Bible Readings: Isaiah 12.2-6; Philippians 4.4-7; Luke 3.7-18

My sermons throughout Advent have reflected on poetry, and this Sunday I’d like us to dwell on the poem, or song, of Gaudete: It’s a sacred Christmas Carol, thought to have been composed in the 16^th Century. An English translation is below. The name ‘Gaudete’ in Latin means ‘Rejoice!’ – and is addressed in the plural. It’s a calling to us, as the Church body, to celebrate.

(You may ask, why are we celebrating Jesus’ birth before Christmas day has arrived? Well, this Sunday is a little grace –it’s like the pause as you climb a hill and discover a bench half-way up. Or the mid-morning snack, when you’ve had a busy morning but lunch is still far off. A moment to remind us what this season of Advent-preparation is leading up to.)

Guadete

Rejoice, rejoice!

Christ is born

Of the Virgin Mary –

Rejoice!

 

The time of grace has come—

What we have wished for;

Songs of joy

Let us give back faithfully.

 

God has become man,

With nature marvelling,

The world has been renewed

By the reigning Christ.

The closed gate of Ezekiel

Is passed through,

Whence the light is risen;

Salvation has been found.

 

Therefore, let our assembly

Now sing in brightness

Let it bless the Lord:

Greetings to our King.

There’s something ancient and powerful which is captured in the way this song is sung. The repetition of “Guadete! Guadete!” is like a heartbeat. Whatever ideas or images come up, the song brings us back to that heartbeat. Giving strength.

This week I’ve felt busy – visiting three schools in our parish, and having one visit church, as well as our usual Foodbank and Toddler Group. At times I’ve felt a bit stressed and there are moments when I just needed to be ‘grounded’ again. Do you know what I mean?

Sometimes you just need to pick up the phone to a friend, just to hear their voice, or talk things through with a brother or sister in Christ. To recharge and re-centre.

Well, that repeating refrain grounds the song for me. Whatever else Christmas might be about for you – Christ is born and we can wrap both hands around that and hold on to that truth with joy. Whether Christmas for you is full of happy family and friends,
or the pain of missing loved ones and family disagreements.
The lovely surprises of gifts and food,
or the long cold nights.  – We have been given a gift that many generations longed for but did not know: Christ the Lord.

It can be easy for us to take Jesus for granted, especially those of us like me who grew up in the Church. I’ve always lived in the knowledge that God walks with us through Jesus. When I’ve felt guilty or had low self-esteem, I was told that Jesus loves me and forgives me, and over time this has begun to sink in, especially as I got to know Him.

Throughout this song there is a recognition that Jesus was long waited for. In the second stanza, there’s the line “The time of grace has come— What we have wished for”. This line puts me in mind of the Old Testament Prophets who longed so much for the promised Messiah. To make the world right and bring healing and light.

The calling to rejoice – expressed so insistently by Saint Paul in the Philippians passage – is made possible because God has come close in Jesus. There’s something life changing to celebrate here!

As we sit with this medieval song, I wonder what we might take away for the week ahead.

I wonder if it speaks to you of the mystery of the incarnation. I love the obscure phrase “The closed gate of Ezekiel is passed through” come and ask me about it over coffee. I had to do some digging to uncover that one.

Like the repeated refrain, “Gaudete! Gaudete!” I wonder what grounds you at this time of year. What helps you to focus on keeping Advent special, and preparing your heart to receive Jesus afresh?

I commend to you the carol service tonight, as we sit in darkness and yet hear of the arrival of the Light of the World. Hearing the old familiar carols sung always stirs me. The timelessness of God connects with the timelessness of those songs.

It may be that you’re finding your diary is a bit too busy at this time of year. Buying the Christmas presents and arranging to visit people, and finishing work for the year well… Can you carve out time to go for a walk so you can walk-and-talk with God in prayer? It’s when things get really busy when it’s more important than ever to pause and pray.

For others, the run up to Christmas can be too quiet. Too much time and loneliness. Know that God sees you. Might time be turned into prayer? Perhaps spend some time re-read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth and pondering the mystery.

As I make time to reflect on poems this Advent, more than anything else I am moved by the way words can evoke feelings and nostalgia which make me feel small, but also remind me how much greater God is than we can ever know. Like being in the countryside and looking up and seeing all the stars: God is loving and comes to lead us out of darkness and into the light. The light of a thousand stars.

Gaudete! People rejoice! Our God comes. Amen.

Readings

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95:1-7; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon by Reader Christopher Ward

May I speak in the name of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

This Sunday is a very important Sunday in the Church calendar. It is the last Sunday of the Church year. And we stand on the cusp of Advent, that season of hope and anticipation.

And just as we celebrate the secular New Year’s Eve, so I think it entirely proper that we also celebrate our spiritual New Year. And what better way to do than to prayerfully reflect on the divinity of Christ, the universal and eternal King. And that divinity and kingship can I think be summed up in just seventeen words, the seventeen very familiar words from the Authorised Version with which John opens his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Just as we do at the end of the calendar year in a secular sense, the turning of the Church year is perhaps an appropriate time for a spiritual look back. We can give thanks for all the good things that God has brought into our lives over the past year, acknowledge the times when we may have strayed from Him or ignored Him, and reflect on lessons learned.

I also want this morning to spend a little time on one aspect of kingship which has been a recurrent theme in our readings over the last couple of weeks, and which naturally leads us on into Advent. And that theme is judgement. Kings judge, and we are familiar with this in the secular context in the name of the largest division in the High Court, the King’s Bench Division.

Last week we heard from the prophet Zephaniah, who graphically described how the Lord would search Jerusalem with lamps and “punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs” . In the Gospel reading , in which Jesus is painting one picture of what the kingdom of heaven will be like when the Apocalypse comes, we heard the parable of the Talents, and of the differing judgements of the master on the three slaves to whom he entrusted his money.

Today we heard a passage from the prophet Ezekiel in which God describes how he will seek out his sheep and care for them. The image of God as a shepherd is of course a familiar Old Testament image, as is the image of the people of Israel as sheep. And Ezekiel paints a rosy picture of the life that God has in mind for his faithful sheep. But not all his gathered sheep will enjoy that life because, once gathered, the sheep – in reality the people of Israel – will be judged by God. And while the outlook for those who are injured and weak is good, the outlook for the fat and strong, the ones that have prospered by abusing their fellows, is not.

And there is a similar message in our Gospel reading. Jesus is describing what will happen at the Apocalypse, when all the nations will be gathered before him. He will then separate people into ‘sheep’ at his right hand, those blessed by God and who will inherit His kingdom, and ‘goats’ at his left hand, those consigned to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. As we say when we recite the Creed – He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Now this is a passage which has always fascinated me, because it leaves both the sheep and the goats in a state of confusion. Neither group can understand why they have been classified as they are. Jesus explains: his judgement is based on how people treated him when he was in need. However, both camps are still confused, because neither has any recollection of ever encountering Jesus in such a situation. Jesus then previews the answer that God will give on Judgement Day: just as they did do it, or did not do it, as the case may be, to the least of those who are members of Jesus’ family, they did, or did not, do it to Jesus himself. In other words, it is in our service to each other that we serve Jesus our spiritual King.

Buried in that deceptively simple answer is, I think, a very tough call for each of us. Can we know for certain whether we are getting it right? Judging by our Gospel passage today, and the genuine confusion in the minds of both the sheep and the goats, I suspect that the answer is probably ‘no’.

I still remember an incident in my own life from many, many years ago. Our next door neighbour was having the tarmac replaced on his front drive. A single workman did the job, and there was something very odd about him. He was delivered daily from the back of a van, not the passenger seat. Even a friendly greeting seemed to cause him a problem. It was only some years later, when the proprietor of a business in the area that resurfaced drives was convicted on multiple counts of abuse of workers over a long period that I realised that this workman was probably a victim of what we now call modern slavery. And I had completely missed this.

But I have confidence that our God is a merciful God, who will judge kindly. But the fact remains that he will judge each one of us, and that mercy, if granted, follows judgement; it does not substitute for it.

Finally, I would like to come back to another New Year tradition: New Year’s resolutions. There is surely no reason why these cannot be associated with the spiritual New Year, just as they are with the secular? In chapter 22 of  his Gospel, Matthew recounts  how the Pharisees sought to trick Jesus by asking him which was the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus’ response can be summarised as first and foremost to love God wholeheartedly and second to love one’s neighbour as oneself. So my own Resolution is to strive with renewed energy to do both. The first is no more than Christ the eternal King deserves, and the second may, and I stress may, see me at God’s right hand on Judgement Day. At least, I hope and pray that it will!

Amen

Are you ready for a Christmas experience that’s out of this world? This December, St. Paul’s Church is transforming into a celestial wonderland, and you’re invited to join the starry journey. Whether you’re a carol-singing enthusiast, a social media influencer, or just in it for the ‘Gram, we’ve got something for everyone.

1. Caroling Under the Stars Join us on Sunday, 10th December, for Nine Lessons and Carols. It’s not just singing; it’s an immersive experience that combines timeless tradition with a modern twist. Capture the glow of candlelight on your feed as voices rise in harmony under a canopy of stars.
2. Festive Fusion: Mingle with Mince Pies and Wine Post-caroling, mingle with friends old and new over wine and mince pies. It’s the perfect chance to network, share stories, and enjoy the warmth of the community. Don’t forget to toast and post with #StPaulsChristmasMagic!
3. Christmas Eve’s Triple Treat Elevate your Christmas Eve with not one but three spectacular services. Start with a Morning Eucharist at 10.30 am as the Crib is built, symbolizing the foundation of the Christmas story. At 4 pm, the Christingle Service offers a unique, visually stunning experience perfect for your Stories. And for the night owls, the Midnight Mass at 11.30 pm is a mix of solemnity and celebration, a moment you’ll want to bookmark forever.
4. Christmas Day Celebration Wake up to Christmas with a Celebration Eucharist at 10.30 am. It’s the perfect start to a day of festivities, giving, and joy. Capture the essence of the community as you celebrate the most wonderful day of the year.
5. Tag and Share Your Moments Throughout the services, we encourage you to tag your photos and experiences with #StPaulsChristmas. Share the moments that move you, the sights that awe you, and the sounds that stay with you.

So, pull out your best Christmas sweater, charge your devices, and prepare to experience the divine merging with the digital. St. Paul’s is not just a place to pray; it’s a place to play, post, and partake in the Christmas spirit in a way that resonates with you.

Join us at Woodland Road, New Southgate, and don’t miss the celestial celebration that’s got everyone talking. Let’s make this Christmas one for the heavenly books!

Get ready to slide into the festive spirit because St. Paul’s Church Hall is throwing the most excellent Christmas bash on this side of the North Pole! This isn’t your grandma’s bazaar (though she’s invited, too) – it’s a hip, happening holiday extravaganza where you can jingle through an afternoon of pure joy.

1. Santa’s Selfie Spot Forget about those stuffy old Santa pics – we’re talking about a Santa who’s down for selfies and maybe even a TikTok dance or two. Get your phones charged your filters ready, and prepare to snag the coolest Santa selfie to light up your social media feed.
2. The Taste Train: Cakes and Preserves For those with a sweet tooth and an eye for Instagrammable eats, our cake and preserve stalls are a foodie’s winter wonderland. Snap and share your #FoodComa as you dig into the most delectable treats.
3. Epic Raffle: Win Insta-Worthy Prizes. Enter our raffle not just for the winnings but for the boasting rights. Prizes are tailor-made for the young and the restless!
4. Food Fusion: African Kitchen Take your taste buds on an adventure with exotic flavours from the African Kitchen. It’s not just a meal; it’s a journey – and your followers will wish they were there with every bite you post.

So, mark your calendars for Saturday, 2nd December, from 12 to 3 pm. Make a day of it, bring your squad, and be ready to flood your feed with the best of the Christmas Bazaar. Trust us; you’ll want to be seen at the scene. See you there, where the cool and the merry meet!

Readings

Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

Sermon by Reader Christopher Ward

May I speak in the name of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of the words that comes into my mind when I look back at the spiritual events of the last couple of weeks, and indeed further back, is ‘transformation’. A fortnight ago, on Palm Sunday, we recalled Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. By Good Friday, we were contemplating a broken body, hanging lifeless from a Cross. And last Sunday, Easter Sunday, we joyfully celebrated Jesus’ resurrection. That’s quite a lot of transformations!

But there are also transformations within this church, and one that I first noticed last Sunday has given me a lot of cause for thought. It’s still here, and it is within the beautiful floral arrangement by the font that was created by Wendy and Kim. So what is so special about it?

The first thing is that, at its heart, is a cross. I cannot recall when I last saw a decorated cross, let alone one as lavishly decorated as this one. Crosses are normally bare, sometimes with a figure of Jesus hanging on them. The opening lines of that familiar Good Friday hymn, The Old Rugged Cross, put the traditional image of the Cross so eloquently, “on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame”. We don’t normally adorn emblems of suffering and shame.

The second thing is the provenance of the cross, because it is not just any old cross. It is in fact the cross that, throughout Lent, stood in the chancel, where our paschal candle now stands, the light of Christ replacing the emblem of suffering and shame – again, quite a transformation!

But that crude, simple, cross was itself the result of a transformation, because it was made from the wood of the Christmas tree that, from Advent to Candlemas, stood close to where that decoration now stands. So that cross, which started its life in our church as a thing of beauty, is once again restored to that state. For me, that provides a powerful echo of the journey from that helpless baby in the manger, through death on the Cross, to the Risen Lord.

I often think that, with our focus on events Sunday by Sunday, we don’t always have the opportunity to reflect as much as we might on the broad sweep of events. Last Sunday, we joyfully celebrated the resurrection of our Lord. This Sunday, as we begin to travel forward in the Easter season, is perhaps an opportune moment to reflect on the journey along which the wood of that cross has been our constant companion. It was with us in Advent, when we awaited the birth of Christ and it remained with us as we celebrated his revelation to the world in the Epiphany; it was with us in Lent, as we journeyed towards the Crucifixion; and it is with us now, as we celebrate the risen Christ.

And it also reminds us of what lies at the heart of our spiritual journey of the last few months. The words on the inscription at the base of the arrangement, which are taken from John’s Gospel and were also at the base of the unadorned cross in the chancel, tell us that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life[1]. That is a transformation of truly cosmic significance! In other words, that arrangement at the back of the church encapsulates for us the overarching power of God’s love for all humanity.

Our readings today also echo the theme of transformation. The passage we heard from Acts is part of Peter’s address to the crowd at Pentecost. A more confident, eloquent and powerful assertion of Jesus as the Messiah is difficult to imagine. The Peter of whom Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan”[2] is long gone; the frightened figure cowering in the courtyard of the Temple following Jesus’ arrest and who three times denied that he knew Jesus is also long gone. Peter is transformed.

And in our Gospel reading, we heard the story of Thomas, and his reaction to the news that other disciples had actually seen the risen Lord, a week before, in the evening following their discovery of the empty tomb. But Thomas was I think a rationalist. Jesus had been very publicly crucified and everyone knew that this had only one outcome: certain death. The idea that Jesus had appeared as if from nowhere within a locked room was also completely illogical.  But I think it noteworthy that Thomas did not simply reject this apparently crazy idea, he simply wanted hard evidence before he could himself actually believe. As we heard in our Gospel reading, Jesus once again appeared to the disciples in that room a week later, when Thomas was present, and Thomas received the proof that he craved. Thomas was transformed, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God”.

But the story does not end there. By Jesus’ death and resurrection, we too can be transformed, as promised by the message under the decorated cross by the font. In his Gospel John writes, as we heard today, that the particular signs recorded in his Gospel are but a selection of those which Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples. Those which are included in his Gospel, John tells us, were included for a very specific reason: that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing may have life in his name.

Let us pray for the faith to sustain such a wonderful transformation!

Amen

[1] John 3:16

[1] Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33; Luke 4:8.

Dear congregation, today we gather in the house of the Lord to celebrate the joy of life and the humour that it brings. As the great theologian, Woody Allen once said, “I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” So let us all take a moment to appreciate the humour in our own mortality.

Now, I know some of you may wonder, “What’s so funny about life?” Well, let me tell you a little story. A man goes to his doctor and says, “Doctor, every time I drink coffee, I get a sharp pain in my eye.” The doctor replies, “Have you tried taking the spoon out of the cup first?” See, life is funny!

But let’s not forget that humour can also be a powerful tool for spreading love and positivity. As the great comedian Ellen DeGeneres once said, “I believe we are all here for a reason. I believe that reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” So let’s all be torch-bearers and spread joy wherever we go.

And finally, let us not forget the importance of laughter in our daily lives. As the Bible says, “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” So go ahead and laugh, let your spirits soar, and remember that life is too short of taking ourselves too seriously.

In conclusion, let us embrace the humour in life, spread love and positivity, and never forget to laugh. Amen, and have a hilarious day!

Sermon by Reverend Matt Harbage

Readings:

Psalm 8

Romans 5.1-5

John 16.12-15

May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our Strength and Redeemer. Amen.

When it comes to the Holy Trinity, it can be somewhat of a puzzle. As Christians we speak of God being One: “There is one God”, and yet we claim too that God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This morning I want to offer a few reflections that I hope will help open up some of the wonderful truths about the Trinity.

Perhaps the first place to start exploring, is deciding which member of the Trinity we ought to pray to.

Jesus in the Gospels invites us to pray to him, and in that famous passage, we are told that if we ask him for anything in faith, he will do it (John 14.14). And indeed, in many ways praying to Jesus comes most naturally because we have a wonderfully clear sense of his life in the Gospels and we can relate to him – especially as we read about all those who cried out to him and were rescued, received healing and were forgiven. He is our Saviour.

Jesus though, when his disciples asked him, “Lord, how should we pray?” begins his prayer with “Our Father, who art in heaven…” Therefore Jesus himself also encourages us to pray directly to God the Father as well. We don’t need to be afraid.

Finally, and you might have seen this coming, along with addressing our prayers to the Father or the Son, there is a great tradition of praying to the Holy Spirit also. When we celebrated Pentecost last Sunday, we called upon the Holy Spirit to come down upon us in a fresh way. And when someone is ordained the Holy Spirit is invoked and invited to descend upon them, to give them the needful gifts of grace.

Next month in the Diocese of London I know two people who will be ordained as Deacons. This usually happens a year before they are made Priests. One of them is Seb Cummings who is going to be leading Oakleigh Community Church which is one of our neighbouring churches, and I encourage you to pray for him and all those being ordained on the 2nd of July.

So going back to my earlier question, “who should we pray to: Father, Son or Holy Spirit?” The simple answer is: we can pray to any of them. For some people, relating to God as ‘Father’ is not without its problems, particularly if we have a difficult relationship with our own father. Sometimes it’s easier to relate to Jesus, knowing that he understands what being a human being is like, in all its mess. For others still, perhaps those who have a more mystical relationship with God and enjoys mystery and the wonder of nature, they might relate more to the life-giving Spirit. It’s a wonderful gift that we have so many different ways to relate to our God.

…

In the week ahead, I want to suggest you try something new in your prayers. If you normally pray focusing on God the Father, try praying to Jesus instead. If you normally pray to Jesus, try praying directly to the Father or to the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we can get stuck in a rut when it comes to our life of prayer. Approaching prayer through a different person of the Godhead might be a way to freshen that prayer life.

In Confirmation Classes, when we get on to the topic of the Trinity I usually get asked:

“Have we got One God or Three?”

This is not just a question for those who are young in the faith, but for all of us. How can God be One and Three at the same time? It is a great mystery; that is to say, you can keep exploring the Trinity, and you will keep discovering more.

The truth that God is One, comes from our Jewish roots. Jesus was a Jew and he affirmed the validity of the Hebrew Scriptures (which we now call the Old Testament).

The Jewish people (then and now) understand God as One. The great Shema in Deuteronomy starts: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.”

And thus Christians accept that God is One unified whole. However, as we’ve seen there are several persons working together: Jesus is FULLY God, made flesh – “God from God, Light from Light” (as we say in the Creed), and along with him we are gifted the Holy Spirit –

Thus God is three distinct persons and yet still One. A picture might help here: You may have seen in the weekly parish email, an image of what looks like a heart made up of three persons dancing together.  Similarly, Rublev, in his famous icon, shows three angelic figures sitting around a single table. Another metaphor pictures water as ice, liquid and steam.

These images portray the Trinity as a dynamic dance of loving relationship, a loving relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I find it incredible to think that since before the dawn of time, for eternity, God was not there on God’s own, waiting for someone or something to relate to. God has always existed in loving relationship with God’s self, between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And now, through Jesus, God invites us to be part of that wonderful dynamic relationship.

Perhaps that can be a lens for us to understand our faith as a whole: God is all about relationships. He wants us to have good, healthy, loving relationships with one another. He wants to invite us to share in their relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit for eternity in heaven.

Therefore, our faith is about making a daily, and moment by moment choice: Do we stand for love, and collaborate with God? Or do we stand apart?

As just one small example, I have been really enjoying the new Friday morning church playgroup which Claire’s sister Lucy, Aleasha and Abi have established. At the end of the session this week 40 of us sung “He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands”. There was something of God at work, as we sung about God’s love for everyone, united in action and voice.

AS we seek to join in God’s holy dance, and share in community,

my prayer for myself, and for you is not more friendships, but deeper ones.

I invite you to pray to the Holy Spirit, who is already at work within you, and ask for more truth in your relationships. Pray too for your relationship with the Trinity: That your eyes would be open to God’s calling to collaborate.

In short: Let’s pray that we might join in the dance of the Trinity of love ever more, day by day. May we accept God’s calling to the eternal dance of love.

Amen.

Sermon by Reverend Matt Harbage

Readings:

• Acts 2.1-21
• John 14.8-17

Spirit of Truth. Speak to us now, as we have gathered and heard the Scriptures. Amen.

What do these three have in common?

1. Football legend Rio Ferdinand,
2. John Torode & Gregg Wallace from Master Chef. AND
3. Coronation Street actor Antony Cotton.

They will all receive Honours from the Queen this Jubilee year as she recognises those who have contributed great things to our nation in sport, culture, compassion and service. (OBEs/MBEs). Why am I talking about Honours?

Well, just as the Queen gives Honours on her birthday, on the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, we celebrate God giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit:

When we become Christians, we begin to follow our King, King Jesus. And Jesus gives us Honours.

These Honours are not just for some of us, but for all of us.

First, we are given the honour of being made Sons and Daughters of the King.
The Bible tells us that through faith in Jesus, we are made children of God. We are adopted
into his royal family.

On Monday, I met a multi-millionaire. It was a brief encounter. He was driving through an estate in his Land Rover.

Whenever I meet someone with serious power or wealth and I am tempted to feel nervous: I
stop and remind myself,

“I am the son of a King. Adopted into God’s family.”

It makes me feel more relaxed, and more myself. None of us need feel inferior to anyone else.

What makes us valuable is not money, or power, but God, and God alone.

Along with the Honour of being made a child of God, a second Honour gifted to us by Jesus and promised to his first disciples, and to us, is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove, and if you’d like a little challenge, see if you can find the two stained-glass windows in church which have a dove in them. One of them is hard to find!

But the image of a peaceful DOVE is only half the story because along with the Holy Spirit being the great comforter and advocate, the Holy Spirit is also depicted, as in our Gospel today, by fire.

Fire is powerful, and it can become uncontrollable. Fire can give life, and warmth, like our church can be a little campfire: a welcome home, a place of love, or fire can bring death and tragedy. We must never think that God is all meek and mild.

God’s Holy Spirit brings truth, which can be more powerful than even flames. I’ve seen Truth tear a family into pieces, turning mother against daughter; and I’ve seen truth heal deep wounds.

At the end of the service, we will go out with candles, lit from our great Easter flame. I pray it would be a reminder to you that you carry the light of Christ out into the world. You are a child of God. A child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You carry within you the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit which has the power to give life, – raised Jesus from the dead even – and brings truth, in fact, it brings all the blessings we need to be the church.

My prayer is that the flame of the Spirit burns brightly within you. That we would live a life of loving
service and joyful faith. The words of today’s Collect Prayer sum it up beautifully. Let us pray:

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sermon by By Reverend Matt Harbage

Readings:
John 20.19-end
Acts 5.27-35

“May you come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

May I speak in the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I really enjoy a good sci-fi film. Definitely in my top 5 is The Matrix. It’s something of a classic, with Keanu Reeves, and Lawrence Fishburne, set in a dystopian world where artificially intelligent machines have taken over the world. Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo, is rescued by Morpheus who tries to help him understand that the world (as Neo knew it) was an illusion. Morpheus takes Neo to the top of a skyscraper and says to him:

“You have to let it all go Neo: Fear, doubt and disbelief. Free your mind.”

And at that, Morpheus launches himself into an impossible jump, off the building and lands safely on another skyscraper a block away. The look on Neo’s face is brilliant as he sees the impossible become possible.

I think sci-fi can be a gift to our Christian faith, because it’s a way of exercising and expanding our imaginations. We all know a film is fiction. But the activity of expanding our minds might just help us get a glimpse of the infinitely supreme God who made us, loves us and became one of us in Jesus Christ.

We need to free our minds, just as those first disciples had their minds radically freed by their encounters with Jesus.

I want us to know something like that too: I want us to have encounters with Jesus. I want us to be blown away like Thomas was when he saw the resurrected Jesus and cried out: “My lord and my God!”

I want, in the words of Morpheus,
“to let it all go: Fear, doubt and disbelief. Free your mind.”

Fear. Doubt. And Disbelief. Let’s consider Doubt.

Doubting Thomas is a favourite apostle for many, especially Indians! We don’t know a lot about him, but we know he doubted,

“The other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands…I will not believe.’”

And I suspect you and I would have doubted too if we’d missed Jesus’ first appearance back from the dead. When Thomas eventually sees Jesus in the flesh, Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.

Jesus, here in our Gospel this morning, is calling out to us across the centuries: We may not see him in the flesh, and yet we are called to have faith – faith that God the Father raised Him from the Dead, and will one day raise us from the Dead too.

We may not see Jesus in the flesh, but the evidence of his RISEN life is all around us: in the church community of which we are part. In the beauty of creation. In the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I pray we might eagerly seek God’s Spirit; allowing the Spirit to speak to our hearts as the Spirit did to those saints, whose lives inspire us across the ages.

Thomas does not just doubt though. His legacy to us is also captured in his words when he finally saw the Risen Jesus,

 “My Lord and my God!”

This is a most profound theological claim: That Jesus Christ, the man whom Thomas and the other disciples had been following, is in fact none other than God himself, God in human form. This declaration propels Thomas into someone whom we should imitate: to have our doubts dispelled by Jesus and to proclaim our faith to others. The legacy of Thomas encourages us not to tiptoe around our doubts, but instead to be honest about them and to proclaim theological truth, with joy and freedom.

Finding the right place for doubt in our faith puts me in mind of maths tuition. I used to support teenagers with their maths, and often what I would find first would be fear. They wouldn’t want to engage because they wouldn’t want to get anything wrong, or they feared being overwhelmed and confused.

So a big part of tuition was to build confidence. It was in a sense to remove some doubt, but then, once confidence had started to be built, I would introduce some healthy doubt as I encouraged the children to check their answers. To doubt their answers, but to have faith too, that they were on the right track.

 In more usual terms, our Christian faith – like Thomas’ declaration, should be joyful and bold, confident and strong while also being humble, gentle, and with a loving sense of curiosity as we deepen our relationship with our Lord and our God.

I wonder how you might cultivate a loving sense of curiosity in your relationship with God.

“You have to let it all go Neo: Fear, doubt and disbelief. Free your mind.”

As we build confidence in the resurrected Lord Jesus, we put doubt and fear in their rightful places.

The legacy of the Pharisees as we heard in our First Reading this morning reminds us of how fear can dominate our relationship with God. Although a people who desired to be close to God, the Pharisees were more concerned about the letter of the law than the Spirit of the Law. I wonder if they couldn’t let go their fear of making mistakes. Rather than trusting in God and holding on to that loving curiosity, they seemed to decide that following the Rules was the main thing.

The Pharisees show us that God wants a relationship with us far more than he wants us to be legalistic, obeying the law simply out of fear of getting it wrong.

 I think God wants us free our minds, and free our hearts and free our souls. He wants love to grow, and trust to grow, for this world and the next.

As we gather in a moment around the great feast of God’s love in the Eucharist, may we truly recognise the risen lord Jesus in the Bread which becomes His Body,
and as we consume his life, may our hearts whisper with Thomas – joyfully and confidently: “My Lord, and My God.”

Amen.

The Second Sunday Before Lent

Sermon by By Christopher Ward

Readings:
Genesis 2: 4b-9, 15-25
Psalm 65
Revelations 4
Luke 8:22-25

May I speak in the name of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well, the forces that drive our weather must have had one eye on the Lectionary this week, I think! Not once, but twice, with Storm Dudley followed by Storm Eunice, ferocious gales have swept down upon us just as they did on Jesus and his disciples as they sought to cross the sea of Galilee. I understand that sudden squalls of the type described by Luke in our reading today are not unusual in the Sea of Galilee because the steep sided valleys of the area can channel and intensify the winds. In fact, I had a similar experience in the wake of Storm Dudley on Thursday as I walked along New Oxford Street towards Tottenham Court Road Underground station. As I approached Centre Point, I was suddenly hit by great gusts of wind as it funnelled round that building. It was certainly a bit of a shock, and I can easily imagine how much more frightening it must have been when the squall hit that small boat that day in the open water.

I will come back to the events of our Gospel reading, and some lessons they might have for us, but before I do so, I would like to reflect briefly on one theme which I think runs through each of our readings today, and that is the power of God.  We didn’t hear the passage from Genesis, but it refers to part of the Creation story, including the creation of Man and Woman. The psalmist highlights several facets of God’s power, including his power to blot out sin; making fast the mountains; stilling the roaring seas; and creating the conditions in which crops will flourish. In our passage from Revelations, we hear of John’s inaugural vision of heaven, the magnificence and grandeur of which is an implicit recognition of the power of God. The passage is rich in symbolism, with the throne symbolising God’s authority over all things in heaven; and the precious stones – jasper, cornelian and emerald – symbols of God’s splendour, a facet of his power. And the twenty four elders and the four living creatures – the six-winged seraphs of the hymn Let all mortal flesh keep silence[1] – continually acknowledge the power of the Lord. And in our Gospel reading, after the storm is stilled, the disciples’ question to one another, “Who is this, that he commands even the waves and the water, and they obey him?” points to one with miraculous powers, far beyond the powers of any human.

The story of how Jesus calmed the storm and challenged the disciples over their apparent lack of faith that they would be kept safe, told in our Gospel reading today, appears also in each of the other synoptic Gospels[2], albeit with subtle differences between the three versions. The core features, however, are the same. Jesus and his disciples cast off in a boat; Jesus goes to sleep; a substantial storm blows up; and the disciples, fearing for their lives, wake Jesus in a state of some panic, who then calms the waves. In Luke’s version, after he has calmed the sea, Jesus then poses to them a deceptively simple question, “Where is your faith?” and they “afraid and amazed” then ask each other, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him?”

Jesus’ stilling of the waves will have had a profound impact on the disciples. It was a sign of Jesus’ power over ‘the deep’, for people at that time very much the ultimate symbol of chaos, and the home of the mythological sea-monster creature Rahab, and thus of forces alien to God. Psalm 89[3] describes this in these terms, “Lord God of Hosts, who is like you?  Your strength and faithfulness are all around you. You rule the raging of the sea, calming the turmoil of its waves. You crushed and slew the monster Rahab, and scattered your enemies with your strong arm.” And it is worth bearing in mind that, earlier in the same chapter of Luke, Jesus had told his disciples, when they sought an explanation of the parable of the sower that he had preached to them and a large crowd of others,[4] “it has been granted to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God; but the others have only parables, so that they may look but see nothing, and hear but understand nothing.”[5] I am not surprised that they were both afraid and amazed – here was God revealed to them in Jesus!

But what might this passage be saying to us today? Perhaps we see it as an allegorical battle of our God over the forces of evil, in which our God triumphs. But what of the question Jesus posed to his disciples in the aftermath of the storm, “Where is your faith?”. In this case, the disciples’ lives were clearly in imminent danger from the waves swamping the boat, and their actions were those of the desperate. But I find it significant that Jesus did not pose a question relating to the specific circumstances, such as, “Did you think I would let you drown?”: he actually posed a question couched in general terms, “Where is your faith?”

I think Jesus was intending to send to his disciples a much wider message than one relating to the perilous situation in which they found themselves. God is not there for us just in times of physical or spiritual danger, a sort of celestial emergency service who helps us out when we are in a tight corner. No, God’s guidance, support and thus power is just as invaluable in guiding our day to day lives as it is for us when we face a crisis, as the disciples did on that storm-tossed boat. In fact, Jesus’ question goes to the heart of our relationship with him – as Paul wrote to the Galatians, “It is through faith that you are all sons of God in union with Christ Jesus”[6] And we have heard today of the power within which this brings us.

So today, with Lent nearly upon us, as Fr Matt reminded it in this week’s message, I would like to invite you to ask yourself the question that Jesus posed to his disciples after he had stilled the storm, “Where is your faith?” and to join me in reflecting on it, as part of your Lenten devotions. Why? Because the answer lies at the very heart of our relationship with our God of power and might, the restoration, strengthening and renewal of which is central to our Lenten observance.

[1] Based on the Liturgy of St James

[2] Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41

[3] Psalm 89:8-10

[4] Luke 8:5-8

[5] Luke 8:10

[6] Galatians 3:26