Proper 25 Sermon - Mission Statements

1 Thessalonians 2.1-8 Matthew 22.34-46
Sermon Text For Sunday

It has become commonplace for people or companies to forge a mission statement. Some of these can be rushed or full of waffle and maybe reflect that people were not ready to formulate their thoughts. A bad mission statement uses lots of words to say nothing in particular. It is a tick box exercises. A good mission statement however reflects some of the dynamism, excellence and focus of the stakeholders.

I think it was Jaguar (I maybe wrong here) that had the mission statement printed on the uniforms of all employees. It simply read ‘Kill Ferrari’. No one was in any doubt about what the company was trying to do.

I fear that in these challenging times the churches need to consider what their primary purpose is about. This is because over the centuries parish churches have built up such a large role in the community that we are in danger of losing focus and not remaining true to our primary role. It is the downside of doing a lot of good. This does not necessarily mean we have to create a mission statement. This can be useful from time to time but there is a danger that we create a mission statement and then file it. A mission statement has to be something engraved on the heart of every one involved otherwise it is fairly pointless. I suspect that many of the best mission statements are written when an organisation is on its knees. It is at this critical juncture that minds are sharpened and there is a hunger for change.

For the pious Jew Shema Yisrael is a mission statement par excellence, the greatest commandment. ‘Hear O Israel the Lord your God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with your mind.’ (Deuteronomy 6:4)

The practicalities of engraving this mission statement in your heart are given in the verses afterwards in Deuteronomy.

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Importantly Jesus adds to this a quote from Leviticus 19:18 ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ and says that ‘On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’.

A few years back a clergy friend of mine gave one of the most inspiring talks I have ever heard on mission at a local clergy conference. It was not a pulpit rant or some quasi-bit of management-speak but a clear mandate for us to change. It was given from a shy Anglo-Catholic priest with a great vision. In that hotel conference room the scales dropped off my eyes and I can still quote chunks of it off the top of my head. Privately I wept afterwards because I realised that for years I had been going down the wrong track. The address was entitled ‘Have We Got the Map Upside Down?’ His observation is that what most traditional churches feel comfortable doing in terms of mission is just making themselves a little bit more user-friendly. If we can tweak this or fiddle with that then the general populace will come back to church in their droves. In Scotland we even bought into an American programme which argued that each parish church’s first step in mission was ask ‘How Can We Make Our Church More User-Friendly?’ We invested years in this.

The question we should have been asking is ‘Why Do We Things We Do?’ or more bluntly ‘Why Are We Here?’ But let us not get disheartened because it seems as most of the apostolic leadership got it wrong with the exception of Peter and Paul. If the apostles had got their way Christianity would have remained a sect for those who like that sort of thing.

Let me give you a sense of where my friend is coming from. The problem with the Scottish Episcopal Church is that it is very small – roughly 0.6% of the population attend. The pond in which it can fish will remain very small if it thinks that all it had to do was make it self more user-friendly. Its liturgical heritage is quite conservative and I think that the likelihood that there is an additional 0.5% of people interested is unlikely.

The mandate from Christ at the end of Matthew’s Gospel is quite clear. ‘Go out and baptise the nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ Likewise loving God will our all being and doing the same for our neighbour is fairly fundamental. These are not suggestions from the Lord or nice ideas but commands. They relate the essence of our faith.

Imagine if our mission statement was we aim to baptise adults as our primary purpose. If this was the yardstick to which we put all our resources how would we fare? It helps to be user-friendly and this can be a good thing to do. People wont return or come unless we know why we are here. At the heart of this understanding that we are called to be disciples, followers of Jesus, others will follow.

Shema Yisrael - wear it - live it.

Athiest Bus Adverts - Richard Dawkins Again

Here we go again! The British Humanist Society has raised thirty grand or so for some ads to be put on London buses which say 'There probably is no God so go out and enjoy life'. I was thinking maybe they could try a few more. What about...

'Make someone's day - tell them there's no heaven.'

'You dont have a soul - after death you cease to exist.'

'Your just an accident of atoms. Your life is meaningless.'

or what about the more scriptural

'Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.'

since Dr Dawkins believes that athiesm should be indoctrinated into children - maybe a school bus could have the banner about Christmas, Easter or what happens to a parent, sibling, when they die. I'm sure nothing is too cruel for BHS.

All Souls

One of my early childhood memories of life in Bruxelles is visiting the graves of family members on All Souls Day, 2nd November. At the time we didnt have a car and so took the bus through the city to the cemetery. The bus was packed with people holding wreaths of white flowers - a local tradition and the aroma of flowers was terrific.

Many churches are rediscovering All Souls as a way of inviting people to remember loved ones and praying for them. Maybe this is because churches are wanting to encourage a healthier view of death and dying? It is all too easy to see death and mourning as morbid things rather than something which part of life.

Death is part of the human condition. In someways it defines us. St Francis of Assisi who died at an early age described death as a 'brother'. He saw it as friend to be embraced because it would lead him to his Master. In his Canticle of the Sun (the words we know as the hymn: 'All Creatures of Our God and King') he writes positively of death. Could it be that as Christians we have not spoken enough of death and therefore lost an important dimension to our spirituality?

On November 2nd Holy Trinity Church 3pm we will be holding a benefice service of remembrance for all those who have died. It will be an opportunity for people to come and hear some readings, reflections and light a candle. Names of the departed will also be read out. This will be in place of evensong. If you want to come and have transport problems please let us know by ringing either me (842853) or Stella at the office (842626) and we will make arrangements for you. If you are unable to come but would like the name of your relative read out please feel free to let us know.

With every good wish

Father Daniel
Benefice vicar

Civic Service

The Civic Service is at 10.30am on Sunday 19th October. This is the first time I have done one of these services and I am not really sure what this involves or how to pitch it?

I feel that I want to say something about spirituality as I have done at the 9am Eucharist. So here goes.

Do you remember the advert 'Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet'. My favourite version of this was a philosophical Christopher Columbus lighting up as the deck hand shouts 'Captian the End of the World' and the boat goes over the edge. I wonder what do you think happiness is? Abbott Chris Jamison from the BBC TV Series The Monastery has just written a book on this. I think he has touched on something.

If I could I would take all of you off on a week long retreat where we could think about happiness. Maybe even experience a bit. The problem is that 21st Century living can disconnect us from experiencing and enjoy happiness. Charles Handy says we are expected nowadays to work twice as hard in half the time. Results, targets, profits are paramount. Now with the financial pinch, this pressure and stress must be worse. Do we have time to be happy?

This happens in the churches too. We get very caught up in the business of running church that we forget that happiness is what it is all about. We lose touch with Jesus and his call for us to come and simply be.

You might argue that this contradicts the Parable of the Talents which is being read today. That seems to be a frightening example of God wanting results. But is it? Is not more about using the gifts that God gives us. The good stewards invested the talents and got interest. Some got more than others. It did not much matter how much return was made. The king was pleased with all but the one who hid his talent in the ground. That steward was too locked up in his own fear to experience the happiness of pleasing his master.

Why do people come to Salcombe? Could I suggest they come looking for a bit of happiness. Maybe it is out there sailing that a sense of freedom and release is achieved? Or perhaps it is a nice meal, a walk, some new clothes, an ice cream, that helps them forget themselves? The search for happiness is not far from the concept of spirituality.

Hosting other people's happiness can be demanding. In theological circles we now ask a very basic question of congregations. Are you consumers of ministry OR are you engaged with ministry? In other words do you drain the minister of so much energy that at the end of the day he has nothing left for himself or his family, or is this a place which energises a ministry which works as a team. Does the minister return home feeling fed? The same can be said of a town community? Does providing other people's happiness drain?

I think if we all went al retreat we would find that the good news of the Christian story is that happiness is central. Jesus' first sermon, his first words, begin with the word 'Happy'. I cant think of anyone who does not want to be happy. Presumably a loving God wants this of us too. This does not mean sweeping stress, suffering, hardship under the carpet. I think it means searching for a really deep understanding of happiness, one that is three dimensional, one which includes our Good Fridays as well as our Easters.

Maybe contentment is closer to anything in the Christian understanding. Being content. St Francis in our first hymn, All Creatures of Our God and King, had it right, he really connected with everything. Even embracing, as weird as it might seem, a sense of peace over his own death.

Several weeks ago I took my son down to North Sands. With his little wet suit on he ran in and out of the water all Sunday afternoon. We might have had a bad summer weather-wise, but the autumn has been good to us. The water was warm. He was estatic. Screaming with pleasure as the waves chased him. He was happy, care-free in an uncomplicated wonderful way. So often as adults we lose that ability. We make things complicated. We forget to forget ourselves.

I believe that God wants us to find happiness for free. To be liberated. That is what Jesus came to offer. We dont need Hamlet to find happiness. And it wont be the end of the world if its not Hamlet.

Render Unto Caesar

This week's Gospel is from Matthew's Gospel 22.15-22 "Render unto Caesar what belongs unto Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

We can’t fool God. We can’t play games with God. We can’t trick God. This is why for the Christian what is offered to God is central to his or her spirituality. Half-measures will not bear much, if any, fruit.

But let me digress for a moment on the idea of spirituality. I want to do this because I think this is something which churches struggle with. John Drane's (Theology Professor at Aberdeen) research has demonstrated that many post-modern people think that churches and Christians in general are not spiritual. We are religious, in their view, but not spiritual. We are not feeding them and they are turned off.

The churches then have a two fold problem in attracting people seeking 'spirituality'. One, is that we are on the wrong wavelength. By this I mean that we are (metaphorically) broadcasting on the wrong radio station. This is not a matter of doctrine but emphasis and ambiance. You could easily dismiss this as 'touchy-feely' talk. Spiritual seekers want to find here a way of life which will impact everything, not just one hour on Sunday. They want to know how they can change (transform) their lives. This is why they find candles, whale music, Reiki, Hinduism, the new age movement, lay lines, angels, Glastonbury, Buddism, etc, etc attractive. They come, if they come, looking for Jesus. I want to repeat that, they come, if they come, looking for Jesus.

The second challenge for the churches is that we cannot sell short Christianity. We cannot do a decaf version. The Gospel cannot be reduced to a new age movement. The spirituality of the Church is standing at the foot of the cross and wondering what can I give in comparison to this? You wont be fed until we come to that point. Likewise, it also means doing this in a non-judgemental loving way. We are not the elite. In God's eye the elite is the child this morning somewhere in Africa, searching for food among the rubbish. (I found on-line a picture of this which I shall never forget). We must not hate the world, we must not resent people who struggle with joining us. We must see them the way the Father sees them.

Render unto God. Let us render our hearts.

Credit Crunch

The effects of the Credit Crunch was very visible this morning. The builders on the project next doors to the Vicarage wrote this. "No Money, No Work No Hope". Three weeks ago the gaffer came and told us that they were off since the client had stopped paying. Since then there has been no activity.

In the last month I feel we all had a mini-A Level in Economics through the mass coverage of the new depression. I never had heard or imagined there existed such a thing as wholesale banking. I naively thought that when the bank said it had money it actually possessed it. But now we learn that Peter has been not only borrowing from Paul - he has creating a whole pyramid sales out of billions of dollars. I read that it probably amounts to 1 trillion pounds of money that doesnt actually exist but should. I know that you should not pay off a loan with a loan BUT surely the reverse is true you should not loan money from a loan.

I appreciate that capital and markets can be a good thing. Over the centuries credit has allowed the middle classes to access large sums of money in a way that otherwise would not have been possible. Without this we would either be in a command economy or feudalism. It has allowed people to cash in on their ideas, small businesses to become big businesses, etc. Without restriction this good for society can become an uncontrollable nemesis.

Now I fear we are seeing the effects of what mathematicians call a non-deterministic system going into peak resonance. This is the classic butterfly effect of chaos theory. My instinct is that just shoving large sums of tax payers money on it will do nothing. It may make it much more worse. This is because when a lot of help does not work the global panic becomes a whole lot bigger. Anyway, placing all our chips on the roulette table is the sign of serious addiction not sensibility. The best thing would have been to step back.

Webcam Homily on Saint Francis

My first attempt at a webcam sermon done in the living room. Probably too long and should have included lots of photo clips and charts. So apologies that this is a bit of an amateur effort.

Francis of Assisi

The church, TS Eliot wrote, must constantly be rebuilding and pulling down. These haunting words fit very well with the life of Giovanni Bernadone otherwise known as Francis of Assisi. I say this because in many ways his life was about rebuilding church. There is something of his successes and failures which I find tremendously inspiring. And I think for us to get anywhere in being missionary today we need to take on board the lessons of Francis.

As a youth he could settled with a fairly ordinary merchant class existence in the twelfth century Umbria. His father was a proud cloth merchant and Francis would no doubt inherit part of a successful business. Strangely his days as a womanising wild youth did not irritate his father as much as his religious conversion. The spiritual awakening occur ed around his early twenties and the story goes that while selling cloth a beggar came to him for amls. At the end of the encounter he ran after the man and gave him the contents of his pocket. His mates mocked him. Dad was not well pleased. Over the next few years military adventures turned sour followed by a period of illness where he began to disentangle himself from his pretentious lifestyle. He frequented meeting lepers and on one famous occasion kissed one.

The most amazing story for me about Francis is where he hears the voice of Jesus from the crucifix at the ruined church of San Damiano. "Go Francis and rebuild my house which you see is in disrepair." Francis immediately gets to the task and sells horses and cloth to help the local priest to get masonry, etc. It must have taken a while for him to appreciate that the Lord was not speaking of that church but the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of Jesus.

Today, you can go to Saint Damiano and see that cross, it is an extraordinary painted icon that has become instantly recognisable all around the world. I have always felt tremendously inspired that. I believe, passionately that Jesus calls each us to be part of the rebuilding of the Church. It was this very story which led to think maybe God was calling me to work in building up the church. At the age of 18 a priest gave me the card with the picture and the words. I think you can delete the word 'Francis' and put in your own. And I suspect this is why many go to that tiny church, especially many young people, and sit in the pews and dwell upon what God is calling them to do.

Francis did not have an easy life even after his conversion. He was not a natural organiser and by the time he reached his forties the brotherhood he formed, the friars minor, was not really what he had envisaged. It all got tangled up in ecclesiastical politics and lost much of its initial idealism. It became a business just as his father's carpet and cloth trade was a business. Francis was despondent.

Yet in the final weeks of his life he received the stigmata, the miraculous appearing of wounds of the cross upon his flesh. He is the first person we know who had this. This is why many say he was the nearest thing we had to Jesus in the second Millennium. He soon after died of eye cancer.

Francis' life continues to have a profound effect on the Christian experience. His challenge to a radical life cannot simply be swept under the carpet - if you pardon the pun. I feel that for me he is one of the jigsaw pieces that make up my own personal vocation story. And the question I feel he poses to us - how are we going to build church and what in that process do we need to pull down?

Your Story is Important

At the age of seventeen I picked up a slim paperback of the Gospel of Saint Luke and read it cover to cover. Being part of family which went to church I knew the basics of the story but somehow it had not touched me deeply. Weeks before my life was thrown upside down when I found my grandfather dead in the living room. He had adopted me and we were very close. And so I clung to every word from this little book offered. At the end when the two disciples in Emmaus remark ‘Did not our hearts burn inside when he (Jesus) spoke,’ I too could relate to this experience. I offer this story because I believe that each of us has a story to tell and in particular a spiritual story. In our more traditional liturgical settings we don’t give space to these testimonies. We maybe offer the sign of peace to our neighbour but do not know how God has spoken to them over the years. We too easily take these things for granted.

As a priest it is easy to get distracted in the hundred and one things that make up the business of running church. But one of the main tasks of a priest must be to hear the spiritual stories. Even the simple act of telling our story and being listened to can be surprisingly empowering and liberating.

So as a small beginning I offer anyone the opportunity to come and spend time telling me the story of God in their lives. It may be that stories include failures, doubts and struggles. Even these experiences can be strengthening and we should not be judgemental. We all have struggles. I do all of this not because I want to be nosy but because I think that this can build up our spiritual lives. Naturally this would be done in a context of confidentiality so that stories remain private.

The above article was put in the church magazine for the October issue. If you want to share your story on-line please feel free to. You could add it as a comment (public) or email it to me (confidential).

Angels, Archangels, Powers and Dominions

Many people in the New Age movement are interested in angels and have a belief in guardian angels looking after each of us. It is easy to criticise the New Age movement but on this occasion there are bridges that can be made to the Christian tradition. This is because it is difficult to imagine angels, who are personalities, without reference to THE ultimate person (or in Trinity theology - "persons").

The New Age movement does not engage with the idea of a personal God - which is the heart of the Christian message. So I would argue that we can use the concept of personal beings close to reflecting something of the nature of God. But even more theologically controversial is the Christian concept that angels are not the pinnacle of creation. We are.

Harvest Homilies

Having never celebrated Harvest Thanksgiving before I find myself having done six in seven days. Not bad for an initiation in 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter'.

I was a particularly fussy eater as a child and had a enourmous hate list which narrowed things down on the savory side to Steak and Kidney Pie, KFC and Heinz Ravoli. I recall at the age of six being put in detention with the tomato I wouldnt let touch my lips. Each time I found more crafty ways to hide my nemesis, out of windows, down the loo, under pot plants. Today I still hold some food hates, including mushrooms, cauliflower, and whites of eggs. Every year I have celebrated a Passover and to get into the spirit of things I made sure I go for the boiled egg in full. It reminds me that like the bitter herbs of Passover - our spiritual journeys includes the things we dont like.

The food I most appreciate is chocolate. I must border on addiction here. I lived in my paternal grandparents deli in Bruxelles for two years and they often had whole displays made from either chocolate or marzipan. Of course these shop window pieces all had to go and someone had to eat it!!! But in this more enlightened age we are asked to consider where does my chocolate come from? Who made it and at what cost? Is there someone at the other end of the world picking cocoa beans for a pittance so that I might enjoy it.

Food, the ones we like and the ones we don't, have much to prompt us to think about our neighbour and our spiritual journey. The greatest food is of course the bread of life, Jesus Christ, who comes to us in our Eucharist that we may feed on him. We eat so we may be transformed, or to quote St Augustine, we become what we eat.

Credit Crunchies

Are we reaping our own nemesis? In my opinion, for the past decade or so we have been fooled by an invisible inflation. It is invisble because the real cost of living was absorbed by the vast amount of credit people took out. The average personal debt is 17K. Without this credit we would have felt the real cost of living years back. This has kept inflation down at the expense of citizens. People were using credit cards not to buy luxury goods but to pay bills and buy food. Government should never have allowed this to happen. Millions of people are going to slowly sink into poverty if something is not done. I seem to remember usary (charging interest on a loan) being one of the worst sins in the Bible yet for the past two centuries the West has forgotten this.

Anyway today, I find myself having a new bank, I wonder what the logo will be? Howard riding a horse?

Democrats Just Dont Get It!

I remember big wigs in the Democrat Party in the last US election saying that they now realised they had to listen to the Christian voice after John Kelly (Heinz-means-beans!) lost. Although a Catholic Kerry was humilated by members of the heirarchy because of his pro-choice stance. Now after defeat there was going to be a move to dialogue with the moral majority, middle America, pro-life movements. So what was the result of all of this naval gazing - nothing? The party narrowed it down to Hillary Clinton, pro-choice, and Barak Obama, very pro-choice. And what amazes me is that they cannot understand why Sarah Palin has pulled the rug under their feet. Are they all lemings? Last year I prediced that the Democrats would lose and that McCain would become president. I stand by that bet. I cannot get my head around why the Democrats could not find a pro-life candidate? The same problem (to a lesser degree) seems to be here in Labour, a party which is divorcing itself from its Christian roots.

City Bonuses

When we first arrived here I recall this story. A local was selling his cottage in Salcombe and as we know this has statistically the highest house prices outside London. A young couple in their twenties were looking around the house and the owner cautioned them that the price was 650K and beyond most folks mortgages. The response was "we're using our christmas bonus money". The couple worked in the city. I wonder what the future lays ahead for people like this?

Being Church

Sunday Sermon - summary (Proper 18) Romans 13. 8-14 & Matthew 18.15-20

On paper it was a good sized vibrant congregation in an affluent suburb. Yet it hit the headlines not for its potential success but for the resignation of the young priest. The front page of regional tabloid read 'You lot are awful'! On the last Sunday the priest placed a damming editorial in the parish magazine which was subsequently leaked to the press. It hit the nationals a few days later. Journalists were able to come in and stir things up further with anonynmous quotes "he's reduced the congregation from 400 to 30" , "we're glad to see the back of him" and 'he was more interested in what happened in India parish link than here'. With division over doctrine this evangelical church tore itself apart. Church mediators were brought in unsuccessfully and the priest began to be signed off for stress. It was a shame that (a) he had to put in his article in the parish magazine clandestinely and (b) that there wasnt an attempt at serious reconciliation from the aggrieved group in the pews. The greatest shame was that a capable priest left ministry. I would like to underline the word 'left' a hundred times.

Years ago, I was at a jubilee anniversary of a Kent RC priest. He was (is) a bit eccentric, very much someone who tows the party line, loves the latin rite, etc. Yet people love him in the parish and liberals and conservatives get along and wave to each other through the clouds of incense. At this Mass he preached one line which was something like this - "If in 25 years of ministry I have wronged anybody then I truly apologise and however long ago this was would be willing to make up." I was dumbfounded.

A recent Church of Scotland ministries report said that congregation more and more are relying on mediation to try and repair divisions. It is a terrible shame if things get to this point. No doubt the pressures of a fast-paced aged with lots of change add to this. Churches in my experience experience disunity over doctrine, architecture, liturgy, leadership and youth. A good example might be a congregation divided over the removal of pews or the introduction of a woman priest. Sometimes these divisions have their roots in long long history. Other times the division is more to do with a clash in mission values.

The words of Christ in Matthew's gospel call us to consider what it means to be a congregation at peace with each other. The emphasis is to be proactive even when we feel we are wronged. The alternative is let things boil under the surface and for cliques to develop and their to be a lot backbitting. Whatever the wrongs or rights of any conflict Christian communities have a very serious commitment to being places of love, peace and harmony. To quote the song "We are one in the Spirit" - "And they'll know we are Christians by our love." Or to use the words of Terullian, the most cutting of early Church fathers, "See how those Christians love each other." This love will say more than any hundred carefully crafted sermons or beautifully arranged liturgies.

No wonder Paul says put on Christ, put on the armour of light. If we are not different, then God help us, everything is in vain.

A final story, a cautionary tale from thirty years ago. After some battles a church decided not to introduce the sign of the peace. Too many people within the pews loathed this new ritual. Above the church porch was a sign to inform visitors that this rite was out of their liturgy it read "There is no peace in this church."

1968

Sunday 31st August 2008 Romans 12. 9-21 Matthew 16.21-28

I was born in the age of new revolutions, new ideals and new liberty. 1968! French students nearly brought down their goverment, Martin Luther King spoke of seeing the promised land, and masses protested against the Vietnam War. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Roy Jenkins, pronounced that we lived in permissive society, and the old morals and certainties of the past seemed to many very outdated. Now was the time to live day by day and make love not war. Yet the Age of Aquarius never arrived; the Prague Spring was broken by Soviet invasion, the student strikes came to nothing, Martin Luther, Bobby Kennedy, were assasinated, Nixon was elected.

Beyond the 1960s the age of ideals seemed far away, if not something comical and farsical. In Britain next ten years seemed even bleaker, with fuel crises, three day weeks, and strikes. When my grandparents returned from two years in Belgium, the collapse of the value of the pound decimated what little savings they had. The saving grace was that the hey days of the 1960s had meant that they had quickly payed off their mortgage.

Another ten years down later and I was starting university and my generations version of the 1960s was in full swing. The Berlin Wall collapsed and with it the Soviet presence and the spectre of World War Three. TV and Computer technology was changing the way we thought of the world. Round the clock news meant we could watch minute by minute the first Gulf War unfold. The media or medium was becomming the message and institutions, political parties, and even royality, had to wake up to a new reality.

Our attentions were caught on a new kind of free marketism which taught us that if you wanted a job you had to study very hard and think less of changing the world. With no guarantees of employmet we became studius. Noses to the grind stone and less protesting, and no student sit ins.

Within that period of late 80s, early 90s, I began to be nagged by a feeling of vocation. Yet like many of my generation, I felt, and still do feel, a stranger in the Church, an outsider looking in. At Sixth Form, few of my classmates had anything to do with Christianity. Over a generation the church which had confidently planted new buildings seemed to be wobbling. A generation before most middle class Britains went to church and a good section of their children went to Sunday School. I went to Canterbury to study computing half thinking I would find answers. in a place of pilgrimage. I did make lots of Christian friends. But I found the Cathedral to be something of a Disney park (sorry) lacking warmth. And at that time , 1988, the student chaplaincy, which one would have expected to be bursting, had about 20-30 members.

At the end of a Decade of Evangelisation, three years ordained, I personally wondered where we we where spiritually as a nation. The "decade" seemed a daft idea, a bit like the BBC having a day of broadcasting. It was not helped by national leadership on the millennium which seemed to want to take Anno Domini out of it and make it a secular knees up, a bit like 'community sing-song' in Brave New World. The new century dawned in all kinds of visions and ideals and things seemed up-beat. Then on September 11th New York American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 changed our mood of optism. A new iron curtain seemed to be rising which tore across civilisations, religions and cultures.

I can see much of the optimism of 1968 in Romans 12 but I think that the reality of being a Christian (and growing a Christian presence) has to be rooted in discipleship. (Matthew 16) It's easy to claim rights or speak of love and tolerance and forget sacrifice and duty. The apostles, like Peter, probably expected some kind of snap revolution which would bring down the Romans either by blood or flower power. Jesus' path to Jerusalem indicated another, more profoud way. Love, to paraphrase McCartney, 'may be all we need', but that love has to be rooted in the Cross of the Saviour. Has the Christian community in this country really appreciated this over 40 years? Or was it something that we tried to jettison so as to make the message more user-friendly? Time will tell.

Each generation has its own challenges, joys and grief. The baby boomers of 1968 are now approaching retirement and they have their own legacy, good and bad. People like me now find myself sitting at desks actually incharge of something and thinking 'How does this work?' and 'What can I say of any use?' and 'Am I middle aged?' Beyond all my pessimism and efforts to rubbish 1968, I find a sacred place within and without which prompts me to see that God will not abandon us and the Body of Christ, despite it efforts, will succeed.

Hope Cove Weekend

The Hope Cove Weekend starts on Saturday just as the August Bank Holiday swings in. I'm told this is the busiest weekend of the year. The church is holding a very informal half-hour service at 11am on Sunday down by the Hope and Anchor. Why not come and join us.

Dawkins on Channel 4!

Does Channel Four have a love affair with Richard Dawkins? This time they have given him a three part mini series on Charles Darwin to which he can have his rants on religious faith. I caught ten minutes of this week and couldn't believe my eyes as he had a go at some science teachers for not trying to "reason" children out of religious faith. In terms of impartiality I cant see them giving the same time for the Archbishop of Canterbury, let alone the same editorial power. If they did it would probably have some added scandal or warped twist to it.

I'm not a creationist and I could easily sit and watch a TV programme about Darwin with some interest. I do think Richard Dawkins is a narrow minded self-publicist who has little idea about religion.

Is Your Church Kosher?

sunday Sermon - 17th August 2008 - Matthew 15. 10-28

As my friends gave their orders to the impatient New York waiter I dithered not seeing anything I fancied. “Do you do shrimps?” The waiter’s face was expressionless. “What about a hot dog?” His face was motionless. “Okay” I persisted “What about a nice bacon carbonara.” My colleagues looked horrified and the waiter rolled his eyes. “You may have noticed Father that half my café is staring at you. Okay, its not every day we see a priest here. But you’ve just qualified as the smuck of the day, because unlike your friends you have not realised this is café is kosher!”

In this Sunday’s reading we have an example of St Matthew puts in a good amount of stories and quotes about Jesus and kosher, rituals, and the Torah. It is accepted that the evangelist has a particular Jewish audience in mind. Not only is he telling the greatest story ever told but without actually writing it down he is asking questions about what kind church is Jesus wanting us to develop? (He is the only evangelist to use the word ‘church’ in his gospel.)

Reading between the lines, I would suggest, that in those days two kinds of churches existed side-by-side. The first we might call the Kosher Church. This is largely Jewish synagogues who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah and stick largely to circumcision, kosher foods and cleansing rituals. The second type of congregation one might call ‘Eleventh Hour’ and has some Jewish Christians but is bursting with Gentile converts. We can infer that there was a lot of friction between the two and this gospel is composed to bring about a reconciliation.

And so the writer very cleverly cuts and pastes stories to highlight this. We have today Jesus saying it is not that which goes into the mouth which makes us unclean but what comes out. The disciples tell their master that the Pharisees are really upset by this. Following this bit of teaching we have the Canaanite woman begging for her daughter to be exorcised. This story is purposely placed to show how she is more driven, more faithful and ultimately more illuminated than the so-called professional teachers of the Law (Torah). Yet she is a Gentile, and a particular type of pagan who was despised, hence the reference to ‘dogs’.

Well that’s an interesting story with a bit of theology and history thrown. It seems hardly relevant to us today does it? Kosher churches did not survive because they closed their doors to outsiders. Beyond the apostles wildest dreams it was the Eleventh Hour churches that grew and grew and grew. The lesson for us is that whatever church, tradition, or denomination we are called, commanded to grow.

The problem is that most of our churches today are Kosher churches in another guise. This is no fault of their own because they had and continue to have some use and are part of God’s plan. Kosher churches in today’s world are communities that have been around for a very long time and have created their own customs, rituals and rules. They are good at giving a sense of history even awesomeness but poor at radically looking outside themselves.

I have another café anecdote to share. A bunch of students stumbled into a tea room. It was five to five and the manager was beginning to wipe the tables. The students asked for food but were basically told off for disturbing her routine and fobbed off with cans of juice. When one of the students said that they were really hungry and would pay extra for something, anything to eat, the manager still refused. Then she began to whip up sandwiches and cakes like no tomorrow and was unctuous to the point of nausea. She had just refused hospitality to Prince William.

In chapter twenty, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven with the workers of the vineyard. The men at the eleventh hour get the same wage and this rattles the others.

But an eleventh hour spirituality looks not to the inner life of the church but the VAST majority of people who have had no contact with Christianity. Without ditching the orthodoxy of the faith this means putting aside many customs and attitudes of a club. It means being humbled by the fact that we have a long way to go before we evangelise the nineteen thousand people who have decided not to come to worship today. It means that when they do come, we don’t close the doors and call time, or chat to ourselves, but see them as the primary purpose for us being here.

I’ll end with a story of what not to do. A man came to church and got a bit excited at the vicar’s sermon. He shouts “Praise the Lord!’. People shuffle in pews. A official goes up to him and says “Excuse me sir, in this church, we do not praise the Lord.”

Parish Fete

The parish fete is on today from 2pm onwards open by TV Presenter Adam Hart-Davis. Everything is indoors this time just in case the weather does not hold out. Come and have a rumage and support the church.

Regatta Week at Salcombe

Even with a little dreary weather (Tuesday and Sunday) the Regatta has got into full swing. Yesterday we watched the teddy bears being parachuted from the church tower to raise money for Regatta charities. The queue was increbible and a lot good will prevailed. Afterwards this was followed by a fancy dress procession and parade.

The town is heaving and for a newcomer like me its quite a contrast to our arrival in sleepy January. Here's the rest of the programme for the week. Park and Ride is running at Bonfire Hill. Please use this facility and avoid the congestion especially on the firework night.

Tuesday
5.30pm Rowing
7.30pm Crab Catching for Adults @ Victoria Quay

Wednesday
10am Sailing
10.30 Sale of Duck Race Tikcets from Kings Arms Beer Garden
12.30pm Charity fundraising lunch in the church
2pm Sandcastle Competition at South Sands
5.30 Rowing
6pm Pavement Drawing outside the Plaice Cafe
6pm Candlelit Compline in the church

Thursday
10am Sailing
10.30amDuck Race Tickets for sale
3pm Children's Sports at Cliff House Gardens
4.30pm Mud Race
5.30pm Rowing
6.30pm Junk Band @ Whitestrand Car Park
7pm Line Dancing @ Whitestrand Car Park
8.30pm Junk Band @ above
9.45pm Water Torchlight Procession & Firework Display

Friday
9.45am Service of Holy Communion in the church
10.30am Sale of Duck Tickets
2pm Swimming Gala
7pm Crabber's Race
7.30pm Sailing Prize-Giving @ Cliff House

Saturday
8.30am Rowing
10am Duck Race @ Cliff House Gardens
(Please note there are traffic restrictions in the town all afternoon from 1 to 7pm)
5pm RED ARROWS Air Display

Sunday
11am Prize Giving

If you are free at 10am the church is having its family service which includes a baptism and talk from the owners of the Wordwise Cafe, Kingsbridge, on the importance of the Bible.

St Andrew's South Huish

On Sunday 3rd August at 3pm we are having our yearly service at St Andrew's Church, South Huish. This ruined church lies not far from the beach at Thurlstone and is within the Benefice. Weather permitting we will have a Eucharist followed by picnic.

The readings reflect that God is building and rebuilding, that Christ is our cornerstone and the the Gospel is the foundation to our lives as Christians. One my favourite stories is of how the young Francis of Assisi visited runied church of St Damiano and when he looked up at the icon cross he heard Christ's voice - "Francis, go and rebuild my church, which you see is in ruin." Hurriedly he did not realising until later that his master was actually talking about the universal brotherhood.

TS Eliot said that the Church is constantly in need of building and rebuilding. Like the bread at the Eucharist the Church is taken, blessed, broken and given back. I think we come to places like not only to hallow the memory of its sacredness, or even to perpetuate worship, but to offer our lives to building of his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Differing Feasts Differing Leaders

Reflection on Sunday's Reading for Proper 13: Matthew 14.13-21

I saw a T-shirt not so long ago with the infamous words printed in big bold letters 'Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher'. Below the words was the face not of Hitler but of Christ. 'One people, one kingdom, one leader'. It was a clever Christian pun. Words of the most evil dictator given new meaning so as to embody a Gospel vision.

Adolf Hitler won hearts and minds on a truly grand scale. His crazed speeches, the dark theatre of the rallies, and the Nazi vision of a new world persuaded many millions to passionately follow him. His tyrannical path led not a new world but an abyss of death and suffering on a scale never seen before. Right up to May 1945 this delusioned mind not only believed he was the Furher, the leader, but that in some mystical way, he was Germany itself.

With less of the resources and not so much meglomania Herod Antipas may not be on the same league as Adolf Hitler. But Matthew the evangelist places two feasts side by side to seemingly to contrast the cowardly destopic rule of Herod with the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. First we have the execution of John the Baptist whose personality and ministry appears to unnerved Herod and aggrevated Herodias. This was done during birthday meal of a king titilated and manipulated by a girl's exotic dance. In the next passage we have the miraclous feeding of the five thousand in the wilderness by Jesus.

One is a rich banquet filled with powerful people, movers and shakers in the kingdom. The other "feast", is a rag bag collection of people following a new prophet into the middle of nowhere. Both gatherings were probably not that officially kosher, groups and individuals who normally would not be seen together.

The ones who followed Jesus we are told came into the wilderness with with nothing. This in itself is extraordinary and gives us a window into to the effect that Jesus had on people. How many of us would gladly march into the middle of Dartmoor without so much as a packed lunch or raincoat AND bring our families with us?

We can't unpick the motives of these people in running into the wilderness for the man from Galilee. Were they looking for cure to their infirmities? Did they expect to march on Jerusalem and overthrow the Romans? Did they want to hear this man's extraordinary teaching? Certainly Matthew want us think of Jesus as a new Moses, drawing a new people into a wilderness. Like their ancestors they will experience God's providence and witness manna, bread, from heaven. Remember it was in the wilderness that the Hebrews were tested and formed. It was here that God gave them the commandments and sealed the Covenant. From a disperate bunch of ex-slaves, underdogs and refugees God forged a people. It was their defining moment, and remains to this day. "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher."

Sometimes reading the gospel a word pops out at us that we probably hadn't seen the significance. We become so familiar with the text that we casually skim over the surface. For me the word that suddenly popped up is in verse nineteen, and the word is 'grass'. Why mention grass at all? "And he (Jesus) ordered the crowd to sit down on the grass." To dwell on this I have to think of the climate of the Israel. A deserted place for us in the UK would probably be moor land or some barren fields with lots of grass. But in Jesus' own land grass is not so prevailant. So to mention grass cannot be so casual a remark. The land of deserted place would probably be dry and arid, hot, and barren. So the reference grass signifies to me springtime with its symbolism of growth, renewal, hope. The environment is emulating the miracle. Jesus is God's springtime.

In this springtime we can intially come to the Lord, like those disciples, with very little to give to the multitudes, two fish and fives loaves. And if you feel like this, you are not alone, I experience this sense of inadequacy, daily. I see it when I flick through the news channels and look at the effects of the global food problems. I find myself despairing What can I possibly give that would make any difference? I see it when I look at the task of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. I sense beyond all the hype of secularisation ordinary people remain spiritually hungry and stuck in the neon wilderness of modernity. Statistically our church institutions seem to have so few resources to make any real impact. Its so frustrating!

But the Gospel story presses me on to offer what little I have. I believe Jesus says to each of us "They need not go away; you give them something to eat" (Verse 16).

Smooth Sailing Saints

Short Commentary and Sunday Sermon on Romans 7:15-25 and Matthew 11.16-30

With lots of conference space the seminary held a weekly AA meeting to which some students went along as part of their pastoral placement. In the introductions one member talked about his struggles to keep to his work - he was a guitarist. A new member, a rather goofy local vicar, invited him to come and play at their church and join the choir "We'd love to see you for the family service!" This quiet humble man gently mumbled that he might just do that. The group went silent. People began to roar with laughter. The vicar had invited to his Sunday liturgy - Eric Clapton. Probably the world's most celebrated guitarist.

Listening to chapter seven of Paul's letter to Romans much of it seems foreign to our modern ears. "I do not do the thing I want to but I do the thing I hate." We might think that Paul had a problem with self-esteem and that he really needed to go on a course to build himself up? It is a shame that we did not begin with verse 14; it reads, "We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am un-spiritual, sold as a slave to sin. " Again, I cannot imagine that if one went to a New Age practitioner, we would get that, since the Mind, Body and Spirit philosophy, is that we are all somehow "spiritual".

If you have ever read Cold Comfort Farm, or seen the TV adaption, you may think I am about to deliver an impression of the fiery preacher of the Quivering Brethren, "Are you quivering yet brothers? Do ye not feel the scorching flames of hell licking?" I don't think I would pull this off with much authority since even my toddler son giggles when I tell him off. But I think the gentler wisdom of Dickens would be good to reflect on. "Know your debts!" The words of advice given to David Copperfield at the beginning of his adventures. The debts here, are more than just money, but about knowing ourselves as we really are - not kidding ourselves. The Proverbs say, "A wise man knows himself". In Scotland, people say in the Our Father, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive those indebted to us."

So within Paul is a spiritual warfare. Not because he is a doom and gloom preacher or self-tortured but because he has come to know the glory of God. The difference between Paul and the modern man, is that Paul measures goodness by Jesus Christ alone. We tend to think of ourselves as good on a scale of averages. "I'm as good as the next bloke" But what if the bar was not some statistical average but Jesus Christ? Then as Paul says, we realise that "All have fallen short".

The AA programme I mentioned at the beginning starts its 12 steps with step 1 as "We admit we are powerless over alcohol (or whatever)—that our lives have become unmanageable." You could replace the word alcohol with any addiction and even with the word 'sin'. And let us not imagine sin as an unhelpful word but as about understanding ourselves as we are. Sin surely then means the separation between God and neighbour? "Am I my brother's keeper?" said Cain of Abel who he secretly murdered. Sin then describes a compulsion we all have to pull ourselves away from communion with God and our fellow human beings.

Many alcoholics never get to step 1 because they cannot admit that they are powerless. In doing so , they never receive power. This I believe is a key to living a grace filled life. In my last parish George (I have changed his name) was a chronic alcoholic. He drank litre bottles of cheap cider every day, his liver was barely functioning, he lost his wife and his employment. He looked like a skeleton and an old man. Yet he was younger than me. It took him years to hit rock bottom. It happened one night, when he rang our door at 11pm in floods of tears, scared witless because he was booked in for an intense AA residential programme. Thank God. Months later we met him again. He was a changed man when he walked through the doors of the church. He still retained the scars but he had stopped drinking. It was only by admitting that he was powerless had be been able to receive power. He isn't morose, he's full of joy, yet he understands his addiction, his sin. George took me to his house and up in his bedroom he showed me a poster that had helped me survive. It was the famous footsteps dream.

Jesus harshest words are for the smooth-sailing saints. We missed verses 19 to 24 in Matthew which listed the towns and villages. But they rejected any thing that rocked the boat; John the Baptist - too gritty pious - Jesus Christ - a drunk and a glutton who mixes with sinners. They were the sinners and it was people like them who stitched him up on Good Friday. We also missed verse 14, one of my favourites, which tells us that the kingdom of Heaven is being stormed by violent men and violent men are seizing it. Who are the violent men?

The Greek for violent can also be interpreted as enthusiastic. So what Jesus is probably saying is the ultimate insult to the religious self-righteous. They are being taken out of God's plan and are no longer in the front-line. The front-line of God's revolution is these new enthusiasts, people in other words, who have become spiritually powerful by acknowledging that they are powerless. They have experienced rock bottom and been lifted up.

Your Hired

The latest series of the Apprentice remains compelling viewing as the show approaches its end. Who will win - who will be fired? I find myself watching it and wondering what would I do in such and such task? How would I personally rise to the challenge without hopefully becoming a thug in the boardroom? The scary part of the show is that when you are fired then that is that and you take your bags and go home then and there. No time is lost.

Do I believe that God has hired me? Yes, I do. A few weeks a go I recalled the story of being 17 when a friend knocked on the door and said "I'm going to be a priest!" and I replied out of blue I replied "So am I?" It was as sudden as that. Yet I don't feel that God hired me at that point, as extreme as that was. I hold that God hired me on June 10Th 1972; the date of my baptism. And the task? The challenge? The task is the task God gives to every Christian, to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and to co-operate with the Holy Spirit in making earth Heaven.

Levi, or Matthew, was hired very suddenly. Jesus said "follow me" and he did, leaving his controversial employment. We can only speculate why Matthew responded so specularly? Could it be that in his profession he had little else to lose? Or maybe, if any of us came into the presence of Jesus Christ our hearts would feel moved to do something then and there, a snap decision.

The task for the baptised in this century is monumental. Believe you me, the challenges of secularisation and climate change are going to rock our societies like never before. How will the Christian children of this century help the spreading of the Gospel and the work of making earth into heaven? We cannot just leave the faith formation of our children to someone else. The Church cannot shrug and say it is the parents and the parents cannot shrug and say it is the Church? There has to be a creative partnership. This means that the Church values the creative input of young people and their leadership. It also means that parents need to buy into the concept of children being spiritual. I quite frankly believe that if we dont do this the Church of England, and other denominations like it, will CEASE to exist in twenty odd years time. Cease to exist!

Ephesians 6, is my favourite Bible reading. "Put on the armour of God." Its about making a conscious effort to be a Christian and not just drifting. I want to give you an example here. The EU directive on employment was put into force in the UK under the Employment Regulations Directive December 2003 for Religion or Belief Discrimination. It states that Employers need to make provision for prayer rooms. I told my last congregatin this. A gentleman and new convert in my last church took up saying daily prayers of Morning, Midday, Evening and Compline prayers. He went to his employer, Cine World and asked for a prayer room. Why not! Guess what, he got a space allocated. Not the best, but he got one. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to start knitting our own prayer mats and showing our employers our prayer books. Once they know we are praying at work, they'll know we Christians, they may start to be a bit more ethical, and they will know we are serious.

The wonderful thing about being hired by the Almighty is that he his a far better employer that Alan Sugar, even though he does like us to be equally candid in the boardroom. The rewards are eternal. However, we should be careful, and take the work of God seriously, lest we find ourselves at some future date at the pearly gates, duly, fired.

A Sermon on the Sermon on the Mount

Mark Twain's tells a story of an encounter with a man who managed to combine the veneer of being highly religious with a ruthless business career. "Before I die," he boasted, "I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb to the top of Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud." "I have a better idea," answered Mark Twain. "Why don't you stay right at home and keep them?"

In addition to the pew sheet this Sunday I have included today the complete text of the Sermon on the Mount with headings breaking it down. It has turned around many people’s lives and remains the most famous sermon in history. Sometimes it is good to take a piece of scripture like this and read it afresh, as if you had never heard it. The paper sheet hopefully makes it more accessible and can be folded up and read at work or leisure. It is not a lengthy text, and for those who take pleasure in mints during my weekly offerings may find something still left.

You will notice that today’s extract, (chapter 7 verse 21 onwards) is the end of the sermon. It is the most challenging section for us, religious people, and if it does not make you and I uncomfortable then we are not reading it properly.

Religious people have tried to drown the message of Jesus in two ways, the first is crucify the Lord himself while the second is to mere pay lip service to the Gospel. We do this because with all our baggage of pride and faults we tend to pigeon hole our faith as one part, and only one part, of our whole life. That was the point that Mark Twain was make. Pride makes us ostentatious and hypocritical.

One of my favourite philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard is quoted as saying "The Christianity of the New Testament simply does not exist. Instead, millions of people through the centuries have cunningly sought little by little to cheat God out of Christianity, and have succeeded in making Christianity exactly the opposite of what it is in the New Testament."

Similarly, Gandhi famously said that Christianity was a good idea and would have a wonderful effect on the world when put into practice.

In Britain we are not helped by the common mentality of seeing religion incorrectly as something purely individual and private. The message seems to be from some quarters that bringing your faith into the public sphere is almost vulgar and bad taste. Alisdair Campbell, famously said ‘We don’t do God’ in an attempt to divert attention away from Tony Blair’s religious convictions. The fear was that voters might be put off. Remember as well in 2006, Nadia Eweida, a British Airways worker who was sacked for wearing a small Christian cross. BA bosses argued that the wearing of a cross was not an intrinsic part of her faith in the same way a Muslim woman might wear a veil or a Sikh man, a turban.

This culture of keep faith private I would suggest encourages us to think we can live Monday to Saturday with one set of values while keeping Gospel on Sundays. At work we walk all over people, hire and firing like Sir Alan Sugar but offer the kiss of peace at church. We can do the will of the Father but only in some areas of our lives.
This privatisation of Christianity impacts on the way nations work. If the Gospel has to stay out of politics then can we surprised when justice falters, the vulnerable are marginalized, and human life is measured by its quality rather than its sanctity?
Thomas Hardy once wrote:
"Peace upon earth!" was said, We sing it,And pay a million priests to bring it.After two thousand years of massWe've got as far as poison-gas.
What should we do then?

Living Sermon on the Mount is a mountainous task. Look at the kind of holiness that Jesus calls us to. To be salt and light to the world, to love enemies, to rely on God rather than things, to be religious without being showy, not to judge, to go beyond the ten commandments and not just to slavishly follow them.

Can I ask for a show of hands from anyone who thinks they have achieved all of these? To be honest, we are stuffed. Jesus was able to do this because he followed perfectly the will of the Father. He taught with authority, he taught with his life.

A lawyer friend of mine went to court in a new suit. The judge refused to address him. He kept barking “I do not see you!” Bewildered the lawyer turned to a colleague who whispered “You’re wearing a brown suit.” Court was adjourned while he changed to black.

Our worst nightmare must being rejected by gentle Jesus meek and mild. Imagine the Lord saying “I do not see you!” or “You are not part of my work on earth!” But if we are stuffed then we are also blessed. And this why that first chapter of Romans we heard is not simply in the lectionary by chance. Saint Paul reminds us that we are put right not by efforts in keeping even the Gospel commandments, but by faith in Jesus Christ and his offering himself on the Cross.

Pennies from Heaven

We've just put on the church website www.salcombechurch.co.uk a link to easyfundraising. This allows on-line shopper and folk using search engines to help the church funds. Every time you use one of these major on-line shops or search engines through our link we get a small percentage at no extra cost to you. Its win win.

Some recent funny church bulletins

They're Back! Church Bulletins: Thank God for the church ladies who type them. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals. The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery down stairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.

The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

The Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM . The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

The associate priest unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours

Mid-season Trailer of Doctor Who

For sci-fi fans of Doctor Who here is the new trailer for the next series.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/videos/?episode=S4_08&character=&action=videostream&playlist=/doctorwho/playlists/s4_08/video/s4_08_trl_02.xml&video=1&date=&summary=A%20special%20preview%20of%20what


It is interesting to note how the whole concept of multiverses has grown since CS Lewis' Narnia Chronicles. The cosmological theory that our universe is one of many, or even an infinite number of universes has been developed by a number of fantasy/sci-fi writers. According to the theory each universe is slightly different from the next. Some theoriests have even posited the idea that every action in this universe creates a spontanous flowering of universes. Therefore for every action you do there could be a universe where your actions are played out differently.


CS Lewis had Narnia as one of many alternative worlds and this gave him the opportunity to explore what the redemptive plan might have been like elsewhere. Philip Pullman's athiestic children's novels, the 'His Dark Materials', is based on a multiverse concept and the first story imagines a world strangely not unlike ours. The new series of Doctor Who also uses this concept and in 2006 series 2 saw an earth where humans become cybermen and cross over into our reality. The trailer for the next part of this series implies that this is idea played out again with the evil Davros (creator of the Daleks) trying to expunge our universe.


Over the past three years I have been working on my own children's book- something of a tribute to the Narnia concept. It is called 'Deep Magic' and takes some rough kids from a rather grotty council estate to a distopia where they have to prevent a book falling into the hands of an evil Alchemist. When we lived and ministed in a housing estate in Aberdeen I initially wanted to write a version of Narnia for the kids we got to know. I felt CS Lewis' style was a bit too 'Famous Five' to be accessible for these young people and they needed something grittier. Now I also feel that the Pullman attack on the Christian faith needs to be redressed.

Our God Rains

After a promising Sunday afternoon with folks hitting the beaches on the Bank Holiday weekend, the weather turned to a miserable drizzle on Monday. Yet with its own little eco-system Salcombe did not get it as bad as the rest of the country. Bizaar as it may seem we had relatives from Scotland visit us where there is a little heat wave.

Law Tightens on Psychics and Mediums

As from today the UK law expects psychis, mediums, clairvoyants to make clear that their trade is purely entertainment. I bet they didnt see that coming!

Raising the Bar - Sermon on the Mount

My best pal knocked on the door and said to me 'I'm going to be a priest'. I replied "So am I!" At the age of 17 I had no inclination to become a priest and was hoping to enter the world of geekdom and be a computer scientist. My reply to my friend surprised myself and I must emphasise that the thought had not crossed my mind. It came out of the blue.

Weeks before that I had started reading the scriptures for the first time. The Sermon on the Mount was one of the first encounters I had with the teaching of Jesus. This and many other texts, I poured over, devoured, enthused by its radicalness.

Christ's words in the Sermon seemed to speak to me directly. I believed in a 'God' out there and I believed that he had a Son. I was a religious boy and probably stood out in my class as someone who against convention went to Church. Most of my contemporaries in my confirmation group had since drifted away. But I believe that for God this was not enough and He demanded more from me. Up until then I was sleepwalking into self-righteousness.

The most challenging of words really hit home; "For if you love only those who love, what reward do you have?" This cut me to the quick. It destabilised my spiritual foundation. Faith in action meant walking the extra mile and loving beyond the security of family and friends. It meant, and still means, doing the maximum rather than getting away with the minimum.

Because this was the bottom line of much of the rabbinical debate of the age of Jesus; ie. what is the least a devout person can do to follow the Torah, the Law, and therefore be saved? Holiness then got measured in a dry empty practice of religion rather than a radical life-giving spirituality. The synagogue became a holy club which largely excluded the poor and marginalised. Religious people thought themselves different but they were no different from any others. They read about holiness in Leviticus and other books but forgot the heart of its mandate was the care of the poor and hospitality to strangers.

We cannot underestimate how difficult it is to follow the Sermon on the Mount. It takes no effort to preach the love of enemies but mountenous to do. I think of Jimmy Mizen, 16, from Lee in London who was stabbed to death in his local bakery recently. A gentle giant who loved life, popular at school, served at church. His mother is quite adamant that she must forgive his 19 year old murderer and reach out to his parents. How many of us would be able to say the same thing? Is this not true holiness?

I really worry that our churches are not inspiring our young adults to follow Jesus Christ. Not only has the culture of regular catechesis and teaching disappeared but more significantly the offer of a radical life in Jesus seems no longer verbalised. If the bar is not raised then few will follow.

Salcome bank holiday

A blustery day has made Salcombe perfect for sailing. Its been wonderful to watch the hundreds of boats out in the harbour racing about. The town too is heaving and its our first experience of a really buzy Salcombe weekend.

Commons Fails to Reform Abortion Law

I have just watched live on TV the House of Commons debate on reducing the time limit for abortions. Sadly each motion, to reduce to 12, 16 and 20 weeks did not pass. The pro-choice arguments failed to address the humanity of the unborn child. Is what is in the womb a human being with potential or a potential human being? I know which I believe.

What we seem to have created in Western society is a moral system based on emotivism. So for example, if I "feel" the child in the womb is not human then it must not be human. This is irrespective of the objective truth of the matter, ie, the feotus is a human being. It is a consumerist philosophy where we buy into, or pick and choose, what we think suits. Beyond the womb, I believe this can make us turn a blind eye to other ethical questions. Do the poor and starving people exist if I can't see them? If I dont "feel" moved to help then do I have to help? Surely we should by virtue help those who are in poverty becuase ?

None of this is to take away the awful plight of women caught up the dilemna of having an abortion. It is a dreadful situation for many of these women and I suspect all sides on the abortion argument could agree that support from the wider society is lacking and that many of these women are also victims of society turning a blind eye and looking for a quick solution.

Baltic Exchange 3

On Saturday Salcombe people celebrated the Christening of the Baltic Exchange 3 RNLI lifeboat. Over 800 people crowded in the town centre to see the proceedings. Seven old lifeboats lined up behind the ship to salute her in an amazing sight. The rain did not dampen spirits and Salcombe and Malborough school choirs along with Kingsbridge Community School Music group provided wonderful musical backing. The vicar particularly enjoyed going for a spin on the boat and it took all his strength not to touch any of the hi-tech buttons.

Richard Dawkins Really Irritates

Last week I got particularly irrittated by the nation's evangelist for athiesm Richard Dawkins. Given airspace on Radio 4 he babbled on about religion being not founded on reason and that believers like me are simply talking to an imaginary friend rather than praying to God. He is entitled to his opinions but I cannot believe he was let off the hook so easily on religion, in particular Christianity, being unreasonable. For something to be devoid of reason it would have to be incoherent, implausible, and illogical.


It strikes me that it is quite valid to believe that an intelligent reasonable being was able to create the universe from nothing. Further more, it I can't see anything unreasonable or illogical in believing that this being would incarnate himself into a living human being. You may not believe it, you may not like it, but you have to accept that it is possible. Likewise it is no dimunition to someones intelligence to believe in this. Instead we should remember that some of the best brains have been, and are, practising Christians.

So if there any militant athiests out there, come on, tell me how is my faith unreasonable?

School Gets Award

Hoorah!!! Salcombe Church Primary School has just won the Quality Mark awarded by the Basic Skills Agency. We cannot underestimate just how difficult it is to get this. So well done to the headteacher, staff and pupils! This is real gold standard stuff! For more stuff about the school why not visit the website is http://www.salcombe-primary.devon.sch.uk/index.htm

Four Weeks of Youth Services

Its been great that from Easter onwards we have had four main services at Salcombe which have focussed on children and youth. Easter Day was packed with families and chilren (over 300), then we had a baptism, then the family Eucharist, and then the visiting choir from Streatham, Bishop Thomas Grant School. This has really helped demonstrate to the wider world that we are serious about being a young people and family friendly church.

The Shrine to the Unknown God

At a wedding I conducted at Kings College University chapel Aberdeen last year the best man tried to be cocky about the existence of God. This was a few minutes before the service started and I felt somewhat decidedly not in the mood. In the vestry he joked how if we had time he would intellectually spar with me, because he had read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Smiling I gave the quote from the psalmist; 'The fool has said in his heart there is no God'. We scoffed at each other. He was very soon to get a bigger headache than the one caused by the stagger the night before. (Who has a stag night before their wedding these days?) As he stepped out of the vestry into the courtyard one of God's winged creatures dropped what seemed like divine judgement. I have never seen such good targeting since Bomber Harris returned from his dam busting mission. The burly man delayed our ceremony as he screeched for Head and Shoulders to resurrect his mop.

Its not easy arguing the Christian faith and the existence of God these days. But I think we can get solace that what goes around comes around. Sunday's reading from Acts 17.22-31 shows that Paul faced an intellectual climate not unlike our own. Athens was not the glorious centre of civilisation that it had once been and had been in decline under the shadow of Rome. Yet it retained something of cultural hub popular with philosophers and devotees of the ancient Greek religions. To be able to lecture here you had to get a license and although the society was fairly liberal the license was not automatic. Some preachers and lectures could be seen as a danger to the status quo.

In his debate Paul encounters two schools of philosophy; the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicurians believed the gods,if they existed, were disinterested in us. The world as they saw it was solely material constructed from atoms. When you die that is it. The Stoics held that God was the universe and all of us emanate from it. We are all part of God and our divine spark returns to God after our death. It's not a great intellectual leap to see that this compares closely with much of the culture and thinking of today, especially here in this country. The Christian who lifts his or her head above the parapet is often confronted by either athiests or new agers, Epicureans or Stoics.

Paul's genius is that he didnt bring out old tired arguments but addressed these armchair philosophers in their own intellectual dialect. Now and again I have heard red-faced evangelists get into wild arguments with scoffing athiests and a lot of scripture is thrown around with arguments about Jesus saving. The athiests simply side-step the Scripture because it has no authority to them. They have intellectually built up an Aunt Sally, a vision of religion that does not match the reality. Likewise the New Agers will calmly inform us that all religious institutions are destructive forces that will wash away when the Age of Aquarius come in. Each us, is our own God, they let us believe. It is very difficult to argue with these folks since one group is invariably evasive while the other is slippery.

Paul's words begin with reference to the altar of the unknow god. He then beautifully uses an old philosophical quote about the God in whom we move and have our being. God is unknow to the Epicureans because they are more comfortable with the idea of a distant deity. The arguments are simpler if you either dont believe in God or think he's not really involved. It then becomes culturally unfashionable to believe in an involved God. Today, as then, athiesm is largely intellectual laziness and cultural snobbishness. It is a lack of willingness to go deeper. In a similar way the Stoic's God is unknown because he impersonal. New Ager philosophy largely dismisses the personal God because its easier to fashion God into our own image.

We are not going to get anywhere unless we begin on the same wavelength and speak to the culture as it is. It is no good pulling out proof-texts in the Bible. Rather we need to begin with where these people are at, only from this point will we be listened to. Many struggle to see how God allows suffering in our world and it is our task to gently and humbly unfold the mystery of God in Christ on the Cross. St Peter strongly admonishes us to always have our defence arguments ready. But these are not just intellectual arguments, but a witness to a whole spirituality or what he calls 'The hope that is within you'. (1 Peter 15b)

If we are feeling nervous we should recall the words from Gospel, Jesus promises us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit (John 14.15-21). Not only will the Advocate give us the words we need, but the same Spirit will give us the joy of knowing that we are loved by the universal Father. If we carry this joy and day by day make more room for love, then spiritual orphans will catch a glimpse too of him who said "You will see me, because I live, you also live." (John 14.19)

Tony's Story

In August 2004, Tony Burke was one of five men from different walks of life picked to go to Worth Abbey for a BBC reality TV show called the Monestery. Tony arrived at Worth without a clue about religion and God. In his own words;

"God doesn't exist. Church is for old people who smell of wee. Priests are running from life. Theologians are on a meal ticket attempting to answer the unanswerable question of the existence of God, and will
flesh it out until they retire to Spain... etc."

Tony worked as an editor of on-line adult magazine and went into the whole thing as something of a joke. After a while he began to respect the monks and their community life but by the end remained a sceptic, if not a respectful sceptic.

At his last meeting with his mentor Brother Francis, the monk placed a stone in his hand and told him that our task in this life is to find out the name that God has for us in heaven. Tony froze. The cameras rolled. Again in his own words,

"I was hit by something I'll never forget. It was like I'd taken a new drug and felt paralysed and unable to speak. It lasted about a minute."

Deeply moved by what had just happened, Tony experienced a call, an answer. God existed. There was something in it. It wasn't just grown-ups dressing up. Or something to do on a Sunday before the pubs opened. He wasn't looking for it. He wasn't willing it to happen nor was he expecting it to happen, but it did. It was real. Soon he left his job and got work outside that industry. Where is he now. You will find him regularly sitting in a church somewhere, quietly, enjoying God's presence. He's fallen in love with love.

The words of today's gospel ringed home; "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him (Jesus), and the sheep hear his voice." John 10.3. Tony was moved by two experiences, first the amazing community of monks who really slog at intergrity and spirituality. The Acts of the Apostles tells us day by day the Lord added to the number of the church. Why? Because they too lived an authentic Christian community. Some of what they did might not be practical for us today, but the point is that they tried and people outside saw something good and inspiring in that. The lesson for any church, parish, congregation is that working at being the 'Body of Christ' is worthwhile. Acts of the Apostles is not a business plan for marketting or blueprint for a hippy commune. Its simply telling us to sweat it out, to work hard at being a Christian community. A good community will help people be spiritually open.

The second experience, the decisive one, that moved Tony was his encounter with the living God. The Holy Spirit roared through him, shook his old self off. Jesus said, "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice." (John 10.3). Tony probably went on the BBC show for a bit of a laugh, out to disprove it all. In the end he experienced something akin to the voice of the Good Shepherd. As Brother Francis said Tony found heard his name in heaven. When we find our name in heaven, we know our calling, and even in the worst struggles, the peace of God rests with us. If in this reading from John, the Church is the gatekeeper, then sheep are those who seek God.

God wants to fill our hearts with his voice. Maybe for some it is the first time, perhaps for others it is a on-going experience of renweal? I believe, that God dares us. What can we lose? But be warned, for some, there will be no choice, the voice will unexpectadely roar through you.

http://www.worthabbey.net/bbc/tony.htm