Easter Sermon: Forgiveness is risen from the grave

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels, Little Ilford, 27 March 2016

Easter Day

Gospel: John 20.1-18

This is from the Easter Homily of St John Chrysostom:

'Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;

If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!

And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.

And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.

And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.

He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first...

First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!

Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry.

Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.'

*

Do you get it? If you are used to church and the Bible, you will get it, in that you will get the principal references. The parable of the workers employed at later and later hours in the day and all paid the same, and the story of the prodigal son which ends with the feast with the fatted calf.

But I mean more: do you get it? Do you get the point that all are welcome. You are welcomed. You are welcomed to Gd's celebratory party.

If you have kept Lent well, here is your reward. If you tried, but life and stuff intervened, no matter. You are welcome to the party. If you tried, but failed abysmally, no matter. You are welcome to the party. If you didn't even try, no matter. If you want to be here, you too are welcome to the party.

And this is important. This is our faith. We know – don't we? - that the impression that the church and religion in general can give is one of judgementalism, of being judgemental. It is felt that we have a clear sense of what it is to be good, and if people fail at all, we judge them, dismiss them, damn them, shun them.

Today, against that, we hear the truth of our faith: 'forgiveness has risen from the grave'.

Now, Christians do talk of sin (including at baptisms), because what we do counts with Gd. As I said on Good Friday, Gd does not treat us as infants who could do no better. But it is always-but-always sin in the context of forgiveness. Always, all we have to do is seek Gd's forgiveness – seek it sincerely; we cannot manipulate Gd – to find it is already with us. Forgiveness rises from the graves we make of our own lives.

Now, if our neighbours think that we or religion in general are about judgementalism, it would be perverse if we in turn judged them for it. No, we forgive them. And we wait, patiently and prayerfully, for the time when they see something – something - in our lives that suggests it is not so, when they realise we are all about hope, grace and forgiveness. And then (and perhaps only then), we can invite them to the celebration.

Divine forgiveness in Christ means more than a declaration of pardon. Christians have always known that Gd is Gd, that Gd can issue words of pardon whenever and however Gd wills to. But forgiveness in Christ means the fulness of reconciliation that only comes from the reconciler spending time with the reconciled, each coming to value the other's company. It might even be said that this reconciliation makes for a stronger relationship than was there before the estrangement. (We'll be hearing more about this throughout Eastertide.)

This is the life-giving message we are today sharing with Kaiam. As Gd welcomes us to the party, at each and every point in our life, so Gd's clear welcome today clearly goes out to Kaiam. And we give our sincere thanks to Andy and Chantelle for bringing him here to join us.

Not that Kaiam has anything to be forgiven. But, you know (I whisper it) at some point, he will. And that's when he too can - and by Gd's grace will - know that what he did wrong does count with Gd, as he counts with Gd, but that forgiveness is his. His forgiveness rises from the grave.

Something not wholly different is happening in this morning's gospel. Mary Magdalene experiences Jesus with power and perspicacity in the midst of her achingly deep grief. When? You know when. It's when he calls her name. Mary. This is not accidental or incidental. You see, out of all the chaos we make of our lives from time to time, because of wilful sin, negligence and fear, and for that matter because of ordinary human clumsiness and failure, Gd speaks our own name, and new life is possible.

A baptism isn't actually a naming ceremony. They don't have to, but if the minister does say, 'name this child', that isn't some solemn naming ceremony. It's really just saying, 'let me make asbolutely sure I get this right'. That said, the candidate is named in a baptism. You cannot normally be baptised without your name. So we rightly speak of baptismal names. The love that rises from the grave speaks our name. With Gd it is never not personal. Alleluia!

Indeed: Alleluia [signed]!

Today is called the Solemnity of Solemnities. And that is right. But it does not mean it is 'solemn' as in serious, grave and dull. On the contrary, it is the greatest occasion for joy. If we cannot be joyful, because of circumstances in our lives, we do what we can to be oriented towards joy. For today's Alleluias go all the way down. It is the day for shouts and dances of joy.

And if we are not quite ready to be a church of shouts and dances (I don't know... are we?... let me see whose eyes I can catch...), we can, in any event, bring our bodies into our thanks, praise and rejoicing.

Thus... remember... [signing]

Alleluia. Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Let us now say together the end of that Easter sermon of St John Chrysostom. Each sentence begins with 'Christ is risen!' I invite you to join in.

'Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!'

Sermon for the Baptism of the Lord

Sermon. 10 January 2016. St Vedast alias Foster, City of London.

Baptism of the Lord.

It is a great pleasure to be with you this morning in all kinds of ways. One way is this: it is good to be marking the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord with you. With you, because, given your location, you are statistically more likely than most to know of the blessing of the waters today, where Londoners North and South of the River gather together (imagine that!) to bless the Thames. So you are more likely than others to have a sense that the day is special.

Actually, others should know that today is special. Among Roman Catholics, you could make the case – and I know this is against folklore – that today is the last day of Christmas. In that tradition, Ordinary time (and the return to green) comes tomorrow. So what began at Midnight Mass actually ends today, not earlier.

Among the Orthodox, things are different again. The day marking Jesus' baptism is one of the Principal Feasts of our Lord. It is called Theophany, meaning Manifestation, another word for which is of course, Epiphany. If you are thinking that if it's the Epiphany it must fall on 6 January, you'd be quite right. (The complication is that there are different calendars so for some January 6 is yet to come.) For the Orthodox, in any event, the Magi come on Christmas day; Theophany is solely about the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

It is among the Orthodox that today's events are perhaps most keenly observed. The blessing of waters is widespread. Sometimes this includes the throwing of a crucifix into icy Russian waters, and men then show how macho they are by competing to swim out and get it.

But why is today special? What is it about the baptism of our Lord that deserves special colours and customs? It's not necessarily easy to say. Christians have always asked themselves why Jesus was baptised. Why should the sinless one need such a sign of repentance? The 'discomfort' goes all the way back to the Bible. In Matthew's gospel, remember, John first refuses to baptise Jesus. But Jesus insists, saying enigmatically: 'let is be so, to fulfil all righteousness'. The Church understands this to mean that here Jesus is taking on himself as it were every nook and cranny of human experience. Along with all the good, that's all our sins, errors, failures, wrong choices, coldness of heart, stuckness, malice. He does not add to these. But he insists: in all of this, I am alongside you, among you, one of you. Which, in itself, makes today special indeed.

But there is something else. Back to the title the Manifestation/Epiphany/Theophany. For the Orthodox especially, the greatest gift from the story of the baptism is that it marks a manifestation. It is the first manifestation in history of the Holy Trinity. In the gospel accounts, the Father speaks and names the Son and the Spirit descends. Or more simply said: the Father sends the Spirit on the Son.

Now, the Church Fathers themselves thought that the Trinity was found 'hidden' in any number of passages from what they called the Old Testament. Whatever we make of that, though, it is here, they themselves would say, that the Persons of the Trinity become clear, evident, manifest.

This, then, is what leads to the blessing of waters. Jesus was a person in history, baptised once, in one river, the actually particularly unprepossessing Jordan. But because at that one time in history Gd Holy Trinity was revealed – and because Gd Holy Trinity is of course eternal, is outside of time – that revelation can be marked by others, in other times and places. So this water – wherever it be – can be the place of the revelation of the Holy Trinity.

In Orthodoxy, the prayer of blessing over the water takes a lot of time of course. (Why say something once when you can say it twelve times?) But that's not because it is a struggle to get Gd's attention. Still less is it some long magic spell. Rather it's because it is important to reflect on and relish, really relish how wonderful it is that we, in these waters, can be as close to the revelation of the Holy Trinity as anyone in history.

Now, we don't know each other. You may be fearing that I am going to offer at length my own treatise on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in all complexity and abstraction. I am not. Actually I'd say this: the doctrine of the Trinity is the exact opposite of abstraction. On the contrary, it is insisting that everything is always Personal.

It is no secret that the doctrine as such is not expounded or insisted upon in the New Testament. What precisely is meant by 'Father', 'Son' and 'Spirit' in Scripture has itself been much debated and can be debated. The teaching as we know it developed rather over the centuries, as Christians engaged with Greek thinking, with Hellenism. Now, Hellenism was a broad church, as it were. But all its branches insisted on this: that we human persons were of no ultimate importance. Ultimate importance lies elsewhere. In abstractions. In perfect Forms. Or in Mind (with a capital M). Or some Divinity who is not the Creator of this world.

To put it the other way, for us to be in contact with the Ultimate, we have to leave behind all that makes us us. For for us to be us (I'd better say in this illustrious gathering: for us to be we), we need to be persons in relationship. We know it is relationships which form us, for good and for ill, in all their concreteness. Without relationships, we would not be here as we are.

Particular persons taught us the language we dream in. Particular persons wiped our bottoms. Particular persons taught us how to tie our shoes, and how to love, forgive, and be generous. There's nothing abstract about the fact that what we are is persons in relationship, that that is our identity.

And the message of the Manifestation of the Holy Trinity - the message of today - says precisely this: persons in relationship are the most important thing in the universe. Gd. Gd Gdself is not some abstract Mind. Gd gdself is Persons in relationship. I cannot tell you precisely in what sense the Father, the Son and the Spirit are 'Persons'. The Church has always struggled to express that. But the point is surely that they are Personal, and not impersonal. And their call is for personal relationship with human persons in relationship.

I say again: we don't know each other. But I know enough about church life to know that it is unlikely this idea is new to you. You may well be thinking: just another sermon saying predictably 'Gd is love'. And you'd have a case. I felt led to repeat it, given the themes of the day. But I know that you as a church community are in transition, which always leads to some anxieties, We as a worldwide Anglican Communion are facing turbulence like never before. Peace seems as far away as ever. So we may be thinking that the 'love of Gd' is more rhetoric than reality.

I understand. But! But there is this: whether the claims resonate naturally or whether they sound like a preachy cliche, they can still be treated as an invitation. You are invited – and always will be - to explore the inter-personal life of Gd, personally. Or if even that seems overblown, you may ask yourself the question: if these two things were true – that persons, such as us as we are, were of ultimate importance and that Gd were as close to us as Gd has been to anyone, ever - how then might we live?

Amen.