St Helen’s Church | Hexhamshire

1^st December 2024. Advent Sunday

Prayer at the lighting of an Advent candle: We light this candle for all God’s people, struggling to be bearers of hope in a troubled world:

God, as we wait for your promise, give us your light; give us hope.

Prayer for today: Almighty God give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Among those who are sick we pray for Andrew McKendrick, Joan Nolan, Graeme Common , Kate Marris, Liam Marshall, Maureen Stevens, Prue Critchley, Ned Ryan, Daniel Bosman, Suzie Dent, Nick Cook, Christina Baldwin, Lorraine Dodd, Kathleen Lee, Carol McKendrick, Stuart Bell, Maggie Bennett, Hayley Gennery, Elizabeth Sambell, Katherine Patterson, Heather Loughead, Carol Allen, John and Gwyneth Wilde.

Among those whose year’s mind is about this time we remember Chris Swanepoel, Lilian Chester Alexander and John Savarimuthu

I have been given items to sell for Church funds and have booked a table for the Church at the Christmas fair on December 8^th.

If you are able to help in any way, by donating items or by being there on the day, please let me know.

Readings:

Jeremiah 33: 14-16

¹⁴‘“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will fulfil the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

¹⁵‘“In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.”

Psalm 25:1-10

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
²O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed,
let not mine enemies triumph over me.
³Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed:
let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
⁴Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
⁵Lead me in thy truth, and teach me:
for thou art the God of my salvation;
on thee do I wait all the day.
⁶Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses;
for they have been ever of old.
⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions:
according to thy mercy remember thou me
for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.

⁸Good and upright is the Lord:
therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
⁹The meek will he guide in judgment:
and the meek will he teach his way.
¹⁰All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Luke 21: 25-36

²⁵‘There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. ²⁶People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. ²⁷At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

²⁹He told them this parable: ‘Look at the fig-tree and all the trees. ³⁰When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

³²‘Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁴‘Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.’

Thoughts on today’s readings:

Looking round my study reminds me, if I need reminding, that prevarication is a failing of which I am guilty. And yet I know very well that for me, like everyone else, a time will come when I cannot put things off any longer, and that there is a time and a season for everything. In the garden, if the ground is not prepared at the right time, it will be difficult to grow anything. If I do not get out and pick the raspberries when they are ready, they will be lost

When in my seafaring days it was clear that the cargo lashings had worked loose in a storm, they had to be tightened and reinforced without delay, otherwise the cargo might have been lost over the side, or even a worse disaster threaten the whole vessel.

Years ago, at the beginning of my ordained ministry, I realised that when you are aware that someone needs to be visited or supported, you go now, not later: later will often be too late.

On a darkening evening last week, when we were visiting a church in Wharfedale, I received a call from Haltwhistle hospital concerning a patient I had previously visited who was at the end of her life. Her family needed support now. Thankfully I was able to get a message to Steve the vicar and he went immediately.

The patient seemed to relax after he had prayed with her, and her family were comforted. She died the same evening.

St. Luke’s Gospel is not a puzzle, where words hold meanings hidden from the uninitiated, and does not provide us with a timetable for the end of the world.

In the kingdom of God the time is always now: we cannot live in the past, nor can we put off or ignore the present because we are totally focussed on a future which has not yet happened.

At any moment the kingdom may draw near, the moment when the glory and the light of Christ break through as sudden as the northern lights on a winter’s night, or a shaft of sunlight at the end of a stormy day. If we’re not looking, we won’t see it – but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.

The signs are always going to be there. For the communities from which the Gospel was sent the destruction of Jerusalem must have seemed like the end of the world. For the wider Roman empire the slide from decades of peace under Augustus to the chaos and madness under Nero and his successors would also spell disaster for many.

In our own day there is bitterness around the recent climate conference; it seems like the ultimate exercise in prevarication. Here are decades of broken promises and empty words, self-interest and wishful thinking against a background of voices warning of an impending crisis.

The rising sea which will blot out entire islands, the storms and floods of ever-greater severity, these are all due in part to this failure, but we cannot read into them more than what is in front of us.

The bright young scientists in Barbados who have found a method of turning the huge quantities of sargassum washed up on their coast into a source of energy and fuel; the inventors who are developing new ways of harnessing wind power to drive ships, and those who are creating ways of ridding the seas of plastics: these all offer us practical ways forward.

The world did not end in 70 AD with the sacking of Jerusalem, and it is unlikely to end now, and the gospel is not interested in speculating about such a timetable.

Rather, the words of Jesus are a call to focus directly on God through prayer, and to follow him. His disciples were about to face their own trial, when he was betrayed and crucified, and it was a test they thought they had failed, when they ran away.

Yet St. Luke’s account is of a gospel of resurrection, of the appearance on the road to Emmaus of the unrecognised Christ whose presence put new heart into his defeated followers, and of the new age of the Spirit, inaugurated at Pentecost.

This Advent we are invited to turn our face to Christ : he does not turn away from us. We are called to be hopeful: God is faithful.

He did not make a mistake in sending us his Son. That is the way to the kingdom: let us encourage one another in making that journey.

17^th November 2024. 2^nd Sunday before Advent.

Prayer for today: Heavenly Father, whose Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life: grant that we, having this hope, may purify ourselves as he is pure; that when he shall appear in power and great glory we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Among those whose year’s mind is about this time we remember Gordon Grubb, Walter Milburn, William Barber, John Robinson, Terry Atkinson and John Watling.

I have been given items to sell for Church funds and have booked a table for the Church at the Christmas fair on December 8^th.

If you are able to help in any way, by donating items or by being there on the day, please let me know.

Hebrews 10: 11-25

¹¹Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. ¹⁴For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

¹⁶‘This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.’^[^a^]

¹⁷Then he adds:

‘Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.’

¹⁸And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

A call to persevere in faith

¹⁹Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, ²⁵not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Psalm 16

Preserve me, O God:
for in thee do I put my trust.
²O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord,
Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
³but to the saints that are in the earth,
and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
⁴Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god:
their drink offerings of blood will I not offer,
nor take up their names into my lips.
⁵The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:
thou maintainest my lot.
⁶The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places;
yea, I have a goodly heritage.

⁷I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel:
my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
⁸I have set the Lord always before me:
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth:
my flesh also shall rest in hope.
¹⁰For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
¹¹Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
in thy presence is fulness of joy;
at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Mark 13: 1-8

13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’

²‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’

³As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴‘Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?’

⁵Jesus said to them: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶Many will come in my name, claiming, “I am he,” and will deceive many. ⁷When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains.

Thoughts on today’s readings

Next month the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris will reopen, five and a half years after a devastating fire threatened it with total destruction. It is an inspiring story, not only of the heroism of those who fought to limit the damage but the energy and sense of purpose with which the restoration has taken place. I think this crisis brought home to the people of Paris, and perhaps of France, how important this Church is as a symbol of their identity, their faith and their history. To tell the truth, I always found it a rather dark and gloomy building, until one occasion when, on another winter Sunday morning many years ago, Carole and I stood outside Notre Dame. Mass was ending, and from inside the Church poured out a crowd of excited people, laughing, singing, who threw handfuls of sweets to the onlookers. It was the celebration of 40 years of the L’Arche communities, and in that moment I saw that Church come to life and glimpsed something of its true meaning and purpose.

For there was Christ, joyfully present, in the faces and the lives of that congregation, disabled and able-bodied celebrating together in their assembly and then pouring out to feed the world with his good news for all.

For the disciples of Jesus who looked at its great stones, the temple in Jerusalem was a vital sign of their identity, their faith and their history. Not only did it give them a sense of pride, but the sacrifices offered there provided them with an assurance that they could make their peace with God, and have their consciences cleared.

The disciples were dismayed at their master’s words, but he told them not to be alarmed by the strife and disasters to come.

It would be as fearful as the pains of labour, but they would not be abandoned in the ruins.

The writer of Hebrews uses the image of the sacrificial worship of the temple to describe what it is that Jesus has done and how, through his once-for-all sacrifice, he, as the divinely ordained priest, and the sacrifice provided by God, has once-for-all wiped the slate clean and opened for us the way into the Father’s presence, which the old sacrifices of the temple could never achieve.

So, then, is our part just to say, ‘Thank you very much,’ and get on with our lives? Not at all, and the writer of Hebrews gives four concrete instructions in these verses we read today.

The first is to ‘hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, because he who promised is faithful.’ In other words, we should not allow troubles and attacks to weaken our faith, because God is faithful. He is the true rock upon which we build our lives.

Second, we need to build each other up, to encourage one another to live the Christian life of love and good works, a shared response to the love of God poured out for us in Jesus, and to embody that generous love.

The third is the importance of coming together as the people of God. It is clear that people even then were becoming discouraged, perhaps through persecution, from worshipping together. The writer stresses the importance of the liturgy celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus as a means of deepening faith and building one another up.

The fourth instruction is that we should not forget that time is short: the Day of the Lord is coming. We should not shrink from the struggle of living faithfully but look forward with expectation. Judgement was dealt with on the cross, we hope for salvation; the completion of God’s purpose.

The beginning of the next Chapter, chapter 11, gives a very clear definition of what faith is, and then goes on to list lived and practical examples of lives of faith throughout the Old Testament. Faith is not an idea: it is lived. Love is not just a word: it is experienced.

On that Sunday morning long ago in Paris I saw the light of God shining, and not all the disasters and difficulties can take that from me. So let your light so shine, that all may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven.

10^th November 2024. Remembrance Sunday

Prayer for today: Almighty Father, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the king of all: govern the hearts and minds of those in authority, and bring the families of the nations, divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin, to be subject to his just and gentle rule; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Among those whose year’s mind is about this time we remember Moffitt Reed, Gordon Grubb, Ken Barron, Harry Robson and Gordon Campbell.

Our prayers of intercession this morning will be followed by an Act of Remembrance.

Notices:

There is a meeting of the PCC on Wednesday 13^th November at 7.30 p.m. in the Parish Hall.

I have been given handmade items to sell for Church funds.

I have booked a table for the Church at the Christmas Fair on December 8^th in the Parish Hall. If you have items to donate please contact me. I will be grateful for help on the day, looking after the stall.

The Carol Service this year is on Saturday 21^st December at 6 p.m, with the participation of the choir ’Concordia’.

Preparations for this year’s Christmas Eve Nativity begin in the school on December 1^st.

Readings:

Hebrews 9: 24-28

²⁴For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Mark 1: 14-20

¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’

¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ ¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Thoughts on today’s readings

Yesterday as I stood before the War Memorial boards in Hexham hospital at the wreath laying I looked at the many names- there are over 150 of them , of the young men of Hexham who were killed in the Great War. To me they are just that, a list of names; to those who read them in 1921, when the new hospital was opened, each name was a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a neighbour , a friend from school or work.

What did they think they were doing, those young men, what were their hopes? After all, many of them were dead within a few weeks, a few days sometimes, of being sent to the Somme. The answer to that must be as varied as each one of those names was individual and different.

In September , as I looked for the graves of my grandfather’s brothers in a war cemetery on a wet hillside in Eastern France I found out that they lie buried in the same grave, their names on one plain cross, yet their stories are different.

One of them was unhappy in his life and his marriage: according to family he almost welcomed death. The other saw this as a holy war: the defence of his country against a savage invader. After being injured as a soldier he volunteered for service as an airman, and it was there he was killed.

As for my grandfather, he went because it was the law: he was 40 by the time war ended. He supported the men he served alongside, writing letters for those who were illiterate, sharing the parcels of provisions his family sent from home.

What is certain is that those many names, hand painted on the boards that were displayed in Hexham’s War Memorial hospital, were an expression of hope after all the horrors of the war.

Regardless of what each individual might have felt or believed at the time there was a determination that their sacrifice must not have been for nothing, there could be no going back as if nothing had happened. Out of this must come better lives, better hopes for the families and the communities from which these men had come.

They had paid a terrible price: they must not be forgotten. Their names would live on in every person who passed through the doors of the hospital to receive life-saving care.

The fervent hope then was that never again would such a terrible sacrifice be demanded .

The writer of the Epistle to Hebrews, from which our first reading is taken, used language, ideas and symbols drawn from the religion of the Temple in Jerusalem to illustrate his understanding of the meaning and purpose of the death of Jesus Christ, Son of God, the One sent into the world by God to fulfil his purpose.

The earthly Temple in Jerusalem, he wrote, with its priests, its festivals and its sacrifices, was only an image, a sign and a foreshadowing of the true Temple in heaven. It is into this Temple that the true priest, Jesus Christ has entered, and on its altar offered the one saving sacrifice of his own life, once and for all.

Once: therefore the sacrifice cannot and need not be repeated.

For all: the sentence, the guilt for sin has been taken away; there is no need for us to live under judgement.

Thus the call of the gospel is that we should believe, and that we should accept that that this sacrifice, which we can never deserve, or buy, or repeat, is ours and for us, today and always. As prophesied in Isaiah 53, God’s chosen one took upon him the punishment, the sentence which was ours. Why? Because God so loved the world.

God’s invitation is to leave behind the former things, like heavy nets weighed down with stones, and to follow the way of Jesus Christ.

So was Jerusalem builded here in 1921, with a new hospital, council farms for returning soldiers, new houses and women’s institutes?

Sadly the other memorial board at the hospital, commemorating the dead of 1939-45, witnesses to our failure to create peace on earth, then or now. On November 5^th a young man from Cornwall called Callum was killed in Ukraine, fighting for the defence of that country, one of thousands dying every month, alongside the other bloody conflicts across the world.

However these readings remind us that the Kingdom of God is not the result of human endeavour, but of God’s faithfulness, love and grace. The altar on which the sacrifice was offered which offers us our freedom was a cross.

Christ comes to us and invites us to leave our burdens and follow him, as once he invited Simon and Andrew, James and John.

He invites us to his table, assures us we are invited like guests at a wedding; he has provided all that is needed.

Right here, where Christ is present, where there is faith, right here is the kingdom. He was present on the battlefield, where soldiers prayed and received Communion; he is present in today’s hospital, where prayers are said with those who suffer, and with them we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come. Even so, come Lord Jesus.’

3^rd November 2024. All Saints Sunday

Prayer for today: Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Among those whose year’s mind is about this time we remember Keith Herdman, Kathleen Baxter, Claire Fellowes and Carlie Duncan, and also Garth Parker, Charles and Ethel Harries, Jean Philpin, Patricia Evans, Mary Capes, Douglas and Jean Capes, Robyn Elizabeth McKendrick, John Gilbert Graham, Anthony Charlton Graham, Julia Graham, John William Lowdon, Lilian Lowdon, Frank Williams and all those for whom our prayers are asked this morning.

Readings

Revelation21 Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

Psalm 24: 1-6

The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein.
²For he hath founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the floods.
³Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
or who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
⁵He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶This is the generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob.

John 11: 32-44

³²When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked.

‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied.

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’

³⁷But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead

³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹‘Take away the stone,’ he said.

‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’

⁴⁰Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’

⁴³When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face.

Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’

Thoughts on today’s readings

It has been said that history is written by the victors: for example, what we know of the lives and societies of the peoples of pre-conquest South and Central America was mostly written by the priests and others who followed the conquistadors on their campaigns of pillage and destruction. It has long been one of the aims of conquerors to silence for ever and indeed to wipe out any sign of those they destroyed.

Many years ago we travelled to Prague, capital of the Czech republic, for a winter break. There , where once Haydn and Mozart produced some of the world’s most sublime music, we visited one of the synagogues of the city’s vanished Jewish community. The walls were covered with names: names of Jews of Prague who had been murdered in the Holocaust. A museum there was filled with heartbreaking mementoes: schoolbooks of children among them, writing of their hopes for the future; programmes of entertainments created to provide encouragement for those persecuted people in those dark days. Using techniques perfected on the bodies of the defenceless and the disabled, in what was called euthanasia, the Nazis sought to wipe out an entire race, to create a new empire in which it would be as though the Jews had never existed, but yet those names and those records remain, a lasting witness to those lives.

In 70 AD the city of Jerusalem was captured and thoroughly destroyed by the Romans. Most of the Temple was razed to the ground, the population killed, enslaved or scattered.

Was the Revelation of John written on the island of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea? What is clear is that it was written by a Jew in exile, someone who knew and remembered and loved the city of Jerusalem, which the Romans had hoped to wipe off the face of the earth. It is clear the writer had no hope of seeing his city restored on earth. Rather the hope, expressed in his vision, was that God, his faithful God, the God of Abraham and Moses, the God of Jesus, would raise a new Jerusalem, immortal, where death and sorrow had passed away, and there God would dwell with his people, and they with him , for ever.

The little stone throne in Hexham Abbey, cathedra of Aidan and the bishops of the Anglo Saxon era who taught and proclaimed the gospel from that very place, reminds us that the worship of God has been offered there almost daily for over 1500 years, proclaiming the faith that Christ is present, who is the resurrection and the life. Though the services in today’s Abbey may not look or sound too much like those familiar to Aidan, yet it is the same gospel, the same psalms, and the same living Christ which is at the heart of the life of that Church. Here, there has been continuity and rebirth, in spite of invasions, destruction, wars of religion, but the commemoration of All Souls and celebration of All Saints are about not denying the reality of grief and loss, the reality that all must die, but doing so with hope and with faith, not alone in our loss but surrounded by a great community which none can number, who worshipped and lit the light of the gospel in this place before us, and who see face to face the God who loves us, and whom we know by faith alone, and see as in a reflection, ‘through glass, darkly’, as the King James Bible puts it.

A couple of days ago I noticed a young nurse in Hexham hospital turn away from a family who had been talking to her. I went to her and saw she was crying for her sense of their distress and for their mother, whom she had nursed and cared for. She did not want to upset them: it was their mother who had died, but I said to her better this than to be blasé or to be emotionally distant. People need to know that you care, that they matter to you.

When Jesus came to the grave of Lazarus his friend he knew that it was here that he must glorify his Father, he knew that he came as the resurrection and the life. But Martha, in her sorrow, said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

She did not need a sermon, or an explanation, but compassion.

She needed her friend. And Jesus , knowing, feeling her sorrow, stood at the grave and wept.

The bible gives us a sense of the cost to Jesus of pouring out the power of God in raising Lazarus to life, as he groans within himself, and the Father is glorified in this man being restored to his sisters.

Today we remember those whose voices we yet hear, and whose faces we see, but week by week here in Church we remember many more who have no one else left to remember them.

Yet we do so in confidence that already their names are written on the pillars of that temple not built with hands, and that their voices swell the joyful chorus of the saints, along with those martyrs whom the agents of evil sought to wipe from the face of the earth.

For God who turned the horror of the cross into the means of his victory and our salvation is with us here in Jesus Christ, alive, compassionate. He is the way, the truth and the life.

27^th October 2024. Last Sunday after Trinity

Prayer for today:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scripture to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, that through patience and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Among those who are sick we pray for Joan Nolan, Graeme Common , Kate Marris, Liam Marshall, Maureen Stevens, Prue Critchley, Ned Ryan, Daniel Bosman, Suzie Dent, Nick Cook, Christina Baldwin, Lorraine Dodd, Kathleen Lee, Carol McKendrick, Stuart Bell, Maggie Bennett, Hayley Gennery, Elizabeth Sambell, Katherine Patterson, Heather Loughead, Carol Allen, John and Gwyneth Wilde.

Among those whose year’s mind is about this time we remember Margaret Robson, Isla Baynes, Muriel Clark, James Henry Short, Millett Ridley, John Pickworth, Joyce Best, Kenneth Dodd, Douglas Ernest Capes and Keith Herdman.

Next Sunday we celebrate All Saints and All Souls, and will remember by name all those for whom you wish prayers to be said, and light candles in their memory.

Readings:

Jeremiah 31: 7-9

⁷This is what the Lord says:

‘Sing with joy for Jacob;
shout for the foremost of the nations.
Make your praises heard, and say,
“Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.”
⁸See, I will bring them from the land of the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame,
expectant mothers and women in labour;
a great throng will return.
⁹They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

Psalm 126

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,
we were like them that dream.
²Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing:
then said they among the heathen,
The Lord hath done great things for them.
³The Lord hath done great things for us;
whereof we are glad.

⁴Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams in the south.
⁵They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
⁶He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.

Mark 10: 45-52

⁴⁶Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means ‘son of Timaeus’), was sitting by the roadside begging. ⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’

⁴⁸Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’

⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’

So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’ ⁵⁰Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

⁵¹‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’

⁵²‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Thoughts on today’s readings

Some days ago, during our holiday on the small Greek island of Kalymnos, we took an old wooden ferryboat across to the smaller island of Telendos, a place of high limestone rock faces much beloved of climbers. There we swam in the clear blue water of a sheltered bay, beyond the tombs of an early Christian cemetery, where autumn crocuses flower in the hard rocky ground, before returning to the village, and to the only restaurant that was open.

The young woman who served us had been with us on the ferry, and told us her story. Her parents were from the island, and had emigrated in search of a better life, settling in Pennsylvania. There she and her sister were born; she did well in her education, and qualified as an accountant.

However, she found that no matter how hard she worked , or how long the hours, it was never quite enough. There was no balance, no peace in her life. Her health began to suffer, a frightening prospect in the USA with its very different healthcare industry.

She spoke of the atmosphere of uncertainty and division; her own sister, a mother with young children, doesn’t go to the shops without carrying a handgun. The last straw was when she was told she might lose her sight: she persuaded her parents to return to the island, and came with them to find a home.

She will never be rich on the island, and I imagine it must be pretty quiet in the winter, but she has found her peace, her health has recovered, and she has a life.

Across the water in Kalymnos, we could hear the sound of dynamite exploding in celebration of a wedding. Life there is marked by family events and the festivals of the Church.

We heard other stories like hers, of women who had left the crushing pressures of life in England and Australia for something simpler, for a place where people feel at home, where they feel safe.

Our readings today are all about journeys.

Both in the reading from Jeremiah and in our psalm we hear the song of the exiles, who were displaced, unable to breathe the air of freedom in their captivity, singing for joy as they return to the place where they belong, where there is home, where God has brought them , where their Father is with them.

It is never too late, it is always the right time to turn to the Lord, the prophet tells us: the blind and the lame are coming, pregnant mothers and even those in labour are coming home.

Where once they wept as they laboured in captivity, they shed tears of joy as they bring home their harvest.

On the face of it, our gospel reading seems to be about a healing, but the last words give us the true sense of the passage: ‘he followed Jesus along the road’; this is a passage about discipleship.

The man had faith: he cried out to Jesus; he refused to be silenced but continued to call upon him.

Jesus stopped for him; he made them call him; he heard him, and granted his request.

The man had that sight we call faith: he believed that Jesus was his master, the son of David. Now, with the sight of his eyes restored, he had no wish to return to his former life, but followed Jesus along the road.

If you read on in St. Mark’s Gospel, you will know that road led to Jerusalem, and to the cross and passion, but for that man, Jesus was the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.

We read how when Jesus told the people that he must fulfil his purpose by facing suffering and death, many ceased to follow him. But when he asked his disciples, ‘have you not gone off like the rest,‘ Peter replied, ‘To whom else shall we go? You have the words of life.’

Perhaps many of us have had that moment when the penny dropped, when we asked ourselves, ‘What am I doing here?’, when there was a moment of light and it became clear where life must take us.

Christ says to us all, ‘Come to me, all who are heavy-laden , and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’.

Sunday 20^th October 2024 21^st Sunday after Trinity

The service today is led by the Revd Canon Chris Simmons

Hymn 393 Brother, sister, let me serve you

Collect

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A reading from the letter to Hebrews, chapter 5, verses 1-10

Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness, and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honour but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest but was appointed by the one who said to him,

“You are my Son;
today I have begotten you”;

as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melki-zedek.”

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melki-zedek.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Canticle: A Song of Christ the Servant

Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example,

that you should follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, no guile was found on his lips,

when he was reviled, he did not revile in turn.

When he suffered, he did not threaten,

but he trusted himself to God who judges justly.

Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,

that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds, you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep,

but have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2.21b–25

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning is now and shall be for ever. Amen.

A reading from the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 10, verses 35-45

Glory to you, O Lord.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Curiously, four weeks ago, when I was last standing here, the gospel reading was about Jesus giving the disciples a ticking off for arguing about status – about which of them was the greatest. And here we are again – James and John wanting to be very visibly the top dogs when the time came. Have they not been listening? One of the moderately interesting things about the intervening section of Mark’s Gospel is the number of times Jesus says something about little children – something I had never really noticed before starting to prepare this sermon. It set me thinking about the process of growing up, with particular reference to James and John.

At the end of May this year, Dorothy and I had a totally new experience. We went to the Bar-Mitzvah service of Elias, the youngest son of a Jewish friend. Naturally, it happened on a Sabbath. Very relaxed – a bit like here at St Helen’s, the service didn’t start on time. Being a liberal synagogue, men and women were not segregated, and women were able to take an active part in the service.

The service itself was amazing – like in church, a familiar mixture of singing, prayers, Bible readings, sermon. But also totally strange, being partly in Hebrew- the psalms chanted unaccompanied to traditional Hebrew melodies, and all the text running from right to left in books that started at the back. Of course, the Bible readings were from what we call the Old Testament, but when the scroll of the Law was taken from its special place and processed around the congregation, I was reminded of the ceremonial Gospel procession that is in many churches a feature of the eucharist.

And what has this to do with growing up? Well, as you may already know, the term Bar Mitzvah means Son of the Covenant. It’s a rite of passage in which a Jewish boy moves on from being a child. There’s an equivalent rite for girls. Normally, rather like with many a Church of England confirmation, it happens when the child is around 12 years old, but as with so many things, Covid played havoc, and so Elias was in fact 14. Of course, no one would say that someone of that age instantly becomes a fully-formed and mature adult, but they do take their place as full members of the community. Elias is no longer a child – you’re a grown-up now!.

To demonstrate that fact, as a central feature of the service, the candidate must choose and speak about a passage of scripture. And that is what grown-up Elias did, very ably about a passage from the book of Nehemiah, saying what it meant to him, quoting the opinions of Jewish scholars past and present, and commenting on its relevance to the present day. It was surprising, amazing and very moving, and I ask you, in all seriousness, can you imagine anything like that happening in church when the bishop comes to conduct a confirmation?

Well now, to cut a story short that has already gone on too long, what about James and John, and their request for the best seats next to King Jesus? How do we picture them? Definitely not as 12-year-olds; but maybe at the top end of the teens or early twenties. On the threshold of everything life had to offer, sturdy lads, education long finished, working with dad in his fishing business, living at home with a Jewish momma who often complains that they don’t listen to a word she says and, like many a young lad or lass, not thinking too much about the consequences. At that age, you know it all, and are immortal. Yes? And significantly, like Jesus, not yet married, but unlike Peter who we know had a mother-in-law, and maybe quite a few of the other disciples too. So they were up for anything, these sons of thunder!

There is an extraordinary consistency in what the NT tells us about the mission of Jesus Christ. At the heart of all the great biblical accounts of why the Son of God comes among us and how he saves us is the Cross. No NT writer is tempted to underplay the suffering of Jesus and to concentrate only on his teaching or his resurrection. We remain deeply suspicious, though of this strange way in which God has chosen to operate. We long to jump straight into the joy and security that we think God is supposed to provide. Compare, for instance, the number of people in church on Good Friday and on Easter Day.

So James and John’s request to Jesus is a natural one, and has rather better motives than our desire for insurance. They are taking it for granted that Jesus will be reigning in glory one day soon, and they are aware that there may well be some kind of struggle, and they are happy to play their part in that. They answer with confidence that, yes, they can share Jesus’ cup and baptism. They’ll fight by him with the best. But their main focus is the future, when all the nasty stuff will be over, and they will be on the winning side. Their concept of “the winning side” has not been influenced at all by the conversation they have just had, in which Jesus tries to tell them what must happen to him.

The other disciples are indignant with James and John, so that Jesus has to sit them all, down and tell them, in very simple language, what the values of a Christian disciple are to be. So what James, John and any other Christian disciple asks of Jesus, if they ask to share in his glory, is a life of service and suffering. Even so, however plain Jesus’ language, you get the impression that they didn’t take it on board, but hurried on, saying: “Yes, yes, but after that we get the reward, right?”

Yet, according to the letter to the Hebrews, the service and the suffering are the reward. This is how God rewards his Son for his obedience: by putting him at the service of humans for ever. Hebrews takes us through this slowly and carefully, because it is a hard idea, and one we don’t like the idea of. “It’s like this”, explains the writer, “You know what high priests do, don’t you?”

A priest, according to Hebrews, is someone chosen – and the implication seems to be that the choice is made both by God and by us – to handle the relationship between God and people. The fact of being chosen is the main qualification, the other being that he (or she) is not essentially different from fellow human beings. His priestly work is as much on his own behalf as for others. So there is no particular merit in being chosen to be a mediator.

When Jesus takes on this role for us, Hebrews says, he knows this. He does not expect to be honoured for his priestly task, but simply responds in obedience to the call, as all human priests do. Jesus, like all priests, knows human need and human dependence on God for salvation, because he, like all others, knows weakness and human frailty. Hebrews is unequivocal about the fact that although, unlike all other human beings, including all priests, Jesus does not actually fall into sin, it is equally clear that he could have done.

Such a possibility is not ruled out in advance by Jesus’ divine and human nature, but is learned through struggle. “Take away this cup, Father” is his plea in the garden. He has to learn the will of God, just as we must. But while ordinary human priesthood learns where God keeps the sticking plaster, Jesus’ priesthood becomes the source of complete healing. It makes room not just for little trickles of divine mercy, but for the whole raging flood of his creative salvation.

All the little devices that we have thought of up till now thought of as “priestly” – our obsession, for instance with only allowing the “right kind of people” to occupy the role, our devices for keeping ourselves more or less in God’s favour without changing too much – all of these become obsolete. “Priesthood” tries to bring God and humanity close enough together to reach some kind of understanding. But Jesus the priest brings God and humanity together in a dynamic unity, so that God’s salvation can never be misunderstood again. This is Jesus’ “reward”, his “priesthood”, learned in suffering and obedience, learned on the cross, as must be the priesthood of us all – to be crucified with Christ.

What it means to be crucified with Christ is not something I can answer for another human being. I cannot say what it means for each of us here, called to be the priestly community within this community. I can only hope to discover what it means for me – what part of me, sinner that I am, must be put to death if I ask to share the glory and the kingdom of Jesus. None of us occupies the judgment seat. Each of us must come before it.

The Prayers of Intercession

We pray for the sick, and for their healing according to God’s will, among them Joan Nolan, Graeme Common , Kate Marris, Liam Marshall, Maureen Stevens, Prue Critchley, Ned Ryan, Daniel Bosman, Suzie Dent, Nick Cook, Christina Baldwin, Lorraine Dodd, Kathleen Lee, Carol McKendrick, Stuart Bell, Maggie Bennett, Hayley Gennery, Elizabeth Sambell, Katherine Patterson, Heather Loughead, Carol Allen, John and Gwyneth Wilde

We remember those who have died recently, and those whose year’s mind is about this time, among them Theresa Gibson, Philippa Jane Dodwell, Annie Parker, Kathleen Webber, Betty Common and Ivon Stanley Moore

Hymn 524 My God, I love thee, not because I hope for heaven thereby

Post-Communion Prayer

Father of light, in whom is no change or shadow of turning, you give us every good and perfect gift and have brought us to birth by your word of truth; may we be a living sign of that Kingdom where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn 430 Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go

For the week ahead:

Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord,

Alleluia, alleluia, give praise to his name.

Jesus is Lord of all the earth, he is the King of creation.

Spread the good news o’er all the earth: Jesus has died and is risen.

We have been crucified with Christ: now we shall live for ever.

God has proclaimed the just reward: new life for all, alleluia.

Come, let us praise the living God, joyfully sing to our Saviour.

Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord,

Alleluia, alleluia, give praise to his name.

Next Sunday is the 22^nd Sunday after Trinity

The Bible readings will be:

Jeremiah 31:7-9

Mark 10:46-52

6^th October 2024. 19^th Sunday after Trinity.

Prayer for today:

O Lord, forasmuch as without you we are not able to please you; mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Please pray for George Haywood-Smith, who is being baptised here this afternoon, for his family and godparents.

Among those who are sick we pray for Jillian Rutherford, Kate Marris, Liam Marshall, Maureen Stevens, Prue Critchley, Ned Ryan, Daniel Bosman, Suzie Dent, Nick Cook, Christina Baldwin, Lorraine Dodd, Kathleen Lee, Carol McKendrick, Stuart Bell, Maggie Bennett, Hayley Gennery, Elizabeth Sambell, Katherine Patterson, Heather Loughead, Carol Allen, John and Gwyneth Wilde.

Among those whose year’s mind is about this time we remember Tom Cowing, Harry Mould, Violet Henderson, James Beevor, William Henry Scott-Easton, Allan Hull, Dorothy Mabel Pinkney, Hendrik Nieuwland and Ann Rowsell

Readings:

Hebrews 1: 1-4, 2: 5-12
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

⁵It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. ⁶But there is a place where someone has testified:

‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
⁷You made them a little^[^a^] lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honour
⁸ and put everything under their feet.’^[^b^][^c^]

In putting everything under them,^[^d^] God left nothing that is not subject to them.^[^e^] Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.^[^f^] ⁹But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

¹⁰In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. ¹¹Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.^[^g^] ¹²He says,

‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.’

Psalm 8

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

²Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies,
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
³When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
⁴what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
⁵For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
⁶Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet:
⁷all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
⁸the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Mark 10: 2-16

²Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’

³‘What did Moses command you?’ he replied.

⁴They said, ‘Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.’

⁵‘It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,’ Jesus replied. ⁶‘But at the beginning of creation God “made them male and female”.^[^a^] ⁷“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,^[^b^] ⁸and the two will become one flesh.”^[^c^] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

¹⁰When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. ¹¹He answered, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. ¹²And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.’

¹³People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.¹⁵Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ ¹⁶And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

Thoughts on today’s readings

The principal of Queen’s College in Birmingham, where I went for training before ordination, Gordon Wakefield, was fond of saying that, whenever he was photographed, Archbishop Makarios was pictured with his hand raised in blessing. Of course he was being a bit mischievous about this: he was aware that we knew the archbishop was an intensely political figure, a wily campaigner against the British for the independence of Cyprus; a divisive figure whose legacy, sadly, was a divided island.

The point Gordon was making was that, as in icons in the eastern Church Jesus Christ is portrayed with is hand raised in blessing, so should we, who bear the image of Christ, be always be those who bless. The Christian disciple is not called to be a judge, but to be a witness to Christ, a messenger of the Good news, the one who, like Philip, says ‘Come and see.’

Therefore Jesus was angry when his disciples prevented the people from bringing their children to him. It was not for them to act as gatekeepers. Already in chapter 9 we read how Jesus had put a child before them and said, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name, welcomes me.’ Here he takes a child as an example of how we must be in order to enter the kingdom of God.

This is not about children being more pure or innocent; it is about power. There were among those to whom Jesus spoke those who imagined that the kingdom of God would be brought in by force of arms; those who imagined that it was a matter of earning your place by living a virtuous life, by reaching a certain level of maturity and understanding. But what have we to offer God, or to give to God, much less to bargain with God? Like children we come to God with nothing in our hands, and all that we receive from God has been freely given. Therefore we must understand that we come to God like children – and that we are not rejected, but accepted.

Therefore we, who have been signed with the cross of Jesus Christ, are called not to be judges or gatekeepers, but to bless and to be witnesses of the Good News.

When the pharisees questioned Jesus about divorce, they were hoping to trap him in a controversy about the Jewish Law.

However what this text makes clear is that the pharisees were interested in what was allowed: in other words what were their rights under the law.

Jesus responds by going back to the creation story in Genesis. What does this teach us about God’s purpose in creating us as man and woman? God’s purpose was that two might be united, might become one. Therefore it was God who had joined them together; it was not for man to separate those whom God had joined. The permission in the Jewish law was an acknowledgement of human failure and sin, not the working out of God’s purpose. Note that under this statute it was the man who wrote out the note of divorce to his wife; this is what Jesus is talking about, not the action of a judge. In Israel in the time of Jesus it was inconceivable that a woman would divorce her husband: that verse is thought to reflect the realities in the wider gentile world.

Seven times this year I have stood in church and joined together the hands of a couple, declaring that they are man and wife, and saying, ‘Those whom God has joined together, let no-one put asunder.’

Will every couple still be holding one another by the hand when they have come to old age? We do not know, but I have no doubt as to the sincerity with which they made their vows; I did not detect anyone joining hand with their fingers crossed.

And what of those 100 couples at Marylebone Town Hall. Did they doubt that they were joining themselves with their partner for life? I don’t think so. Did they marry, thinking that one day they would go through it all again with someone else. Of course not.

Marriage is not a contract, valid as long as all the conditions are satisfied. It is a covenant, an unconditional gift, which cannot be bought or earned any more than life itself can be bought or earned.

And in this it reflects the purpose of God and the nature of God. For God’s relationship with the world and with us is not some sort of legal agreement of contract. God’s relationship with the world and with us is experienced most clearly in the sacrifice and death of his son on the cross. There is no bargain here: it is unconditional, it is a covenant.

That is why the image of marriage is an image of God’s love, of God’s covenant with us, and with all creation.

That is why we receive this gift and invitation like children: we have not bought it or earned it.

And with the writer of Hebrews and the writer of the psalm we have read together we are invited to marvel at the wonder of what the universe teaches us of that creator, and that we are invited into a relationship like that of sisters and brothers with the one through whom all life came, and all things were made.

4^th August 2024. 10^th Sunday after Trinity

Prayer for today: Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as please you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Among those who are sick we pray for Shirley Nixon, Gillian Gibson, Liam Marshall, Maureen Stevens, Prue Critchley, Ned Ryan, Daniel Bosman, Suzie Dent, Nick Cook, Christina Baldwin, Lorraine Dodd, Kathleen Lee, Carol McKendrick, Stuart Bell, Maggie Bennett, Hayley Gennery, Elizabeth Sambell, Katherine Patterson, Heather Loughead, Carol Allen, John and Gwyneth Wilde

Among those who have died we remember Mary Orr, and also Jean Capes, Edith Hull, Pat Glover, Hilda Mackenzie, Chris Dobson, Pat White and Elizabeth Flatman, whose year’s mind is about this time.

Readings:

Exodus 16: 2-4, 9-15

²In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.’

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.

⁹Then Moses told Aaron, ‘Say to the entire Israelite community, “Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.”’

¹⁰While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked towards the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.

¹¹The Lord said to Moses, ¹²‘I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, “At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.”’

¹³That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

Psalm 78: 23-29

The Lord had commanded the clouds from above,
and opened the doors of heaven,
²⁴and had rained down manna upon them to eat,
and had given them of the corn of heaven.
²⁵Man did eat angels’ food:
he sent them meat to the full.
²⁶He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven:
and by his power he brought in the south wind.
²⁷He rained flesh also upon them as dust,
and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
²⁸and he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
round about their habitations.
²⁹So they did eat, and were well filled:
for he gave them their own desire;

John 6: 24-35

²⁴Once the crowd realised that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’

²⁶Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’

²⁸Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’

²⁹Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’

³⁰So they asked him, ‘What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”^[^a^]’

³²Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

³⁴‘Sir,’ they said, ‘always give us this bread.’

³⁵Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty

Thoughts on today’s readings

For many years I have been making my own bread. Apart from the fact that I enjoy eating it, and the satisfaction of making it, there is the knowledge of what has gone into it: no chemicals or preservatives. I follow the recipe given to me by my mother; she learned from her mother-in-law, and I suspect my Granny learned from her mother. The bread is best eaten fresh: keep it too long and it goes stale, and before long, it is mouldy. There is something quite provisional and ephemeral about it, which is part of its appeal, perhaps. Eat it, give it away, or it will be lost.

The people who came to Jesus were fed from the loaves and fishes and they were impressed. They have followed him and found him: Jesus suspects it was because they had eaten their fill and wanted more. They understand that bread is the reward, the goal for which they labour, but he tells them the work of God is about believing in the one He has sent. Now his suspicions are justified: they demand a sign as proof he is who he says he is. Basically they are saying, ‘Moses fed the people for a whole week with the bread from heaven. What are you going to do then, so we may believe you?’ Jesus replies that it was not Moses but God who fed the people. Moreover the manna perished. Moses and the people hungered and thirsted in the wilderness. Moses died before he could enter the Promised Land. The Jesus speaks of the bread of God which gives life to the world, and tells them it is he himself who is the bread of life. Note the echo of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, where he speaks of the water of life: the water he gives so that we may no longer thirst.

Jesus is saying : the bread that the Father gives is not the reward for our efforts, our labour. It is not result from the sweat of our brow; it is not the one with the bucket who will receive the water of life. What is required is faith in him: ‘whoever comes to me will never hunger; whoever believes in me will never thirst. I am the bread of life.’ In our relationship with him, in our life in him, we are fed and refreshed every day.

The American Jesse Owens was one of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen. He shone before the whole world in the Berlin Olympics of 1936, and was rewarded with gold medals. He made a triumphal return to his home country but very soon encountered the racism and exclusions which made it hard for him to even earn a living. For a time he employed himself as a sort of fairground attraction, racing against horses for money, and had to sell those medals to provide for his family. However brilliant our achievements, we labour for fading crowns, and tarnished medals, and with our toil produce food which will decay.

Alone, the love of God in Jesus will not fail us and, if we love, will not cease to satisfy us. It will not tarnish or grow dull, it can neither be bought or sold, or even earned. It is freely given by God who, in spite of everything, believes that we too can freely give away ourselves, and our love.

16^th June 2024. 3^rd Sunday after Trinity.

Prayer for today: Almighty God, you have broken the tyranny of sin and have sent the Spirit of your son into our hearts whereby we call you Father: give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service, that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Among those who are sick we pray for Barbara Parker, Liam Marshall, Maureen Stevens, Prue Critchley, Ned Ryan, Daniel Bosman, Suzie Dent, Nick Cook, Christina Baldwin, Lorraine Dodd, Kathleen Lee, Carol McKendrick, Stuart Bell, Maggie Bennett, Hayley Gennery, Elizabeth Sambell, Katherine Patterson, Heather Loughead, Carol Allen, John and Gwyneth Wilde.

Among those whose years’ mind is about this time we remember Ulric Dixon, James Alder and Nora Isabel Tailford.

The day has come: it’s the Garden Trail! We’re praying for a fine day, but what will certainly shine is the passion, flair and hard work of those who are opening their gardens today.

Let’s get out there and enjoy this day. Tickets are available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the Parish Hall, where soup and refreshments will be served. And Happy Father’s Day!

Readings:

2 Corinthians 5: 6-17

⁶Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. ¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

¹¹Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. ¹²We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. ¹³If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Verses from Psalm 92

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,
and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
²to shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning,
and thy faithfulness every night,
³upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery;
upon the harp with a solemn sound.
⁴For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work:
I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

¹¹Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies,
and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
¹²The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree:
he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³Those that be planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;
they shall be fat and flourishing;
¹⁵to shew that the Lord is upright:
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Mark 4: 26-34

²⁶He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸All by itself the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹As soon as the corn is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.’

³⁰Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³²Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’

³³With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Thoughts on today’s readings.

A better gospel reading could not be found for this morning: the parables of the mustard seed and the harvest are admirably illuminated by the Garden Trail: the very different outcomes to the labour of each gardener, the wonder of the vigorous growth of the summer, each plant with its origin in a tiny seed. As the rain fell yesterday we were sorting out a basket full of packets of seeds at home. Some have lain unused for many years. No longer capable of producing life, they went into the bin. Had I used them at the time, they might have produced a harvest, or filled the garden with flowers. They had their season and their time – and so do I. Procrastination and chaos are not marks of the kingdom. I know that, when the time is right, I have to get out there, prepare the ground and sow the seed; and if there is a harvest, I need to gather it and make sure it is used, not left to rot on the ground. When the Garden Trail was planned we had no way of knowing what sort of day today would turn out to be; the only things that are predictable are the hours of sunrise and sunset. Yet unless we got on and did something, planned the day, nothing would happen. Our God is Lord of life: it is the greatest gift of all, and we have to live in the present. The seed of God’s kingdom is the word..the Word. Not only the words he gave but the living presence of Christ himself, who brings the life and light of God into the world. There is a time and a season for everything: how I speak to children at school is not how I speak to people in hospital. In order for there to be a harvest, the ground must be prepared and the seed must be sown. But we cannot know if there will be drought or flood. We do not control the future or know how good the harvest will be and in any case it may be that someone else will gather the harvest. The person I pray with in hospital who came to know the Lord through the faith of someone else, grew and was nurtured by a community other than my own. If I am where God has sent me, if I am alert and listening to his call, I may play my part in the work of his kingdom. The people whose lives we have touched, whom we accompanied for some distance on their journey of faith, move on, and we pray that they will bear fruit and that the harvest of their lives will be a blessing wherever they are. Surely this too is the story of our own journey. The gospel reading tells us that Jesus taught the people in parables: they were unable to hear the fulness of his revelation. To the disciples he explained everything. When we sing the hymn, ‘Let me be as Christ to you,’ what exactly does this mean? Is it just about being a kind and good neighbour, important though that is? Surely it means just what it says, that we are called to enable that living presence of Jesus, who is the source of life, who is life in all its fulness, to bless the lives of those whom we are sent to serve. And we cannot control what impact this encounter may have, but unless we play our part, that seed, the word has, as it were, remained in the packet. To quote Teresa of Avila: Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. The basket in our laundry still contains many packets of seeds, which are still in date. I still have time, and maybe seasons in which to get out there and make sure those seeds have a chance to bear fruit. And if I feel any discouragement, the words of our first reading remind me that Christ died for all .. for all! In the words of another beautiful hymn which we sing at St. Helen’s, and this one by the late Kevin Nichols, ‘the chances we have missed, the graces we resist, Lord in this eucharist, take and redeem.’