So what's it like being a Vicar (Second Service)

Having set the backdrop and walked you through the first of the Sunday services (with three as the nom.) we find ourselves with the second service quickly upon us.

Now although many seem to think that this is now a walk in the park because all we do now is preach the same sermon we've just done -  that isn't the case where I am because that would be merely reheating the previous meal and  attempting to pass it off as fresh - and that, from my point of view, would be very wrong indeed.

Wrong because the congregation and the setting are different and so, even with the same readings, the emphasis and sometimes the Bible version used are all different. Add to this the fact that there are hymns, songs and perhaps even anthems to be considered and with them comes music teams or organists and music groups or choirs and perhaps servers and acolytes and a myriad number of other changes and you will soon realise that what you have before you is a totally different entity indeed.

One of the first service strengths is that it is often the more traditional service of those on offer and this might mean the BCP or some other older language is on display. The next service might be another communion or a family service or a parade with uniformed organisations (something that is diminishing as some take the Scouting and Guiding movements away from their Christian birthright) or an all-age service - the combinations are endless and exciting indeed and the challenges all different and extremely varied.

This is the service where visitors are often most likely to be found and so after the service there are people, familiar and new, to be greeted, engaged with and enjoyed. There might also be wedding banns to be read and this often means that couples on their way to marriage will be [resent to be engaged with also. Then, being the principal service of the day we find that some of the families of those we have buried will be at this service too and this can mean time spent at the votive stand (where we light candles and pray) praying with and comforting those who mourn.

The musical side of the service has to follow, and support, the time and season and this means dialogue with the organist or music director or picking the songs and hymns yourself - something I love doing.

But by now what is certain is that there has been another period of time taken up to make sure that everything that needs to be in place is there. The sermon doesn't just happen and this takes some time if you are to read the passages before you and to get the various aspects of location, audience, what was happening at the time and all the other stuff that makes sense of the passages (we call this 'fixing the hermeneutic' -  it means finding out what there is in the text and what it has for us). Then there are the connections to be made. 

Those themes or characters or behaviours that connect the passage - sometimes it is tediously just the fact that all three readings have one word or character (recently we had shepherd as the focus) and sometimes there is some real work before us if we are to present a sermon that draws from all three (and we mustn't, as so many seem to do, forget the Psalm).

So there we are - halfway through the day and there's still more to do yet (Did I mention the 3.30pm baptisms?).

To hear the sermon I did yesterday at the second service, click HERE

Sleeping again Vicar?

On the fifth day of Christmas ...

Since Apple have put aside their Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway this year I thought I would have to do something too redress the gap left by them: Day Five ...

The (Western) Church
Today the Church in the West commemorates Thomas (a) Becket (whilst the Eastern Church takes up with the 'Holy Innocents') that 'troublesome' priest from the twelfth century who, as Archbishop of Canterbury,  having upset his sometime patron and friend King Henry II, was murdered by four of his (the king's) Barons. The reason  being that having Henry uttering the words, 'Will no one rid me of this troublesome / turbulent / meddlesome* priest?" they assumed that he wanted the priest removed.

Such was Henry's apparent remorse at the death that he walked barefoot from London to Canterbury - mind you, a cynical lecturer of mine led me to write, 'The world around Henry was appalled and were stirred up against him because of the act - so it was an easier option to walk than war!'

And Thomas was made a saint with Canterbury Cathedral his shrine. He seems to have been a good written. Definitely a shrewd, and brave, man who (if the accounts in the clip below are accurate) stood between for what he considered to be right and knew the God he served with a passion.

Hopefully this sheds some light on the man and makes the facts a little more accessible.

* Take your pick here. I was taught 'troublesome' at school, 'turbulent' at college and 'meddlesome' at Uni' - all fit the bill :-)

The World
Today looks at turbulence in many forms today with travel being at the forefront of the news with:

+ The apparent loss of AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 with 163 people on board,

+ The 'Norman Atlantic' ferry fire where, having removed 316 people,  162 remain onboard awaiting rescue from the disabled vessel.

So often we glibly talk of 'journeying mercies' and yet, despite the safety record of land, sea and air transport, life is always fragile and precious. Who will you be praying for over the New Year celebrations I wonder?

How many of us pray when we read the news? Is it just 'news' or a call to reflect and pray and, where possible, become more fully engaged?


The Common Worship Lectionary
One of the greatest things I have on my phone and on my computer is Simon Kershaw's offering of an electronic Common Worship Lectionary which resides on the equally excellent Oremus site.

This application integrates into your computer's calendar and into your pocket regardless of what device you have. IPhone, Android, iCal, Outlook, iPad, Blackberry and Palm are all catered for - and it even support those who enjoy BCP too! So for those of us who promised at their ordination to study and pray, and for those who would like to know what the readings for Sunday might be (if your church uses the lectionary that is) - this is the app' for you!

Each and every day you can find the readings, the commemorations and feasts, the colours for the day (it's a traditional church thing for those of you who are now confused!) and there's also the Collects and Post Communion Prayers too.

Who could ask for anything more? This sets the benchmark for liturgical calendars


Something to listen to

Some chant:

And something a little newer from the Rend Collective (who are always worth listening to):

Lord God,
who gave grace to your servant Thomas Becket to put aside all earthly fear and be faithful even to death:
grant that we, disregarding worldly esteem, may fight all wrong, uphold your rule, and serve you to our life’s end;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Church: Dedicated, blessed and continuing

Today is one of the days set aside to celebrate the dedication of those church buildings where the proper date is unknown. I say 'days' because the rubric says it can be done on the Last Sunday after Trinity (three weeks time - 27th Oct) and, interestingly, any other locally chosen and acceptable date.

What makes this special for me is the collect - that special prayer that once brought the people together before the service and set the scene for what was to happen - giving rhyme and reason, direction and purpose to what follows. Today's collect is a superlative piece of prayer for our congregations and the task we take upon ourselves:

Almighty God,
to whose glory we celebrate the dedication of this house of prayer:
we praise you for the many blessings you have given to those who worship you here:
and we pray that all who seek you in this place may find you,
and, being filled with the Holy Spirit,
may become a living temple acceptable to you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

I often find myself praying this collect (omitting the second line) as I visit other places and when rejoicing in our own.

The key is to count the 'many' blessings in the place you worship rather than bemoan that which you don't like - do this and you'll be another blessing to be counted.

May today be a happy, blesséd and profitable Sunday

Some scribbles on today's Readings (16 June)

This morning the lectionary readings take us into one of the lovely days when we find ourselves with a couple of passages which fit nicely on the sermonic scale pans and have the third as a wonderful summation of the whole thing.

On the 'naughty' scale we have the story of David and Bathsheba. The tale  of a poor king who didn't go out to war but stayed at home and sexually exploited the wife of one of those who had (Uriah the Hittite). Then realising she was pregnant (so the battle had been going some time then) David panics and realises that the game is up unless he can con Uriah into thinking he's the dad; so he calls him back from the front on some pretext, gets him drunk and sends him home to the wife (booze, wife - dead cert' what's going to happen, thinks David).

But Uriah isn't like David because he thinks to himself, 'The guys are stagging on and I'm here - it'd be wrong the bonk the wife and enjoy home when they can't - I'll sleep in the doorway and be with them in spirit even if not in flesh!'

Thwarted, David gets Uriah killed on the battlefield - 'Job done', thinks he, 'I'm in the clear now!'

And that's where today comes in for God sends Nathan to tell him a little story about two men. One has loadsa sheep and the other is 'dirt poor' and has but a female lamb (which will bring him more later). The rich man takes the poor man's lamb and kills it.

Outraged David asks Nathan who and where the rich bloke is for he's going to get what he deserves and justice will be brought to bear for the poor man.

'Surprise,' says Nathan, 'You're the rich bloke and God has seen what and who you are and there's a price: On your family and on the child who will be born: Opposition and conflict for you and the child's going to die!'

Our second reading (on the 'good' scale pan) is the story of an honest and Simon, a good Pharisee (for they were once the good guys and some, in Jesus' time, still were), a woman of loose morals ('woman in the city' being a euphemism for something a little risque and costing [wink, wink]) and a couple of year's of wages worth of perfume.

Now before we get stuck in she is not Mary Madgalene as so many seem to think from the sermons I've heard over the years - but she is definitely a sinner. She comes in with what may well have been her earnings worth of perfume and gets down and dirty (loosing the hair is a precursor to bed!) to bathe his feet with a mixture of the stuff and her tears (shame? Repentance?).

Simon, knowing who she is and in righteous anger that this rabbi is being defiled bu something unclean like her, cuts up rough and so Jesus puts him straight.

She is doing what Simon should have for he was neither kissed or washed (as was the tradition for the honoured guests). Not only that, whilst water was cheap, she'd brought the very essence of herself and supplanted it with something costly! And then he explains:

Two men, one owed a tenner whilst the other owed a thousand. The creditor decided to cancel the debt. So, Jesus asks, 'Which one of the men will love the debt-cancelling bloke most?'

'Simples,' say Simon, 'The one who had the larger debt cancelled!'

'Spot on,' say Jesus, "And here she is!'

Turning to her He says, 'Go, your sins are forgiven (go and sin no more!)'

The third reading (which is the summation) tells us that Jew or Gentile (God's people or dogs) it's faith in the forgiveness of God as seen through Jesus (and His death on the cross) that does it all.

You can't pay to become clean and right with God,

You can't rely on birthright or position or the jobs you do in church,

You can't kill to make you look right with the world and right with God,

The only thing we have that works is faith in God and if we come, flawed, broken, realising our sin and repentant - faith in God will make us whole.

Worked for the woman - didn't it?


ps. Happy Father's Day

2B4 Advent

For this purpose Christ was revealed:

The unveiling, 'apokalypsis', of the end of it all.

We have the archangel Michael - the heavyweight champion of the end of the world comes to deliver (this is the word to use) the living faithful - and the dead they are resurrected and judged.

So many films on the shelf where the world, as we know it, has come to an end: 'I am Legend'; 'Lord of the Flies'; 'Mad Max(es)' and 'Hunger Games' being just a few!

This morning, after watching some aftershave advert about the end of the world, I heard how some are betting on 2012 being the end of the world as the Mayan appear to predict. Just as they did, electronically, with Y2K and Cuba and so many other times in my life!

Well the Jews were just as interested in the end of the world then as we are now - Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) ruling for Judaism was dealt with by law and the Temple had been desecrated. Religious leaders were puppets and getting to hear God's word and finding a way through it as a believer was pretty tough (if not impossible). Was this the end of the world - were they to start packing and watch the dolphins (as in Doug Adam's books)

Daniel brings perspective using language that the people understood in the form of apocalyptic literature. The symbolism is obvious, hard (and bloody) but it brings with it deliverance for the living and resurrection for (some of) the dead (although of course there is also judgement too! This partial resurrection (for it says 'some) causes some real problem for some who explain it as being about 'those who have died in conflict' - a great thought as we bring remembrancetide to a close.
It also promises that those who are 'saved' (AKA 'the wise') will shine a brightly as the stars in the darkness (Hallelujah or what?).

And the end?

Well, it's a new beginning isn't it! The end is never 'The End'; it is merely the beginning of the new bit.

That's where the promise of resurrection comes in; where the image of a dead Jesus, the Christ, and the end begetting the new beginning that is resurrection Sunday (which is more for us that Him as He never really went; was, is, and always will be is a hint here).

And so we move on to Hebrews and have to ask the question:

"How many bits of the Bible tell us to 'go to church'?

The answer's contained in the Hebrews passage!

"But all I need is my Bible," some cry. But, if we are the Body of Christ how can we countenance Christ being 'dismembered'?

You don't need to go to church to be a Christian - NO, but you need to go to be be CHURCH because church is what we have when Jesus is re-membered and the body is made complete! We are Church and corporately we minister to God and make Church real; giving it its shape and making its earthly ministry real too..
And Hebrews continues by telling us that Jesus is the ultimate (in every sense - best and final) High Priest.

He is different in how He acts - for the other priests stand whilst He sits (at the right hand of the Father)

They make sacrifices that do a bit of good whilst he makes a sacrifice of himself!
They cleanse the body - Jesus cleanses body, soul and mind! Erases the hard disk so that the laws and commandments can be re-written.

His death restores sinlessness and yet we, although this is done, it is like a new operating system has been installed but many of the programmes that relate to how we operate (ie. live, think and act) are still being modified to 'new live 2.0'! A conundrum that becomes coherence only when we are gathered as Church and share in the body and blood, the teaching and the unity.

And, of course, resurrection and judgement are with us yet again (just like Daniel)!

So we look to our Gospel to bring some clarity:

The 'end times'. That 'beware - the end is night' moment.

Ever seen those people with the sandwich boards?

Are they prophets or 'nutters' (a definition assigned by a former colleague to the man with such a board who walked Oxford Street every day!)?

Mark rounds it all off, sums it all up and is for us, that 'nutter'!

The disciples point to the temple and the stones - the construction and immensity and yet Jesus isn't impressed at all! Jesus speaks about destruction and reconstruction of something far cleverer than mere inanimate stones - people. Yep, He's on a resurrection thing! He points out that, just like when Antiochus IV was kicking around - things are going to be bad.

False teaching, war, natural disasters earthquakes, floods and famine - and this is just the start of it all.

Yes indeed folks - Jesus has gone apocalyptic on us! He has picked up the thread and is running around town with it seeking to see who will trip over it.

He's using the situations of the day and contextualising using a genre of writing to forewarn and prepare them then and us now!

It's a 'watch out' and be aware and be united. a call to live as the body of Christ and to keep meeting and to keep watching and to keep praying and to keep. . .

to keep on keeping on.

It isn't about 'endings' but about 'beginnings' - a wonderful rounding off of remembrance and an even more wonderful indication of eschatology - 'the future hope' rather than the 'present end'

Pax

2B4 Advent:
Psalm 16
OT - Daniel 12.1-3
NT - Hebrews 10.11-25
Gospel - Mark 13.1-8

Daily Office - Jan 26

Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul

Psalm 47
Clap your hands together, all you peoples; O sing to God with shouts of joy. For the Lord Most High is to be feared; he is the great King over all the earth. He subdued the peoples under us and the nations under our feet. He has chosen our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. God has gone up with a merry noise, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. O sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with all your skill. God reigns over the nations; God has taken his seat upon his holy throne. The nobles of the peoples are gathered together with the people of the God of Abraham. For the powers of the earth belong to God and he is very highly exalted.

Psalm 48
Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, in the city of our God. His holy mountain is fair and lifted high, the joy of all the earth. On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place, stands the city of the great king. In her palaces God has shown himself to be a sure refuge. For behold, the kings of the earth assembled and swept forward together. They saw, and were dumbfounded; dismayed, they fled in terror. Trembling seized them there; they writhed like a woman in labour, as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish. As we had heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God: God has established her for ever. We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of your temple. As with your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is full of justice. Let Mount Zion rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad, because of your judgements, O Lord. Walk about Zion and go round about her; count all her towers; consider well her bulwarks; pass through her citadels, That you may tell those who come after that such is our God for ever and ever. It is he that shall be our guide for evermore.

Genesis 15
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. Then he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’

Matthew 26:47-56
While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

The Collect
Heavenly Father, who sent your apostle Paul to preach the gospel, and gave him Timothy and Titus to be his companions in faith: grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit may bear witness to the name of Jesus, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Israel, Egypt and the Lectionary

 So the new ruler of Egypt looked at Israel and saw in them a threat and decide to act against them before they became a threat. Of course this account tells of the increase of the Jews, the end of Joseph's era and the birth, and adoption, of Moses. But how interesting it is that on a day when the news focuses upon the rift between Egypt and Israel that we find this account.

Surely we must pray for Israel that God would indeed set His people free:
Free from the knee-jerk responses that see innocents killed,
Free from the secular state that causes so many good people to support what God surely couldn't,
Free to be a nation, not individuals within it who keep God's Laws and honour Him with their lips and their lives.

Psalm 124
If the LORD had not been on our side, let Israel now say;
If the LORD had not been on our side, when enemies rose up against us;
Then would they have swallowed us up alive in their fierce anger toward us;
Then would the waters have overwhelmed us and the torrent gone over us;
Then would the raging waters have gone right over us.
Blessed be the LORD! he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Our help is in the Name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.
Amen

Paul tells us:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Once again we are called to live counter-culturally. Not an excuse to keep to old ways but to live in different ways to the world in which we find ourselves and if this is true for us, how true is it for the jews, those for whom the covenant was first made?

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

And may we rejoice in the different gifts, abilities and callings that are before us. May we refrain from ad hominem, name-calling and seek the image of the God made man, Jesus, in one another. For we know who he is and live because of His love and His atoning act upon the cross. For he is indeed, as Peter rightly says, "The Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God'.

"When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah."

Pax

Exodus 1:8-2:10
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

Jacob, bread, fish and Israel

What a day for cool readings:

Jacob, contends with God and refuses to let go and (as usual) gets the blessing.
Have you noticed that regardless of how people bill him, Jacob always gets the blessing?
But with blessing comes a limp, or a whale, or prison, or execution!
Being blessed isn't always the blessing those who moan about not having it appears to be.
But that's the key, struggle with God and don't let go and eventually the struggle ends
With a blessing!!!

But when you have a blessing, God calls you to pass it on.
Jesus blesses the bread and fish and passes it on to His followers, who
Pass it on to those who are hungry (physically, spiritually, morally - health wise).
When you have something that Jesus has blessed, you pass it on.
We have nothing in our hands except that which God has given us,
And if jesus has blessed it and the Holy Spirit inspires us
(and we listen to that voice of inspiration)
The blessing is passed on.

And so, having been blessed and passed that blessing on,
We remember that we are grafted on to the parent flower,
The Rose of Sharon,
And we pray for the salvation of the spiritual nation of Israel,
And the coming of the Christ, the Messiah.
First time for them - second time for us - celebration for all.

Simple this lectionary business, isn't it?


Genesis 32.22-31 - Romans 9.1-5 - Matthew 14.13-21