Our passage today is a notoriously difficult one for theologians who hold this position, since it is very difficult to reconcile with that idea.I have to be honest also and say that I believe that the Doctrine of Purgatory obscures the reality of the Gospel as it was taught by Christ and the Apostles. The Gospel offers us true forgiveness and reconciliation with God now in this life, based upon our repentance and faith. Good works follow but they are not how we obtain forgiveness. And, more to the point, the Gospel tells us that we have a real and tangible hope that we will be with God in Christ as soon as we die: our sins forgiven and removed from us, our souls cleansed by the power of God. No further need for pain and purification but eternal life given to us

“Teacher, when will these things be?”At the beginning of our Gospel passage, some people speak to Jesus of the Temple, saying that it is adorned with stones and votive offerings. Jesus replies in an unexpected way: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”His disciples ask him when these things will be and what signs will accompany such a monumental event. Jesus then begins a discourse in which he warns of false messiahs, international wars, tumults, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, terrors and great signs from heaven. He also predicts the persecution of his followers: arrests, trials, and ostracization from their own families.What is all this about? Most scholars and theologians have agreed that Jesus is doing two things in this discourse. Firstly, he is predicting the destruction of the Second Temple, which occurred in A.D. 70 at the hands of the Roman Empire.But this alone does not account for the imagery of the passage. In the typical style of the Jewish prophets, it seems that Christ was speaking of events both near and far. He was speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and using that as a symbol of the very end of history. In Christian theology we call this subject “Eschatology” or we speak of it as the “End Times”.Signs of the EndI have already mentioned that Jesus describes a situation of great global instability, talking of natural disasters on an unprecedented scale: famines, pestilences, earthquakes. He speaks of international wars: kingdoms and nations turned against each other. He implies that people will, at this time, be terrified. And he tells us that many will come in his name, saying, “I am he!” and “The time is at hand!”Let’s think about this for a moment. We can observe a clear dynamic in the text.It starts with a crisis – perhaps something unprecedented - which leads people to be afraid. And, being afraid, they look for solutions that promise hope and deliverance. More than that, they look for people who promise these things.These false messiahs of whom Jesus warns are very interesting. Firstly, they are not purely secular but invoke the name of Jesus Christ, claiming to represent him and his values.Secondly, they exalt themselves: “I am he!” they say, and “The time is at hand!” Meaning, of course, that their rise to prominence is the crucial moment of history and that they will bring deliverance.There is also urgency about these statements: “It must be now. You must do what I say immediately and, if not, we will all be doomed because of your lack of compliance.”This is a psycho-spiritual dynamic that, Christ warns us, has the capacity to deceive and lead astray many. He is telling us so that we might be aware of it and so that we might not suffer this fate.But what is the relevance?You may ask, “What is the relevance of these things if we are not living either in AD 70 or in the final moments of history?”I would answer this question in two ways. The pattern Christ describes is for all of history and not just for the very end. We know this because the pattern is observable not just in AD70 but at all times.These discourses are given to us so that we might recognise the signs of the times. As strange as it might sound, we may very well be getting close to the end of history. It will come at some point and so Christ tells us these things so that we might be prepared.To elaborate on this theme, Christ appears to be describing global crises that affect the majority – if not all – of the world’s population. Indeed, this is confirmed when we look at other relevant texts in the Bible. We might look here at Revelation 13, which describes a diabolical beast given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. “All who dwell on earth will worship it” (Rev. 13:8) we are told. Later in the chapter, a second beast rises out of the earth and is given similar authority. The beast is said to cause all, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead with the mark of the beast, which is the beast’s name and the number of its name. No one can buy or sell unless he has the mark. The number is six hundred and sixty-six (Rev. 13:11-18).One must be cautious with the symbolic imagery here, but Revelation 13 really does seem to be describing the creation of a worldwide economic system. People will be locked out of this system unless they take the mark of the beast upon themselves. Who knows whether this will be a literal mark upon the body or a mark of some other type. But what is clear is that it will apply to everyone in the world and will constitute some pledge of idolatrous loyalty to the beast who has set himself up in the place of God.I mention all of this because we now live in a world in which this sort of thing is possible for the first time. This is true of many things of which Jesus speaks in this passage: global wars, for example. These have only been possible for about a hundred years or so. Worldwide famines: these are perhaps uniquely possible now because of the interconnected global supply chain that could leave nations starving were some economic, climactic, cyber or technological catastrophe to come about.It is only now that a false messiah could arise and appear on billions of screens simultaneously the world over to proclaim his message of universal deliverance. It was not possible before. It is now.And we’ve seen previews of this dynamic: global crises arise concerning disease, the climate, war, and other things - and voices arise demanding conformity and obedience in exchange for safety and deliverance: “Entrust yourself to us completely and we will save you!” Be wary of these sorts of promises. Remember to be discerning, even in the midst of the tumults of our times.What does Jesus tell us to do?Jesus gives us some clear commandments about what we are to do – not just at the end but always. Let’s listen to him.Firstly, “Do not be led astray” and “Do not go after them” (v.8), that is, the false messiahs. I have already observed that fear may lead us to make unwise decisions. This is why Christ says to us, “Do not be terrified” (v.9). Now this doesn’t mean, “Feel no fear” because we cannot totally control what we feel. But it means, “Don’t allow fear to dominate you. Make your decisions based upon faith in Christ and not fear of disaster”.Observe here also that peer pressure plays a role in all of this. It’s very tempting to go with the crowd, especially at a time of crisis. Later on, Jesus warns us that we may even be rejected by our closest family members. Be prepared for this. It is not always the case that we must be in a minority but as followers of Christ we must be prepared to say “No” to the people who are around us because we are saying “Yes” to Jesus – not always but sometimes.How can we tell when we are being led astray? There is no simple answer to this question. But we might observe that when we are told to disobey the commandments of God - or even to worship another God in some idolatrous fashion - then we are in spiritual danger. The deception will probably be more subtle at first but it will tend in this direction.The guarantee is to know who Jesus is, to know what he says, and to be prepared to follow him come what may.I recall here the words of the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans, ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect’ (Romans 12:2). We can only know what the will of God is if we attend to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ which we learn about primarily through the Holy Scriptures. If you don’t understand the content of the faith then you will have no defence against the deception that arises from the world. That is true now and it will be increasingly true towards the end.Secondly, we must persevere. Christ warns us that persecution will come. Especially at times of global crises but at other times too, the world will place pressure on us to conform. We will be rejected by those closest to us. We will be delivered up to political authorities for Christ and we will be tried before them. Do not be afraid, Jesus tells us: I will be with you and I will give you a mouth and wisdom which your adversaries will not be able to contradict. “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish” (vv.17-18).These are the promises by which we are to hold fast. Christ tells us elsewhere, “Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28). Rather, put your trust in God who will sustain both according to his power and his steadfast faithfulness.May God give to us a spirit of discernment, that we may be able to know wisdom from error, truth from lies, and the spirit of Jesus Christ from the spirit of his enemies.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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How blissful the destitute!“Blessed are you who are poor,” says Christ in the translation we have just heard. I would like to use a slightly different one:“How blissful the destitute!”The word for “blessed” or “blissful” (makarios) has been translated various ways including “happy”, “fortunate” or “prosperous”. But in my view “blissful” is the best because the original word had connotations of divine or heavenly bliss. Our word “blissful” captures this better than the alternatives.“Blissful” also speaks of a present state. Whatever Christ is speaking of is bliss – joy, happiness, heavenly light in this life now.But it is not long before we run into a problem: “How blissful the destitute!”Again, our translation mentions “the poor”. But “the destitute” captures it much better. For destitution is utter emptiness, devastation, ruin, loss.This is not a state of material poverty but the spiritual and existential reality of one who has realised his true standing in his relationship with God.So the question is: How do bliss and spiritual destitution go together? What is Christ talking about?The answer is that it is in the recognition of our radical need for, and dependence upon, God that we encounter bliss or blessedness. For it is in this recognition that the illusion of the world passes away and we come face-to-face which that which truly is.Let’s consider the different types of destitution that we must acknowledge:Firstly, the destitution of repentance. Sin, most simply, is the wandering of a soul far away from God. Like the Prodigal Son in the far away country. Repentance is the return of the soul to God.Why do we sin? On the deepest level it is because we believe that sin can bring us deeper satisfaction than God. Therefore, repentance is the overturning of this belief and the actions that go with it. It is motivated by desire to find true life, joy and happiness in the place where it can really be found.Be encouraged, therefore, friends, if you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, calling you to repentance. This is simply a calling back to God, to the source of all life and hope. Yield to this conviction, knowing that God will have mercy as a Father has compassion on his children, and that he desires for you to know him again.Secondly, we speak about the destitution of soul. This is the recognition that, without God, I have nothing.The great mystical theologian Meister Eckhart put it like this: we are all created by God and exist within God. All things are held in being by God and shine with his radiance. God has given us powers – the ability to live, to breathe, to sense, to act. But, somewhere along the line, we have forgotten that these powers come from God and that, at every moment, they are sustained by him. We are alienated from God not because God is separate from us. Indeed, God cannot be separate from us because he is present everywhere and is sustaining all things continually. Rather, we have forgotten him. We have strayed from him in our minds and in our souls. We imagine that our powers and abilities are all that we are without. We are like a reflection in a mirror that has forgotten its original image.Destitution of soul, then, is the recognition of this reality. It is the recognition that we so often look to the things of this world for ultimate life, joy and peace and that, yet, the world can give us none of these things apart from God.I think here of the discipline of fasting, that is, of not eating anything. In my experience, nothing brings about this realisation more quickly and efficiently than the attempt to fast. It is not only that the body feels hungry but that the soul begins to cry out: “I must have food or I will never be satisfied. There is no happiness for me in this life without it.”And this is true of so many other things also: we tell ourselves that, unless we have this or this or this, then we can never know contentment and peace. And, yet, were we ever to obtain those things, then the joy would be passing and often trivial.Recognising this is a kind of devastation. For example, when fasting, I look at my soul and I see how radically dependent it is upon food, how it cannot be happy without it, and I am dismayed by this, particularly if I thought that I was a very spiritual person who really loved God. For I am not.So we see that the world holds no deep satisfaction for us, that we, as it were, inhabit a vast and empty wasteland with no sustenance, no life, no light, no joy. And, as we recognise this, something comes to birth within us: the desire for that which truly brings these things, the desire for God. And this desire for God leads us to seek him, to know him, to find him. And this is bliss.“Yours is the Kingdom of God”And this is why Jesus tells us that destitution leads to bliss. This is why he says, “Yours is the Kingdom of God.” Later on in this passage he will talk about future, but here he speaks of a present reality: yours is the Kingdom of God.This reminds me very much of another saying of Jesus in Luke 17: “The Kingdom (of God) does not come as something one observes, Nor will persons say, ‘Look: Here it is’ or ‘There it is’ for look: The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)The original language makes it abundantly clear here that Jesus is not speaking of the Kingdom of God among you or in your midst, but within you. It could also be translated “inside of (you)”. Whatever you prefer, the meaning is clear: the Kingdom of God is not a visible reality out there in the world. Nor is it arriving in that way. But it is already a present reality within you. All you have to do is to recognise it.Let go of all that hinders you from realising the Kingdom of God within you and you will find it. Turn not only from sin but from the desire for things apart from, and outside of, God. Turn from the illusion that you are, or that the world is, without him, and you will see him in all things. Yours is the Kingdom of God.A Word on HeavenAnd, yet, even with all of this, one must also say that there is something greater to be realised: “How blissful those who are now hungry, for you shall feast; how blissful those now weeping, for you shall laugh; How blissful you when men hate you and when they exclude you and reproach you and reject your name as something wicked, for the Son of Man’s sake: On that day, rejoice and leap about; for look: Your reward in Heaven is great; for their fathers accordingly did the same things to the prophets.” (Luke 7:21-23)Here Christ speaks of a future reward. Again, it seems that some of these phrases should be interpreted in a spiritual sense: those who are hungry are those who hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God. Those who weep are those who mourn over their sin and their distance from God. Those who are persecuted for Christ are those who have preferred him to the things of the world. And the world has hated them for it.If then you hunger, weep and suffer, rejoice and leap about! Why? Because a great reward, an unimaginably great reward, awaits you. Imagine the world and all that is in it, transfigured by eternal glory, and that all of this, after only a short time, will be yours forever.And one final word…And one final word, since this is All Saints Day. In our reading from the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us that the Church is the body of Christ, the fullness of the one who fills all in all. What exactly does Paul mean by this phrase?It seems that Paul is saying two things: firstly that Christ is the fullness of God and that he is everywhere present in all of the universe. But, secondly, that the Church (the gathering, the ekklesia) is the fullness of this fullness. This must mean that the Church is the place where the fullness of Christ’s presence is, at it were, fully realised, established and intensified.Think about that for a moment: this place, filled with normal people like us, with all of our brokenness, our sin, our problems, our mess, this place is the place where the fullest fullness of God is realised. This is the place where Christ is, if you like, on display. This is the place where men and women are drawn to him, to know him, to live for him and by him. What an incredible joy and privilege to be in this place.In you, in me, in us together, the Kingdom of God is present and is coming. Rejoice!In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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How can a person be right with God? This is one of the most central questions to all of human existence. It’s probably true that most religions are an attempt on some level to answer this question.When considered seriously, human beings know that it is not an easy question to answer. Most of us have some awareness of what Christians would call “sin”. That is, that we fall short of the moral standard that is required of us. And that, in some way, this distances us from God in his holiness and purity.How can be right with him? How can we have communion with him?The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector speaks to this question in such an important way. Let’s consider it.The PhariseeTo begin, Jesus spoke to “certain persons who were confident in themselves that they were righteous whilst despising everyone else”.The word for righteous relates to the question I just mentioned. It comes from a group of words that is used frequently in the New Testament, the root word of which is dikaiosune. This word relates not only to moral uprightness but to being justified in the sight of God.So these people’s answer to the question of how I can be right with God is essentially through my own personal moral goodness.In this story, the Pharisee enters the Temple with great confidence, standing upright and praying about himself. One of the things he says is, “I fast twice a week and tithe from everything whatsoever that I earn.” Now, it’s true that he thanks God for his wonderful situation but really this comes across as a religious gloss on what is essentially pride in his own religious accomplishments: “Look at how great I am.”And the way that this is made clear is in his attitude to other people: “God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of mankind – rapacious, unjust, adulterous – or even like this tax-collector.”Why compare himself to other people in this way? Simply, because it makes him feel good about himself. I am right; they are wrong. I am good; they are bad. I’m committed; they are lazy. And so on and so on.I have to say that I’ve come across a lot of this sort of thing in the Christian world. Christ obviously understood people’s hearts and could foresee this. Whole denominations of the Christian Church become obsessed with comparing themselves favourably to other Christians. “I thank you, God, that I am not like other men. I’ve got my doctrine straight. I do not compromise over moral issues. I am in the right part of the Christian Church. I am upright in every way and will not have any contact with those who are unclean in my sight.”For anyone on the receiving end, it’s a deeply unpleased and ungracious attitude. It’s amazing how easy we find it to take the teaching and example of Christ and to turn it into fractious, ugly, judgemental and without love, charity, or humility.I should say that I think this is a particularly apt word for those people who consider theological orthodoxy and the tradition of the Church to be important, indeed central, to the faith. This can quite easily turn into the kind of self-righteous Pharisaism that Jesus denounced.The Tax CollectorHaving said that, there are some things that we can do to avoid this kind of nasty religion. Let’s think about the Tax Collector. Jesus tells us that he stood some way off and wouldn’t lift his eyes to heaven and that he beat upon his breast. Even his body language spoke of his awareness of his unworthiness before God.He said, quite simply, “God, grant mercy to me, a sinner.”So, firstly, he recognised the problem: I am a sinner.This is perhaps an unfashionable observation today: we are all sinners. What does this mean? It means that there is a moral law which is grounded in the holiness and perfection of God and which is binding on every single human being alive. And it means that we often fall short of what is required of us in this regard and we frequently therefore encounter feelings of guilt and shame.For some people, that description will be more than familiar. Many people’s lives are beset by guilt and shame – for things done in the past, for habits that one can’t shake in the present. Christian or not, we know that we are falling short. We know that we’re not doing what we should be. But we can’t meet the standard for some reason. We just keep failing.For others, they may be less aware of sin. They may be like the Pharisee: self-righteous and upright in comparison with those they find contemptible. But those who have this attitude are self-deceived. They are sinners too. But they choose not to focus on the areas of their lives and character where they fall short.This is a way of testing what I am saying: think about the greatest moral failure you have in your life. It could be a habit that you can’t shake for reason. Or it could be an instinctive or emotional reaction that you have to something that you can’t seem to stop. We can come to church and get ourselves together for a couple of hours. But what about the rest of the time?As I say, this is true for everyone, including me and including all apparently religious or holy people. I, Fr Jamie Franklin, your priest, am a sinner. I don’t need to go into it all here and now but I could certainly do so. I get things wrong on a daily basis. My wife and my children know this about me. Anyone who knows me well know this about me. I want to do certain things. I want to be a certain way. But the things I want to do and the way I want to be somehow don’t come about for some reason. Perhaps I’m making some slow progress, but, on the whole, I am frequently astounded at my lack of holiness, despite my best efforts. And I am meant to be a priest. I am meant to help others in their faith. And yet I can’t do it myself. What use am I?And perhaps it’s the same for you. Perhaps you have the same voice in your mind: I can’t believe I’m still like this. I’m meant to be a Christian. I’m meant to take the name of Christ and yet still I persist in my rebellion and sin. What could I possibly do or be for God when I am like this?Let me encourage you, friends – or rather let the words of Christ encourage you – there is hope. But this hope does not come from ourselves by making more moral effort. It comes from God. It comes from Christ and the Gospel.This is clearly implied in the prayer of the Tax Collector. “God, grant mercy to me, a sinner.”The Greek word for “grant mercy” or “be merciful” is hilaskomai, which is a word that means some thing like, “expiate” or “make atonement for”.To understand this, let’s go back to that original question: How can I be right before God? One of the central answers that people have come up with in many of the world’s culture and religions is “sacrifice”: I am obviously sinful, but I can atone for my sin by making a sacrifice. That sacrifice might be of food – a libation poured out to the gods – It might be an animal, slaughtered and offered up. In many world cultures the sacrifice has even been that of human beings.The Good News that comes to us from the Gospel is that atonement has been made for our sin. A sacrifice has been offered. This sacrifice is not of food or animals or other people. But this sacrifice has been offered by God himself through Jesus Christ. Our sin is such a serious problem that it required the greatest sacrifice imaginable, which is the sacrifice of God’s own Son, given for us upon the cross.Through the cross, God has purchased our souls for himself. Through the cross, our sin has been removed from us and put upon God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Through the cross, our unrighteousness has been placed upon him and his righteousness – his rightness with God – has been given to us.So, for the Christian, the answer to the question: How can I be right with God? Is that we can be right with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Only this great, final, complete and perfect sacrifice is sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.So, friends, I stand before you a miserable sinner like everyone else. You are the same as me. And, yet, we can be here together, justified by God’s grace, reconciled to God through his Son, Jesus Christ, without shame, without guilt, without fear, without the need to compare ourselves with others – whether favourably or unfavourably. Our atonement is accomplished; the sacrifice is complete. The Tax Collector returned to his house justified.The Beginning and the WayFriends, let the truth change your hearts. Refresh yourselves in the waters of God’s mercy. One of the most amazing things about the Gospel is that it not only gives you a way to begin, so to speak, a way to come into the presence of God. It gives you the desire and the means to continue striving after holiness. It changes you inside to know that God has shown his love in such a sacrificial and lavish and complete way. The only response can surely be a life laid down in love and service for him: Given all of this, how can I keep from singing his praise? How can I keep from giving my love and my life when he has already given so freely and so completely for me? The message of the Gospel is what changes us, from the inside-out.Two different religions: one of pride, self-righteousness, obsession with rules and appearances; one of humility, dependence upon God’s grace in Christ, a transformation of the deepest depths of the heart so that love may motivate, love may inspire, love may endure.“For everyone who exalts himself with be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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“Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel…”2 Kings 5:15Naaman the SyrianI’ll start with the story of Namaan, commander of the army of Syria.This was a period of peace between historic enemies Israel and Aram. Namaan was commander of Syria’s armies but a man afflicted by leprosy or a similar skin disease. Through apparent chance, an Israelite girl knew of the prophet Elisha who could heal Naaman.So Naaman, with permission of the king goes to Syria. First taking huge gifts of gold and clothing to the king of Israel, who is powerless and melodramatic.This is contrasted with Elisha, confident in God and without fear.Naaman came to Elisha’s house with his horses and chariots but Elisha would not come out. Sending a messenger saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”Imagine the wounded pride of Naaman, commander of the armies of Syria, expecting first the king and then the prophet and getting only a message to demean himself by washing in a foreign river.He was angry, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better that all the water of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.In other words, “I was expecting something spectacular. Instead I’m being told to demean myself. If I wanted to a bath, I need not have left my home country.”And yet his servants demonstrated greater spiritual insight in their response to him. Our translation – the English Standard Version – falls very short at this point, giving us almost the exact opposite sense to the original Hebrew. It says that the servants said, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it?”Compare this with almost any other translation and you will see the difference. Consider the Revised Standard Version, ‘“My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he says to you, “Wash, and be clean?”’This captures the point perfectly: if the prophet had said for you to do something really difficult, you would have done it. You were up for the challenge. But he’s told you to do something easy, so why not give it a try? What’s the worst that can happen? What have you got to lose? Not very much, and yet you’ve got everything to gain.As a modern paraphrase says, ‘“Master, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn’t you have done it? So why not this simple “wash and be clean?””’Well, we know what the answer is of course: pride. I am too good for this simple answer. I am too important. There must be something exceptional I am called to because I am exceptional.And so, a moment of clarity for Naaman, who listened to sense and went and washed in the Jordan seven times and was cleansed.‘Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know there is no God is all the earth but Israel; So accept now a present from you servant.”This humble obedience led to spiritual revelation and thanksgiving.The Story of the Ten LepersWe see a similar dynamic in the Gospel reading, the story of the ten lepers. They came to Jesus asking for healing and he gave them a simple command: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” As they were doing it, they were healed.And yet, one came back, a Samaritan, a foreigner, to give thanks to Jesus and praise to God. “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”A Humble FaithWhat is the point of these stories? Can we not see ourselves so clearly in the figure of Naaman the Syrian who wanted something spectacular but was in fact called to humble obedience?It is hard to accept perhaps that we are called to the same thing: to repentance, faith in Christ, and obedience to God. Much of the world is not interested in this because they are too hard of heart and proud to accept that they are just like everyone else.But this applies to those in the church also. It is very easy to imagine that the basic message of the Christian faith is too simple and easy, that there must be something more to it, that there must be some intellectual or political component that will be more engaging.Before I criticise this, let me say that Christianity is, of course, deeply intellectually robust. I do not criticise anyone for having an intellectual engagement with the faith. This is quite necessary in many contexts.Nor do I criticise anyone for thinking about the political implications of Christianity. These are important questions and, again, are necessary in certain contexts.However, it is a constant temptation for the Church and for individual Christians to become distracted by an overtly intellectual or academic version of the faith or (and to be honest I think this is a much worse temptation) a political version of it.The attitude appears to me to be something like this: Those unsophisticated Christians may speak about repentance, faith, the Scriptures, the Gospel, eternal life, heaven and hell, and things like this. But I speak about relevant political issues that will make me and my Church appear more relevant in the eyes of modern people.This is a terrible spiritual mistake and it can leads to a deadening of lively and real faith.Perhaps I can put it like this: you may have a Christian politics; you should not have a political Christianity.The cart comes before the horses: repentance, humility, faith, obedience, day-to-day walk with God in holy devotion. All of this first. Political implications a distant second and much of the time not at all.“A worker who has no need to be ashamed…”Let’s finish with some words from our reading from 2 Timothy: ‘Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”‘A worker who has no need to be ashamed’ – This idea crops up in Paul’s letters frequently: don’t be ashamed.Why does he feel the need to keep saying this? Because the world will try to shame you. It’s one of the ways the enemy will try and dampen your faith and ultimately destroy it. If he can’t get you to walk away from the Lord. He will make you feel a bit silly, so that you’ll pipe down a bit.But you, do your best to present yourself to God as one who has no reason to be ashamed. Like Naaman, humble before yourself before God through obedience and faith and you find healing, restoration and peace. Only die to your pride so that the power of God can live in you.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,but the righteous shall live by faith.”Habakkuk 2:4The Faith that Moves Mulberry TreesToday I’m going to be talking on the subject of faith: a small word with immense importance.We begin with our reading from Luke’s Gospel. The context is that Jesus has just told his disciples that they must continually forgive those who sin against them.“Increase our faith!” they say. In other words: this is extremely hard. We will need more faith in order to be able to do it.Jesus’ response: “If you had faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you”.The point is not about moving mulberry trees but that forgiving your enemies is only the very beginning of what faith can accomplish. Think much bigger than that.The disciples will do great things for the Kingdom of God, taking the Gospel all over the world and preaching to all sorts of people. And they would die for the faith eventually.We too can accomplish great things for God if we have faith. But faith is crucial to all of it.So this request – Increase our faith! – is a good one for them and all of us.What is Faith?“What is faith?” Here I look to the words of the Apostle Paul to his young disciple Timothy:‘I am reminded of your sincere faith…For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God…’ 2 Tim. 1:6Firstly, faith is a gift of God. It does not come from us initially but is an invitation to believe. We are invited. He offers the gift and we choose to respond or not.This is important. Paul says that God ‘saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began’ 2 Tim. 1:9.The glory belongs to God because he initiates and he empowers the response. Remember that we are called by grace and not according to our own brilliance – far from it.Secondly, faith is a response to God. There are two parts to this, both reflected in the Greek word used for faith in the New Testament – pistis.Faith is believing and trusting in the promises of God. Hebrews says, ‘Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1). There is an intellectual component to faith.We have faith that God is who he says he is and that he will accomplish his word. Specifically, that he will forgive us for our sins, reconcile us to himself and give us eternal life through Jesus.But “pistis” can also be translated “faithfulness”, which indicates an ongoing life of trust and commitment.When we turn from sin we are exercising faith. When we adopt godly habits and obey God’s commandments, we are exercising faith.Paul was telling Timothy: keep preaching, keep pastoring, keep ministering. This was how he exercised faith.Slightly different for each of us: keep demonstrating the love of Christ to your spouse or in your workplace, keep sharing the Gospel with others when you have the chance, keep working for the Kingdom of God. There are many ways we are called to exercise faith.But see how faith is two things: belief and commitment. Without this commitment the belief part doesn’t mean very much. Like saying, “I love my wife” but never doing anything to demonstrate that love. Our commitment is a sign of our faith.What does faith result in?Paul says, ‘God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord…but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God’ 2 Tim. 1:7The result of faith: freedom from fear. Fear of insult or rejection, loss or the future, failure and disappointment. Why? Because we look to the power of God to accomplish his purposes.Paul often mentions the resurrection in the context of faith: ‘(the power of God)…which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’ 2 Tim. 1:11In other words: if God has already achieved this for us, then he can and will do everything else necessary.The result of faith: power, love, self-control, the capacity to share in suffering for the Gospel. Faith transforms us. As we look to God through Jesus, we are changed more and more into the image of Christ.An example: when we look to certain people we become like them. Think of YouTube: if we look at fitness influencers, we think about fitness more and take on their values. Same for eg gardeners, beauty stylists, or musicians etc. The thing that look at is the thing that we become like.If we look to Christ, we will become like him, having power, love, self-control and the ability to suffer in obedience to God.How do we get more faith?This leads us back to the disciples’ original request: Increase our faith! How do we get more faith to serve God and accomplish great things?The Apostle Paul uses a lovely image: ‘Fan into flame the gift of God.’ A fire inside that needs to be tended.This is an invitation to the spiritual life, which is varied in its manifestations. But the principles are the same. It begins with looking. It continues with acting. And it is further strengthened through reflection.Looking – Looking is about reflecting upon the things of God and speaking to God in prayer. We do this when we come together and alone and in smaller groups. Each time we pray, meditate on Scripture, spend time in silence, receive Holy Communion, we are looking to God, reminding ourselves of his promises, and communing with him in spirit.This is where you get the petrol in the tank. If you don’t know how, there are people and materials out there from which to learn.Acting – Simply: do what God calls you to do day-by-day in faith. For me, it’s writing sermons and other things, pastoring people, taking services, being a good husband and father, and a few other things. What is it for you? How might doing these things in faith change your perspective on them? Might not be immediately clear. Reflect upon it. Ask God to show you.Reflecting – Something Paul does all the time. Not just acting and seeing God come through, but noting his faithfulness.Later in 2 Tim, at the end of his life: ‘The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.’ 2 Tim. 4:17-18.Look back on times when you have needed to trust God. See how he has provided for you. Many times like this for me: not knowing next steps, worried about money, worried about challenges. And, yet, I’m here. I’m okay. God has provided thus far and he will do so again until the end.“Lord, increase our faith!” A wonderful prayer. By looking, acting and reflecting, let’s put it into practice.In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Now war arose in heaven…In a departure from my normal practice, I am going to speak today on our New Testament reading which comes from the Book of Revelation, chapter 12:7-12. This passage describes a war in heaven between Michael and his angels and the Great Dragon, Satan, and his angels. Michael prevailed and the Dragon was thrown down to the earth along with his angels. A loud voice is heard, telling the author John that the authority of God’s Kingdom and of his Christ have been established because the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down to earth.“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short!”What is all of this about? First, we have to understand that the Book of Revelation is written in the Apocalyptic genre. Apocalyptic literally means an unveiling. So this book is an unveiling of the spiritual realities that are normally hidden from our eyes. The book does this by using symbolic language and imagery. A lot of the time it is not clear whether it is speaking about an event in the past or the future or indeed if it talking about a specific event at all rather than a pattern that repeats throughout history.Here we see a cosmic battle in progress between two sets of angels. Who are these angels? Most commentators have said that this passage, only with other in Scripture, implies that Satan and his angels were created by God as loyal subjects but that, at some point, they rebelled against him and sought to overthrow his authority.The other angels with Michael their leader represent the angels who remain faithful to God. These loyal angels are spoken about throughout Scripture as those who protect God’s people, those who protect, guide and help them, those who deliver messages from God to humanity, those who strengthen and encourage, those who execute God’s judgement upon the wicked for his people’s benefit, and those who worship God alongside believers. Finally, in a Parable of Jesus, it is implied that angels escort believers into heaven when they die.In our passage, then, we see rebellious angels fighting against those who remain loyal to God, a cosmic war.The Fall of SatanSatan loses this battle and is thrown down to earth. The story implies that whatever influence Satan had in heaven is now transferred to the terrestrial realm, the world that we live in now.The symbolism tells us that the cosmic rebellion of Satan against God has decisively failed. Satan is defeated in the heavens and there is a very real sense that he is defeated in our world as well. However, he is still at large and active today.Interpreters are divided as to whether Satan’s fall is an historical event that happened once at some point in the past. But what we can say from a symbolic perspective is that Satan’s fall is ongoing every time sin and rebellion against God is overcome in this world.What is the activity of Satan now? The first thing we can say is that, due to Satan’s defeat in heaven, he is full of wrath because he knows that the time is short. He has been defeated in the cosmic realm and he has been defeated in our realm also. However, he seems to have been granted a certain amount of time to ply his mischief before his final destruction. He is aware of this and therefore is full of rage. He wants to take people with him to his final destruction.His tactics are deception and accusation. He is called here by the loud voice in heaven (which perhaps is the voice of God himself), “the deceiver of the whole world”. This does not mean that literally everybody in the world is deceived by him but that he has influence to deceive all over the world. He wants to people to believe lies in order that he might lead them away from God.He is also called “the accuser of our brethren” which indicates that his agenda is to condemn humanity. It could be that here is indicated specifically those who are Christians and part of the Church. He accuses of insincerity and failure those who are seeking to live a godly life, to discourage and deflect them from the path to God. He seeks to bring about feelings of guilt and condemnation so that we might no longer believe in God’s grace and therefore wander away from him.To the Pharisees who opposed him in John’s Gospel, chapter 8, Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” In his discourse on the Good Shepherd in the same Gospel, Jesus tells us that, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”The devil is a liar, an accuser, a thief, and a murderer. He seeks to steal, to kill, and to destroy.Why is it important to say all of this? It is because we have to recognise that we, along with the holy angels, are at war with Satan and with the powers of evil. The good news is that we have the victory in Christ (which I’ll say more about in a moment), but we have to be realistic about this. We have an enemy and our enemy has a plan.Friends, do not be deceived. You have an adversary. He will destroy your faith. He will destroy your family. He will destroy your future. He will destroy whatever witness you have for Christ. He will ultimately destroy your soul if you allow him to. Be wise to him and oppose him. As the Apostle Peter said, ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith’ (1 Peter 5:8-9).They have conquered by the blood of the Lamb…And yet perhaps the most important thing of all has not yet been said: “And they have conquered (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death”.This sentence is a guide to spiritual warfare in a nutshell. What does it tell us? Firstly, that the victory that we have over Satan, sin and death is not from our own power but it is from Christ. Specifically, it is the blood of Christ that overcomes the accusations of Satan.This is a reference to the cross of Christ. It is true that we are guilty of sin. When Satan accuses us, he may at least partially tell the truth. We are all sinners. We have sinned. We will sin. And we do sin. We will fail and fall in our Christian lives. There is no doubt of this. To that extent, Satan is correct. However, he is not correct that there is no hope and that there is no forgiveness. There is hope and there is forgiveness and it is through the cross of Jesus Christ that they are purchased for us. In the words of the beautiful hymn, Before the Throne of God Above:When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within;Upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.Because the sinless saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free,For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.Friends, Christ has taken our place upon the cross. He has died for us, receiving whatever penalty was due. We are free from condemnation and guilt in him. As the Apostle Paul said, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). Let Satan say what he will.But, secondly, the saints conquer the devil through the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Here we see something of what we are called to as those who have been set free by Jesus: we are to bear witness to the Gospel in all the world. We are to speak for Jesus, inviting people to believe the truth and to come to know him for themselves.Make no mistake friends, there will be a cost for speaking for Jesus. Jesus promises us this: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11).This, paradoxically, is how we overcome: by bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel even through persecution and death.Friends, Christians do not employ the same diabolic tactics as these: we do not lie; we do not slander; we do not murder. We bear witness to the truth, even to death. We overcome not through our own righteousness but through the blood of Jesus Christ. Rejoice, friends, therefore with St Michael and the holy angels: the battle belongs to the Lord.In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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‘To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.’The Lost SheepWe begin today with a familiar scene from the life of Jesus: tax collectors and sinners drawing near whilst the Pharisees and scribes grumble.Now, the objection of the Pharisees and scribes is not elaborated but it is fairly sure to say that they were concerned about maintaining separation from those who had defiled themselves through sinning in order that they (that is, the Pharisees) might maintain ritual purity. They had a view of sin which is similar to the view that we have of infectious diseases: if you get too close, you risk contamination.But, of course, this is not what all of this is really about: what it is really about is their sense of religious pride and their hardness of heart towards the people they were supposed to love and serve in the name of God.Jesus, as ever, came to show the world a different way. And so he tells a parable about a man with a hundred sheep. He loses one and leave the ninety-nine to go and find it. And then he comes home, calling his friends and neighbours to himself, rejoicing.There is more joy, in heaven, he tells us, over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who need no repentance.In other words, the reason that he eats with tax collectors and sinners is because God seeks those who are willing to repent and to be reconciled to him. This brings about rejoicing in heaven. And God’s seeking those who are lost is manifested in the Incarnation: Christ leaving his throne in heaven to become as we are, to enter our world, to journey far from his homeland, so that he might find us and save us.The irony of Christ’s statement about ninety-nine who need no repentance is that such people really do not exist. The Pharisees may have thought they needed no repentance, but they were wrong. With the exception of Jesus Christ, every human being who has ever walked the face of the planet must repent before Almighty God for our sins. And this is not just a one-time act, but a continuous act of self-examination and humility that accompanies us on our earthly journey.So, if you find yourself today, or any day, feeling the weight of your sin, being aware of guilt or shame, the good news of the Gospel is for you. God offers you forgiveness in Christ. And, again, this is not a one-time offer but a continual offer of mercy and grace, a continual invitation to return to the fold, to come back to God, and to know his loving and saving presence once again.“The grace of our Lord overflowed for me”I’d like to mention here the Apostle Paul, from whom we get our New Testament reading in the letter to Timothy. Paul was a high-ranking religious official and intellectual, just like some of these men. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, he was a Pharisee and he considered himself to be completely righteous under the law.What changed for him to bring him out of his religious delusion was an encounter with the risen Jesus, whose church he had been persecuting. He recognised his ignorance and his rejection of the true God who had been manifested to the world in Christ and so he said the words we read today, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost”.But notice how Paul had to recognise his own sin in order to receive the grace and mercy of God, even to the point of calling himself the foremost of sinners. This demonstrates the truth of a spiritual law, which is that, the more we recognise our own sinfulness, the more we recognise the grace and mercy of God for us.Another way of putting this is that, if we want to be found by Christ, we have to recognise that we are like lost sheep, that we have strayed from the right path, as Paul says, in our ignorance, in our unbelief, in our weakness, and we need Christ to come into our world and rescue us.The Woman and the Lost CoinI’d like to say something about the other story in our Gospel reading today, that of the woman who loses one of her ten coins and sweeps her house diligently until she finds it. She then calls her friends and neighbours together, rejoicing that she has found her lost coin. Again, Jesus tells us that there is joy in heaven before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.In some ways, this story is the same story as that of the lost sheep and the diligent shepherd. However, many of the Church Fathers saw in this story in particular an image of the Church. The shepherd naturally calls to our mind the image of Christ, the Good Shepherd, leaving his home in heaven to bring those who have strayed back to God. Here we see a humble woman. The details in the story imply that her house is modest and that she is therefore probably quite poor. She has ten coins which are worth about ten days’ wages. Perhaps this is all that she has in the world. It is not much. She loses one and therefore she goes about seeking for it diligently.And so we receive a beautiful image of the Church through this parable. We are engaged in the same mission as the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. But we do not come from a place of great strength or power. Rather, we begin from a place of weakness and humility, from a place of repentance and poverty.We have not much more to give to the world than the knowledge of God and of his joy over sinners who repent. So much the better therefore when God disabuses us of pride in our natural power or our natural resources. As the Apostle Paul says elsewhere, ‘Consider your calling, brothers: not many of your were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise: God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is lower and despised in the world, even things that are not, in order to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God’ (1 Cor. 1:16-29).Where are you in these stories?I ask you to consider where you find yourself this morning? Have you to repent of your religious pride or your unwillingness to admit to God or to others where you have been wrong? Might you see your sin a bit more clearly and be more willing to identify with the sinners, the tax collectors, the lost sheep, the lost coin? The good news, as I say, is that, if you are, then you will find a doorway opened to the very presence and joy of God. For this is the reason that Christ came into the world.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit holytrinitywinchester.substack.com