faith | St Baldred's, North Berwick

Sunday 8th November 2020

Simon’s reflection for Remembrance Sunday

The theme of “Remembrance” is very prominent at this time of year. Last weekend we celebrated All Saints Day and All Souls Day and today we keep Remembrance Sunday. The things that we remember together say a lot about who we are and what is important to us. Our faith itself is passed on by a group remembrance. Just as Jewish people remember the Passover to keep their faith alive, week by week we remember the last supper and obey Jesus’ command “do this in remembrance of me.”

We remember things from the past in the context of the wisdom we gain from increased experience of life and sometimes the act of remembering can make us see things in a new light.

Today we are remembering those who have died because of war and honouring, respecting and giving thanks for their memory. Some were known to us directly or indirectly through family memories. Many more were not known to us but we know that we owe them a debt of love.

Often at this time we think of the First World War and the Second World War; particularly this year when we commemorated the 75th anniversary of VE and VJ day. This year perhaps our understanding of those times may have been deepened by the experience of living through a different sort of national emergency with the resulting anxieties and fears and with people in a different sort of front line, sometimes laying down their lives for others. As well, as the two massive wars of the twentieth century, we also remember on Remembrance Sunday the many more recent conflicts in which service men and women put themselves in danger and take casualties. We remember partly to show solidarity with and give thanks for those people and their families.

Our biblical readings today are not particularly chosen for Remembrance Sunday. They are more focussed on the themes we think of with the approach of Advent but that’s perhaps a good theme for us to reflect upon in the light of our remembrance. As Christians we are both a people who look back and remember and a people who look forward. In both the past and the future, we can see hope if we can learn to trust in God.

Our gospel introduces the theme of “being ready” and waiting purposefully and with alertness in this case for a wedding feast where some are well-prepared and some aren’t. I believe that there is an old military adage which runs something like: “hope for the best but prepare for the worst” or put another way “keep your powder dry!”

The people that we honour today had to face the worst that this fallen world could throw at them. They did it with courage and bravery and they did it for those they loved and ultimately for us. They were prepared for the worst and some of them had to endure it.

The saying I mentioned earlier, though, was a combination and also contains a call to persist in hope. It is a call to genuine hope, not to mere wishful thinking. Alongside the necessity of being prepared for the worst, the Christian faith also teaches us to be prepared for the best and to have the faith to expect the best. It actually teaches that in the end hope will not disappoint. The worst that the world has to throw at us doesn’t compare with the good things that God has in store for us though God’s path for us may be more difficult than we would like and we cannot always choose the easiest path. Perhaps sometimes the path can be so difficult that we might lose faith and need to be held by the faith of others.

We can best help each other by being people who are actively preparing for the best in the trust that it will happen; preparing for the Kingdom of God.

It is our faith that the kingdom of God will come because God will bring it to be but that doesn’t mean that we just wait and do nothing. The peace that God wants the world to have is not here yet and it belongs to us to play our part in helping to bring it about.

We remember those who gave their lives today but how do

we remember them well? We remember them well by helping to build peace and helping to lay the ground for that peace which is coming into the world; the peace God is bringing into the world.

There was a moving story last week about the American election. Perhaps you saw it. It was only a simple thing really but it caught people’s attention. There was a neighbourhood somewhere in America where the vast majority of people were voting Republican in the election. They had signs on their lawns to encourage others to vote that way. One person though was a democrat and he had his sign on his lawn. Now his sign was stolen and he was very upset about it. So was one of his neighbours, who happened to be a Republican. He, with his young son, put up a new Democrat sign on the man’s lawn for him. The man was really moved and thanked him and said he would have done the same for him.

Those two people demonstrated that what united them was more important than what divided them. When we do things like that, in our own local context, we are honouring the names on our war memorials in the best possible way.

Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers!” It’s not easy to build peace as the women and men we honour today would tell us. Sometimes we have to be prepared to suffer wounds to build peace as Christ did but we remember those women and men best of all and we remember our Lord when we live those words out. Amen.

Sunday 18th October 2020

A reflection for the Feast of St Luke & Health Care Sunday from Jane, our curate.

Reflection

If I said to you, what do Sean Connery, Pam Ayres and Bugs Bunny have in common?…………….

You might guess it’s that they all have strong regional accents that make them distinctive. Sean Connery was apparently advised to ditch his Edinburgh accent early on in his career, but wisely refused. Pam Ayres has become known for her warm self-mocking Berkshire accent. Something important would be lost if she lost her accent. And as for the thought of Bugs Bunny saying ‘What’s up doc?’ without his Brooklyn, New York accent! Unthinkable!

Do you have an accent? Is it the accent of where you originated or where you live now? Or perhaps a mixture? Are there certain words you say that reveal where you are from?

Our accents reveal that there are differences between us. We have different cultures and we sound different, based on where we have lived and where our family has lived. In today’s gospel passage Jesus sends out 70 disciples to those who are different to them.

He has been in the area of Galilee in the north and he is headed for Judea in the south. To people who have not yet heard his message. And he sends the seventy disciples on ahead of him. To a people who are different in many ways. Racially, culturally, economically, politically, and linguistically different. The people in Judea spoke Aramaic differently to those in Galilee.

Jesus says they are to stay in the houses of those they meet. Remaining there, not flitting from one house to another. The direction to eat whatever is put in front of them is particularly telling.

Perhaps you were told as a child, ‘I expect you to finish everything on your plate’ or if you went to a friend’s house, told before you went that you must ‘eat whatever they give you’?

I must admit that going to friend’s houses when I was a child often seemed like an indulgence. My Mum was determined we would eat healthily. It was rather frustrating for us children. Rarely did a can of coke or a bag of crisps cross our threshold. Whereas some of my friend’s parents were much more relaxed about this. I remember going to one friend’s for tea. Her Mum warming up a tin of spaghetti alphabet letters in tomato sauce and giving us that on toast. I thought it was delicious.

On returning home I declared that all that fussing about with fresh vegetables was not necessary as you could get a perfectly tasty meal out of a tin and save yourself lots of bother! Needless to say, no tins of spaghetti letters appeared in our larder.

By Jesus encouraging them to eat what is put in front of them, he is saying building relationships with those who are different is much more important than maintaining purity codes. Jews had strict rules about what they were to eat and not to eat but Jesus looks beyond these. He sends out the disciples to proclaim that the ‘kingdom of God has come near’ to those they encounter. He sends them to show what the kingdom of God is like and not to enforce purity laws. The kingdom of God is not about keeping laws to be pure enough to please God. It’s about God’s love and justice flourishing in the lives of all. With all of our differences and despite all our flaws.

What must it have been like for the disciples to go empty handed and rely on the hospitality of others? No bag, no purse, no sandals. They are sent to serve, yet they are to be supported by those they serve. They are to rely on those they stay with. This requires humility. There is to be mutuality in their relationships.

Are our relationships with those we serve marked by mutuality? Jesus’s disciples are to receive as well as give, to build relationships of mutuality and respect and this requires humility.

The disciples are to go to those who are different, not to stay in their huddle. They are to go with humility and what are they to do? Jesus sends them to cure the sick and to bring peace. These are the actions of those who go to proclaim the Kingdom of God has come near. They remind us that God cares for the physical and mental wellbeing of all.

God cares about our bodies and minds. God calls us to care about the bodies and minds of others. Sometimes we can be overly focused on our minds. Or we may think that God is only concerned about souls. Our faith is an embodied faith. Jesus gave his body and his blood. We take communion with our hands and eat the body of Christ which then becomes part of us and we part of Christ. God cares about bodies and we are called to care about them too.

This Sunday, we are marking the feast day of St Luke, believed to be the author the gospel of Luke and of the book of Acts. As I’m sure you know well, Luke was a physician as well as a companion of Paul who worked alongside Paul in his missions. Luke brings a unique perspective to gospel writing. His gospel reveals that outcasts, the poor, those rejected by society are precious to God. His is the only gospel to include two of our best-known parables, the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. He knows we can walk by on the other side as religious leaders do in the parable of the good Samaritan when a man’s body is wounded and needs care and healing. And he knows that like the prodigal son we can wander far from God and expect that God won’t want us close.

The opposite is true. God’s infinite unconditional love reaches out to us and to all. Including to those who are different to us. To those who look, sound, and behave differently. We are called to reflect that changeless compassionate love. To care for the minds and bodies of others in whatever way we can in our times.

This healthcare Sunday we are filled with gratitude for the many healthcare workers in the NHS and other organisations who have worked with skill, courage and compassion in recent months and continue to do so. And we are reminded that God cares for minds and bodies and we are called to play our part in promoting the wellbeing of others. We may not be healthcare workers but we can offer kindness, friendship, a listening ear, a thoughtful act, a practical kind of love that blesses those we encounter. And as we offer this in humility, we may find that it is us who are blessed.

This morning, let us thank God for Luke, for all who work for our health and wellbeing. And let us pray for the grace to play our part in the wellbeing of all the people God loves. Amen.

Simon’s reflection for Sunday 6th September

The Book of Ezekiel teaches that we have a duty to challenge others when they are being sinful. Our gospel suggests that if another member of the church wrongs us we should challenge them. I wonder how we understand what our faith teaches us about difficult situations of conflict and grievance and when we should challenge others.

I don’t suppose most of us go around telling people off where we think they are doing something wrong. Sometimes though this can be a failing in courage. Some people do. I remember my mother used to get very cross if she saw people throwing stones or littering on Brighton beach and she would have no compunction about telling them off much to my embarrassment if I was with her! It takes courage to do that and a readiness to not be conflict averse. We can’t always avoid having to challenge people!

On the other hand, some people are a bit too eager to correct others and to point out other people’s faults and to take great satisfaction in doing so! Perhaps on this subject we should remember Jesus’s warnings about self-righteousness alongside today’s readings. Do not point out the splinter in your brother’s eye when you have a plank in your own!

We don’t always know the whole story. The police sent round a local circular recently pointing out that we should be aware for example that some people are exempt from wearing face masks in shops. This was in response to people being unfairly and rudely challenged by others. I suspect there have been a lot of inappropriate challenges in these tense times in this sort of case and others.

It is definitely true though that sometimes as the Book of Ezekiel teaches a failure to correct can be a failure to love. The Old Testament reading makes clear that the point of correction is not just the self-satisfaction of the person doing the correcting, it is the well-being of the person corrected. There is an important truth in this. We can’t wash our hands of one another. We all belong to one another and sin isn’t just an individual thing, it is a corporate thing. Sin doesn’t just affect the sinner. There are no victimless sins and love is not just letting people do whatever they want to.

The gospel passage reflects on a church situation where one person has sinned against another and it gives a sort of legal process of how to act in such a case. People have different views in biblical scholarship on how much this is a direct tradition of something Jesus taught and how far it may have been an application of Jesus’ teaching applied to the needs of the early church. Either way, it reflects how close-knit the early church was and also the deep sense of responsibility to one another that church members felt.

I’m not sure how exactly we could apply the advice intended for that early church to St Baldred’s or St Adrian’s. We probably wouldn’t encourage people to tell their grievances to the whole church gathering, for example! Mind you, I have known of awkward and painful situations where that has happened and perhaps that is where a sense of grievance has grown without being addressed quickly as the gospel suggests so some elements of it may well be relevant to our churches now if perhaps not all.

The first step on the procedure is to challenge the person that has wronged us, assuming of course that we are in the right. As I suggested earlier we might first want to try to give the other person the benefit of the doubt as we should for a brother or sister in Christ and think about whether we have misjudged the situation.

But it does happen that people sometimes wrong us and we shouldn’t also put ourselves in the wrong all the time. Again, it is important to challenge wrong-doing in an appropriate way both for our own sakes and for the sake of the other person. Our duty to love even when it is difficult and even to love our enemy is not a calling to be a doormat. We are allowed to stand up for ourselves.

This is advice which applies to our wider relationships too. But the question is in what spirit do we challenge another. As the gospel implies we should not merely challenge to vent anger but rather to achieve reconciliation. As the rest of the process shows reconciliation can be hard work.

Challenging appropriately when we feel hurt or wronged can be very difficult of course. We are only human.

What makes reconciliation more likely is if there is a loving relationship to draw on. In a church community where people are doing the right things, looking after one another, encouraging and nurturing one another and seeking to follow Christ by serving others. There will be more good relationship to draw on. If we have to tell someone that they are in the wrong, it is easier to hear that if they know that we love them! It is also easier perhaps, if we are aware of our own faults and we too can accept appropriate correction from others.

If we want to follow Jesus, we can’t duck out of the hard work, challenge and self-sacrifice that taking reconciliation seriously involves. Jesus was never afraid to call out wrong-doing but he was always ready alongside that to show that he wanted the good and the well-being of the other. Amen.

Simon’s reflection for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

Readings: Isaiah 51-1-6; Romans 12.1-8; Matthew 16.13-20

Peter, as he is presented in the gospels, sometimes gets things spectacularly wrong but in today’s gospel, he gets something spectacularly right. Jesus is asking the disciples who the crowds think that he is. The crowds show a limited understanding of Jesus. In one way or another, all the responses indicate that Jesus is seen simply as a prophet. The crowds are looking beyond Jesus for someone who is yet to come. But Peter is spot on. He sees that Jesus is the one and there is no need to look further. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Peter’s comment shows great faith, insight and openness to God. In response, Jesus tells Peter who he is in God’s eyes and gives him a new name. Perhaps you could call this Jesus’ faith in Peter! “You are Peter, “Jesus says and “on this rock, I will build my church.” There is a pun here of course for the name Peter comes from the Greek “petrus” meaning “rock.”

I offer you three things to think about from this great passage.

First of all, God is personal and we can relate to God on a personal level. Have you ever received or sent one of those round-robin Christmas letters? They are valuable in themselves. We don’t have time to individually write to everyone that we know but we know they are not the same as an individual letter written to an individual with that person in our minds. A hand-written letter can be nicer to read than a typed one; as long as you don’t have illegible hand-writing of course! A phone call can make us feel more connected than an e-mail. There is something about the personal touch which is very important in relationships.

The Christian understanding of God as personal means that God is not some kind of mysterious force who brought the universe into existence with a big bang but who is otherwise impossible for us to relate to. God is personal and therefore has a relationship with each one of us. He is not only the creator of the universe. He is our creator. “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away!” (psalm 139). “You are Peter”, Jesus says. Jesus knows who Peter is. Actually, he knows who Peter is better than Peter does. God knows who we are. His relationship with us is personal.

Following on from this, the second thing is calling. Jesus has a purpose for Peter. It is a purpose beyond Peter’s wildest imagining. It is a purpose which draws upon his character. Jesus will draw on who Peter is to fulfil that purpose. We remember that passage at the call of Peter and the other fishermen by Lake Galilee. “Come with me and I will make you fish for people.” I wonder whether there were things about who they were as fishermen which Jesus will use as he teaches them to love and serve other people by helping him build his kingdom. I wonder whether Jesus’s nickname for Simon, Son of John; his nickname of “Rocky” was based upon elements of Simon Peter’s character; perhaps a quality of leadership, perhaps a boldness or toughness.

God has a purpose or a ministry for each one of us. We all have particular things to offer which are based on the gifts and the personality God has created us to be and is calling us to be. I love the line from the old hymn “Jesus shall Reign” which goes: “Let every creature rise and bring, peculiar honours to their King.” “Peculiar” here meaning “unique to the giver” rather than “odd”! Christian ministry happens whenever we use our talents, our abilities and who we are to give God glory.

St Paul urges the Romans to live their whole lives as living sacrifices or offerings to the Lord and points out the way in which they all have different things to offer. He uses his great image of the church as the Body of Christ though to remind them, that they offer their lives together with others and that the gifts we have need to be alongside the gifts other people have. Our gifts, if they are properly used bring us together. We need each other and God needs us to work together.

Of course it can be difficult to trust in what God can and will do with us. I said at the beginning that Peter sometimes got things spectacularly wrong and he sometimes got things spectacularly right. We will hear in next week’s gospel how Peter straight away puts his foot in it after his great confession of faith. I wonder how Peter would have felt about Jesus commission to him to be his rock on that Good Friday when he denied Jesus three times.

Peter, as we see him in the gospels, is a work in progress and is not yet fully the rock he would become. So perhaps there is something for us here in trusting in God’s future. We have to live the present in the light of God’s future. The prophet we call second Isaiah gave a message of comfort to a people living in Exile. He told them that God was not finished with them. He had not forgotten his promises. The God who created the world and who made Israel would also rebuild Israel.

“You are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church.” The words are not just a commission they are also a promise. Amen.