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!